Friday Executive News Summary

Clancy jury deliberations underway
Arguments in the Lindsay Clancy murder case have concluded, and the jury has begun deliberations. While all parties agree that Clancy committed murder, the jury must decide whether she can be held responsible for her crimes due to the alleged severity of her mental state. This case has been the subject of much public attention, with many leftist women supporting Clancy. Likely due to the volatile public nature of the case, Judge William Sullivan has allowed the jury to choose second-degree murder and manslaughter as possible convicting offenses. A second-degree murder conviction would carry life in prison with parole, while manslaughter would be especially egregious, as that sentence carries only up to 20 years. It should go without saying that anything less than life in prison or in an institution would be an abject failure of the justice system. Hopefully, the jury makes the right choice.

Trump moves to protect U.S. power grid
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Wednesday directed at the nation’s electric grid. The order reads, “The rapid growth of advanced manufacturing, data centers, artificial intelligence, and defense production has increased the Nation’s dependence on abundant, reliable electricity and magnified the consequences of a successful attack or supply disruption on the bulk-power system.” The order directs the Energy Department to identify foreign companies that produce electric grid components that may pose a risk to the U.S. power grid, and it bars the use of these products within the U.S. power supply system. Trump is acting on a national security concern to address vulnerabilities within the U.S. supply chain that could “eliminate the supply of these products in the United States as a result of disruptions in international trade or other causes.”

Anthropic blacklisting declared unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin has sided with AI company Anthropic in its lawsuit against the Trump administration over being labeled a supply-chain risk after the company clashed with the Pentagon over the War Department’s use of its AI technology. Lin ruled that the Pentagon had acted in “unlawful retaliation,” writing that the “Defendants’ contemporaneous words and deeds confirm that the challenged actions were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government.” She ordered the Pentagon to remove Anthropic from its blacklist designation of a supply-chain risk. Lin noted that other government agencies’ continued use of Anthropic exposes the Pentagon’s claims against the AI firm as being disingenuous. The Trump administration may appeal the ruling, but it's also awaiting a ruling from a Washington appeals court on the same issue.

Judge blocks Trump's USPS mail-in ballot rule
President Trump ordered states to submit lists of eligible voters to the Postal Service, but yesterday, Obama-appointed Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani forbade USPS from carrying out Trump's plans. Talwani asserted that the rule was “unconstitutional” because it forces states to retrain election officials and order new supplies (envelopes marked with special barcodes), which would interfere with the ability to run elections. According to Talwani, there is no evidence of mail-in voting fraud. The DOJ will likely try to appeal her ruling, and the matter will return to the Supreme Court, which ruled against Talwani earlier in the week, before USPS had finalized planning.

Cartel drones shot down with lasers
The U.S. military’s southern border Joint Task Force shot down three drones along the U.S.-Mexico border late Tuesday night using an “Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser system.” U.S. Northern Command did not specify where the drones were shot down or which cartels they belonged to due to ongoing counter-cartel and counter-drone operations. The unmanned aircraft were determined to be “hostile” since they were supporting activities “posing a physical threat to U.S. military personnel.” According to the commander of the Joint Task Force, cartels are increasingly using drones to spy on law enforcement and to support illicit activities like human and narcotics smuggling. Trump initiated the Joint Task Force, which has about 8,000 service members, last year as part of his immigration crackdown.

Lake Ontario America
Carrying through on a threat in an increasingly tense trade dispute with Canada, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The smallest of the Great Lakes borders New York in the U.S. and Ontario in Canada. Naturally, Democrats are not having it: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan plans to introduce a bill to nullify the executive order and restore Lake Ontario’s name. Republicans more or less supported renaming the Gulf, but Lake America may be a bridge too far. Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany said the Great Lakes are what they are and “we should leave them that way,” although he did joke that he’d support renaming Lake Michigan “Lake Wisconsin.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney released a statement defending the name Ontario, which is a Wendat word meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”

WNBA calls Freedom a threat
After Enes Kanter Freedom was ejected and banned from Chicago Sky games, Sky owner Michael Alter said Kanter wasn't warned at all before his ejection. Kanter and Chicago player Natasha Cloud had been engaging in unfriendly banter, mostly coming from Cloud, when Kanter was deemed a "threat." Said Alter, "He wasn't given a warning because certain threats don't get warnings. I mean, to use an extreme example, when you shoot a gun at someone, you don't get a warning, 'Don't do that again.' Your action doesn't deserve a warning." At least he admits it was an extreme example, because there is a vast difference between a few harsh words and a potentially fatal bullet. If you can't deal with glorified banter, you probably shouldn't play professional basketball.

The fight against Harvard's antisemitism continues
The Trump administration called out Harvard University for hostility against Jews. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying antisemitism was "too isolated and episodic" to prove Harvard had violated the law. Harvard faculty members recently released an open letter exposing antisemitic incidents on campus. One Jewish student was "told to leave a classroom by an instructor because her being Israeli made other students uncomfortable." Antisemitism, however, has taken deep roots not just at Harvard but across all of America's higher education. Other universities have dismissed pro-Israel protesters and turned a blind eye to pro-Palestinian protesters. A professor at a Canadian university was fired for defending Israel on social media after the October 7, 2023, attack.

GWU caught racially discriminating
The Supreme Court was very clear in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard: race-based college admissions are illegal. On its face, how hard could it be for elite colleges, medical schools, and universities to simply pick candidates based on their academic and extracurricular achievement? Evidently, for the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, that’s too much work; it’s much easier to find proxies for race or elicit essay responses that reveal racial information to simply allow more black and Hispanic students. The Justice Department says, “GW Med’s admissions practices reveal an intent to prioritize racial diversity over merit.” This practice violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and makes even a private institution like GWU liable since it receives federal funds.

RFK and Shapiro spar over measles-related deaths
To position himself as “fighting the Trump administration,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro prematurely claimed two infant deaths were caused by measles. The pathologist who conducted one autopsy said that the newborn died of a spleen laceration hours after birth and that measles was not the cause of death. While the second newborn death is still under investigation, state officials say it does not bear “the hallmarks of a measles death.” Measles cases are on the rise, but the CDC says deaths are rare, and these two were the first measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in 35 years. Shapiro blamed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the decline in vaccine rates, but Kennedy pointed out that most of the decline occurred during the Biden administration due to government overreach and deception during COVID, which severely damaged public faith in vaccines and in public health officials.

Headlines

• Leavitt talks about what’s next for her on last day at White House (The Hill)
• ICE grants $16.7 million contract to buy thousands of electric shock gloves (CBS News)
• Trump to honor 9/11 at Pentagon after NYC memorial forbids speech (Washington Examiner)
• Man arrested at Trump golf course in California had first lady's schedule, Secret Service details (Just the News)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, Jacob Geoffrey, Hudson Baldwin, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.