Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
Mississippi among 21 states suing Biden Admin. over climate rule
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has joined a 21-state coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s latest climate rule, which mandates that states with federal interstates and highways must adopt stringent CO2 emissions standards.
In the complaint filed today in the United States District Court in Paducah, Kentucky, the states explain, “Congress has not given FHWA or DOT authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Nor can the Agencies compel the States to administer a federal regulatory program or mandate them to further Executive policy wishes absent some other authority to do so—which is lacking as to this rule.”
The attorneys general note that FHWA previously issued a similar rule, which was repealed after the agency determined that the measure may duplicate “existing efforts in some States” and imposed “unnecessary burdens on State DOTs and MPOs [metropolitan planning organizations] that were not contemplated by Congress.”
Attorneys General from the following states joined in filing the complaint: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Trump will appear on Colorado ballot but gets kicked off ballot in Maine
After the Colorado Republican Party filed an appeal to the recent ruling by the state’s Supreme Court, the Secretary of State there says former President Donald Trump will be on the state’s GOP Primary ballot unless the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the lower court’s ruling or declines to take up the case.
The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its ruling removing Trump based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment until January 4th, allowing time for an appeal to the nation’s high court. The ballot in Colorado has to be certified by January 5th.
Hours after the decision came in Colorado, the Maine Secretary of State announced that she was removing Trump from her state’s GOP ballot, also citing the 14th Amendment.
“I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection,” wrote Shenna Bellows, a Democrat.
Trump’s campaign has called his removal from the ballot in Colorado and Maine “partisan election interference efforts.”
2. Haley addresses comments on Civil War
A response to a question regarding the cause of the Civil War posed to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday flung the media into a frenzy on Thursday. Haley did not cite slavery as a chief cause of the war between the states.
At a New Hampshire townhall event, Haley addressed the matter, saying, ““Of course, the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That’s unquestioned. Always the case. We know the Civil War was about slavery.”
She went on to say that the Civil War “was about the freedoms of every individual,” as well as the “the role of the government.”
“For 80 years, America had the decision and the moral question of whether slavery was a good thing and whether government economically, culturally, any other reasons, had a role to play in,” Haley said. “By the grace of God, we did the right thing and slavery is no more. But the lessons of what the bigger issue with the Civil War is that let’s not forget what came out of that, which is government’s role, individual liberties, freedom for every single person, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything you want to be without anyone in government getting in our way.”
Sports & Entertainment
New Year’s College Football Bowl Schedule
College Football’s New Year’s Six Bowls are set to begin today. Here is the rundown on who’s playing and when:
Friday, Dec. 29
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ohio State
AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
8 p.m. on ESPN
Saturday, Dec. 30
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
No. 11 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Penn State
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
Noon on ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl
No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 5 Florida State
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida)
4 p.m. on ESPN
Monday, Jan. 1
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl
No. 23 Liberty vs. No. 8 Oregon
State Farm Stadium (Glendale, Arizona)
1 p.m. on ESPN
CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential
No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 1 Michigan
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)
5 p.m. on ESPN
CFP Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl
No. 3 Texas vs. No. 2 Washington
Caesars Superdome (New Orleans)
8:45 p.m. on ESPN
Markets & Business
Markets defied bearish predictions in 2023
Gunjan Banerji writes in the Wall Street Journal that almost no one thought 2023 would be a blockbuster year for stocks – “They could hardly have been more wrong.”
“The S&P 500 is poised to finish the year up 25%, just 0.3% from its January 2022 record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 14% to top 37000 for the first time and set seven record closes in the final days of 2023. A mania surrounding artificial intelligence and big technology stocks sent the Nasdaq Composite soaring 44%,” Banerji wrote in the WSJ article.
As Banerji notes, inflation continued falling, consumers kept spending and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest level since 1969.
Read more from Banerji in the WSJ here.
Magnolia Tribune
