Fate of OUSD after-school programs in question, parents working full-time concerned
Now, steps are being taken to roll them back, but the dysfunction that has become common within this school board may not let it happen.
Alameda County Office of Education names 18 'Teachers of the Year' for 2025
Watch the full report in the video player above to see how concerned families are reacting to the potential shutdown of these programs.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Top DOJ official expects to meet with longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell
A senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official has reached out to lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, about setting up a meeting with Maxwell amid a push from lawmakers for more transparency around Epstein's case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement early Tuesday that he has communicated with Maxwell's counsel 'to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.' 'I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days,' Blanche said. 'Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.' Blanche said his outreach was at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has faced criticism from conservatives over her handling of documents related to Epstein. Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Earlier this year, Maxwell urged the Supreme Court to review her case. The Justice Department had pushed the court to reject that appeal. 'I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.' David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's attorney, said later Tuesday morning in a post on the social platform X. The Trump administration, and the Justice Department in particular, has faced backlash from President Trump's MAGA base and some lawmakers in Congress who have pushed for more information to be released around Epstein's case. The pushback stems from a joint memo released earlier this month from the FBI and DOJ that stated Epstein did not have a 'client list' and confirmed he died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019. The findings incensed members of the MAGA movement, who have for years pushed conspiracy theories about Epstein's death and claims that prominent Democrats would be named on a client list. Epstein, accused in several cases of sex trafficking young girls, ran in high-powered circles with figures that included Trump, former President Clinton, Britain's Prince Andrew and a number of other celebrities and ultrawealthy people. 'The joint statement by the DOJ and FBI of July 6 remains as accurate today as it was when it was written,' Blanche said in Tuesday's statement. 'Namely, that in the recent thorough review of the files maintained by the FBI in the Epstein case, no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. ' Trump has expressed exasperation and irritation at the continued focus on the Epstein case, even among many of his own supporters. But he has also said Bondi should release any 'credible' evidence in the case. Updated at 8:53 a.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Campaign to legalize cannabis in Oklahoma will start collecting signatures in August
The latest effort to relax marijuana laws in Oklahoma has passed a critical procedural hurdle, and the campaign will begin collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. State Question 837 would ask voters to let adults 21 years of age or older buy marijuana without a medical marijuana license. Registered Oklahoma voters can begin signing the petition when it goes live on Aug. 6. Signatures must be turned in to the state by Nov. 4. Current state law only allows residents to purchase and possess marijuana if they have a medical marijuana patient license. If the state question becomes law, anyone could walk into a dispensary and make a purchase if they are at least 21 years old. Adults under 21 would need a medical marijuana license from the state to purchase cannabis under the proposed framework. Cannabis petition cleared to collect signatures The organizer of the SQ 837 campaign is Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA). The group recently got confirmation from the Oklahoma secretary of state's office that there were no constitutional challenges to the petition. After a state question is first presented to officials, Oklahoma law gives residents 90 days to challenge it on constitutional grounds. Because there was no challenge, ORCA can begin collecting the required number of signatures to put it in front of voters. "Our group's already kind of a statewide organization, so we've been working on getting everyone rowing in the same direction," said ORCA Director Jed Green. If the signature-gathering campaign is successful, SQ 837 could appear on the ballot as early as June 2026 or as late as November that same year during the statewide general election. Supporters will have to gather at least 172,993 verified signatures of registered Oklahoma voters to place it on the ballot. This signature-gathering campaign will be more difficult than others in previous years, however. During the 2025 legislative session, state lawmakers approved a law that limits the number of initiative petition signatures that can be collected from a single county. Senate Bill 1027 has since been challenged in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which has not yet issued a ruling. "We don't have a lot of concern as a grassroots organization complying with some of the aspects of 1027," Green told The Oklahoman. "We've already got folks on the ground in 55 counties right now. We've got over 300 retail businesses already signed up to help us circulate." Green said this is the best time of year for signature gathering because of all the high-turnout events across Oklahoma like fairs and sporting events. The new signature requirements, however, will force ORCA to rely more on support in smaller, more rural counties. That includes Harmon County in far southwestern Oklahoma, where Green said he can only sign up a few dozen voters before reaching the limit. "Maybe we'll go and hang out at the co-op for a day or go to the county courthouse, I don't know," he said. "Voters of Harmon County, only 117 of you are allowed to sign this so get ready, we'll come out and visit." What does Oklahoma's State Question 837 do? If it becomes part of Oklahoma's Constitution, SQ 837 would open marijuana sales to any adult who is at least 21 years old, regardless of their medical status or state of residence. These purchases would be taxed at 10%, along with the usual state, county or local sales taxes. The amendment wouldn't abolish the medical marijuana system, however. People who keep their medical patient status would be exempt from paying the 10% marijuana excise tax, which is currently set at 7%. The amendment also would ensure that law enforcement cannot presume someone's impairment or intoxication based solely on the use of marijuana or presence of THC in their system. Sales to the public would begin 60 days after passage, and home delivery would be authorized after six months. Oklahoma has considered 'recreational' marijuana before In 2023, voters rejected State Question 820, which would have created a separate recreational marijuana market for licensed adults who are at least 21 years old. Over 61% of voters rejected the proposal, which was criticized by some law enforcement, religious leaders and public school administrators in the closing weeks of the campaign as a step too far. ORCA, the organizer of SQ 837, opposed that earlier campaign because of what Green described as a faulty framework that could be easily altered or even reversed by state lawmakers during a legislative session. Because SQ 837 would be written into the Oklahoma Constitution, any further changes would be much more difficult without another statewide vote. Oklahoma voters first approved medical marijuana in 2018. Marijuana's legal status could change on the federal level, too. In 2022, President Joe Biden triggered a review of marijuana's classification as a controlled drug. Two top agencies eventually recommended it be reclassified from Schedule I to Schedule III, but the process was temporarily halted when Donald Trump returned to the White House. Trump has previously indicated support for looser marijuana laws in his home state of Florida, but the issue hasn't been a federal priority during his first six months in office. His pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency, however, was only confirmed July 22. New DEA Administrator Terrance Cole has said one of his first priorities would be to review marijuana's reclassification, although he did not indicate which way he would lean. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Oklahoma advances Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
5 hours ago
- Fast Company
Trump is caught in an Epstein web of his own making
What happens when you spend decades seeding salacious stories about evil lurking in the halls of power, demanding evidence to prove basic truths, and questioning the veracity of that evidence once it's presented? Donald Trump is finding out. Over the last week, the president has been trying to fight his way out of a web of his own creation, as some of his truest followers in MAGA world call for the full release of the government's investigative files concerning convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The outcry from Trump acolytes comes after the Department of Justice published a two-page memo earlier this month, stating that Epstein's supposed 'client list,' which Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said was on her desk, didn't actually exist. Following a weeklong uproar from both the left and right, Trump finally called on a federal court judge to unseal the grand jury testimony related to Epstein's case. The Justice Department has also subpoenaed Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving her own 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. But the moves have done little to quell the outrage from the right, particularly after House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the chamber into summer recess early this week to head off a vote on releasing the files. The move prompted fury from the party's MAGA wing. 'Crimes have been committed,' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told reporters. 'If there's no justice and no accountability, people are going to get sick of it.' As all this has played out, Trump has cast about for someone to blame, pointing the finger at Democrats and his 'PAST supporters' for stoking the scandal. In truth, it's Trump who is uniquely responsible for cultivating the culture of conspiracy in which he's now floundering. Credit where it's due: Trump's long and well-documented history of conspiracy-mongering has been perhaps one of his greatest skills and has almost always worked out in his favor. His constant questioning of President Obama's birthplace was so successful that it transformed Trump, then a reality star and real estate mogul, into a cable news fixture. Later on, his success at convincing nearly three-quarters of Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen played no small role in securing his 2024 election victory. Even the speculation about which other A-listers were in Epstein's orbit were often fair game for Trump. In 2019, Trump fed rumors that the Clintons were somehow involved in Epstein's death by suicide in prison. 'Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That's the question,' Trump said at the time. Nevermind that Trump and Epstein were close friends or that he once told New York magazine that Epstein 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Trump is a devoted student of the 'I'm rubber, you're glue' school of politics—and for the most part, it's worked. But now it's Trump who's found himself stuck to Epstein, and he has no one to blame but himself. After all, it was Trump who taught his followers not to trust the abridged version of a story (see: Trump's campaign to secure Obama's long-form birth certificate in 2011). Now, it stands to reason those same people want more than a two-page summary of the DOJ's Epstein investigation. And it was Trump who convinced a certain subset of the American electorate to scour video evidence for alleged election night aberrations in 2020. Is it any wonder they're now spiraling over the missing minute (or minutes, according to Wired) in the video footage the government released of the night Epstein died? Meanwhile, the stories linking Trump to Epstein just keep growing. On Monday, The New York Times reported that one of Epstein's accusers encouraged the FBI to look into Trump as early as 1996. And The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump once sent Epstein a lewd birthday card, featuring a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman and allusions to their shared secrets. The Journal reported that the card is among the documents DOJ officials reviewed as part of the Epstein investigation. Trump has denied the story, calling the article 'fake news' and has since sued the Journal for defamation. That controversy prompted some conservatives who'd been critical of the Trump administration's approach to Epstein to leap to the president's defense. But that reprieve may be short-lived. As one Trump ally, Mike Benz, said on Steve Bannon's podcast over the weekend, 'You trained us to go after this issue.'
