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Border Patrol Settles Lawsuit After Detaining 2 American Women For Speaking Spanish

Two American women who were detained by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent for speaking Spanish in a convenience store in Montana have reportedly agreed to a settlement after suing the agency. Martha “Mimi” Hernandez and Ana Suda and were buying groceries in a store in the town of Havre on May 16, 2018, when CBP Agent Paul O’Neal stopped them and asked for their IDs. He told the pair (on video) that he was stopping them because he overheard them “speaking Spanish which is very unheard of ‘up here.'” Note – Hernandez was born in El Centro, California, and moved to Montana in 2010. Suda was born in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Montana in 2014. USA Today reports that during the lawsuit, text messages were found on O’Neill’s phone that contained derogatory and racist language. According to the ACLU, the lawsuit also found O’Neill belonged to a secret Facebook group called the “I’m 10-15,” where CBP agents and former agents shared ugly comments and joked about the deaths of migrants. The group has since been disbanded. A video statement obtained by the ACLU showed a CBP supervisor admitting that his agents routinely viewed people speaking Spanish with suspicion in Havre, which is majority white but has a growing Latino population. “[Havre] is a small place,” the CBP supervisor said on the video. “And we have a lot of agents here, and nobody really has much to do… I was sitting at the mall off duty with my family. I’m sitting there at the restaurant, I look up it’s — there’s two Mexicans. Maybe I should call about this.” The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed. Hernandez and Suda eventually moved away from Havre after facing backlash for speaking out.

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Soccer Player Gets Handsy With Opponent’s Junk (Twice) During Match

Darnell Fisher goes for the grab (twice!)
What up with athletes grabbing an opponent’s junk during a match? Pro soccer player Darnell Fisher of Preston North End was captured twice grabbing Callum Paterson’s crotch during their 1-0 win over Sheffield on Saturday. Paterson was clearly annoyed by Fisher’s first snatch and grab as you can see him turn to see if a referee saw what happened. Then Fisher continued to be handsy.

Sky Sports reports the English FA is investigating the incident for possible penalties on Fisher. You may recall England rugby union international Joe Marler was banned for 10 weeks earlier this year for similar hand action on Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones in a Six Nations match.

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Early Biden Administration Picks Show Diversity & Experience

Former Vice President Joe Biden (via campaign)
President-elect Joe Biden told voters during the 2020 campaign that his cabinet and staff would reflect the diversity of the American people. And early in the transition, he appears to be keeping those promises. So far, he’s announced the following picks for high profile positions in his administration: • Janet Yellen, expected to be nominated as Treasury Secretary, would be the first woman to ever hold the position. • Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to be nominated as ambassador to the United Nations, would be the first Black woman to serve in that capacity. • Cuban American Alejandro Mayorkas, nominated for homeland security secretary, would be the first Latino to hold the cabinet position. • Avril Haines, a former CIA deputy director, could be the first woman to be the director of national intelligence if confirmed • Carlos Elizondo, an openly gay event planner who lives in Washington with his partner, has been tapped to be the social secretary in the Biden White House. Elizondo is the first LGBTQ person to be named to a prominent position in the incoming administration. Karine Jean-Pierre, a Black lesbian, is reported to be a top contender for White House press secretary. Other experienced names previewed include former Senator/Secretary of State/Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as Biden’s ‘Climate Czar,’ and former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken as Secretary of State. As many in the media have noted, many of those we’re hearing about hold deep experience in their respective niches. While Donald Trump liked to surprise and entertain with unexpected and disjointed choices in key roles, you can almost hear a sigh of relief in the ‘mundane-ness’ of Biden’s picks. Brendan Buck, ex-counselor to former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, wrote on Twitter, “These Biden nominations and appointments are so delightfully boring.”

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6.4 Million Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine Will Ship Mid-December

The first confirmed case of the omicron variant in the U.S. has been discovered in California.

From the New York Times:

Around mid-December, 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will be shipped out across the United States in an initial push after it receives an expected emergency authorization, officials leading Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s push to fast-track a vaccine, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

The first doses — which are expected to go to health care workers and potentially a few other vulnerable groups — will be allocated to all 50 states and eight territories, as well as six major metropolitan areas. The quantities will be based on how many adults live in each jurisdiction.

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Melania Trump Wanted To Light Up White House In Rainbow Colors For Pride

First Lady Melania Trump (photo: Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
The Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reports that First Lady Melania Trump wanted to light up the White House in rainbow colors this past June in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month, but with Donald Trump’s homophobic Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the mix, the idea was never carried out.

Meadows had a significant role, one Republican source said on condition of anonymity, in ensuring the Trump White House ignored Pride Month, which is why President Trump didn’t send out a tweet to recognize the annual LGBTQ celebration as he did in 2019. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Meadows weighed in specifically on shutting down the rainbow lighting proposal at the White House.

Earlier this year, in an article on the Trump campaign’s plan to engage in unprecedented LGBTQ outreach for a Republican presidential nominee, the New York Times reported several aides suggested he send out a tweet this year recognizing June as Pride Month. That didn’t happen.

In contrast, Trump in 2019 tweeted out a message recognizing Pride Month, becoming the first Republican U.S. president to recognize the annual LGBTQ celebration. But 2019 was before Meadows came to the White House.

The First Lady later recorded a video message for the Log Cabin Republicans wherein she declared she was “shocked to discover” that folks perceived “my husband as anti-gay or against equality.” Prior to joining the White House in March 2020, Meadows represented North Carolina’s 11th congressional district where he accrued a consistently anti-LGBTQ record. In addition to voting against the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing federal civil rights laws, he voted in favor of prohibiting the U.S. military from paying for transition-related care for transgender service members. Meadows was also a vocal opponent of legalizing same-sex marriage. In a 2013 interview, he hysterically declared marriage equality would be a ‘constitutional crisis‘ if the U.S. Supreme Court made it a reality (which it did in 2015).

“It’s a huge invasion into state’s rights and the state definition of marriage, whether you call it traditional or natural marriage,” Meadows said at the time. “I call it marriage, you know, it’s between one man and one woman, period.”

Meadows consistently received a rating of “zero” on the Human Rights Campaign’s congressional scorecard during his time in the House.

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Nevada Certifies Joe Biden’s Win

Nevada’s seven nonpartisan Supreme Court justices unanimously approved the state’s final canvass of the November 3 election today. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The Nevada Supreme Court signed off on the state’s election results Tuesday, making President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state official, following numerous failed post-election court challenges that sought to delay or thwart the statutory move.

Though a few legal challenges are still pending, the court’s formal acceptance of the results from the Secretary of State’s office essentially closes the book on the 2020 election. It took less than half an hour of the court’s time Tuesday to conclude a routine matter in an election year that was anything but routine.

Nevada’s certification follows Michigan’s move to certify on Monday and Pennsylvania’s certification early Tuesday, and ahead of Wisconsin’s and Arizona’s certifications later this week. All are states President Donald Trump lost on Nov. 3, and all are states where the Republican Party and the Trump campaign filed lawsuits challenging the outcome.

Biden officially won Nevada by 33, 796 votes – 703,486 to Trump’s 669,690.

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Dow Passes 30,000 As Biden Transition Begins

Following the certification of key states’ Election Day results plus the announcement of former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to be the next Treasury secretary, stock markets are heading for record territory this morning. From the New York Times:

The S&P 500 rose about 1.4 percent, and by late morning was trading above its most recent closing record of 3,626.91, reached on Nov. 16. The Dow Jones industrial average rose to a new high, crossing above the 30,000 mark for the first time.

The gains on Tuesday seemed to reflect optimism about the economy, with shares of economically sensitive companies among the best performers. Oil prices also jumped to levels not seen since early March.

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News Round-Up: November 23, 2020

L-R Ben Lewis, Blake Lee in ‘The Christmas Setup’ (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • OUT: A new poll from GLAAD shows only 14% of LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Trump, while 81% voted for the projected president-elect Joe Biden. • The Hill: Sixty-six percent of Republican voters support President Trump running for president again in 2024, according to a new survey.  Also in the poll: 86% would support Trump calling for national unity, 38% would support Trump refusing to give up power and remain in the White House, and 46% would support Trump starting his own TV network. • Lifetime Channel: Check out the first trailer for Lifetime’s The Christmas Setup (lead photo above) – the cable network’s first-ever holiday movie centered on an LGBTQ romance. The film stars real-life couple Blake Lee and Ben Lewis, and The Nanny star Fran Drescher. Looks super-cute! Premieres December 12 at 8 pm ET.

• New York Times: More than one million people were screened by the TSA on Sunday – more than on any day since the pandemic took hold in March. That number is about half of what it was in 2019, but experts are concerned that people flying to visit their families for Thanksgiving could increase the spread of the coronavirus. • Mediaite: Far-right nutjob Dan Bongino floated on his podcast Monday that he would consider running for president of the United States in 2024. Bongo has previously run for Congress three times – in Maryland and Florida – and failed each time. • Twitter: Donald Trump Jr., currently quarantining in a private cabin somewhere due to testing positive for the coronavirus, is becoming more and more erratic on social media. In this recent tweet, he asks about burning down the house for Thanksgiving…? #NotFunny

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Michigan Certifies Biden’s Win In Great Lakes State

UPDATE: I realized I wanted to include this information as some GOP officials or Trump supporters have made mention of ‘unbalanced precincts’ which occurs when there are a small number of ballots that don’t equal the total number of voters noted in the poll books. I think this is important to know. From the Washington Post:

Out-of-balance precincts can occur for several reasons. A machine may fail to scan the name of a voter on an absentee ballot envelope. A voter can make a mistake on a ballot and request a new one, or sign into the poll book but leave before casting a ballot.

This fall, 179 Detroit precincts, or 28 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 433 votes, according to state and county data.

Four years ago, when Trump won the state by a narrow margin, the number of out-of-balance precincts was larger: 392 Detroit precincts, or 59 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 916 votes, the data show.

In 2016, when the discrepancy was less than half that of 2020, neither the RNC nor the Trump campaign asked for an audit to verify the veracity of the ballot count.

The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted to certify the results of the 2020 election on Monday. The 3-1 vote by the board – made up of two Democrats and two Republicans – effectively awards the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden, who garnered over 155,000 more votes than Donald Trump in the election. One of the two Republican members – Norman Shinkle – was the lone holdout who abstained from approving the results. Shinkle told the Washington Post in an interview last week that he was considering delaying the certification citing a debunked conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his campaign that voting machines had deleted thousands of Trump votes. As CNN’s Jake Tapper points out via Twitter, with Georgia having certified Friday, Michigan doing so today, and Pennsylvania tonight (once Philadelphia certifies at 7 pm tonight), President-elect Joe Biden will have more than 270 electoral votes.

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Out Music: NIKO ‘Thinking About You’

Out singer/songwriter NIKO recently released his latest – a dance floor filler titled, ‘Thinking About You.’ After his romantic single, “Try,” NIKO ups the heat and the tempo with this dance track that explores the darker side of love and seduction. “The song tells the story of someone who is constantly chasing after the next thrill, but in doing that, loses the person who really cares for them,” says NIKO. “It’s about the emotional dynamics of not being able to resist your physical instincts, and then having to face the consequences.”

Singer/songwriter NIKO (via official website)
Born and raised in Milan, NIKO’s first musical endeavors began as creative collaborations with DJs as a songwriter and vocalist in the Italian city. After spending time in the UK, working with music producers in Manchester and London, NIKO decided to launch his career as a solo artist with his first EP RMNC 21 in 2019. Listen to the new single below and you can check out my previous coverage of NIKO and his music here.