Category: US

Shocking video shows the moments a New Jersey councilwoman allegedly plowed down a bicyclist while speeding through an intersection and kept going in an apparent hit-and-run accident.

Jersey City Councilwoman Amy DeGise is accused of failing to slow or stop her car after striking the cyclist at the intersection of Forrest Street and Martin Luther King Drive last week.

Traffic camera video released by city officials on Tuesday afternoon shows the black SUV allegedly driven by DeGise striking a man on a bicycle in the middle of the intersection on July 19 without ever slowing down before leaving the scene.

The man, wearing a helmet, backpack, yellow shirt and jean shorts, flipped over and slides off the windshield and then onto the pavement after the impact. The video shows him slowly getting up afterward, his mangled bike lying on the opposite side of the street.

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The cyclist, identified as 29-year-old Andrew Black, told police he had a green light and the right of way, NJ.com reported, citing a crash report. In an interview with HudPost.com, Black reiterated that he had the right of way and said he suffered deep bruising and anxiety crossing the street after the incident.

WNBC reported that officials later said Black was mistaken, and he did not have the green light, but DeGise is still facing mounting calls to resign because she still did leave the crash scene.

“[That] someone of prestige would fall to a point where they would ignore the law they are demanding to uphold, and they are trying to clean our streets or whatever they are calling it, they can’t even do it themselves — that really upsets me,” Black told HudPost on Tuesday.

Despite facing criticism, a spokesperson for DeGise told news outlets on Friday that the councilwoman would not resign.

“Councilwoman DeGise was elected overwhelmingly just a few months ago and she has no intention of walking away from the commitment she made to serve the people of Jersey City. She will not resign and plans to complete her full term and continue in public service,” DeGise’s spokesman, Phil Swibinski, said in a statement obtained by Patch.com.

“Amy recognizes the calls that have been made for additional information and transparency,” Swibinski said. “She would very much like to address this situation more comprehensively, but there is a legal process that must play out first and she will not be making any additional public comment at this time.”

The statement added, “As she has said previously, she is thankful that no one was seriously injured and she fully intends to speak out more when the legal process is completed. She will continue working hard to serve the people who elected her, just as she has since she was inaugurated in January.”

In an interview with NJ Spotlight News on Monday, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop criticized DeGise’s move to leave the scene of the crash, describing it as a “tremendous mistake.”

Fulop did add, however, that DeGise took some responsibility for the incident.

The councilwoman at large reportedly claimed she hit her head during the crash and went to a police station several hours later to report the incident after leaving the scene.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Amy DeGise and her aides Thursday seeking added comment but have not heard back as of Sunday.

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem spoke out to Fox News on a new requirement from the USDA that will essentially tie federal school lunch funding to adherence to the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.

Noem told “Life, Liberty & Levin” on Sunday that her state has the “strongest” legal protections against biological men competing in women’s sports, going on to discuss how President Biden is now trying to punish her state if it does not agree with his view of Title IX.

“This White House has threatened to take away all of our school lunch resources for poor and underprivileged kids if we don’t comply with their mandates,” she said.

“So it’s interesting to me that not only have they hurt my timber contracts to crush my lumber industry, not only have they mandated certain activities on their federal lands, such as National Parks and Bureau of Land Management Practices. Not only are they coming forward with higher taxes and more spending… they’re willing to hurt children.”

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In a statement announcing the new policy, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said there must be “recogni[tion of] the vulnerability of the LGBTQI+ communities and provide them with an avenue to grieving any discrimination they face.”

“We hope that by standing firm against these inequities we will help bring about much-needed change,” the USDA chief added.

Vilsack’s directive requires state schools seeking National School Lunch Program resources to view Title IX as inclusive of gender identity.

South Dakota Attorney General Mark Vargo is one of 22 state attorneys general challenging the move in court, which is being led by Indiana’s Todd Rokita and Tennessee’s Herbert Slatry III.

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“We all know the Biden administration is dead-set on imposing an extreme left-wing agenda on Americans nationwide, but they’ve reached a new level of shamelessness with this ploy of holding up food assistance for low-income kids unless schools do the left’s bidding,” Rokita recently said.

Slatry accused the White House of trying to use the bureaucracy “again… to change law – which is Congress’ exclusive prerogative.”

A USDA official recently told Axios that students should not be denied access to nutritious lunches because of how they sexually identify:

“Whether you are grocery shopping, standing in line at the school cafeteria, or picking up food from a food bank, you should be able to do so without fear of discrimination,” Undersecretary Stacy Dean told the outlet.

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On “Life, Liberty & Levin,” Noem added that there has overall been a shift in how she deals with the federal government, from the Trump to Biden administrations.

Under Trump, South Dakota was able to be “on offense” with the support of the White House, while in cases such as the school lunch directive, it requires her administration to be on defense.

“So it never ends. My best opportunity for pushing back on this federal government the way it operates in Joe Biden’s America is to take them to court and sue them,” she said.

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“But unfortunately, what happens then is I end up on defense all day just trying to protect my people from the high inflation, from the high taxes, the high food costs that they’re dealing with each and every day that hurt their budget so badly.”

Under Trump, she said she was “out there with a president that was letting me do my job, and I was able to focus on economic development, focus on making sure that our state was low, regulations that we were low taxed.”

“It’s been a complete fundamental change since Joe Biden went into the White House,” Noem said, adding that nonetheless, South Dakota is thriving under conservative governance at the state level.

“We’re leading the country with our economy. Our kids are outperforming kids in every other state. And the educational outcomes. I have less than 700 people in South Dakota that are on unemployment today because when the president offered those elevated unemployment benefits, we were the only state that said, no, thank you.”

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers may lose his Republican primary for an open state senate seat this week, after he testified to the Jan. 6 committee about the pressure campaign from former President Donald Trump and his associates to undo the presidential election results in the state.

Bowers has drawn the ire of the Arizona GOP, who censored him earlier this month, and of former President Trump. But he’s unapologetic about his congressional testimony of him and his decision of him not to overturn the Arizona’s results.

“If we want to base a party and an authority and move people to solve problems, you can’t base it on a lie. Ultimately, that falls apart,” he told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview at his home in Mesa, Arizona.

Bowers faces Trump-endorsed candidate David Fansworth in an Aug. 2 primary that makes Bowers the first Republican to face voters after testifying before the Jan. 6 committee.

“I’ve had people walk up and say, you know, just cold turkey, ‘I’m ashamed of you,'” he told Karl.

Bowers says he’s also been called a “traitor” and has been told that “the price of treason is hanging.”

In his June testimony, Bowers detailed several conversations with former President Trump and his then-personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, asking him to replace Arizona’s electors with ones who would say Trump won the 2020 election.

Biden won Arizona in 2020 by almost 11,000 votes.

“Did you ever consider going along with it?” Karl asked Bowers.

“I said, this is new to me. The idea of ​​throwing out the election of the president is like, okay, so what part of Jupiter do I get to land on and colonize?” Bowers said.

Giuliani “never” provided any evidence to back up claims that thousands of dead people voted in Arizona, Bowers said.

“You asked [Giuliani] for evidence of fraud?” asked Karl.

“Over and over, and he said, ‘yes, yes.’ And he never gave us anything. No names, no data, nothing.”

Bowers, who is term-limited in the state house, previously said it would take a “miracle” for him to win his bid for state senate. He told Karl “the demographics of my race are heavily Trump.”

In an unusual move for a state legislature race, former President Trump has campaigned against Bowers in Arizona.

“Rusty Bowers, he’s a RINO [‘Republican in name only’] coward who participated against the Republican party in the totally partisan unselect committee of political thugs and hacks the other day, and disgraced himself, and he disgraced the state of Arizona,” he told a crowd in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on July 22.

In response, Bowers told Karl, “I have thought at times, someone born how he was, raised how he was — he has no idea what a hard life is, and what people have to go through in the real world. He has no idea what courage is, and the last place on Earth that I would want to do evil would be the state of Arizona.”

A fifth-generation Arizonan, Bowers has held state public office for 17 years. Bowers has, like other Republicans who have broken with the former President, faced harassment and threats.

“How do you explain the hold that he has, though, on, on Republicans, including a lot of Republican leaders right here in Arizona?” Karl asked Bowers.

“Well, those leaders in Arizona are an interesting group in and of themselves. They rule by thuggery and intimidation,” Bower said. “So, you know, they, they found a niche, they found a way and it’s fear. And people can use fear, demagogues like to use fears as a weapon. And they weaponize everything. That’s not leadership to me to use thuggery. “

After his testimony, Bowers faced criticism for telling a reporter that he would vote for Pres. Trump in 2024. He told Karl that’s absolutely not the case.

“So, just to clarify, you’re not supporting Trump again?” Karl asked.

“I’m not,” said Bowers. “My vote will never tarnish his name on a ballot.”

“You’re never gonna vote for Donald Trump again?” Karl reiterated.

“I’ll never vote for him,” Bowers replied. “But I won’t have to, because I think America’s tired. And there’s absolutely forceful, qualified, morally, defensible, and upright people. And that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party. And that’s what I want to see.”

When asked if former President Trump could ever be trusted in a position of authority again, Bowers said, “I would certainly hope not. I certainly don’t trust that authority that he would exercise.”

Bowers echoed the words of Jan. 6 House committee vice chair, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot.

“Liz also said that ‘the reality that we face today as Republicans is we have to choose to be loyal to Donald Trump, or to be loyal to the Constitution.’ And you can’t be both,” Karl said.

“I don’t see a question at all there. No question. The Constitution was designed to last and be the light of freedom to the whole world. That’s not a legacy that I would want to play with,” said Bowers.

Bowers also told Karl he hasn’t been contacted by the Justice Department, which is conducting its own investigation into the Capitol attack, but would cooperate if asked to do so.

“I have nothing to hide and I want to tell the truth,” he said.

A 17-year-old boy was killed and four other people were critically injured when they were stabbed while tubing on the busy Apple River in Wisconsin on Saturday, law enforcement officials said.

The suspect, a 52-year-old man from Minnesota, had fled the scene but was taken into custody by police about an hour and a half after the incident began with the help of witnesses on the river. Authorities have not released the name of the suspect or the victim.

The victim who died was also from Minnesota, according to police, and the surviving victims were described as one woman and three men, all in their 20s. The suspect did not have a knife on him when he was taken into custody, and the police are still looking for the weapon.