Tag: Judge

WEST CHESTER — The attorney for a man whose long-running dispute with a neighbor ended with him fatally shooting the man outside their West Goshen homes wants the Common Pleas Court judge set to oversee his trial to step aside from the case, citing her possible elevation to the federal bench. In the motion, which Wheatcraft heard in court on Wednesday, Green said that the case against Carter was likely to include suggestions that Carter had shot his neighbor, G. Brooks Jennings, for political reasons. Jennings was a Republican committeeman in the township, and Carter, at the time of the shooting, had several anti-Trump signs in his front yard, months after the presidential election. Green said the political nature of the case had been “widely covered” in the local and national media, citing one post on the internet titled, “Democrat Clayton Carter Murders Chesco GOP Committeeman Brooks Jennings.” He stated that the prosecution intended to bring up the political differences of the two men as the cause of the conflict between the two. Whatever differences over local or national politics may have existed between Carter and Jennings, “that is one of the many things the victim and the defendant argued over. The defendant and victim were next-door neighbors. An argument apparently erupted between the two men over a spotlight that Jennings had trained on his own car, parked in front of Carter’s house. Carter acknowledged to police in a later interview that he had shot Jennings, but said it was because Jennings had threatened him with a knife that was found at the scene. Evidence that may come out at the trial was discussed during the pre-trial hearing before Wheatcraft on Wednesday. Ost-Prisco acknowledged that medical reports showed that Jennings had been intoxicated, but questioned whether evidence of his drinking earlier should be permitted.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s prospects of confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court changed significantly over the weekend after Christine Blasey Ford told The Washington Post that he sexually assaulted her when both were in high school. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast discusses the political reaction so far and debates whether Kavanaugh is still likely to be confirmed. The crew also looks back at the public’s response to Anita Hill’s accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and asks whether this case will be different. You can listen to the episode by clicking the “play” button above or by downloading it in iTunes, the ESPN App or your favorite podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts, learn how to listen. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast publishes Monday evenings, with occasional special episodes throughout the week. Help new listeners discover the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for “good polling vs. bad polling”? Get in touch by email, on Twitter or in the comments.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s prospects of confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court changed significantly over the weekend after Christine Blasey Ford told The Washington Post that he sexually assaulted her when both were in high school. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast discusses the political reaction so far and debates whether Kavanaugh is still likely to be confirmed. The crew also looks back at the public’s response to Anita Hill’s accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and asks whether this case will be different. You can listen to the episode by clicking the “play” button above or by downloading it in iTunes, the ESPN App or your favorite podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts, learn how to listen. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast publishes Monday evenings, with occasional special episodes throughout the week. Help new listeners discover the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for “good polling vs. bad polling”? Get in touch by email, on Twitter or in the comments.

Get ready for what could be a consequential week in the effort by President Trump to get Judge Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. Simply put: Does an allegation from the jurist’s high school days carry enough weight to sully — or perhaps derail — his nomination? Will the woman who has made the accusation bring her story to Washington? On Sunday, a Palo Alto psychologist said she was the one who wrote the letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein alleging sexual assault by Kavanaugh when they were both teenagers. A handful of Republicans said they wanted to hear more before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Kavanaugh, and the topic could spark a major battle less than two months before the midterm elections. “He’s very good at drawing people together,” said Nicholas Stern, a climate change professor at the London School of Economics. “People want to talk to him because he’s so interesting to talk to.” When Brown did emerge on stage on Friday, he made a bold promise about what California would do next in the face of climate inaction by the Trump administration. In the 1970s, he famously pledged to launch a satellite and earned the nickname “Governor Moonbeam” from a Chicago columnist as a result.) As the Carolinas braced for yet more rain from the massive but slow-moving Florence — downgraded from hurricane to tropical depression — the president seemed to rattle many by insisting the death count in Puerto Rico resulting from last year’s Hurricane Maria had been inflated. “You might see more deaths indirectly as time goes on,” FEMA Director Brock Long said on "Meet the Press."

Image Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today: • Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, is close to a plea deal with federal prosecutors, people familiar with the case said. [Read the story] • Safiya Wazir, 27, who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan with her family in 1997, won an upset victory in a Democratic primary for New Hampshire state representative. [Read the story] • Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she had referred an unspecified matter involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh to federal investigators. [Read the story] • Brock Long, the FEMA chief, has been forced to divert attention amid Hurricane Florence preparations to personal damage control over an investigation into his possible misuse of agency vehicles. [Read the story] • The National Labor Relations Board is set to publish a proposed rule redefining a company’s responsibility for workers engaged at arm’s length, such as those hired by contractors or franchisees. [Read the story] • Economists say relatively modest gains over the last few years are endangered by the Trump administration’s policies and are vulnerable to a downturn. [Read the story] • Mark Zuckerberg published a roughly 3,300-word blog post cataloging steps that Facebook has taken to prevent election interference. [Read the story] • Companies and business groups are mounting a last-ditch effort to convince Mr. Trump that his trade policies are hurting his base. [Read the story] Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Emily Baumgaertner in Washington.

Over the past few days I have been reading in these pages about party politics and political affiliation in the race for city court judge. I am saddened by this becoming the focus for some in this election. In my opinion the label behind the candidate should not be a factor in this race despite what some people want you to believe. There is a major crisis in this city right now involving the opioid epidemic and drug addiction in general. The children of this community are dying. Now is not the time to engage in party politics or partisan bickering. I have seen firsthand the devastation that this problem has caused among personal friends and the community as a whole. So please let’s not turn this race into what party label our next judge will have next to their name because our youth and our community deserves better. Now is not the time to divide based upon political affiliation, it is time to come together. Let these two men run on the merit of their careers and positions about the justice system and allow all of the great people of this city to decide who will become the next judge.

It's hard, in a place like Alabama in the age of us against them and them against us, to cling to the belief that justice is blind as one of those cave fish. Those things are every bit as vision-impaired as justice herself. Lawmakers across the state went to jail for double dipping and no-show jobs. Governors went to jail. Politicians like Mike Hubbard and Del Marsh spoke of the cleaning up Montgomery, and the GOP took Alabama like Sherman took Georgia. And every time somebody is busted - Democrat or Republican - the cry is predictable. He beat up on Alabama's Sessions because criminal prosecutions of a couple of Republicans could threaten the party's hold on Congress. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. What's important is that the president just suggested that prosecutions be determined by election dates, that guilt or innocence should be determined by party. It makes it hard to hold on to those beliefs that make us who we are.

3 'extremist Muslim' New Mexico compound suspects released. Jeff Paul has the story. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in…

Ms. Coleman might have to run in a new Democratic primary, in a newly drawn district with voters who do not know her. “I’m very anxious about this, because we are 70 days out from the election,” Ms. Coleman said Tuesday. But the panel has yet to decide whether they can be used this year. But the justices may wait to act on a stay application until the lower court panel has decided whether the flawed, existing map should be used one more time. But the chief author of the three-judge panel’s ruling, Judge James J. Wynn, left that question open, citing North Carolina Republicans’ own turn-on-a-dime manipulation of state politics. But the judge noted that the State Legislature summarily eliminated primary elections for judicial races this year, so perhaps staging a House election without primaries “would be consistent with the General Assembly’s policy preference.” Or, he wrote, the state could hold primaries on Nov. 6 and a special House election later in the year. Some legal experts say the Supreme Court would be likely to grant a stay, just as it did after the panel first ruled against the existing House map in January. Image The three-judge panel said that if the North Carolina Legislature is given another chance, it would have about three weeks to draw an acceptable new map. “To have the election for new congressional districts, with no primaries, would be chaos,” he said. “With gerrymandering, people see that their vote doesn’t matter,” she said.

A lawsuit brought against Fox News by the parents of a Democratic National Committee employee killed in 2016 was dismissed Thursday by a judge who said it lacked the detail necessary to proceed to trial. The US district judge George Daniels said the lawsuit brought by Seth Rich’s parents required specific instances of wrongdoing by the defendants to survive. The lawsuit claimed Fox News turned Seth’s death into a “political football” by claiming he had leaked DNC emails to Wikileaks during the presidential campaign. Daniels said it was understandable that Joel and Mary Rich “might feel that their grief and personal loss were taken advantage of, and that the tragic death of their son was exploited for political purposes”. But he said a general allegation that Fox News and one of its contributors had an agreement to collaborate against the parents was not enough. Wheeler had claimed that Fox put words in his mouth when it posted the WikiLeaks story. Wheeler alleged in his August lawsuit that the comments were false and were put in the story to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The judge wrote that Wheeler and Fox News “embarked on a collective effort to support a sensational claim regarding Seth Rich’s murder”. He said Wheeler “cannot now seek to avoid the consequences of his own complicity and coordinated assistance in perpetuating a politically motivated story not having any basis in fact”. A message seeking comment from attorneys for Wheeler was not immediately returned.