National

lishment of a state commission of inquiry,” continued the missive.

The letter was also sent to Israel Police Commissioner Koby Shabtai, Justice Minister Benny Gantz, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and Supreme Court Chief Esther Hayut and comes amid rising support for such a move. On Monday, Defense Minister and Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz said he would push for an official probe and requested that Mandelblit draft a legal opinion regarding its ramifications.

A state commission of inquiry is Israel’s most powerful investigative body and is tasked with conducting semi-legal procedures. The committee is completely independent and can only be established by an official government decision. Members are authorized to subpoena documents and can compel witnesses to testify. Its recommendations are submitted in a report to the prime minister and are legally binding.

State commissions of inquiry are commonly established after major national tragedies, including the intelligence failure that led to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in 1981, and the IDF’s subpar performance in the Second Lebanon War.

Florida Defends Election Integrity

Florida’s legislature passed a voting integrity bill limiting the use of mail-in ballots and heavily restricting drop boxes.

The bill sailed through the Florida House on Thursday by a margin of 77-40 and in the Senate 23-17. Governor Ron DeSantis hailed the law’s approval, calling it a “major step in strengthening voter integrity” and said that he would be “delighted” to sign it into law.

“We’ve had voter ID. It works. It’s the right thing to do,” DeSantis said, calling the recent presidential election “fair and transparent, and the reforms we have coming will make it even better.”

The bill adds additional ID requirements for mail-in voting, restricts who can drop off ballots at a drop box, and limits where they can be placed. It also mandates that a state official be present when the boxes are opened and forbids them from being moved within a month prior to election day.

In addition, the legislation prevents nonprofits from using funds for elections and expands oversight during the counting process. The law follows similar legislation passed in Georgia last month and comes amid a wave of voter identity laws in GOP-controlled state legislatures.

Currently, 28 different states are in the process of passing laws that limit mail-in voting access, add voter ID requirements, and make it easier to purge voter rolls. While Republicans argue that the measures are needed to combat voter fraud, Democrats contend that such legislation are attempts to suppress minority vote.

After the bill passed in Florida’s House last week, Democrat Rep. Omari Hardy decried the legislation “the revival of Jim Crow in this state, whether the sponsors admit it or not.”

Women to Serve in Nat’l Guard in Vermont

In a first, women can now try out for all combat roles in the Vermont Army National Guard.

The Guard announced last week that it would recruit women for all positions in the organization, including in special forces, paratroopers, and infantry. The new guidelines order the Vermont Army National Guard to promote women into command positions and promote “general integration in order to foster a healthy unit culture.”

The change makes Vermont the first state to open all of its combat roles to women. In 2016, the Pentagon opened all military occupations to women for the first time in U.S. military history. This allowed female servicemembers to transfer to combat jobs but not directly enlist into such positions until specific conditions were met. In January, the National Guard Bureau authorized the 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Infantry), to recruit women, a first for a battalion-sized combat arms unit in the Army National Guard.

“This is a momentous achievement for the Vermont Army National Guard,” said Brig. Gen. James Pabis, assistant adjutant general-Army. “From the state staff to unit leaders, earning the ability to recruit women into all of our units required laser focus over several years.”

He added that the Guard will continue its efforts “to cultivate diversity and inclusion throughout the organization.”

Despite Pressure, Kentucky Derby Plays Song

Organizers of the Kentucky Derby played the state’s official song before the annual race on Sunday, rejecting pressure from activists who claimed that the ditty is racist.

Officials told Kentucky’s WLKY News that it would air the song as usual, pushing back against an online campaign by progressives.

Since 1921, “My Old Kentucky Home” has been played at the beginning of every race at Churchill Downs. Written by Stephen Foster in the mid-1800s, the sentimental minstrel song speaks of the emotions experienced by a fictitious African-American slave forced to leave his “old Kentucky home” after being sold to a new owner.

In recent weeks, race organizers had come under overwhelming pressure from activists to scrap the song over allegations that it was racist. Tactics included pressing sponsors to yank their ads over the offending words and launching a petition calling on TV stations not to broadcast the race.

Proponents of canceling the ditty pointed to derogatory language earlier iterations of the song used towards African-Americans, included referring to them as “darkies.” However, the true nature of the song has been debated by historians for decades, and there is no current consensus that it supported slavery.

According to Newsweek, “while some people consider the song to be a powerful condemnation of slavery,” some African-Americans oppose the song due to “its original title and lyrics, and the contexts in which it has been performed, including at minstrel shows.”

In a recent study of the issue, Smithsonian Magazine described the song as “a condemnation of Kentucky’s enslavers who sold husbands away from their wives and mothers away from their children” and as “the lament of an enslaved person who has been forcibly separated from his family and his painful longing to return to the cabin with his wife and children.”

During the most recent Kentucky Derby, the song was played by a bugler in order to leave out the offending lyrics in what organizers called a “thoughtfully and appropriately modified” performance.

Eli Broad Dies at 87

Eli Broad, a well-known Jewish billionaire who played a key role in creating Los Angeles’ art and culture scene, passed away at the age of 87 last Friday.

“As a businessman, Eli saw around corners; as a philanthropist, he saw the problems in the world and tried to fix them; as a citizen, he saw the possibility in our shared community; and as a husband, father and friend, he saw the potential in each of us,” said Gerun Riley, president of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

Broad was an accountant-turned-businessman who used his immense wealth to revolutionize Los Angeles. Born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Broad grew up in Detroit and studied accounting at Michigan State University.

After graduating, Broad began working as a tax accountant for a local homebuilding company. But keeping the books for the firm led him to quickly realize that he could make more money in construction, and he soon founded Kaufman & Broad.

Starting with $12,500 in initial investment from his parents, Broad’s cutting-edge home design exploded in popularity. Within two years, Broad had built more than 600 homes in Detroit alone, catapulting Broad’s company into one of the largest construction firms in the nation and making him the 78th wealthiest person in the U.S.

Broad then turned to philanthropy, founding the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and dedicating a significant part of his $6.9 billion fortune to revamping downtown Los Angeles. His drive and financial investment transformed once-seedy LA into a major cultural hub, founding museums, music centers, and art galleries,

“Eli Broad, simply put, was LA’s most influential private citizen of his generation,” tweeted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “He loved this city as deeply as anyone I have ever known.”

Russians Breach D.C. Police Dep’t

A Russian ransomware group has claimed responsibility for last week’s hack of Washington, D.C.’s police department.

Babuk attack syndicate, a new group of Russian speakers responsible for three recent cyberattacks, wrote on its website on Sunday that it was behind the recent hack of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Claiming to have downloaded 250 gigabytes of computer files, the group threatened to release it on the internet if it was not paid millions in Bitcoin.

The MPD has already confirmed that hackers succeeded in breaching its computer networks to access highly sensitive data, including the identities of undercover officers and gang informants. In a public letter to the force, Chief Robert Contee said

that its technology department was probing the “unauthorized access incident” and admitted that the attackers compromised officers’ personal data.

“At this time, I can confirm that HR-related files with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) were obtained,” Contee wrote.

The D.C. ransomware attack is the third time that the Russian group has succeeded in penetrating a U.S. police department. Previously, Babuk hit the local police force in Presque Isle, Maine, in April after paralyzing the police computer networks in Azusa, California, in March.

“If this is found to be true, that ransomware actors are willing to target the Washington Metro Police Department, only confirms the assertion made by the Ransomware Task Force (RTF) that these criminals are increasingly brazen and feel as though they can act with impunity,” said Philip Reiner, CEO of cyber company IST.

“This is the perfect example of why the RTF calls for an immediate, top-down, coordinated, well-resourced operational campaign to get after these actors, their safe havens, their infrastructure, and their finances.”

SpaceX Brings Astronauts Home

American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX returned four astronauts back to Earth on Sunday in what was the first nighttime splashdown since 1968.

Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, ending a short six-and-a-half month flight back to Earth.

Video footage shows four parachutes gently splashing into the warm water, where they were met by NASA recovery ships.

“Earthbound!” shouted pilot Victor Glover after leaving for Earth. “One step closer to family and home!”

The landing marked the second space flight for SpaceX, a private space exploration company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

“We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” SpaceX’s Mission Control joked over the radio. “For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you’ve earned 68 million miles on this voyage.”

“We’ll take those miles,” answered mission commander Mike Hopkins. “Are they transferable?”

The astronauts returned in the same Dragon capsule they had blasted off in November from Kennedy Space Center. The crew had spent 167 days in space, breaking a previous record of 34 days set by NASA’s Skylab for the longest mission ever launched from U.S. soil.

GOP to Win in Texas Special Election

Two Republicans will contest a North Texas congressional seat in a runoff after the GOP locked out all Democratic Party challenges in the first special election of President Joe Biden’s term.

Susan Wright won the largest share of the vote to represent the

state’s 6th Congressional after receiving a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Wright is vying to fill the seat left vacant by her late husband Ron, who died in February after contracting Covid-19.

Wright will now face state Rep. Jake Ellzey in a runoff after neither candidate managed to muster the 50% needed to win the election outright. The date for the runoff has not yet been announced.

Overall, Wright earned 19.2% of the vote, with Ellzey drawing 13.8%. In third place was Jana Lynne Sanchez at 13.8%, with the Democrat trailing Ellzey by only 354 votes.

Sanchez had unsuccessfully run for the seat in 2018 in a candidacy that featured in the 2020 documentary “Surge.” The race took a bizarre turn in its final days, with a robocall accusing Wright of murdering her husband.

The results disappointed Democrats, who had hoped to win the suburban Dallas-Ft. Worth district that Trump had carried by only three points in November. However, the Democratic Party refrained from investing in the race after taking a drubbing during the recent House elections in November.

“Democrats have come a long way toward competing in Texas, but we still have a way to go,” Sanchez said after conceding. “Unfortunately ... we came up short, and two Republicans will be competing to represent this congressional district.”

Will Dems Lose the House?

A recent wave of retirements are complicating efforts by House Democrats to prevent the GOP from retaking Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.

On Monday, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) announced that she will retire when her term ends in 2022. The popular leader of the powerful House Democratic Steering Committee, Bustos won reelection in 2016 by 20 points.

Yet her constituents have been trending Republican, with President Trump carrying the Northern Illinois district in both 2016 and 2020. Bustos’ sudden retirement makes it exceedingly likely that the GOP will flip a seat that had once been solidly Democrat.

Bustos is only the latest House Democrat to announce that she will not seek reelection. Three other Democrat lawmakers from competitive districts have announced their retirement, including Reps. Filemon Vela Jr. (D-Tex.) and Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.).

Additional lawmakers from battleground states are also considering running for higher office, vacating seats that will almost certainly be won by Republican candidates. In Pennsylvania, Rep. Conor Lamb has his eyes on the state’s open Senate seat, while Florida Reps. Charles Crist and Stephanie Murphy are deliberating a gubernatorial run.

“The tables have turned. Republicans are on offense,” said Michael McAdams, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “A lot of these vulnerable Democrats are in swing districts and are going to have to contend with new district lines, and they want to get off House Democrats’ sinking ship.”

The wave of retirements comes as House Democrats face an already-difficult task in holding the House in 2022. While the Democratic Party expected to add to its lead in the November elections, election night saw Republicans make big gains, ousting 15 Democrats and narrowing the majority to six seats.

Keeping their House majority will be more difficult for Democrats in light of the recently-released U.S. Census population data. The oncein-a-decade congressional redistricting process is expected to give the GOP as much as five seats in the House, eliminating districts in California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia in favor of Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon and Florida.

Historically, the president’s party almost always suffers losses in the congressional midterm elections. Over the past 110 years, the party controlling the White House has gained seats only three times: in 1934, 1998, and 2002.

“New census data and reapportionment add challenges for the Democrats in the midterm elections,” wrote Sarah Bianchi, an analyst at the Evercore ISI research firm. “The outcome was not as bad for Democrats as some thought it would be, and there is a long way to go in terms of mapping congressional districts for 2022.

“However, there is no question that on balance it favors Republicans,” Bianchi continued. “Based on historical odds, Democrats already face challenges to keep the House in 2022 as the party that holds the White House on average loses 27 seats, far greater than the slim majority Democrats hold today.”

Smuggling Vessel Overturns

There were 32 people onboard a 40-foot cabin cruiser on Sunday when the boat smashed into a reef off the coast of San Diego and broke apart. Three people were killed in what authorities are saying was a smuggling vessel.

“Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel to smuggle migrants into the United States illegally,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Supervisory Agent Jeff Stephenson said on Sunday.

Twenty-seven of the surviving passengers were Mexican nationals who did not have legal status to enter the U.S., border patrol said. One of the Mexican nationals was an unaccompanied 15-year-old boy. The other Mexican nationals ranged in ages between 18 and 39.

Another passenger was from Guatemala, with no legal status in the U.S.

The captain of the boat is a U.S. citizen.

The boat was severely overcrowded when it crashed into the rocks.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of maritime smuggling attempts recently,” Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke with CBP’s San Diego sector said. “All of these illegal crossings at sea are inherently dangerous, and we have seen too many turn from risky to tragic as smugglers sacrifice the safety of those on board for the sake of profits.”