Bob Huffaker, eyewitness and former reporter at krld radio in dallas: “It looked as though the entire city had turned up. It was really great. Dallas had shown that it really loved that president.”
Tina Towner Pender, then-13-year-old eyewitness: “As the first gunshot sounded, I looked up to the building, thinking somebody was throwing firecrackers out of the window but I only had a split second before some stranger, and I still don’t know who it was, pulled me to the ground.”
Hugh Aynesworth, eyewitness and former dallas morning news reporter: “Then I heard what I thought was a motorcycle backfiring, only it wasn’t - it was the first shot and then in a few seconds, another shot and a third.”
Dr. Ronald Jones, former chief resident at parkland hospital who operated on kennedy: “The president was on a stretcher. His arms were out on arm boards like this and Dr. Carrico, who was a second-year resident was trying to put a tube into his windpipe and then the tracheal tube to get an airway established, but the president was motionless. I never saw any movement. His eyes were open in a fixed stare.”
Walter Cronkite, cbs News anchor (from his nov. 22, 1963 broadcast): “From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00pm Central Standard Time; 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.”
Bob Huffaker: “While the nation was grieving around its television sets, we were there on the scene reporting, unable to take out time to grieve or to even know what was being done in Washington D.C., the ceremony, the funeral and the sadness that the other people were living through their television sets. We who were broadcasting didn’t see it all.”
Bob Schieffer, cbs news broadcaster who covered the assassination for the fort worth star telegram: “The Kennedy assassination became the template for coverage.” “We were working in one of the worst moments of the nation’s life back then and we didn’t know what to make of it, much like what happened on 9/11.”
Patty Rhule, senior manager of exhibits at the newseum, “This is when America became a TV nation.”
Pierce Allman, eyewitness and former wfaa radio reporter, saying: “It doesn’t seem like 50 years at all. When you come down here (to Dealey Plaza), it’s forever 1963.”
Michael Fontaine, a 57-year-old visitor from houston who believes in a conspiracy: “There were a lot of people who wanted Kennedy dead, a lot of powerful people. There are secrets still being held and I never bought for a minute that Oswald operated alone.”
Hugh Aynesworth: “We can’t accept very comfortably that two nobodies, two nothings — Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby - were able to change the course of world history.”
Tom Stone, professor at southern methodist university in dallas who teaches university students about kennedy: “They don’t know much about his presidency or why anyone would have wanted him dead. “Most students, it’s fair to say, just know that JFK is the president who got shot. Beyond that, they’re pretty much blank slates.”
Richard Mosk, 74, a researcher for the warren commission: “It’s natural that an event like this would cause skepticism and suspicions, especially in light of what has come out about our government.”
Buell Frazier, a co-worker of oswald who gave him a ride the day of the assassination. “If I had to do it over again, I would have stayed 1,000 miles away from Dallas that day.”
Gary Mack, curator of the sixth floor museum on jfk and the assassination: “Most people are not satisfied with the officials story. But there is not enough evidence to support anything else.”
America pauses to remember JFK
America pauses to remember JFK
Proposals on immigration enforcement flood into state legislatures, heightened by Minnesota action
- Oregon Democrats plan to introduce a bill to allow residents to sue federal officers for violating their Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure
NASHVILLE, Tennessee: As Democrats across the country propose state law changes to restrict federal immigration officers after the shooting death of a protester in Minneapolis, Tennessee Republicans introduced a package of bills Thursday backed by the White House that would enlist the full force of the state to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Momentum in Democratic-led states for the measures, some of them proposed for years, is growing as legislatures return to work following the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. But Republicans are pushing back, blaming protesters for impeding the enforcement of immigration laws.
Democratic bills seek to limit ICE
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul wants New York to allow people to sue federal officers alleging violations of their constitutional rights. Another measure aims to keep immigration officers lacking judicial warrants out of schools, hospitals and houses of worship.
Oregon Democrats plan to introduce a bill to allow residents to sue federal officers for violating their Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.
New Jersey’s Democrat-led Legislature passed three bills Monday that immigrant rights groups have long pushed for, including a measure prohibiting state law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has until his last day in office Tuesday to sign or veto them.
California lawmakers are proposing to ban local and state law enforcement from taking second jobs with the Department of Homeland Security and make it a violation of state law when ICE officers make “indiscriminate” arrests around court appearances. Other measures are pending.
“Where you have government actions with no accountability, that is not true democracy,” Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco said at a news conference.
Democrats also push bills in red states
Democrats in Georgia introduced four Senate bills designed to limit immigration enforcement — a package unlikely to become law because Georgia’s conservative upper chamber is led by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a close Trump ally. Democrats said it is still important to take a stand.
“Donald Trump has unleashed brutal aggression on our families and our communities across our country,” said state Sen. Sheikh Rahman, an immigrant from Bangladesh whose district in suburban Atlanta’s Gwinnett County is home to many immigrants.
Democrats in New Hampshire have proposed numerous measures seeking to limit federal immigration enforcement, but the state’s Republican majorities passed a new law taking effect this month that bans “sanctuary cities.”
Tennessee GOP works with White House on a response
The bills Tennessee Republicans are introducing appear to require government agencies to check the legal status of all residents before they can obtain public benefits; secure licenses for teaching, nursing and other professions; and get driver’s licenses or register their cars.
They also would include verifying K-12 students’ legal status, which appears to conflict with a US Supreme Court precedent. And they propose criminalizing illegal entry as a misdemeanor, a measure similar to several other states’ requirements, some of which are blocked in court.
“We’re going to do what we can to make sure that if you’re here illegally, we will have the data, we’ll have the transparency, and we’re not spending taxpayer dollars on you unless you’re in jail,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said at a news conference Thursday.
Trump administration sues to stop laws
The Trump administration has opposed any effort to blunt ICE, including suing local governments whose “sanctuary” policies limit police interactions with federal officers.
States have broad power to regulate within their borders unless the US Constitution bars it, but many of these laws raise novel issues that courts will have to sort out, said Harrison Stark, senior counsel with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“There’s not a super clear, concrete legal answer to a lot of these questions,” he said. “It’s almost guaranteed there will be federal litigation over a lot of these policies.”
That is already happening.
California in September was the first to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration officers, from covering their faces on duty. The Justice Department said its officers won’t comply and sued California, arguing that the laws threaten the safety of officers who are facing “unprecedented” harassment, doxing and violence.
The Justice Department also sued Illinois last month, challenging a law that bars federal civil arrests near courthouses, protects medical records and regulates how universities and day care centers manage information about immigration status. The Justice Department claims the law is unconstitutional and threatens federal officers’ safety.
Targeted states push back
Minnesota and Illinois, joined by their largest cities, sued the Trump administration this week. Minneapolis and Minnesota accuse the Republican administration of violating free speech rights by punishing a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants. Illinois and Chicago claim “Operation Midway Blitz” made residents afraid to leave their homes.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety and called the Illinois lawsuit “baseless.”
