Lawmakers will get an opportunity to override the veto next week.
House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross sponsored the bill, which would cover farmworkers under Maine’s annually indexed minimum wage. But the bill was amended to entitling them to overtime pay as well. The governor, in her veto letter, said changes made at her behest didn’t alleviate her concerns about the “scope of the language.”
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Mills said she intends to issue an executive order to formally reestablish a stakeholder group “to allow for a longer and more in-depth analysis” of the bill with the goal of arriving at “a shared understanding of how to implement a minimum wage bill for farmworkers.” She said she’ll present her own bill next year based on the conclusions.
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On Wednesday, Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced bipartisan legislation that calls for additional “transparency and oversight” of foreign ownership in America’s agricultural industry.
The Farmland Security Act of 2023 aims to “support transparency, collect complete and accurate data on foreign ownership, and better understand the scale and impact of foreign ownership.” The legislation will ensure all foreign investors who purchase American agricultural land will report their holdings, including “shell companies.” The legislation will thus strengthen penalties for those who evade filing.
“Our agricultural economy is the beating heart of Wisconsin’s rural communities. But when foreign investors own farmland and agricultural processing capacity, it can put our national security, domestic food supply, and local communities at risk,” Baldwin said in a statement.
“The world’s best farmland is located in America,” Grassley said a statement. “Our foreign competitors recognize this and continue to invest in American agricultural land, increasing competition for young and beginning farmers and threatening our national security.”
This view shows farmland near Janesville, Wisconsin. (Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images / File)
“Our bill gives Congress and the American people the resources to closely monitor these foreign sales in order to assess the risks they pose,” he added.
The Farmland Security Act of 2023 is supported by Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and Wisconsin Farmers Union. Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, called the bill a “step in the right direction,” saying, “Knowing who is purchasing farmland is a form of national security.”
Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
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Judges did not indicate when they might rule on the case, which centers around a proposed amendment to enshrine in the constitution the individual right to make decisions about abortion, childbirth and birth control. Abortion-rights supporters proposed it after the state banned almost all abortions last summer.
The amendment hit a snag in April, when Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to sign off on Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s cost estimate.
Without Bailey’s approval, abortion-rights supporters have not been able to start work getting the signatures needed to put the measure before voters in 2024.
“The attorney general’s actions here are the most serious threat to direct democracy that has ever happened in Missouri,” Rothert said.
The Missouri State Supreme Court will decide the fate of an abortion legalization amendment amid Republican infighting.
“The auditor could have and should have done more,” Lewis said.
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Auditor’s Office attorney Robert Tillman said the Attorney General’s Office engaged in “legal gymnastics” to defend the stonewalling.
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Americans For Prosperity’s grassroots election arm (AFP Action) announced its first slate of Senate and governor endorsements Tuesday, following an impressive $70 million in fundraising and a first round of House endorsements in key races across the nation.
The goal, according to AFP Action director Nathan Nascimento, is to back quality candidates early to ensure better choices for voters in the general election at every level of elected office.
“The last three election cycles have made it clear that if we want better policies from Washington, we need better candidates who can lead our country forward,” Nascimento told Fox News Digital in a statement.
With the 2024 Senate map favoring the GOP — due to the sheer number of Democrats defending seats in Republican-leaning and swing states — the first round of Senate endorsements from AFP Action includes three Republicans in crucial races.
AFP endorsed Sam Brown for the Nevada Senate seat currently held by Sen. Jacky Rosen. Brown attempted to run for Senate in the 2022 midterms against Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, but lost the GOP primary to Adam Laxalt — who had secured with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Laxalt lost to Masto in November by less than 8,000 votes.
In the closest-watched Senate races during what many pundits predicted would be a “red wave” election, several candidates hand-picked by Trump failed to win the general election. Along with Oz and Laxalt, Georgia Republican candidate Herschel Walker, a former University of Georgia football star who handily won the GOP primary after Trump encouraged him to run, went down in defeat.
Trump deflected blame for the losing candidates from himself and argued Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell undercut, and underfunded, his candidates. Trump also blamed abortion — which Democrats made an election issue following the overturn of Roe v. Wade — for Republican losses.
TOP CONSERVATIVE GROUP URGES CONGRESS TO PUT POLITICS ASIDE, GET THINGS DONE FOR AMERICANS
Though AFP hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary, the group promised in February to support a nominee “who can lead our country forward, and who can win.”
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AFP was founded and financed by Kansas-based billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, known as the Koch brothers.
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“I am shocked by what I’m seeing in this country with people attempting to cancel this song and cancel Jason and his beliefs,” Noem posted in a video on Twitter Wednesday. “Him and Brittany are outspoken about their love for law and order and for their love of this country and I’m just grateful for them.”
Noem’s video comes in response to a music video for Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” that has lyrics warning violent criminals, as well as those who disrespect law enforcement and the American flag, to “try that in a small town.”
Aldean sings, “Yeah, ya think you’re tough? Well, try that in a small town, see how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own, you cross that line, it won’t take long for you to find out, I recommend you don’t.”
Aldean, 46, rejected the notion that the tune, which hit airwaves in May, referenced “race or points to it.”
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” Aldean shared with his nearly 8 million fans across social media.
‘SUCCESSION’ STAR BRIAN COX DISMISSES WOKE ‘SHAMING’ CULTURE: ‘USUALLY A BUNCH OF MILLENNIALS’
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Jason Aldean (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
“I just want them to know that we support them, we love them, thank you for writing a song that America can get behind,” she said.
Conservatives have largely rallied behind Aldean on social media, including a tweet from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who said, “I stand with Jason Aldean.”
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The Department of Health and Human Services announced the suspension in a Monday letter to the lab, which mentioned efforts to attempt to debar the laboratory in the future.
A memo that was obtained by Bloomberg News stated that a previous review revealed that the Wuhan laboratory does not adequately follow federal regulations. The lab had also failed to send documents about their security and safety measures to American officials.
“This action will ensure the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson said, according to Bloomberg.
The revelation potentially lends credibility to the lab leak theory of COVID-19, as opposed to the theory that the virus began in a wild animal market.
WHO MEMBER WARNS OF ‘ADDITIONAL PANDEMICS’ IF WE DON’T LEARN FROM COVID
This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (centre L) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on May 27, 2020. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images, File)
One of Hu’s U.S.-funded projects studied whether animal viruses could infect humans and cause a pandemic. Another project researched coronaviruses in bats.
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
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In a letter sent to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the coalition made up entirely of Republicans blasted the administration’s border policies they said contributed to the alleged actions committed by Camilo Hurtado Campos, a confirmed illegal immigrant accused of abusing and raping young boys in Franklin, Tennessee.
“We write to express our disgust with this administration’s complete failure to secure our border and enforce the rule of law, the effects of which are impacting communities and families across the country,” the group wrote.
WHITE HOUSE RIPS ‘VILE’ RFK JR COMMENTS COVID-19 WAS ‘ETHICALLY TARGETED’ TO SPARE JEWS, CHINESE
The Franklin Police Department in Tennessee wrote in a press release on Sunday that Camilo Hurtado Campos, 63, left his phone behind at a local restaurant and when staff went through it to try and find an owner, they allegedly found “dozens” of alleged “unconscionable videos and pictures of children.” (Franklin Police Department)
The delegation’s letter said that because of the administration’s policies, “every state has become a border state, and every town has become a border town.”
“Perhaps most devastating of all, this horrific abuse was entirely preventable — police confirmed on July 12 that Campos is an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our country in the first place,” they wrote.
DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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“I think, from a military perspective, it’s very existential because China’s playing for keeps,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital after the closed-door session. “On the commercial side, there’s a lot of innovation that’s happening. So, it’s moving quickly, but I think the best we can do right now is get a firm understanding.”
Tuesday afternoon’s briefing was the first-ever classified meeting with senators and key Pentagon officials about AI. Discussion included how the U.S. is using AI to maintain its national security edge and how adversaries like China are using this emerging tool.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters what he learned was “eye-opening.” It comes after he told senators in a letter over the weekend that Congress is moving full steam ahead on his AI regulatory framework, which Schumer said Tuesday could take months to develop.
“Our timetable in terms of producing legislation is not years and not days and weeks, but months,” he said. “We can’t rush too fast … but we can’t go so slowly that either other governments that are authoritarian or bad actors who are private sector actors get ahead of us.”
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she left the briefing feeling confident about the country’s position but warned the U.S. cannot lift its foot off the gas pedal in developing AI capabilities.
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Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Gary Peters, D-Mich., did not go into detail about the briefing but said there was “constant action” in Congress on the AI front.
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“It was very informative. I learned a lot, and surely it’s informing some of the discussions that we’re having right now,” Peters said of the private session.
Young is a member of a four-person bipartisan Senate working group on AI convened by Schumer. The group was responsible for convening a series of learning sessions, including Tuesday’s briefing, so colleagues could become more informed on AI as Congress works to get ahead of its lightening-fast advancements.
His fellow Republican in the group, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital 59 senators attended the session Tuesday and said it “woke them up” to America’s AI-based defensive capabilities. But he did not leave the meeting with any new concerns about U.S. competitiveness.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Jan. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)
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Lee made the statement during a Sunday appearance on CNN, telling host Jake Tapper that the blame largely rests with former President Donald Trump.
“I know you supported the goal of leaving Afghanistan, but do you believe President Biden deserves some blame for the way that that withdrawal spiraled out of control?” Tapper asked.
“I don’t believe the administration deserves any blame for this,” Lee responded. “We have to remember that Donald Trump made this agreement with the Taliban.”
“Secondly, the Trump administration literally gutted our State Department and our diplomatic corps,” Lee continued. “I believe that the State Department and those that were involved in this, you know, end of the Afghanistan war – which should have happened before then, I believe – did the best they could. Having said that, it wasn’t as smooth as we would have liked to have seen it.”
President Biden delivers remarks at the White House on June 30, 2023. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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The U.S. withdrawal saw Afghan government forces collapse almost immediately against the Taliban, and 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing while defending the evacuation at the Kabul airport.
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Detainers are requests issued by ICE that the agency be notified when an illegal immigrant in another law enforcement agency’s custody is being released so that agents can transfer them into ICE deportation proceedings.
The use of ICE detainers has been the central issue over the “sanctuary city” debate, where so-called sanctuary jurisdictions will bar local law enforcement from cooperation with most ICE detainers.
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The data show that the number of detainers issued dropped from around 10,000 a month at the end of the Trump administration — after having hit highs of around 15,000 a month in 2018 — to under 3,000 in the first months of the Biden administration. The number of detainers fell to just 2,200 in March 2021 and then increased to just under 4,000 by September 2021.
Protesters rally outside City Hall July 12, 2020, in Seattle. (Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
TRAC notes that the number of detainers issued, which does not necessarily coincide with the number of immigrants the agency transferred into its custody, is an indicator of the intensity of interior enforcement.
The highest use of detainers was under the Obama administration. In fiscal year 2010 under Obama there were approximately 300,000 detainers issued. That dropped to under 100,000 by fiscal 2015 before increasing to a high of 175,000 a year under the Trump administration.
It then enacted significant restrictions on priorities that told agents to limit their focus to three categories of illegal immigrants: recent border crossers, national security threats and public safety threats. It also made other moves, including limiting where ICE could make arrests.
The new strategy, a significant departure from the maximalist approach taken by the Trump administration, coincided with a sharp drop in deportations.
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ICE DEPORTATIONS REMAINED WELL BELOW TRUMP-ERA LEVELS IN FY 2022, AMID HISTORIC BORDER CRISIS
“For the first time ever, our policy explicitly states that a noncitizen’s unlawful presence in the United States will not, by itself, be a basis for the initiation of an enforcement action,” he said. “This is a profound shift away from the prior administration’s indiscriminate enforcement.”
The ICE priorities were blocked last year in response to a lawsuit from Republican states, but last month the Biden administration won a victory at the Supreme Court when the justices found that the GOP-led states did not have standing to challenge the policy.
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