California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Saturday denied assertions of voter fraud in the state’s primary elections, dismissing unfounded accusations by President Donald Trump of “big cheating.”

Bonta said in an interview on MS NOW’s “The Weekend” that there is no basis for the election fraud investigations in Los Angeles that federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said his office is conducting.

“There are no details, there is no specifics, there is no specific allegation of any individualized act of voter fraud,” Bonta said. “And every count, recount, hand count, court case and audit has shown time and time again — not just in California, but throughout this country — that there is no widespread voter fraud.”

Bonta said claims of voter fraud are “only a figment of the imagination of Trump and others who follow that conspiracy theory.”

Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California and a Trump appointee, announced Friday that his office is working with the FBI on “multiple election fraud investigations.” He said he was coordinating with Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, on an audit of California’s voter rolls, citing the state’s lack of a voter ID rule.

Essayli’s announcement came one day after Trump declared without evidence that there was “BIG cheating” by Democrats in California, citing the state’s well-known slow ballot counting process.

California law allows ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within seven days. Voters are also allowed to verify their identity in person if their signature on the ballot does not match what’s on file. That, along with the enormous number of registered voters in California, means its ballot counting typically takes longer than other states.

That lengthy tally has been subject to repeated conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud, including from Trump, despite a dearth of evidence.

On Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney visited Los Angeles County’s main processing center, where ballots were still being counted from Tuesday’s primaries. County Registrar of Voters spokesperson Daylyn Presley confirmed to MS NOW that the prosecutor was given an overview of the county’s public observation program and a tour of the ballot processing operations.

A spokesperson for Bonta told MS NOW that the attorney general’s office sent a representative to the ballot processing center at the same time that the Department of Justice official was there. The spokesperson said Bonta wanted to have eyes on the ground and ensure “nothing crazy is going on.”

Bonta told “The Weekend” that his office sent its own monitor to the center “to be present, to observe, to ensure there was no interference or anything inappropriate.”

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Police have arrested the son of actor James Handy’s girlfriend in his death after he was found stabbed in the chest in Los Angeles, law enforcement said Thursday.

Officers responded to a home Wednesday morning after a 911 caller said, “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the The Los Angeles Police Department.

They found the 81-year-old who appeared in films like “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick” in the front yard stabbed in the chest and unconscious, according to police. He was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Michael Gledhill, 44, who is Handy’s girlfriend’s son and lives at the home with his mother, told officers that he was the person they were looking for, according to police.

Gledhill was booked on suspicion of one count of murder, according to police. His bail was set at $2 million, according to jail records.

It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. Jail records did not show an attorney for him and messages left with the county public defender’s office were not immediately returned.

Born in New York, Handy has been appearing in films and TV for decades and was known for his role as an exterminator in the 1995 film “Jumanji” and more recently as the bartender Jimmy in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” according to IMDB. He’s also appeared in some of the top TV crime dramas, including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Closer” and “Cold Case.”

“I could not have asked for a more talented, humble or gracious client and friend than James Handy,” Pam Ellis-Evenas, from the Ellis Talent Group, said in an email to The Associated Press.

CORRECTION (June 6, 2026, 11 a.m. ET): A previous headline on this article misidentified the person arrested in the fatal stabbing of actor James Handy. It was the son of Handy’s girlfriend, not his son’s girlfriend.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV acknowledged Saturday as he headed to Spain that he’s competing with another VIP in Madrid this weekend, and also declared his preference in the country’s biggest soccer rivalry.

Puerto Rican sensation Bad Bunny is performing two shows of his 10-concert Spanish tour in the Spanish capital.

Speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane, Leo acknowledged the Bad Bunny draw when he referred to anecdotal reports of a newfound spiritual awakening especially among young people in Spain.

The American pope said he understood that young adults are sensing a lack of meaning in their lives and mused that his visit might help “awaken” something in them.

“If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo said. “But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”

Leo on Saturday is opening a weeklong visit to Spain that, after Madrid, will also take him to Barcelona and the Canary Islands. He’s hoping to bring a message of unity in a country polarized with political and church scandals.

Leo was also asked about news that plans are moving ahead for his beloved Chicago Bears to move to Hammond, Indiana. The board of the team voted this week to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond.

Asked if he had any words of consolation for Illinois, the Chicago-born pope quipped: “That’s out of my pay (scale).”

In other sporting comments, Leo confirmed he would root for the U.S. in the upcoming World Cup but showed his true team colors when asked about whether he would root in Spain for Real Madrid or Barca: “That’s easy,” he said. “The pope is for all teams, but Prevost is Real Madrid,” he said, referring to his birth name.

The post Pope Leo concedes he’s got stiff competition from Bad Bunny on Spain trip appeared first on MS NOW.

Graham Platner needs to drop out of the Maine Senate race — and Democrats should be the ones to coax him toward the door.

When Platner first threw his hat in the ring last year, there was a reasonable argument for his candidacy — here was a political outsider with a fresh perspective who represented a new generation of political talent for Democrats.

But everything we have learned about Platner over the past several months suggests that he is a moral and political trainwreck, with enough skeletons in his closet to fill a graveyard.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously.

Indeed, since Platner announced his candidacy last year, there has been an unceasing drumbeat of scandals about him. He filled a Reddit message board with sexist, racist and off-color comments. He has exaggerated his working-class background and appears to have spent most of his life living off handouts from his parents. But above all, there was the revelation last fall that he had gotten a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on his chest two decades ago — and by his account only realized it was a Nazi tattoo in the fall of 2025, as he began his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

In recent days, the stories about Platner have taken on a darker, more troubling hue. Last week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times revealed that soon after his marriage in 2023, Platner was caught by his wife sexting as many as a dozen women. His profile page on Kik, an anonymous social media site often used for dating, was still active.

Then on Thursday, The New York Times published an account of three former girlfriends of Platner who described him as volatile, unfaithful and physically threatening. One woman, Lyndsey Fifield, a conservative activist, reported that during an argument, Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.” Another former romantic partner, Jenny Racicot, who is a Democrat, said of Platner, “This person does not respect women.” The Times spoke with several other women Platner dated who spoke well of him, including that “they felt safe with him” and remain friends with him to this day. Platner on Thursday told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes that “some allegations” in the Times’ article “are simply not true,” specifically, “anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was.” Platner did acknowledge that he spent a good amount of time “struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol.”

Fifield also told the Times that Platner had joked to her about his Nazi tattoo — contradicting his denials — and even produced a screenshot from a group chat in August 2025 of her talking to friends about the Nazi emblem. Platner has said he didn’t know about the tattoo’s Nazi origins until months later.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously. And every time Platner is caught, he makes the same excuse: that he was in a dark period after he returned from serving in Iraq. While one can sympathize with Platner’s post-war experiences, this justification for his past behavior should not and cannot excuse a pattern of consistently bad behavior that dates back years and was occurring as recently as a few years ago.

Yet none of these revelations have pushed congressional Democrats to call on Platner to stand down. In fact, some are rallying around him.

According to Rhode Island liberal Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the latest reports about Platner’s behavior toward women “seems like a lot of nothing.”

Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him?

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called Platner’s behavior “wrong and toxic,” but that’s not stopping him from appearing at a rally with Platner in Maine this weekend. When asked earlier in the week about Platner, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has publicly endorsed him, offered a classic whataboutist defense: “Is he a saint? I guess not. I don’t know too many saints here”

Even New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who led the charge against former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken when he was accused of sexual impropriety, has refused to condemn Platner, telling reporters, instead, “We are still going to win Maine.”

Put aside the hypocrisy of national Democrats, who have long preached the idea of believing women when they claim sexual harassment or violence; none of this makes sense from a political standpoint. Recent polling suggests Platner has a narrow lead over Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

In a political environment that heavily favors Democrats and in a state that has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in each of the past three presidential elections, Democrats should be well-positioned to flip the Maine seat from red to blue. And this is the polling situation today, before Maine voters have fully digested the latest Platner scandals. Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him? That’s not even taking into account the very real possibility that more scandals will emerge. Quite simply, even if one thinks that Platner is a unique political talent — and there isn’t much evidence that he is — why take the risk?

Sticking with Platner is not only a dangerous political move, but it also opens up Democrats to charges of hypocrisy, especially when they attack Republicans for sticking with morally and ethically flawed candidates like Ken Paxton in Texas. And after all, if there is one party that should care about how a man treats women, both in public and in private, it’s Democrats. It’s not as if Republicans have much of a leg to stand on with President Donald Trump as their standard-bearer.

In an ideal world, Platner would recognize that he is a flawed candidate who is putting the Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in significant danger. But he appears more focused on his political aspirations than doing what’s best for the Democratic Party. His staff would tell him the same thing, but they seem more focused on covering up for his sins than doing what’s best for the party.

That’s why it’s incumbent on national Democrats to demand Platner drop out of the race, either before or after Maine Democrats go to the polls next week. They can look to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who, even though she dropped out of the race, is still on the ballot. Or they can look to recruit the runner-up in the competitive Democratic primary for governor. At least that person will have been vetted by the media. But considering how politically vulnerable Collins is, the mood of the electorate and Maine’s Democratic tilt, seemingly anyone would be a better option than Platner and his heavy baggage.

Heading into November with Platner as their nominee risks Democrats losing both the Maine Senate race and their souls.

The post Democrats can do better than Graham Platner. They must demand he drop out. appeared first on MS NOW.

The last time notable combat sports were held at the White House, former President Theodore Roosevelt was hosting boxing matches, including taking up opponents himself. In one bout, he even took a blow to the face that left him partially blind in one eye.

Despite President Donald Trump’s past forays into the world of professional wrestling, he won’t be the one in the ring at the UFC fight scheduled to be held on the White House South Lawn.

But before taking office, Trump had long-running relationships with prominent figures in the world of combat sports. From boxing events at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to his friendship with boxing promoter Don King, Trump has long sought to make his mark on sport.

The match at the White House — part of a slate of events to celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday (although not to be confused with the congressionally sanctioned events known as America250) — is scheduled for June 14. The date, coincidentally, is Trump’s 80th birthday.

During a press event in the Oval Office with the fighters earlier this month, Trump (displaying a disregard for well-known trademarks) promised the event will be “the greatest show on Earth.”

“It’s never going to happen again,” Trump said. “Never happened before.”

Renderings from the UFC show a 5,000-seat arena, currently under construction on the South Lawn, that will sit underneath a red, white and blue arch. The White House and the UFC said invited guests and members of the military will sit around the octagonal cage, while screens will be set up at the Ellipse to show the fights to roughly 85,000 fans. Weigh-ins for the fighters are expected to take place at the Lincoln Memorial.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, UFC CEO and longtime Trump ally Dana White said the president had floated the idea of fights at the White House while attending a recent fight. 

“He leans over to me in the middle of the fight and goes, ‘We should do a fight at the White House,’” White said. “I said, ‘Yes. Yes, we should. I’m in. I’m in!’”

Ties to White and UFC

Before White took over the UFC in 2001, mixed martial arts fighting was banned in a majority of states across the country. Speaking in support of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention, White said most arenas didn’t want anything to do with hosting UFC events. 

But, he said, Trump took a chance on the company and hosted the first and second matches of White’s promotion career at the Trump Taj Mahal. 

“Nobody took us seriously,” White said in a speech at the 2016 RNC. “Nobody, except Donald Trump.”

Over the course of their relationship, White has stumped for Trump at rallies, and he appeared again at the RNC during the president’s 2024 campaign, where White called Trump “the toughest, most resilient human being.” On election night in 2024, Trump invited White to speak on stage during the celebration.

Trump did a victory lap at a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden just 11 days after winning the 2024 election. In 2019, Trump made history as the first sitting president to attend a UFC match. Since his first term, Trump has sat cageside at seven UFC matches.

Trump last attended a UFC fight in Miami on April 11, where he walked out grinning and waving to the stadium crowd.

And while Trump sat cageside with White, Vice President JD Vance announced from Islamabad that 21 hours of peace talks had failed to produce a deal to end the war with Iran.

Past with combat sports

From the 1980s onward, Trump frequently has hosted, sponsored and attended boxing and pro-wrestling events, cozying up to big names like boxing promoter King and his clients Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali.

In 1984, Trump opened Trump Plaza, a casino and hotel, in Atlantic City. Soon after, he started sponsoring boxing matches at an adjacent convention hall where he hosted a number of Tyson fights. 

Trump later ventured into professional wrestling, hosting WWE events in the late 1980s and appearing at showcases through the early 2000s. He’s had a decades-long relationship with Vince McMahon, who co-founded WWE with his wife, Linda McMahon.

In 2007 and 2009, the WWE made contributions totaling $5 million to the Trump Foundation.

Linda McMahon has served in Trump’s Cabinet twice: as Small Business Administration administrator from 2017 to 2019, and as secretary of education in the current administration.

Throughout Trump’s multiple presidential campaigns, well-known combat sports figures have showed up in support. In addition to White and King, who attended the 2016 RNC, the late WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan stumped for Trump at multiple events during the 2024 campaign.

While speaking at the RNC that year after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Hogan ripped off his tank top to reveal a Trump-Vance tank top beneath. 

“Let Trumpamania rule again!” Hogan exclaimed. “Let Trumpamania make America great again!”

The post The UFC Freedom 250 fight at the White House is hardly Trump’s first brawl appeared first on MS NOW.

The Florida Legislature convened for a special session this week and passed Gov. Ron DeSantis proposal to put a gradual elimination of homestead property taxes on November’s ballot. As a legislator who represents a vibrant, diverse community in South Florida, I could not in good conscience support this measure.  I voted “no”  because the math does not add up and Floridians deserve honesty, not political theater.

The resolution would raise the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, with a stated path toward full elimination of homestead property taxes. Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.

Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.

On the surface, getting rid of such property taxes might appeal to Floridians across the political spectrum. We all deserve affordability and the ability to make ends meet without taking on crushing debt or working multiple jobs just to stay afloat. Like Americans across the country, the people in Florida face an affordability crisis as the cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, gas and other everyday expenses continues to skyrocket.

Every single person in the communities I serve is feeling the pressure of rising costs, and I take that seriously. But this resolution does not solve that problem — it shifts it. It takes the financial burden off property owners and quietly drops it on the backs of renters and the most vulnerable communities we serve.

Republicans across the country, including many here in Florida, have talked for so long about lowering taxes or eliminating taxes that they seem to have forgotten that taxes pay for things that people need and that getting rid of taxes in such a haphazard way will cause pain for individuals and local governments across the state.

Under this measure, local governments across the state, including those in Miami-Dade County and across South Florida, stand to lose billions in revenue. That revenue pays for police and fire protection, public health services, infrastructure and the community programs that working families count on. The state’s constitutional prohibition on cutting first responder funding changes the basic fiscal reality: When you eliminate a tax base, someone else pays. And there’s no solution in place to make up for this massive loss and the impact it will have on communities and residents’ daily lives.

My district is home to hardworking families, seniors on fixed incomes, renters who will never see a dime of this tax break and small business owners who are already navigating an extremely difficult economic climate. They are not asking for a constitutional amendment that most benefits the wealthiest homeowners. They are asking for real, targeted relief that addresses the actual affordability crisis without gutting the services that keep our communities safe and functioning.

Property tax reform that is sustainable, equitable and helps the Floridians who need it most would get my support, but that’s not what this plan is.

When you eliminate a tax base, someone else pays.

We can expect Gov. DeSantis and his allies to paint this resolution as “cost saving,” but if the state’s voters approve the constitutional amendment in November,  the shift in tax burdens will hit many Floridians’ pocketbooks hard.

Florida is already navigating the aftermath of devastating hurricane seasons the past few years, with communities still rebuilding and local governments stretched thin. To introduce a structural revenue shock of this magnitude, one that disproportionately benefits high-value homeowners in wealthier zip codes isn’t just bad policy but a choice about whose recovery matters.

Just like the hype that surrounded Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill last year, we have seen this playbook before: A headline-grabbing tax cut gets framed as relief for everyday families while the fine print tells a different story. The president, for example has focused on the law’s provision on allowing certain tax filers who get paid tips to not pay taxes on them, but the law overwhelmingly benefits the country’s wealthiest Americans.

DeSantis wants to do away with home property taxes. Florida cities are alarmed. But special districts are more so. Mosquito abatement districts which receive all their funding from property taxes. Welcome back malaria!

— Michael McDonald (@electproject.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T10:22:44.517Z

 

Similarly, the exemption headed to Florida’s ballot helps those with the highest-value homes while, say, a senior renting a modest apartment would see nothing. A working family leasing a home would see nothing as the county budget that funds their children’s after-school programs, their neighborhood’s road repairs and their emergency services absorbs the blow.

Extreme anti-tax strategies like this are anything but “fiscally responsible.” The hidden cost is paid in crumbling roads, understaffed fire stations and shuttered public libraries — the very infrastructure that holds communities together. When revenue is deliberately starved from local governments, it isn’t abstract bureaucracies that suffer. It is the elderly neighbor who can no longer afford the ambulance response time that doubled, the child whose school lost its reading specialist and the small business owner whose street floods every rainy afternoon because the drainage system went unrepaired for a decade. A community that guts its own foundations doesn’t liberate its people — it auctions off their shared future to the highest bidder, leaving everyone else to pay the real price.

The post Anti-tax Republicans have talked themselves into a big mistake in Florida appeared first on MS NOW.

Late last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called for what would amount to a significant reversal of the education establishment’s embrace of technology when she suggested restrictions on artificial intelligence and electronic screens in schools. Though her call to action stopped short of a total ban, Weingarten said restrictions are needed “to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating harms.”

Schools have spent billions of dollars rushing devices into children’s hands. Such spending was especially high during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the results have been profound. As of last school year, 88% of public schools reported providing every child with a laptop, tablet or similar device. Just last year, the AFT partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and others to launch a $23 million National Academy for AI Instruction aimed at helping educators use AI responsibly and effectively in schools.

All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten

But in a May 27 speech at the National Press Club, Weingarten said, “All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.”

Much of the debate over AI in schools has focused on the loss of students’ analytical skills, cognitive offloading and shrinking attention spans. Those are legitimate concerns. But we should pay more attention to another essential cognitive function being systematically engineered out of existence: boredom. 

Often misunderstood as a passive state, boredom is a transitional state that frequently precedes curiosity, imagination and original thought. Boredom is deeply tied to children developing the ability to think for themselves.

Doomscrolling social media and watching endless short video clips already make a state of boredom harder to reach. But there are still gaps where a child (or adult) can drift into boredom, and from there, imagination.

 

AI systems, however, anticipate the idle moment. They analyze our behavior and preferences to personalize content, predict our questions before we finish asking them and generate answers before we can wrestle with a problem. Every pause is filled before the mind has a chance to wander somewhere unexpected. Thus, they reduce the cognitive friction that often gives rise to insight. Psychologists call that friction a “productive struggle.”

To the student assigned an essay, the blank page creates a kind of discomfort. Where to start? Which ideas are worth pursuing? What questions need answering? If a person stares at the page long enough, boredom will eventually give way to emerging ideas. But when such writing is outsourced to AI, that discomfort disappears, along with the friction that sparks creativity.

For years, educators have treated boredom as an enemy of learning and something to be eliminated. The last thing a teacher wants is a disengaged or disinterested student, right? But there’s a difference between apathy and a boredom that triggers curiosity in the unoccupied mind. Boredom can provoke students to ask unusual questions, meander through half-formed ideas and try to solve problems or complete tasks in unconventional ways. But constant digital stimulation makes that less likely.

Boredom is not a bug in human cognition. It’s a complex neurological feature.

Boredom is not a bug in human cognition. It’s a complex neurological feature that can fuel introspection, invention and the activation of the brain’s default mode network. That’s the state associated with mind-wandering, reflection and original thought — and the occasional inspiration to dye our hair neon.

Bored children learn to tolerate frustration, entertain themselves and persist through uncertainty. Those are skills that adults who grew up before smartphones and generative AI didn’t have to work to acquire.

From Newton’s theories to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris, these creators were driven by the same impulse: to fill the silence of the mind with something new. But that requires having access to that idle moment, something AI and other technologies are actively patching out.

You’ve likely heard the counterargument: that AI, by automating mundane tasks, frees us for higher-level thinking and creativity. However, a a 2022 study found that five-minute, low-effort, low-distraction pauses boosted productivity by 7.12%. And in a 2012 study, researchers found that participants who completed a dull task later performed better on creative problem-solving tasks. That suggests “boring” tasks are not a waste of time but may enhance creative thinking.

Another recent study by Katy Tam and Michael Inzlicht published in Communications Psychology found that people are paradoxically more bored in the digital age than before it.  Technology, they found, is eliminating idle mental space and making people feel more bored when constant stimulation is not available. Various studies have shown that attempts to escape boredom contribute to problematic uses of digital technologies and declining mental health.

Weingarten is right that we’ve been running an experiment on children. But while we may track reading levels and test scores, we don’t know what happens to children who don’t develop the ability to sit in discomfort long enough for their minds to wander.

What are the long-term consequences when an entire generation is deprived of the opportunity?

Technology is eliminating idle mental space and making people feel more bored when constant stimulation is not available.

The antidote isn’t just reduced screen time, though that’s part of the equation. We need to embrace boredom, engineering it back into our lives, our lesson plans and the design of the technology students use.

Answers could include device-free spaces, unstructured school time, outdoor play, challenging students to solve problems that cannot be completed with digital tools, incorporating 15–20 minutes of daily meditative silence, increasing physical activity or deliberately introducing friction, latency and moments that prompt human reflection and ideation into the AI technologies we use.

We need to reclaim agency over the systems designed to eradicate boredom out of our lives. Weingarten must know that students will complain that they’re bored if their screens are taken away. And when they do, their teachers can tell them that’s the point and hand them a blank page. Because what comes next is what we’re trying to preserve.

The post Boredom is better for children than AI will ever be appeared first on MS NOW.

As the midterms approach, election officials across the country are preparing for a dangerous possibility: the deployment of immigration agents and other federal law enforcement officials to America’s polls.

Any stationing of federal law enforcement at polling sites is a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate voters. It runs counter to our founding principles, including that all of us are created equal, and that promise is fulfilled at the ballot box. When we cast our ballots, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in or the amount of money  in your bank account. They all count the same — one person, one vote. 

As Nevada’s secretary of state, it is my duty to defend the constitutional rights of every eligible voter. That responsibility does not belong to one ideology or group of people — it belongs to all of us. Unfortunately, a growing number of elected officials disagree.

If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is exactly what anti-democratic officials want.

The challenge we now face is anti-democratic forces running amok. President Trump and his anti-democracy allies seek to weaken our democracy to improve their chances of winning elections. They have repeatedly suggested deploying ICE agents to voting locations for that purpose — to sow discord and confusion. Whether or not these deployments occur, the mere suggestion is enough to create fear, chaos and doubt. This is particularly true in states like Nevada that were built by, and continue to grow because of, the contributions of immigrants.

Democracy only works when voters feel safe enough to participate. If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is exactly what anti-democratic officials want. Rather than answer to the people, these extremists seek to pick and choose their voters.

I, along with my fellow pro-democracy secretaries of state, refuse to let this happen. The Constitution clearly bestows state and local authorities with the sole right to administer elections. Any attempts by the federal government to blur those lines are illegal, full stop.

States like Nevada have fought back against the Justice Department’s sweeping, illegal demands for private voter data, and we have won. My fellow pro-democracy secretaries of state and I will continue to take opponents to court and win cases because we are on the right side of the law.

We will continue to serve on the front lines to keep our elections free and secure, especially as the foes of democracy seek to weaken our elections. 

The law is clear: Sending federal immigration enforcement to the polls is illegal. If that happens, we’ll be ready. 

But while we pro-democracy secretaries of state will continue to protect elections and serve the people, it’s important to underscore that elections are run by public servants and volunteers around the country. These people, of every political affiliation, care deeply about ensuring that their neighbors, family and friends have a voice in our democracy. 

Americans deserve leaders who reinforce public trust, rather than those who peddle in rhetoric and policies that stoke fear.

County clerks and poll workers have endured years of threats, harassment and political attacks simply for doing their jobs. Contrary to what some in power want you to believe, these are not partisan hacks looking to put their thumb on the scale. They are your mothers and grandfathers, brothers and sisters, neighbors and community members. 

Americans deserve leaders who reinforce public trust, rather than those who peddle in rhetoric and policies that stoke fear.

For generations, our nation has recognized the importance of protecting voters from coercion. Our polling places are sacred civic spaces where Americans fulfill the hallowed promise of self government. They are not forums for political theater and gross attacks.

To every voter feeling afraid right now, know that you are not alone. We have power when we stand together. And if your neighbor is scared to go to the polls, offer to go with them. If you can contribute as a poll worker, please sign up to be one. A familiar face at a polling location can make all the difference for someone who feels like those in power want to silence them as they exercise their rights.

Every eligible American deserves to know that they can cast a ballot safely, securely, and without fear. That principle transcends politics, and so long as my fellow pro-democracy Secretaries of State and I are in office, we will continue to administer free, fair, and secure elections on your behalf.

The post Trump is threatening to send ICE to polling places. Officials like me won’t let him. appeared first on MS NOW.

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner maintained that people in Maine continue to have his back as his past “gets dug up, litigated and weaponized” during a campaign rally Friday night, marking his first large public event since a series of allegations and personal controversies rocked his campaign just days before the June 9 primary. 

Platner told supporters in Bal Harbor that even as critics revisit his past and level what he described as false accusations, Mainers have stood by him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth, Maine had my back,” Platner said.

“Now as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back and when politically motivated serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back.”

With primary day just days away, Friday’s rally served as an important test of whether Platner can reassure and mobilize supporters, while maintaining momentum in a race that has become one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries of the 2026 election cycle.

The Get-Out-the-Vote rally comes after a tumultuous week for Platner and a day after The New York Times published a report detailing allegations from several ex-girlfriends, including from Lyndsey Fifield, who said he repeatedly grabbed her hard enough to leave marks, pulled her from a taxi by the wrist during an argument and, in one incident, twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room. 

Fifield told the newspaper that Platner never punched or hit her but said the incidents left her frightened. The report also included criticism from other women about Platner’s behavior in past relationships. Platner denied the allegations on MS NOW, calling claims of physical abuse “simply not true” and characterized them as politically motivated.  

Platner said on Thursday that there were aspects of his past for which he takes responsibility, including struggles with alcohol and difficult periods following his military service. However, he rejected claims that he physically harmed former partners and disputed allegations related to a tattoo that critics said resembled Nazi imagery. 

Platner also faced scrutiny about sexually explicit messages he exchanged with multiple women early in his marriage. He has publicly acknowledged sending the messages and apologized for his conduct.

Despite the controversies, Platner has retained the backing of several high-profile Democrats, all of whom view Maine’s Senate race as critical to Democrats’ hopes of reclaiming the chamber.  Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., joined Platner at the rally, underscoring continued support from prominent progressive allies despite growing scrutiny of the candidate’s past, though at least a handful of Democrats have expressed concerned.

Khanna briefly addressed the allegations against Platner, and praised his wife, Amy Gertner, for her resilience. He highlighted that the Senate candidate has been open about his struggles following military service, and argued “we broke thousands of young men by sending them into dumb wars.”

“Now, no one should make excuses for his past relationships, some of which were toxic and volatile, and no one on our side should attack the women who came forward,” Khanna said.

“He understood that those years that he came back were not the best years of his life. He was ashamed of some of the things he said and did, and then he, unlike others, took accountability for it, and he’s worked to be a better man, a better human being,” he added.

Khanna praised Platner as a candidate who has consistently backed progressive priorities, citing his opposition to the war in Iran, support for Medicare for All and willingness to challenge wealthy donors and billionaires.

“When it comes down to it, we showed up for Graham, because he has showed up for us,” he said.

Democrats view Maine as one of their best pickup opportunities in 2026 and believe defeating incumbent Sen. Susan Collins could be critical to their chances of reclaiming control of the Senate.

In his speech, Platner remarked on Collins’ own marriage and the lack of press she receives on it.

“Susan Collins hasn’t met a war she doesn’t like,” Platner said. “It’s no surprise because she’s married to a lobbyist who represents the defense industry. You don’t see as many articles about that.”

Platner also criticized Collins as a career politician, saying she “has given up some charade that she’s a moderate, that she stands up against her party. That she cares about her constituents more than she cares about those that donate money to her.”

“We see through it,” he said.

A Democratic victory in the state would flip a Republican-held seat and potentially provide a key vote in a closely divided chamber. Polling has also continued to show Platner leading both the Democratic field and Collins in a potential general election matchup.

“We’re gonna need to have each other’s backs,” Platner said “because we are in the fight of our lives.”

The post ‘Maine, you have my back’: Graham Platner tells supporters amid latest round of allegations appeared first on MS NOW.

Republican Steve Hilton will advance to the general election in California’s gubernatorial race, according to The Associated Press.

The former Fox News personality will now face Democrat Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, in November for the seat of outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Becerra was leading the field when the AP reported Friday that he would go on to the general election. As of Tuesday when about 88% of the votes had been counted, Becerra had 27.9% of the votes counted, while Hilton came in second with 24.9% of the vote, the AP reported. Democrat Tom Steyer was running third with 22.6%.

Becerra and Hilton will now move on to the November general election.

As the counting has continued, President Donald Trump has sounded off on the process, alleging that “Dumocrats” were “trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democrat, moved into second place, pushing past reality TV star Spencer Pratt — a Republican backed by Trump — as the mail ballots were counted. Californians vote in large numbers via mail-in ballots, which can be postmarked on Election Day.

Becerra was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Congress for more than 20 years. He made a late-in-the-race surge in polling at 25% in late May, after coming in at 5% in early March.

The race to succeed Newsom became wide open after former Vice President and California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla, the state’s senior senator, chose not to run. The race was further shaken when some candidates who were gaining popularity became embroiled in scandals. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, viewed as a potential front-runner, dropped out after facing sexual misconduct allegations, while former Rep. Katie Porter came under scrutiny over allegations that she bullied staffers.

Steyer is a billionaire and hedge fund investor who launched a Democratic bid for presidency in 2020, branding himself as a progressive climate activist.

British-born Hilton is a registered Republican who received backing from Trump. In a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, Trump wrote that Hilton “will work with me and the Federal Government, the money will flow because I have confidence in him (but not any of the others!), and we will MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN.”

California has not elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was first elected in 2003.

The next governor of California will inherit a range of challenges, including an unstable state budget, an affordability crisis and the fallout from ongoing clashes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement.

The post Ex-Fox News host will advance in California governor’s race, facing Becerra for Newsom’s seat appeared first on MS NOW.

Donald Trump’s administration has been a boon to gun traffickers, and a new lawsuit seeks to shed more light on the illegal guns being used in crimes.

To those who followed along as the GOP attempted to kneecap the Obama administration with its “Fast and Furious” inquiries back in 2012, the fact that Republicans firmly support Trump despite his being a major enabler of gun trafficking will reek of hypocrisy.

ProPublica recently reported that Trump has gutted many of the policies the Biden administration implemented to combat illegal sales of guns — a crackdown that experts have said contributed to a decline in violent crime that occurred during Biden’s term and has continued into Trump’s.

One of the Trump administration’s regressive moves was to repeal a zero-tolerance policy of pulling licenses from gun sellers who engaged in illegal sales. Per ProPublica:

But the Trump administration, driven both by gun-lobby advocacy and its own political priorities, quickly set about undoing much of its predecessor’s moves to combat gun violence. It repealed the zero-tolerance policy, going so far as to invite revoked dealers to reapply for new licenses. It shifted hundreds of ATF agents to immigration work. And it scaled back on prosecutions for gun trafficking. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the ATF and the Department of Justice.

ProPublica’s report noted that the effect of Trump’s moves could be felt in the years ahead:

The homicide rate fell further last year, but criminologists warn against complacency, because the illicit gun trade is a classic pipeline problem: The harm can take a while to make itself felt. Research has found that the typical “time to crime” for trafficked firearms ranges up to about three years, which means that any positive lag of the anti-trafficking efforts of the Biden years would still be in effect now, with any negative effects of the Trump pullback lying in the years to come.

The Trump regime’s trafficker-friendly agenda is at the heart of a new lawsuit from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The suit stems from the withholding of federal requests for information from gun dealers who have sold weapons that were used in violent crimes. These requests, which are known as DL2s and issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have been decried by the firearm industry.

“Americans deserve to know about the sources of firearms that are driving crime in our communities and what ATF is doing, or not doing, about it,” Brady Center President Kris Brown said in a statement.

The ATF did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

The post Trump administration’s enabling of gun traffickers spotlighted in new lawsuit appeared first on MS NOW.

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* A potentially important ruling: “A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration last year unlawfully paused final immigration decisions for individuals from countries affected by its so-called travel ban. The lawsuit, brought forward in March by various nonprofits representing immigrants, criticized several Citizenship and Immigration Services policies that paused final decisions on asylum, green card and citizenship applications for individuals from any of the 39 countries under the current travel ban.”

* The ceasefire isn’t holding: “Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah showed little sign of abating on Friday, a day after the Iran-backed militant group rejected a U.S.-brokered cease-fire, as Israeli forces bombarded towns across southern Lebanon and ordered residents to flee.”

* An early morning vote: “After a marathon session of votes Thursday and Friday, senators passed a roughly $70 billion reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement as more moderate Republicans abandoned efforts to constrain President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund — and a host of other controversies — and advanced the legislation without imposing any new restrictions on the president.”

* Also on Capitol Hill: “After successfully adopting a war powers resolution Wednesday aimed at reining in President Donald Trump’s military authority in Iran, House Democrats again bypassed GOP leaders on Thursday, delivering another rebuke of the president by advancing aid for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia. The House passed the Ukraine legislation 226-195, with 18 Republicans joining all but one Democrat — Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — in support of the bill.”

* Those who tout family values should value families: “As grocery prices continue to rise nationally, the House on Thursday passed an appropriations bill that would cut funding for a program that helps pregnant women and children purchase healthy foods. By a vote of 213-210, the House passed an appropriations measure to fund the Agriculture Department among other agencies.”

* In this case, a lawyer from Trump’s Justice Department told a judge that the administration has the unilateral authority to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty: “A federal appeals court panel expressed skepticism Friday about the Trump administration’s view that courts are powerless to stop the construction of the White House ballroom now that the East Wing had been demolished.”

* When officers steal things, it’s a problem: “A New Jersey police sergeant has been charged with stealing $10,000 worth of cameras and other equipment from a photojournalist who had been injured covering tense protests outside a Newark immigration jail. Darryl Brown, a sergeant in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, was caught with the missing items after the photojournalist used a geo-tracking device to trace her missing gear to his home, the state’s attorney general said Thursday.”

* I’m not sure if I would’ve made this call, but they had to choose from bad options: “The three remaining ‘60 Minutes’ correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — have committed to remaining at the show after a series of tumultuous changes, including Scott Pelley’s firing this week. In a joint memo to colleagues obtained by MS NOW, the correspondents wrote that they decided to stay because ‘we don’t want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.’”

Have a safe weekend.

The post Friday’s Mini-Report, 6.5.26 appeared first on MS NOW.

Despite Donald Trump’s campaign vows in 2024 that he would fix the housing crisis that’s affecting more than a million Americans across the country, the president’s administration has been doing seemingly all it can over the past year to cut off assistance to people without homes. 

The New York Times reported on a policy announced this week by extremist-friendly Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, which will gut “Housing First” programs by diverting $1.2 billion from programs that support long-term living arrangements for people without homes and route that money instead toward short-term housing programs that focus on addiction and mental health. 

The Times explained the dire picture that could play out as a result:

The plan, which seeks to promote “law and order,” is a scaled-back version of one the administration issued last fall. Congress and a federal court blocked that proposal after critics warned it could send as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back to the streets. The administration’s revised plan is still a frontal assault on the longstanding model of homelessness aid known as Housing First. The move is likely to shift about $1.2 billion away from housing programs, with the risk of displacing current tenants. It constitutes the sharpest change in homelessness policy in a generation.

In a press release announcing the policy, Turner said “the ‘housing first’ experiment failed Americans by warehousing the vulnerable without results,” and that the change, which threatens housing options for many Americans, will help promote “self-sufficiency.” This is the same illogic the administration is using to justify cuts to food aid, which have put millions of Americans at risk of going hungry.

I would argue that another phrase for “warehousing the vulnerable” is “housing the vulnerable,” and that it does have results, namely that people have homes, at least for as long as they’re allowed to benefit from such policies. There is no evidence that cutting Americans off from housing programs, as Turner’s preferred short-term programs inevitably do, improves their prospects for finding long-term housing. 

Turner also said this shift to short-term housing programs is about stemming a housing crisis “driven by addiction and mental illness,” promoting stereotypes that experts for years have noted don’t apply to the majority of unhoused people. Experts typically cite other causes, like rapid increases in housing costs and poor wage growth, which have nothing to do with drug addiction or mental health.

Trump has openly said he doesn’t want housing prices to come down. 

Turner is not unlike Ben Carson, who was HUD secretary during Trump’s first term. Both are Black conservatives who have denounced federal programs that help others escape poverty, even as they have touted their personal stories of having done so. Neither Turner nor Carson entered their position with any experience in leading a large bureaucracy like a federal agency, much less directing housing policy. This lack of expertise is especially important, given the fact that Turner is proposing ideas rooted in bias that stand to worsen America’s housing crisis rather than improve it. 

The post HUD secretary touts new policy that could lead to more homelessness appeared first on MS NOW.