(NEW YORK) — Five states will now legalize marijuana for both recreational and medical use.
A majority of New Jersey and Arizona residents voted yes on ballot measures to make recreational marijuana legal. Voters in South Dakota approved marijuana for medical use.
Lawmakers in New Jersey will now have to draft and pass legislation for implementing the new policy. The Arizona Department of Health Services will be responsible for adopting that state’s rules.
Mississippi voters approved an initiative to establish a medical marijuana program for patients with debilitating conditions.
Voters in Montana voted for two initiatives to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
Eleven other states and the District of Columbia already allowed legal recreational marijuana use prior to Election Day.
South Dakota has a second ballot measure that would legalize recreational marijuana, but the votes are still being counted.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. officially has left the Paris Agreement, three years after President Donald Trump announced he would leave the international climate change forum.
The accord is a collective agreement among nearly 200 countries that aims to prevent the earth’s temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial revolution temperatures, the value that climate scientists have determined will have disastrous consequences if exceeded.
The rise could result in rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, drought and wildfires. This, in turn, could lead to mass migration and shortages in food production, according to the experts.
In 2017, Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement, claiming it could be economically detrimental and cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs by 2025.
Trump described the pledge that the U.S. entered, which was to reduce greenhouse gases 26% to 28% by 2025, as a “massive redistribution of United States wealth” that would “undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty [and] impose unacceptable legal risk.”
Experts have said that as the second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, the U.S. participating in the accord is crucial to inspiring other countries to take responsibility for their roles in global warming.
Whether the U.S. rejoins the agreement could depend on the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has proposed a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change, has vowed to reenter the U.S. into the agreement should he be elected president, a move that could take less than six months, Varun Sivaram, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
Trump, who has walked back dozens of environmental protections since he took office in 2017, has said that he would be open to rejoining the accord after renegotiating a “deal that’s fair.”
(NEW YORK) — As business owners in Washington, D.C., and New York City board up their storefronts to protect against potential election unrest, law enforcement from New Jersey to California is working to ensure that Americans who show up at the polls have their voice heard and their vote counted.
In the swing state of Ohio, Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp told ABC News that they are aware there could be issues percolating on Election Day and beyond, including possible concerns at polling places.
“We’re patrolling on the periphery of polling stations; we’re not placing people right at the polling site to oversee and watch and stand guard,” Tharp said. “We’re not doing that and there are obvious reasons why we’re not. It could be intimidating to some voters. Some voters would not appreciate that or feel that there’s something’s going on when there’s not.”
Concerns at the polls
Law enforcement officials ABC News spoke with across the country said that they have been working on plans with state and local election leaders. In Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Chief Edwin Roessler told ABC News that the police department works hand-and-hand with the commonwealth’s attorney to make sure that in the event something does happen at a polling place, election laws are followed.
“We want to be sure that what we’re doing is correct,” he said.
Roessler said that having well-trained poll workers is key to responding to issues that may arise.
“It’s training election officials and volunteers to be the eyes and ears and to understand what the election laws are and what they are not, and to have a triage system in place,” he said.
In California, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud told ABC News that voters will not see police officers “immediately outside of polling places.”
She told ABC News that early voting could end up alleviating some issues that might otherwise arise at polling places.
“It provides for less people in one place at one time,” said Renaud, who was just elected the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
John Nesky, who serves as the police chief in Bowie, Maryland, told ABC News that police presence at the polls requires a “delicate balance.”
“It’s a delicate balance between presence and perceived intimidation, depending on how you feel about law enforcement. We have to really be careful about how we position ourselves and what kind of optics we put out or we provide,” he said, adding that their primary duties are ensuring traffic flow and keeping watch over ballot boxes.
In another battleground state, Texas, Frisco Police Chief David Shilson told ABC News that the role of law enforcement on Election Day is to build confidence in the process.
“Our role here in the election process is really just to maintain the integrity of the process and make sure that people have confidence in the process and that we’re there to mitigate issues that come up,” Shilson said. “Certainly, we will not have a constant presence at polling locations, because I know some people are intimidated by the uniform or they may find it intimidating.”
He said his officers are prepared — but that they don’t expect any problems to arise.
Potential post-election unrest
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Monday that he was activating the state’s National Guard to address potential unrest after Election Day.
Law enforcement leaders say that there has been no credible information regarding threats of unrest following Election Day, but that they remain vigilant.
Elections are run by the states, so federal departments like the Department of Homeland Security have a limited role in the physical security of polling places.
“The American people can rest assured that this election will be decided by American voters,” said DHS spokesman Chase Jennings. “Working alongside our federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners, the Department of Homeland Security is fully prepared regarding election night safety and security. To be clear, the Department of Homeland Security has limited authorities regarding physical security — our jurisdiction covers only federal property.”
In the Fairfax County, the police department’s action plan for election security includes contingencies for staying in a heightened posture for potentially a month.
“If we need to extend this mode of operation for days, weeks and or a month or so, we’re very flexible to do that,” Roessler said.
In New Hampshire, where there are a large number of militia groups, the New Hampshire Department of Public Safety reports no credible threats on or after Election Day.
“The New Hampshire Department of Safety will continue to work with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office and the New Hampshire Department of Justice to support another successful election,” Department of Public Safety spokesman Paul Raymond told ABC News.
Renaud said that officials are focusing on a “whole of government” approach — working together to ensure safety and security.
“Law enforcement is certainly prepared nationwide to provide that that safety and security tomorrow and leading into the remainder of the week,” she said.
Although no law enforcement officials ABC News spoke with identified known credible threats leading up to Election Day, one official said that recent events in Michigan have made him extra wary.
In October, the FBI foiled a plot by extremists to kidnap and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Jared Maples, Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, told ABC News that the Michigan plot made him concerned.
“We protect everyone’s rights, whether it be the right to protest, the freedom of speech, et cetera,” Maples said. “But when it interrupts and becomes more than that, and starts moving from bias and hate crime into a potential attack scenario, that’s what we’re really focused on, stopping and interjecting to hopefully deter an attack. But I say all that to say we definitely are concerned with the outcome of this.”
“I know that we don’t assign one particular outcome. I think we’re seeing extremism really in multiple areas across the board.”
(NEW ORLEANS) — A white man who pleaded guilty to torching three historically Black Louisania churches in a 10-day span was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in federal prison.
Holden James Matthews, 22, learned of his fate in federal court in Lafayette, Louisana, at the conclusion of a two-day hearing in which parishioners displaced by the 2019 arson rampage gave emotional victim impact statements, with one person saying to Matthews “some believe you should receive the death penalty.”
Prior to Judge Robert Summerhays issuing the sentence, Matthews apologized for his crimes and said he wanted congregants of the churches he destroyed to know he had found faith in the Lord.
Matthews, according to prosecutors, could have been sentenced to 70 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty in February to three counts of using fire to commit a felony and three counts of intentional damage to religious property, which are hate crimes under the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996.
Federal prosecutors said Matthews admitted to setting the fires because of the “religious character of these buildings” and in an effort to raise his profile as a “Black Metal” musician, a music genre with roots in the Norwegian heavy metal scene that reportedly was the inspiration of several church burnings in that country in the early 1990s.
Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said Matthews also admitted to taking and posting photographs and videos on Facebook showing the first two church burnings in hopes of promoting himself in the Black Metal community.
Matthews’ reign of terror began on March 26, 2019, setting fire to St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, Louisiana, officials said.
On April 2, 2019, he set fire to the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, Louisiana, and two days later he torched the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, also in Opelousas, officials said. All three churches are in St. Landry Parrish.
He was arrested in April after investigators traced three gas cans found at one of the burned churches to a local Walmart and discovered through credit card receipts and surveillance video that they were purchased by Matthews, officials said.
Matthews’ father is a sheriff’s deputy in St. Landry Parish. In April, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said Matthews’ father “helped facilitate” his son’s arrest and had “no knowledge” of the arson spree.
Rev. Kyle Sylvester, a pastor at St. Mary Baptist Church, was among those who gave victim impact statements on Friday.
“Some believe you should receive the death penalty, some want to kill you themselves and others believe your punishment today will not be enough,” Sylvester told Matthews, according to ABC Lafayette affiliate KATC-TV.
Defense attorneys called a clinical psychologist who evaluated Matthews’ mental state to testify on Friday. Mary Lou Kelley, a professor at Louisiana State University, said Matthews, in her opinion, suffers from untreated depression, social anxiety, arrested social development and socially avoidant behavior that stems from a fear of social rejection.
Kelley claimed that Matthews has a history of alcohol and substance abuse and that he got drunk before setting each fire.
“His mother continuously told him to pray and it’ll get better. … He was angry at God because his prayers weren’t heard. I think if he had gotten the mental health services he needed he would not be here today,” Kelley said.
As part of the sentencing, Summerhays gave Matthews 18 months credit for time served since his arrest and ordered Matthews to seek substance abuse counseling while in prison.
The fires drew national attention, and Vice President Mike Pence traveled to St. Landry Parrish to condemn the acts.
“No one should ever fear for their safety in a house of worship, anywhere in this country, anywhere in the world. Attacks on communities of faith must stop,” Pence said at the time, citing a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 18, 2018, that left 11 people dead and seven wounded and another shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, in which one congregant was killed and three were injured, including the rabbi.
Following the arson fires, churches and religious groups throughout Louisiana and the nation donated more than $2 million to a GoFundMe site established by the Seventh District Baptist Association, a 150-year-old nonprofit religious organization, to help rebuild the three burned churches.
Sean Pavone /iStockBY: JULIA JACOBO AND ARIELLE MITROPOULOS, ABC NEWS
(BOSTON) — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has issued an overnight stay-at-home order, among other new mandates, in response to a recent rise of COVID-19 cases in the state.
The new stay-at-home advisory instructs residents to stay home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., but activities such as going to work, critical errands such as getting groceries and addressing health needs, and taking a walk are allowed. Restaurants will also be required to close in-person dining by 9:30 p.m.
The other executive orders include a stricter statewide mask order and limitations on gatherings at private residences. All orders will take effect Friday.
In addition, the limit for gatherings at private residences will be reduced from 25 to 10, and the limit at outdoor events will be reduced from 50 to 25. The order requires that organizers of gatherings report known positive COVID-19 cases to the local health department in that community and requires organizers to cooperate with contact tracing.
Anyone found not to be in compliance by local health and police departments could be fined up to $500 for each person above the limit at a particular gathering.
The state joins other areas in the country and around the world responding to an uptick in cases. Last week, officials in El Paso, Texas, issued a mandatory curfew after cases rose 160%, and a four-week lockdown in the United Kingdom may need to be extended if that doesn’t remedy the spread of the virus.
The initial pandemic response in Massachusetts was considered to be among the best in the country, but daily case counts have been looking similar to what the state was experiencing in mid-May. As of last week, a seven-day average for new cases was up nearly 339% since early September, according to an ABC News analysis of state data.
The state issued a mask mandate in early May, which required face coverings to be worn in public places whenever social distancing is not possible. However, under the altered order, masks will be required in any public space, indoor or outdoor, regardless of the ability to maintain social distancing.
The new orders come just one day after Massachusetts recorded its ninth consecutive day of more than 1,000 new cases. In the last month, new cases have surged by more than 135%.
As of Monday, Massachusetts was one of 40 states where cases were trending higher, according to an ABC News analysis. It was also one of 39 states that showed an increased rate of positivity and one of 45 states with an increase in hospitalizations.
ABC News’ Erin Schumacher contributed to this report.
Omer Serkan Bakir/iStockBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
