Bad weather: Severe storms containing tornadoes swept through the Midwest yesterday and forecasts called for more storms today along a 1,500-mile area from Texas to Vermont. At least 18 tornadoes touched down in Iowa yesterday. An estimated 90,000 customers were without power in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois as of this morning. There were people killed and injured as a result of the storms but casualty counts had not been completed as of this morning. Â
Trump’s attack: Donald Trump has launched an ethnic and racist attack on Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding in Trump’s porn star hush money trial in Manhattan. Just as Trump assailed the judge in the Trump University fraud case some years for having Mexican heritage, Trump yesterday alleged that Merchan is biased because of his heritage. “Take a look at where he comes from,” Trump said, in reference to Merchan having been born in Bogota, Colombia. Merchan came to the U.S. with his parents when he was five years old. Merchan studied business at Baruch College and earned his law degree from Hofstra. He was named a judge by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Another falsehood: Donald Trump has falsely claimed that President Biden was planning to have the FBI kill him when agents searched his Mar-a-Lago resort looking for the classified government documents Trump had stolen. Trump made that allegation in an internet post yesterday. The FBI put out a statement reminding people that its search of Mar-a-Lago took place when Trump was not there and they had planned to do the search when he was not there. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made an internet post supporting Trump’s claim that the FBI planned to kill him.  Â
Classified documents case: Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding in the classified documents case against Donald Trump, was hearing arguments from Trump’s attorneys today who want her to throw out the indictments of Trump and his co-defendants. They say the indictments have technical errors. Cannon was appointed to the bench by Trump and has made a number of rulings favorable to Trump including indefinitely delaying the start of his trial on charges of stealing government secrets and failing to return government documents when ordered to do so.
Willis wins: Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis won yesterday’s primary for the Democratic nomination to run for district attorney. She will go up against Republican MAGA extremist Courtney Kramer in the November election. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding in the trial of Donald Trump and co-defendants on charges of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, won a nonpartisan election and will retain his position as a judge.
Target financials: Target reported today that its first quarter 2024 sales dropped by 3.7%. At the same time, internet sales grew by 1.4% while there was a drop in in-store customers. Brian Cornell, chair and CEO of Target Corporation said the first quarter results were as expected. Revenues were $24.54 billion compared with $24.95 billion for the last year’s first quarter. Earnings in this year’s first quarter were $942 million compared with $950 million in last year’s first quarter.
