Who Said That
Tony Chicotel, a senior staff attorney with the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. He was questioning a provision in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget that would block a law passed last year requiring nursing homes to have capacity to supply 96 hours of power using their own generators or other sources. The current standard is six hours. Nursing homes say they need more time to prepare for a $1 billion capital investment to meet such rules. (KFF Health News)
Homer Pompa, a landowner in the newly created city of Starbase, Texas, which is the home of the launch site for Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company. Pompa recently received a letter from the city informing him that he is at risk of losing the “right to continue using your property for its current use” as the city reviews its zoning. The disabled Vietnam War veteran's property falls within a proposed mixed-use district, which according to the city's letter “allows for a blend of residential, office, retail and small-scale service uses.” (Washington Post)
Congressman Mike Bost, an Illinois Republican. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear his case challenging the state law that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to 14 days later. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia allow mail ballots to arrive after Election Day, but Bost argues that violates the legal meaning of the term “Election Day.” (Capitol News Illinois)
Cory Simon, a Florida state senator who represents the Tallahassee area. A proposed state budget would lift salaries for state employees by 2 percent as well as additional support for their health insurance plans. Simon noted that Florida has among the lowest per capita numbers of state workers and it’s important to invest in retaining top talent. (Florida Phoenix)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He noted that New York state spends about $235 billion a year while the larger state of Florida spends about $125 billion. He also pointed out that Florida doesn't have an income tax. “And I can tell you, having lived in both," Bessent added, "it’s better not to have an income tax, and Florida gives better services." (Florida Voice)
The winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, 13-year-old Faizan Zaki of Texas, describing to a reporter how he may decide to enter the math olympiad, too. (Washington Post)
Short for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a tongue-in-cheek term coined by the Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong to describe the pattern of markets rebounding when the president relents on harsh tariff policies. “I chicken out? I never heard that,” the president said to a reporter who asked him about the term on Thursday. “Don’t ever say what you said … That’s a nasty question,” he told the reporter. (NYT)
A resident of Kennett, Mo., speaking about beloved local resident Carol (legal name Ming Li Hui) who was detained by federal immigration officials for allegedly overstaying her visa. The small town voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, and residents are broadly in favor of an immigration crackdown. “But no one voted to deport moms,” a friend of Hui’s told the New York Times. “We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.”
Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, referring to what may be the country’s most unusual U.S. Postal Service (USPS) route — the use of mules to deliver mail to Supai, Ariz., the Havasupai tribal village located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of privatizing the USPS, which might involve outsourcing delivery to companies such as FedEx and Amazon. (The Atlantic)
Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms. She’s running for governor and some of her opponents are using her decision not to run for a second term as mayor of Atlanta in 2021 to question her qualifications for the top state job. Bottoms said it was the right decision for her at the time. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Katie Brennan, a housing advocate and Democratic candidate for New Jersey Assembly. Brennan has released an extensive housing platform that calls for zoning changes, permit streamlining and reducing requirements that make it difficult to build affordable housing. (Candidate statement)
Gabe Evans, a Republican member of Congress from Colorado. Evans, a freshman, served in the military and police before entering politics. He said wearing a body camera prepared him for the scrutiny of being in Congress and that the skill of being able to talk people into doing things rather than having to fight them has translated well into politics. (Roll Call)
Georgia Tech Police Chief Robert Connolly As part of its safety efforts, the university maintains a list of individuals it’s concerned about. Viewership is extremely restrictive, but parents and students worry about privacy. Georgia law allows them to petition for removal from such lists. Georgia Tech retains names for five years but that period can be shortened based on student conduct. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Since 2023, New Orleans police have secretly relied on facial recognition technology to scan city streets in search of suspects, a surveillance method without a known precedent in any major American city. The policy may violate an ordinance limiting police to facial recognition only for searches of specific suspects in violent crime cases. (Washington Post)
Kris Johnson, president of the Association of Washington Business. As head of the state chamber of commerce, Johnson wrote an editorial calling on Gov. Bob Ferguson to veto portions of the state budget, notably increases in business taxes, including imposition of sales taxes on services such as advertising. (Kitsap Sun)
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. The Texas Republican has unveiled a plan that would create a $1,000 investment account for every American newborn, to which families could add up to $5,000 per year. Cruz said this will help individuals get in the investing habit. He said the idea is supported by President Donald Trump. A pilot version is included in the larger tax bill currently moving through Congress. (Dallas Morning News)
David Wecht, a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The court heard a case challenging the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The lawsuit turns on the question of whether the program is strictly a policy tool to control air pollution or an illegal tax on electricity generators who release carbon dioxide. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
Colorado state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat. She spoke at a signing ceremony for the state-level Voting Rights Act, which will prohibit election practices limiting participation of people of color and other protected groups. Gonzalez decried erosion of 1960s-era voting rights under federal law by courts and political action, saying that state lawmakers were determined to preserve protections in Colorado. (Colorado Newsline)
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. On Sunday, Rollins announced the U.S. is halting shipments of live cattle, bison and horses through the southern border with Mexico, to be reviewed on a month-to-month basis. The concern is the prevalence of the New World Screwworm, a flesh-eating maggot that has been detected on Mexican farms 700 miles from the border. (X)
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez. Gov. Ron DeSantis opposes a sales-tax proposal in the Legislature, saying it will make it impossible to pass a property tax cut that he favors. Perez says the state can afford to cut both sales and property taxes and accuses the governor of sitting on the sidelines and failing to introduce a concrete plan to reduce property taxes. (Miami Herald)
Bishop Sally French of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey. The town council of Toms River, N.J., voted to take over land belonging to Christ Episcopal Church if it refused to sell a homeless shelter, using the power of eminent domain to turn the land into a recreational center. (New Jersey News 12)
Cindy O’Laughlin, president pro tem of the Missouri Senate. She took exception to a speech made on the Senate floor by Lt. Gov. David Wasinger, who said he intended to play a more active role in chamber proceedings. O’Laughlin says the lieutenant governor does not have that kind of authority and in fact does not have the privilege even of addressing the body. (Missouri Independent)
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul explaining why she’s tapping into the state’s rainy day fund to pay down the unemployment insurance debt. Hochul announced the state would pay off more than $6 billion in unemployment debt, mostly run up during the pandemic, rather than continuing to pay only interest on it. (Spectrum News)
Jason Shepherd, a former Republican Party chair in Cobb County, Ga. He was responding to the news that Gov. Brian Kemp had decided not to run against Democrat Jon Ossoff in next year’s Senate election. Kemp was seen as the strongest possible contender to defeat Ossoff and expand the GOP’s Senate majority next year. (Politico)
Monmouth University polling director Patrick Murray. As yet, no one in a crowded New Jersey field is running away with the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. At this point, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is a “distant second” to undecided, Murray said, with several other contenders bunched up just behind her. The primary will be held on June 10. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
California state Sen. David Cortese. He’s among more than 20 Democratic lawmakers in 17 states who introduced bills this week to provide guaranteed incomes to some residents, in his case $1,000 per month to homeless youth. Dozens of cities and counties have experimented with cash income programs in recent years and advocates say states will be the next frontier. (Stateline)
Los Angeles resident Media Moussavy. Moussavy has been taking videos of trees that have been chopped down in his neighborhood and posting them to Instagram. A man named Samuel Patrick Groft has been arrested for chopping down trees in three L.A. neighborhoods, which police said would cost at least $347,000 to replace. (NPR)
Illinois state Sen. Craig Wilcox, a Republican. Wilcox complained that Chicago, which is running a budget shortfall topping $1 billion, should not be coming to the state for further financial aid but instead should be getting its own house in order. (The Center Square)
An anonymous attorney who worked for the voting rights section at the Department of Justice. The department has removed all of the section’s career managers and ordered attorneys to dismiss all active cases. (The Guardian)
State Sen. Jason Pizzo. Prior to making that statement, Pizzo was the Democratic leader in the Florida Senate, but he has switched his affiliation to independent (known in Florida as no party affiliation). Pizzo said that the party can be resuscitated but said that other Democrats don’t believe he’s the right person for that job. (Politico)
