Nation & World Glance
Georgia House passes GOP bill rolling back voting access
ATLANTA – Republican lawmakers in Georgia muscled legislation through the state House on Monday that would roll back voting access, over the objection of Democrats and civil rights groups gathered at the Capitol to protest.
The bill comes after record turnout led to Democratic wins in Georgia’s presidential election and two U.S. Senate runoffs.
House Bill 531 passed the lower legislative chamber by a vote of 97-72. It now goes to the state Senate for more debate.
The far-reaching bill would require a photo ID for absentee voting, limit the amount of time voters have to request an absentee ballot, restrict where ballot drop boxes could be located and when they could be accessed, and limit early voting hours on weekends, among many other changes.
It is one of a flood of election bills being pushed by GOP lawmakers across the country this year that would add new barriers to voting.
United Methodist conservatives detail plans for a breakaway
Conservative leaders within the United Methodist Church unveiled plans Monday to form a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, with a doctrine that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
The move could hasten the long-expected breakup of the UMC over differing approaches to LGBTQ inclusion. For now, the UMC is the largest mainline Protestant church in the U.S. and second only to the Southern Baptist Convention, an evangelical denomination, among all U.S. Protestant churches.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UMC’s General Conference – at which the schism would be debated – has been postponed for two consecutive years, and is now scheduled to take place in Minneapolis starting in late August of 2022.
The Rev. Keith Boyette, a Methodist elder from Virginia who chairs the Global Methodist initiative, said he and his allies do not want to wait that long to formally leave the UMC. They have asked that the topic of schism be added to the tightly limited agenda of a special one-day General Conference to be conducted online May 8.
“The church is basically stalemated right now,” Boyette said. “We don’t believe an additional year is going to be helpful for anybody.”
Heavy rains lead to rescues, road closures in Appalachia
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky firefighter Eddie Stacy was turning his firetruck around in the dark while responding to storm damage when he noticed a tiny light coming from the flooded Red River.
It was a cellphone a woman was waving from a car inundated with water that was rising by the minute.
Stacy and other members of the Hazel Green Fire Department sprang into action Sunday night, pulling five people from the car where water was up to the dashboard. Among those rescued were a 17-monthold boy and a woman who appeared to be having a seizure, Stacy said in a telephone interview Monday.
“We don’t do too much training on this water rescue,” Stacy said. “Instinct, it just kicks in.”
Heavy thunderstorms pounded parts of Appalachia on Sunday and Monday, sending rivers out of their banks and leading to multiple water rescues, mudslides, road closures and power outages, officials said.
Stocks rally, S&P 500 has best day since June
Wall Street kicked off March with a broad rally Monday that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 600 points higher and gave the S&P 500 its best day in nine months.
The S&P 500 climbed 2.4%, clawing back nearly all of its losses from last week. More than 90% of the stocks in the benchmark index rose, with technology, financial and industrial companies powering a big share of the S&P 500’s gains. Small company stocks also had a strong showing as they continue to outpace the broader market this year.
The wave of buying came as investors welcomed a move lower in long-term interest rates as U.S. bond yields declined after surging in recent weeks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.43% after reaching its highest level in more than a year last week.
Higher interest rates can slow the economy and discourage borrowing, so Wall Street gets jittery when there’s a big surge in rates.
“It moved really fast, the interest rate rise, and now it’s sort of leveling out so people are relieved that it’s not continuing to move up at a really fast pace,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments.
France’s Sarkozy convicted of corruption, sentenced to jail
PARIS — A Paris court found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling on Monday and sentenced him to a year in prison. He can ask to serve that time at home and also plans to appeal.
The 66-year-old, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.
He will remain free while he appeals, but it was a blow to the retired politician who still plays an influential role in French conservative politics. It’s not the end of his legal troubles either: He faces another trial later this month and is also under investigation in a third case.
The court said Sarkozy is entitled to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet — as is the case for any sentence of two years or less. He also received a two-year suspended sentence — which he will not have to serve if he commits no new offense in the next five years.
Later, Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, said he would appeal.
Sarkozy’s co-defendants — his lawyer and longtime friend Thierry Herzog, 65, and now-retired magistrate Gilbert Azibert, 74 — were also found guilty and given the same sentence as the politician.
LOS ANGELES – Lady Gaga’s dog walker, who was shot last week during a robbery in Hollywood when two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen, described the violence and his recovery “from a very close call with death” in social media posts Monday.
Ryan Fischer’s posts included pictures taken from his hospital bed, where he says “(a) lot of healing still needs to happen” but he looks forward to reuniting with the dogs.
Fischer was shot once as he walked three of Lady Gaga’s dogs on Wednesday night on a street just off the famed Sunset Boulevard.
Video captured by the doorbell camera of a nearby home captured Fischer’s screams of “Oh my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”
Police are seeking two men in the attack and said Monday they are still investigating.
The two dogs, named Koji and Gustav, were returned unharmed Friday evening when a woman showed up at a Los Angeles police station with them. Detectives do not believe she was involved in the robbery or shooting and did not know if she would receive the $500,000 reward Lady Gaga had offered for the dogs’ return. The singer is currently in Rome to film a movie.
Fischer thanked Lady Gaga for her support during the ordeal, writing “your babies are back and the family is whole ... we did it!” in Instagram posts. A third dog, named Asia, escaped the assailants and lies down next to Fischer “while a car sped away and blood poured from my gun shot (sic) wound,” he wrote.
The doorbell video shows a white sedan pulling up and two men jumping out. They struggled with the dog walker before one pulled a gun and fired a single shot before fleeing with two of the dogs.