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Sen. Baldwin named on alleged Minnesota shooter’s list

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Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin was named among the Democratic politicians included on a list found in the vehicle of the man accused of a politically-motivated attack on two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses on Saturday.

Law enforcement notified Baldwin on Monday that shooting suspect Vance Boelter, 57, referenced her in his writings. Boelter was apprehended on Sunday after a statewide manhunt and charged with killing Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as injuring state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in a shooting hours earlier.

“Senator Baldwin was informed by law enforcement that she was included on the alleged shooter’s list of names,” Baldwin spokesperson Eli Rosen said in a statement. “She is grateful for law enforcement’s swift action to keep the community safe and remains focused on the things that matter most here: honoring the legacy and life of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, praying for the other victims who are fighting for their lives, and condemning this abhorrent, senseless political violence.”

On Monday, the Department of Justice announced plans to file six federal charges against Boelter, including two counts of murder using a firearm. Local prosecutors said on Monday they plan to file additional first-degree murder charges against Boelter.

Joseph Thompson, Acting US Attorney for Minnesota, said in a press conference on Monday that Boelter’s car contained notebooks with a list of more than 45 state and federal elected officials, including Hortman and Hoffman and the names of two other Minnesota lawmakers whose homes Boelter visited on Saturday, according to law enforcement.

Thompson said prosecutors are still reviewing evidence to explain why politicians were included on Boelter’s list.

“Obviously, his primary motivation was to go an murder people,” he said. “They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”

Baldwin mourned the deaths of Melissa and Mark Hortman in a statement following the shooting on Saturday and decried the use of violence to solve political conflicts.

“Stunned, terrified, and heartbroken just begin to describe this horror,” Baldwin wrote on X on Saturday. “My heart goes out to the victims, their loved ones, and all our midwestern neighbors. Political violence like this is not who we are as a country. It’s on all of us to condemn and stop it at every turn.”

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Congress

‘Kill shot’: GOP megabill targets solar, wind projects with new tax

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Senate Republicans stepped up their attacks on U.S. solar and wind energy projects by quietly adding a provision to their megabill that would penalize future developments with a new tax.

That new tax measure was tucked into the more than 900-page document released late Friday that also would sharply cut the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and wind projects. Those cuts to the IRA credits were added after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives by requiring generation projects be placed in service by the end of 2027 to qualify.

The new excise tax is another blow to the fastest-growing sources of power production in the United States, and would be a massive setback to the wind and solar energy industries since it would apply even to projects not receiving any credits.

“It’s a kill shot. This new excise tax on wind and solar is designed to fully kill the industry,” said Adrian Deveny, founder and president of policy advisory firm Climate Vision, who helped craft the climate law as a former policy director for Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.

Analysts at the Rhodium Group said in an email the new tax would push up the costs of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent — on top of the cost increases from losing the credits.

“Combined with the likely onerous administrative reporting burden this provision puts in place, these cost increases will lead to even lower wind and solar installations. The impacts of this tax would also flow through to consumers in the form of higher electricity rates,” Rhodium said.

The provision as written appears to add an additional tax for any wind and solar project placed into service after 2027 — when its eligibility for the investment and production tax credits ends — if a certain percentage of the value of the project’s components are sourced from prohibited foreign entities, like China. It would apply to all projects that began construction after June 16 of this year.

The language would require wind and solar projects, even those not receiving credits, to navigate complex and potentially unworkable requirements that prohibit sourcing from foreign entities of concern — a move designed to promote domestic production and crack down on Chinese materials.

In keeping with GOP support for the fossil fuel industry, the updated bill creates a new production tax credit for metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking.

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Elon Musk renews megabill attacks

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Elon Musk is once again bashing the Republican megabill.

Weeks after an initial tirade against the legislation, the former top White House staffer and current richest man in the world wrote Saturday on X that the “latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

“Utterly insane and destructive,” he added. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

The bill significantly cuts subsidies for clean power sources like wind and solar, along with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and instead includes incentives for the coal industry.

Musk has intervened before to tank a major spending bill. The billionaire torpedoed a compromise government spending bill in December by repeatedly posting in opposition to it. This caused a number of Republicans to back away and nearly spaked a government shutdown.

At the time, Musk had far more influence as a close Trump ally and as the largest donor in support of Trump’s re-election bid. His influence in the GOP has waned after his controversial stint atop the Department of Government Efficiency initiative created repeated hassles for the White House.

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House could vote on megabill as soon as Tuesday

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told GOP members on a Saturday conference call to prepare for votes Tuesday evening or Wednesday on the sweeping Republican megabill, according to three people who were on the call and were granted anonymity to describe it.

Scalise and Speaker Mike Johnson addressed House Republicans as GOP leaders in the Senate raced to tweak and advance their version of the megabill. Johnson said on the call he has been working with Senate Republican leaders to shape the bill so the version that emerges from the other chamber can be passed in the House without changes and sent to President Donald Trump for enactment.

The leaders have been planning to iron out some issues in a final amendment before Senate passage, but Senate GOP leaders have pushed back hard on reversing deep Medicaid cuts — something dozens of House Republicans are concerned about.

Johnson also members to bring any remaining concerns directly to their GOP senators and to the White House — and to not air those grievances in public. House GOP leadership said they would stick with a promise to give members 48 hours notice of a vote so that lawmakers have adequate time to return to Washington.

House GOP leaders did not take questions on the call.

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