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Western primaries, Biden to sign Inflation Reduction Act, R. Kelly trial: 5 things to know Tuesday

Editors
·5 min read

Can Liz Cheney survive? Primaries test Trump strength in Alaska, Wyoming

Alaska and Wyoming will hold high-profile primary elections Tuesday in contests where the presence of former President Donald Trump will, yet again, again loom. In Wyoming, all eyes are on Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of Trump who is not expected to survive a challenge from lawyer Harriet Hageman. In Alaska, voters will select nominees in primaries for Senate, governor and the state's sole House seat. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski faces a Trump-backed challenger after she voted to convict the former president during his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. On the other side of the GOP's tent, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential nominee, is back on an Alaska ballot Tuesday. Endorsed by Trump, she finished first to qualify for a special election seeking to replace Rep. Don Young, who died in March. Palin is actually on the ballot twice: once in the election to complete Young's term and another for a full two-year House term starting in January.

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Biden to sign Inflation Reduction Act

President Joe Biden will sign the Inflation Reduction Act Tuesday, the sweeping legislation on health care, climate and taxes. The bill includes record spending on clean energy initiatives, measures to reduce prescription drug prices and a tax overhaul to ensure large corporations pay income taxes. The 10-year, $739 billion package will also raise taxes on certain corporations while reducing the deficit by about $100 billion over the next decade. It would also allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices – long opposed by the pharmaceutical industry – and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies three more years through 2025. The House on Friday passed the bill along party lines, voting 220-207, with no Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the act. The signing caps a spurt of legislative productivity for Biden and Congress, who in three months have approved legislation on veterans’ benefits, the semiconductor industry and gun checks for young buyers.

States expected to draft plan to use drastically less water from Colorado River Basin

Seven states are expected to draft a plan by Tuesday that would lessen the use of water supply from the Colorado River Basin. If they fail to do so, the federal government has threatened to intervene. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the government agency that owns and operates major dams and reservoirs in the country, announced in June that the seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River Basin for water supplies had 60 days to agree on a plan to use drastically less water. As droughts linked to the climate crisis further strain water resources in the West, more communities are likely to have their day-to-day life impacted by water shortages. The goal: Bring water usage and water supply back in line, so that we are not tapping into reserves that will one day dry up.

Jury selection underway as R. Kelly faces federal trial

Jury selection in disgraced R&B star and convicted sex offender R. Kelly’s federal trial continues Tuesday as prosecutors and lawyers gird for a second attempt to convict him again as a sexual predator. The trial opened Monday in his hometown of Chicago, and centers on whether Kelly threatened and paid off a girl whom he allegedly videotaped himself abusing when he was around 30 and she was no older than 14. Jurors in the 2008 child pornography trial acquitted Kelly, with some later explaining that they felt they had no choice because the girl did not testify. The woman, now in her 30s, will be the government’s star witness in the federal trial that’s expected to last four weeks. Kelly, 55, already has been sentenced by a New York federal judge to a 30-year prison term for a 2021 conviction on charges that he used his fame to sexually abuse other young fans.

Reports: Tiger Woods to meet with PGA Tour players in effort to fend off LIV Golf

Tiger Woods is headed to the BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, this week but not to play golf, according to multiple reports. Instead, he's going to meet with a group of PGA Tour players to discuss the continued encroachment of the LIV Golf Invitational Series. On Tuesday, Woods is set to meet with a number of the top-20 ranked players in the world before the start of the second FedEx Cup Playoffs tournament. Woods has spoken out against the Saudi-funded LIV several times, including at the 150th Open Championship in July. "Greg (Norman) has done some things that I don't think (are) in the best interest of our game," Woods said at the time, referencing the LIV CEO. As columnist Christine Brennan recently noted, "When LIV golfers meet the press, they should know by now what's coming: questions about leaving their old jobs on the PGA Tour for new jobs taking millions from (Saudi Arabia's) government's Public Investment Fund, which is controlled by (Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman)."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: West primaries, Inflation Reduction Act, Tiger Woods: 5 things to know Tuesday