Tuesday, May 3 top stories
It is Tuesday, May 3. Here are today’s top stories.
Leaked draft of Supreme Court decision on abortion
On Monday night, Politico published a leaked 98-page draft of a majority opinion by the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 that made abortion up to around 24 weeks of pregnancy a constitutional right.
The draft was written by Justice Samuel Alito. Politico reported that five justices voted in favor of overturning Roe. The Supreme Court heard arguments in December about a Mississippi law that banned abortions after fifteen weeks of pregnancy. The draft, which was written in February, explicitly said “We hold that Roe… must be overruled.”
The Supreme Court usually announces its decisions and releases its written opinions in June or July, so this draft is not final or official. News analysts say justices’ votes can and do change, but it is likely that five of the court’s conservative justices, three of whom were appointed by former president Donald Trump, have already made up their minds and will move to overturn Roe.
What this would mean is that individual states would be able to pass or keep laws that ban abortions, and many states have already done so.
This graphic from Axios shows that abortion would immediately become illegal in at least 13 states. 17 states and D.C. have codified the right to abortion. The remaining 19 states have “no immediate ban or protection.”
President Biden said in a statement after the leak that it is up to voters to choose pro-choice members of Congress to adopt legislation “that codifies Roe.” Biden said he would work to pass and sign this law.
Democratic leaders in Congress said it would be an “abomination” if Roe is overturned, that it would be “one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.”
Most Republican leaders were pleased with the Supreme Court’s draft opinion, but many were angry at the leak and demanded an investigation and criminal charges for whoever is responsible.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the leaked draft was authentic but did not represent the court’s final decision. He said has ordered an investigation on the leak.
Body found in barrel at Lake Mead
Last weekend boaters on Lake Mead in Nevada found a body of a man that was in a corroded barrel on the lake’s shore. The lake’s receding water levels made the barrel visible. The body had skeletal remains under a shirt and a belt.
Police in Las Vegas said the body is a homicide victim who was shot between 1970 to 1980 based on his shoes. They explained that back then, the area that the barrel was dropped in was hundreds of yards off the shoreline, but because of receding water levels, the barrel is now at the lake’s shoreline.
The body underwent an autopsy on Monday morning and authorities are working to identify the person.
Police said they expect to find additional bodies in the lake as water levels continue to plunge due to severe drought.
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NYPD veteran convicted over Jan 6. assault
Thomas Webster, a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was found guilty by a federal jury of assaulting a D.C. police officer during the Jan 6. attack on the Capitol. Webster used a metal flagpole to assault the officer.
Webster testified that he acted in self defense, but a juror who spoke to a reporter after the verdict said videos clearly showed what happened.
Webster will be sentenced on September 2. The maximum penalty for his assault charge is 20 years, but news analysts say it is likely he will have a significantly shorter prison time.
Ohio and Indiana primary elections
Today there are primary elections in Ohio and Indiana. A primary election are battles within parties (Republican and Democratic) on who is the best candidate within the party.
In Ohio, there is an open U.S. Senate seat because Sen. Rob Portman is going to retire.
Seven Republicans are vying for the party’s nomination. Donald Trump has endorsed candidate JD Vance and his main opponents are Josh Mandel and Matt Dolan, who has said Trump should stop trying to contest the results of the 2020 election.
On the Democratic side, current Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan is expected to win the Democratic nomination for the open senate seat.
In Indiana, AP News said there are “more than a dozen state House members who are trying to hold off Republican primary challengers who want to push the Legislature further to the right.”
I’ll recap the results in tomorrow’s news.
Man arrested after climbing Salesforce Tower
In San Francisco, a man was arrested after he climbed the Salesforce Tower, a 61-story building that is 1,070 feet tall.
Someone inside of the building took a video of the man as he passed through their office window. He did not have any kind of harness and was wearing gloves and climbing shoes. He was arrested after he scaled the top of the tower. The man’s name may be Maison Des Champs and he was posting videos of the climb on his Instagram account and called himself a “Pro-life Spider-Man.”
The San Francisco Fire Department said the man is placing firefighters and the public’s lives at risk and asked the public to join them in “condemning this action.”
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/us/lake-mead-body-barrel-water-level-drought-climate/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lake-mead-body-barrel-shot-investigation/
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-ohio-senate-9eeeed38cff92dbd88f1a7d48dcbfefc
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1095615884/7-primary-contests-to-watch-tuesday-in-ohio-and-indiana