HIGH VOLTAGE: The Biden administration issued one of the most ambitious climate regulations in the nation’s history to push the auto industry into making the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the US all-electric or hybrid by 2032.

  In his campaign against global warming, President Biden wants to cut the nation’s polluting emissions in half by the end of this decade. The new rule increasingly limits the amount of tailpipe emissions allowed from new cars, forcing the industry to turn to electric. Meeting the goal would eliminate more than seven billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

  The dealers sold a record 1.2 million electric vehicles last year, but that was just 7.6 percent of total sales. 

  “Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country,” Biden said in a statement. “Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs.”

  The issue has been politicized by Donald Trump, who claims without evidence that converting to electric will actually kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement that, “Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate will force Americans to buy ultra-expensive cars they do not want and cannot afford while destroying the U.S. auto industry in the process.” 

  Biden’s new regulation is likely to be dragged to the Supreme Court by the fossil fuel industry and Republican attorneys general.  

ECON 101: The Federal Reserve yesterday kept interest rates level and forecast rate cuts during the year. As a result, all the stock market indexes hit record highs.

  The basic interest rate is 5.3 percent. The Fed is trying to cool the economy without crashing it into a recession, but prices for food and housing remain high and are unlikely to come down, making for a lot of unhappy voters.

  When rates eventually come down the result will lower interest rates on mortgages, credit cards, student loans, and other forms of debt. 

TEXAS HOLD ‘EM: A panel of three federal appeals judges hearing arguments yesterday about the new Texas migrant arrest law appeared to be split about its constitutionality. 

  Chief judge Priscilla Richman referred to the 2012 Supreme Court decision voiding a similar Arizona law that upheld the supremacy of the federal government in immigration enforcement. Judge Andrew Oldham appeared to side with Texas.

  With migrants pouring over the border, it’s a battle between Texas and the federal government. Gov. Greg Abbott declared, “Texas has a right to defend ourselves and we will use that authority to declare an invasion and fight back against that invasion.”

  It’s been a confusing situation in which the US Supreme Court put a hold on the law, then allowed it to go into effect, before just hours later the US Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked it again until full hearings are completed.

  Adding to the confusion, local police agencies say they are not equipped to arrest and deport migrants back over the border, and Mexico says it will not accept them. Even lawyers arguing on behalf of the state were not fully versed on the powers the law may or may not grant.

THE GOON SQUAD: Two more members of the all-white rogue Mississippi police gang that called itself “The Goon Squad” were handed long prison sentences for beating up and torturing two Black men they found in a house with a white woman. All six of the Good Squad pleaded guilty.

   Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. The judge said Dedmon committed the most “shocking, brutal and cruel acts imaginable.”Ex-deputy Daniel Opdyke got 17 1/2 years. 

  The six had entered the house without a warrant and attacked the two victims after a neighbor had complained that he’d seen them in the home of a white woman. One of the victims, Michael Jenkins, had been shot in the mouth suffering a broken jaw and lacerated tongue. “They did some unimaginable things to me,” Jenkins said in a statement. “They tried to take my manhood from me.”

THREE STRIKES: The Los Angeles Dodgers have fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Japanese pitcher Shohei Ohtani, following accusations that Mizuhara was using Ohtani’s money to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. The facts are not nailed down, but Ohtani may have been bilked for millions. 

  The pitcher is in the first year of a 10-year, $700 million contract. The scandal went public when the Los Angeles Times learned that Ohtani’s name surfaced in an illegal gambling investigation.

  A spokesman for Ohtani’s management firm said in a statement, “In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.” 

The Obit Page: Richard Higgins, one of the last US military survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died at age 104.

  Higgins was an aircraft mechanic who described being awakened by explosions, stepping outside his barracks, and seeing a Japanese plane roar right over his head. He described being out on the airport runway pushing planes away from each other as bombs exploded around him. He said, “I was moving planes away from ones that were on fire, because when the tanks exploded, they threw burning gas on the others.” 

THE SPIN RACK: One of the two men accused of illegally shooting 3,600 birds in Montana, including bald and golden eagles to sell on the black market, pleaded guilty. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Sad news. According to the World Happiness Report, the US for the first time dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries and fell to #30^. Our independent research reveals that the US slide was driven by people under 30 because clicks are down on their influencer videos.

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