Latest in Campaign 2024
Candidates face-off in only 2024 Maryland Senate Debate
Former Governor Larry Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks took to the stage last week to debate critical issues in the 2024 campaign, the future of the Supreme Court and abortion rights.
TRUMP-BACKED DEFI PLATFORM UNDERSCORES WASHINGTON’S CRYPTO PUSH
Former President Trump’s new crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, is launching a governance token, WLFI, exclusively for accredited investors due to SEC regulations. The venture aligns with Washington’s recent shift toward pro-crypto policies.
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Point by Point – Episode 1: Trump and Harris’ Competing Plans for the Economy
In this first episode of Medill News Service’s new podcast Point by Point, we explore both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s plans to tackle inflation, one of the most prominent issues in this year’s election.
read moreLatest in Politics
Candidates face-off in only 2024 Maryland Senate Debate
Former Governor Larry Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks took to the stage last week to debate critical issues in the 2024 campaign, the future of the Supreme Court and abortion rights.
read moreSupreme Court death penalty case may see another hearing, justices indicated on Wednesday
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court appeared tense Wednesday amidst oral arguments for long-time Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip’s request for a new trial. Glossip seemed likely to receive at least another day in court.
The arguments presented by the prosecution were composed of an unlikely alliance between lawyers for Glossip and the state, arguing that Glossip, represented by former solicitor general Seth Waxman, did not receive due process and a fair trial after Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Getner Drummond uncovered evidence that prosecutors hid critical information after conducting an independent investigation.
“I don’t know if admirable is the right word, but it’s unique that [Drummond] is taking the responsibility unto himself personally,” Executive Director of Death Penalty Action Abe Bonowitz said.
A decision leading to Glossip’s conviction being thrown out could cause Oklahoma to rethink its approach to capital punishment. Oklahoma is currently one of the most active states with the death penalty, with 14 inmates executed since 2021, according to chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Rev. Don Heath.
Glossip was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for orchestrating the murder of his boss, Barry Von Treese, in 1997. The case was largely based on the testimony of Justin Sneed, who physically carried out the killing.
Among the evidence Drummond disclosed was that Sneed withheld from Glossip’s lawyers that he received psychiatric treatment for bipolar disorder, and that prosecutors failed to correct a statement Sneed had made about his prescription, which called into question Sneed’s credibility.
His execution has been halted eight times as new developments and questions regarding Sneed’s testimony have kept his case in the court for nearly two decades.
Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general who represented the Oklahoma attorney in this case, stated that though Drummond continues to “defend multiple capital decisions,” he “regretfully reached a decision” after these discoveries.
There is “reasonable probability of [the evidence] leading to a different result,” Clement said on Wednesday, in response to a question from Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, along with his three other liberal colleagues, seemed to agree and raised concerns about Sneed’s credibility. He said Sneed “lied on the stand.”
Justice Elena Kagan joined his sentiments and was the most vocal in her critique of the state’s argument, represented by private attorney Christopher Michel.
“You’ve indicated a strong critique of this opinion,” Michel said to Kagan.
“I haven’t even started,” Kagan said, met with a chorus of laughs from the pews. “Your one witness was exposed as a liar.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas seemed more inclined to uphold the Oklahoma Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision. Both conservative justices have indicated clear favorability toward the death penalty in past decisions.
Thomas was the first to question Waxman’s argument declaring the “court should reverse [the decision] and remand a new trial,” asking him why had not interviewed the two prosecutors who are “central to this case.”
For Oklahoma, the stakes remain high. The court tackled two fundamental issues on Wednesday: whether a Brady violation occurred, when the prosecution withholds evidence, and whether a Napue violation occurred, when the prosecution knowingly uses false testimony in a criminal case.
Though a final decision is not entirely clear, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked Michel if he would “object to a evidentiary hearing,” indicating that immediate affirmation of the Oklahoma courts’ decision is unlikely.
The decision is left to only eight of nine justices as Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the case. A 4-4 tie would affirm the Oklahoma court’s decision.
A decision is expected by early next summer.
Supreme Court Justices appear skeptical of challenge to ghost gun rule
WASHINGTON – A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of the challenge to a 2022 Biden administration rule that strengthened regulation of so-called “ghost guns” in the oral arguments for Garland v. VanDerStok on Tuesday morning.
The case’s respondents, Texas residents Jennifer VanDerStok and Michael Andren, are joined by a series of gun rights advocacy groups in challenging the legality of a 2022 rule implemented by the Biden administration that directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to regulate the sale of ghost guns.
Ghost guns are firearms that can be hastily assembled from unlicensed kits which are typically ordered online. The rule requires ghost gun sellers to abide by the same regulations as traditional gun manufacturers, such as giving each kit a serial number and conducting a basic background check to repel minors or others prohibited from owning a gun.
Federal statistics show the number of ghost guns collected in connection to a crime drastically increased in the years leading up to the Biden administration’s change in policy. In 2018, just under 4,000 ghost guns were reported to the Department of Justice — that number rose to over 19,000 by 2021.
The petitioners, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, claim the Biden administration derives legal authority to regulate ghost guns from the Gun Control Act of 1968, which defines a firearm as “any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.”
Opponents of the rule argue the administration’s attempt to interpret the Gun Control Act constitutes executive overreach. “The executive branch does not have the power or legal authority to define what a firearm is,” said Andrew Gottlieb, managing director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, in a statement to Medill News Service. “Only Congress has the power to legislate the definition of a firearm.”
In Tuesday’s arguments, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the ATF did not change its statutory interpretation of the Gun Control Act, but rather that the new rule is largely a continuation of the ATF’s consistent consideration of how readily components can be converted into a firearm. “The only question the Court should be asking in this case is whether there is anything on the face of the rule that is contradicted by the statutory text,” Prelogar said.
Peter Patterson, the lawyer representing the ghost gun manufacturers and users who initiated the challenge, emphasized that the Gun Control Act does not include the same clause on items that may be “readily converted” in its definition of a “frame or receiver” of a gun. He proposed an alternative standard, the “critical machining operations test,” which judges whether the necessary machining operations have taken place on a frame or receiver.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the standard recommended by Patterson “seems a little made up.” Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, pointedly questioned Patterson over the purpose of buying a frame or receiver of a gun that only requires drilling a small number of holes to make it operable.
The lawyer responded by comparing the practice to the enjoyment some derive by working on their car over the weekend. Roberts pushed back, saying, “he really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas appeared most receptive to Patterson’s argument. Thomas said to Prelogar that “it wasn’t regulated in this way for half a century,” while Alito offered an analogy about whether the ingredients of an omelette on a kitchen counter could be considered an omelette itself. “The key difference here is that these weapon parts kits are designed and intended to be used as instruments of combat, and they have no other conceivable use,” Prelogar said.
Proponents of the ATF regulation claimed victory after Tuesday’s arguments. “Today the ghost gun industry’s fiction that its gun building kits are not firearms crashed into a brick wall of reality in the Supreme Court,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of the gun control litigatory group Everytown Law, in a statement. “Every member of the High Court seemed to recognize under Congress’ broad and flexible definition that a gun building kit which can quickly and easily be turned into an operable weapon is a firearm.”
Georgia State University Professor of Law Timothy Lytton was less committal on the eventual outcome of the case. “The question comes down to just how much assembly has to be completed in order for something to count as a receiver or frame,” Lytton said. “[Patterson] was hard-pressed to argue why it is that a frame or receiver that was essentially missing two holes drilled in it and had some plastic tabs that needed to be removed wasn’t plausibly considered a frame or receiver.”
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a ruling made by Texas federal district judge Reed O’Connor which declared the ATF rule to be executive overreach and blocked its enforcement. The Biden administration appealed the 5th Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court, and the rule was temporarily reinstated in a 5-4 shadow docket vote with Roberts and Barrett joining the court’s three liberal justices in the majority.
The 5th Circuit then attempted to pause the rule for a second time after hearing full oral arguments for the case, but the Supreme Court once again put it back into effect, this time in a unanimous decision. The highest court in the land added Garland v. VanDerStok to its docket this April.
The ATF rule, in combination with a barrage of lawsuits from gun control advocacy groups, has forced several ghost gun manufacturers out of business in the last two years.
Law-enforcement officials from across the country have voiced support for the rule, arguing that it meaningfully contributes to public safety. “The ready acquisition of ghost guns by high-risk individuals, including convicted felons, domestic abusers, and minors, led to horrific incidents of gun crime,” wrote a group of 20 major cities, nine major counties, six prosecutors and the national organization Prosecutors Against Gun Violence in a joint amicus brief. “Incidents that might have been prevented if ghost guns had been subject to federal regulation.”
The Supreme Court is set to rule on Garland v. VanDerStok next summer.
Latest in Education
Republican senators slam delays for student financial aid forms
The Department of Education announced that colleges and universities will begin receiving the information from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, months after the expected date.
read moreAhead of DEI ban, UTD grapples with student expression, transparency
For 15 years, three large boulders located on the University of Texas at Dallas campus were used to publicize events, display art and present political messages.
After Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack of Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 17,000 Palestinians, the boulders – dubbed the Spirit Rocks – became a campus hot spot in the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian student messaging campaign. Sometimes, these designs changed in a matter of minutes.
At 2:16 a.m. on Oct. 12, the main boulder was painted with the Palestinian flag with the message, “Free Palestine.” Nine minutes later, the rock was painted over with the Israeli flag. By 2 p.m. on Oct. 12, it was split in half: the left with a pro-Israel message and the right with a pro-Palestinian message.
Student Government President Srivani Edupuganti said leading up to Thanksgiving break, political discourse around Israel and Gaza had died down, and the Spirit Rocks weren’t being painted over as frequently.
On Nov. 20, students planned to paint the Spirit Rocks for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. When they showed up, the three boulders were missing. In their place were three freshly planted trees.
“The fact that they were removed so sneakily left students under the impression that they were removed because of the Israeli and Palestinian discourse,” Edupuganti said.
In an email to students, staff and faculty, the Division of Student Affairs said the Spirit Rocks were removed because they “were not intended to be a display for extended political discourse.” The Division of Student Affairs did not respond to a request for a comment.
However, since their beginning in 2008, the Spirit Rocks have continually displayed political messages. As early as 2009, students painted the rocks to support the Iranian Green Movement. In 2011, students used the rocks to protest the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and in 2015, students painted a design in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It seems weird that now (the Middle East conflict), for some reason, was the breaking point, even though students have been civil and peaceful,” said Junior Anika Sultana.
UTD is one of many national universities grappling with student expression amidst the conflict in Gaza.
Jade Steinberg, soon to be UTD Hillel President, said UTD has also failed to take action after antisemitic events on campus. Steinberg said someone vandalized a student’s door, which had a mezuzah, a traditional Jewish doorpost decoration. Steinberg also said a Jewish student was called a slur on the way to class, and when UTD Hillel painted the Spirit Rocks, students shouted “baby killers.”
“We’ve tried to explain to (the administration) how we don’t necessarily feel safe or heard on campus,” Steinberg said. “And so far, unfortunately, nothing has really come of that besides the removal of the Spirit Rocks.”
Steinberg said the removal “lit a new fire” under the tension at UTD. Starting on Nov. 27, the Progressive Student Coalition organized a week of protests over the Spirit Rocks’ removal. Students gathered at the former site of the rocks, painted pebbles with the Palestinian and pride flag and drew pro-Palestinian art on the sidewalk by the student center.
Sultana said students are fearful UTD may take away other platforms for student expression. Fatimah Azeem, Editor-in-Chief of The Mercury, UTD’s independent student newspaper, said although the Spirit Rocks were not the only way to exercise free speech, they were the most popular and barrier-free.
“It’s not like anything else on campus,” Azeem said. “It’s not like putting up a flier, which can be taken down or putting up a bulletin board, which you have to get pre-approval for. (The Spirit Rocks) don’t have all these layers of bureaucracy.”
Azeem said the administration has been “evasive” when students and Mercury reporters approach with questions regarding the Spirit Rocks’ removal.
She said on Nov. 29, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Gene Fitch hosted an event with pizza to help students relax ahead of finals week. Students asked Fitch about the decision to remove the Spirit Rocks, Azeem said.
“He literally answered with, ‘I’m standing here serving pizza, thank you,’” Azeem said.
Sultana, who is also a graphic designer and contributor for The Mercury, said UTD students have felt left in the dark when it comes to campus speech.
“At this point, it’s really frustrating because whenever we go to admin for answers, they just run,” Sultana said. “And it’s not like the student body isn’t willing to compromise with them either.”
During Homecoming Weekend, Sultana said the administration requested students stop changing the Spirit Rocks’ design during the weekend. Sultana said students respected the administration’s wishes. The administration should work with students when making decisions that will impact campus life, Sultana said.
Edupuganti said the administration did not consult Student Government when deciding to remove the Spirit Rocks, even though they were a “Student Government-supported installation.”
“(The Spirit Rocks’ removal) is something that dealt a blow to that trust in the relationship,” Edupuganti said.
Student Government Senator Avinash Chivakula said the administration’s choice to remove the Spirit Rocks is indicative of a larger problem on campus. He said the removal has further fractured the trust students have in the administration’s ability to facilitate productive conversations around nuanced political issues.
“It’s very much a lack of administrative foresight,” Chivakula said. “And we’re going to see more of that, especially with SB 17 and a further lack of administrative cohesion.”
SB 17 comes amidst a national conservative opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education. The law prohibits Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices at public colleges and universities.
The law also prevents institutions from asking for DEI statements; giving preferential treatment in the hiring process based on race, sex or ethnicity; and requiring participation in DEI training.
SB 17 does not affect student organizations and academic course instruction.
Chivakula, however, said the burden to foster open conversations around DEI and politicized topics will fall unfairly on students. These issues are intimate and emotional, Chivakula said, but that doesn’t mean the university’s response should be suppression.
“A campus’s job is to facilitate opportunities for students to let out those emotions because I don’t think anger is inherently a bad thing,” Chivakula said.
Steinberg said the elimination of UTD’s DEI office will make students feel less confident in the administration’s ability to support minority students. It is more difficult for Hillel UTD to feel it has “allies” within the administration, Steinberg said, especially after the antisemitic incidents.
Since SB 17’s passing, Student Government has asked the UTD administration for greater transparency and clarity around its policies, Edupuganti said. In May, the Student Government passed a resolution asking for the administration to use an “open decision-making process” and use open forums to hear students’ input.
In November, the UTD Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion attended a Student Government meeting and presented on what will happen to different programs once SB 17 takes effect in 2024.
In a Nov. 29 email, Benson told students, faculty and staff the Office of Campus Resources and Support will replace the Office of DEI. The new office will “enhance student community-building and support employees and employee resource groups.” In the email, Benson said details were still being ironed out.
Azeem said since that email, the administration has been receptive to questions about DEI. But due to the uncertainty around SB 17, they may not be able to provide answers, she said.
Azeem said one step the administration can take to address campus unrest is reinstating the Spirit Rocks. Edupuganti said Student Government has passed a resolution calling for the reinstatement, but it has not gone to the president’s office yet.
Chivakula said UTD should be transparent around its administrative decisions so that the school can work toward its goal, which should be to foster growth amongst its student body.
“There’s no better place to talk about these topics than a campus where people are actively trying to learn and be better,” Chivakula said.
Changes to federal rules barring widespread transgender bans delayed again, with new timeline for next year
WASHINGTON — Transgender athletes in school sports left in limbo for months finally received an updated timeline from the Biden administration on its plan to update guidelines intended to protect them from discrimination.
In April, the Biden administration proposed a draft to update Title IX to include clear guidelines to protect for transgender athletes. Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination against students who attend schools that receive federal funding, has not previously addressed transgender student-athletes. But ever since then, the government has been inundated with comments about the proposed rule.
The Education Department delayed the release of the proposed rules in May and initially planned to release the guidelines in October. But since then, the guidelines have faced delays with no clear release date set. In early December the Education Department announced the guidelines are set to be released in March.
“The Biden administration has said they’re going to tell states they can’t just uniformly ban individuals not born female, from participating in female athletics,” said Stephen Vaughan, a law firm partner at Womble Bond Dickinson who specializes in Title IX. “In doing that, there will be a direct conflict between the law in many states and what the regulations require.”
With the 2024 election on the horizon, Republicans have sought to leverage the issue of trans athletes to win over voters. In the meantime, 23 states have passed laws to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports to allegedly protect female athletics.
The federal guidelines, once released, could overrule widespread bans popping up around the country that are a violation of Title IX. But the administration is facing intense backlash to the proposed rule, and federal courts have been drawn into the fight.
These updates on the guidelines are important to transgender advocates like Kaig Lightner.
Growing up, Lightner primarily identified as an athlete. Participating in softball, basketball, rowing and soccer, served as Lightner’s anchor as he navigated through life as a transgender person.
“If I had not had sports, I don’t think I would be alive,” said Lightner.
Sports provided Lightner an outlet to forget about the shame, hurt and trauma he experienced on a daily basis. Being on teams allowed him to be part of something larger than himself, he said. His mind would focus on becoming the fastest, strongest and best rather than the discrimination he faced from the outside world.
To give back to young athletes experiencing the same discrimination he faced as a kid, Lightner founded Portland Community Football club, the only soccer club in the country with all-gender inclusive teams.
“We have to think about the kids,” Lightner said, who is now 43 years old. “If the support I had received was suddenly taken away from me as a young kid, I would have been devastated.”
Lightner’s story, like several other transgender athletes, reflects the realities they’ve faced in sports: backlash at the state and federal levels.
Laws blocked and could go to Supreme Court
Temporary injunctions in Arizona, Idaho, West Virginia and Utah continue to block enforcement of many state laws. As new legislation and litigation continue to develop in states across the country, many believe this is just the beginning of a long legal battle that could ultimately end up in the hands of the conservative Supreme Court.
As uncertainties continue to rise about how the Supreme Court might rule, many look at previous cases as an indication of what to expect.
In 2020, the conservative Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County case, ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against their employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“I think the Bostock decision probably surprised many who would have expected the Supreme Court to go a different way,” Vaughan said. “But what doesn’t surprise me is that if we’re seeing individuals engaging in discriminatory practices against someone, regardless of their identity, those impacted are still human beings and they’re to be protected.”
While Bostock expanded protections for transgender employees, Vaughan said he doesn’t expect a future case for transgender athletes to be as clear.
But that decision relied heavily on Title VII, which protects employees from discrimination; protections for transgender athletes fall under Title IX, which protects students. Therefore, Vaughan said he believes their arguments could be different.
Numerous groups have opposed having transgender student-athletes participate in female sports, arguing that allowing transgender athletes to participate discriminates against women in violation of Title IX.
“I think ultimately, a lot of people are deciding to go against women’s rights and rights that women have fought for for so many years,” said Paula Scanlan, spokeswoman for the conservative group Independent Women’s Forum. “Title IX was passed 51 years ago, and this would be moving backward if they decide to rewrite what it means to be a woman.”
The guidelines the Education Department proposed, however, would allow schools the “flexibility to develop team eligibility criteria that serve important educational objectives, such as ensuring fairness in competition or preventing sports-related injury.”
The Independent Women’s Forum, a national organization that is fighting transgender-inclusive efforts in school sports, believes that over the years the government has “unconstitutionally twisted the law beyond recognition.”
Citing instances of transgender athletes winning competition, including former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who was the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, some politicians and groups believe allowing transgender athletes to participate creates an unfair advantage.
“We’ve always had female and male categories in sports to provide opportunities for everyone,” Scanlan said. “If there were no such thing as these categories, sports would be dominated by males.”
Scanlan pointed to natural advantages male athletes have including overall strength and body structures that she said highlight the difference between men and women.
“Being a female athlete is something that takes a lot of time and dedication,” Scanlan said. “We believe that girls’ scholarships should only go to girls and they should not be taken by male individuals. We have the rights to our own spaces and our own sports teams.”
Congress steps into the fight
The views of the Independent Women’s Forum have dominated Congress as the GOP has worked to pass legislation.
Days after the Biden administration released the notice of proposed rulemaking, House GOP members passed the “Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act” in a 219-203 party-line vote, solidifying the GOP’s stance on the issue.
Democrats in the House urged the Democratic-led Senate to kill the bill, and Democratic senators successfully blocked their colleagues from passing legislation. President Joe Biden had also vowed to veto the bill if it reached his desk.
“There’s a lot we could be doing to protect women in sports: addressing sexual harassment, discrimination in pay and other working conditions,” said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.). “The bill that my Republican colleagues passed will not do that.”
As GOP lawmakers continue to fight for bans to protect female athletics, Bonamici said she believes these recent bans are tied to trends of rising discrimination in Congress against members of the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender women.
The bill, which would prohibit any student-athlete whose biological sex at birth was male from participating in athletic programs for women and girls, makes no mention of the participation on men’s teams of athletes whose biological sex at birth was female.
“It’s striking that they only care about transgender women, and they don’t care about transgender men,” Bonamici said. “Theirs is just a very narrow-minded, uninformed view of who transgender people really are.”
Pointing to book bans and minimal access to gender-affirming care, Bonamici said these attacks on transgender youth are based on “very egregious misinformation about what’s actually happening.”
Bonamici, who voted against the bill in April, has been joined by her Democratic colleagues as she stands by the protection of transgender athletes in sports.
“Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t,” Bonamici said as she challenged claims about unfairness.
Studies show that transgender youth continue to face an increased risk of suicide and poor mental health, which is something Bonamici said she believes bans would only worsen.
As she awaits the rule-making changes from the Biden administration, she said she hopes others look at Lightner’s work within her district to create an inclusive team environment for all, as an example of what can be achieved.
“I think a lot of people haven’t really met a transgender person that they know of,” Bonamici said. “They’re just people, being who they are and living as their true selves, which in the United States of America everyone should have the freedom to do while being free from discrimination.”
Health & Science
An update on bird flu in the U.S.
The CDC confirmed a third case of bird flu in California on Wednesday, with two additional presumed cases awaiting test results.
read moreNew Forever stamp honors health care workers
WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly launched a new Forever stamp honoring health care workers at a dedication ceremony on Thursday. The stamp became available for sale on Tuesday, October 1st and features the words “thank you” spelled out in various health-related icons. The words “healthcare community” run across the lower right corner of the stamp.
The health care community includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, hospital custodians, lab technicians and epidemiologists, among others. USPS and HHS’s decision to honor health care workers comes in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which those in health care worked long hours taking care of those ill with the virus.
Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of HHS, spoke at Thursday’s ceremony. “Many of the first to die of Covid were in health care. And every day they do the job that we expect them to,” Becerra said.
Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the USPS, spoke of his interactions with health care workers throughout his own life. He expressed gratitude for the staff at the neighborhood clinic he and his siblings would visit as children, and he discussed the efforts of his wife Aldona, a physician who worked with AIDS patients at the beginning of the epidemic. This is DeJoy’s first stamp dedication in his four and a half years as postmaster general.
In January 2021, DeJoy and the USPS began working with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), an agency within HHS, to distribute free Covid-19 test kits to Americans. Roughly 900 million test kits have been distributed thus far. The two organizations then decided to begin working on a Forever stamp to honor those working on the front lines caring for those sick with COVID-19.
“The members of the health care community, sometimes at great personal risk, have dedicated their lives to improving our health, safety and well being, and we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their service to the nation,” DeJoy said. “Health care workers have adjusted and still demonstrate acute awareness and the empathy necessary to provide not just medical care but emotional comfort to those they care for in their moments of great vulnerability. This embedded culture of kindness makes the world a better place.”
Remarks were also provided by Dr. Andrea Anderson, a family physician, associate professor, and the Associate Chief of Family Medicine at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “Health care workers provided emergency health care when people could be saved and when they could not,” Anderson said. “There were faces shrouded behind masks and face shields breaking the bad news of a positive diagnosis to the terrified. There were those holding electronic tablets to allow a family member one last moment to say goodbye to a loved one, or they themselves became the last human voice heard when time had expired for yet another casualty of the microscopic virus less than the size of a human hair.”
Many health care workers became infected with Covid-19 during its peak, and the World Health Organization estimates that roughly 115,500 people in the health care community died between January 2020 and May 2021.
Dr. Loretta Christensen, Chief Medical Officer for the Indian Health Service, spoke to the Medill News Service about what the stamp means for health care community members. “They’re a very unique and special bunch of people that dedicate their lives to caring for others. And so to actually be recognized for that has to be a great moment for them.”
Abortions in South Carolina are banned after six weeks of pregnancy. Local nonprofits are working to help patients anyway
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Between a real estate attorney’s office and a county magistrate building sits one of South Carolina’s three abortion clinics. Pink and white signs beckon patients, discreetly placed so as not to invite unwanted attention.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, women and advocates in the state of South Carolina have struggled to safeguard access to reproductive health care, including abortions. Existing policies tend to penalize, rather than uplift, patients seeking care and those who help them. But the people who work on the front lines don’t want to leave. Their work is a crucial part of who they are, they say.
South Carolina’s maternal mortality rate is the eighth-highest in the nation, according to the South Carolina Law Review. Vicki Ringer, the director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said she is critical of lawmakers focusing on the wrong victims of an under-resourced health care system.
“Women have died and will continue to die,” she said. “This should require some action on behalf of our legislature – whether that’s in research, expanding Medicaid or providing more rural health care. All of those things would make sense, but the legislature does not do any of those things.”
In August 2023, the state Supreme Court upheld a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, a similar law that had been struck down just eight months before. After the court’s only female justice retired, it reversed this protection, forcing providers to turn away patients at a stage before many of them even know they are pregnant.
While abortion takes center stage as a national political talking point, so many other facets of reproductive care remain difficult to access throughout the country, including contraception, in vitro fertilization and sex education in elementary schools.
“Our reproductive health care restrictions are some of the most restrictive in the nation,” said Kelli Parker, the director of communications and marketing for the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN). “Most South Carolinians support access to reproductive health care. But it’s continually being limited through our legislators that have very extreme ideas about what reproductive health care actually is.”
The Planned Parenthood Health Center in Columbia is one of only three abortion clinics in the state of South Carolina. (Simone Garber/MNS)
It never occurred to Parker that her 11-year-old daughter wouldn’t have the same right to bodily autonomy as she once did. Having grown up in New York, Parker’s access to health care in Charleston, S.C. over the past five years has been vastly different from the medical privacy she’s used to.
“I think people who live outside of the South really take for granted the amount of freedom you have,” she said.
Parker’s agency, based in Columbia, works to expand access to health care, education and economic opportunities for women, girls and gender-expansive people throughout the state. Since 2017, WREN has advised patients seeking reproductive services in a state that was one of the first to impose near-total abortion bans after Roe’s reversal.
Recent policing of gender-affirming care comes from male lawmakers’ need for “control,” Parker said.
“It’s important to remember that abortion bans and restrictions don’t do anything to protect anyone’s health or safety – they’re only punishment,” she said. “Why would you want to elect someone who’s out to punish you?”
Ina Seethaler is the director of college outreach at the Palmetto State Abortion Fund, a volunteer-run organization working to offset the financial barriers to reproductive justice in South Carolina. The fund subsidizes abortion procedures and logistical costs, including transportation and lodging for out-of-state appointments.
Seethaler called South Carolina a “reproductive health care desert,” as local physicians often weigh high-stakes decisions that could leave them incarcerated.
According to the S.C. Office for Healthcare Workforce, 14 out of the state’s 46 counties do not have a practicing OB-GYN. That translates to a ratio of 0.43 for every 1,000 women of reproductive age, according to a South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare research brief.
“Folks don’t want to move here,” Seethaler said. “They don’t want to practice here. It’s becoming, frankly, kind of dangerous for them to work here. But things are just going to get worse again at the expense of the people in South Carolina.”
And it’s not just a lack of trained professionals that’s driving the reproductive health care shortage. For patients in desperate situations facing few options and little reliable information, many turn to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) for answers. These institutions, which reproductive justice advocates say impart misinformation to pregnant people rather than support, generated nearly $1.4 billion in revenue in the 2022 fiscal year and continue to increase in scope and size nationwide.
As a result of CPC expansion, Seethaler said, many reproductive justice organizations are finding it difficult to persuade patients of their legitimacy.
“That overlap is, unfortunately, really problematic,” she said.
The 35 CPCs in South Carolina well outnumber the abortion clinics in the state. In addition to Columbia, two other Planned Parenthood Health Centers are located in Charleston and Greenville, all at least 100 miles away from one another.
Ringer’s lobbying efforts at the Columbia State House are constantly challenged at the clinic sites, where protesters will “literally drag patients into vans” stockpiled with ultrasounds.
“All of these folks exist only to harass patients,” she said. “They don’t provide any real services. It’s just dogma they’re imposing on people that they’re trying to stop from having an abortion.”
These days, the stakes of health care suppression are extending to other reproductive issues. Last month, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos would be considered “children” under state law, a mandate that could jeopardize the practice of IVF.
While Alabama has since passed a law to protect IVF treatments, legal experts note that language in other states related to so-called fetal personhood leave many open questions about liability.
“Alabama’s ruling is extremely alarming,” Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, wrote in a statement. “This is part of the chaos we knew would ensue if Roe v. Wade was overturned. With politicians at the helm instead of doctors, reproductive health care is in crisis.”
Navigating an increasingly polarized workplace and industry, Ringer underscored her personal motivation for continuing this line of work.
“I know that there are others still in this fight, but I can’t just throw up my hands,” she said. “Everybody deserves the right to decide if, when and how to become parents. Pregnant women, most of all, deserve their own freedom to make a decision.”
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read moreBiochar Is ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ for Sequestering Carbon and Combating Climate Change
Since David Laird was young, the “lush, green forests” of the western United States meant an annual summer trip to hike, camp and fish. But the last time Laird was in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, a bark beetle had ravaged an estimated two-thirds of the forest’s lodgepole pines.
For Laird, a professor at Iowa State University, the brittle, brownish-orange pine needles on the trees represented a grave danger to the land: wildfires.
With more than three decades of experience as a soil researcher, Laird believed these dead trees had to be removed so the forest ecosystem could regenerate without risking a lightning strike or “careless cigarette” sending it aflame. He also knew that the trees could be repurposed into a “market-based tool” with the potential to combat climate change while increasing crop production and creating rural jobs. This tool? Biochar.
Biochar is made from burning organic material in an oxygen-deprived environment. It enhances soil fertility and increases the ability of soil—one of the world’s largest carbon sinks—to capture and store carbon, absorbing the emissions from fossil fuels that human activity releases into the air.
The practice of using organic material to enhance soil fertility goes back thousands of years to when Indigenous people in the Amazon built up large piles of nutrient-rich soil mixed with charcoal, food residue and other waste.
Carbon dioxide emissions by humans have to be zeroed out by 2050 to keep Earth’s average annual temperature from going—and staying—more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as targeted by the Paris climate agreement.
If the planet—as now projected—warms beyond that threshold permanently before 2050, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it would require removing at least six gigatons of CO2 annually by 2050 to bring the global temperature back down in the second half of the century. The exact amount of CO2 removal required in the future depends on how much is still being emitted, with different scenarios outlined in the IPCC’s 2023 synthesis report.
Last year, 125,000 tons of CO2 were removed worldwide by the durable carbon market—a carbon credit marketplace for human CO2 removal projects—of which biochar was responsible for 92.9 percent, despite having received only 7 percent of carbon credit purchases. These numbers do not reflect the CO2 sequestered naturally in the ocean and forests.
Laird said biochar alone cannot achieve the 2050 goal, but it’s the easiest and most economically viable first step. He called biochar “the low-hanging fruit.”
“We need multiple, multiple efforts, multiple different processes all working together,” Laird said. “Biochar is one of those.”
What Does Biochar Do?
When mixed with soil, biochar creates favorable conditions for root growth and microbial activity, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the earth. It also helps soil retain water and absorb nutrients, repairing nutrient-deficient soil to increase crop production.
Biochar is typically made from wood, but researchers have found that using different types of biomass can bring forth various strengths from the char.
Dominique Lueckenhoff, the chief executive officer of a pollution treatment and applied environmental research group called Ecochar Environmental Solutions, developed manure-based biochar to enhance the performance of green infrastructure, like rain gardens and porous pavement.
Green infrastructure, which uses nature to mitigate the effects of climate change, like flooding and high temperatures, in urban environments, is getting more common, especially since President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act incentivized investment in it with grants and loans.
Lueckenhoff said this infrastructure is designed to catch water where it falls, rather than treating the water or the soil for pollutants.
“In urban areas, the soils are not only dead,” Lueckenhoff said. “They’re also contaminated.”
Lueckenhoff began developing manure-based biochar to depollute water after a 2010 Environmental Protection Agency study found dangerously high nutrient levels from agricultural runoff in the Chesapeake Bay.
Manure-based char counterintuitively absorbs up to 99 percent of harmful pollutants from water, according to Lueckenhoff’s research, acting as a natural purification system.
Lueckenhoff’s group is now partnering with the D.C.-based green infrastructure company, Rainplan, to add custom biochars to green infrastructure.
“It’s about turning a big problem into a multi-beneficial solution,” Lueckenhoff said. “I can reduce the nutrient impacts, I can create markets for farmers to turn that into a beneficial treatment, I can eliminate toxic exposures for people and the environment, animals, etcetera and I can drive new economies.”
Lueckenhoff’s chars have also been used to augment the growth speed and strength of hemp crops and treat superfund sites for toxins.
Since pollutants particularly harm disadvantaged communities, biochar can be a potent environmental justice tool for removing these toxins.
A Bipartisan Solution
Another testament to biochar’s utility: It has bipartisan congressional support. A bill to fund biochar research, introduced in March 2023, is now pending before a Senate Agriculture Committee.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was one of four senators who cosponsored the bill.
“Biochar presents an exciting opportunity for farmers looking for a low-cost way to improve soil quality while sequestering carbon,” Grassley said in a written statement to the Medill News Service.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), another cosponsor, said he aims to get provisions for biochar research into this year’s farm bill, which funds crop insurance, conservation, nutrition and commodities.
“The research will give another tool to farmers, who understand the environment and understand climate and understand productivity of their land,” Brown said. “This can lead to better productivity and better, ultimately, prices for them.”
Biochar is made by putting biomass into structures, like a covered kiln, and heating it without oxygen to convert organic carbon to a long-lasting form of carbon that does not easily break down. The resulting product is made up of small, black porous bits of char.
“The pollution from making biochar is no worse, and sometimes it’s better, than pollution from just burning biomass,” said Tom Miles, the executive director of U.S. Biochar Initiative. “And the emissions are better than in a lot of fireplaces.”
Biochar is currently expensive to make in the U.S. because large amounts of biomass must be shipped to fewer than 50 small-scale production facilities in the country.
According to Miles, farmers typically pay no more than $50 per acre for crop treatment using fertilizer. Even though biochar lasts hundreds to thousands of years, farmers struggle to afford it at $500 per ton of biochar per acre.
Many researchers envision a nationwide network of medium-sized facilities using local biomass to create the char, which would create jobs across the country, especially in rural communities with access to organic material.
This means facilities in Wyoming could use dead trees like the ones Laird saw in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest to clear the wildfire risk and create a char to help revitalize dried-out soil. Pennsylvania facilities, on the other hand, could produce manure-based char and reduce the amount of nutrient leaching that would have to be resolved downstream in the Chesapeake Bay.
Only a “fraction of a percent” of U.S. agriculture currently uses biochar. But according to Miles, “there’s a real dollar and cents market opportunity that we could approach with biochar.”
Lueckenhoff said her manure-based char is a cheaper water treatment than the alternative, granular activated carbon, but it is not widely used in this way because she is one of the few researchers doing “strong work on the toxic side.”
Biochar prices dropped by 38 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to a 2023 CDR.fyi carbon capture report. With around a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions coming from agriculture, forestry and other land use, conservation techniques in the agriculture sector have both strong environmental and economic potential
“As we address climate change, we need to dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels, but at the same time, we can’t damage the economy,” Laird said.
Roadblocks
In February, a biochar conference in Sacramento brought in over 655 attendees from 28 countries and 44 states, according to Miles. He said he expects the conference to grow to around 800 attendees next year.
However, biochar has mainly been taken up by small businesses, and its market remains limited.
“People don’t know about biochar—don’t know or understand what the benefits are,” Miles said.
Early studies did not account for different soil and land conditions needing different amounts of biochar, so in some tests, the char leached nutrients from crops. Now, more than 30,000 peer-reviewed papers explain how biochar works, and guidelines like the Pacific Northwest Biochar Atlas instruct growers on how to maximize its use.
The process of making biochar has other byproducts, like oil that can easily be made into asphalt, sugar and liquid fuel that can be used for shipping and aviation.
“This is the niche that we see this technology fitting into—a system that can replace difficult-to-electrify transportation and at the same time be producing a char which goes into the soil,” Laird said.
But uptake of sustainable energy is slow because fossil fuel companies are not penalized for the environmental damage their oil and gas products cause.
“If we have to compete head to head against petroleum, it’s going to be a real tough sell,” Laird added.
Some laws complicate using biochar. For example, the Department of Agriculture pays farmers to adopt conservation practices, but it excludes biochar produced from crop residue out of concerns that farmers would remove too much biomass and damage their land.
Laird said such policies are like taking a “sledgehammer to a sewing machine.” He said creating legal, economic and industry incentives to adopt the new technology can help facilitate its uptake.
Another challenge for biochar is its political instability, Laird said. The risk that former president Donald Trump wins the presidency and repeals Biden’s conservation incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act discourages large investors from pouring money into the industry to help it take off.
Despite the hurdles to a booming biochar industry, many researchers, policymakers and advocates are optimistic that the char will gain prevalence and deliver environmental and economic benefits across the country.
A new study of the global biochar industry by the International Biochar Initiative and U.S. Biochar Initiative predicts that biochar revenues will surge from $600 million U.S. dollars in 2023 to $3.3 billion by 2025.
Lueckenhoff said she is “on the precipice” of rolling out her manure-based biochar. She next plans to look into making char from compost and biosolids, like sewage sludge, she said.
“It’s going to take a major industry effort to actually remove a gigaton of CO2 from the atmosphere,” Laird said. “This is a pathway towards that. It can be done.”
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Parents concerned over poor health impact on children caused by climate change
WASHINGTON – When Dr. Lisa Patel was working on a project for the Environmental Protection Agency in 2005, she visited a children’s hospital for asthma in Mumbai, India. After seeing the main parts of the center, she was surprised when the coordinators took her to a nearby gymnasium that had been converted into a children’s asthma ward. It was filled with even more children who were receiving care.
Seeing an entire gymnasium full of child asthmatics struggling to breathe was moving for Dr. Patel, the executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. But the global climate crisis became much more personal when the California wildfires reached her own children almost a decade later.
“That’s when it became very concrete to me that no child should be breathing in this absolutely foul pollution that’s ruining their health,” she said.
According to a report by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, children face disproportionate ill effects as a result of climate change, largely because they are actively developing both mentally and physically.
Children are affected by both “indoor air” and their surrounding climate, Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network Nsedu Obot Witherspoon said at a Moms Clean Air Force (MCAF) event about children’s health in the face of the climate crisis on Feb. 8.
According to Witherspoon, “indoor air” is impacted by a number of products including cleaners, toys, pesticides and other human-made items children encounter. “Climate” encompasses air quality, water quality, pollution, natural disasters and any additional environmental factors.
While everyone is impacted by these types of exposure, children are more likely to be negatively impacted.
“Their airways are smaller. They have developing immune systems,” Dr. Patel said. “So things like NOx or PM2.5 irritate the lung lining and put children at higher risk for respiratory illnesses.”
NOx, also known as nitrogen oxides, are “a group of highly reactive gasses, including nitrogen dioxide, nitrous acid, and nitric acid,” according to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Similarly, the ADEQ classifies PM2.5 as “the smallest, most harmful particulate pollution.” PM2.5 is a combination of nitrogen oxides and other harmful substances.
In the U.S., 49% of parents say climate change has affected their decision about having more children, according to a recent study conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the technology company, HP.
Moreover, the study concluded that 91% of parents globally are worried about the climate crisis and have changed their purchasing habits as a result.
“I studied climate change in college and at the time, it felt like a calling, and it felt like something that I wanted to do,” Dr. Patel said. “But I think when I had my kids, it no longer felt like a choice. It felt like something that I had to do.”
Even so, parents have little control over what substances their children come into contact with. With more than 12 million children under the age of five in the United States in some form of nonparental care, Witherspoon said the industry lacks sufficient regulations, focusing on these “critical windows of exposure.”
Prevention through policy
Existing health and safety policy surrounding child care is largely centered around the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases and violence, though there are also climate-related regulations to highlight.
The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education is the most prevalent organization setting health and safety standards for child care facilities. Their resources give providers national and state standards to follow.
One national standard largely influenced by the Clean Air Act stated that providers must check the air quality index before determining if it is safe for children to play outside. There are also established protocols surrounding natural disasters to keep facilities prepared to protect children in the event of an emergency.
States can establish their own rules for child care providers too. For example, a 2018 California law required licensed child care centers to test their water for lead by 2023.
After results found shocking levels of the poisonous substance in the water supplies, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) said California children’s lead exposure was alarming.
“One in four California child care centers has dangerously high levels of lead in their drinking water,” Porter said. “Children are our future, and we owe it to every American to protect all kids’ safety and well-being.”
In remarks made in Pittsburgh on Feb. 20, Vice President Kamala Harris promised to eliminate all lead pipes in the United States, recognizing the impact that lead has on children’s health.
The Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan “includes over 15 new actions from more than 10 federal agencies that ensure the federal government is marshalling every resource to make rapid progress towards replacing all lead pipes in the next decade.”
“When children drink toxic water through lead pipes, it has an impact on their learning ability, on their health,” Harris said. “And for too long, this has been the case, that communities have been crying out for support to get rid of these lead pipes.”
There are also environmental justice concerns around the quality of drinking water, which Porter alluded to in her remarks.
“Many of the worst facilities for lead levels are in low-income areas or communities of color,” she said.
According to Witherspoon, the child care industry is a space where environmental injustice is heightened because the profession is largely dominated by women, including women of color and women of childbearing age. She said there is a dual benefit of reducing the environmental hazards and limiting the negative health effects for both children and their care providers.
Exposure to plastic
Another concern for children’s environmental health is exposure to plastics. Judith Enck is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics and a former EPA regional administrator. Her work focuses on the dangers of plastic pollution. At the MCAF event in early February, she cited how plastic emissions are replacing those originally produced by the coal industry.
“Plastics is Plan B for the fossil fuels industry,” she said. “All of us have microplastics in our bodies.”
Microplastics are a particular danger because they are being found in a variety of organs, from livers to placentas. According to a study by a peer reviewed journal titled Birth Defects Research, exposure to microplastics as a newborn “is linked to the development of multiple illnesses in adulthood.”
Yet exposure can also occur before a child is born, “which may have the potential to cause harmful effects later in life,” according to a recent study by Environment International.
While action has been taken against the rise of plastics, Enck said she is still working toward more change.
In December, the EPA decided that vinyl chloride, which has been a known carcinogen for about 50 years, will be among five chemicals that will begin the risk evaluation prioritization process under the Toxic Substances Control Act, Enck said. “But that’s the beginning of a ten-year journey to ban vinyl chloride,” she added.
The mental health toll of the climate crisis
Research shows that children’s mental wellness is also affected by the climate crisis.
“There’s actually some emerging data that early exposure to air pollution places children at higher risk for anxiety and depression,” Dr. Patel said.
Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a medical doctor and general and forensic psychiatrist, indicated the youth population is paying a mental toll for the climate crisis.
“The extreme weather events they face not only bring – acutely – fear, anger, sorrow, etc. But over time, what happens is they become dispirited, even demoralized and feel potentially a feeling of abandonment and betrayal by their government,” Dr. Van Susteren said.
While the public might differ over which initiatives to support, two-thirds of Americans agree that the government should be doing more to solve the climate crisis, according to a 2020 study conducted by the Pew Research Center. This support extends across partisan lines.
Dr. Van Susteren said there should be more psychiatrists who specialize in climate mental health. This support could help improve the morale of a younger generation that feels a widening gap between themselves and their government.
At the MCAF event, she said it is important to consider a child’s particular age, behavior and the context in which they live before talking to them about climate change. Supporting a child’s mental well-being is not a “one size fits all approach.”
While some kids need more transparency, others need protection, Dr. Van Susteren said. It is up to those supporting the children to assess what they need based on existing factors.
Dr. Van Susteren said adults should also be aware of their own mental well-being. She wants people who are struggling mentally with the climate crisis to “recognize that it’s really our collective effort – individually counted, it’s just like votes on election day – but this is what ends up changing the course of our history.”
Dr. Patel said she feels a particular responsibility to protect her own children.
“I brought them into this world. And so it’s incumbent on me to make sure that this is a world worthy of them,” she said.
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Latest in National Security
Here’s what experts say is keeping Biden from making a decision on Ukraine
Behind Washington’s continuing hesitation to greenlight Ukraine’s use of U.S.-made missiles to strike deep inside Russia are Biden’s fears of facing a nuclear escalation and undermining Democrats’ bid for the presidency, as well as uncertainty over the missiles’ effectiveness in helping Ukraine, experts say.
read moreDeepfakes pose threats to upcoming US Presidential Elections
WASHINGTON — As the Presidential elections are approaching, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, stated that a bipartisan bill is necessary to safeguard the upcoming elections since artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used to interfere with them.
During a Tuesday hearing, he called for big tech and social media companies to be held accountable for election effects and other AI-driven campaigns.
“It’s not science fiction that artificial intelligence will somehow interfere with our elections in the future, possibly, or hypothetically. It’s already being used to sow lies about candidates and suppress the vote,” he said.
He added that deepfakes pose threats to politics and the integrity of American democracy by highlighting recent examples of both domestic and foreign disinformation, such as the call that thousands of residents of New Hampshire received in January from someone posing as President Joe Biden telling them not to cast their votes in the state’s primary election.
Another incident is when Microsoft revealed that social media accounts linked to the Chinese Communist Party were using artificial intelligence to influence American politics earlier this month.
According to David Scanlan, New Hampshire Secretary of State, any message intended for voters that contains content generated by AI should include a disclosure so that voters are aware of its origin.
“To mitigate the impact on voters and election outcomes, it is important to have the temper to promptly address misinformation,” he said.
He added that there is a need to strengthen voter education in order for people to find reliable and accurate election-related information, as well as to be able to identify misleading information.
Rijul Gupta, Founder and CEO of DeepMedia, Inc., a leading deepfake detection and AI security company, defined deepfakes as images, audio, or videos that have been generated or manipulated by AI in a manner that may harm or mislead the public.
He stated that as technology advances, it poses a threat to the shared reality that underpins our society by instilling uncertainty in the minds of people, making them doubt the accuracy of any information they come across.
“In a world where the very nature of truth is called into question, the foundations of our democratic institutions, which rely on an informed and engaged citizenry, are at risk,” he said.
He added that deepfakes represent a market failure, an abuse of a public good that has detrimental effects and undermines trust in the information era.
“We can accelerate the growth of the Generative AI market while ensuring its safety and integrity by internalizing these negative outcomes through smart regulation and industry collaboration,” he said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called for the passage of multiple bipartisan bills that are ready, and said it is time that these bills get a vote.
“Let’s not allow companies that control the news in this country to use AI to further their hammer hold on the United States of America and our political process. The leadership of both parties and the Senate need to support an effort to get a vote.” he said.
Lawmakers urge investigation into Pakistan’s election irregularities
WASHINGTON — Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, called on the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday to investigate electoral irregularities and violence that took place in the recent election in Pakistan on February 8, 2024.
The United States and international election monitors have raised concerns about pre-election and election-day irregularities, including disproportionate limitations on freedom of expression and assembly, attacks on journalists and limitations on internet and telecom services.
“In addition to promoting democratic values, supporting Pakistan’s economy is a key strategic goal of our bilateral relationship,” said Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn.
Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs, testified in front of Congress, stating that after the day of the elections, the State Department issued a clear statement condemning electoral violence, human rights violations, media attacks, internet and telecommunication restrictions and allegations of interference in the electoral process, urging a full investigation.
“Second, We’re very focused on economic stability for Pakistan and for Pakistan to deal with its social terrorism and political issues,” said Lu.
Chairman Joe Wilson cross-examined the accusations against Imran Khan, claiming that the U.S. government was involved in removing Khan from power. Lu stated that there was no such involvement from the U.S. and that it was just a conspiracy theory. “The then-ambassador of Pakistan to the United States has testified to his government that there was no conspiracy. We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan,” said Lu.
During the hearing, observers shouted “liar” and “free Iman Khan, the only democratic prime minister,” and seemed dissatisfied with Donald Lu’s testimony. Capitol Police escorted the protestors from the hearing room.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., questioned the impartiality of the Pakistani judicial system. He raised concerns about the treatment of American citizens, including Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who has been jailed for over 14 years without charge. Emphasizing the importance of prioritizing human rights in Pakistan, he called for the American ambassador to visit and the president to take action.
“That’s the same judicial system with Dr. Afridi in jail for 14 years. For getting bin Laden. Do we have faith that Imran Khan has not been the victim of selective prosecution?” Sherman said.
McCaul stated that Pakistan is experiencing substantial economic issues, such as record inflation and foreign debt, and its domestic condition is catastrophic. He also maintained human rights in Pakistan must be protected for democracy to flourish. He says the United States and Pakistan must continue to work together to combat terrorism and promote regional stability.
“We also know that if the United States falls away from our relationship with Pakistan, the Chinese Communist Party will gain even more influence,” said McCaul. “CCP is only interested in a one-way relationship of debt trap diplomacy and Pakistan [is] the ground zero for the Belt and Road Initiative.”
The ranking members of the committee urged Pakistan’s government and Election Commission to investigate interference and fraud in the recent election with complete transparency and hold those responsible accountable.
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read moreFreeHer protesters call on Biden to ‘Bring Moms Home’ from prisons and jails
WASHINGTON — “Bring Moms Home for Mother’s Day,” called protesters at the 10th Anniversary FreeHer March and Rally on Wednesday.
Organized by The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, the peaceful protest emphasized that this Mother’s Day, nearly 150,000 incarcerated mothers will not be able to celebrate, separated from their children. Many of the mothers are awaiting trial in jail, unable to pay the bail that in some cases might be equal to their annual income. The rally participants called on President Joe Biden’s administration and state governors to take urgent action.
“With a stroke of a pen, they can unite families,” said Ebony McMorris, a White House Correspondent at American Urban Radio Networks.
Protesters from Massachusetts hold signs at the FreeHer March and Rally in Washington on April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
The Council members pinned their hopes on Biden’s presidency, whom they met as a Vice President of former President Barack Obama. Andrea James, Founder & Executive Director of the Council, remembered talking to President Obama in 2014.
“We said, Mr. President, as you’re going into the federal prisons, please remember that women are incarcerated too. They are mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, wives, and we need them to come home,” she recalled.
Andrea James (with the microphone) addresses protesters from the stage on April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
President Obama granted clemency 1,927 times over eight years in office, the highest total of any president since the 1950s.
President Biden, however, needs to be more proactive, according to The Council. He granted clemency to 16 individuals the day of the protest, but James believes it is insufficient.
“Guess what President Biden gave us?” she pointed out his latest clemency acts. “I guess all the White House heard us say was that we wanted just a little bit of freedom.”
“We want it all,” some in the audience screamed back.
FreeHer March and Rally attendees on April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
The Council speakers, along with national allies and organizations, emphasized the case of Michelle West, who they believe tops the list for urgent clemency.
West was charged and convicted in a drug conspiracy case that held her responsible for the actions of her co-conspirators in 1994. The Judge imposed a life sentence plus 50 years, plus five years probation for a first-time offender.
“When I last wrote about Michelle’s case, I was hoping that it added to the efforts… to correct a wrong that had been done,” Walter Pavlo, an expert on federal criminal law enforcement, wrote for Forbes in 2021.
Yet West’s clemency was rejected in 2015, and no action has been taken since. The recent closing of the FCI Dublin prison further exacerbated West’s situation, as she is being moved around other prison facilities without knowing her final destination.
“My mom is not a slave, and it feels like slavery at this point,” said Miquelle West, Michelle West’s only daughter.
Tiawana Brown, Founder of Beauty after the Bars, calls for clemency for Michelle West during FreeHer March on April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
Children of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated mothers were leading the march, calling to have their families united. On the other side, many formerly incarcerated women came to fight to have their children back.
Fifty-eight percent of imprisoned women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18, and often, the mothers are separated from their children for the first time upon entering prison.
“FreeHer to me also means free my kids,” said Kimberly Dunne, Co-National Organizer at the Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People and Families Movement. “I lost my kids to incarceration, and my kids are still abandoned, as I say, by adoption. FreeHer is extended to my kids because they are still not free.”
Kimberly Dunne talks about her children on the stage. April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
As Mother’s Day approaches, fractured families, missing mothers and the risk they impose on children’s futures are at the forefront of this primarily black community of activists. Amanda Wilders is among the organizers of the Black Mothers March on the White House, which is planned for May 12.
“We know this day is not a happy day for many mothers,” she said. “We understand that this state is the problem, and we all have a common enemy: the United States government.”
FreeHer protesters display their mistrust in the government with banners. April 24, 2024. (Sophia Didinova/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE)
“The problem is that this country has gone on not caring, not liberating, and has been putting prison over our community,” said McMorris, and many protesters loudly agreed with her.
The Council, among other participant organizations, believes the incarceration system harms society, as long prison sentences do not deter crime but destroy lives. Instead, the Council advocates that tax dollars should be put into providing resources to at-risk families and communities, including initiatives like affordable housing, post-incarceration employment, and reinstating voting rights.
“Clemency, commutation, sentencing reform – those are the meantime solutions,” said Shekhinah Braveheart, Advocacy Associate at the Justice Policy Institute. “But the end goal is to end this system that has fractured our families, exacerbated trauma, destabilized our community and rehabilitated no one.”
View more photos from the April 24, 2024, 10th Anniversary FreeHer March and Rally:
In Photo: Anti-war group distributes free vegan food to combat poverty, hunger
WASHINGTON – The Washington chapter of Food Not Bombs, a volunteer group that gives out free vegan meals to combat poverty and hunger, distributed meals on Saturday, undeterred by persistent rain.
D.C. is one of over 1,000 cities in 65 countries served by Food Not Bombs, according to its website. The first of the autonomous, non-hierarchical chapters was founded by anti-nuclear activists in 1980 in Cambridge, Mass.
Will Reid, a leading member of the D.C. branch, said he often ate from Food Not Bombs in Houston, Texas when it provided food for the Occupy movement, an international movement in the early 2010s that advocated for socio-economic justice.
Reid started volunteering for Food Not Bombs in 2014 when he moved to Washington. He now devotes around nine hours to the group each week, and he “can’t stop thinking about it.”
“The vast majority of friendships that I have in D.C. I can somehow trace back to Food Not Bombs,” Reid said.
The group dishes out food donated by local businesses that otherwise would have been thrown away.
In addition to reducing food waste, another of the group’s guiding tenets is nonviolence. The D.C. chapter has provided food for multiple Gaza ceasefire protests.
The group distributes only vegan options to avoid food safety issues, serve individuals who do not eat animal products, oppose violence in the animal industry and provide nutritious options.
It serves around 25 to 75 people each week in the winter, and around 75 to 150 people in the summer, Reid estimated.
Food Not Bombs serves an estimated 25 to 75 people each week in the winter. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
Volunteers Will Reid (right) and Jason (left) share an umbrella in the rain. They met in 2014 when they got involved with Food Not Bombs. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
Vegan donuts from Donut Run in Tacoma are a staple handout for Food Not Bombs. Reid said eating these donuts each week is a perk of volunteering. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
A volunteer hands someone a hot drink. Volunteers are instructed to wear masks and gloves when they serve food. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
A volunteer scoops spaghetti into a plastic container. This week’s menu also included chili, fresh fruits and vegetables and brownies. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
Stacked containers of food sit on a plastic folding table. Food Not Bombs aims to reduce food waste by giving out items that would otherwise have been thrown away. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
A volunteer hands someone a hot beverage over the table. Many volunteers knew the people they served by name. (Lindsey Byman/MNS)
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read moreFed Governor Waller, “Shadow Fed” Weigh Monetary Policy Rules
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller credited the Shadow Open Market Committee for “[elevating] the public debate about monetary policy” and added to the consideration of monetary policy rules, in a keynote address at the group’s 50th anniversary celebration on Monday.
“For me, the central question is how much and how fast to reduce the target for the federal funds rate,” Waller said during his speech. “To help answer questions like this, I often look at various monetary policy rules to assess the appropriate setting of policy.”
The Federal Reserve is an autonomous agency that maintains a strict independence from other government entities and outside influences. Still, Fed Governor Waller spoke to many of the group’s most consistent critics, members of the SOMC.
In 1973, prominent economic scholars formed the SOMC, an independent, self-appointed watchdog over the Fed’s decisions. Since then, the SOMC has been an active voice in monetary policy debates through policy papers and regular meetings. The group currently consists of academics and past Fed policymakers.
At a retrospective event hosted by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, the SOMC reflected on its 50 years of influence and highlighted key policy objectives. Discussion frequently returned to rules-based monetary policy, one of the SOMC’s core beliefs, as listed on their website.
Rules-based monetary policy binds central banks to a formulaic approach when determining target interest rates, ensuring predictability. The SOMC has consistently favored rules-based policymaking to central bank discretion.
Opening the conference, Stanford economist John Taylor detailed the implications of a rules-based approach to monetary policy. He highlighted how the federal funds rate approached 20% in the early 1980s.
“Let’s not go back to that, whatever we do,” Taylor said. “But since then, and to some extent, it’s because the Fed has followed a more rules based system… it’s gotten lower.”
About 30 years ago, Taylor invented one of the most common monetary policy rules, the Taylor Rule. Under the Taylor Rule, the target federal funds rate should be calculated using indicators such as the inflation rate and real GDP gap.
The SOMC does not endorse any particular policy rule on their website, instead urging only that central banks share their rules “so that it can be monitored and held accountable.”
Later in the conference, former Federal Reserve vice chair Donald Kohn argued that the Fed ignored policy rules by over-emphasizing employment following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Policy rules prescribed rate hikes in advance of the Fed’s initial raise in March 2022, according to a 2024 working paper by Balint Tatar and Volker Wieland.
“I do think, arguably, Fed policy in 2021 and 2022 didn’t adhere to these systematic things,” Kohn said. “It wasn’t necessarily focused on restoring price stability.”
Waller said that, with the introduction of the Taylor Rule in 1993, there was “immediate interest” within the Fed staff. He added that before each FOMC meeting, policymakers are provided with several analyses based on various monetary rules.
“Rules have become part of the furniture in modern policymaking,” Waller said.
Still, he added, rules have limitations.
Policymakers have access to vast amounts of data, only some of which is considered under each policy rule. Rules also fail to manage risk, a key factor in policy decisions, Waller said.
“While policy rules serve as a good check on discretionary policy, there are times when discretion is needed,” Waller said. “As a result, I prefer to think of them as ‘policy rules of thumb.’”
TRUMP-BACKED DEFI PLATFORM UNDERSCORES WASHINGTON’S CRYPTO PUSH
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump is endorsing a new crypto venture, fortifying his support for digital currency, which has evolved into a key campaign stance.
The decentralized finance platform, World Liberty Financial, is founded by longtime crypto entrepreneurs Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, and backed by the Trump family. It’s now accepting user registration for eligible candidates.
Trump is among a growing number of politicians who are throwing their support behind digital currencies ahead of the November election. Regardless of who takes the White House, lawmakers will be forced to reconsider how crypto is regulated amid growing industry criticism.
World Liberty Financial will launch a governance token, WLFI, members of the team said in an X Spaces live audio stream on Sept. 16.
Trump has marketed the platform to everyday Americans, but the whitelist is only open to accredited investors.
Ogle — an advisor for the platform and crypto security expert— said the platform’s exclusivity is a product of Securities and Exchange Commission regulation, which has come under scrutiny in the build up to the 2024 election. To qualify as an accredited investor, an individual must have a net worth of at least $1 million, under the Regulation D exemption for the SEC.
“Basically it’s saying you’re too stupid because you’re poor, and so you can’t make your own decisions,” he said. “That’s unjust, and it’s not American.”
Ogle said he joined as an advisor because he expected an influx of new users, given Trump’s following. He added that bringing on new users posed security risks, but had the potential to expand the industry’s reach.
“If people do onboard here, and nothing does go wrong, then a lot of people are going to get exposure and learn about a system where they otherwise would not have had access just because of ignorance, which I’m excited about,” Ogle said.
World Liberty Financial said on X that the team is not “turning (their) backs on the everyday American.” Ogle added that, while the whitelist is limited to accredited investors, once the DeFi project’s tokens are released to the public, WLFI will no longer oversee them, allowing other users to participate freely.
But Trump’s efforts to brand himself as a pro-crypto candidate contradict his prior stances. On July 11, 2019, Trump criticized cryptocurrencies on X for being “based on thin air” and highlighted their role in illegal activity. Two years later, he told Fox Business that Bitcoin seemed like a “scam.”
More recently, Trump has been an outspoken crypto supporter. At a July 27 Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tenn., Trump threw his support behind Bitcoin, pledging to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world” if re-elected in November. He also said that he would fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who drew criticism from the crypto space for his aggressive regulatory stance.
Though Trump’s shift in crypto sentiment may seem sudden, DeFi platforms actually align with his “anti-regulation, pro-business” rhetoric, according to Michael Dambra, a professor at the University at Buffalo.
DeFi platforms are blockchain-based tools that allow users to directly trade, borrow, lend and invest assets without government intervention or use of a traditional middleman.
“A future president, deregulating, and allowing more access to crypto is something that I think would be very, very pleasing to someone who mistrusts the government,” Dambra said. “Because Bitcoin, Ethereum, is sort of independent of government control.”
But support for crypto is not limited to just one side of the ballot.
Vice President Kamala Harris notably stepped away from President Joe Biden’s stance against cryptocurrencies. Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has refrained from taking any strong position, mirroring the conflicting stances of her party, but on September 24, Mark Cuban said on X that the Harris team told him they opposed “regulation through litigation.”
Since 2021, spending on federal crypto lobbying nearly tripled, according to the campaign finance non-profit, Open Secrets. Lobbyists spent a record high $24.8 million in 2023, contributing to campaigns across the political spectrum.
In response to this surge, lawmakers from both parties have adopted pro-crypto stances and introduced legislation to deregulate digital currencies. Both House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have suggested that bipartisan crypto legislation could pass their chambers by early 2025.
With the amount of “money involved,” Ogle said that cryptocurrency may not be a divisive issue among voters in the upcoming November election. He said that the division will exist more amongst “fuddy duddy” politicians who are “behind the times.”
“The people who are complaining are kind of yelling about the rain coming,” he said.
Neither World Liberty Financial nor the Trump campaign responded to a request for comments.
SOTU: Health Care
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Congress should approve his plan to replace Obamacare with a new health care program that would provide “affordable alternative” insurance options and criticized Democrats for trying to impose “a socialist takeover of our health care system.”
“A good life for American families requires the most affordable, innovative and high-quality health care system on earth,” Trump said in his third State of the Union address.
Trump said he has proposed health care plans that would be up to 60% cheaper than the Affordable Care Act plans. Both the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond when asked if a specific replacement plan has existed or ever will.
The president blamed Democrats for not providing the American people with the health care reforms he has promised.
“As we work to improve Americans’ health care, there are those who want to take away your health care, take away your doctor, and abolish private insurance entirely,” said Trump, referring to the Democrats.
Democrats stood up at this comment, pointed their fingers at Trump and shouted “YOU.”
Trump said 130 Democrats endorse legislation to impose a “socialist takeover” of the health care system by “taking away the private health insurance plans of 180 million.”
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are pushing for a “Medicare for All” plan that would end private health insurance while other candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., are pushing to expand on Obamacare.
“We will never let socialism destroy American health care,” Trump said.
Trump emphasized the administration’s efforts to protect patients with pre-existing conditions, to which Democrats threw up their hands and shook their heads in disagreement. Led by House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate and House Democrats brought more than 80 patients, doctors and health care advocates from across the country as guests to the speech.
“President Trump will speak to an audience filled with Americans who are suffering because of his broken promises on prescription drug costs and his all-out assault on Americans with preexisting conditions,” Pelosi said in a press release Tuesday morning.
The president also called upon Congress to pass legislation to lower prescription drug prices.
“Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it into law without delay,” the president said.
Democrats responded to this by booing and holding up three fingers to represent H.R. 3, legislation proposed by the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings that would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate certain drug prices. The bill has been on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk for over a month after being passed in the House.
Generic prescription drug prices dropped 1% in 2018, the first price drop in 45 years, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump said it was the first time in 51 years. Brand-name drug prices, however, are still increasing.
Trump said the administration will continue to make health care more transparent by requiring hospitals to make their prices negotiated with insurers public and easily accessible online. He also pointed to the passage of administration-backed legislation called “Right to Try,” which allows terminally ill patients access to drugs not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration if they feel they have tried all other options.
He also said he has launched new initiatives to improve care for Americans with kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and those struggling with mental health challenges, in addition to pursuing new cures for childhood cancer and AIDS.
The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday afternoon to further discuss Trump’s health care policies and overcoming pharmaceutical barriers in particular.
Trump Sticks By Wall in State of the Union Address
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s call for a wall to secure America’s southern border in his State of the Union address Tuesday night was no surprise to opponents.
Jennifer Johnson, the policy director at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said Trump continually characterizes the southern border as a violent area.
“More of a reality check, these are families and children seeking protection, fleeing spiraling violence and poverty,” she said.
Chris Montoya, who served as a Customs and Border Protection agent for 21 years, said that “crime rates are pretty low in border cities. Being a border patrol agent is one of the safest law enforcement jobs. All those things together means a safe border.”
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., invited as his guest a mother who had been separated from her children at the border.
Other Democrats brought undocumented immigrants as their guests, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.
Rep. Sheila Jackson, D-Texas, was enthusiastic about their attendance at the address. “Their presence here today is representative of the big tent that America is,” she said.
In his address, Trump attributed what he called at crisis at the border to America’s “reduced jobs, lower wages, overburdened schools, and hospitals that are so crowded you can’t get in.” He referenced San Diego and El Paso as being cities that were once violent, and now safe with the addition of physical barriers.
Trump also mentioned the prevalence of MS-13 within the country. “They almost all come through our Southern border,” he said.
Montoya said MS-13 members do enter through the southern border on rare occasions, but it is uncommon for CBP agents to make an arrest.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin is the ranking member on the Senate Subcommittee for Border Security and Immigration. He said nothing changed in Trump’s rhetoric. “If we’re waiting on him, we’re not going to get this solved,” he said.
Washingtonians alternately protest, celebrate the State of the Union
WASHINGTON – DC-area residents had very different reactions to President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address Tuesday night. But whether they celebrated or denounced the event, emotions were strong.
Around 40-50 people gathered at each of two intersections near the Capitol ahead of the address — far fewer than the 400 people who protested last year, according to Resist DC, the community action group that organized both years’ protests.
People lined the sidewalks along the streets that President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump cabinet members’ motorcades were expected pass by. They held homemade signs lit with string lights so they would be visible to government officials in their cars and chanted anti-Trump messages to music and drums.
Eileen Minarick, 70, said she was protesting simply “because the state of our union is terrible.”
Elsewhere in the city, local bar patrons gathered to drink beer, compete in presidential bingo and watch the State of the Union.
Grassroots activist group CODEPINK hosted a number of guest speakers, including actor Danny Glover, for a lively discussion before the main event. Topics ranged from the Bolivarian revolution to ending domestic violence.
Anita Jenkins, spokeswoman for Stand Up for Democracy, riled the crowd with a call to establish the District of Columbia the 51st state in the United States.
“The people of D.C. have no representation… We have nobody to speak for us,” she said. Modifying the words of America’s early founders, she said, “Taxation without representation is a rip-off.”
As President Trump appeared on the projector, shouts of disapproval rose from the bar patrons. The State of the Union 2019 had begun and the energy was energetic in its moroseness.
Across town, the atmosphere was also charged. Members of DC Young Republicans and Arlington Falls Church Young Republicans filled a restaurant for a celebratory viewing party.
“In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall… but the proper wall never got built,” said Donald Trump. He paused and then said, “I’ll get it built.” Hoots and hollers erupted in the bar and two girls were seen smiling and hugging each other.
Though Trump stressed unity in his national address, DC-area residents remained divided in their reactions.
2020 Candidates Alternate Cheers, Hisses to Trump Wall, Immigration Proposals during State of Union
WASHINGTON – Several Democratic 2020 presidential candidates expressed their displeasure with many of President Donald Trump’s policies during the State of the Union address Tuesday.
Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., could be seen shaking their heads when Trump mentioned controversial topics such as his commitment to building a border wall and the dangers of migrant caravans heading to the U.S. southern border.
Harris, who announced her candidacy on Jan. 21, shook her head and visibly mouthed, “They’re not,” as Trump said, “Large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States.”
In a Facebook Live address before the State of the Union, Harris told viewers, “It’s a moment for a president to rise above politics and unite the country with a vision that includes all Americans, not just the ones who may have voted for them. It’s a moment to bring us together.”
Early in the address, Harris was often reluctant to give Trump a standing ovation, asking her colleagues, “Really?” as they cheered the president’s comments about space exploration.
The candidates and their Democratic colleagues booed and hissed as Trump labeled the numerous investigations into his campaign finance and relationship with Russia “ridiculous partisan investigations.”
“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” he said. “It just doesn’t work that way!”
Democrats cheered later as Trump mentioned that women have filled 58 percent of new jobs in the past year. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has formed a presidential exploratory committee, pointed at the newly elected House Democrats, who stood up and chanted, “USA, USA.”
“I think he didn’t realize that all the female jobs he created were for [congresswomen],” Gillibrand said after the speech.
The Democratic candidates stood and applauded with everyone in the chamber when Trump recognized World War II veterans, a SWAT team member and a childhood cancer survivor.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., sat stoically as Trump denounced socialism. Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, is widely considered likely e to enter the presidential race. Unlike Sanders, Gillibrand and Harris stood and applauded as Trump said, “America will never be a socialist country.”
TRUMP STRIKES CHORD WITH WOMEN, FALLS FLAT ON BIPARTISAN BORDER WALL PITCH
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump got one of his biggest rounds of applause during his State of the Union address Tuesday night when he noted that Congress now has a record-high number of elected women, but it wasn’t lost on the crowd that when the women rose to cheer they were mostly on the Democratic side of the aisle.
“Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workforce than ever before,” Trump said as the women lawmakers rose to clap and celebrate. He then advised them “Don’t sit. You’re going to like this.”
“Exactly one century after the Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than at any time before,” he said. There were 117 women elected to Congress in 2018.
Bipartisan chants of “USA! USA!” filled the chamber as both the Democrats and Republicans broke into uproarious applause. Many of the Democratic women wore white and donned pins that read “ERA YES,” in a nod to the women of the suffragette movement.
Trump called his list of priorities “the agenda of the American people” in his second State of the Union address Tuesday, which was delayed a week because of the 35-day government shutdown, which didn’t end until the previous Friday. The address was the first the president has delivered before the new Democratic majority in the House.
The president remained on-script for the duration of the 84-minute speech and touted his administration’s achievements from the past two years. He also laid out several legislative priorities going forward, including a “smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier,” an infrastructure bill and the eradication of HIV and AIDS.
Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., was glad that health care was a topic in the speech, while Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., described the speech as “terrific.”
“We haven’t gotten that right when it comes to protection our citizens with pre-existing conditions, correcting all the problems and costs associated with the ACA,” French said. “I like that he kept an emphasis on that while also tackling the prescription drug process.”
For Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., laying out these broad initiatives wasn’t enough.
“I wrote down a number of initiatives — defense spending, cancer research, transportation, infrastructure — and never heard anything of how we’re going to pay for them,” he said.
The president also pushed his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and to reduce drastically the number of troops in Afghanistan.
Among Democrats, reactions were mixed as Trump highlighted his achievements. When Trump lauded the U.S. increase in gas and oil production, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has championed a Green New Deal to address accelerating climate change, remained seated.
Many Democrats applauded Trump’s push for a new infrastructure bill and decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who sat behind Trump with Vice President Mike Pence, was clearly following a printed version of the speech. She applauded when Trump mentioned criminal justice reform and bipartisan efforts on lowering drug costs and furthering women’s rights.
After praising a recent bipartisan effort to secure criminal justice reform, Trump shifted to a project he said would require the same bipartisan effort: a southern border wall.
“Simply put, walls work and walls save lives,” he said. “So let’s work together, compromise and reach a deal that will truly make America safe.”
However, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was not encouraged by the president’s attempt to strike a bipartisan tone.
“I just don’t think he is to be trusted,” she said. “This is not a president who is working for the middle class of this country.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said that while parts of Trump’s speech were good, he was too combative at times.
“There should have been more emphasis on the fact that the government was shut down and we all need to work together to bring it back,” he said. “Blaming the Democrats is not going to keep the government open.”
Freshmen members of Congress excited, disappointed at their first State of the Union address
WASHINGTON — Before attending his first State of the Union address, Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, D-N.J., felt a sense of excitement and joy, but also feared the president might once again fan partisan flames by rehashing controversial issues.
“I hope that right now, he doesn’t talk about closing the government again. I hope he doesn’t talk right now about declaring a national emergency. I would so much rather see that we try to work together and get something done. That requires flexibility on Democrats side as well. Both sides have to do this,” said Van Drew.
Partisanship is the reason the approval rating for Congress is so low, but issues like border security, and infrastructure deserve cooperation between the two parties, said Van Drew.
“Rather than just argue and disagree and investigative and be hurtful on both sides, maybe we can actually get something get done.”
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Chris Pappas, D-N.H.
Although having been full-fledged members of Congress for a little over a month, the freshmen class of senators and representatives still retains a “sense of awe” about the State of the Union address, said Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H. Pappas said he hoped Trump would strike a conciliatory tone with Democrats, allowing lawmakers to avoid a second government shutdown.
Pappas brought a transgender military veteran from his home state to hear the president as a symbol of his hope that Trump’s transgender military service ban will be lifted.
“That doesn’t make us any safer and in fact plays politics with the military,” he said.
In addition to passing social justice reform, Pappas said he would like Trump to speak about the opioid crisis, prescription drug costs and infrastructure — and Trump did.
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Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill.
In Illinois Rep. Sean Casten’s dreams, Trump’s State of the Union address would make climate change a priority, but said his expectations were low. Trump did not in fact mention the environment.
“Truth is what I hope he doesn’t say is what I fear he will say,” Casten said, “which is that he’s going to threaten to shut down the government again if he doesn’t get a wall.”
Casten’s guest was Julie Caribeaux, the executive director of Family Shelter Service, which receives federal aid and provides support for victims of domestic abuse. He said domestic violence victims are some of the “primary victims” of Trump’s rhetoric.
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Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y.
Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-NY, was hoping for a message of bipartisanship and unity, things that “the American people are calling for.” Trump did call on Congress to act together on many issues.
Brindisi’s top priorities this year are trying to find common ground with the Republicans on immigration reform, infrastructure and lowering prescription drug costs. On infrastructure, he said he specifically wanted to hear Trump’s ideas on investing in job training programs. Trump mentioned all the issues, but with little specificity except that he wants a border wall and enforcement to stop what he called “caravans of migrants” heading to the southern border.
“Those are things that I talked about during the campaign that many people back in upstate New York are calling for and those are things I hope he does say,” Brindisi said.
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Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev.
Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said she gets excited every time she walks onto the House floor, and Tuesday was no exception. Although there were parts of the speech she did not agree with, namely Trump’s insistence on a border wall, Lee said she appreciated the call for bipartisanship.
Lowering prescription drug prices, investing in infrastructure and a comprehensive border control strategy — these are all components of his speech Lee said she could agree with.
“These are all ideas I can get behind and they work together to produce some results for American families,” she said.
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Rep. Deb Halaand, D-N.M.
Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., said she was dismayed about Trump’s urgency regarding funding for a border wall.
“I wasn’t surprised. Let’s put it that way about the president’s speech. I mean, of course, we don’t want a wall,” said Halland. “He instilled fear and everybody about the danger, you know, the danger that’s coming across the border.”
Haaland hopes to focus on promoting awareness about climate change and wished the President would be more receptive to the diverse issues and people around the country.
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Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., said he enjoyed his first State of the Union in a historical sense, but wanted President Trump to address issues he feels are important, including raising the minimum wage and healthcare.
Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill.
He said while the president did mention lowering prescription drug costs, there was another area of healthcare that was not noted, such as the millions who do not have healthcare at all.
“He wrapped himself around a lot of patriotism and recognition of your courageous battles and victories and but in the end, I think he failed to address important things more,” Garcia said.
Post-SOTU Interviews with Illinois Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowski and Cheri Bustos
Our Alex Lederman sat down with Illinois Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowski and Cheri Bustos after the State of the Union to hear their thoughts on President Obama’s address.
Schakowski — Evanston’s congresswoman since 1999 — said “(Obama)’s vision of what makes our country strong was so human and so true.”
Bustos said Obama is focused on the future — our children and grandchildren — and working together to solve the nation’s problems.
Medill’s State of the Union night on social media
Medill on the Hill produces live State of the Union broadcast
WASHINGTON — It was the third day of reporting for the 21 students in Medill on the Hill. It also happened to be the day the president would deliver his final State of the Union address.
Months ago, buoyed by the excitement of the possibilities and the folly of youth, some of us came up with the idea of taking Medill on the Hill to a new level — producing live TV while also finding new ways of storytelling for the website and social media.
On State of the Union night, Jan. 12, the Washington web team led by Alex Duner and Celena Chong managed the flow of copy and constant web updates streaming in from reporters around Capitol Hill and elsewhere in D.C. There also was a constant stream of @medillonthehill tweets and snapchats as well as several Periscopes.
Tyler Kendall, Allyson Chiu and Shane McKeon were responsible for the main story, and Chiu said the experience was, “the highlight” of her journalism career.
“It was hectic, crazy and we were definitely all running on adrenaline by the end of the night,” she said.
Other reporters were assigned to stories on specific issues the president mentioned, or how local college students reacted to the speech. One even tweeted the speech in Spanish.
My task was to produce the Washington end of a live television broadcast.
Nine months ago Jesse Kirsch came back from 2015 Medill on the Hill with an idea for Carlin McCarthy, another producer with the Northwestern News Network, and me.
He said, with the optimism of a television anchor, that for the 2016 State of the Union we should produce a live broadcast with analysts at our home studio in Evanston and reporters in our D.C. bureau and on Capitol Hill. I said, with the skepticism of a television producer, that I thought he was crazy.
It took long nights, patience and a lot of support from the Medill faculty and staff, but we pulled it off.
Jesse opened the show in Evanston and before we knew it Isabella Gutierrez was doing a live hit from the Washington bureau. Then we were live in Statuary Hall with Noah Fromson, followed by a live report from graduate student Ryan Holmes on what to watch for just minutes before we streamed the live feed of President Barack Obama addressing a joint session of Congress for his final State of the Union.
We did a live interviews with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, wrote scripts while we counted down the seconds until they were read and gathered quotes from senators and members of Congress. Alex Lederman also provided quick-turn video interviews with two congresswomen.
Associate Producer Geordan Tilley, who interviewed Durbin, was nervous before the show, but she said she is proud of the Medill effort.
“I thought the show was some of our best work, Tilley said. “Especially considering how many firsts were involved, not the least of which was our first time going live.”
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Medill Today | October 15, 2024
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