Latino vote surge helped Biden in key states, new data suggest
WASHINGTON — Nearly a third more Hispanic voters participated in the 2020 presidential election as did in 2016, providing a boost to Democrat Joe Biden that swamped the small inroads that Republicans made in the share of the Hispanic vote.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show Hispanic voters made up 10.6% of the national electorate in 2020, an increase of1.4 percentage points and rivaling Black voters who made up 12% to 13%. Non-Hispanic white voters comprised 71% of all voters,down from 73.3% in 2016.
A leading Latino rights group said the increase in Hispanic voters is the highest ever recorded.
“These trends underscore the reality that presidential campaigns cannot be successful unless they engage Latino voters,” said Arturo Vargas of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
It also marks a demographic shift that may have helped tip the balance in some key states.
Republicans have touted inroads that former President Donald Trump made among Latino voters, especially in Florida where Cuban Americans form an especially influential voting bloc. Exit polls there show Biden won 53% of Florida Latinos' votes compared to 46% for Trump, even as Trump carried the state.
But Biden still won two-thirds of Latino voters nationally in 2020, according to exit polls from Edison Research, and the increase in Latino turnout was large enough that it could have changed the outcome in a number of battleground states.
—Bloomberg News
Harvey Weinstein extradition to LA on rape charges is challenged
Harvey Weinstein will remain in a New York state prison for at least 30 more days as his attorneys challenge plans to extradite him to Los Angeles to face rape and sexual assault charges.
At a court hearing in New York on Friday, prosecutors filed new paperwork that gives the disgraced producer until May 30 to challenge the extradition to L.A.
If Weinstein is extradited to California, he is expected to stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted five women in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles over a decade-long span.
L.A. prosecutors charged Weinstein with four counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, two countsof sexual battery and one count of sexual penetration by force in January 2020.
A grand jury returned an indictment against Weinstein, 69, on those same charges earlier this year, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. While those sources described the indictment as a procedural move largely meant to avoid a preliminary hearing and preempt potential speedy trial issues in Los Angeles, where the COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge case backlog in the county’s courts, it still brings Weinstein one step closer to a trial.
Weinstein has remained in custody at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, since March 2020, after a Manhattan jury convicted him of rape.
—Los Angeles Times
Pope allows cardinals, bishops to be tried by Vatican’s lay criminal tribunal
Cardinals and bishops will now be allowed to be tried by the Vatican’s lay criminal tribunal, according to a decree issuedFriday by Pope Francis.
Until now, the Catholic Church’s most senior officials accused of criminal offenses could only be tried by their peers inthe "Corte di Cassazone" (Court of Cassation), which is presided over by a cardinal.
On Friday, Francis changed the policy in a document named “motu proprio,” which amends the judicial system of the VaticanCity State promulgated in March 2020, according to Vatican News.
The new law makes clear that Vatican City State judges have jurisdiction over Holy See cardinals and bishops — although thepope will still have to authorize any trials before they can proceed.
According to Religion News Service, the decree represents a “strike against clericalism in the church, which Francis has combatedsince becoming pope.”
When the new motu proprio comes into effect — the day after its publication in the L’Osservatore Romano — cardinals and bishopsbeing tried for criminal offenses will be prosecuted and judged “like everyone else and by the same Vatican Court,” VaticanNews noted.
The message sent to cardinals and bishops — that Francis is committed to hold them accountable for criminal misconduct — comesa day after the announcement of a law aimed at cracking down on corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.
—New York Daily News
