(The Center Square) – Actions of the state Board of Elections in North Carolina are being investigated by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

This is after the board denied ballot access to three political parties, even though each exceeded the number of signatures required to qualify.

In a letter from the Judiciary Committee and the House Administration Committee, which is also investigating the decision, the lawmakers stated they are seeking more “documents and information” about the decision.

“The Committee on House Administration and the Committee on the Judiciary are concerned that the NCSBE’s decision was politically motivated and may have been done to influence the 2024 presidential election by limiting the candidates for which voters may cast their ballots,” wrote Jordan and Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin.

Steil is chairman of the House Administration Committee.

The three parties support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Randall Terry for the 2024 presidential race.

The parties each submitted more than the 13,865 votes required to appear on the ballot, according to records from the state’s Board of Elections.

While they were first denied access to the ballot last week, the committee said before the federal investigation was even open that they would reconsider the issue again in July.

The letter from the federal committees says the decision was made based on the “political motivations” of the members of the board, pointing out that the three Democrats on the board all voted against the petition requests. 

“For example,” the letter says. “In its denial of one petition, the Democrat members voted to block the petition simply because the address of the party’s chairman was not up to date on the petition sheets.”

Both Republicans on the board voted in favor of approving the petition.

The federal committees were not the first to react negatively to the board’s decision, which faced widespread backlash.

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina released a statement supporting the petitions from the other three underdog parties, calling the decision “election interference.”

“The Libertarian Party of North Carolina (@LPNC) is deeply disappointed, though hardly surprised, with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (@NCSBE) decision yesterday to limit the choices of the people of North Carolina in keeping the We the People Party, the Constitution Party, and the Justice for All Party off the ballot in North Carolina,” it posted on X. “We resoundingly reject this partisan and anti-American decision that mocks the concept of democracy and destroys any pretense of representative government.”

If the decision is not reversed soon, the candidates will miss the deadline to appear on the ballot in November.

Because of this, the federal committees requested the board respond to their request by Monday so they can “conduct oversight” and avoid any undue “influence” or “sway” the board is attempting to have over the election in North Carolina.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KSWO) – A federal judge approved a preliminary injunction on Oklahoma’s newest immigration law after the U.S. Government filed a lawsuit against the measure. House Bill 4156 was set to go into effect July 1.

Immigration bill sees movement

The embattled measure would have allowed for the placing of criminal penalties upon those in the state who entered the country illegally.

In particular, the law would make it illegal for anyone who does not have legal authorization to enter the United States to come into Oklahoma.

The first offense would be a misdemeanor and carry a jail time no longer than a year and fines up to $500. A second offense would be a felony and carry a jail time up to two years and a fine up to $1,000. In both cases, the individual charged would have 72 hours to leave the state after punishment is complete.

Even before the measure was signed into law by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, advocacy groups alongside some state legislators voiced their concerns amongst Republican cheers for the bill.

But it was Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond who urged the passage of the bill after the U.S. Supreme Court was hesitant on blocking Texas’ SB4 immigration measure.

“The Biden Administration has been utterly derelict in its duty to enforce federal law,” Drummond said after the state Senate passed HB4156. “If the president won’t secure the nation’s border, then our state must step in to protect Oklahomans. I appreciate President Pro Tempore Treat and Speaker McCall for their swift work on this bill and I encourage Gov. Stitt to sign it into law.”

Southwest-based legislator Sen. Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan) voted for the bill because she believes it will keep Oklahoma safe. Garvin lost her primary race in June.

“Immigration is top of mind for many Oklahomans as we see an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants crossing our nation’s Southern border, bringing illicit drugs and criminal activity that pose a threat to our public safety,” Garvin said.

However, a quite different view was held by the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police and Metro Law Enforcement Agency Leaders.

“Law enforcement leaders from state organizations and municipalities were not substantively involved during the process of drafting and signing HB4156 into law,” the groups wrote. “This bill places crime victims at risk by increasing the fear of reporting to law enforcement. Further, HB4156 brings forth legal challenges in fair and impartial policing and anti-racial profiling.”

Democratic State Sen. Michael Brooks (D-OKC) said he thought the bill missed the mark on truly helping residents of the state.

“We could have provided the framework to give a state ID or driver license to those individuals who comply with specific requirements, including paying state and federal income tax, verifying their identity with the state, registering their address, and submitting a fingerprint to the largest law enforcement database in the nation,” Sen. Brooks said. “These are real solutions that would move our state forward in terms of both our economy and in addressing public safety concerns.”

The bill passed the House by way of a 39-8 vote and the Senate by a vote of 77 to 20.

Every Southwest-based state representative voted in favor of the measure, except for Reps. Trey Caldwell and Daniel Pae who were listed as excused.

Gov. Stitt signed the bill into law April 30.

The DOJ filed lawsuit

In May, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging the newly signed measure.

The lawsuit claimed the bill violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause as well as the Foreign Commerce Clause. The DOJ is further claiming the Constitution gives only the federal government the ability to regulate immigration and international borders.

“Oklahoma cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court precedent,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We have brought this action to ensure that Oklahoma adheres to the Constitution and the framework adopted by Congress for regulation of immigration.”

Republican leaders in the state quickly answered with a pushback toward the lawsuit. One of them was Oklahoma Speaker of the House Charles McCall (R-22).

“House Bill 4156 was a carefully crafted, well-thought-out piece of legislation designed to acknowledge the role of the federal government in immigration matters, while at the same time protect the sovereignty and security of our state’s borders,” McCall said.

Now the United States District Court Western District of Oklahoma has issued a preliminary injunction halting the law from going into effect. It was set to take effect July 1.

Members of the Latino Caucus of the Oklahoma Legislature sent out reactionary comments following the issuing of the injunction.

“This bill was a clear political stunt meant to secure the primary elections of our Republican leaders and it wasn’t even successful,” said Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman. “Instead, it targeted a large portion of Oklahoma, angered law enforcement officials, and attempted to bypass the constitution. An injunction is the obvious choice.”

One member of the caucus said they will not stop working on the behalf of Oklahoma residents to keep them protected.

“Please know that we are working tirelessly to protect your rights and ensure that this bill does not go into effect,” said Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City. “HB 4156 is a cheap political move that will cost taxpayers millions and will only manage to lose an essential workforce to the state. Oklahoma will be so much better once we are willing to have conversations about actual solutions.”

Those who advocated for this bill’s passage from the beginning, like AG Drummond, were upset at the court’s decision.

“While today’s court ruling is disappointing, I will not stop fighting for Oklahoma and our right to protect our borders,” Drummond said. “The Biden Administration’s complete failure to enforce federal immigration laws made House Bill 4156 a necessity. We intend to appeal today’s decision and defend one of the most powerful tools we have to fight the criminal activity largely being fueled by illegal aliens in Oklahoma.”

As it currently stands, Oklahoma is unable to enforce the provisions of HB4156 until further court rulings.

You can read the full preliminary injunction order below:

Copyright 2024 KSWO. All rights reserved.

NEW YORK — Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of Shampoo, The Last Detail and other films, whose script for Chinatown became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, has died. He was 89.

Towne died Monday surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said publicist Carri McClure. She declined to comment on any cause of death.

In an industry which gave birth to rueful jokes about the writer’s status, Towne for a time held prestige comparable to the actors and directors he worked with. Through his friendships with two of the biggest stars of the 1960s and ’70s, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, he wrote or co-wrote some of the signature films of an era when artists held an unusual level of creative control.

The rare “auteur” among screen writers, Towne managed to bring a highly personal and influential vision of Los Angeles onto the screen.

“It’s a city that’s so illusory,” Towne told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. “It’s the westernmost west of America. It’s a sort of place of last resort. It’s a place where, in a word, people go to make their dreams come true. And they’re forever disappointed.”

Recognizable around Hollywood for his high forehead and full beard, Towne won an Academy Award for Chinatown and was nominated three other times, for The Last Detail, Shampoo and Greystoke. In 1997, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America.

“His life, like the characters he created, was incisive, iconoclastic and entirely (original),” said Shampoo actor Lee Grant on X.

Towne’s success came after a long stretch of working in television, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E and The Lloyd Bridges Show, and on low-budget movies for “B” producer Roger Corman. In a classic show business story, he owed his breakthrough in part to his psychiatrist, through whom he met Beatty, a fellow patient. As Beatty worked on Bonnie and Clyde, he brought in Towne for revisions of the Robert Benton-David Newman script and had him on the set while the movie was filmed in Texas.

Towne’s contributions were uncredited for Bonnie and Clyde, the landmark crime film released in 1967, and for years he was a favorite ghost writer. He helped out on The Godfather, The Parallax View and Heaven Can Wait among others, and referred to himself as a “relief pitcher who could come in for an inning, not pitch the whole game.”

But Towne was credited by name for Nicholson’s macho The Last Detail and Beatty’s sex comedy Shampoo and was immortalized by Chinatown, the 1974 thriller set during the Great Depression.

Chinatown was directed by Roman Polanski and starred Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes, a private detective asked to follow the husband of Evelyn Mulwray (played by Faye Dunaway). The husband is chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Gittes finds himself caught in a chaotic spiral of corruption and violence, embodied by Evelyn’s ruthless father, Noah Cross (John Huston).

Influenced by the fiction of Raymond Chandler, Towne resurrected the menace and mood of a classic Los Angeles film noir, but cast Gittes’ labyrinthine odyssey across a grander and more insidious portrait of Southern California. Clues accumulate into a timeless detective tale, and lead helplessly to tragedy, summed up by the one of the most repeated lines in movie history, words of grim fatalism a devastated Gittes receives from his partner Lawrence Walsh (Joe Mantell): “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

Towne’s script has been a staple of film writing classes ever since, although it also serves as a lesson in how movies often get made and in the risks of crediting any film to a single viewpoint. He would acknowledge working closely with Polanski as they revised and tightened the story and arguing fiercely with the director over the film’s despairing ending — an ending Polanski pushed for and Towne later agreed was the right choice. (No one has officially been credited for writing “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown”).

But the concept began with Towne, who had turned down the chance to adapt The Great Gatsby for the screen so he could work on Chinatown, partly inspired by a book published in 1946, Carey McWilliams’ Southern California: An Island on the Land.

“In it was a chapter called ‘Water, water, water,’ which was a revelation to me. And I thought, ‘Why not do a picture about a crime that’s right out in front of everybody?,’ ” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2009.

“Instead of a jewel-encrusted falcon, make it something as prevalent as water faucets, and make a conspiracy out of that. And after reading about what they were doing, dumping water and starving the farmers out of their land, I realized the visual and dramatic possibilities were enormous.”

The back story of Chinatown has itself become a kind of detective story, explored in producer Robert Evans’ memoir, The Kid Stays in the Picture; in Peter Biskind’s East Riders, Raging Bulls, a history of 1960s-1970s Hollywood, and in Sam Wasson’s The Big Goodbye, dedicated entirely to Chinatown. In The Big Goodbye, published in 2020, Wasson alleged that Towne was helped extensively by a ghost writer — former college roommate Edward Taylor. According to The Big Goodbye, for which Towne declined to be interviewed, Taylor did not ask for credit on the film because his “friendship with Robert” mattered more.

Wasson also wrote that the movie’s famous closing line originated with a vice cop who had told Towne that crimes in Chinatown were seldom prosecuted.

“Robert Towne once said that Chinatown is a state of mind,” Wasson wrote. “Not just a place on the map in Los Angeles, but a condition of total awareness almost indistinguishable from blindness. Dreaming you’re in paradise and waking up in the dark — that’s Chinatown. Thinking you’ve got it figured out and realizing you’re dead — that’s Chinatown.”

The studios assumed more power after the mid-1970s and Towne’s standing declined. His own efforts at directing, including Personal Best and Tequila Sunrise, had mixed results. The Two Jakes, the long-awaited sequel to Chinatown, was a commercial and critical disappointment when released in 1990 and led to a temporary estrangement between Towne and Nicholson.

Towne’s greatest regret, he said in the 2006 AP interview, was how Greystoke turned out. Towne wrote the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel Tarzan of the Apes and wanted to direct it. But production troubles on Personal Best bled into his hopes for Greystoke. Hugh Hudson, instead, directed the 1984 film. And while Greystoke received three Oscar nominations, including for Towne’s script, he was unhappy with the result. Towne took the name of his dog, P.H. Vazak, for his screenwriting credit, making Vazak an unlikely Oscar nominee.

Around the same time, he agreed to work on a movie far removed from the art-house aspirations of the ’70s, the Don Simpson-Jerry Bruckheimer production Days of Thunder, starring Tom Cruise as a race car driver and Robert Duvall as his crew chief. The 1990 movie was famously over budget and mostly panned, although its admirers include Quentin Tarantino and countless racing fans. And Towne’s script popularized an expression used by Duvall after Cruise complains another car slammed him: “He didn’t slam into you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you. He rubbed you.

“And rubbin,’ son, is racin.’”

Towne later worked with Cruise on The Firm and the first two Mission: Impossible movies. His most recent film was Ask the Dust, a Los Angeles story he wrote and directed that came out in 2006. Towne was married twice, the second time to Luisa Gaule, and had two children. His brother, Roger Towne, also wrote screenplays, his credits including The Natural.

Towne was born Robert Bertram Schwartz in Los Angeles and moved to San Pedro after his father’s business, a dress shop, closed down because of the Great Depression. (His father changed the family name to Towne). He had always loved to write and was inspired to work in movies by the proximity of the Warner Bros. Theater and from reading the critic James Agee. For a time, Towne worked on a tuna boat and would speak often of its impact.

“I’ve identified fishing with writing in my mind to the extent that each script is like a trip that you’re taking — and you are fishing,” he told the Writers Guild Association in 2013. “Sometimes they both involve an act of faith. … Sometimes it’s sheer faith alone that sustains you, because you think, ‘God damn it, nothing — not a bite today. Nothing is happening.’ ”

Copyright 2024 NPR