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Democratic mayor joins Kentucky GOP lawmakers to celebrate state funding for Louisville

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Democratic mayor joins Kentucky GOP lawmakers to celebrate state funding for Louisville

The amount of state funding headed to Kentucky’s largest city to support downtown renewal, education, health care and other priorities shows that the days of talking about an urban-rural divide in the Bluegrass State are “now behind us,” Louisville’s mayor said Monday.

The new two-year state budget passed by the Republican-dominated legislature will pump more than $1 billion into Louisville, reflecting the city’s role as an economic catalyst that benefits the entire state, lawmakers said.

KENTUCKY LAWMAKERS APPROVE BILL TO FILL SENATE VACANCY BY SPECIAL ELECTION RATHER THAN BY DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR

Republican legislators and Louisville’s first-term Democratic mayor, Craig Greenberg, spoke of the collaboration they achieved during the 60-day legislative session that ended two weeks ago.

“For far too long, folks have talked about this urban-rural divide that has divided Louisville and the rest of the state,” Greenberg said at a news conference attended by a number of lawmakers in downtown Louisville. “Well those days are now behind us.”

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“We may not agree on every issue,” he said. “What we have shown this session is that’s OK. There is so much common ground. There is so much that we do agree on.”

There was no mention of divisive issues — past and present — that prompted some Democratic lawmakers and others to proclaim that the predominantly rural GOP legislature was waging a “war on Louisville.” During the just-ended session, Republican lawmakers enacted a measure to make mayoral elections nonpartisan in Louisville, the state’s most Democratic city. And lawmakers undid efforts in Louisville and Lexington to ban landlords from discriminating against renters who use federal housing vouchers.

A cyclist rides a bike in view of the Louisville, Ky., skyline, June 7, 2016, in Louisville. The amount of state funding headed to Kentucky’s largest city to support downtown renewal, education, health care and other priorities shows that the days of talking about an urban-rural divide in the Bluegrass State are “now behind us,” Louisville’s mayor said Monday, April 29, 2024.  (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Perhaps the most explosive issue is still pending. Lawmakers agreed to create a task force to review the public school system that encompasses Louisville. The review could potentially lead to efforts next year to split up Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest school system.

Sen. Gerald Neal, the state Senate’s top-ranking Democrat, noted at Monday’s event that there remain “some unanswered questions” regarding the legislature’s relationship with Louisville. But Neal praised his colleagues for approving the funding for his hometown, referring to the $100 million over two years for downtown Louisville as a “home run.”

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Other projects winning legislative funding will make improvements at Louisville’s airport, support a community center for teens and adults with disabilities, build on the Louisville Orchestra’s statewide presence and support the Kentucky Exposition Center, which hosts trade shows throughout the year.

University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel said the session produced historic levels of funding for the school. The budget supports development of a new health sciences building in downtown Louisville that will produce more health professionals and advance cutting-edge research, she said.

The state also will help develop a cybersecurity center at UofL that will put the city and state “on the map as a national leader in this emerging and incredibly important technology field,” Schatzel said.

“Construction and cranes on campus, well, they warm a president’s heart like nothing else, as they signal confidence in a very bright future for the university and the communities that we serve,” she said.

Lawmakers passed a more than $128 billion main budget for the state executive branch over the next two fiscal years. They also approved tapping into the state’s massive budget reserves for nearly $3 billion in spending on one-time investments in infrastructure and community projects.

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House Speaker David Osborne said the Louisville investments resulted from disciplined budgeting since the GOP gained House control in 2017, consolidating Republican dominance of the legislature.

For successive budget cycles after that, “this legislative body has spent less money than we have taken in,” the Republican speaker said. “That is not an easy thing to do.”

Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said that Louisville serves a mission stretching far beyond its boundaries in education, health care, transportation, tourism and the humanities. Stivers, who represents an eastern Kentucky district, said the state’s investments in Louisville were a matter of economics.

“You don’t turn away from 18 to 19% of your population and your revenues that you take in to the state coffers,” he said.

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Video: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

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Video: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

new video loaded: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

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Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

At a celebration of Jewish Heritage Month, President Biden pledged support to Israel and condemned a decision by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli officials.

We stand with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas defeated. We’ll work with Israel to make that happen. And consistent with Jewish values and compassion, kindness and dignity and human life, my team also is providing critical humanitarian assistance to help innocent Palestinian civilians who are suffering greatly because of the war Hamas, Hamas has unleashed. [clapping] Its heartbreaking. Let me be clear. We reject the I.C.C.’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. [cheering] Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas, and it’s clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection. But let me be clear. Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that. [cheering]

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Recent episodes in Israel-Hamas War

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2024 showdown: Trump tops Biden in April campaign cash dash

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2024 showdown: Trump tops Biden in April campaign cash dash

With five and a half months to go until the November election, former President Donald Trump enjoys the edge over President Biden in many national polls and surveys in the key battleground states that will likely decide their 2024 rematch.

And in April, for the first time, Trump also enjoyed the lead in monthly fundraising.

The president’s campaign announced on Monday evening that they and the Democratic National Committee hauled in over $51 million in fundraising last month. 

That’s significantly less than the $76 million that the former president and the Republican National Committee raised in April, according to an announcement earlier this month.

THE BLUE STATES TRUMP AIMS TO FLIP RED IN HIS 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

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Former President Donald Trump is joined by top GOP officials, allies, and potential 2024 running mates, as he speaks at a Republican National Committee donor retreat, on May 4, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida (2024 Donald Trump campaign )

“@TeamTrump and the RNC outraised Biden by $25 MILLION in April!” the RNC touted in a social media post.

The fundraising totals are a switch from March, when Biden and the DNC brought in roughly $90 million compared to $65.6 million for Trump and the RNC.

Biden had regularly been outpacing Trump in monthly fundraising, but Trump’s April haul was boosted by a record-setting $50.5 million that the former president’s campaign raked in at a single event early in the month with top dollar GOP donors that was hosted at the Palm Beach, Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson.

WARNING SIGNS FOR TRUMP AND BIDEN AS THEY CAREEN TOWARDS FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

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The Biden campaign, in their announcement, spotlighted that they have hauled in $473 million in the year since the president formally launched his re-election bid. 

They also showcased that they were sitting on a massive $192 million war chest as of the end of April.

They touted that Trump “trails badly in cash on hand” and that they have “the highest total of any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle.”

Biden, Obama and Clinton.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)

The Biden campaign also spotlighted their small dollar donations, saying that “a majority of April’s raise came from grassroots donors, and one million more supporters were added to our email list in the month alone.”

They also took aim at Trump, arguing that his campaign “has focused nearly entirely on courting billionaire donors, maxing out early in the cycle instead of building a durable grassroots fundraising program.”

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In their announcement earlier this month, Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles pointed to their grassroots fundraising prowess, saying that “with half of funds raised coming from small dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized.”

And they pledged that “we are raising the resources necessary to deliver a victory in November.”

Trump and Biden

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon / Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP, Pool)

But the Biden campaign said that its fundraising advantage in recent months has allowed it to go up with major ad buys in the key states and to build formidable ground game teams in the battlegrounds.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said their fundraising “is giving us the resources necessary to invest in opening offices, hiring organizers and communicating across our battleground states in order to mobilize the coalition of voters who will decide this election.”

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Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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California Assembly passes bill allowing Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes

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California Assembly passes bill allowing Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes

A bill that would allow Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes in California passed the state Assembly Monday afternoon on a 49-4 vote and is headed to the Senate. But even if the Legislature’s upper chamber approves AB 1775, legalization remains far from a sure thing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a prior iteration of the bill in October, citing the state’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections.

The bill would authorize local jurisdictions to allow licensed cannabis retailers to prepare and sell non-cannabis food and nonalcoholic beverages. The bill would also allow the cafes to host live music and other performances.

Under current state law, consumers can consume cannabis at a dispensary, but dispensaries can’t legally sell non-cannabis products like coffee and food, as is legal in Amsterdam.

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California’s symbolic position at the apex of weed culture has long been rivaled by the Dutch capital, where cannabis cafes have been legal since the 1970s.

Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who introduced the legislation, has framed it as a matter of fairness. He argues that the cafes would level the playing field for the state’s highly taxed and regulated legal weed industry, allowing legitimate businesses to compete with black-market sellers who don’t operate under the same constraints.

“This is a bill that supports our legal small businesses that just want to diversify their businesses and do the right thing,” Haney said Monday on the Assembly floor. “The illicit illegal market is continuing to grow and thrive, while our legal cannabis market is struggling.”

Haney cited the governor’s prior veto, saying he had been working to address Newsom’s concerns through amendments to the bill. The new version would prohibit cannabis smoking or vaping in “back of house” of lounges, where food is being prepared or stored, creating separation between where people are consuming cannabis and other work areas.

Rather than taking a blunt statewide approach, the bill would put the decision to allow cannabis cafes in the hands of local jurisdictions. Should a jurisdiction decide to greenlight the lounges, it would have to hash out its own permitting process and regulations.

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West Hollywood put a licensing system in place several years ago, and a handful of cannabis lounges operate within the city’s 1.89 square miles. The West Hollywood businesses operate with workarounds that separate the food businesses, The Times has previously reported.

No such licensing system exists in the city of Los Angeles.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Assn. and the American Lung Assn. have all opposed the bill, raising concerns about the health effects of secondhand marijuana smoke. They argue that the bill would undo hard-fought workplace protections “by re-creating the harmful work environments of the past.”

Marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access has argued that patrons and employees would face no health risks because of the highly regulated nature of such establishments.

A Newsom spokesperson declined to comment on pending legislation.

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Staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.

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