Elections

Sage, a miniature poodle, was named best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday night, modeling the kind of poise and composure unfamiliar to most humans in front of a whooping crowd at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.The competition began with 2,500 dogs from more than 200 breeds, then pared down to a field of just seven group champions. The best in show judge, Rosalind Kramer, selected Sage over what she called an “absolutely glorious” lineup of dogs: Mercedes the German shepherd, Comet the Shih Tzu, Louis the Afghan, Micha the black cocker spaniel, Monty the giant schnauzer and Frankie the colored bull terrier.Victory at Westminster is considered the apex of canine achievement. Last year, the prize went to Buddy Holly, a petit basset griffon Vendéen who was the first of his breed to win best in show. The dog was later sworn in as the “canine mayor” of his hometown, Palm Springs, Calif. More

The notification of the deal to Congress as the president holds up the delivery of other weapons shows the fine line the administration is trying to walk with its longtime ally.The Biden administration has told Congress that it intends to move forward with a plan for the United States to sell more than $1 billion in new weapons to Israel, according to three congressional aides familiar with the deal.The notification of the sale, which would include new tactical vehicles and ammunition, comes as President Biden has withheld a shipment of bombs to Israel, hoping to prevent U.S.-made weapons from being used in a potential invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Last week, Mr. Biden said he would block the delivery of weapons such as bombs and missiles that could be fired into the densely populated area where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.The potential arms transfer illustrated the narrow path the Biden administration is walking with Israel, trying to prevent an assault on Rafah and limit civilian casualties in Gaza but continuing to supply a longtime ally that the president has said has a right to defend itself. One congressional aide said Congress had been aware of the arms deal for months, and suggested that the administration had simply waited for a foreign aid package with more aid for Israel to pass before moving forward with the required congressional notification process.When asked about the package, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, the State Department referred to recent comments from Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, citing a continued commitment to supply Israel with military assistance to defend itself from threats in the region.“The president was clear he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation, were it to occur,” Mr. Sullivan said. “It has not yet occurred. And we are still working with Israel on a better way to ensure the defeat of Hamas everywhere in Gaza, including in Rafah.”The administration has been pushing for a cease-fire deal in which Hamas would release at least some of the hostages it took on Oct. 7, when it attacked Israel and began the war. But the prime minister of Qatar, a key player in the talks, said on Tuesday that they were at “almost a stalemate.”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

Sarah Elfreth, the youngest woman ever elected to Maryland’s State Senate, won a crowded Democratic primary race on Tuesday in Maryland’s Third Congressional District, according to The Associated Press.Ms. Elfreth, 35, emerged from a field of more than 20 Democrats vying in the deep-blue district to succeed Representative John Sarbanes, a Democrat who announced last October that after nine terms he would not seek re-election.First elected to the Maryland State Senate in 2018, Ms. Elfreth often highlighted her political résumé during her run and played up the bipartisan legislative victories she helped to secure while serving in the General Assembly. She ran on a platform with standard Democratic fare that included pledges to protect abortion rights, combat gun violence and fight climate change.Ms. Elfreth drew support from several local Democrats. Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, who did not seek re-election this year, spoke favorably of her while appearing on the trail alongside her last week — though he stopped short of a formal endorsement.Her most prominent rival was Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who was on duty during the attacks on Jan. 6, 2021, and rose to national fame after testifying in the House investigation into the attack. Mr. Dunn, a first-time candidate, had significantly out-raised his opponents in the race since announcing his run in January, and was endorsed by a number of prominent national Democrats.Ms. Elfreth had raised about $1.5 million since starting her campaign in November, significantly less than the $4.6 million that Mr. Dunn had amassed. But she received support from outside groups, including more than $4.2 million in spending from the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group.Her support drew attacks from Mr. Dunn, who swore off funding from outside groups and criticized Ms. Elfreth for at times voting alongside Republicans in the State Senate. Ms. Elfreth, for her part, said she would prioritize campaign finance reform in Congress, and her campaign said that Mr. Dunn had distorted Ms. Elfreth’s record.Ms. Elfreth will be favored in the heavily Democratic district in November. More

Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, won the Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, making him the likely next chief executive of the deeply Republican state.In the general election, he will face Steve Williams, the mayor of Huntington, and the only Democrat on the primary ballot. The winner will succeed Jim Justice, who has led the state for eight years , and who is running for U.S. Senate.Mr. Morrisey, now in his third term as the state’s attorney general, was one of six candidates vying for the Republican nomination, including two political scions. One was Moore Capito, a former state lawmaker, whose mother is Senator Shelly Moore Capito, and whose grandfather was Arch Moore Jr., a three-term governor. The other was Chris Miller, the owner of an auto dealership group, who is the son of U.S. Rep. Carol Miller and the grandson of Samuel Devine, who represented Ohio’s 12th district in Congress for 11 terms. Also among the Republican candidates was Mac Warner, the West Virginia secretary of state.The Republican candidates ran hard to the right in the campaign, accusing one another other of being Republicans in name only, and of being insufficiently opposed to transgender rights.Mr. Morrisey, 56, challenged Joe Manchin III for his U.S. Senate seat in 2018 and came up just short. But he since made a name for himself by aggressively litigating against President Biden’s policies. He has joined or led several coalitions of Republican state attorneys general challenging the federal government over environment regulations, vaccine mandates and gun sales.The winner of the general election will take over a state that has scored poorly on a host of metrics. West Virginia has one of the highest child poverty rates and lowest labor force participation rates in the country, and a large portion of the population has reported heath problems. Following a major cut last year in the state’s income tax, significant revenue shortfalls are forecast in the years ahead. More

M. Cohen Direct/Hoffinger
3277
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was there at The Trump Organization about executives coming in
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to meet with Mr. Trump?
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A
Mr.
Trump had an open-door policy, which, if there was
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somebody in there, you waited; and if not, you knocked on the
door, and I would say, “Boss, do you have a second?”, and I
would walk right in.
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Q
And others did the same, to your knowledge?
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A
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To my knowledge, yes.
Now, when you met with Mr. Trump at The Trump
Organization, in his office, did you, generally, need
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—
I’m
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sorry.
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Did you, generally, record those meetings in your calendar?
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A
No, ma’am.
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As part of your work at The Trump Organization, did
you feel that it was part of your job to keep him updated on
matters that you were handling for him?
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A
Yes.
It was actually required.
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A
Tell us what you mean by that.
When he would task you with something, he would then
say, “Keep me informed. Let me know what’s going on.”
And what he was saying, what everybody did is, as soon as
you had a result, an answer, you would go straight back and
tell him. Especially if it was a matter that was troubling to
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him.
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So, two things, just to break that down.
Laurie Eisenberg, CSR, RPR
Senior Court Reporter More

The department said the company had failed to design and enforce an ethics program to prevent violation of U.S. fraud laws.The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Boeing was in violation of a 2021 settlement related to problems with the company’s 737 Max model that led to two deadly plane crashes in 2018 and 2019.In a letter to a federal judge, the department said that Boeing had failed to “design, implement and enforce” an ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws in the company’s operations. Creating that program was a condition of Boeing’s settlement, which also carried a $2.5 billion penalty.The determination by the Justice Department opens the door to a potential prosecution of a 2021 criminal charge accusing Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, though Boeing can contest Tuesday’s decision.In a statement, Boeing said that the company believed that it had honored the terms of the settlement, adding that it was looking forward to the opportunity to respond.“As we do so, we will engage with the department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement,” Boeing said in its statement.The Justice Department declined to comment. Paul G. Cassell, a lawyer representing families of victims of the fatal plane crashes, said that his clients were planning to meet with the government on May 31 to discuss next steps in the case.When the government reached its settlement with Boeing in January 2021, many families of the crash victims said that the Trump administration had been too lenient on the aircraft manufacturer.“This is a positive first step and, for the families, a long time coming,” Mr. Cassell said. “But we need to see further action from D.O.J. to hold Boeing accountable.”The crashes of the 737 Max 8 planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people, prompting the F.A.A. to ground the entire 737 Max fleet. An investigation found that both crashes involved mistaken triggering of a maneuvering system designed to help avert stalls in flight.In another settlement, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that Boeing had offered misleading reassurances about the safety of the 737 Max in public statements after both crashes, despite knowing that the maneuvering system had posed a continuing safety issue.The Justice Department reached its finding at a tumultuous time for Boeing, which has faced intense regulatory scrutiny since a door panel blew out of a 737 Max 9 plane during an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Ore., in January. In March, the company said its chief executive, Dave Calhoun, would step down at the end of the year, along with Stan Deal, the head of the division that makes planes for airlines and other commercial customers.Mr. Calhoun replaced Dennis A. Muilenburg, who led the company during the 2018 and 2019 crashes. Boeing fired Mr. Muilenburg, whose performance during the crisis angered lawmakers and alienated victims’ families.Mark Walker More

Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland’s newly chosen Democratic nominee for Senate, is familiar with firsts.With her election in 2018 as executive of Prince George’s County, a populous suburban area bordering Washington, Ms. Alsobrooks became the first Black woman to hold that role.Now she has the chance to become the first Black senator to represent Maryland, which is more than 30 percent Black. If she wins this fall, she would also become the sole woman in Maryland’s congressional delegation, and the second woman ever to represent it in the Senate.And she would be only the fourth Black woman, after Carol Moseley Braun, Kamala Harris and Laphonza Butler, to serve in the Senate — from any state.In a campaign that became increasingly tense over the past few weeks, Ms. Alsobrooks leaned heavily on the importance of racial and gender representation in government, seemingly in hopes that her historic candidacy would counter the flood of cash being spent by her opponent, Representative David Trone.Mr. Trone put more than $55 million of his own money into the race, making it the most expensive Senate primary ever in Maryland.“As women, we don’t want people talking about us and making decisions about us without us,” Ms. Alsobrooks told The New York Times as Tuesday’s election approached, referring to abortion rights, one of the biggest issues of this year’s campaigns.Before she was elected as the county executive in 2018, she also was the county’s top prosecutor, and before that she was an assistant state’s attorney focused on domestic violence.Race was a major theme in her Senate primary, both because of the potential firsts that Ms. Alsobrooks represented and because Mr. Trone, who is white, was accused of racism after he used a racial slur in a congressional hearing (He apologized and said he had used the word inadvertently).She received the support of most of Maryland’s congressional delegation, as well as Gov. Wes Moore — the state’s first Black governor — and Black women in other states.In the general election, she will face a formidable opponent: Larry Hogan, the state’s popular former Republican governor. More

Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, won the Democratic primary for Maryland’s Senate seat on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with a popular Republican former governor that could determine control of the chamber.The Associated Press called the race on Tuesday night for Ms. Alsobrooks, 53, who defeated Representative David Trone, a wealthy congressman who spent more than $61 million of his own money on the race. Mr. Trone outspent Ms. Alsobrooks by a nearly 10-to-1 ratio.She is trying to become the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the Senate. The chamber now has just four Black members, three men and one woman, Senator Laphonza Butler, who has made it clear she will leave at the end of her term in January.While Ms. Alsobrooks, a former prosecutor, trailed Mr. Trone early in the race, she was buoyed by widespread support among Maryland’s Democratic elected officials, who rallied around her campaign.She will now face Larry Hogan, the former Maryland governor, in what will be a closely watched race. Mr. Hogan was recruited to run by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, as Republicans try to recapture the Senate.Democrats and three independents who largely vote with them now control the chamber 51 to 49, but Republicans are favored to pick up West Virginia, increasing the need for Democrats to hold Maryland.Ms. Alsobrooks and Mr. Hogan will compete to replace Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, who is retiring after holding the seat since 2007.The primary between Ms. Alsobrooks and Mr. Trone turned negative as it tightened, splitting Democrats in Congress and beyond. A competitive primary was a rarity in Maryland, a reliably Democratic state that has not had a Republican senator in nearly four decades. Mr. Hogan’s decision to enter the race changed all that.Mr. Trone scored endorsements from congressional leaders, who were eager to have a wealthy candidate who could fund his own Senate run as they embark on a costly battle in several competitive states to keep control of the chamber. But all but one Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation backed Ms. Alsobrooks. More