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Republicans in a majority-Latino district in California that includes Indio and Coachella are on course to flip a Democratic state Assembly seat red. Jeff Gonzalez, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, is set to beat out Democrat Joey Acuña, a school board member, for the 36th Assembly District. Gonzalez is ahead by an insurmountable 4,362 votes, or 3.1%, as of Friday, per official count numbers.  If Gonzalez gets over the line, it will be the first time since 1992 that Republicans in California have picked up a seat in the state legislature during a presidential cycle, according to California state Assembly member Bill Essayli. Republican Ken Calvert wins re-election to US House in California's 41st Congressional District If elected, Gonzalez will replace longtime Democratic legislator Eduardo Garcia as the next state assembly member in a sprawling district. Garcia, from Coachella, decided not to seek re-election this year and instead endorsed Acuña, the Coachella Val...

Gavin Anderegg / anderegg.ca : Bluesky is working to become fully decentralized but it could take years amid financial concerns as it makes money only by selling domains for usernames   —  November has sucked so far.  One upside of the terrible nonsense is that more people are fleeing X. Many are choosing Bluesky.

President-elect Trump announced two more additions to his White House staff on Friday, promoting his campaign spokesman to lead the communications shop. Trump announced that Steven Cheung would return to the White House as assistant to the president and director of communications. Cheung previously served as communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign and was the White House director of strategic response in Trump's first term. Additionally, Trump confirmed that Sergio Gor will join the White House as director of the presidential personnel office. Gor, an ally and business partner of Donald Trump Jr.'s, was in charge of the pro-Trump political action committee Right For America and previously worked in Republican Sen. Rand Paul's office .  "Steven Cheung and Sergio Gor have been trusted Advisors since my first Presidential Campaign in 2016, and have continued to champion America First principles throughout my First Term, all the way to our HIstoric Victory...

Republican attorneys general are putting President-elect Donald Trump's prosecutors on notice, urging them to halt "political prosecutions of the incoming president." "The cases brought against President Trump, particularly the criminal prosecutions, had nothing to do with crime," Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird told Fox News Digital in an interview this week. "They had everything to do with the fact that he was running for president again. He is innocent. He didn't do anything wrong, and those cases never should have been brought in the first place. That was another way they were trying to wage campaign lawfare." NEW YORK APPEALS COURT APPEARS RECEPTIVE TO REVERSING OR REDUCING $454M TRUMP CIVIL FRAUD JUDGMENT Bird, alongside more than 20 other attorneys general, sent a letter to Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling on them to drop their cases to avoid ...

Fox News has been told for several days now that the House Ethics Committee no longer has any jurisdiction over former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.  Gaetz resigned Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump picked him to serve as attorney general. The ethics panel was planning on releasing its report investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and alleged drug use by Gaetz, but the panel canceled its meeting Friday, and no report has appeared. House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., said the following on Wednesday when asked about the Gaetz inquiry. "Once the investigation is complete, then a report will be issued. Assuming that at that time, that Mr. Gaetz is still a Member of Congress. If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position, with the administration, as the Attorney General, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point. Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued. That's not unique to thi...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., won unanimous approval from Republican lawmakers earlier this week to lead the House of Representatives next year, but some conservatives are warning that he still has an uphill climb before the House-wide election in January. "I think there’s still a lot of people that, as a favor to President Trump, didn't request a vote, but it remains to be seen," Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital on Thursday. "I'm going to be ready to get ready to govern, but he has a lot of people not committed. But as a favor to President Trump, we didn't object." Johnson won a unanimous voice vote to be the Republicans’ speaker nominee on Wednesday, hours after President-elect Donald Trump told GOP lawmakers he was fully backing the Louisiana Republican. JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS 'DISHONEST' The speaker was the only candidate in the race after it was revealed that Republicans mana...

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against current and former officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for allegedly ordering its workers to ignore storm victims who support President-elect Trump. The revelation made headlines following whistle-blower reports that FEMA workers in Lake Placid, Florida, were told to skip over households of storm victims who showed support for Trump. "FEMA workers followed these instructions and entered in a government database messages such as ‘Trump sign no entry per leadership,’" the lawsuit states. "According to whistleblowers, ‘at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags’ in Lake Placid, Florida ‘were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance.’" Moody vowed to investigate the allegations as Floridians still face the threat of damaging storms this season. FEMA OFFICIAL FIRED FOR TELLING STAFF TO AVOID HELPING TRUMP SUPPORTERS SAYS AGENCY SCAPEGOATING HER ...

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : François Chollet, the AI pioneer who created Keras, says he is leaving Google after nearly 10 years to start a new company, but doesn't reveal many details   —  François Chollet, a leading figure in the AI world, is leaving Google after close to a decade.

Kif Leswing / CNBC : AMD says it will lay off ~4% of its global staff to align “resources with our largest growth opportunities”; SEC filing: AMD had 26,000 employees at 2023's end   —  AMD said on Wednesday that it will lay off 4% of its global staff, as the longtime CPU maker seeks to gain …

Theodore Olson, the former conservative lawyer who argued the 2000 Florida vote-recount case on behalf of President George W. Bush, has died at the age of 84, his firm announced Wednesday.  There was no immediate cause of death given for the former solicitor general, who is also remembered for teaming up with David Boies – his opponent in Bush v. Gore – to help overturn California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages.  "Ted was a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time," Barbara Becker, chair and managing partner of Gibson Dunn, said in a statement. "He was creative, principled, and fearless -- a trailblazing advocate who cared about all people. We mourn his loss profoundly and send our condolences to his wife Lady, a cherished member of our firm family, and to all of Ted’s loved ones."  The firm said Olson, over his career, "argued 65 cases in the Supreme Court, including the two Bush v. Go...

A top university is accused of severing ties with Democrat Rep. Seth Moulton’s office over the congressman's comments expressing concern about transgender female students participating in school sports with biological females. Tufts University, located in Massachusetts, said it would no longer facilitate student internships in Moulton’s office after the Massachusetts Democrat’s interview in The New York Times last week, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital. Moulton himself appeared to confirm the situation on Tuesday morning, but Tufts University has denied limiting internship opportunities with his office. The source told Fox News Digital, however, that Moulton’s office was contacted by Tufts University Political Science Department Chair David Art on the matter. 'GOT OUR A--ES KICKED': DEMS PRIVATELY FRET ABOUT LOSING HOUSE AFTER GOP VICTORY IN WHITE HOUSE, SENATE Art said he had consulted with colleagues and that the college did not want Moulton’s ...

Washington Post : Sources: advisors to Donald Trump expect the president-elect to halt a potential US ban of TikTok, which faces a January 19 deadline to divest   —  The president-elect promised to ‘save’ the social media app, which faces a deadline early next year to find a non-China-based owner.

Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., is running to lead the Republican conference in the next congress, officially announcing after the current chair was tapped for a top Trump administration role.  "The modern Republican Party personifies my home state of Michigan and delivered Republicans the White House, Senate, and House majority," McClain said in a statement shared first with Fox News Digital. "From my humble beginnings working on a horse farm to building a company with billions of assets under management, our modern Republican Party needs someone who has lived the American dream and can effectively communicate President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda with the American people. That’s why today, I announce my candidacy to lead the House Republican Conference as Chairwoman." The announcement comes just hours after President-elect Trump nominated the current chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be ambassador to the United Nations in his upcoming administration. ...

Jowi Morales / Tom's Hardware : LG Display shows off a stretchable display prototype that can expand by up to 50%, more than doubling the previous record of 20% elongation   —  This stretchable display unlocks an infinite number of possibilities.  —  LG Display, one of the global leaders in display technologies …

Florida Sen. Rick Scott touted his experience in business when asked why his Republican colleagues should back him for Senate Majority Leader. "I built businesses all my life," Scott said during an appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. "I built the largest hospital company, I built a variety of manufacturing companies, I ran the state of Florida." The comments come as Scott finds himself in a three-way race to become the GOP Senate leader, battling fellow Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota for the job held by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. , since 2007. Scott, whose bid for the position is seen as a long shot by some observers, has earned the endorsement of Republican Sens. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida. "I will be voting for my Florida colleague @ScottforFlorida to be our next Senate GOP leader," Rubio said ...

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : An interview with Mozilla interim CEO Laura Chambers about Firefox's 20th birthday, growth due to EU's DMA, focus on privacy, Google search deal, AI, and more   —  Exactly 20 years ago, Mozilla started shipping version 1.0 of its Firefox browser.  At the time, you could download it or buy …

New York Attorney General Letitia James has a long history of slamming President-elect Donald Trump, vowing in her first campaign to "take on Donald Trump" if elected, only to double down on the rhetoric after his massive election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week.   "She’s got serious Trump derangement syndrome ," Trump said at the start of the year as he faced a civil fraud trial brought by the New York attorney general. He has repeatedly accused James of suffering from "Trump derangement syndrome" throughout a bevy of New York court cases brought against him by James and other Democrats in New York.  A staunch supporter of the president-elect who has been floated as a potential AG contender has already put James on notice to end her "lawfare" against the 45th and upcoming 47th president in a fiery interview after Trump’s win.  "Let me just say this to Big Tish James, the New York Attorney General. . . . I dare you to...