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Prominent MAGA figures have accused Elon Musk of silencing critics who challenge his views on immigration . The controversy erupted when at least 14 right-wing accounts reported losing access to premium features on X, including blue verification badges and monetization tools, reports CNBC. This follows a wave of criticism targeting Musk's pro-immigration stance, particularly from anti-immigration factions within the MAGA movement. The affected users, many affiliated with the media group ConservativeOG, said they were penalized after publicly voicing opposition to Musk's position. These accounts saw their reach on the platform shrink significantly, triggering accusations that Musk was shadowbanning or censoring those who disagreed with him. Read Next: ‘Zelle Became A Gold Mine For Fraudsters': Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Lawsuit Some of these individuals expressed concern that losing monetization features would impact their ability to continue posting content regularly. In response to the growing controversy, Musk posted a "reminder" on X about the platform's algorithm, stating that accounts frequently blocked or muted by verified users would see their reach decline. However, this explanation only fueled further accusations of censorship. Critics felt that Musk, despite his claims of championing free speech, was punishing those who voiced opposition to his views on immigration. Among those impacted was Preston Parra , head of ConservativeOG, who described the actions as a "political takedown" aimed at silencing conservative voices. Parra vowed to continue fighting Musk's platform policies, which he sees as an attack on conservative values. The incident has sparked a broader debate over the influence of tech executives like Musk and their role in shaping political discourse, especially in light of his immigrant background and ties to pro-immigration figures. The controversy highlights the ongoing tension between free speech advocates and those who believe social media platforms should regulate harmful content. Read Next: Billionaire Investors Michael Burry, David Tepper Could Benefit From China's Stimulus Measures © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.When Nathan Hecht ran for the Texas Supreme Court in 1988, no Republican had ever been elected to the state’s highest civil court. His election foreshadowed a coming transformation of the court, civil legal procedure and Texas itself. Hecht is the longest tenured Supreme Court justice in Texas history. He won six reelections and led the court as chief justice for more than a decade. He heard more than 2,700 oral arguments, authored 7,000 pages of opinions, and retires now not because he’s had enough, but because state law requires him to. Late on a Friday afternoon, just two weeks before he hung up his robe, he was still in his office, his mind mired in the work that was left to be done. “This is always a really busy time for us because the opinions are mounting up to be talked about,” he said. “It’ll be busy next week.” Hecht began as a dissenter on a divided court, his conservative positions on abortion, school finance and property rights putting him at odds with the Democratic majority and some moderate Republicans. But as Texas Republicans began dominating up and down the ballot, his minority voice became mainstream on one of the country’s most conservative high courts. In his administration of the court, Hecht has been a fierce advocate for the poor, pushing for more Legal Aid funding, bail reform and lowering the barriers to accessing the justice system. "If justice were food, too many would be starving," Hecht told lawmakers in 2017. "If it were housing, too many would be homeless. If it were medicine, too many would be sick.” Hecht’s departure leaves a vacancy that Gov. Greg Abbott, a former justice himself, will get to fill. He may elevate a current justice or appoint someone new directly to the chief justice role. Whoever ends up in the top spot will have to run for reelection in 2026. In his typical understated manner, so at odds with the bombast of the other branches of government, Hecht told The Texas Tribune that serving on the court has been the honor of his life. “I have gotten to participate not only in a lot of decisions shaping the jurisprudence of the state, but also in trying to improve the administration of the court system so that it works better and fosters public trust and confidence,” he said. “So I feel good about the past,” he said. “And I feel good about the future.” Born in Clovis, New Mexico, Hecht studied philosophy at Yale before getting his law degree from Southern Methodist University. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and returned to Texas, where his reputation preceded him. As a young lawyer, Tom Phillips, a former chief justice and now a partner at Baker Botts, reached out to a Dallas law firm that had promised to hire him the next chance they got. “I called them a few months later and said, ‘So I assume you never got a vacancy,’” Phillips recalls. “And they said, ‘Well, we did, but we had a chance to hire Nathan Hecht, so you’ll understand why we went ahead and did that.’” Hecht was appointed to the district court in 1981 and quickly made a name for himself, pushing the court to modernize their stenography practices and taking the unusual step of writing opinions as a trial judge. He was elected to the court of appeals in 1986 and ran for Texas Supreme Court two years later. From left, pictured are Texas Supreme Court Justices Craig Enoch, John Cornyn, Nathan Hecht, Raul Gonzalez, Tom Philips and Jack Hightower in the Texas House chamber in 1993. Republican dominance swept through the Supreme Court as swiftly as it did Texas writ large. The last Democrat would be elected to the court in 1994, just six years after the first Republican. But even among Bush-era Republicans filling the bench, Hecht’s conservatism stood out. In 2000, he wrote a dissent disagreeing with the majority ruling that allowed teens in Texas to get abortions with a judge’s approval if their parents wouldn’t consent, and a few years earlier, ruled in favor of wealthy school districts that wanted to use local taxes to supplement state funds. His pro-business bent stood out next to the court’s history of approving high dollar payouts for plaintiffs. Alex Winslow, the executive director of Texas Watch, a consumer advocacy group, told the New York Times in 2005 that Hecht was “the godfather of the conservative judicial movement in Texas." "Extremist would be an appropriate description,” Winslow said. “He's the philosophical leader of the right-wing fringe." The only other justice who regularly staked out such a conservative position, according to the New York Times , was Priscilla Owen, who President George W. Bush appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005. Hecht and Owen, who now goes by her maiden name, Richmond, wed in 2022. Wallace Jefferson, Hecht’s predecessor as chief justice, said Hecht’s sharp intellect and philosophical approach to the law improved the court’s opinions, even when he ultimately didn’t side with the majority. “He was a formidable adversary,” said Jefferson, now a partner at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson. “You knew that you would have to bring your best approach and analysis to overcome Nathan’s approach and analysis ... You had to come prepared and Nathan set the standard for that.” Hecht briefly became a national figure in 2005 when he helped Bush’s efforts to confirm Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. As her longtime friend, Hecht gave more than 120 interviews to bolster Miers’ conservative credentials, jokingly calling himself the “PR office for the White House,” Texas Monthly reported at the time. This advocacy work raised ethical questions that Hecht fought for years, starting with a reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Hecht got that overturned. The Texas Ethics Commission then fined him $29,000 for not reporting the discount he got on the legal fees he paid challenging the reprimand. He appealed that fine and the case stretched until 2016, when he ultimately paid $1,000. Hecht has largely stayed out of the limelight in the decades since, letting his opinions speak for themselves and wading into the political fray mostly to advocate for court reforms. While Democrats have tried to pin unpopular COVID and abortion rulings on the justices in recent elections, Republicans continue to easily win these down-ballot races. Hecht is aware of the perception this one-party dominance creates and has advocated for Texas to turn away from partisan judicial elections. In his 2023 state of the judiciary address, Hecht warned that growing political divisions were threatening the “judicial independence essential to the rule of law,” pointing to comments by both Democratic politicians and former President Donald Trump. But, in an interview, Hecht stressed that most of the cases the Texas Supreme Court considers never make headlines and are far from the politics that dominate Austin and Washington. “There's no Republican side to an oil and gas case. There's no Democrat side to a custody hearing,” he said. “That's the bread and butter of what we do, and that's not partisan.” Unlike its federal counterpart, the Texas Supreme Court is often a temporary port of call on a judge’s journey. Many, like Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, leave for higher office. Others, like Owen and 5th Circuit Judge Don Willett, leave for higher courts. Most, like Phillips, leave for higher pay in private practice. But Hecht stayed. “I didn’t plan it like this,” Hecht said. “I just kept getting re-elected.” Hecht had been considering retirement in 2013 when Jefferson, the chief justice who replaced Phillips, announced he would be stepping down. “He wanted me to consider being his successor,” Hecht said. “So I did, and here I am. I didn’t say, ‘Let's spend 43 years on the bench,’ but one thing led to another.” In 2013, Hecht was sworn in as chief justice by then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, another great dissenter whose views later became the majority. Nathan Hecht is sworn into office by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the House Chamber on Nov. 11, 2013. Hecht's sister Helen is holding the Sam Houston Bible. While the Texas Supreme Court’s political makeup has changed largely without Hecht’s input, the inner workings of the court have been under his purview. And that, many court watchers say, is where his greatest legacy lies. Hecht ushered in an era of modernization, both to the technology and the rules that govern justice in Texas. He led a push to simplify the appellate rules, removing many of the trapdoors and procedural quirks that led to important cases being decided on technicalities. The court scaled back how long cases could drag on by limiting discovery, including how long a deposition can go. And he ensured every case was decided before the term ended, like the U.S. Supreme Court. “I think people generally don't understand the impact the rules can have on the equitable resolution of disputes, but they're enormous,” Jefferson said. “Nathan recognized that at an early juncture in his career.” Hecht pushed Texas to adopt e-filing before many other states, which proved prescient when COVID hit. Hecht, who was then president of the national Conference of Chief Justices, was able to help advise other states as they took their systems online. Hecht also dedicated himself to improving poor Texans' access to the justice system, pushing the Legislature to appropriate more funding for Legal Aid and reducing the barriers to getting meaningful legal resolutions. He helped usher through a rule change that would allow paraprofessionals to handle some legal matters like estate planning, uncontested divorces and consumer debt cases, without a lawyer’s supervision. “Some people call it the justice gap. I call it the justice chasm,” Hecht said. “Because it’s just a huge gulf between the people that need legal help and the ability to provide it.” Hecht said he’s glad this has been taken up as a bipartisan issue, and he’s hopeful that the same attention will be paid even after he leaves the court. “No judge wants to give his life's energy to a work that mocks the justice that he's trying to provide,” he said. “For the judiciary, this is an important issue because when the promise of equal justice under law is denied because you're too poor, there's no such thing as equal justice under the law.” Despite the sudden departure of their longtime leader, the Texas Supreme Court will return in January to finish out its term, which ends in April. Among the typical parsing of medical malpractice provisions, oil and gas leases, divorce settlements and sovereign immunity protections, the high court has a number of more attention-grabbing cases on its docket this year. Earlier this year, the court heard oral arguments about the Department of Family and Protective Services’ oversight of immigration detention facilities, and in mid-January it'll consider Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to subpoena Annunciation House, an El Paso nonprofit that serves migrants. Justices will also hear arguments over Southern Methodist University’s efforts to cut ties with the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church. Other cases will be added to the schedule before April. Phillips, who has argued numerous cases before the Texas Supreme Court since leaving the bench, said Hecht’s loss will be felt, but he expects the court to continue apace. “It’s not a situation like it might have been at some point in the past where if one justice left, nobody would know what to do next,” he said. “It’s an extremely qualified court.” As for Hecht, he’s tried to put off thinking too much about what comes next for him. He still has opinions to write and work to finish. He knows he wants to stay active in efforts to improve court administration nationally and in Texas, and he’s threatened his colleagues with writing a tell-all book, just to keep them on their toes. But beyond that, he’s waiting for the reality of retirement to sink in before he decides on his next steps. “We’ve got 3,200 judges in Texas, plus adjuncts and associate judges and others,” he said. “I really think it’s such a strong bench, and I am proud to have been a part of it. I look forward to helping where I can.” Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.McClain's 14 lead Texas Southern over Texas A&M-Kingsville 80-72Robbie Williams: 'I’ve been a cheeky monkey all my life'ye7 aff.club 。

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Two people were rescued when a California pier partially collapsed and fell into the ocean Monday as the state's central coast was pounded by heavy surf from a major storm expected to bring hurricane-force winds to the seas off the Pacific Northwest. Residents were warned to stay away from low-lying areas near the beaches around the Santa Cruz Wharf, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of San Francisco. “You are risking your life, and those of the people that would need to try and save you by getting in or too close to the water,” the National Weather Service's Bay Area office said on the social platform X. Lifeguards rescued two people from the water and a third person was able to swim to safety, the Santa Cruz Fire Department said on Instagram. Their conditions were unknown. Coastal roads in Santa Cruz were closed following the pier's partial collapse, city officials said. Gov. Gavin Newsom's has been briefed and the state's Office of Emergency Services is coordinating with local officials, his office said. Ocean swells along California's central coast could reach 26 feet (8 meters) as the Pacific storm gains strength through Monday, the weather service said. “A rapidly developing storm will bring hurricane force winds to the areas well offshore of the Pacific Northwest tonight,” the weather service's Ocean Prediction Center said on X. Winds off Oregon and Washington could peak near 80 mph (130 kph) and seas will build over 30 feet (9.1 meters), forecasters said. The Santa Cruz Wharf collapse Monday came about a year after the Seacliff State Beach pier just down the coast was battered beyond repair by a heavy winter storm.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Two people were rescued and a third swam to safety after a California pier under construction partially collapsed and fell into the ocean Monday as the state’s central coast was pounded by heavy surf from a major storm expected to bring hurricane-force winds to the seas off the Pacific Northwest, authorities said. Residents were warned to stay away from low-lying areas near the beaches around the Santa Cruz Wharf, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of San Francisco, as the storm rapidly gained strength. “You are risking your life, and those of the people that would need to try and save you by getting in or too close to the water,” the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office said on the social platform X. Lifeguards rescued two people from the water, officials with Santa Cruz Fire Department said. No one had serious injuries, Mayor Fred Keeley said. The mayor said the section of the wharf that collapsed had been damaged over time. The structure was in the middle of a $4 million renovation following destructive storms last winter. “It’s a catastrophe for those down at the end of the wharf,” said David Johnston, owner of Venture Quest Kayaking, who was allowed onto the pier to check on his business. Tony Elliot, the head of the Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation Department, estimated that about 150 feet (45 meters) of the end of the wharf fell into the water around 12:45 p.m. It was immediately evacuated and will remain closed indefinitely. Some of the wharf’s pilings are still in the ocean and remain “serious, serious hazards” to boats, the mayor said. Each piling weighs hundreds of pounds and is being pushed by powerful waves. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s has been briefed and the state’s Office of Emergency Services is coordinating with local officials, his office said. Forecasters warned that storm swells will continue to increase throughout the day. “We are anticipating that what is coming toward us is more serious than what was there this morning,” the mayor said. Ocean swells along California’s central coast could reach 60 feet (18 meters) as the Pacific storm gains strength through Monday, the weather service said. “A rapidly developing storm will bring hurricane force winds to the areas well offshore of the Pacific Northwest tonight,” the weather service’s Ocean Prediction Center said on X. The end of the pier that broke off had been shut down during renovations. The portion, which included public restrooms and the closed Dolphin restaurant, floated about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) down the coast and wedged itself at the bottom of the San Lorenzo River. Those who fell into the water were two engineers and a project manager who were inspecting the end of the wharf, officials said. No members of the public were in the area. Building inspectors were now looking at the rest of the Santa Cruz Wharf’s structural integrity. Monday’s collapse came about a year after the Seacliff State Beach pier just down the coast was battered beyond repair by a heavy winter storm. Further up the West Coast, dangerous surf conditions and waves up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) were expected from the central Oregon coast up through southwestern Washington. Winds could peak near 80 mph (130 kph) and a high surf warning in effect until 10 p.m. Monday night, forecasters said. In a post on X, the National Weather Service office in Portland, Oregon, said “it will likely go down as some of the highest surf this winter.” ___ Dazio reported from Los Angeles.Federal DEI spending explodes under Biden-Harris administration

Black Friday is almost here, and with it comes the promise of deep discounts on the most coveted tech gadgets, especially TVs. Whether you’re a cinephile yearning for a cinematic experience, a gamer craving immersive visuals, or simply looking to upgrade your tired old television, this Black Friday is your chance to score a fantastic deal on a brand-new TV. This guide dives deep into the best Black Friday TV deals for 2023, focusing on top brands like Samsung, Roku, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL. We’ll navigate the maze of deals, highlight the standout offers, and equip you with the knowledge to make an informed decision. Why Black Friday? It’s simple. Retailers offer their steepest discounts of the year during this shopping extravaganza. This means you can snag that high-end OLED TV you’ve been eyeing or finally upgrade to a bigger screen size without breaking the bank. But with a multitude of deals flooding the market, it can be overwhelming to sift through the noise and identify the true gems. That’s where we come in. We’ve done the heavy lifting, scouring the internet and analyzing early Black Friday ads to bring you a curated selection of the very best TV deals. What to Expect from Black Friday TV Deals in 2023 This year, expect to see significant price drops across all TV categories. Doorbuster deals will likely feature incredible discounts on entry-level and mid-range 4K TVs, making them more accessible than ever. Premium TVs, including OLED and QLED models with cutting-edge features like HDR and Dolby Vision, will also see substantial price reductions, though these deals might be limited in quantity. Key Trends: Top Brands and Expected Deals Samsung: Known for their vibrant QLED displays and feature-rich smart TVs , Samsung consistently offers some of the most compelling Black Friday deals. Expect significant discounts on their popular QLED models, including The Frame and Neo QLED TVs. My Experience: I’ve always been a fan of Samsung’s picture quality. Last year, I snagged a fantastic deal on a QLED during Black Friday, and the color vibrancy still blows me away. Roku: Roku TVs offer a user-friendly smart TV experience with a vast selection of streaming apps. Expect aggressive price cuts on various Roku TV models from brands like TCL, Hisense, and Sharp, making them an excellent choice for budget-conscious shoppers. Sony: Sony excels in picture quality and sound, particularly with their Bravia XR OLED TVs. While Sony TVs tend to be pricier, Black Friday offers a chance to score high-end models with impressive discounts. Keep an eye out for deals on their A80K and X90K series. LG: LG is a leader in OLED technology, renowned for their stunning picture quality with perfect blacks and infinite contrast. Black Friday is an opportune time to invest in an LG OLED TV, especially their C2 and G2 series, which are likely to see significant price drops. Hisense: Hisense offers a compelling combination of affordability and features. Their ULED TVs, featuring quantum dot technology, deliver excellent picture quality at competitive prices. Look for attractive deals on their U6H and U8H series. TCL: TCL has rapidly gained popularity for its value-packed TVs that offer impressive features without the premium price tag. Their 6-Series Roku TVs, known for their excellent picture quality and robust smart features, are likely to be among the most sought-after deals this Black Friday. Pro Tip: To stay ahead of the game, sign up for email alerts from your favorite retailers and follow their social media pages for early access to Black Friday deals. Decoding TV Jargon: A Quick Guide Navigating the world of TVs can be daunting with a plethora of technical terms . Here’s a quick breakdown of some common jargon to help you make sense of the deals: Tips for Snagging the Best Black Friday TV Deals My Tip: Don’t be afraid to haggle! Sometimes, retailers are willing to match or even beat a competitor’s price. Beyond the Price: Factors to Consider While price is a significant factor, it shouldn’t be the sole determinant. Here are some other crucial aspects to consider: Black Friday TV Deals: Where to Look Remember: Deals can change rapidly during Black Friday. Stay vigilant, compare prices, and be ready to act fast to secure the best offers. By following these tips and staying informed, you can navigate the Black Friday frenzy and score an amazing deal on the TV of your dreams. Happy shopping!US stocks surge to records, shrugging off upheaval in South Korea, France