Schumer calls for end to crack cocaine sentencing disparity: ‘Cocaine is cocaine’
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday called on lawmakers to end a sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine that has had a disproportionate effect on Black Americans.
“We have a moment to balance the scales of justice,” the New York Democrat said at a news conference outside the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in lower Manhattan. “It’s common sense: Cocaine is cocaine, and the sentencing should be equal.”
In September, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to end a sentencing formula that uses an 18-to-1 ratio in treating equal amounts of crack and powder cocaine. The bipartisan vote was 361 to 66.
Democrats and Republicans embraced the chance to correct what activists, researchers and law enforcement view as a historical wrong. Pricey powder cocaine has long been seen as the province of the wealthy, while crack is cheaper and generally associated with poorer Americans.
—New York Daily News
Appeals court blocks key parts of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Big Tech censorship law
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal appeals court ruled Monday it is unconstitutional for Florida to prohibit social media companies from permanently banning political candidates, dealing a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to combat what he declares to be online censorship.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking key parts of Florida’s social media law pushed by the governor, writing that meddling with the platforms’ content-moderation policies ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“We conclude that social-media platforms’ content-moderation activities — permitting, removing, prioritizing, and deprioritizing users and posts — constitute ‘speech’ within the meaning of the First Amendment,” Judge Kevin Newsom wrote in the unanimous 67-page opinion.
Two tech trade associations — NetChoice LLC and the Computer & Communications Industry Association — challenged the law approved last year. The groups praised the court’s ruling and said it will bolster their chances in another case involving a similar Texas law pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
—Orlando Sentinel
Kellyanne Conway trashes ‘shrewd and calculating’ Jared Kushner in new tell-all memoir
Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to Donald Trump, trashes the ex-president's son-in-law Jared Kushner as a “shrewd and calculating” power-hungry backstabber in a new White House memoir.
Conway pulls no punches regarding Ivanka Trump’s husband, saying he was a master of White House office politics who constantly sought to add to his portfolio without accepting any accountability.
“There was no subject he considered beyond his expertise. If Martian attacks had come across the radar, he would have happily added them to his ever-bulging portfolio,” she writes. “He’d have made sure you knew he’d exiled the Martians to Uranus.”
The Washington Post obtained an early copy of the forthcoming book, “Here’s the Deal.”
“He misread the Constitution in one crucial respect, thinking that all power not given to the federal government was reserved to him,” she added.
Conway cuttingly calls Kushner “a man of knowing nods, quizzical looks, and sidebar inquiries” in the memoir, which hits bookshelves Tuesday. “No matter how disastrous a personnel change or legislative attempt may be, (Kushner knew), he was unlikely to be held accountable for it,” Conway writes.
—New York Daily News
Boris Johnson pictured drinking at party during UK lockdown
Four photographs of Prime Minister Boris Johnson drinking at a Downing Street gathering when the U.K. was under lockdown have emerged just as his government braces for the release of a report into the so-called partygate scandal.
The photos, published by ITV News, show Johnson proposing a toast with a group of at least nine people next to a table with several bottles of alcohol and party food. The pictures were taken at an event for Johnson’s former communications chief Lee Cain on Nov. 13, 2020, ITV said. The No. 10 press office wasn’t immediately able to comment on the images when contacted by Bloomberg.
While Johnson wasn’t fined for this particular event, it adds to a long-running scandal that’s overshadowed his administration for months and almost ended his political career. Civil servant Sue Gray, who led an internal probe into the events, is due to hand her full findings to Johnson for publication this week.
London’s Metropolitan Police closed its criminal investigation into the saga last week, fining Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak for just one out of at least eight illegal events. The police issued 126 fines to 83 people in total.
—Bloomberg News
