Tag: Regional Politics

DeSantis Bets on Iowa Caucuses to Keep Him Afloat in GOP Nomination Race
World

DeSantis Bets on Iowa Caucuses to Keep Him Afloat in GOP Nomination Race

Dec. 31, 2023 11:01 am ETELKADER, Iowa—With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, Ron DeSantis is betting heavily on a strong performance in the state to preserve his viability in the Republican nomination race as he faces a drumbeat of questions about his campaign strategy. DeSantis is polling neck and neck with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in Iowa in their quest for second place behind the front-runner, former President Donald Trump, but DeSantis lags behind Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina, where voters will make their picks in late January and February, respectively. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming
Business

The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming

Dec. 31, 2023 11:23 am ETDrill into the nation’s 3.7% unemployment rate, and you’ll find a growing welfare-industrial complex beneath the seemingly strong labor market. Government, social assistance and healthcare account for 56% of the 2.8 million net new jobs over the past year, and for nearly all gains in blue states such as New York and Illinois.The tens of thousands of migrants pouring into big cities need to be tended to. So do the hundreds of thousands of drug-addled and mentally ill homeless living on the streets. Progressive government doesn’t do anything on the cheap. America’s welfare state has thus become a proverbial Big Dig, and it keeps getting bigger.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Surge of Migrants Heading North Has Chicago, New York at a ‘Breaking Point’
World

Surge of Migrants Heading North Has Chicago, New York at a ‘Breaking Point’

The mayors of New York, Chicago and Denver said a nonending flow of migrants arriving from the southern border has pushed their cities to the breaking point heading into the New Year, as border crossings swell and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott keeps finding new ways to torment his Democratic rivals.Abbott, a Republican who began sending migrants on buses to other states in spring 2022, doubled down on the strategy in recent weeks. He sent his first planeloads of migrants to Chicago and New York in part to flout regulations on where and when bus operators can drop off the migrants.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Nikki Haley Says ‘Of Course’ Civil War Was About Slavery, Following Criticism
World

Nikki Haley Says ‘Of Course’ Civil War Was About Slavery, Following Criticism

Updated Dec. 28, 2023 7:38 pm ETRepublican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Thursday the Civil War was caused by a fight over slavery as she tried to tamp down a political uproar hours after she failed to mention it when asked about the conflict’s origins.“Of course the Civil War was about slavery, we know that, that’s the easy part of it,” she said on a Pulse of NH radio show. “I’m from the South. Of course you know it’s about slavery.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Michigan Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Keep Trump Off Primary Ballot
World

Michigan Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Keep Trump Off Primary Ballot

Updated Dec. 27, 2023 10:08 am ETDonald Trump can appear on Michigan’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, the state’s top court ruled Wednesday. The Michigan Supreme Court declined to take up the question of Trump’s eligibility under the state’s election laws. In a one-paragraph ruling, the majority wrote the court was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Israeli War Cabinet Set to Consider Egyptian Proposal to End War in Gaza
World

Israeli War Cabinet Set to Consider Egyptian Proposal to End War in Gaza

Updated Dec. 25, 2023 11:26 am ETIsrael’s war cabinet plans to meet on Monday night to discuss a three-step plan put forward by Egypt for ending the war in Gaza, Israeli officials said.The Egyptian proposal, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, is the most comprehensive peace proposal to be put forward to the two parties in the 11-week-old Gaza war.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Wisconsin Supreme Court Stages a Gerrymander Coup
World

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Stages a Gerrymander Coup

Progressive state judges are on a partisan political roll. Fresh off the 4-3 Colorado Supreme Court’s banishment of Donald Trump from the ballot, a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday overturned precedent and tossed the state’s legislative maps. The four progressive justices ordered the maps redrawn because they violate the state constitution’s requirement that legislative districts be contiguous. Yet the legislative “islands” they fret about contain so few voters that they have no discernible impact on elections. The justices used their existence as a legal excuse.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
California Dreamin’ of a Government That Actually Works
Health

California Dreamin’ of a Government That Actually Works

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed an affinity for taking on “big, hairy, audacious goals.” But while state and local governments in the Golden State swing for the fences, they too often fail to handle the basics.Sacramento continues to spend billions on a first-in-the-nation high-speed rail line in the Central Valley despite not having a plan to connect the system to the densely populated Bay Area and Los Angeles Basin. Twenty-five years after voters approved the project, zero miles of track have been laid and service isn’t projected to start until the 2030s.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Facing Housing Shortages, Cities Try Cramming More Units on Lots
World

Facing Housing Shortages, Cities Try Cramming More Units on Lots

The Austin duplex Jane Kurzawa Cravey and her then-husband moved into in 1979 was rundown, but the couple was able to use rental income from the second unit to pay off most of the mortgage and make improvements.As her property taxes climbed over the years, Cravey wanted to add a third unit as a way to pay off taxes and debts. She couldn’t make it work under the city’s regulations—until this year when Austin, Texas, changed its land development code to allow for up to three units on single-family lots. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8