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casino game zeus Democrats just helped Republicans give President-elect Donald Trump the potential power to shut down nonprofits under the guise of fighting terrorism — while GOP lawmakers have quietly revealed a new blueprint for defunding organizations they disagree with. Earlier this month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee laid out a plan to target environmental justice nonprofits and organizations working to transition the economy away from fossil fuels. That report preceded a major House vote on Thursday in which Republicans and 15 Democrats passed legislation giving the Treasury Department the power to strip nonprofit news organizations, advocacy groups, and universities of their tax-exempt status. The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act was originally proposed last year, ostensibly to prevent U.S. nonprofits from supporting groups like Hamas after widespread protests over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Nicknamed the “ nonprofit killer, ” it gives the president unprecedented authority to go after political opponents. Advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union warned of the bill’s potential “to grant the executive branch extraordinary power... based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing.” After an essentially identical bill failed to pass last week, the newly approved bill now goes to the Senate for a vote. In the preceding weeks, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s report focused on the Inflation Reduction Act’s distribution of federal funding, offering a preview of how the new terrorism legislation could be wielded for political purposes. It also highlighted the kinds of organizations that could be targeted, including those that support clean-energy policies like committing investments to renewable energy, phasing out fossil fuel production and use, and expanding public land conservation. Criticizing the Biden administration’s environmental justice grants for marginalized groups historically inundated by pollution, the report says , “Enriching nonprofit organizations to spread radical, left-leaning ideology is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.” The plan singles out specific groups that the committee says have pushed a “radical rush-to-green agenda,” including Rewiring America, a nonprofit working on electrification, and New York City-based environmental justice group WE ACT. It castigated , for example, a blog post on WE ACT’s website “criticizing ‘Republican gas stove culture wars,’ and House GOP Members’ ‘preformative [sic], out-of-touch agenda.’” The committee also denounced a 2019 blog post from climate activist group Climate Justice Alliance that criticized racist policies embedded in New Deal government policies from the 1930s. The post emphasized the importance of “firm commitments to address and erase many of the discriminatory practices of the past in order to secure a regenerative economy that leaves no one behind.” The committee wrote that such opinions should preclude groups like Climate Justice Alliance and WE ACT from receiving taxpayer funding. Federal programs, they wrote, should “not be funding extremist organizations to advocate for a preferred policy agenda.” Under the new bill just passed by the House, criteria for designations of “terrorism” are vague. If it passes the Senate and is signed into law, the Treasury Secretary would have broad discretion in the law’s enforcement and wouldn’t be required to share related evidence. The law could chill free speech by creating financial pressure on organizations that rely on their tax-exempt status to operate effectively. Under the Treasury’s discretion, the bill could be wielded against projects backed by political or corporate interests; for example, groups like WE ACT who oppose oil and gas development could be accused of obstructing critical infrastructure. As Rep. Angie Craig (D.-Minn.) wrote Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, “I’ve become increasingly concerned that H.R. 9495 would be used inappropriately by the incoming Administration.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus , called the bill “an authoritarian and undemocratic play by Republicans to go after political enemies.” Vice President-elect JD Vance has previously supported revoking the tax-exempt status of liberal institutions. “We should eliminate all of the special privileges that exist for our nonprofit and foundation class,” he said at a 2021 conference . Later that year, he told Tucker Carlson on Fox News , “We are actively subsidizing the people who are destroying this country,” calling groups like the Ford Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to social justice, “a cancer.” The “nonprofit killer” bill is part of a larger Republican effort to attack what many on the right call “woke capitalism,” including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, embrace more diverse workforces, and other efforts. So far this year, conservative lawmakers and their allies have authored legislation that would rollback shareholder rights seeking to hold corporations accountable, leaned on the Supreme Court to gut environmental law , and used dark money donations to help fuel their agenda . In the future, as the recent House Committee report notes , subversive activities like “public outreach” or “public education” will “demand rigorous scrutiny and meticulous oversight.”Former President Jimmy Carter, right, embraces his secretary of state, Edmund Muskie, during the 1985 dedication of the Muskie Archives at Bates College in Lewiston. Bates College photo Despite his Georgia roots, former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday in his hometown in Georgia, had closer ties to Lewiston and Auburn than most would expect from a former peanut farmer. He visited the twin cities on a handful of occasions, speaking at least twice at Bates College and scrounging for votes in Auburn during his long-shot presidential campaign in 1975. At the Holiday Inn in Auburn that long-ago December, Carter told a small crowd the country was drifting “in the absence of leadership from the president” and called for someone in the White House who could “inspire the American people to reach for greatness.” At Bates that same day, Carter pledged to several hundred students and resident that he would “never tell a lie, never make a misleading statement, never betray your confidence and never avoid a controversial issue.” Rosalynn Carter, the former president’s wife who died last November, spent even more time in the area in the months leading up to the Maine presidential caucus in 1976, including a couple of overnight stays in Auburn with supporters of her husband and a tea at a Chamberlain Avenue home in Lewiston. Carter, largely unknown to most of the country, wound up winning more delegates in Maine than all the other Democratic contenders combined, providing him with a boost that helped him win the New Hampshire primary a few weeks later and then his party’s nomination in 1976. One of the people who met Carter on that trip, former state Rep. James Handy of Lewiston, told the oral history project at the Muskie Archives at Bates College that the former president “probably more influence on me than any other politician.” “His commitment to other people to me was what I wanted to do,” Handy said. “He really illustrated to me that you can be successful, and your success can be measured in what you do for others and putting other people before yourself.” Handy said that Carter’s commitment to human rights, both internationally and in his own country, exemplified his ethics and helped make him “very inspirational.” Carter defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in November 1976. In the final year of his one-term presidency, he appointed former U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine to serve as his secretary of state, cementing a special tie between the president and the Pine Tree State. When Carter sought a second term, he spent a couple of evenings making phone calls to ordinary people across Maine who were working on his campaign. One of them, Cecilia Treworgy, who taught home economics at Lewiston High School at the time, picked up the phone one night in February 1980 to find Carter on the other end of the line. “I was so taken aback I couldn’t think of anything to say,” Treworgy recalled recently. But Carter lost his reelection bid to Republican Ronald Reagan that year. “I felt very sad when he didn’t win,” Treworgy said. She called him “a very decent man.” After his defeat, Carter began a new career as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and promoter of peace in troubled areas worldwide. Just days after Hurricane Gloria slammed New England in September 1985, Carter flew to Lewiston for the dedication of the Muskie Archives at Bates. A college professor, Carl Straub, said at the time: “There is more than the Appalachian Trail which binds Maine to Georgia. There is a common heritage which rises from the simple decency of our people: We share a sense of what is good and just and beautiful. “We share gratitude for the common leadership given us by Jimmy Carter. On this festive occasion when we honor a son of Maine and of Bates, we pause to thank this son of Georgia. “ “His journey has been one of human adventure,” Straub said as the college conferred an honorary doctorate on the former president. “When he reached his highest office, he did not forget the lessons from that journey, for they taught him what is important to the American people.” Carter and Muskie, a former governor from Rumford and a 1936 Bates graduate, were friends. Awarding Muskie the Medal of Freedom in 1981, Carter said he had admired Muskie “ever since I’ve been aware of his public service and been interested myself in going into the political arena.” Carter appreciated the Mainer’s “quiet sense of inner strength and demonstrated courage.” He said that Muskie “has never yielded to temptation to lower his own standards or the standards which make all public servants proud” and despite being “a loyal Democrat,” his service transcended party. In addition to Muskie, the former president also had close ties to another Bates graduate, civil rights leader Benjamin Mays, a leader in the class of 1920 who would later mentor Martin Luther King Jr. During his 1985 speech at Bates, Carter thanked the college “for making it possible for Dr. Benjamin Mays to overcome the handicaps of white supremacy and racism and to take his place among the prominent leaders of our nation and the world.” The address at Bates also touched on some of the recurrent themes of Carter’s public life, including his insistence a country should be measured by its commitment to human rights. “In order to be truly great, we must use our power for the enhancement of peace for ourselves and for others,” he said. “This includes forgoing belligerence and force wherever possible and relying wherever possible on diplomacy.” Comments are not available on this story. Send questions/comments to the editors. « Previous

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to break its first two-day losing streak in nearly a month and finished just short of its all-time high. Big Tech stocks led the way, which drove the Nasdaq composite up 1.8% to top the 20,000 level for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, lagged the market with a dip of 99 points, or 0.2%. Stocks got a boost as expectations built that Wednesday's inflation data will allow the Fed to deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. Traders are betting on a nearly 99% probability of that, according to data from CME Group, up from 89% a day before. If they're correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It's hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. "The data have given the Fed the 'all clear' for next week, and today's inflation data keep a January cut in active discussion," according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times this year, with the latest coming last week. The biggest boosts for the index on Wednesday came from Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks. Their massive growth has made them Wall Street's biggest stars for years , though other kinds of stocks have recently been catching up somewhat amid hopes for the broader U.S. economy . Tesla jumped 5.9% to finish above $420 at $424.77. It's a level that Elon Musk made famous in a 2018 tweet when he said he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. Stitch Fix soared 44.3% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue. GE Vernova rallied 5% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500. The energy company that spun out of General Electric said it would pay a 25 cent dividend every three months, and it approved a plan to send up to another $6 billion to its shareholders by buying back its own stock. On the losing end of Wall Street, Dave & Buster's Entertainment tumbled 20.1% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search firm for the last few months to find its next permanent leader. Albertsons fell 1.5% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn't do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it's seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger, whose stock rose 1%. A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington nixed the supermarket giants' merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition. After terminating the merger agreement with Kroger, Albertsons said it plans to boost its dividend 25% and increased the size of its program to buy back its own stock. Macy's slipped 0.8% after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $1 of revenue. All told, the S&P 500 rose 49.28 points to 6,084.19. The Dow dipped 99.27 to 44,148.56, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 347.65 to 20,034.89. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, edged up to 4.15% from 4.14%. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was an outlier and slipped 0.8% as Chinese leaders convened an annual planning meeting in Beijing that is expected to set economic policies and growth targets for the coming year. South Korea's Kospi rose 1%, up for a second straight day as it climbs back following last week's political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law.

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