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A public hearing on closing times for bars and restaurants, under COVID-19 restrictions, is on the agenda for the Unified Government Economic Development and Finance Committee tonight.

A Zoom meeting is planned, with the EDF meeting following the Neighborhood and Community Development meeting. The NCD meeting starts at 5 p.m.

Also on the agenda for Monday night is the adoption of the second amendment to the multi-sport stadium venture agreement, which increases the tax on tickets to Sporting KC games.

This agreement would increase the ticket tax by $1.25 to cover debt service for the parking improvements and ground lease costs associated with the parking improvements, according to the agenda. The amendment would increase the ticket tax on Sporting KC tickets from $2.25 to $3.50 per ticket.

A brownfields assessment coalition grant, with the Kansas City Regional Brownfields Assessment Coalition, is on the agenda. The agreement is with the Mid-America Regional Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri and Jackson County, Missouri. The grant for $600,000 would be equally divided by coalition members, and is funded by an agreement with the EPA.

Industrial revenue bonds up to $20 million for a Kansas City Kansas Community College student housing project also are on the agenda. It is a sales tax exemption only.

In addition, the committee will consider a proposed cash and investment policy. It is part of an annual review.

Also on the agenda is an update on business efforts regarding COVID-19 and CARES Act grant funding.

A report by the UG Health Department on COVID-19 also is planned.

At the Neighborhood and Community Development Committee meeting at 5 p.m., there will be a summary of the 2020 activities of the Land Bank.

Land Bank option applications on the agenda include:

New construction from RST, five single-family homes:1231 Armstrong Ave.1235 Armstrong Ave.1237 Armstrong Ave.1243 Armstrong Ave.There also is a request to combine lots for one home, at 1257 Armstrong Ave. and 1244 Armstrong Ave.

New construction, from J. Horton Holdings, residential, include:Phase 1, three single-family homes.Combining parcels at 521 Oakland Ave. and 517 Oakland Ave for one home.Also, 516 Oakland Ave., for two homes.Phase 2, four townhouse units, one duplex.Combine parcels for a duplex, including 509 Oakland Ave., 1420 N. 5th St., and 1416 N. 5th St.Four townhome units at 1400 N. 5th St.Phase 3, four single-family homes.Two single-family homes at 520 Everett Ave.; one sinle-family home at 514 Everett Ave.; and one single-family home at 504 Everett Ave.One single-family home at 514 Everett.One single-family home at 504 Everett.

New construction, to develop an inner-city equestrian park, from Amy Strother.3319 N. 44th Terrace, for trails and lean-tos.3334 N. 44th Terrace, trails and lean-tos.4551 Sloan Ave., trails and lean-tos.4600 Parkview Ave., home and horse stalls.

Land Bank yard extension transfer, current home at 805 N. 11th St., requesting neighboring Land Bank lot at 809 N. 11th St.

This will be a Zoom meeting, available online at:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81460137908?pwd=RnFHWFVHQ3M0OVhBUVhSakQyNFBsQT09.

The passcode is 009425.The webinar ID is 814 6013 7908.

To join the meeting by phone, toll-free, call 888-475-4499 or 877-853-5257.

For information about how to participate in a virtual meeting, visit https://www.wycokck.org/BOC-Virtual-Meeting.aspx.

These meetings also are expected to be broadcast on UGTV on cable television, on Google TV at channel 141, at Spectrum cable channel 2, and on YouTube.

The rest is here:
Public hearing on closing times for bars and restaurants among items on UG committee agenda Monday night Welcome to - Wyandotte Daily

What happened

Shares of Smith & Wesson Brands (NASDAQ:SWBI) soared 152% in 2020 as the firearms industry roared back to life and guns started flying off the shelves.

A convergence of events charged individuals into buying more firearms last year. The coronavirus pandemic caused people to worry about what food shortages might mean, which was followed by riots and civil unrest breaking out in numerous major American cities.

Image source: Smith & Wesson Brands.

When politicians began supporting the concept of defunding (if not outright dismantling) local police departments, consumers began to take seriously the need for personal defense. Then the presidential election offered a glimpse of a repeat of the 2016 elections, where one candidate favored greater gun control measures and the other one had a record of protecting the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

SWBI data by YCharts

Smith & Wesson posted fiscal second quarter earnings last month that showed gun sales more than doubled year over year with profit margins rapidly expanding.

President and CEO Mark Smith said it was the iconic gunmaker's "second consecutive record-breaking quarter" and there doesn't appear to be any let up in firearms demand.

The FBI had already conducted over 35.7 million background checks on potential gun buyers by the end of November, almost 26% more than all of 2019. Many of the same forces that drove Smith & Wesson Brands higher this year remain in place, giving investors confidence it will continue shooting higher.

Read more:
Why Smith & Wesson Brands Shot 152% Higher in 2020 - The Motley Fool

WASHINGTON Lara Trump, the presidents daughter-in-law who emerged during the 2020 presidential campaign as a defender of President Trumps basest political instincts, is now eyeing a political future of her own in her home state of North Carolina.

As Mr. Trump attempts to subvert the election to remain in power, Ms. Trump, three allies said, has been telling associates she is considering a run for Senate in 2022, in what is expected to be a competitive race for the first open Senate seat in a very swingy swing state in a generation. Senator Richard Burr, an unobtrusive Republican legislator who was thrust into the spotlight as chairman of a committee investigating the presidents ties to Russia, has said he will retire at the end of his term. Despite expanded turnout in rural areas, Mr. Trump won North Carolina by a smaller margin than he did four years ago, just 1.3 percentage points, a sign that overall the state is trending blue and that the race for the Senate seat will be tightly contested by both parties in the first post-Donald Trump election.

But not, perhaps, an entirely post-Trump election, if Ms. Trump proceeds.

Ms. Trump, 38, a former personal trainer and television producer for Inside Edition, wed Eric Trump at the familys Mar-a-Lago estate in 2014 and worked as a senior adviser on the 2020 Trump campaign. Now, the daughter-in-law whom Mr. Trump had often joked to donors that he couldnt pick out of a lineup is floating herself as the first test of the enduring power of the Trump name.

Shes very charismatic, she understands retail politics well, and has a natural instinct for politics, said Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign adviser who traveled the country as a surrogate alongside Ms. Trump. In North Carolina, in particular, shes a household name and people know her. She worked really hard on the campaign and was very involved in a lot of decisions throughout.

Ms. Trump declined to comment about her plans.

Much of the speculation about who might inherit the Trump mantle has focused on his eldest children, who have cultivated their own niche followings. Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, has the deepest connection with the online disinformation system that has fueled support for his father as well as with the Trump base that supports protecting the Second Amendment.

Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter and a White House official who focused on work force development, was deployed on the campaign trail to make the president more palatable to the suburban women who were turned off by his tone and his tweets. She generally steered clear of repeating her fathers ad hominem attacks on President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., or his son Hunter, or casting doubt on the integrity of the election.

But Ivanka Trump, people familiar with her plans said, is still deciding on whether to settle her family in New Jersey or Florida and has no immediate intention to pursue elected office herself. Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, despite his talent for channeling his fathers id, may choose to forgo a run for office all together.

Eric Trump, the most low profile of the Trump siblings, has never cultivated a political spotlight, leaving the way clear for his wife.

Eric and Lara Trump currently live in Westchester, New York, with their two young children (their daughter, Carolina, is named after the state Ms. Trump is now eyeing). Its not apparent that simply having the family backing would empty, or even diminish, the field in what is expected to be one of the most targeted seats in the nation where Republican candidates with experience in the state are already lining up.

Theres Representative Mark Walker, a Trump ally whom the president has encouraged to run for Mr. Burrs seat, and indicated he would support. Theres Pat McCrory, the former governor, who has said he is eyeing the seat. Tim Moore, the North Carolina Speaker of the House, is said to be in the mix. And Dan Forest, who just lost a race for governor against the Democratic incumbent, Roy Cooper, is expected to be in the field.

And then there is another contender from the presidents inner circle, at least as it stands at the moment: Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina representative and White House chief of staff, is widely expected to move back home and run for the seat as well. Aides to Mr. Meadows declined to comment about his political future.

None of those more experienced candidates have the name recognition and the ability to raise big online cash that the presidents daughter-in-law, who has been cultivating her own profile with a campaign YouTube show and events across the country, has. She would be formidable, said Kellyanne Conway, a former White House official and the 2016 Trump campaign manager. She has the trifecta: She can raise money, raise awareness of key issues and raise attention to her race. Unlike many typical politicians, she connects with people and is a compelling messenger.

Michael Watley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, predicted that the race would draw significant interest from a wide range of people.

I think youre going to need a dance card to keep everything straight, he said.

Put more bluntly, Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist based in North Carolina said, There are a lot of people ahead of Lara Trump in line. Given how rare it is that theres an open seat, I dont believe any of the folks who actually live in North Carolina and have been here will get out of the way for someone else.

Ms. Trump, who spoke at the Republican National Convention, made many campaign stops in North Carolina this year. On the trail, she has been willing to go where surrogates like Ivanka Trump, seeking to soften the president, have not. Speaking on behalf of her father-in-law in her hometown of Wilmington, she echoed the presidents baseless attempts to undermine confidence in the election results. She said the system was ripe with fraud, and claimed that universal vote by mail is not a good system, its never been tested.

On CNN in October, she accused Mr. Biden of suffering from a severe cognitive decline and batted away questions about Mr. Trump encouraging violence on Michigans governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who the F.B.I. had recently said had been targeted by a kidnapping plot. Ms. Trump chalked up her father-in-laws behavior as an example of someone simply having fun at a Trump rally.

Since Election Day, she has actively elevated conspiracy theories online about the election-equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which the president has claimed, with no evidence, switched Trump votes to Mr. Bidens column.

A former Trump aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, claimed in a 2018 memoir that Ms. Trump had offered her a $15,000-a-month contract in exchange for silence about her time in the White House, and subsequently released a secret recording that Ms. Manigault Newman said supported that claim.

While the idea of another Trump testing the political waters was anathema to Republicans who wanted the party to move away from its current Trumpian identity, others have been trying to lure the next generation in.

The Club for Growth, an influential conservative anti-tax group, earlier this year commissioned a poll with Ms. Trump as a candidate for Congress representing New Yorks second district.

David McIntosh, the president of Club for Growth, said at the time that the group simply polled her name to show there was a well of support and lure her into an open race.

In a hypothetical primary, the poll showed her winning by 30 points.

More:
Will Lara Trump Be the Next Trump on a Ballot? - The New York Times

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Just in time for Christmas holiday gift-giving, the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC (SDCGO), a nonprofit, political action committee promoting Second Amendment rights in San Diego County, is hosting an online auction through Nov. 20 of more than 50 items, including firearms and ammo. The auction items were previously donated by SDCGO members for a silent auction that was planned to be part of SDCGO's 2020 Second Amendment Celebration Dinner, which was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions. The items can be reviewed and instructions about bidding are available at http://www.sdcgo.org/auction. The auction is open to the public.

SDCGO said proceeds from the auction will benefit its advocacy efforts to support pro-gun elected officials who will defend the fundamental right to self defense for law-abiding citizens and stand strong in support of the Second Amendment. The PAC also said proceeds also will help provide services and resources for SDCGO volunteers involved in local-level activism.

Available auction items include a Remington shotgun, Colt Frontier single-action revolver, 1,000 9mm rounds, a dove hunting trip to Uruguay and a full day of firearms training for four people. Other items include vacation getaways to Mexico and the Caribbean. A variety of sports, music and movie memorabilia is available, including a Lebron James autographed jersey, Shaquille O'Neal autographed Reebok shoe (size 22) and Patrick Mahomes autographed helmet, as well as a Tom Petty autographed guitar, Rolling Stones tour poster and autographed movie posters.

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Additional auction items are expected to be added throughout the month, according to Michael Schwartz, executive director, SDCGO.

"We're grateful to our members for their support and theirs generous donations of auction items that are available to the general public," said Schwartz. "Auction proceeds will help our efforts to restore and preserve our Constitutional Second Amendment rights. Activism, outreach and electing the right leaders is the only way to protect our rights in California, oppose an extremist gun-control agenda and make a difference because together we will win."

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Founded in 2015, the San Diego County Gun Owners is a registered political action committee (FPPC ID #1379388) and advocacy organization focused on organizing the gun industry and community and protecting the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to bear arms. With a membership of about 2,500 individuals, the PAC provides news and information on new gun laws and Second Amendment advocacy. Its sponsored events include gun safety classes, small gun shows, sporting clay shoots, social gatherings and pistol, rifle and shotgun experiences taught by professional instructors. SDCGO features a diverse and inclusive membership with representatives the LGBT, Latino, African American, Asian and Pacific Islander communities. While every U.S. state has a Second Amendment PAC, along with several nationwide gun rights PACs, the SDCGO is believed to be the America's first, strictly local, countywide Second Amendment advocacy organization. For more information, visit http://www.sandiegocountygunowners.com.

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You Can Bid On Silent Auction Items for Covid-Cancelled 2A Dinner - Patch.com

A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge on Thursday shot down a lawsuit filed by hosts of one of the nations biggest gun shows, who claimed that cancelling this weekends event due to coronavirus restrictions violated the Second Amendment.

Judge Brett Kassabian ruled that it is not in the public interest to exempt The Nations Gun Show from virus restrictions. The three-day event scheduled to start Friday was expected to bring up to 25,000 attendees to the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, where it has been held a few times a year.

I find that it is in the private interest of the plaintiffs, said Judge Kassabian, according to a press release from Virginia Attorney General Mark Herrings office. To allow thousands to roam unchecked during the middle of the most serious health crisis this county has suffered in the past one hundred years is not in the public interest.

The judge disagreed with the gun show hosts argument that rules to limit their attendees are an overreach of authority and a violation of the Second Amendment. He also criticized a recent show in August that drew nearly 13,000 people, which the hosts said was safely and successfully executed even while being severely limited by pandemic restrictions.

[J]ust judging on what occurred in August, tens of thousands are allowed to gather over the course of three days and then leave, the risk of an unprecedented superspreader event infecting not only those persons but third parties that those persons come into contact with is substantial, Judge Kassabian said.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver were named as the defendants in the 57-page complaint filed by state resident John Crump and Showmasters Inc., which is conducting business as Showmasters Guns Shows and Sonnys Guns and Transfers, and .

The three plaintiffs claimed that state officials do not have the authority to order the complete cancellation of one of the single largest economic events in the Commonwealth, at which thousands of persons gather together to engage in millions of dollars of lawful commerce, and activity expressly protected by multiple provisions of the Constitution.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the show should be classified as a brick and mortar retail business, which has no capacity limit under current emergency restrictions.

State health officials, however, have said that any event at the expo center is considered entertainment and amusement business, which currently is restricted to 30% of the lowest capacity limit or 250 people.

The hosts claimed that exhibitors and event staff would far exceed the 250 person capacity even before including attendees and called the emergency restrictions the very definition of tyranny due to the lack of clarity and vagueness.

The gun show presumably would have been particularly profitable as the recent demand for firearms, ammunition, and related products and services has skyrocketed, fueled by intersecting scares over COVID-19 and interruptions in government-related services including policing, fears of demonstrations, rioting and social unrest purportedly in response to various police shootings, and a general sense of apprehension about the November 2020 presidential election and the future for gun rights in this country.

The plaintiffs, represented by lawyers from William Olson P.C. and Spiro & Browne PLC, can appeal the judges decision.

Mr. Herring filed a reply brief Wednesday regarding the potential superspreader event, and applauded the ruling in a press release Thursday.

Im pleased that the judge agreed that putting thousands of Virginians at risk for contracting COVID just so people could buy and sell guns at a gun show was not worth it and could have led to disastrous consequences, said Mr. Herring.

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Va. judge rejects indoor gun show event expected to draw up to 25,000 - Washington Times