Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Va. county, governor at odds over protests at homes of justices
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fairfax County officials have rebuffed a request from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to establish a security perimeter around the neighborhoods of U.S. Supreme Court justices living in the county after some have faced protests outside their homes.
Youngkin, a Republican, made the request Wednesday in a letter to the county board of supervisors.
“I fundamentally believe such demonstrations and picketing should not be allowed at the Justice’s (sic) homes as they are meant to intimidate and influence the Justices,” he wrote.
Three justices — Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas — live in the county. Justices living in and outside the county have been confronted with protests outside their homes since a draft of Alito’s opinion that would overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision was leaked.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said Youngkin’s request for a security perimeter is unnecessary and improper. He said establishing a perimeter would amount to creating an unconstitutional neighborhood “checkpoint” that would infringe on First Amendment protest rights. He also noted that protests that have occurred outside Alito’s home in the Fort Hunt neighborhood have been peaceful.
Fairfax County Police, for their part, said through a spokeswoman that they’re providing extra staffing in response to reports of planned protests “to maintain the safety and security of the public, while ensuring First Amendment rights are protected.”
Youngkin also joined Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan in calling on federal law enforcement entities to “take the lead and provide sustained resources” to protect the justices and ensure the neighborhoods are secure in the weeks and months ahead.
Role in eBay plot: A former eBay Inc. executive pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in a scheme to terrorize the creators of an online newsletter that included the delivery of live spiders and other disturbing items to their home.
David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, is the final former eBay employee charged in the case to plead guilty. Six others have admitted to their roles in the harassment campaign targeting a Massachusetts couple who publish the EcommerceBytes newsletter, which eBay executives viewed as critical of the company.
Harville and others were charged in June 2020 over the plot, which authorities say was orchestrated by members of eBay’s executive leadership team after the newsletter published an article about a lawsuit filed by eBay accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers, authorities said.
The couple, Ina and David Steiner, sued eBay and several employees including former CEO Devin Wenig last summer.
Wenig was not criminally charged. He stepped down as CEO of eBay in 2019.
Somalia election: Somalia is set to hold its long-delayed presidential vote Sunday, ending the convoluted electoral process that raised tensions in the country when the president’s term expired last year without a successor in place.
Authorities have registered 39 presidential candidates, a list that includes incumbent Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, two former presidents, a former prime minister, several top officials and even a journalist. The field includes one woman, Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, a lawmaker who once served as Somalia’s foreign minister.
The vote will take place amid heightened insecurity as the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which opposes the federal government, continues to stage lethal attacks in the capital and elsewhere in the nation.
The vote is behind schedule by 15 months and Somali authorities faced a May 17 deadline to hold the vote or risk losing key funding from international donors.
ASEAN summit: President Joe Biden is hosting leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as his administration makes an effort to demonstrate that the United States has not lost focus on the Pacific even while dealing with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
As Biden prepared to welcome leaders from eight ASEAN nations for a dinner Thursday to kick off the two-day summit, the White House announced that the U.S. would commit to more than $150 million in new projects to bolster Southeast Asia’s climate, maritime and public health infrastructure.
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the effort was meant to signal that the U.S. is looking to “step up our game in Southeast Asia.”
The gathering marked the group’s first meeting at the White House in its 45-year history. Leaders will take part in more formal talks Friday at the State Department.
The ASEAN nations include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Leaders from the other two ASEAN members, Myanmar and the Philippines, are not attending the summit.
NKorea fires 3 missiles: North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea Thursday, its neighbors said, the latest in a series of weapons demonstrations this year and one that came just hours after it confirmed its first case of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The launches could underscore North Korea’s determination to press ahead with its efforts to expand its arsenal, despite the virus outbreak, to rally support behind leader Kim Jong Un, and keep up pressure on its rivals amid long-dormant nuclear diplomacy.
Thursday’s launches were the North’s first weapons fired since the inauguration of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday.
North Korea has a history of rattling new governments in Seoul and Washington in an apparent bid to boost its bargaining chips in future negotiations. There was no report of damage to aircraft or vessels.
NM wildfire out of control: The flames of a northern New Mexico wildfire have become unstoppable as the largest blaze in the country burns trees sucked dry of moisture, according to wildfire fighting managers.
Meanwhile, winds in Southern California sent embers flying in the coastal town of Laguna Niguel on Wednesday. More than 20 homes were destroyed, many of them multimillion-dollar mansions. No injuries were reported.
In New Mexico, the fastest-moving flames in the southern foothills of the Rocky Mountains were headed northeast and away from the area’s biggest population center of Taos, a popular tourist destination 40 miles south of the state line with Colorado.
The winds have made it difficult for aircraft to fly to help firefighters on the ground, but some planes managed to drop retardant on the blaze Wednesday despite winds gusting in some areas above 45 mph.