A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco’s county by roughly 80,000 votes.

The court called the ballots’ seizure “unlawful,” saying California law requires voted ballots to remain in the custody and control of election officials, even during a criminal investigation. Bianco must also “refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order,” the court said in an unanimous decision. Bianco did not immediately comment on the ruling.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52320408

Lieutenant Shaxs makes his political leanings well known in the Star Trek: Lower Decks TV series, but wowza does he go hard-core antifa in the comics!

From Star Trek: Day of Blood - Shaxs' Best Day by Ryan North and Derek Charm, originally published in 2023. Panels slightly reformatted and rearranged by me in GIMP to be more self-contained and better accommodate mobile viewing.

(FYI: this comic, and the other Lower Deck comics too, is available on Hoopla; check and see if your local library is subscribed, and if so you can read the comic online for free with just your library card!)

According to ICE, Carlos Josué Marchena Marchena was declared dead after he was found unresponsive. He had Type 1 diabetes, and family members said he complained of deteriorating health as he missed meals and insulin shots while being shuttled between ICE jails in multiple states.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260924205348/https://www.democracynow.org/2026/9/24/headlines/costa_rican_immigrant_with_diabetes_dies_in_ice_custody_after_missing_food_insulin_shots

A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco’s county by roughly 80,000 votes.

The court called the ballots’ seizure “unlawful,” saying California law requires voted ballots to remain in the custody and control of election officials, even during a criminal investigation. Bianco must also “refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order,” the court said in an unanimous decision. Bianco did not immediately comment on the ruling.

Full title: In Titanic (1997), the ship is sinking on a dark and moonless night. But the filmmakers made a crucial mistake by making you see everything in the movie. To get an authentic experience, you should turn the brightness down

The Republican-led Senate on Thursday defeated a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, in a vote forced by Democrats seeking to highlight fallout from the war in their bid to win back control of Congress.

The resolution failed by a vote of 49 to 50.

The vote came as more Republicans have begun to distance themselves from President Trump over the war, even as others in the party have continued to support it.

Among those speaking out in recent days is Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, who is in a tight race for an open Senate seat in her state. In a social media post this week, Hinson wrote, "Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran."