Elections

Lawmakers say preservationists held too much power over decisions on whether buildings should be demolished and what should be allowed to replace them.The oceanfront Eden Roc Hotel is an icon of Miami Modernist architecture, a style that epitomized the postwar glamour and grandeur of Miami Beach. Two turquoise panels wrap the white facade. The oval canister perched atop the building resembles a cruise ship’s funnel. Crooners like Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, and Sammy Davis, Jr., stayed and played there.But a new Florida law could make it easier for hotels like the Eden Roc and other architectural icons along Miami Beach’s coastline to be demolished. The battle pits the pressures of development and climate change against the benefits of historical preservation, in a city that has long paved over its past and prizes the new, shiny, and glitzy.Supporters say the law addresses environmental and safety challenges of aging properties after the deadly 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo. But critics believe the legislation is a pretext to facilitate the demolition of historical buildings — ones that give Miami Beach its distinct look — to make way for high-rise luxury condos.The new law effectively strips Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board of its long-held power to say whether historic structures can be demolished and, if a structure is knocked down, to ensure that at least some elements of its design are preserved or replicated. “Let’s just bulldoze the past — that’s their idea,” said Daniel Ciraldo, the executive director of the nonprofit Miami Design Preservation League. “I don’t think we’ve seen such an attack on our local controls since the 1980s, back when the city first started to do historic preservation.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

When a Trump-appointed judge, Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, overrode the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone last year, he relied in part on a statute from a 19th-century law.That law, called the Comstock Act, prevents the mailing of drugs used for abortions. Its abortion-related provisions became potentially enforceable again when five Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court — three of whom were installed by former President Trump — eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.The law is named for Anthony Comstock, an anti-vice crusader who became the U.S. postal inspector during the Grant administration. Enacted by Congress in 1873, it barred the mailing of contraceptives and “lewd” materials, along with drugs that could be used to terminate a pregnancy. (Congress later repealed the birth control provision but let the rest stand.)Specifically, a component of the act declares “nonmailable” every “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use it or apply it for producing abortion.”In his ruling, Judge Kacsmaryk wrote, “It is indisputable that chemical abortion drugs are both ‘drug[s]’ and are ‘for producing abortion.’ Therefore, federal criminal law declares they are ‘nonmailable.’” Before Mr. Trump gave him a life-tenured position on the federal bench, Judge Kacsmaryk had worked as a lawyer for a Christian conservative legal organization.The judge’s strict interpretation of that statute in the Comstock Act conflicts with a December 2022 opinion by Christopher Schroeder, an emeritus law professor at Duke University who was then President Biden’s appointee to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.Professor Schroeder, who has since retired, focused on the fact that mifepristone has medical uses beyond inducing abortions and concluded that abortion-causing drugs could lawfully be sent by mail if the sender does not intend for the recipient to use them unlawfull‌y. More

Directed by Dan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”), the documentary offers a lesson in how conspiracy theories work and shows how parents confronted Jones in court.Even though the legal battle between Sandy Hook families and the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been thoroughly covered, it is still hard to watch him in the documentary “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” without experiencing a wave of nausea.Directed by Dan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”), the film methodically lays out the horrors that families in Newton, Conn., faced on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary. Parents of the victims share memories from that morning before their children left for school. Daniel Jewiss, the lead investigator, walks viewers through how the slaughter unfolded.Then the documentary shows how, just as the parents were dealing with unfathomable grief, Jones, through his Infowars broadcasts, began promoting the idea that the shooting was a hoax. As he continued to spread falsehoods, people who latched on to such claims harassed the families. Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed at Sandy Hook, describes the harassment as coming in waves. “It was almost like I knew when Alex Jones said something,” he says in testimony excerpted in the film.If there is value in seeing these events recapped, it is in the power of seeing the parents confront Jones in court. (Over two trials, in Texas and Connecticut, they won more than $1 billion in damages.) It is also in the horror of seeing just how confidently Jones deflects questions and tries to steer proceedings to his advantage — denying the families what Alissa Parker, Emilie’s mother, calls “a moment of reflection” from him.“The Truth vs. Alex Jones” offers a lesson in just how vicious and pervasive conspiracy theories can become and a chilling portrait of how little they may trouble their purveyors.The Truth vs. Alex JonesNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. Watch on Max. More

When a bridge carrying Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed last summer, President Biden came to town six days later and stood alongside Pennsylvania’s governor for an announcement that it would be repaired and reopened within two weeks.Now that an interstate highway bridge in Baltimore has fallen into the water after being struck by a cargo ship early Tuesday morning, the president, who counts a major infrastructure law as part of his first-term accomplishments, will have another challenge to demonstrate what a competent government response looks like.Maryland isn’t a presidential battleground, but like Pennsylvania it does have a Democratic governor who is a key Biden ally with significant political ambitions of his own and a Senate race that will help determine which party controls the chamber next year.Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland declared a state of emergency and said he was in contact with federal and local authorities.It will take time to determine the political fallout from the Baltimore bridge collapse. The dramatic video of the Francis Scott Key Bridge crumbling into the Patapsco River is ready made for doom-and-gloom political ads. The human toll of the collapse remains undetermined. And if Baltimore’s port is closed for a significant period it would enact a severe and extended economic toll on the region.President Biden arrived in Philadelphia six days after a bridge carrying Interstate 95 collapsed last summer. Pete Marovich for The New York TimesSo far Maryland officials have not sought to cast blame or seek a partisan advantage. Former Gov. Larry Hogan, a centrist Republican who is running for the Senate, wrote on social media that he was praying for those still missing. The two Democrats in a primary to face Mr. Hogan, Representative David Trone and Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, released similar statements of grief and shock.When the Interstate 95 bridge in Philadelphia reopened 15 days after it collapsed, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania declared it a feat of government competence and has since incorporated it into his talking points for why Mr. Biden deserves a second term.Now Mr. Biden, who is scheduled to travel to North Carolina on Tuesday and has been briefed on the bridge collapse, has another high-profile opportunity to demonstrate how his administration responds to a major civic calamity. The White House has not yet revealed any plans for Mr. Biden to visit Baltimore — though typically presidents do not appear at disaster sites until local authorities have been able to assess the extent of the damage. More

The authorities arrived in the Far Rockaway neighborhood at about 6 p.m. and found the police officer and a man wounded by gunfire.A police officer died on Monday after being shot during a traffic stop in Queens, the police and city officials said.The suspected gunman, who was also wounded, was the first to fire his gun during the evening encounter in Far Rockaway, striking the officer, Jonathan Diller, in the torso below his protective vest, Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban said at a news conference at Jamaica Hospital, where Officer Diller was taken.The officer’s partner returned fire, striking the man, who was also taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he is being treated for his injuries, officials said at the news conference. “This is a devastating moment,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who also spoke at the news conference. “We have to bury another cop,” he added. Officer Diller joined the Police Department in February 2021, according to city records. He has been recognized three times for “excellent police duty.”In a social media post, Commissioner Caban said Officer Diller and his wife had a young child.“We struggle to find the words to express the tragedy of losing one of our own,” the commissioner wrote.Police officials said the officer approached the car in Far Rockaway because it had been illegally parked. Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesOfficials did not identify the suspect or the second person who was in the vehicle. It was unclear on Monday whether the driver or the passenger had shot Officer Diller, but the driver was arrested on a gun charge last year, police officials said. The police said the episode had begun shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, when Officer Diller and his partner from the Police Department’s community response team approached the car because it was illegally parked at a bus stop on Mott Avenue. Officer Diller asked the suspect several times to get out of the car, said Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, but the suspect refused, pointed a gun at the officer and fired.Officers in the area heard the shots and sprinted toward the scene, according to security footage from a Mott Avenue deli about two blocks away. Jummai Ezedebego, 57, who was nearby at the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue subway station, also heard the gunfire and watched as other passengers scattered and helicopters whirred overhead. “Everybody was running and the police started coming,” Ms. Ezedebego said. Later that night, officers put yellow police tape around a gray S.U.V. parked on Mott Avenue. Shards of glass littered the sidewalk, and the front passenger door window appeared to have been pierced by a bullet. Before Monday, the two most recent New York police officers killed in the line of duty were Wilbert Mora and his partner, Jason Rivera. The officers were gunned down in January 2022 as they answered a domestic disturbance call in Harlem.“We should never be here,” Commissioner Caban said at the news conference. “And we’re here far too many times,” he added. Dakota Santiago More

One court offered Donald J. Trump a financial lifeline. Another set him on a path to prosecution. It was a taste of what America will experience until the November election.At 11 a.m. Monday, a New York appeals court made Donald J. Trump’s day, rescuing him from financial devastation in a civil fraud case.By noon, the New York judge overseeing his criminal case had nearly ruined it, setting Mr. Trump’s trial for next month and all but ensuring he will hold the dubious distinction of becoming the first former American president to be criminally prosecuted.The contrasting outcomes of Mr. Trump’s twin New York legal crises — a triumph in the civil case and a setback in the criminal one — set the former president on a winding path as he seeks to navigate around an array of legal troubles to recapture the White House.Unfolding in rapid succession in his hometown courts, the day’s events captured the disorienting reality of having a candidate who is also a defendant. And they showed that nothing about the months until Election Day will be easy, linear or normal — for Mr. Trump or the nation.Rather than mount a traditional cross-country campaign in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention in July, Mr. Trump, the presumptive nominee, is preparing to work around the criminal trial that will begin April 15 and last for at least six weeks.His schedule will be built around the four days each week that the trial is expected to take place in court, with Wednesdays expected to be an off day. One person familiar with his preliminary plans described weekend events held in strategically important states near New York, like Pennsylvania, or in hospitable areas outside Manhattan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Joshua Russell, 46, of Ohio, left threatening messages for Katie Hobbs in 2022, when she was Arizona’s secretary of state and successfully ran for governor.An Ohio man who threatened to kill Katie Hobbs in 2022 when she was secretary of state in Arizona and running to be governor was sentenced Monday to two and a half years in prison, prosecutors announced.The man, Joshua Russell, 46, of Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Arizona in August to one count of making an interstate threat, according to the Justice Department. He was indicted in December 2022 on charges that he had left several voice messages containing death threats with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office during the midterm election season, in which Ms. Hobbs was elected governor.Ms. Hobbs, a Democrat, was secretary of state in Arizona and was the state’s top election official when Joe Biden’s 2020 victory there was certified. She was not named in court documents, but a letter filed in court last week on Mr. Russell’s behalf was addressed to her.In the letter, Mr. Russell apologized to Ms. Hobbs and said that he was being treated for anger and drug and alcohol abuse, which he cited as a factor in making the threats.“Social media and news reports (that I didn’t know if they were true or false) became another addiction for me, and only fueled my depression, anxiety and anger,” Mr. Russell wrote.The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday night, and Mr. Russell’s public defenders could not immediately be reached.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Ilia Malinin, an American teenager, won the men’s World Figure Skating Championships with a performance set to the theme of the HBO series.Like the plot of “Succession,” Ilia Malinin’s winning program for the men’s singles competition at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday had a lot of twists: six quadruple jumps that included a quadruple axel, a feat involving four and a half rotations in the air.That those elements were set to the HBO series’ theme song only heightened the drama of Mr. Malinin’s performance.The moody string music that opens the song had been playing for about 30 seconds when Mr. Malinin, a 19-year-old student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., executed a quad axel in a costume that resembled a classic tuxedo. Mr. Malinin, who grew up in Fairfax, is the only skater who has landed that jump in competition; he first did so in 2022.By the time of the “Succession” theme’s piano riffs, he had completed three more quads: a quad lutz, a quad loop and a quad salchow. (His knack for executing quadruple jumps has earned him the nickname Quad God.) Before the end of the roughly four-minute program, he landed two more.Mr. Malinin started skating to the “Succession” theme last fall, but he has yet to watch the show. “I don’t have a subscription to HBO,” he said in an interview. “But if I did get it, I’d definitely watch.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More