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For Wisconsin Dems, a 2024 win in the battleground state is years in the making

MADISON, Wis. — Democrats in the state believe they have been laying the groundwork for winning the 2024 presidential election for roughly seven years.  Wisconsin Democrats Chair Ben Wikler told Fox News Digital in an interview that their “everything, everywhere, all at once” and neighbor-to-neighbor organizing has been building the infrastructure for Democrat nominee Vice President Harris to win the critical battleground state.  He said Democrats in Wisconsin have been “building teams of neighbors to take responsibility for talking to folks in their surrounding area” continuously “for the last seven years.” SEE IT: WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER SAYS ‘NO QUESTION’ TRUMP ADMIN WAS ‘MUCH BETTER’ THAN BIDEN-HARRIS The Harris campaign is then building off the groundwork they have spent years laying for Democrats, he said.  Wikler attributed recent statewide electoral wins for Democrats in the last six years to this organizing strategy.  “What we know is that a trusted messenger matters almost as much as the message,” Wikler said. “And there are Democrats in rural areas talking to other rural voters, in suburbs talking to other suburban voters, in cities talking to other city-dwellers about their votes.” WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION “We think that the messages that Harris and Walz are carrying, they can resonate with everybody,” he said. “And having a messenger who can actually start that conversation and have it not at the talking-point level but at ‘what’s actually happening in our lives and communities’ level makes all the difference. “ Wikler noted that “Wisconsin is the perennial tipping-point state,” referencing its past electoral shifts from going for former President Trump in 2016 to President Biden in 2020. TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT “On the Democratic side, we have a real ground organizing volunteer operation, and we have 16,000 people who’ve done their first volunteer shift with Democrats” since Harris became the nominee late in the campaign.  He hit Republicans and allied organizations for using “paid canvassers, people who are hired to go knock on doors but don’t necessarily have a connection to the community where they’re having those conversations.” HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION “I think we’ll see at the end of the day which of these strategies has a bigger effect,” Wikler added.  This week, Fox News Power Rankings rated Wisconsin as a “Toss Up” going into the presidential election.  On the ground, Republicans and Democrats alike are expecting the state to come down to just tens of thousands of votes, as it did in 2016 and 2020. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

VP Harris ripped by victim of illegal immigrant released under her program over resurfaced speech

FIRST ON FOX: A woman whose skull was fractured by an illegal immigrant let out of jail as part of a program launched by then San Francisco DA Kamala Harris is blasting the vice president over a resurfaced speech where Harris discusses the matter as being the result of a “glitch” in the system.  “That ‘glitch’ certainly had a negative impact on my life,” Amanda Kiefer, who suffered a brutal attack at the hands of an illegal immigrant in 2008 while she walked down the street with friends, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It would be easier to believe it was a mistake if Democrats in San Francisco didn’t have a long history of enabling illegal immigration, choosing not to prosecute illegal immigrant criminals and refusal to deport anyone.” “It wasn’t a “glitch” that the Biden Harris administration has let in millions of illegal immigrants, including tens of thousands of known, convicted criminals and those on the terror watch list. At a certain point, it can’t be incompetence, it’s intentional. Harris doesn’t care about Americans’ safety.” Then San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, in a resurfaced speech, blamed a “glitch” in the system while discussing the attack on Kiefer. CBS ’60 MINUTES’ AIRS TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS FROM VP HARRIS TO THE SAME QUESTION “But whenever you’re rolling out something new, there will at some point become apparent that there is a mistake or a glitch in the design, and when you’re in these kinds of positions, that mistake or glitch is on the front page of the paper,” Harris said during a 2010 Women in Leadership conference at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business while discussing the “Back on Track” program she launched that allowed non-violent offenders to avoid jail and instead enter job training and eventually have their records expunged. “And so you have to take a knock for that,” Harris said in the speech. “When I rolled out Back on Track, I took a big political hit, when a couple of years later, it turned out, especially in criminal law, because when you’re taking, when you’re doing innovation in the criminal justice system, let me tell you what that means. That means I’m doing something differently with somebody who’s on my radar. Why are they on my radar? Because they committed a crime.” Kiefer was brutally attacked by 20-year-old Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal immigrant, while she walked with friends down a San Francisco street in 2008. Izaguirre stole her purse and then attempted to run her down in a waiting SUV, fracturing her skull.  Izaguirre had been arrested a few months prior to the attack on drug charges but was able to roam free, thanks to the program launched by Harris. Harris continued in the speech, “Now, remember, I’m focused on the non-violent offender with these innovative programs, right? The fear will always be that guy will go out and kill a baby and a grandmother tomorrow, and then everyone will look backwards and say, ‘Why didn’t you do it the way it’s always been done? Why did you try something new?’ It’s a big risk. And so when I rolled out Back on Track, couple years in, we learned that there was basically, there was a participant who went out, during the time he was in the program, committed a robbery, there was a horrible injury to the victim. And turned out that this individual is an undocumented immigrant.” In her speech, Harris went on to mention an article written about her at the time that said, “‘Kamala Harris has created a program to shield illegal aliens.’” “Right?” Harris said. “And that’s when my friends came really in handy to just say it’s, you know, because I was upset about the unfairness and the mischaracterization and . . . ‘Don’t people want these things fixed? Don’t they understand what innovation requires?’ And, and that’s when you have to rely on your friends who understand what you do and care about you and will support you without judgment, but also give you critical feedback when you need it.” KAMALA HARRIS STRUGGLING TO SAY HOW SHE’S DIFFERENT THAN BIDEN ON ‘THE VIEW’ SURPRISES CNN PANEL In 2009, Harris told the press that Izaguirre is “being prosecuted” and “will be deported with my full encouragement and support.” Harris also said at the time that Izaguirre’s release was a “flaw in the design” that was fixed. Kiefer also spoke out about her experience earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported. She said that the experience was a “red pill moment” for her, leading her to abandon what she said were her liberal political views from the time and embrace candidates such as former President Trump. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Kiefer appeared alongside Trump when he visited the Arizona border earlier this year and spoke along with other victims of illegal immigrant crime. “I moved out of San Francisco because I didn’t feel safe there and I don’t think our country is going to be safe under Kamala Harris,” Kiefer said.  Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign, which did not provide a comment. Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report. 

Abu Dhabi wave pool added as new venue on World Surf League 2025 tour

League to stage an event in the Middle East for the first time at Hudayriyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The world’s biggest artificial wave in Abu Dhabi has been added to surfing’s 11-stop world tour for 2025, the World Surf League (WSL) says, with Fiji confirmed to host the finals to crown the world champions at the tour’s conclusion. The tour will again start at Hawaii’s dangerous Banzai Pipeline in late January before heading to the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool in the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The 75,000sq-metre (807,300sq-foot) pool uses the same technology as California’s Surf Ranch, developed with 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, which has hosted several world tour surfing events to mixed reviews. “We’ve built this schedule to include more events and feature a variety of breaks,” Ryan Crosby, WSL CEO, said on Thursday. “We’ve brought back some of the tour’s most desirable locations while aligning dates with favourable swell windows to open up more opportunity for quality surf. “We’ll see a great mix of locations from heavy-water barrels to high-performance waves and pristine point breaks.” Back on the schedule are the reeling right-hand point breaks of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, which was skipped to accommodate the Olympics last year, and Snapper Rocks in Australia, which returns to the championship tour after a five-year hiatus. The tour’s controversial mid-season cut, which reduces both the men’s and women’s fields by one-third, remains in place after stop number seven at Margaret River in Western Australia. The change in the season-ending WSL finals to the heaving barrels and long walls of Fiji’s Cloudbreak reef was widely praised by surfers and fans after championships were decided for the past four years at the fun but soft waves of Lower Trestles in California. 2025 WSL world championship tour schedule: Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii, United States: January 27 to February 8 Surf Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: February 14-16 Peniche, Portugal: March 15-25 Punta Roca, El Salvador: April 2-12 Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia: April 18-28 Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia: May 3-13 Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia: May 17-27 (mid-season cut) Lower Trestles, San Clemente, California, US: June 9-17 Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: June 21-29 Jeffreys Bay, South Africa: July 11-20 Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia: August 7-16 WSL finals – Cloudbreak, Fiji: August 27 to September 4 Adblock test (Why?)

Photos: 3 million lose power as Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida

Hurricane Milton is barreling into the Atlantic Ocean after ploughing across Florida. Milton caused at least five deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, while sparing the city of Tampa a direct hit. The storm weakened in the final hours, making landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (113km) south of Tampa. The storm knocked out power to more than three million customers and whipped up a barrage of tornadoes. While it caused a lot of damage and water levels may continue to rise for days, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.” Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Centre, told Al Jazeera that the powerful storms experienced by the US southeast in recent years are partly a result of man-made climate change. “By putting so many greenhouse gases, carbon-containing gases, into the atmosphere that trap more heat by the surface, most of that heat goes into the ocean,” said Francis. “And we know that heat in the ocean is the fuel that these storms feed off of. What this extra energy does to these storms is make them stronger, it makes them intensify more rapidly, [and] the evaporation from the extra warm water provides more moisture for them to use as rain – and we’ve seen the very heavy rain totals coming out of these storms,” she added. Adblock test (Why?)

TD Bank pleads guilty to US charges, faces business restrictions

Federal authorities began probing TD’s internal controls after agents discovered a Chinese criminal operation bribed employees and brought large bags of cash into branches to launder millions of dollars. Two TD Bank units have pleaded guilty to United States criminal charges and agreed to pay $3bn in combined penalties to resolve federal government probes into money laundering, US authorities have said. The plea deal includes imposition of an asset cap and other limitations to its business, authorities said on Thursday. The bank has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and conspiring to fail to file accurate reports or maintain a compliant anti-money laundering programme, the US Department of Justice said. The cap on its asset expansion in the US, imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is a rare step typically reserved for severe cases. It would deal a major blow to TD’s hopes to expand further in the US, which accounts for about a third of the bank’s income. TD also agreed to pay $3bn in combined penalties to US banking regulators, the Justice Department and the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The deal resolved investigations by the Justice Department, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It also included the imposition of independent monitoring. An asset cap is “worst-case scenario” for TD, said Cormark Securities analyst Lemar Persaud, prior to the details of the plea deal being announced. The bank had already set aside $3bn for the fine. Persaud drew a parallel with Wells Fargo, which has a $1.95 trillion asset cap in place following a fake accounts scandal, which has constrained its earnings. An asset cap would also constrain TD’s profits, but to a lesser extent than it did for Wells Fargo, he said. The TD probe has led to “significant underperformance of the stock and, we believe, the retirement of the current CEO Bharat Masrani,” Persaud said. TD is Canada’s second-biggest bank and the 10th-largest in the US. The lender first revealed it was responding to inquiries from regulators and law enforcement last year, just months after it terminated a $13bn acquisition of regional lender First Horizon. Federal authorities began probing TD’s internal controls after agents discovered a Chinese criminal operation bribed employees and brought large bags of cash into branches to launder millions of dollars in fentanyl sales through TD branches in New York and New Jersey, a source confirmed. TD has spent millions to strengthen its compliance programmes, fired dozens of staff at its US branches and named its Canadian personal banking head Ray Chun as its new CEO, distancing its new chief from the money laundering scandal. CEO Masrani, who has been at the helm for nearly a decade and previously led its US operations, will retire next year. Masrani has said he takes full responsibility for the money laundering issues that have plagued the bank. Adblock test (Why?)

Immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ask judges to keep protections against deportation

Texas and other GOP-led states filed the lawsuit seeking to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives protection to more than 500,000 immigrants.

“Should we be worried?”: Another well blowout in West Texas has a town smelling of rotten eggs

Experts warn that more blowouts should be expected unless oil and gas companies change their methods

Dem lawmaker reintroduces death row appeals bill allowing for introduction of newly discovered evidence

Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson re-introduced a death row appeals bill that would allow death row inmates the opportunity to introduce newly discovered evidence in their appeal.  H.R. 9868, also called the Effective Death Penalty Act, was initially introduced in 2009 and later in 2020. The bill would amend a provision in the U.S. Code that currently governs circumstances under which a state prisoner can file a habeas corpus petition.  “We’ve got innocent people on death row right now with no opportunity to show compelling new evidence of innocence,” Johnson said in a press statement released on Wednesday. “The status quo is inhumane and unconstitutional.”  TEXAS DEATH ROW INMATE’S LAWYER SAYS ‘THERE WAS NO CRIME’ AS SHE MAKES LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE HIS LIFE Under current law, a federal court cannot grant a habeas corpus petition unless the petitioner has already exhausted all state court remedies. This requirement was explained by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999, with the Court stating that such a requirement “is designed to give the state courts a full and fair opportunity to resolve federal constitutional claims before those claims are presented to federal courts.”  The bill would allow a death row inmate to not only introduce newly discovered evidence that “demonstrates that the applicant is probably not guilty of the underlying offense,” but to also raise an ineffective counsel claim on direct appeal. Some states do not currently allow for such a claim on direct appeal.  The added provision comes as a result of the 2022 Supreme Court case, Shinn v. Ramirez, when the Court held that a habeas corpus court may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or consider evidence beyond the state-court record based on an ineffective counsel claim.  OKLAHOMA AG SUPPORTS NEW TRIAL FOR DEATH ROW INMATE WHO HAS HAD 3 ‘LAST MEALS’ “I believe we should completely abolish the death penalty, but while 25 states – half of which are in the South – still have some form of capital punishment on their books and some states like Alabama, Texas and Georgia continue to hold state executions – America needs the Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act to help wrongly convicted people on death row present newly discovered evidence that they are innocent,” Johnson said in the statement.  Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-ME, Democratic House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., are co-sponsoring the bill.  The Supreme Court, which kicked off its new term earlier this month, heard oral arguments Wednesday on an appeal from Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip, who has maintained his innocence in connection with a 1997 murder-for-hire of the owner of a motel he previously worked at. Glossip’s initial conviction was reversed by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals after the court found he had received “constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel in numerous respects,” according to the brief filed.  Glossip now argues before the Supreme Court that he did not receive a fair trial as a result of the prosecution suppressing evidence of a key prosecution witness’s testimony. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in hearing the appeal due to his prior involvement in the appeals process while serving on a lower court. 

DHS Sec. Mayorkas says FEMA ‘will need additional funds’ after Hurricanes Helene, Milton

Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed on Thursday that FEMA “will need more funds” after responding to hurricanes Helene and Milton. Mayorkas made the statement while answering questions from reporters at the White House press briefing on Thursday. He said FEMA has enough funds to address the “immediate needs” of people affected by both hurricanes, but urged Congress to move quickly. “President Biden indicated that FEMA and the Department of Defense would have to get through their immediate needs in this recovery phase. I’m wondering, after your early assessments of damage from Hurricane Milton, coupled with the damage from Hurricane Helene, do you still believe that to be the case?” a reporter asked. “Yes, I do,” Mayorkas responded. “We have the resources to respond to the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and the associated – it’s very important to remember – the tornadoes associated with the hurricane.” VIDEO RESURFACES SHOWING FEMA PRIORITIZING EQUITY OVER HELPING GREATEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN DISASTER RELIEF “That being said, we will need additional funds, and we implore Congress when it returns to, in fact, fund FEMA as is needed,” he added. FEMA HEAD DENIES AGENCY IS SHORT ON MONEY FOR DISASTER RELIEF BECAUSE FUNDS WENT TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS   Mayorkas appeared at the briefing remotely from North Carolina, where he is helping coordinate response efforts. Earlier this week, FEMA revealed that it had less than 10% of front-line staff available for deployment amid preparations for Milton. FEMA released a daily briefing on Wednesday revealing the agency had only 8%, or 1,115, FEMA staff members currently available as preparations continued. This number represents a significant drop in availability from a year prior, after an operations briefing from late September 2023 showed the agency had 20% of the same staff available for deployment. SPEAKER JOHNSON ADDRESSES CLAIMS FEMA DIVERTED FUNDS TO IMMIGRATION EFFORTS: ‘AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED’ A FEMA spokesperson indicated to Fox News Digital that the availability numbers released by the agency are only in reference to the cadre of staffers who are part of FEMA’s incident management core capacity. They are the first line of FEMA staffers to deploy in any disaster. Meanwhile, the FEMA spokesperson pointed out the agency has a total workforce of 22,000 staffers it can call on, as well as resources from other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has deployed 10,000 National Guard members in the response to Milton. Roughly 3,000 of those have been sent from other states to aid the recovery effort. Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

Walz silent on support for eliminating Electoral College after Harris camp says it doesn’t back ban

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, remained silent Thursday on whether he still supports eliminating the Electoral College, after the Harris campaign insisted his position did not reflect that of the campaign’s.  “I think all of us know, the Electoral College needs to go. We need a national popular vote,” Walz said during a campaign fundraiser Tuesday at the home of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Walz made similar comments at an earlier fundraiser in Seattle as well. While running for president in 2019, Harris said she was “open” to the idea of abolishing the Electoral College. However, according to campaign officials pressed on the issue following Walz’s remarks, eliminating the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote is not an official position of Harris’ current campaign. Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Walz repeatedly to inquire whether he still supports replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote, particularly after his campaign came out against it. A response was never received, but the Harris-Walz campaign did release a statement to certain news outlets suggesting Walz’s remarks were intended to express support for the Electoral College process. IF 2024 POLLING ERRORS MIRROR THOSE IN 2020 ELECTION, TRUMP ‘WINS IN A BLOWOUT,’ CNN DATA GURU SAYS “Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement sent to select media outlets like CNN and USA Today. “He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”  Debate over whether a national popular vote should replace the Electoral College surged in 2016 when Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote, cementing his victory despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. “I think it needs to be eliminated,” Clinton told CNN after her 2016 loss to Trump. “I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes.” Clinton made similar calls earlier in her career as well. Just last month, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin suggested there could be deadly consequences for Americans if the Electoral College was not done away with. Raskin said a national popular vote was a far better option than the current “convoluted, antique, obsolete system from the 18th century, which these days can get you killed as nearly it did on Jan. 6, 2021.” NEBRASKA GOP SENATOR OPPOSES ELECTORAL COLLEGE CHANGE THAT MAY HAVE HELPED TRUMP WIN RE-ELECTION The Electoral College has been something that both Republicans and Democrats have tried to do away with in the past, but contemporary calls for its abolition surged among Democrats after Clinton’s loss. The process was established by the nation’s Founding Fathers, seen as a compromise between the election of president by vote in Congress and election by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Electoral College votes, of which 270 are needed for any presidential candidate to win, are allocated based on the Census. The process effectively allows voters in states with lower populations to have a similar impact on the election as those voters living in higher population densities. The Electoral College is also thought to be a protective measure against super thin margins and excessive recounts. In May 2023, as governor, Walz signed a broad ranging election bill that included a provision to allocate the state’s electors based on who receives the most votes nationwide, even if it doesn’t match the outcome in their state. The measure, known as the “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,” has been supported by 17 states and the District of Columbia, but will only take effect after all the states that have signed on have a total electoral vote count of 270. Right now, those supporting the reform only have 209, according to CBS News. Polling from the Pew Research Center released last month showed a majority of Americans favor moving away from the Electoral College. Since 2016, the sentiment has steadily increased, and, according to Pew, more than 6 in 10 Americans today prefer the national popular vote over the Electoral College.  Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, a nonprofit that advocates in favor of retaining the Electoral College, argued Walz “said the quiet part out loud” when he insisted the Electoral College should be eliminated.  “Democrat leaders don’t think they should have to campaign in places like Michigan and North Carolina, they want California and New York to decide every election,” Snead argued. “There is a pattern here. Democrats claim to love democracy, then set their sights on any institution that stands between them and political power: the Supreme Court, the Senate filibuster, and the Electoral College.”