Marco Rubio at Tampa rally: Democrats ‘will destroy this country’
TAMPA, Fla. — Sen. Marco Rubio came to Tampa on Tuesday with a closing message for his U.S. Senate reelection campaign: Democrats have ruined the country. Republicans will fix it.
Speaking at Grand Cathedral Cigars — “It smells like the front porch of my home when I was growing up,” Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, quipped early in his remarks — the senator assailed Democratic leaders for what he described as a failing economy, open borders and rampant crime.
“The Democratic Party has brought this country nothing but chaos and disorder,” Rubio told the midmorning crowd of about 60. “If we don’t stop them, they will destroy the country.”
Rubio is running against Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief who has outraised Rubio $73.3 million to $39.4 million, federal campaign records show. Rubio argues that Demings has voted for policies that have contributed to economic inflation. At one point during the rally, Rubio took a copy of USA Today and read to the crowd about rising food prices.
—Tampa Bay Times
Trump's signature on Weisselberg apartment lease shown to jury
NEW YORK — Jurors in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial were shown a lease to an apartment for longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg — signed by former President Donald Trump himself.
The exhibit came as prosecutors questioned the firm’s controller, Jeffrey McConney, about perks they allege were given to senior employees to fatten their pay while hiding their tax obligations. The trial threatens to reveal the inner workings of the real estate empire that set Trump on his path to the White House.
The jury saw that Weisselberg and his wife got a $6,500-a-month apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side paid for by Trump’s company, which even covered their $10,000 moving expenses.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecutors are trying to show that two units of the former president’s firm engaged in a scheme over more than a decade to help executives evade payroll taxes by compensating them with company cars, rent-free apartments and other luxuries.
—Bloomberg News
Next Powerball jackpot estimated at $1.2 billion after no ticket matches all winning numbers
LOS ANGELES — After no ticket won Monday's $1 billion Powerball jackpot, the second-largest in the lottery's history, the next grand prize in Wednesday's multistate drawing is estimated at $1.2 billion.
Monday's winning numbers, drawn at the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee at 7:59 p.m. Pacific time, are 13, 19, 36, 39, 59 and the Powerball number 13. No jackpot-winning tickets were sold, according to the Powerball results website.
Although there were also no jackpot winners in Saturday's drawing, some Powerball players won lower-tier prizes, including six tickets that matched all five white balls but missed the Powerball — two of which were sold at California retailers, according to Powerball officials.
The tickets worth more than $550,000 were sold at Ramirez Liquor in Pico Rivera and Mad Dog Café in Alpine County, east of Sacramento, according to California Lottery.
—Los Angeles Times
Netanyahu camp ahead in Israeli elections
TEL AVIV, Israel — The conservative Likud party of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has come out on top in Israel's parliamentary election, according to forecasts based on exit polls.
Likud won 30 to 31 of 120 seats, according to TV forecasts from Tuesday evening. Incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid's Future Party came in second place with 24 seats, according to the forecasts.
The right-wing religious camp headed by Netanyahu won a narrow majority of 61 to 62 seats in the country's fifth election in three and a half years. According to the Central Elections Committee, turnout was 66.3% by 1800 GMT — the highest so far since 1999. A total of 6.8 million people were eligible to vote.
Forecasts see the Religious Zionist Party of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in third place with 14 to 15 seats. The far-right alliance is seen as a possible kingmaker.
—dpa
