Parents concerned over poor health impact on children caused by climate change

“I brought them into this world. And so it’s incumbent on me to make sure that this is a world worthy of them,” said Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.

Lawmakers and other advocates step up pushback over battle over DEI

Anti-DEI legislation is front and center at state levels, with bills taking aim at college campus policies.

Growing wildfire problem requires new response strategies, lawmakers told

“Our planet is on fire. It’s not just the western part of this country, our planet is on fire,” said Sen. Carper (D-Del.).

Sanders presses for 32-hour workweek in new bill and hearing

Sen. Bernie Sanders and others argue it is time to revisit century-old practices on the length of workweeks for American employees as technology advances.

Investment Firms Step Away from Chinese Tech Companies After Scrutiny

Lawmakers scrutinized investments in Chinese facial recognition and semiconductor companies connected to the Chinese government’s military and human rights abuses against Uyghur people. Many firms are now taking steps back from investments in China.

Latest in Politics

Supreme Court debates legitimacy of ATF’s ruling on bump stocks, dissecting definition of a law established during Prohibition

WASHINGTON –  The Supreme Court wrestled with how to interpret a 1934 statute during oral arguments on Feb. 28 in a case to determine whether bump stocks, used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, should be classified as machine guns. 

The justices wrangled with the National Firearms Act’s ambiguous definition of “machine gun” during Garland v. Cargill

“That’s the language we’re stuck with,” lamented Justice Brett Kavanaugh, acknowledging the act was originally passed as a direct response to gang violence during the Prohibition era. 

Bump stocks are defined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as “devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger.” The two sides diverged in their definition of trigger.

A bump stock harnesses the recoil energy from the initial trigger of a firearm, allowing it to continuously shoot without active intervention after the first shot.

In 2002, the ATF deliberated over a particular bump stock known as the “Akins Accelerator.” The ATF determined that under the 1934 statute, the bureau could not regulate the Atkins Accelerator because it required repeated pulls of the trigger to fire multiple shots. 

However, in 2006, the ATF revisited its ruling and determined that bump stocks that the Atkins Accelerator were machine guns. 

Since then, many different bump stocks have emerged, leading to several ATF rulings between 2008 and 2017 that many did not qualify as machine guns. 

After the Las Vegas music festival shooting that killed 60 people, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, the ATF under the Trump administration redefined bump stocks as machine guns. 

The decision exposed bump stock owners to criminal liability if they did not destroy or turn in the devices by March 26, 2019.

Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works, challenged the ruling when it went into effect in 2019. The federal district court sided with the ATF, contending that the ruling abides by the best interpretation of the statute. 

“The case is about whether or not the ATF have the authority to promulgate this rule, not whether or not it is constitutional under the Second Amendment to regulate bump stock,” Kelly Roskam, director of law and policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said in an interview with Medill News Service. 

“Those weapons do exactly what Congress meant to prohibit when it enacted the prohibition on machine guns,” attorney Brian Fletcher argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who represents the government. 

Fletcher maintained that it would be “irresponsible” for the ATF to overlook their previous judgment that bump stocks were not machine guns in light of the Las Vegas shooting. 

Cargill’s argument rested on the movement of the trigger back and forth between shots and the human intervention required to keep shooting. In contrast, Garland’s position hinged on the technicality that the shooter is no longer actively controlling the trigger after the first shot and thus is initiating a continuous cycle of fire. 

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit sided with Garland, judging that Congress willfully excluded trigger finger movement when constructing their statute. Cargill soon after appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. 

“The trigger is the device that initiates the firing of the weapon. A bump stock does not change the trigger in any way,” Jonathan Mitchell, attorney for Cargill, said during oral arguments.  

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson doggedly questioned Mitchell, homing in on the intent of Congress. 

“Why would Congress want to prohibit certain things based on whether the trigger is moving as opposed to certain things that can achieve this, you know, lethal kind of spray of bullets?” asked Jackson. 

Both Jackson and Justice Elena Kagan maintained that though the mechanisms may differ, a semi-automatic equipped with a bump stock and a typical machine gun have the same capability.

“At some point, you have to apply a little bit of common sense to the way you read a statute and understand that what this statute comprehends is a weapon that fires a multitude of shots with a single human action,” said Kagan.

Mitchell, however, continued to insist upon a difference between the function of bump stocks and that of machine guns. 

“It has a very high rate of fire, but it’s not automatically fired,” replied Mitchell.

If the court rules in favor of Garland, the ban on the ownership and transfer of bump stocks will remain in effect.

If the justices side with Cargill, Americans will be able to possess and purchase bump stocks unless Congress or state legislative bodies enacts new laws. 

“The ATF doesn’t have the power to make something a crime that wasn’t a crime before. It’s not a crime to violate the rule,” said Fletcher. “It has been and always will be a crime to violate the statute.”

Sen. Katie Britt projects contrast in taking aim at Biden’s State of the Union address

WASHINGTON — Republicans were ready with a forceful response to President Joe Biden‘s State of the Union address by having the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama deliver a message of concern.

“Our commander-in-chief is not in command,” Britt said. “The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader.”

Britt’s youth and background were aimed to project strong family values in direct contrast to the 81-year-old president. As a mother of two school-age children, she said she fears the American dream is disappearing for her children’s futures.

“The American family needs to have a tough conversation,” Britt said. “Because the truth is, we’re all worried about the future of our nation.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in an interview with Medill News Service before the address that Britt symbolizes a differing perspective of the party being a mother and one of six senators under the age of 45.

“She’s a hardworking person. She comes from a great state. I think she’ll do a great job,” Scott said.

Britt delivered her speech from her home in Montgomery, Ala., and raised skepticism about the president’s fitness and age.

“The country we know and love seems to be slipping away — it feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities, and less freedom, than we did,” she said in her 17-minute address. “I worry my own children may not even get a shot at living their American dreams.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said earlier this week that Britt is the only current conservative mother in the Senate.

Britt and Republican lawmakers continue to attack Biden’s re-election campaign and aim to mobilize other factions of the party.

After the rebuttal, social media critics, including conservatives, questioned Britt’s delivery and choice of anecdotes.

“I’m sure Katie Britt is a sweet mom and person, but this speech is not what we need,” Charlie Kirk, founder of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, wrote on Twitter. “Joe Biden just declared war on the American right and Katie Britt is talking like she’s hosting a cooking show.”

Former President Donald Trump, however, had strong praise for her. He wrote on his Truth Social platform that she “was compassionate and caring, especially concerning women and women’s Issues.”

There also have been mentions of Britt as a potential vice president candidate for Trump.

Britt’s comments hit on several of the issues that have driven Biden’s low poll numbers, including inflation and policies over the southern border.

As one of nine Republican women in the Senate, she was the third female in a row to deliver a response. Last year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the response, stating that Biden is “unwilling to defend our border, defend our skies and defend our people.”

“Mr. President, enough is enough,” Britt said. “Innocent Americans are dying and you only have yourself to steal your oath of office and reverse your policies in this crisis, and stop the suffering.”

Britt and other Republican lawmakers criticized Biden’s boasting about creating employment and the American economy being “the envy of the world” in his speech.

“A lot of the policy prescriptions that Joe Biden illuminated tonight are inflationary by nature,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told Medill News Service. “Like, ‘I’m going to stop inflation by giving everybody an extra 400 bucks.’ I think that defies basic economic theory.”


Published in conjunction with UPI Logo

Latest in Education

Ahead 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

How Biden made health care access, affordability priorities in State of Union address

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address to contrast his health care record with former President Donald Trump’s, touting his efforts to lower drug prices and urging Congress to expand access to reproductive freedoms.

Biden addressed the nation just two days after Super Tuesday primaries in over a dozen states, which set the stage for a likely Biden-Trump rematch in November. Here’s a look at the key health care issues the president highlighted:

Support for abortion, reproductive rights

During his address, Biden criticized Trump for rolling back women’s access to reproductive rights but avoided referencing him by name. 

“My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned,” Biden said. “He’s the reason it was overturned. In fact, he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has resulted.”

Biden called attention to the experience of Kate Cox, a Dallas woman who was forced to travel outside her home state of Texas to access lifesaving abortion care because of the Texas abortion ban. Cox attended the speech on Thursday as one of the guests of first lady Jill Biden.

In the months following the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, 14 states have made abortion illegal, and several others have imposed restrictions. 

Biden vowed to “restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again” if Congress passes a bill protecting reproductive rights — though it is highly unlikely that the Democrats could secure 60 votes in the politically divided Senate to overcome the filibuster that would stall the measure. 

Biden warned that many Republicans including Trump are “promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom,” but underscored women’s voting power, highlighting that reproductive freedom “was on the ballot and won” in the 2022 midterm elections. 

“With all due respect justices,” Biden said addressing the Supreme Court, “women are not without electoral or political power.” In an ad-libbed moment, Biden added, “you’re about to realize just how much,” in a reference to the hope that voters in support of reproductive rights would vote in strong numbers in the 2024 election. 

Protecting IVF

After the Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children, Biden called on Congress to guarantee the right to in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatments nationwide. He highlighted the experience of Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama, who had to put her “dream” of having a second child via IVF on hold as a result of the ruling. Beasley was also a guest of the first lady on Thursday.

The Alabama court decision triggered the temporary closure of three IVF facilities in the state. However, in the days after the court ruling, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law Wednesday shielding IVF providers in the state from potential criminal liability, but the issue of whether embryos should get legal protection remains an open question in many states that restrict abortion.

Earlier this year, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) introduced a bill protecting IVF at the federal level, but Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked the measure, arguing that it was a “vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far — far beyond ensuring legal access to IVF.”

“What (Beasley’s) family has gone through should have never happened,” Biden said. “And unless Congress acts, it could happen again.”

Keeping drug prices under control

During his address, Biden also took aim at Trump’s previous unsuccessful efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. By contrast, Biden noted that he successfully passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which allowed Medicare to directly negotiate prices of certain costly drugs lacking generic competition. His administration is for the first time negotiating directly with drug companies over the price of medications. The law also caps out-of-pocket yearly maximum prescription drug costs at $2,000 by 2025 and sets the maximum price of a vial of insulin at $35 a month for diabetic seniors on Medicare. 

Biden called on Congress to extend the insulin price cap to private insurance and to expand on his legislation by giving Medicare the ability to negotiate the prices of 500 drugs over the next decade. 

“With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big Pharma,” Biden said. “For years people have talked about it but I finally got it done,” he later added.

People with disabilities at high risk of unemployment

WASHINGTON — People with disabilities are still being excluded from gainful employment and are still often being paid below the minimum wage, lawmakers were told during a hearing on Thursday conducted by the Senate Special Committee on Aging.  

“It is time we stop thinking about how we can work and who can not work and instead start thinking about what we can all do to help all people with a desire to work and get employment,” said Lauren Avellone, an associate professor at the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at Virginia Commonwealth University “many of whom want to work and contribute significantly to our workforce.” 

Avellone noted in her written testimony that while 40.5% of individuals with disabilities were employed in January of 2024, it was “ alarmingly low” when compared to the 77.3% of people employed without disabilities. She recommended a number of changes, including eliminating so-called 14c certificates that allows companies to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage.

Senators also heard horror stories from people with disabilities. Erin Willman described how she faced hardships when looking for work after losing her vision at age 15.

“Time and time again, I faced rejection, due to the fact people could see all the things I could not do instead of the things I could do,” she said. 

After going to a local Office of Rehabilitation, she was told she was never going to find competitive employment. 

“This made me question my worth,” she said. 

But with the help of her family members, she became the founder and CEO of Coffee Cane Company, which now hires people with disabilities so that they can have the same opportunities as others.  

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said he is trying to pass a new law to help encourage companies to hire people with disabilities to work alongside those without disabilities. 

“People with all kinds of disabilities can work in a competitive integrated employment environment. It is shameful that people with disabilities are still being paid subminimum wages,” he said. “Thankfully, phasing out this discriminatory wage is a bipartisan priority.”

The proposed measure, called the Disability Employment Incentive Act, would expand three existing tax benefits to businesses that successfully hire and retain people with disabilities, Casey said.

According to Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), there are currently over 1.8 million business owners with disabilities in the U.S. 

“We must continue to support these entrepreneurial individuals so that they can expand and support their own businesses,”  he said.

Latest in Environment

Growing wildfire problem requires new response strategies, lawmakers told

WASHINGTON – With approximately 70,000 wildfires per year since 1983, federal agencies’ told senators on Thursday that emergency responses must be reformed to better aid impacted communities.

The threat of wildfires is immense. From injuries and deaths to property damage and toxic debris, the prospect of damage was not taken lightly by lawmakers and witnesses at Thursday’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing.

“The current system focuses on suppression and mitigation in rural and federal lands and what we have seen is that wildfires are now affecting very populated areas over the last ten years,” Christopher P. Currie, the director of Homeland Security and Justice at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said.

Wildfire relief is unique in that it is more costly compared to other natural disasters, Currie said. The soil becomes toxic, debris must be removed and while rebuilding after floods takes months, fire recovery can take years, he said. 

This is more complicated when discussing debris removal in places like Maui, Hawaii, where its 2023 wildfire was referred to as one of the deadliest of the century

Maui is not within the continental U.S. and has no landfills certified to house hazardous waste. Therefore, when the EPA helps with cleanup, it must ship the waste to licensed sites on the West Coast.

“The effects of these fires aren’t only physical danger and property damage. They also bring a host of health risks to our communities, even in locations hundreds of miles from the fire,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said.

The Canadian wildfires impacted several communities, he said. The fires knew no boundaries and turned skies across the East Coast and Europe an alarming hue.

“Wildfires can negate any improvement of air quality in a single incident,” Jamie Barnes, the director of Forestry, Fire and State Lands Department of Natural Resources State of Utah, said. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the federal agency responsible for mitigating the risks of wildfires and other natural crises. Peters said the goal of the hearing was to learn from witnesses what FEMA must do to more effectively address the problem.

One common thread throughout the remarks was the need to streamline agency efforts and encourage collaboration for more efficient solutions. Currie said that because different agencies sometimes have conflicting priorities, it is difficult to take cohesive action. 

One example of this is how the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s prescribed burns directly contribute to the air pollution that the Environmental Protection Agency seeks to limit. 

While the burns are known to prevent wildfires by removing debris, they also produce smoke that is unhealthy for lung and heart function. Barnes said Utah has taken particularly beneficial steps to balance these two factors. 

“If the clearing index is above 500, then we’re not allowed to do prescribed burning,” she said. But if there are long-term public safety benefits or they can see how prescribed burning will curb wildfire risk, then they are still able to take that action, given the clearing index is within range.

Once conflicting interests between agencies like the Forest Service and the EPA are taken into account and resolutions are reached, then they can work toward logistical solutions, like proactive planning.

Lori Moore-Merrell, an administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said it is essential to educate the public about how to produce more fire-resistant communities. And when the fires inevitably arrive, there will also need to be precautions in place.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) expressed concern that many of his constituents are angry and asking why the government is not doing a better job implementing preventative measures.

“FEMA and its federal partners and stakeholding partners are going to have to work together to figure out – before fires happen – what we’re going to do with survivors when they’re taking years to rebuild their homes,” Currie said.

The discussion focused mainly on community response and wildfire risk mitigation. According to Sen. Carper (D-Del.), though, the government must also address what is generating the fires in the first place.

“We have to address root causes and we all know what the root cause is: climate change,” Carper said.


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Senators hear ways to have companies curb plastic pollution, other waste

WASHINGTON – Senators on Wednesday heard from companies and nonprofit groups on effective ways to have producers take responsibility for packaging waste and other sustainability goals as they weigh legislation to curb pollution from plastics and disposable items.

The concept of putting the onus on manufacturers, known as extended producer responsibility (EPR), is explained by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition as requiring producers “to provide funding and/or services that assist in managing covered products after the use phase.” 

The ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), said in her opening statement that she wanted to ensure that policies being considered “are grounded in reality.”

Herbert Fisk Johnson III, the chairman and CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, which makes numerous consumer cleaning and household products like Windex and Ziploc, said he is a longtime conservationist who still sees the value of plastic as a versatile and cost-effective product. He also backs EPR initiatives.

“The challenge is reconciling those two perspectives,” Johnson said. He aims to “preserve many of the benefits that plastic has brought to humanity, while preventing the vast amounts of plastic that end up in landfills, or even worse, end up in the environment.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said he worried that the extra costs would potentially fall on low-income households, citing how there are various instances where regulation has raised costs for consumers.

Dan Felton, the executive director of AMERIPEN, a group that represents the North American packaging industry, pushed back and said the United States would see the best impact if producers absorbed some of the extra costs and kept prices the same.

“Packaging has value throughout its life cycle, and none of it belongs in roadways, waterways, or landfills,” Felton said. 

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) added that EPR is “just one aspect of the circular economy for plastic” and that lawmakers should also look at initiatives like recycling infrastructure investments, improved data collection and any other strategies.

EPR exists in some capacity in only a handful of states. According to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, while nine states have introduced legislation involving EPR for packaging in 2024, just four of those bills have passed: in Maine, California, Oregon and Colorado. 

Producers said they are facing barriers as a result of inconsistent state regulations. For example, Johnson’s company finds it difficult to comply when his packaging is shipped across state lines.

“The labeling law that’s part of EPR in California will prevent the chasing arrows symbol in most cases, whereas 30 other states have laws that mandate the chasing arrows,” Johnson said. “It would be impossible for us to comply with the law when you have that kind of labeling conflict.”

Federal standards would help address those inconsistencies, some witnesses said. Erin Simon, who used to work for the plastics industry but is now the vice president of plastic waste and business at the World Wildlife Fund, expressed frustration with the lack of federal action regarding single-use plastics.

“We can’t even get our small recycling bills through Congress, so how in the world are we going to be able to do something on a federal level at the scale that we’re talking about here?” Simon asked.

Johnson urged the senators to pass these regulations as soon as possible, saying there are benefits to early implementation that give the government more room to adjust policy over time.

“The sooner we get federal regulation and the more time given to meet goals, the more innovation can happen, the more you get economies of scale and you can mitigate the costs and inconvenience to the people that buy our products,” he said.

Simon also backed Johnson’s sentiment to move quickly.

This is a “huge untapped opportunity,” she said. “If we were to start today to transform our plastic linear economy into a circular one, we could save more than $4 trillion in direct environmental and social costs by 2040.”


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Latest in National Security

‘Putin will not stop at Ukraine’: Biden presses for more aid to Ukraine in State of the Union

WASHINGTON President Joe Biden didn’t waste any time mentioning his support for Ukraine during his State of the Union address on Thursday night, rallying Americans to move forward with aid. 

“My message to President Putin is simple,” Biden said. “We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.”

Within minutes of starting his speech, Biden highlighted how freedom and democracy are under attack, not only within the United States but globally. 

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” Biden remarked. “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not.”

Biden told lawmakers that Ukraine could halt Putin if the country continued to receive the weapons and resources to defend itself. More money for Ukraine has been a controversial topic on Capitol Hill for months after House Republicans delayed any funding bills, making it nearly impossible for Biden to send any resources. 

“Send me a bipartisan national security bill,” Biden said to lawmakers. “In a literal sense, history is watching.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), positioned behind Biden during the speech, shook his head as soon as the president mentioned the need to support Ukraine. 

Other Republicans, especially hard-right members of the House Freedom Caucus, have strongly condemned the latest supplemental foreign aid bill, saying it lacks attention to the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. They are criticizing Biden’s decision to begin his State of the Union speech with a foreign policy issue like Ukraine instead of addressing American needs first. 

“Joe Biden opened his State of the Union speech by talking about a foreign country, Ukraine. Americans are DYING every single day from Biden’s deadly open border policy,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote in a post on X minutes after Biden began his speech. 

The president often brought up his “predecessor,” former President Donald Trump, without mentioning him by name. He asserted that Trump had bowed down to a Russian leader. 

It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable,” Biden declared.

Trump, for his part, spent the night posting on his Truth Social account, hitting at Biden. He claimed it was Biden’s policies that allowed for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He said I bowed down to the Russian Leader. He gave them everything, including Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Explainer: What is the Uyghur Policy Act and who supports the bill?

WASHINGTON – The Uyghur Policy Act is one of Congress’s newest efforts aimed at fighting China’s oppression of the Uyghur people. The bill has passed in the House of Representatives, and activists are urging the Senate to act quickly on the legislation. 

What is the bill?

The Uyghur Policy Act, introduced by Rep. Young Kim (D-Calif.), is aimed at responding to reports of detention, sterilization and cultural erasure of the Uyghur people, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group from northwest China. 

“Chinese authorities have made use of the legal system as a tool of repression, including for the imposition of arbitrary detentions and for torture against members of the Uyghur and other populations,” the bill states. 

What policy changes would it make?

The Uyghur Policy Act seeks to use U.S. resources and agencies to preserve Uyghur culture and pressure the Chinese government to end the persecution. 

The bill would create a Special Coordinator for Uyghur Issues within the State Department “to ensure that department-wide resources are better coordinated to respond to the Uyghur genocide,” Kim said on the floor of the House earlier this month.

The Uyghur Policy Act would require the State Department to assign a Uyghur-fluent officer to a U.S. diplomatic or consular mission in China. This would allow greater access to Uyghur individuals in China and emphasize the U.S.’s dedication in the preservation of the Uyghur language.

The bill also encourages greater dissemination of information regarding allegations of Uyghur genocide, specifically to Islamic-majority countries. The legislation directs the U.S. Agency for Global Media to publicize information concerning Uyghurs. 

“We must now act to leverage the U.S. soft power, garner international support for Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, and equip the State Department with the tools it needs to better respond to Xi Jinping’s genocidal campaign,” Kim said.

Who backs the bill?

The Uyghur Policy Act passed on Feb. 15 with overwhelming support in the House, with only six Republicans voting against the bill. Its success in the House triggered activists to urge lawmakers to push the bill forward in the Senate. 

The Uyghur Human Rights Project sent letters signed by over 40 other advocacy groups to the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) – this week, urging them to schedule the bill’s markup quickly “given the urgency of the situation and the growing international concern regarding the plight of the Uyghur people.”

“Representative Kim’s bill includes valuable provisions to ensure the United States takes further steps to end atrocities faced by Uyghurs, and will push allies to do the same,” UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat said in a press release. “Uyghurs are grateful for Congressional leadership to push for stronger U.S. policies, and we urge the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to act quickly to move this critical legislation forward.”

What’s next?

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not yet scheduled a hearing to review the bill, but the bill is likely to gain support because of bipartisan support in both chambers to demonstrate that the U.S. is standing up to China.

Latest in Living

Supreme Court takes up the case involving a BMW, a robbery and blown deadlines

WASHINGTON – When is it too late for the government to provide notice that they are seeking forfeiture in criminal cases? That was the question at the heart of a Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday. 

The case arose after a federal jury in New York convicted Louis McIntosh in 2013 for violating multiple robbery and firearm offenses. A federal district court ordered him to forfeit $75,000 and a BMW he purchased with robbery funds. 

At the sentencing, the government was instructed to submit a written order within a week, as per the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The government failed to meet that time frame, instead submitting the order three years later for the money and car.

McIntosh sued and the case made its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices had a chance to revisit some of what they handled in their previous appointments to the bench. 

“When a preliminary order of [criminal] forfeiture is not entered as it should be prior to sentencing, then the government loses its right to forfeiture,” McIntosh’s attorney, Steven Yurowitz, argued. 

Several justices seemed skeptical that the time limits in the criminal code were mandatory.

Referencing her experience as a district judge, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that courts are usually flexible. “They set a fixed deadline. Something you can know and meet without discretion being involved.” 

The Supreme Court has a precedent to rely on: In Dolan v. United States, the high court decided that a restitution order was valid despite it being submitted after the 90-day deadline as spelled out in the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. 

That case “recognized what I’ll call a ‘better late than never’ rule in complying with congressional directives,” Justice Neil Gorsch said. 

In that decision, made in 2010, the Supreme Court outlined three types of deadlines: “jurisdictional rules” which are strict and can’t be overlooked; “claims processing rules,” which regulate timing but can be waived; and “time-related directives” intended to keep cases timely but are not absolute.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked whether the latest case had a deeper procedural error that needed a high court ruling. She pressed Yurowitz on whether a missed jurisdictional deadline should face consequences. He replied that a defendant is subject to sentence even though the government missed its deadline.

Chief Justice John Roberts raised hypotheticals about forfeiture timelines that a defendant could face in their sentencing. 

“In this case there was no order entered until three years after,” Yurowitz responded. “Forfeiture  is an element of sentencing and there’s an element of finality to it.” 

Assistant to the Solicitor General Matthew Guarnieri argued that both the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit and federal district court offered the defendant notice of the forfeiture, and he had the opportunity to contest it before the sentencing process. 

“The second circuit itself established that there was no prejudice to the defendant here,” Guarnieri said. 

The justices asked whether they may violate the claim processing rule they set forth. 

“I don’t think the court needs to address it,” Guarnieri said. “In general, the rule here contemplates that the court will announce the forfeiture as part of imposing sentence on the defendant and if the court purports to act after sentencing… then we have a harder set of issues.” 

A decision in the case is expected to be issued by June.

Photos: Martin Luther King Jr. peace walk commemorates a legacy of equality and justice

WASHINGTON- Attendees in Washington D.C. celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a fervent peace rally followed by a parade that echoed the principles of equality and justice that the civil rights figure championed. 

The heart of the commemoration lay in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Peace Walk, held on the federal MLK holiday, which drew “peace walkers” from diverse backgrounds, all united in the pursuit of peace.

Organized by the Coalition for Peace, a group of individuals and nonprofits dedicated to fostering peace and positivity within Washington D.C. metropolitan communities, the Peace Walk has become a symbol of unity and a call for social change.

“It’s a beautiful day today,” said DeJuan Mason, the MLK Peace Walk co-chair. “This celebration involves being an active part of this event, giving back, and amplifying voices.”

The Peace Walk commenced with chants, “No freedom, no peace!” The powerful slogan echoed across Martin Luther King Junior Avenue, in earshot of those who still struggle for equality and transforming the Peace Walk into a moving tribute and a collective call for action.

This year, a distinctive element was added to the event. Participants who had tragically lost loved ones to gun violence carried signs with photographs of their departed family members. As they walked in solidarity, the signs sent a powerful message: “Stop the violence.”

“This year, our focus is on stopping violence, seeking justice, and empowering youth to speak truth to power,” Mason said. “We have a community that loves one another and comes together, embodying Dr. King’s dream right here.

Here are images from the march:

Peace Walk participants honor Dr. King’s legacy. (Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

Peace Walk participant with a hat that reads “Stop the War on Black America!” (Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

Families affected by gun violence in America come together for a moment of silence to honor their departed relatives. (Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

Peace Walk participants honor Dr. King’s legacy. (Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

 

(Rafaela Jinich/MNS)

Latest Business

A ‘comeback story’ for American manufacturing

WASHINGTON — President Biden boasted his administration’s infrastructure investments — with an emphasis on clean energy projects — in his State of the Union address to the nation Thursday evening.

In his opening remarks about the economy, Biden noted his administration had created nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs, with more to follow in 2024.

He touted his commitment to domestic manufacturing, a priority of his since his election to office, as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Build America, Buy America provisions.

“Buy American has been the law of the land since the 1930s,” Biden said. “On my watch, federal projects like roads, bridges and highways will be made with American products built by American workers, creating good-paying American jobs.”

He rooted his accomplishments in Belvidere, Ill., where Biden backed the United Auto Workers labor union in revitalizing and converting the Belvidere Assembly Plant into an all-electric facility. A nearby $3.2 billion battery factory will manufacture materials for the vehicles.

The president said infrastructure investments like these are part of America’s “comeback story.”

“Instead of watching auto jobs of the future go overseas, 4,000 union workers with higher wages will be building that future here in America,” Biden said.

These are just two of 46,000 projects the president promoted last night, aiming to modernize roads, bridges, ports, airports and public transit systems. Most projects have a clean-energy focus, with his administration hiring at a rapid pace to meet demand and slow climate change.

Biden said his clean-energy policies have attracted $650 billion of private sector investments in advanced manufacturing, making progress on priorities such as installing nationwide EV charging stations.

“I’m taking the most significant action on climate change in the history of the world,” Biden said. “I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030 and creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs.”

Dogecoin case argued at Supreme Court, importance questioned by justices

WASHINGTON — Justices seemed poised to remand Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski to the Ninth Circuit Court – a case related to a $1.2 million Dogecoin giveaway in 2021. The lawsuit originated from a claim that Coinbase – a cryptocurrency exchange platform – did not specify that a purchase was not required to enter the giveaway. 

Liberal-leaning justices questioned the framing and scope of the case while conservative justices seemed more interested in the parties’ purpose for bringing the case to the Supreme Court and were eager to return it to the lower court. 

“Can we just remand and say that’s for the Ninth Circuit to — to figure out in the first instance?” Kavanaugh said. “And if we do that, are we done?”

In 2021, to stimulate the purchase and sale of Dogecoin on its platform, Coinbase held a $1.2 million sweepstakes giving away the cryptocurrency to users. To enter the giveaway, users were led to believe that they had to “buy or sell $100 or more in DOGE on Coinbase.”

However, per the official rules of the sweepstakes, there was “no purchase necessary” to enter or win, with an alternative mail-in entry option being available. After being led to believe that they had to purchase Dogecoin to enter the giveaway, David Suski and three other users filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, Inc.

“If Coinbase’s digital ads had made clear to Plaintiff that there was a 100% free entry option, then Plaintiff would not have given Coinbase his $100, or paid Coinbase any commissions to acquire Dogecoins,” Suski’s initial putative lawsuit against Coinbase said. 

After the suit was filed, Coinbase wanted the dispute to be resolved through a third party, citing an arbitration provision in the Coinbase user agreement. The official rules of the sweepstakes, however, stated that the California state and federal court system have “sole jurisdiction of any controversies” related to the giveaway. 

Now, with these two contracts overlapping, the Supreme Court is deciding if the sweepstakes’ agreement affects the delegation clause in the Coinbase User Agreement. 

“In this case, the Court is asked to resolve whether the effect of a second contract modifying the first has any impact on the delegation clause,” Jay E. Grenig said in an American Bar Association preview of the case.

The case was brought before the Supreme Court after the Ninth Circuit Court ruled in favor of Suski’s party in 2022. That case affirmed that the official rules of the sweepstakes hold greater effect than the Coinbase User Agreement because they apply to all entrants of the contest, “including entrants who are not subject to the User Agreement because they used an alternative mail-in procedure.”

In the briefing of the case, however, both parties agreed that the Ninth Circuit Court did not come to a proper ruling on the case. In the argument, Coinbase argued that the Ninth Circuit failed to apply the FAA’s severability framework and Suski’s party argued that the “existence and formation part of the Ninth Circuit’s analysis was wrong.” 

Considering this, some justices, primarily Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, questioned why the case was brought to the Supreme Court in the first place. 

“Why didn’t you just go to the arbitrator to get a quick answer?” Justice Gorsuch asked. “Why litigate it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States?”

Liberal justices were more concerned with the scope of the case and how much deferring from delegation clause precedents may impact other arbitration agreements. 

Judge Sotomayor was the most concerned about the impact of rule changes to delegation clauses. Coinbase’s party, however, claimed they were not asking “to create any federal rules.”

“These are huge changes,” Justice Sotomayer said. “You are now creating a whole set of federal rules on what constitutes a superseding agreement or not.”

Suski’s party is also seeking a putative class action lawsuit against Coinbase for damages related to the 2021 sweepstakes.

The Court will decide the case by June.


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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.”

Members of Herndon-Reston Indivisible, a group created to resist President Trump's policies and elect Democrats to office, held lit-up letters spelling “Fraud” and “Yuge Liar.” (Ester Wells/MNS)40-50 protestors were stationed at each of two points along 3rd Street NW in Washington, D.C. (Ester Wells/MNS)Protestors waved Russian flags as they waited along the sidewalk. (Ester Wells/MNS)A protestor held a lit-up sign as he shouted the words. (Ester Wells/MNS)Eileen Minarick, 70, said, “I don’t feel I’m protesting Trump. I’m protesting the policies of his administration, which are inhuman.” (Ester Wells/MNS)(Ester Wells/MNS)Police cars and officers patrolled the streets surrounding the Capitol, many of which were blocked off to both vehicles and pedestrians. (Ester Wells/MNS)Patrons don pink stickers and resistance apparel as they listen to activist speakers and wait for President Trump's State of the Union address to begin  (Brooke Fowler/MNS)Sitting in front of the projector, a stray star is caught on actor Danny Glover's face as he prepares to educate attendees about the conflict in Latin America. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)Co-founder of CODEPINK, Madea Benjamin addresses the crowd as other speakers converse with audience members. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)The classic pairing of wine and board games is at every table, except with a twist. In order to ‘survive the night’ patrons mark a square every time President Trump utters a common saying. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)Violence against women must end, said Chad Smith, a trainer with nonprofit organization Men Can Stop Rape. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)All eyes are trained on the screen as Trump enters the House Chamber for the State of the Union address. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)Grinning, a man in a Make America Great Again hat listens as President Donald Trump announced “I will get it built” in reference to a southern border wall at a local Young Republicans watch party. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)A sign welcomes members of the DC Young Republicans and Arlington Falls Church Young Republicans. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)Members of Republican organizations gather around as President Trump continues past expected time in his State of the Union speech. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)The scene is more mellow downstairs, where a few recluse bar patrons chat with each other as the television screens broadcast in synchrony. (Brooke Fowler/MNS)

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 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.”

 

 

 


 

Medill Today | March 14, 2024