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WASHINGTON D.C. - President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly pushing to scrap a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.
Wealthy oilman Harold Hamm and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum are spearheading energy policy on Trump’s transition team. The pair are favoring scrapping the Biden administration EV tax credit to offset other tax breaks and reductions that Trump wants to make permanent, according to Reuters.
The EV tax credit benefits the sector of one of Trump’s biggest supporters, tech mogul Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the United States and the second largest globally. Musk has previously supported killing the tax credit, however, because as much as its recension would hurt Tesla, it would hurt Tesla’s competitors even more, according to the Tesla CEO.
“I think it would be devastating for our competitors and for Tesla slightly,” Musk said in a July earnings call, according to Business Insider. “But long term probably actually helps Tesla, would be my guess.”
Musk has called to scrap “all government subsidies, including those for EVs, oil and gas” and create a more competitive market with less government intervention. Click here to read more.
SAN JOSE, CALIF - Current and former San Jose State women’s volleyball players are part of a 12-person lawsuit filed against the Mountain West and commissioner Gloria Nevarez alleging Title IX and First Amendment violations amid the controversy surrounding transgender Blaire Fleming’s roster status, per OutKick.
The lawsuit includes Spartans senior Brooke Slusser, suspended assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smooth and players from four other Mountain West schools which have forfeited games against San Jose State.
It claims the Mountain West instituted its Transgender Participation Policy to “chill and suppress the free speech rights of women athletes,” according to the lawsuit posted by Outkick.
It also aims to ban Fleming and San Jose State from participating in the conference tournament. Click here to read more.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA - Democrat commissioners in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, voted on Thursday to allow undated and misdated ballots to be counted as defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey gears up for a recount in the race he lost to Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick.
Bucks County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Robert Harvie moved to allow for undated or misdated ballots to be counted in the crucial swing county, despite a Nov. 1 state supreme court ruling that undated or misdated ballots cannot be counted. The commissioners voted to do so as the Casey-McCormick Senate race heads to a recount, with McCormick leading by about 25,000 votes, according to The Associated Press.
While some attendees and participants in the meeting argued against counting undated or misdated ballots by citing case law, Ellis-Marseglia said that “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country” because “people violate laws anytime they want.”
“For me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it,” Marseglia-Ellis said.
Other counties in the state — including Centre County, Philadelphia County and Montgomery County — have also moved to allow undated or incorrectly dated ballots to be counted, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Bucks County GOP said in a post to X that it is working with attorneys from the Pennsylvania Republican Party and the Republican National Committee to address the situation in Bucks County. Click here to read more.
ROCHESTER, Minn. – An 84-year-old man has been arrested in the 1974 murder of a hitchhiker.
Mary Schlias was hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago when the then-25-year-old was picked up and stabbed to death.
Her body was later found in Dunn County, west of Eau Claire, Wisconsin along with a stocking cap.
Now, 50 years later, authorities have arrested her suspected killer, identified as Jon K. Miller.
Miller was arrested on Nov. 7, after he reportedly admitted to killing Schlias to investigators.
Law enforcement mentioned the arrest would not have been possible without the help of an Investigative Genetic Genealogy team from Ramapo College in New Jersey.
The New Jersey team helped identify Miller as the suspect by analyzing hair follicle DNA from evidence left at the scene.
David Gurney, the director of the IGG team, said the team compared DNA genetics found at the scene with family trees from public databases across the internet. Click here to read more.
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Democrats in the House are trying to get as many bills passed as they can before turning over power to Republicans on New Year’s Day.
While Democrats have a slew of bills they are considering, a package regarding how Michigan judges and magistrates approach the issue of bail is at the forefront of discussions. Republicans argue that House Bills 4655, 4656 and 4658-4661 would water down bail requirements and create a dangerous ripple effect across the criminal justice system and into communities.
Representative Brian BeGole (R-Antrim Township) serves on the House Criminal Justice Committee and is the former Shiawassee County Sheriff. He spoke on The Steve Gruber Show on Thursday. He called the legislation “radical” and said it takes away discretion from judges. Click here to read more.
