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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration does not plan to levy billions of dollars in fines against companies that allow access to TikTok in the U.S., as is stipulated by law if a ban of the popular app goes into effect on Sunday, according to two administration officials.
The administration has decided to defer implementation of the law banning TikTok in the U.S. to the incoming Trump administration, the officials said, effectively not enforcing it during the final 36 hours of President Joe Biden’s term in office.
“Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement,” a White House official said.
The move is aimed at trying to ensure there is no disruption in TikTok users’ access to the app in the U.S. before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, despite the ban. It comes as the Supreme Court could rule at any time on whether to uphold the ban. Click here to read more.
LANSING, Mich - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke Wednesday at the Detroit Auto Show, urging lawmakers to create more taxpayer-funded jobs programs, just weeks after a new study found such programs often fail to create jobs.
The governor encouraged a divided Michigan Legislature to renew a taxpayer-funded jobs program that’s set to disappear in a year.
Whitmer also urged legislators to develop a long-time solution for road maintenance, as her $3.5 billion bonding plan ended in December without completing her campaign promise to fix the roads. Her plan only fixed state trunkline roads, not local and county roads.
“Losing both (a road program and a jobs program) without better, more comprehensive replacements will throw us off track,” Whitmer said. Click here to read more.
A convicted pedophile and illegal migrant was released from a Connecticut prison last month after his sympathetic parole board mulled how to best help him avoid deportation.
The Trump administration, the parole board decided, would not be able to get its act together fast enough to deport the illegal migrant pedophile before his 30-day immigration detainer runs out. “They can’t elect a Speaker of the House,” one board member scoffed.
Guerino Magloire, 52, was serving five years in prison for felony second degree sexual assault against a child between 13 and 15 years old. He was convicted of sexually assaulting the child on March 11, 2020, just as pandemic lockdowns were starting, and he was sentenced in November the next year.
During his parole hearing on New Year’s Eve, Magloire said he cannot promise he will not offend again. Click here to read more.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — University professors and students in Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities and put limits on how race and gender can be discussed in the college classroom.
The complaint asserts the new law violates the First Amendment by placing viewpoint-based restrictions on educators’ speech and classroom lessons. Plaintiffs also argue the law is intentionally discriminatory against Black students because it targets concepts related to race and racism, limits programs that benefit Black students and eliminates campus spaces dedicated to student organizations that support Black students.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and professors and students at the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the law unconstitutional and block the state from enforcing it. Click here to read more.
MT. JULIET, Tenn. — A homeowner was surprised when her pizza wasn't delivered by a pizzeria employee but by a team of police officers.
According to the Mt. Juliet Police Department, officers received an alert from one of their license plate reading cameras that identified a car as belonging to a 34-year-old man who had an arrest warrant for failure to appear in court regarding drug charges.
Officers pulled the vehicle over and arrested the driver, but quickly realized he was a pizza delivery driver and was on his way to a customer's home to complete a delivery.
“The Alabama Legislature’s censorship of important discussions about race and gender inequalities and its attack on so-called DEI programs are an affront to the constitutional rights of Alabama faculty and students,” Antonio L. Ingram II, Legal Defense Fund senior counsel, said in a statement about the lawsuit. “The harms are particularly salient for Black, LGBTQ+, and other faculty and students of color, whose histories and lived experiences have been dismissed, devalued, and undermined on their campuses.” Click here to read more.
