Jan. 5 (UPI) — Voters in Illinois and Massachusetts filed petitions to remove former President Donald Trump from Republican primary ballots in their state.
The organization Free Speech for People, which has led challenge efforts to Trump’s eligibility in states around the country based on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, assisted the suits filed by five voters in Illinois and a group of voters in Massachusetts Thursday.
The Illinois voters filed an objection petition with the Illinois State Board of Election to remove Trump’s name from the March 19 Republican primary ballot, alleging that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, amounted to insurrection, which would bar him from office.
It also cited the Dec. 19 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court and the Dec. 28 decision made by the Maine Secretary of State, which ruled that Trump is ineligible for its ballot, based on the same claims.
“Thus, the only two decisions evaluating Section 3 challenges that reached the merits of the challenge and assessed evidence from both candidate Trump and objectors determined that Trump is constitutionally barred from office,” said the petition.
In Massachusetts, a similar petition was filed with the state’s Ballot Law Commission with civil rights attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan by a group of voters that includes former Boston Mayor Kim Janey and two law professors.
“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding the Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” Liss-Riordan said in a statement on Thursday.
While Minnesota and Michigan have ruled against Free Speech for People there, the organization said those courts made those decisions on procedural grounds and not the facts of the case.
On Wednesday, Trump filed an appeal of Colorado’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of getting a ruling that would affect all of the challenges against him based on the 14th Amendment. His campaign has called the Colorado disqualification “unAmerican” and “unconstitutional.”
Rescuers were working to save around 30 bottlenose dolphins that got stranded off the coast of Cape Cod early Monday morning. It is the largest known stranding of bottlenose dolphins off Massachusetts, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The dolphins had become stranded between First Light and Ellis Landing in Brewster at about 5:30 a.m. when they came in with the tide. A woman noticed the animals and reported it. The IFAW quickly responded to the area, but five to six of the marine mammals died before help arrived.
The IFAW worked throughout the day on Monday to get the mammals away from the shoreline before the next low tide at 5:13 p.m. They said late Monday afternoon that they were still successfully being steered away.
“Our team remains in the area to monitor and herd the animals away from shore,” an IFAW spokesperson said. “We know these events can sometimes repeat in the coming hours and days, but we remain hopeful.”
The organization said it had seen an uptick in bottlenose dolphins becoming stranded off Cape Cod in the last few years.
“Bottlenose dolphins are typically an offshore species,” the spokesperson said.
They asked that anyone who encounters a stranded or distressed marine mammal not get close and never drag or push the animal back into the water.
“Similar to a person involved in a car accident, dolphins can become injured and exhausted during a stranding event,” the IFAW said.
Instead, they recommend calling their IFAW stranding hotline at 508-743-9548.
A man has died following an apparent drowning at a pond in Randolph, Massachusetts, on Sunday.
The Randolph police and fire departments received a 911 call at around 4 p.m. for a swimmer in distress in the water on Pond Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office..
Firefighters located the man a short time later, officials added, and he was taken by ambulance to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Kingston Fire Department had said just before 4 p.m. that their dive team was activated for a missing swimmer in Randolph, but that the activation was canceled after the swimmer was located.
Further information is not being released at this time, including the man’s name.
Massachusetts State Police detectives and the Randolph Police Department are investigating.
Firefighters in Lawrence, Massachusetts are working to contain a fire that damaged at least three buildings on Sunday afternoon.
Lawrence Fire Chief Patrick Delaney said they received multiple 911 calls about the buildings on fire at the intersection of Haverhill and Margin Street at about 12:45 p.m.
When firefighters arrived, there were three occupied multi-family buildings with heavy fire.
“Crews did an excellent job once they arrived on scene to make sure we did a primary search of all three buildings, make sure everybody was out,” Chief Delaney said.
No injuries have been reported. It is unclear how many people have been displaced from the three buildings that were on fire.
Chief Delaney said the firefighters were impacted by the hot weather.
“The crews are working extremely hard, they’re taking a lot of heat in all three fire buildings and we’re trying to get crews in here to make sure that they’re safe and give them some relief,” Chief Delaney said.
Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire. Firefighters from other nearby communities responded for mutual aid.
“We’re at a fourth alarm which brings a lot of resources to our city, but they’re well needed in a fire like this,” Chief Delaney said.
Police are asking residents to avoid the area of Haverhill Street at Margin Street because of the fire.
Lawrence, Massachusetts is a city about 30 miles north of Boston.
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