Deadly storms in Hawaii and Indiana and Blanche open to legal fight over voter rolls: Weekend Rundown

One person was killed in a storm-related car crash as Hurricane Lala imposed fierce wind and pouring rain on Hawaii’s Big Island, Gov. Josh Green said.

Hurricane Lala hits Hawaii’s Big Island with heavy rains

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Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon Hao said first responders responded to reports Saturday of damaged roofs and downed trees. More than 130,000 utility customers in the state were without electricity Sunday morning.

Lala just avoided making landfall on the Big Island, which hasn’t had a direct hit from a hurricane in 155 years. Parts of the Big Island and Maui reported about a foot of rain, the National Hurricane Center said.

Extreme weather was also affecting Indiana, where at least six people died in a powerful storm system, officials said. Severe flooding inundated communities and strained emergency services across the state.

‘Meet the Press’

Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday there’s a “possibility” the Justice Department will ask the Supreme Court to intervene in dozens of cases in which judges have ruled against the federal government’s efforts to gain broad access to state voter rolls ahead of November’s midterm elections.

“Absolutely it’s a possibility,” Blanche told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when he was asked whether he would appeal the 22 cases the Justice Department has lost so far to the Supreme Court.

“Election integrity is something that President Trump ran on, and the American people elected him. It’s something that every American should care about,” Blanche said.

The cases stem from an executive order Trump signed directing states to turn over voter rolls, including voters’ names, dates of birth, residential addresses, state driver’s license information and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The federal government says it’s collecting the data so the Justice Department can investigate “deficiencies” or “anomalies,” including whether noncitizens are registered to vote.

While some states have voluntarily complied with the administration’s request, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., over their refusal to turn over the data.

More ‘Meet the Press’:

Blanche also said that it wouldn’t be ideal for the FBI to take over the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in Arizona but that federal investigators are providing as much help as possible.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called for a “Data Center Bill of Rights,” arguing that data centers need to be regulated so local communities have a larger say in where to build them.

Democrats set 2028 primary calendar, with South Carolina going first

Democratic National Committee Summer Meeting — Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.Joel Angel Juarez / AP

Democrats teed up South Carolina to lead a six-state gantlet of early presidential contests, sealing a 2028 road map that pushes Black and Latino voters and labor to the front of the line to choose the party’s next national leader.

After discussions Saturday in Texas, the Democratic National Committee formally selected South Carolina, with its large African American primary electorate, as the first-in-the-nation state. It will be followed by Nevada, with high numbers of Latinos and powerful labor interests. Next up are New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and then Virginia.

Officials in Iowa and New Hampshire expressed frustration after they were bucked from their decadeslong spots at the front of the pack, with one calling it “disappointing.”

Former MLB pitcher Tommy John dies at 83

Tommy John, the longtime major-league baseball pitcher whose name is forever linked to the groundbreaking elbow surgery that saved his career and the careers of countless others since, has died, officials said Sunday. He was 83.

Tommy John sits on the baseball field in uniform, holding a catcher's mitt — Tommy John of the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in 1987.Focus On Sport / Getty Images file

John will best be known for his years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees, two of the sport’s most famed franchises.

“Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” Dodgers President Stan Kasten said in a statement.

In a farewell note to Yankees owners and staff members posted this month, John thanked the doctor who saved his career with an operation to repair a torn ligament in his elbow, noting that the surgery has saved the careers of some of the game’s best pitchers.

‘Revenge is inevitable’: Iran ramps up propaganda war with violent billboards

Anti-U.S. billboards in Tehran.AP; AFP; NurPhoto; Anadolu; Reuters

The billboards are state-sponsored, plastered across Iran’s capital and far from subtle. One features an image of Trump lying in a casket; another shows the White House on fire; a third is a parody of the American flag with skulls in place of the stars and bombs dropping from the stripes.

Alongside ads for a multitude of products such as cars and shampoo, the giant billboards have become familiar sights to the people of Tehran in recent years. But since the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel, the messaging has become bolder and the tone more violent.

The modern images also appear to have been generated with the help of artificial intelligence, which Iran has used to boost its online propaganda efforts throughout the war.

More Middle East news:

An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed seven people and wounded three others early Saturday, one of the deadliest attacks since a precarious truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in June.
The Taliban marked five years in power, seeking to portray their government as in control even as aid and rights groups warned of escalating crises.
Iran’s parliament approved a bill that would criminalize interviews with media deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic, including U.S. or Israeli media and ‌outlets financed by either country.

Notable quote

The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized with a tweet, an aircraft carrier, an order, or an election speech.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister

A defiant Iran called on the U.S. to “accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in delusions” after Trump suggested that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory of the United States.”

A year after 3-year-old’s drowning, influencer apologizes for letting 16-month-old skip life jacket

An influencer whose 3-year-old son drowned more than a year ago has apologized for letting her 16-month-old sit on a boat without a life jacket, telling followers it was a lapse in judgment she deeply regrets.

Emilie Kiser, who announced last month that she’s pregnant again, faced intense criticism after she recently posted a photo of her younger son, Teddy, on a watercraft without a life vest during a family outing.

“Over the course of the last year, our family has been no stranger to tragedy and how quickly life can change,” Kiser said in her post. “We lost our son Trigg a little over a year ago to a preventable drowning and we will forever and always take accountability for the ways that we went wrong and the things that we didn’t do.”