Group readies to defend Biden's choice for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — A well-funded outside group with close ties to President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to launch an effort defending the president’s forthcoming pick to serve on the Supreme Court, a spokesperson for the group says.
Building Back Together, a nonprofit organization that has spent tens of millions of dollars since last year promoting Biden’s agenda, will work alongside judicial and civil-rights organizations and include paid ads, according to a spokesperson.
A BBT spokesperson added that the effort will focus on responding to attacks against the yet-unannounced nominee, whom Biden is expected to name in the coming weeks after current Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.
The outside group will continue to spend money promoting Biden’s agenda even as it helps defend Democrats during the Supreme Court confirmation process, said the spokesperson, who declined to say how much money the group plans to spend on court-specific ads.
Biden has said he will fulfill a pledge made during the 2020 campaign to appoint the nation’s first Black woman justice, a promise that has energized some civil-rights groups even as it angered some Republicans.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
Proud Boys member files to run for California Assembly seat
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An acknowledged member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, white nationalist group, has filed to run for California Assembly against Democratic incumbent Ken Cooley.
Jeffrey Erik Perrine last week filed paperwork for the newly drawn 7th Assembly District, which encompasses much of eastern Sacramento County, including Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, Folsom and Citrus Heights.
Perrine last year was expelled from an elected position on the Sacramento County Republican Party's central committee after a report from The Sacramento Bee detailed his ties to the hate group.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.
"They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings such as the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia," according to the SPLC.
Extremism experts described Perrine as someone who has been a fixture at various militant rallies in California and across the nation. One video posted online shows Perrine at an event in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2018 speaking through a megaphone suggesting that "all the illegals trying to jump over our border, we should be smashing their heads into the concrete."
—The Sacramento Bee
Woman falls to her death when Florida drawbridge opens
A woman plunged at least five stories to her death Sunday when the bridge she was walking across opened, West Palm Beach police said.
It happened about 1 p.m. as the woman, who has not been named by authorities, was walking her bike on the Royal Park Bridge, which connects West Palm Beach, at Lakeview Avenue, to Palm Beach.
“The woman tried to hang on. There was a bystander nearby who tried to help her, but tragically she fell five or six stories below where she died landing on concrete,” West Palm Beach police spokesman Mike Jachles told WPTV-News Channel 5.
She was only about 10 feet away from the end of the bridge when she fell, according to WPTV.
Jachles said there is a bridge tender who has safety protocols to follow in terms of lowering the gates when the bridge is going to be raised and those protocols include “making several visual confirmations that there is nobody at either of the spans or past those gates.”
In addition to gates, the bridge is equipped with bells that sound when the bridge is about to be raised.
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
Judge says Kemp can’t use special fund in reelection bid
ATLANTA — A federal judge on Monday dealt a partial blow to Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection fundraising plans, saying he can’t use a special leadership committee that lets him raise unlimited campaign contributions to help him win the Republican primary.
But it was a split decision, because the ruling also said Kemp can still use the new leadership committee to raise money — including during the General Assembly session — to spend in other races. That could include his expected rematch with Democrat Stacey Abrams if he wins the GOP primary.
And the ruling does not say the committee has to give back the money it previously spent or has committed to spend on things such as advertising to win the Republican race.
Kemp’s committee ran ads pummeling his leading Republican opponent, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, a few days after he entered the governor’s race in December. It had raised $2.3 million through the end of January.
Perdue sued over the leadership committee law, saying it gave the governor a massive fundraising advantage over his challengers.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
