A federal judge on Monday blocked the authority of President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold some federal counterterrorism funding from states that don’t meet its election administration demands.

Courts have largely rejected the administration’s previous efforts, which reflect untrue claims about widespread voting fraud and come ahead of November’s midterm elections where Democrats seek to take control of one or both chambers of Congress and check Trump’s power.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C., wrote in a 24-page opinion that federal agencies didn’t have the authority from Congress to add such conditions to the grants, and that the conditions didn’t meet legal thresholds requiring them to relate to the underlying grant purpose.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor its subagency handling the grants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, immediately responded to a request for comment. The grant conditions were the latest in a line of actions by Trump’s administration to shape how elections are run, a task that has long been the job of states.

The plaintiffs that sued were Columbus, Ohio; Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee; and El Paso and Harris counties in Texas.

Over the summer, a FEMA antiterrorism grant announcement included a list of election-related requirements, saying that 20% of grants for states and urban areas would be withheld until they comply.

The program includes more than $1 billion for states and local and tribal governments for a variety of programs aimed at preventing terror at crowded places, online, with border security — and around elections. FEMA expects to award 56 grants.

Many California growers can’t find buyers as the industry produces more wine grapes than the market wants. Wine consumption is declining globally as people drink less.

It’s harvest time in California wine country, but many growers are struggling to sell their grapes as changing drinking habits have caused demand to plunge. The decline is forcing some growers to tear out vineyards that their families have grown for generations.

Wine sales have decreased by more than 20% over a five-year period, causing prices paid for grapes to drop and prompting California growers to take roughly a quarter of the state’s vineyards out of production. Many growers are having to decide whether to harvest at a loss, leave grapes on the vine or replace vineyards with crops more in demand such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives.

Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.

**Why YSK: ** I’ve noticed a few communities which have been abandoned by the mods entirely (the ones I've seen, have only been a single mod). This means the community never gets the traction it deserves.

Just a FYI, you can ask Lemmy World admins for ownership of communities community and actively moderate it, to help revive them, if you believe they are no longer being moderated

Some general indicators are:

1. No Comments / posts by the mod in years
2. There is only 1 mod in the community, but, no posts by them whatsoever
3. There has never been a post at all (even if you check old).

I've seen a few communities now with a lot of potential (like c/debian), and some of those communities even have regular contributors (who may not have even realized yet that the mods likely disappeared years ago).

Even if you don't think you can post super regularly, posting every few weeks is better than a community with no ongoing posts.

When they blamed "malfunctioning Hamas rocket" it is actually a projection because IDF goobers couldn't imagine being able to competently do the same. wdym you can launch artillery without killing yourself???

https://archive.is/AjQHy

post crabs, I want to see dancing crabs

I'm still getting a feel for my be phone's camera. I don't like that I can't entirely turn off the "image optimization" bullshit, but i will admit it takes pretty pictures

🌱

There are no good Republicans.

None. Zip Zilch Zero None Of Them Not A Single Pleasant Person.

They are a revolting corrupt embezzlement ring with literally zero redeeming qualities

Fuck Trump and his spineless boot licking thugs and Fuck Massie and his rose-tinted followers.

Release the Epstein files transparency proposition WITHOUT that gun obsessed bigoted hack's contribution or prosperity.

The White House has launched another taxpayer-funded television ad before the midterms, this time featuring imagery of President Donald Trump walking down a hall as audio plays of him saying “this is the final battle.”

“We will cast out the communist, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” Trump says in the ad, echoing comments he made during a Veterans Day speech in 2023.

Source: RawsAlerts.