
Senate Democrats push bill to combat surge of Asian American hate crimes amid GOP resistance
CNN
Senate Democrats are hoping to advance a bill addressing the surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans as soon as Wednesday despite the resistance of some Republicans.
The bill, introduced by Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono and New York Rep. Grace Meng, would assign a Justice Department official to expedite reviews of potential Covid-19-related hate crimes, establish an online database of such incidents and require new guidance to "mitigate racially discriminatory language in describing" the pandemic, according to a summary of the proposal. But it's unclear whether Republicans will support the measure and allow it to pass in the next couple of days. At least one unnamed Republican senator is privately objecting to the bill and could force the Senate to take time-consuming steps to break a filibuster. Several GOP Senate offices have declined to respond to inquiries about the matter.
Lawyers for Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s move to cut Kelly’s retirement pay and reduce his rank in response to Kelly’s urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders. The lawsuit argues punishing Kelly violates the First Amendment and will have a chilling effect on legislative oversight.

Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.

Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.










