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California Dem Katie Porter says age limits 'for all elected officials' should be discussed at Senate debate

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California Dem Katie Porter says age limits 'for all elected officials' should be discussed at Senate debate

California Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter said age limits “for all elected officials” should be on the table at a debate Monday night.

“I do think generally that age limits are a conversation for all elected officials that we ought to be having,” Porter said at the KRON-TV debate in San Francisco. She gave that answer to a question about whether President Biden, 81, and former President Trump, 77, are “too old” to run for office.

“Californians are wondering about this. I think that’s a conversation we ought to be open to. I think we need a mix of people who’ve had years of experience and people like me, who’ve only been in Congress for five years. But I think we have to have that conversation,” Porter said.  

The advanced ages of the incumbent president and the GOP 2024 frontrunner were thrust into the spotlight last week by the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT WAS BIDEN’S IDEA TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER RELEASE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL’S REPORT

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Rep. Katie Porter speaks as President Biden listens during an event at Irvine Valley Community College in Irvine, California, on Oct. 14, 2022. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Hur concluded that criminal charges should not be filed against Biden, partly because a potential jury would find him to be “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” 

“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” the report said.

Hur’s description of Biden’s faulty memory prompted fierce pushback from the White House, which called those comments “gratuitous” and “inappropriate,” as well as from Biden himself.

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden seethed to reporters at a late night press conference last week following a short address on the report. “I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

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NANCY PELOSI SAYS BIDEN’S AGE IS AN ‘OBJECTIVE FACT,’ ARGUES IT’S ‘ALL RELATIVE’: ‘HE’S YOUNGER THAN I AM’

President Biden speaks at the White House on Thursday, Feb. 8, following the release of Hur’s report. (AP/Evan Vucci)

But at the same press conference, Biden appeared to forget where his late son Beau got the rosary the president said he wears every day. Biden also referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as “the president of Mexico.”

Media outlets labeled the press conference a disaster for the president, who has combated questions about his age since assuming office in 2020 as the oldest man to win the White House in American history. Were he to win re-election, Biden would be about 86 years old at the completion of his second term. 

HOUSE GOP GUNNING FOR TESTIMONY FROM BIDEN SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR, SOURCES SAY

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California Senate candidates, from left, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Katie Porter, Steve Garvey and Rep. Adam Schiff (Getty Images)

The age question is of particular significance in the California Senate election as the four candidates (three Democrats and one Republican) vie for the seat previously held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Feinstein was 90 and still in office when she died last September. The longtime senator had suffered from extensive health issues for more than a year before her death, leading many to wonder about her ability to represent California in the Senate.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., to serve as interim senator until the 2024 election. Butler declined to run for election to a full term.

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The other candidates to appear on stage with Porter were frontrunner Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Republican political newcomer Steve Garvey, a legendary MLB player for the Dodgers. 

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Oregon

2026 NFL combine: Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq runs fastest 40 by tight end since at least 2003

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2026 NFL combine: Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq runs fastest 40 by tight end since at least 2003


INDIANAPOLIS — Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq ran the fastest 40-yard dash of any tight end at the NFL Scouting Combine since at least 2003, posting a blazing time of 4.39 seconds on Friday.

Sadiq’s official time bested the previous mark of 4.40 seconds, set by Vernon Davis in 2006 and tied by Dorin Dickerson in 2010.

The 6-foot-3 1/8, 241-pound Sadiq was expected to be a standout during the workout portion of the event, and he started the night with a broad jump of 11-1. It was the highest mark of the 2026 combine among tight ends before Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers topped it a few minutes later with a jump of 11-3.

Sadiq shined in the vertical leap, too, jumping 43 1/2 inches, only to be outdone by Stowers shortly thereafter after he posted a jump of 45 1/2 inches, the best mark by a TE since at least 2003.

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Utah

Utahns first or eroding the Utah way? House OKs measure cracking down on illegal immigration

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Utahns first or eroding the Utah way? House OKs measure cracking down on illegal immigration


SALT LAKE CITY — A controversial Utah proposal to crack down on the presence of immigrants in the country illegally that had seemed stalled gained new life Friday, passing muster in new form in a relatively narrow vote.

In a 39-33 vote, the Utah House approved HB386 — amended with portions of HB88, which stalled in the House on Monday — and the revamped measure now goes to the Utah Senate for consideration.

The reworked version of HB386, originally meant just to repeal outdated immigration legislation, now also contains provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to tap into in-state university tuition, certain home loan programs and certain professional licensing.

The new HB386 isn’t as far-reaching as HB88, which also would have prohibited immigrants in the country illegally from being able to access certain public benefits like food at food pantries, immunizations for communicable diseases and emergency housing.

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Moreover, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton and the HB88 sponsor, stressed that the new provisions in HB386 wouldn’t impact immigrants in the country legally. He touted HB88 as a means of making sure taxpayer money isn’t funneled to programming that immigrants in the country illegally can tap.

Rep. Lisa Shepherd, R-Provo, the HB386 sponsor, sounded a similar message, referencing, with chagrin, the provision allowing certain students in the country illegally to access lower in-state tuition rates at Utah’s public universities. Because of such provisions “we’re taking care of other countries’ children first, and I want to take care of Utahns first. In my campaign I ran and said Utahns first and this bill will put Utahns first,” she said.


If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us.

–Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful


The relatively narrow 39-33 vote, atypical in the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature, followed several other narrow, hotly contested procedural votes to formally amend HB386. Foes, including both Democrats and Republicans, took particular umbrage with provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to pay in-state tuition and access certain scholarships.

As is, students in the country illegally who have attended high school for at least three years in Utah and meet other guidelines may pay lower in-state tuition, but if they have to pay out-of-state tuition instead, they could no longer afford to go to college.

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“If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us,” said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful.

Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, noted her own hardscrabble upbringing as an immigrant from Vietnam and said the changes outlined in the reworked version of HB386 run counter to what she believes Utah stands for.

“I fear that what we’re doing here in Utah is we are eroding what truly makes Utah special, the Utah way. We are starting to adopt policies that are regressive and don’t take care of people. Utahns are one thing. Citizens are one thing. People is the first thing,” she said.

Rep. John Arthur, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the measure sends a negative message to the immigrant students impacted.

“If we pass this bill today, colleagues, we will be telling these young people — again, who have graduated from our high schools, these kids who have gone to at least three years of school here — that you’re no longer a Utahn,” he said.

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If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways.

–Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland


Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland, said the debate underscores a “fallacy” about compassion. She backed the reworked version of HB386, saying Utah resources should be first spend on those in the country legally.

“If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways,” she said.

The original version of HB386 calls for repeal of immigration laws on the books that are outdated because other triggering requirements have not been met or they run counter to federal law.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Washington

Man charged with shooting co-worker in Washington Heights

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Man charged with shooting co-worker in Washington Heights


A 26-year-old man had an argument with a co-worker before allegedly fatally shooting the colleague in Washington Heights, prosecutors said Friday.

Bobby Martin, who was charged with first-degree murder Thursday, made his first appearance Friday in Cook County court.

Martin, is accused of killing his co-worker, Antoine Alexander, 32, in a parking lot at 9411 S Ashland Ave about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to Chicago police.

Prosecutors said Martin and Alexander worked together at an armed security company and got into a verbal altercation inside the guard shack on Tuesday afternoon. During the altercation, prosecutors said Alexander removed his bullet proof vest and threw it to the ground. A witness, another co-worker, then told the defendant and the victim to take the altercation outside.

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After stepping outside, the defendant pulled his firearm and fired one shot into the victims abdomen, prosecutors said. The victim’s firearm was holstered at the time of the argument and the shooting. The defendant fled the scene and came into contact with another co-worker, whom he told that he had just shot Alexander.

Alexander was then taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.

Martin was arrested by authorities three blocks from his home approximately 20 minutes after the shooting, prosecutors said.

Martin was detained and will appear in court again on March 17, authorities said.

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