President Trump’s former campaign advisor who pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI is running for Congress in California.
George Papadopoulos filed to run as a Republican to fill the seat in California’s 25th district after Rep. Katie Hill announced her resignation Sunday. She admitted to having an improper relationship with a staff member prior to her resignation.
In 2017, Papadopoulos admitted to lying about his interactions with foreign officials with connections to the Russian government.
While Papadopoulos hasn’t released a public statement about his bid yet, he did tweet that an announcement was to come shortly.
Announcement soon on my interest in Katie Hill’s soon to be vacant seat in the 25th district!
— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) October 29, 2019
Federal judge blocks Alabama’s controversial abortion bill
A federal judge temporarily blocked Alabama’s restrictive abortion ban from going into effect.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said the Human Life Protection Act “defies the United States Constitution.” He issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the bill from taking effect until the court fully resolves the case, according to CNN.
This decision also means that all other state laws in effect that restrict early-stage abortions have been blocked as well.
If Thompson affirms the ruling, Alabama officials could take their appeal to the Supreme Court, where they are aiming to overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
“As we have stated before, the State’s objective is to advance our case to the US Supreme Court,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. “We intend to submit evidence that supports our argument that Roe and Casey were wrongly decided and that the Constitution does not prohibit states from protecting unborn children from abortion.”
The bill would sentence doctors who provide abortions to life in prison. The only exceptions are when the pregnancy poses a serious health risk to the mother or if there was a lethal anomaly.
Rape and incest were not considered valid reasons to terminate a pregnancy in the bill.
NCAA board of governors votes to allow student-athletes earn compensation
The NCAA Board of Governors voted unanimously this week to allow college athletes to get paid for the use of their names and images.
The decision comes in response to a California law signed last month that banned schools from preventing student-athletes from accepting advertiser compensation and allows athletes to hire agents.
Similar bills have been introduced in Illinois, New York and Florida.
No timeline was given for these changes to be implemented, but Board Chair Michael Drake said there was a need for “additional flexibility” in approaching the matter.
“This modernization for the future is a natural extension of the numerous steps NCAA members have taken in recent years to improve support for student-athletes, including full cost of attendance and guaranteed scholarships,” Drake said.
California man runs for governor solely to run false ads on Facebook
A San Fransisco man registered as a candidate for California’s 2022 gubernatorial election on a platform to call out Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians to run ads that are not fact-checked.
Adriel Hampton said that he will be using his candidate status to run false ads about President Trump, Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook and Twitter executives.
“The genesis of this campaign is social media regulation and to ensure there is not an exemption in fact-checking specifically for politicians like Donald Trump who like to lie online,” Hampton said to CNN Business.
“The Really Online Lefty League” PAC, which Hampton is treasurer of, ran a false ad on Facebook that stated Senator Lindsey Graham backed the Green Deal. While the ad was eventually taken down, Hampton is hoping that he’ll be able to run these ads without interference from Facebook.
Retweet to endorse my campaign for California Governor. #CAGov pic.twitter.com/py2NPUI1J4
— Adriel Hampton, #CAGov candidate ? (@adrielhampton) October 30, 2019
His campaign will be accepting donations to run false ads and he said others could follow in his steps and register to be a candidate too.
“It is actually easy to file to run for office and basically 100 people could do what I just did,” he said.
