Biden to meet DeSantis as he visits Florida after Ian
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when he travels to Florida on Wednesday to survey damage done by Hurricane Ian, the White House said Tuesday.
Biden will receive an “operational briefing” from the governor and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, along with other state and local officials, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
The meeting will be the culmination of a political detente from Biden and DeSantis, who over the last week have put aside their political rivalry to help coordinate federal and state recovery efforts. The president and governor have spoken by phone several times since the storm’s approach last week, and White House officials have broadly praised the response to the hurricane at all levels of government.
Jean-Pierre said although the president continues to disagree with DeSantis’ decision to send migrants on a plane to Martha’s Vineyard last month, he will not be discussing the matter with him on Wednesday.
—Miami Herald
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says Jan. 6 attackers ‘did teach us how you can use a flag pole’
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., downplayed the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 on Tuesday, saying the violent attackers “did teach us how you can use a flag pole.”
A staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, Johnson claimed the extremists who sought to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory were mostly peaceful, and that the attack was no “armed insurrection.”
“Some of the protesters did teach us how you can use a flag pole (and) that kind of stuff as weapons,” Johnson defiantly told a Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “But to call what happened on Jan. 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate”
Televised Jan. 6 committee hearings over the summer revealed disturbing images captured by Capitol Police body cameras and overhead security of pro-Trump rioters hitting law enforcement with flagpoles, baseball bats, weapons and bear spray during the insurrection.
—New York Daily News
Berkeley ordinance would outlaw racially biased 911 calls
LOS ANGELES — Berkeley could make discriminatory and racially biased 911 calls illegal in a new ordinance being considered by the City Council.
The ordinance, which is on the agenda for the City Council meeting Tuesday, was authored by Councilmember Kate Harrison and it would expand the current municipal code outlawing false reports to the police to specifically ban reports based solely on discriminatory reasons. The ordinance would also allow people to pursue civil action, such as seeking damages.
Discriminatory calls are defined as those based on one’s ethnicity, race, nationality, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, place of birth or creed, according to the proposal. The ordinance is modeled after San Francisco’s 2020 CAREN Act, which stands for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies. The name “Karen” has been used to refer to white women who’ve been caught on video exhibiting bias against people of color and making discriminatory calls to the police.
“Such incidents cause serious harm to the person falsely accused of a crime, contribute to defamation, cause anxiety and distrust among people of color and other people, and put an unnecessary strain on law enforcement officers responding to frivolous and false calls,” according to the ordinance.
—Los Angeles Times
More Russians flee than join Putin’s army after call-up for war
Far more Russians have fled abroad than have enlisted in the military since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization to bolster his faltering invasion of Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said more than 200,000 people have been conscripted into the army since Putin’s Sept. 21 order for a partial call-up, Russian news services reported Tuesday.
That matches an exodus of more than 200,000 Russians to neighboring Kazakhstan alone over the same period reported Tuesday by the central Asian country’s interior minister. Almost 69,000 Russians crossed into Georgia by Sept. 30, according to Interior Ministry data in the Caucasus republic, where vast lines of vehicles built up at the land border with Russia following the mobilization announcement.
The European Union reported last week that 66,000 Russians had entered the bloc in the week to Sept. 25. Most came through Finland which heavily restricted Russian tourist arrivals on Friday in response to the surge in entrants.
—Bloomberg News
