The jury hearing the case will determine how much Jones will have to pay the parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who won a default judgment against him earlier this year. An attorney representing Heslin and Lewis has asked the jury to award $150 million in damages.
Jones, who was the sole witness for the defense during the trial, did not fare well Wednesday as he was cross-examined by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark Bankston.
In a remarkable moment, Bankston disclosed to Jones and the court that he had recently acquired evidence proving Jones had lied when he claimed during the discovery process that he had never texted about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.
Bankston said that Jones’ attorney had, in an apparent mishap, sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent.
The cell phone records, Bankston said, showed that Jones had in fact texted about the Sandy Hook shooting.
“That is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn’t have text messages about Sandy Hook,” Bankston said.
Bankston showed Jones a text message exchange he had about Sandy Hook. But Jones testified that he had “never seen these text messages.”
When reminded Jones had testified under oath that he had searched his phone during the discovery phase of the trial and could not locate messages about Sandy Hook, Jones insisted he “did not lie.”
In another moment, Jones was asked whether he had connected Maya Guerra Gamble, the judge overseeing the trial, to pedophilia and human trafficking.
When Jones denied having done so, Bankston played video for the court of an Infowars video which did just that.
In the video, Jones attacked Gamble’s prior work for Child Protective Services by claiming the agency had been “exposed” for “working for pedophiles.”
Gamble, whose office did not respond to an earlier request for comment about the fact Infowars has been attacking her in such terms, laughed when she saw a screengrab from the video in court on Wednesday.
“The person on the left of this image is our judge, correct?” Bankston asked Jones.
Jones replied that it was.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said Tuesday that they intend to ask for sanctions against Jones for being dishonest on the stand. And Gamble on Tuesday had also admonished Jones for having violated his oath of him to tell the truth twice.
“You are already under oath to tell the truth,” Gamble said Tuesday. “You’ve already violated that oath twice today, in just those two examples. It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth while you testify. Yet here I am again.”
“This is not your show,” Gamble added to him Wednesday.
After Jones finished testifying Wednesday, the defense rested its case and closing arguments got underway.
The jury could potentially decide how much it will award in damages to the Sandy Hook parents as early as this week.
The current trial is the first of three that will determine how much Jones will have to pay multiple Sandy Hook families who sued him and won default judgments.
YoIn a conference room at the Sheraton in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, people screamed, whooped, cheered and cried as a vote to protect abortion rights in Kansas’s state constitution came down late on Tuesday night.
And it wasn’t just Democrats.
James Quigley, 72, a retired doctor and a Republican from Johnson county, sat on his own drinking a glass of white wine after hearing the news. “Abortion is a much more nuanced issue than anti-choice individuals would have you think,” he told the Guardian. “It is deeply personal, sometimes tragic, but also sometimes a liberating decision – and we should trust women, their physicians, and their God on that,” he said.
“We could feel it – we’ve been feeling it for weeks,” said Marcia Corbett, 71, a swing voter and local business owner, before the vote came in.
The result had been eagerly awaited, as Kansas was the first state in the country to put abortion rights on the ballot since Roe v Wade, which federally guaranteed them, was overturned by the supreme court. It came after weeks of uncertainty, in a race in which misinformation bounded and tactics got ugly.
Kansas: celebrations after voters uphold right to abortion – video
The victory – and its sheer scale in a usually reliably Republican and socially conservative state like Kansas – has sent shockwaves through the United States and provided a shot in the arm for efforts to protect abortion rights under siege across America.
In Kansas, that fight had gotten dirty. On Tuesday, a former Republican congressman was linked to messages targeting voters with an anonymous, misleading text encouraging people to vote yes to protect abortion – when in fact a yes vote would have overturned a constitutional right to abortion. Vandals also spray-painted the walls of a Catholic church weeks earlier, with the phrase, “My body, my choice.”
Nor had victory seemed certain on the day of the vote.
On Tuesday, as voting began, the mood seemed amicable in Douglas county on a hot, sticky day, where temperatures consistently threatened to hit the hundreds. Polling booths in Lawrence and Eudora saw a steady drip of voters, even in the middle of the day, with dozens of voters lining up to vote at any given time. Many were unaffiliated, but turned up just to vote in the referendum.
At the Eudora community center in Douglas county, Patrick Perry, 43, a mechanic and registered Republican, said he was voting no. A veteran who had fought in Iraq, he said he was voting due to his own “personal circumstances” – his wife needed an abortion in a medical emergency during their marriage, in a pregnancy that would have otherwise taken her life. But he didn’t expect Kansas to side with him. “We’re a Republican state,” he said. “And we don’t generally vote that way.”
But on a night of huge turnout, Kansas voted to protect abortion in the state’s constitution, with the no vote securing a whopping 59% to 41% of the anti-abortion movement.
At the beginning of the night, the mood had been cautiously hopeful at the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom event in Overland Park, with the no vote ahead from the start. “We’re in the lead, and it’s not better than yes!” a young girl said to her mother de ella, from next-door Missouri. The two had been canvassing together for weeks.
The Democratic congresswoman Sharice Davids stood up to speak early in the night, telling the audience of about 100 people: “The [supreme court] decision definitely felt like a gut punch to a lot of people in our community … But we stood up and got to work.”
Following speeches, all eyes in the room were on a television projection blaring MSNBC’s election statistics guru Steve Kornacki, whose voice was barely audible over the sounds of people chattering, drinking and bursting into cheers whenever a county’s no vote was called.
“Imagine how good we are going to feel when we beat the anti-abortion movement and the Republicans, who lied at every turn,” state congresswoman Stephanie Clayton said.
“I feel really good right now,” said Leslie Butsch, who had tears in her eyes by 8.30pm. She was watching as the vote in Johnson county first showed signs of leaning heavily towards no, after weeks of spending her evenings knocking on doors there. An hour later, when the result came through, she was one of the few people without a celebratory drink in her hand – she’d just spent all her cash from her tipping the bar staff in a flurry of happiness.
“I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. Today we learned that organizers are more powerful than ever. We did the impossible,” she said.
Voters mark their ballots during the primary election and abortion referendum at a Wyandotte county polling station in Kansas City, Kansas. Photograph: Eric Cox/Reuters
State Senator Dinah Sykes burst into tears when the vote was called, covering her mouth and showing friends goosebumps on her arms. “It’s just amazing. It’s breathtaking that women’s voices were heard and [that] we care about women’s health,” she said.
She knew that the vote would be close in a state that gave Trump a 15 percentage point lead over Biden in the 2020 election. “But we were close in a lot of rural areas and that really made the difference – I’m just so grateful,” she said.
Ashley All, the spokesperson for KCF, said the success of their campaign was testament to non-partisanship – and other states should take heed. “It will be interesting for other states to watch this, and see this is not a partisan issue,” she said.
Joe Biden made a statement on the result late on Tuesday. “Voters in Kansas turned out in record numbers to reject extreme efforts to amend the state constitution to take away a woman’s right to choose and open the door for a statewide ban,” the president said.
“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own healthcare decisions.”
Meanwhile, the defeated anti-abortion group Kansans for Life sent out an email to supporters following the vote, sharing their dismay. For a movement that has been on the rise in America – since before Roe was overturned, and after – it was clear they had suffered a powerful blow.
“The mainstream media propelled the left’s false narrative, contributing to the confusion that misled Kansans about the amendment,” he said, and vowed to fight on. “Our movement and campaign have proven our resolve and commitment. We will not abandon women and babies.”
According to the lawsuit, the National Archives learned of Navarro’s private account from the House committee investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which obtained messages from the previously unknown email address.
Between 200 and 250 of the emails on Navarro’s private account should have been given to the National Archives, prosecutors say.
Navarro, however, did not copy these messages to his official government email account, according to prosecutors, and when the archivist attempted to contact Navarro in order to secure these records, Navarro did not respond.
The lawsuit is a bold and unusual enforcement move by the Justice Department’s Federal Programs Branch — which pursues civil, not criminal, matters — to strike at allegedly sloppy federal records maintenance during the Trump administration.
Public records advocates have long taken issue with lost, never-created or deleted records, but the Justice Department has rarely sued former administration officials over the Presidential Records Act.
“Mr. Navarro has refused to return any Presidential records that he retained absent a grant of immunity for the act of returning such documents,” the lawsuit says, adding that Navarro “is wrongfully retaining Presidential records that are the property of the United States, and which constitute part of the permanent historical record of the prior administration.”
The lawsuit says that Justice Department officials attempted to negotiate with Navarro and his legal team to obtain a copy of the emails, but Navarro refused unless he was given “a grant of immunity” in exchange. It is not clear what Navarro wanted immunity from.
The former trade adviser is facing separate contempt of Congress charges after failing to comply with a subpoena by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021. In July, Navarro rejected a plea offer, claiming that former President Donald Trump told him he was covered by executive privilege.
Navarro’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The severe thunderstorm scenario for this afternoon and evening is becoming clearer. Here is the likely scenario for timing and location of the line of storms.
The new severe thunderstorm outlook is out, issued at 12:30 this Wednesday afternoon. The area for possible severe weather has been expanded southeast somewhat. Ann Arbor and the Detroit area are now also in the chance of severe thunderstorms.
Here are the latest outlines of where each type of severe weather could occur this afternoon and evening.
Overall chance of severe weather now includes most of southeast Lower Michigan.
The tornado chance now includes all of southeast and south-central Lower Michigan.
Tornado chance forecast for this afternoon and evening gives a two percent chance of a tornado within 25 miles of any point in the green shaded area.
The previous tornado forecast shown below, updated at 8:40 this morning, didn’t have southeast Lower in the area possibly affected by a tornado.
Tornado chance forecast from earlier forecast issued at 8:40 am today did not have Ann Arbor and Detroit in area
This is expected to be a line of thunderstorms, so straight-line winds are still the most likely form of severe weather.
Severe wind gust forecast for this afternoon and evening now includes Ann Arbor and Detroit.
Isolated large hail is possible, but is not expected to be a widespread type of severe weather.
Large hail forecast for this afternoon and evening has only a five percent chance of one inch hail.
Earlier it was hard to tell if we would have one, two or three lines of thunderstorms, and which line would be the severe thunderstorm line. Now as we get into early afternoon, I feel the weather picture is clearer. It appears like we will have one main line of thunderstorms, and that would also be the severe line of storms.
Here’s the latest radar forecast from the model that is best at forecasting thunderstorms in the next 12 hours.
Radar forecast from 1 pm to 10 pm today, August 3.
The scenario looks to be one line of thunderstorms that progresses southeast through this afternoon and evening. Over the last few months, these models have been an hour or two too late on forecasting the storm lines. This is probably the case here. You can take the look of the storms, but figure they could be an hour or two earlier than the model forecasts.
Here is the always updated radar, showing the line of storms already forming as of 1:00 pm across the middle of Lower Michigan. You can also see the line of storms becoming severe across southern Wisconsin as of 1:00 pm
Here are some estimated windows of time for the severe storms.
Grand Rapids and Muskegon to Saginaw, Bay City, Midland and the northern Thumb should be in the storms between 1 pm and 5 pm
The line of storms shifts southeast into Kalamazoo, Lansing, Jackson and Flint sometime between 3 pm and 7 pm
The severe storms then finally move into Ann Arbor, Oakland County and the entire Detroit area between 5 pm and 9 pm
An isolated tornado is possible. This is more likely what I call a “commonsense” severe weather outbreak. The line of thunderstorms could have segments of 60 mph to 65 mph wind likes. As the storms move toward your location, move into the middle of a sturdy building like a house or business. Stay away from windows as the storms move through.
Like the MLive Facebook page and allow notifications. If the weather becomes widespread severe, I will broadcast live and keep you updated on the movement and severity of the storms. Also, join the Michigan Weather Facebook group to get lesser severe weather updates in short posts.
Napa County, California, prosecutors walked back to a “boilerplate” drug allegation in the DUI complaint against Paul Pelosi on Wednesday after his arraignment on a pair of misdemeanor charges in a crash that wrecked two vehicles and injured the other driver.
The criminal complaint, obtained Tuesday, alleged that Pelosi injured the other driver “while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and a drug and under their combined influence.”
But prosecutors have confirmed they are alleging he drove under the influence of alcohol on May 28 — not that he had a drug in his system, as indicated in the document.
Pelosi’s attorney Amanda Bevins told Fox News Digital late Tuesday, “I believe that the drug reference is part of the statutory boilerplate language in the complaint.”
PAUL PELOSI PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO DUI CHARGES MONTHS AFTER CRASHING PORSCHE IN CALIFORNIA
The Napa County District Attorney’s Office agreed with that characterization Wednesday.
“She is correct,” Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero told Fox News Digital. “It is boilerplate language auto generated in the complaint. Our theory is alcohol.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi poses for a mugshot following a California DUI arrest. (Napa County Department of Corrections)
Officers allegedly encountered Pelosi sitting in his damaged 2021 Porsche, slurring his speech and with “a strong odor of an alcohol beverage emanating from his breath” after a crash near the intersection of California Route 29 and Oakville Cross Road.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and husband Paul Pelosi. (Photo by Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)
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Investigators later determined he had a blood alcohol content of .082%.
Both Pelosi and the other driver, identified only as John Doe, declined medical treatment at the scene, but Doe on June 2 told Napa County prosecutors that he had begun suffering pain in his upper right arm, right shoulder and neck the day after the crash . He also complained of headaches and said it was difficult to lift things with his right arm, according to the documents.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports
WASHINGTON — As Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, took her turn presiding over the Senate floor on Tuesday, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a fellow Democrat, got down on one knee beside her at the dais, leaning in intently to speak to her in hushed tones.
Ms. Sinema, an inscrutable lawmaker who has shown a willingness to buck her party, had replaced Mr. Manchin as the most prominent and speculated-upon holdout on his party’s major climate, energy and tax package, and the West Virginian was there to lobby her to support it.
With journalists watching from the gallery above, leaning in to try to hear the conversation, Ms. Sinema waved in apparent acknowledgment.
“She’ll make a decision based on the facts,” Mr. Manchin told reporters later, calling it “a good talk.”
While Mr. Manchin has embraced the public scrutiny and attention that comes with being a swing vote in the evenly divided Senate, Ms. Sinema has remained a tight-lipped enigma. Passage of Democrats’ major domestic policy initiative, negotiated by Mr. Manchin and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, now hinges on whether she is willing to support it.
So far, Ms. Sinema won’t say.
It has put Democrats in a perilous position as they rush to move the package forward as early as this week and toil to unite all 50 members of their caucus behind it. Republicans are expected to unanimously oppose the plan, which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in energy and climate proposals, tax increases, extended health care subsidies and a plan aimed at lowering prescription drug prices, meaning Democrats cannot spare a single vote if all Republicans are present.
Party leaders will also have to maneuver the bill through a series of rapid-fire amendments that could pass if any Democrat joins Republicans in support. With Mr. Manchin enthusiastically embarking on a media tour to celebrate the measure, fears of failure were now being fueled by Ms. Sinema’s characteristic silence from her.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Sinema has said that the senator was reviewing the legislation and waiting for guidance from top Senate rules officials, who were analyzing whether it meets the strict rules that apply under the budget reconciliation process. Democrats were using the reconciliation process to shield the legislation from a filibuster and speed it through Congress.
Top Democrats on Wednesday were quietly weighing what potential changes to the bill, particularly to its tax provisions, might be needed to win Ms. Sinema’s support, as the Arizona senator was preparing her own wish list.
While she voted for the initial $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that allowed Democrats to begin work on the legislation, Ms. Sinema has not offered explicit support for many pieces of the current package, most notably much of the tax increases included to pay for it. Doubt about Ms. Sinema’s support of her has centered on her past opposition to a proposal aimed at limiting the carried interest preferential tax treatment for income earned by venture capitalists and private equity firms. A similar proposal was among the tax changes Mr. Manchin and Mr. Schumer included in their deal.
What’s in the Democrats’ Climate and Tax Bill
Cards 1 of 7
A new proposal. The $369 billion climate and tax package that Senate Democrats proposed in July could have far-reaching effects on the environment and the economy. Here are some of the key provisions:
Auto industry. Currently, taxpayers can get up to $7,500 in tax credits for purchasing an electric vehicle, but there is a cap on how many cars from each manufacturer are eligible. The new bill would eliminate this cap and extend the tax credit until 2032; used cars would also qualify for a credit of up to $4,000.
Energy industry. The bill would provide billions of dollars in rebates for Americans who buy energy efficient and electric appliances and tax credits for companies that build new sources of emissions-free electricity, such as wind turbines and solar panels. It would also set aside $60 billion to encourage clean energy manufacturing in the United States. It would also require businesses to pay a financial penalty per metric ton for methane emissions that exceed federal limits starting in 2024.
Low-income communities. The bill would invest over $60 billion to support low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately burdened by effects of climate change. This includes grants for zero-emissions technology and vehicles, as well as money to mitigate the negative effects of highways, bus depots and other transportation facilities.
Carried interest loophole. The deal would narrow this special tax preference, which allows wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives to pay lower tax rates than entry-level employees. The bill would introduce new requirements to qualify for the exemption, with the goal of taxpayers’ ability to reduce the system and pay a lower tax rate.
Fossil fuels industry. The bill would require the federal government to auction off more public lands and waters for oil drilling and expand tax credits for coal and gas-burning plants that rely on carbon capture technology. These provisions are among those that were added to gain the support of Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.
West Virginia. The bill would also bring big benefits to Mr. Manchin’s state, the nation’s second-largest producer of coal, making permanent a federal trust fund to support miners with black lung disease and offering new incentives for companies to build wind and solar farms in areas where coal mines or coal plants have recently closed.
Mr. Manchin and other Democrats have said the provision would ensure fairness in the nation’s tax code. But Ms. Sinema, who resisted many of the tax rate increases her colleagues had pushed for, has privately signaled she wants the carried interest measure removed.
She is also pushing to add funds for drought resilience, given that her state has struggled with devastating water shortages, according to officials briefed on the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose sensitive negotiations. Politico first reported the request from Ms. Sinema, whose state is currently in its 27th consecutive year of drought, according to the state’s climate office.
Ms. Sinema, like most of her colleagues, was blindsided by news of the deal between Mr. Manchin and Mr. Schumer and its details. Mr. Manchin has said that he intentionally did not trust in or consult other Democrats during final negotiations to salvage the climate and tax proposals because, he told reporters on Monday, “I wasn’t ever sure that we would get to a finale, to get a completed bill.”
Speaking to a West Virginia radio station on Tuesday, Mr. Manchin noted that Ms. Sinema had played an outsized role in shaping the prescription drug proposal and scaling back Democratic ambitions to overhaul the tax code as part of the plan.
It was unclear whether Democrats would be willing to strike the tax break for wealthy executives altogether to win over Ms. Sinema. Estimates suggest it would raise about $14 billion, a small portion of the $740 billion plan.
“It may strike some people in Washington as old-fashioned, but in my experience, Senator Sinema has always believed you must be thoughtful and cautious when it comes to changing tax policy,” said John LaBombard, a senior vice president at the public affairs firm ROKK Solutions, who left Ms. Sinema’s office in February after more than three years working in her office.
Party leaders expressed guarded optimism that they could pass the package with its key elements intact.
“I’m very hopeful we’re all going to be united and pass this bill,” said Mr. Schumer, who said he and his staff were in touch with Ms. Sinema about the measure.
Others avoided even commenting on whether they had spoken to Ms. Sinema.
“Why would I be sharing that with any of you guys at this point?” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia asked, throwing his arms up in the air with a grin as he climbed onto the Senate subway.
Ms. Sinema, 46, has toggled between vexing her party with her refusal to embrace some of its top priorities and playing a key role in negotiating some of its hardest-won bipartisan compromises.
She has drawn ire from her colleagues and some voters for opposing their push to undo the 60-vote filibuster threshold that Republicans have used to block much of the Democratic agenda. Ms. Sinema also joined Mr. Manchin in helping to hammer out the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure law, and played a leading role in forging a compromise on gun safety efforts that yielded the first significant federal law on that issue in decades.
She has previously expressed support for investing in climate change, leaving many Democrats hopeful that she will choose to back the final deal. On the Senate floor on Tuesday, lawmakers in both parties made a point of chatting her up in between votes.
Ms. Sinema is also hearing directly from voters, activists and local businesses in her state.
Daniel Seiden, the president and chief executive of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in an interview that he and several business and industry representatives spoke with Ms. Sinema about the legislation for about 20 minutes on Tuesday, after reaching out to her office . They expressed concerns with how a proposed 15 percent minimum tax on corporations was structured, he said.
Ms. Sinema, Mr. Seiden recalled, asked for details about how businesses would be affected and whether the proposal “could be written better.” But, he added, she “did n’t tip her hand one way or another.”
Ms. Sinema, who faces re-election in 2024, is also facing a likely primary opponent as part of the backlash for her resistance to ending the filibuster. The Primary Sinema Project, a political group aimed at ousting her, warned that Ms. Sinema “better not mess this up” after the deal was announced, while Representative Ruben Gallego, a potential challenger and prominent critic, charged she was holding up the measure “to try to protect ultra rich hedge fund managers so they can pay a lower tax.”
Her Republican allies and business groups see Ms. Sinema as a last opportunity to derail a measure they have condemned as harmful to the nation’s economy. Americans For Prosperity, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group with ties to the Tea Party and the Koch Brothers, circulated an online ad against the legislation that pleaded “Come on Kyrsten… Say NO for Arizona.”
But her colleagues conceded that Ms. Sinema has seldom seemed swayed by the heat of public campaigns.
“She’s analyzing it, keeps her own counsel, I think as most of you know, and usually comes to her own decisions, pretty independent of any pressure that she might get from either side,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, told reporters on Monday. “So, you know, I think she’s going through that process right now.”
catie edmondson and Lisa Friedmann contributed reporting.
The National Archives first became aware of Navarro’s use of a personal email account last year, according to the filing, after the House select panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic obtained emails showing Navarro used the ProtonMail account for official White House activities.
The civil lawsuit was assigned to US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton.
It’s a separate case from Navarro’s indictment for contempt of Congress, which the Justice Department is also handling. The Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed him for documents and testimony in February, but he refused to comply with their summons, prompting the panel to ask the Justice Department to pursue charges against him. Navarro has also acknowledged receiving a federal grand jury subpoena related to Jan. 6.
Navarro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes as top Trump officials have drawn increased scrutiny for their failures to properly preserve documents and messages. Navarro was not the only Trump administration official who used personal accounts to conduct official business — in a Monday letter to the department’s watchdog, congressional investigators highlighted one of Trump’s top Department of Homeland Security officials, Ken Cuccinelli, for his use of a personal phone for government business and failure to preserve messages.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and two of her staffers were killed in a car crash on Wednesday, authorities said. Walorski was 58.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy first confirmed Walorski’s death in a tweet earlier Wednesday.
McCarthy said he spoke to Walorski’s husband, Dean Swihart, who was informed of her death by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office on Wednesday afternoon.
“This news is absolutely devastating,” McCarthy said in a statement. “Jackie was a dear friend, trusted advisor, and the embodiment of integrity who achieved the admiration and respect of all her colleagues in the House.”
Walorski District Director Zachery Potts, 27, and her Communications Director Emma Thomson, 28, also died in the two-car collision. Their deaths were confirmed by the sheriff’s office in a Facebook post. “A northbound passenger car traveled left of center and collided head on” with Walorski’s vehicle, the sheriff’s office wrote. The driver of that car was also killed.
“Devastated to hear the horrible news of the passing of Jackie Walorski and her two staffers,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., tweeted. “She was a dear friend who loved serving the people of Indiana in Congress.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was traveling in Asia, ordered the flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of Walorski and her staffers, her spokesman said.
“A lifelong Hoosier, Congresswoman Walorski lived a life of service: whether caring for impoverished children in Romania, representing her community in the Indiana Statehouse or serving nearly a decade in the House,” Pelosi said in a statement. “She passionately brought the voices of her north Indiana constituents to the Congress, and she was admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her personal kindness.”
The White House said it will fly flags at half-staff on Wednesday and Thursday in memory of Walorski.
A former Indiana state lawmaker, Walorski was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was running for her sixth term this fall. She was well-liked by her Republican and Democratic colleagues in the House, where she was close to McCarthy and his leadership team.
McCarthy named her the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee, and she was set to be chairman of the bipartisan committee if Republicans won the majority in November.
“When there was a vacancy for Republican leader of the Ethics Committee, she was my first call,” McCarthy said in a statement. “Everyone who knew Jackie knows she was tough, but fair — a no nonsense, straight shooter who knew that Congress must reflect the will of the people with decency and honesty.”
Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch, D-Fla., worked closely with Walorski on a weekly basis, as their panel met to provide ethics training and investigate any violations of House rules by lawmakers or their aides.
“As partisans as Congress has become, it is still a family, and this loss hits close to home,” Deutch said in a statement. “Jackie Walorski was a colleague and a friend. She cared deeply about the House and about her constituents, and she will be dearly missed by all of us.”
Many of her colleagues in the Indiana delegation also tweeted their sympathies shortly after her death was announced.
“I’m truly devastated. Jackie loved Hoosiers and devoted her life to fighting for them,” tweeted Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who had served with Walorski in the House. “I’ll never forget her spirit from her, her positive attitude from her, and most importantly her friendship from her.”
“My heart is heavy with the news from northern Indiana. Jackie was a true friend & an incredible colleague,” tweeted Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind. “Hoosiers have lost a champion & dedicated public servant.”
The Idaho Supreme Court will hear arguments today to decide whether two strict abortion laws will go into effect this month.
The court will consider Idaho’s total abortion ban law that was triggered after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and a “heartbeat bill” that allows families to sue medical providers who perform abortions.
The trigger law prohibits abortion in nearly all cases. While there is an exception for rape and incest, the law requires victims to file a police report and provide that report to a medical provider.
Medical providers could be convicted of a felony and face up to five years in prison if they violate this law. This law was passed in March 2020 and would go into effect Aug. 25.
The court will also consider whether to lift the temporary pause placed on a heartbeat bill. The bill does include exceptions for rape, incest or a medical emergency that would cause death or create serious risk of substantial harm to the mother.
This law allows civil lawsuits to be filed against medical providers who provide abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, at about six weeks.
The families of the fetus or embryo who sue medical providers could be awarded at least $20,000 if they win.
Planned Parenthood and one of its abortion providers will argue that both of these laws violate Article 1 of the state’s constitution. Their argument is based on decades of case law in which the Idaho Supreme court upheld the right to decide “whether to procreate” is a fundamental right in the state’s constitution.
During Wednesday’s arguments, lawyers from the state and Planned Parenthood will argue to the court whether to pause the enforcement on the near-total abortion ban and whether to lift the existing pause on the heartbeat bill, set to go into effect immediately.
The court will also decide if the two lawsuits should be consolidated into one case and whether those cases should be transferred to a lower district court for further review.
Planned Parenthood also filed another lawsuit against a “six-week trigger ban” that is set to go into effect Aug. 19. This bill criminalizes abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and would issue a two to five year felony sentence to any person who violates this statute.
The US Department of Justice has also filed its own lawsuit against the state’s trigger law. It argues that the total abortion ban violates the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) that states hospitals that receive Medicare funds are required to provide necessary emergency medical treatment.
“The suit seeks to hold invalid the state’s criminal prohibition on providing abortions, as applied to women who are suffering medical emergencies,” Garland said in a press conference Tuesday. “Idaho’s law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to provide emergency medical treatment that federal law requires.”
While the law provides an exception in order to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, Garland said “it includes no exception for cases in which the abortion is necessary to prevent serious jeopardy to the woman’s health.”
The Idaho Attorney General called this lawsuit “politically motivated.”
“It’s unfortunate that, instead of sitting down with the State of Idaho to discuss the interplay between its abortion laws and EMTALA, the US Department of Justice has chosen to file a politically motivated lawsuit,” Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said in a statement.
“Instead of complying with the requirements of this provision and reconciling Idaho’s law with EMTALA, or even attempting to engage Idaho in a meaningful dialogue on the issue, the federal government has chosen to waste taxpayer dollars on an unnecessary lawsuit.”
The lucky Illinois ticket holder who won the $1.3 billion Mega Millions jackpot on Friday night remains a mystery as the fortune sits thus far uncollected.
Mega Millions allows winners to remain anonymous if they so choose — most often to afford negative attention or unwanted solicitations for money. However, the winning ticket for last week’s historic jackpot has not been claimed at all.
Lottery officials are encouraging regular players to double-check their numbers.
“Congratulations to the Illinois Lottery for selling the winning ticket for the $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history.”
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A Mega Millions jackpot winning ticket was purchased at a Speedway location in Des Plaines, Illinois, Friday, July 29, 2022. (Google Street View / Google Maps)
The winning ticket was sold at the Speedy Cafe Speedway gas station on East Touhy Avenue in Des Plaines, Illinois. The winning numbers were listed as 13, 36, 45, 57, 67 and the gold Mega ball was 14. The Megaplier was 2X.
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Individual states can have public disclosure laws that require the identity of winners to be published, but Illinois does not.
A lottery ticket vending machine sits a convenience store, July 21, 2022, in Northbrook, Ill. The next Mega Millions drawing is Tuesday, July 25, 2022 with a jackpot at $790 million. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file/AP Newsroom)
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“If your prize is $250,000 or greater, you may request to keep your name and municipality of residence confidential by indicating that choice on the Illinois Lottery Winner Claim Form,” according to Illinois Lottery rules.
The regulations continue, “You must make this request at the time of claiming the prize. If you do not, to assure the public that prizes are won and awarded, the Illinois Lottery will routinely publish winner information, including the winner’s name, home city , and the amount won.
The Mega Millions lottery game is played in 45 states as well as Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.
