Month: May 2023

Amid rising tensions with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Disney has scrapped plans to open up a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, citing “changing business conditions” and the return of CEO Bob Iger. Disney is headquartered in Burbank, California, but operates a number of satellite offices across the country and the world.

On Thursday, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, wrote a memo to employees announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida. D’Amaro told employees: “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one.”  When relocation plans were first announced in July 2021 by former CEO Bob Chapek, many Disney employees balked at the idea, with some leaving the company and others transitioning to other posts within Disney that would not require a move to Florida. Some employees held out hope that the plan would fizzle out after it was postponed (the campus was originally slated to open in 2022-2023, but was later delayed to 2026). D’Amaro said employees who have already moved to Florida may be able to relocate back to California: “It is clear to me that the power of this brand comes from our incredible people, and we are committed to handling this change with care and compassion.” D’Amaro reiterated in his memo that the company still plans to invest $17 billion in Florida over the next 10 years, including the addition of around 13,000 jobs. The company currently employs more than 75,000 people in the state.

Disney’s announcement comes amid an ongoing feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The company filed a lawsuit accusing DeSantis and the new board members of its special district of carrying out a campaign of political retribution against the company, after DeSantis targeted Disney’s special district, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The company also publicly criticized a controversial Florida bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — that limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms. The special district has allowed the entertainment giant to effectively self-govern its Orlando parks’ operations for decades, but its five-member board was replaced with DeSantis picks and renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Disney CEO Iger has publicly criticized DeSantis, noting that Disney brings around 50 million visitors to Florida every year and is the state’s largest taxpayer.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, after taking similar steps against other government figures earlier in the week.  According to the articles, Greene accused Biden of abusing his power by “endangering the security of the United States and thwarting the will of Congress.”

Greene said during a news conference on Thursday that she is filing the papers in response to Biden’s handling of security along the country’s southern border: “Joe Biden has deliberately compromised our national security by refusing to enforce immigration laws and secure our border. (He has) deprived border control of the necessary resources and policies sufficient to protect our country. His administration has wilfully refused to maintain operational control as required by the law.” Greene also mentioned the steady flow of fentanyl into the United States as fueling an opioid overdose crisis, as well as the stream of undocumented migrants coming into the country: “His (Biden) policies, directives and statements surrounding the southern border has violated our laws and destroyed our country,” adding that the president “violated his constitutional duty and must be impeached.”

Title 42 was put into effect by the Trump administration in 2020 and continued into the Biden administration. It allowed the federal government to expedite expelling migrants without asylum hearings to alleviate the domestic spread of the virus, but expired earlier this month. Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its decision to end the restriction.

The White House strongly condemned Greene on Thursday, calling her articles of impeachment “a shameless sideshow political stunt.” Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said in a statement: “Is there a bigger example of a shameless sideshow political stunt than a trolling impeachment attack by one of the most extreme MAGA members in Congress over ‘national security’ while she actively demands to defund the FBI and even said she ‘would’ve been armed’ and ‘would have won’ the January 6 insurrection if only she’d been in charge of it? The President is focused on what’s important to the American people, like preventing House Republicans’ default that would crash the economy and protecting investments that are creating American manufacturing jobs, not silly political attacks.”

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On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined to block a new law in Illinois that bans assault-style weapons such as the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, which has been used in multiple mass shootings. The decision means the Illinois law enacted in the wake of the 4th of July shooting in the city of Highland Park last year that killed seven will remain in effect while the case continues.

A federal judge blocked the law in a separate case, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put that decision on hold. The appeals court also expedited consideration of five different cases challenging the new law.  A local gun ordinance in Naperville, Illinois, that bars assault-style weapons will also remain in effect as a result of the Supreme Court action.  Enacted in January, the state law bans what the state defines as “assault weapons,” including the AR-15 rifle, as well as large capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition for a long gun or more than 15 rounds of ammunition for handguns. The law does not ban any handguns and it does not affect people who already own the firearms covered by the ban.

A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said “communities in Illinois will continue to benefit from this important public safety measure” as litigation moves forward. Illinois is one of 10 states that has a ban on what gun control advocates call assault weapons, several of which have been enacted in the last year.

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A grand jury has indicted Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old suspect in the stabbing murders of four Idaho college students in November 2022. The Latah County district clerk and an Idaho Supreme Court spokesperson confirmed a multicount indictment against Kohberger; later, a spokesperson for the State of Idaho Judicial Branch confirmed that Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary for his alleged involvement in the killings.

The indictment allows prosecutors to bypass a week-long preliminary hearing that was scheduled to start on June 26. Prosecutors originally set the preliminary hearing for Kohberger after his arrest in December on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary; however, prosecutors later opted to impanel a grand jury, bypassing a hearing that could have publicly revealed their evidence against Kohberger.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania six weeks after the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen and her friend Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20, at their King Road residence. He was extradited to Idaho and is currently being held in the Latah County Jail without bond, according to jail records. Kohberger has yet to enter a plea and he is waiting to learn whether prosecutors in the high-profile case will pursue the death penalty.

The Idaho court spokesperson said that a district court arraignment hearing for Kohberger is set for Monday morning.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will send more than 1,000 personnel from Florida, including 800 Florida National Guard members, to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. In addition to the National Guard members, DeSantis is sending 101 Florida Highway Patrol troopers, 200 Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, 20 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, 20 emergency management personnel, five aircraft, two mobile command vehicles, 17 drones and 10 boats.

DeSantis said in a statement that the move is needed to help Texas deal with an influx of immigrants and added that “the impacts of Biden’s Border Crisis are felt by communities across the nation, and the federal government’s abdication of duty undermines the sovereignty of our country and the rule of law. At my direction, state agencies including law enforcement and the Florida National Guard are being deployed to Texas, with assets including personnel, boats and planes. While Biden ignores the crisis he created, Florida stands ready to help Texas respond to this crisis.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to 49 other state governors on Tuesday asking for assistance in dealing with the surge of migrants at his border due to the end of Title 42 — a COVID-19-era regulation allowing the federal government to immediately expel migrants. The COVID-19 pandemic emergency regulations ended earlier this month. Biden administration officials have said the initial influx after the end of Title 42 has subsided, but Abbott said in his letter: “with the end of Title 42 expulsions, President Biden’s own administration estimates that at least 150,000 migrants are waiting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and enter our country illegally. The flood of illegal border activity invited by the Biden Administration flows directly across the southern border into Texas communities, but this crisis does not stop in our state. Emboldened Mexican drug cartels and other transnational criminal enterprises profit off this chaos, smuggling people and dangerous drugs like fentanyl into communities nationwide.”

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President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Tuesday afternoon to discuss a way to raise the debt ceiling. McCarthy, R-Calif., said after exiting the meeting that the sides remain “far apart .. but it is possible to get a deal by the end of the week.”  McCarthy acknowledged a “lot of work to do in a short amount of time and unfortunate that we are where we are,” but said, “If this is where we were in February … I’d be very optimistic that we’d get this done right away.”

Biden said there was an “overwhelming consensus” among the leaders that defaulting on the debt was not an option. That outcome would threaten a recession, devastate retirement accounts, force layoffs, and prompt a blow to the nation’s reputation around the world. Biden called Tuesday’s meeting ‘good and productive,’ and expressed confidence that a default could be averted.  The White House said the meeting was “productive and direct” and that Biden hopes to check in with the leaders by phone while traveling overseas this week and meet with them again when he returns.  The President is leaving for Japan on Wednesday to attend a summit of the Group of Seven major industrial countries; the White House said Tuesday that Biden would cut his trip short and will return Sunday.

Failure to reach an agreement to lift the borrowing limit threatens the first-ever default on the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt, an outcome that could prove catastrophic for the U.S. economy and upend the political landscape.

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