The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday afternoon that it will conduct a formal review of the shocking incident from Sunday’s Oscars broadcast, in which best-actor winner Will Smith hit presenter Chris Rock across the face onstage after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair.

“The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show,” a spokesman said in a statement. “We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.” The Hollywood Reporter reported that “an emergency phone call” is being arranged with academy members.

Before the instantly infamous slap, the Smiths — one of Hollywood’s most powerful and gossiped-about couples — had already been a target for jokes earlier in the evening, when co-host Regina Hall poked fun at the long-standing rumors about their alleged open marriage. The duo was seen laughing on camera at the barb.

It’s a safe bet that Texans who voted by mail in the March 1 primary didn’t think state election officials would receive the ballots but then promptly toss them out. But that is exactly what happened to thousands of voters under the controversial state law that created new identification requirements. These would-be voters are among the first victims of the Republican Party’s campaign to restrict voting, the scandalous consequences of which are only now becoming visible.

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A Texas Tribune review found that Texas election officials rejected 18,742 mail-in ballots cast in 16 of the state’s 20 counties with the most registered voters. That translates into rejection rates from 6 percent to nearly 22 percent. An Associated Press survey found a 13 percent rejection rate across 187 Texas counties, concluding that the state trashed nearly 23,000 ballots. A rejection rate of more than 2 percent is generally considered high. Texas scrapped less than 1 percent of absentee ballots in 2020.

The Tribune found that the predominant issue was absentee voters’ failure to comply with strict new mail-in ballot voter-ID laws, which state negligence and technical problems made nearly impossible for many to meet. Perhaps these numbers will plummet as more people get used to the new rules. More likely, mail-in ballot users — many of them elderly or people with disabilities — will continue to struggle.....

It surely dawned on Republican state lawmakers that they also stood to benefit politically. True, new restrictions hit both Republican and Democratic voters to some extent, but disproportionately the latter. The Associated Press found that the rejection rate in Democratic-leaning counties in Texas was 15.1 percent — and 9.1 percent in Republican-leaning ones. Mr. Trump carried Texas in 2020 by a narrower margin than the state’s voting history might have led one to expect. Complex, unnecessary voting rules might help Republicans maintain their grip on the state, regardless of what voters actually think.

It’s a safe bet that Texans who voted by mail in the March 1 primary didn’t think state election officials would receive the ballots but then promptly toss them out. But that is exactly what happened to thousands of voters under the controversial state law that created new identification requirements. These would-be voters are among the first victims of the Republican Party’s campaign to restrict voting, the scandalous consequences of which are only now becoming visible.

Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
A Texas Tribune review found that Texas election officials rejected 18,742 mail-in ballots cast in 16 of the state’s 20 counties with the most registered voters. That translates into rejection rates from 6 percent to nearly 22 percent. An Associated Press survey found a 13 percent rejection rate across 187 Texas counties, concluding that the state trashed nearly 23,000 ballots. A rejection rate of more than 2 percent is generally considered high. Texas scrapped less than 1 percent of absentee ballots in 2020.

The Tribune found that the predominant issue was absentee voters’ failure to comply with strict new mail-in ballot voter-ID laws, which state negligence and technical problems made nearly impossible for many to meet. Perhaps these numbers will plummet as more people get used to the new rules. More likely, mail-in ballot users — many of them elderly or people with disabilities — will continue to struggle.....

It surely dawned on Republican state lawmakers that they also stood to benefit politically. True, new restrictions hit both Republican and Democratic voters to some extent, but disproportionately the latter. The Associated Press found that the rejection rate in Democratic-leaning counties in Texas was 15.1 percent — and 9.1 percent in Republican-leaning ones. Mr. Trump carried Texas in 2020 by a narrower margin than the state’s voting history might have led one to expect. Complex, unnecessary voting rules might help Republicans maintain their grip on the state, regardless of what voters actually think.

It’s a safe bet that Texans who voted by mail in the March 1 primary didn’t think state election officials would receive the ballots but then promptly toss them out. But that is exactly what happened to thousands of voters under the controversial state law that created new identification requirements. These would-be voters are among the first victims of the Republican Party’s campaign to restrict voting, the scandalous consequences of which are only now becoming visible.

Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
A Texas Tribune review found that Texas election officials rejected 18,742 mail-in ballots cast in 16 of the state’s 20 counties with the most registered voters. That translates into rejection rates from 6 percent to nearly 22 percent. An Associated Press survey found a 13 percent rejection rate across 187 Texas counties, concluding that the state trashed nearly 23,000 ballots. A rejection rate of more than 2 percent is generally considered high. Texas scrapped less than 1 percent of absentee ballots in 2020.

The Tribune found that the predominant issue was absentee voters’ failure to comply with strict new mail-in ballot voter-ID laws, which state negligence and technical problems made nearly impossible for many to meet. Perhaps these numbers will plummet as more people get used to the new rules. More likely, mail-in ballot users — many of them elderly or people with disabilities — will continue to struggle.....

It surely dawned on Republican state lawmakers that they also stood to benefit politically. True, new restrictions hit both Republican and Democratic voters to some extent, but disproportionately the latter. The Associated Press found that the rejection rate in Democratic-leaning counties in Texas was 15.1 percent — and 9.1 percent in Republican-leaning ones. Mr. Trump carried Texas in 2020 by a narrower margin than the state’s voting history might have led one to expect. Complex, unnecessary voting rules might help Republicans maintain their grip on the state, regardless of what voters actually think.

Budgets are statements of values, and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world, and the investments needed to continue our equitable growth and build a better America.

My Administration is on track to reduce the federal deficit by more than $1.3 trillion this year, cutting in half the deficit from the last year of the previous Administration and delivering the largest one-year reduction in the deficit in U.S. history. That’s the direct result of my Administration’s strategy to get the pandemic under control and grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. We spent less money than the last Administration and got better results: strong economic growth, which has increased revenues and allowed us to responsibly scale back emergency spending. My budget will continue that progress, further reducing the deficit by continuing to support the economic growth that has increased revenues and ensuring that billionaires and large corporations pay their fair share.

At the same time, my budget will make investments in securing our nation and building a better America. We willsecure our communities by putting more police on the street to engage in accountable community policing, hiringthe agents needed to help fight gun crime, and investing in crime prevention and community violence intervention.

I’m calling for one of the largest investments in our national security in history, with the funds needed to ensure that our military remains the best-prepared, best-trained, best-equipped military in the world. In addition, I’m calling for continued investment to forcefully respond to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine with US support for Ukraine’s economic, humanitarian, and security needs.

My budget also makes the investments needed to reducecosts for families and make progress on my Unity Agenda – including investments to cut the costs of child care and health care; help families pay for other essentials; endcancer as we know it; support our veterans; and get all Americans the mental health services they need.

All told, it is a budget that includes historic deficit reduction, historic investments in our security at home and abroad, and an unprecedented commitment to building an economy where everyone has a chance to succeed.

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