Too many people have let themselves be sidetracked into looking for a connection between Trump and the violence of Jan. 6. But that evidence is unnecessary because the crime here is the end result — the intended disruption of the House electoral vote-counting. And from every document, news report or tell-all book we have seen, that is precisely what Trump tried to do. Simply because he told the world about his corrupt intent does not make it any less illegal.

Or take Stephen K. Bannon. He regularly declares on his podcast that the current “regime” (which includes everyone from the left to rigidly centrist Democrats) is illegitimate. This justifies his own defiance of the lawful investigation into an effort to overturn U.S. democracy and acts as a rallying point for his far-right insurgency. Bannon is only offering a cruder, more explicit version of what that Fox trio serves up regularly.

Musk, of course, is the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, two businesses at the forefront of innovation. Time's announcement of Musk as its pick for the title began by describing him as "the richest man in the world." What's even worse, Musk has discouraged other people with resources from helping their fellow human beings in need. It's also abundantly clear that Musk is not a man in need of further attention. Join us on Twitter and FacebookWe can all be interested in futuristic advances without venerating boy-men like Musk whose personal behavior is anything but exemplary.

NEW YORK — Russia on Monday vetoed a first-of-its-kind U.N. Security Council resolution casting climate change as a threat to international peace and security, a vote that sank a years-long effort to make global warming a more central consideration for the U.N.’s most powerful body. The council has occasionally discussed the security implications of climate change since 2007, and the wider General Assembly pronounced itself “deeply concerned” about the issue in 2009. Their envoys said the issue should remain with broader U.N. groups, such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adding climate change to the Security Council’s purview would only deepen global divisions that were pointed up by last month’s climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, the opponents said. “What the Security Council needs to do is not a political show,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said.

You can picture the headline now, and it’s not a good one:Hundreds of homes lack running water near one of Arizona’s wealthiest cities. Homes with no wells or connections to a formal water system have been allowed to proliferate in Rio Verde Foothills, a 20 square-mile strip of county land northeast of Scottsdale. The city has decided to stop water-hauling services to non-residents in 2023, leaving potentially hundreds in Rio Verde high and dry if they cannot secure another water source before then. Rio Verde residents are fighting about what to doRio Verde residents estimate that about 700 of the 2,100 who live there rely solely on hauled water. That may prove easier said than done – partly because residents are fighting over how to secure water, and partly because there aren’t many available supplies to secure.

Oregonians have been nothing short of relentless when it comes to voting for real and progressive change. Oregonians have been forced to accept mediocre public policymaking for so long that I’m not sure if they know what change looks like. That legislation has no doubt resulted in people getting re-elected, but the program still awaits implementation and tens of thousands of Oregonians will miss out. We have a real opportunity for transformative state policy. I hope we don’t miss it.

On Dec. 15, 1971, the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Oregon’s wild herds have also been targeted with the brutal helicopter operations this year, with herds being reduced to just a fraction of their existing size. The federal government is commemorating the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act by repeatedly and brazenly violating its mandates, removing wild horses and burros, animals beloved and cherished as symbols of our nation’s heritage, from western public lands to benefit wealthy and powerful livestock companies. The anti-wild horse rot runs so deep in the bureau’s Wild Horse and Burro Program that the logical way to reform the program is to fire its staff from top to bottom, and start over from scratch. That would certainly elicit a celebration worthy of the act.

About Amelia Robinson:New opinion editor seeks community conversationsWe wrote every article in pencil and drew photos and cartoons with crayons and scented magic markers for the first and only edition of the "Amelia Times." She was one of the biggest role models of my life and probably has no clue. Columbus Conversation series:'We have a housing crisis in Greater Columbus.' Amelia Robinson column:Public needs to know details of Ma'Khia Bryant's life and death while in our careWhat is your favorite Greater Columbus tradition? Your subscription supports work like thisAmelia's work and all the journalists at The Dispatch rely on the Greater Columbus community's support to put out essential news, commentary, analysis and more.

Try refreshing your browser, or Women, interrupted: The right way to be rude at work Back to video Rebecca Reid: I was appearing on a television show alongside a comedian. Article content Photo by Supplied FP Work: I think a lot of women want to say this a lot. FP Work: Your book is divided into chapters titled by so-called rude women such as Princess Margaret, Tallulah Bankhead and Meghan Markle. RR: Women in particular spend a lot of time and energy trying not to be “rude” all the time. Here's how to cultivate it at work FP Work: I confess I’m guilty of a whole lot of “sorries” and “justs” in my emails.

China marks 84th anniversary of Nanjing MassacreAP, BEIJINGChina yesterday marked the 84th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed by Japanese troops in and around the former Chinese capital. Troops, students and 3,000 attendees then stood at rigid attention to observe a minute of silence. Addressing the gathering, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan (???) said they had came together to “learn from history and open up a new chapter of our future.”Students hold flowers while commemorating the victims of the Nanjing Massacre at a mass burial site in Nanjing, China, yesterday. Photo: APThe ceremony aimed to “showcase our lofty commitment to a peaceful development path,” said Sun, the only woman on the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo. In 2014, China’s top legislature designated Dec. 13 a national day of remembrance for massacre victims.

Tikhanovsky is now one of hundreds of political prisoners thought to be held in Belarusian jails. Among them is protest organiser Maria Kolesnikova, who was found guilty of crimes including plotting to seize power and jailed for 11 years in September.

The song, featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid, begins from the perspective of someone calling the hotline and saying they want to end their life, Logic told Genius. “I don’t wanna be alive,” the first chorus begins. The second chorus channels the voice of someone on the other end of the phone, saying: “I want you to be alive … now let me tell you why.”

Pfizer said it has submitted the results to the Food and Drug Administration. Searching in Kentucky: Crews are combing through the debris after dozens of tornadoes whipped through the South and Midwest over the weekend. An NPR reporter joined recovery efforts in Kentucky, where at least 74 people were killed and more than 100 remain missing. ? Also on Up First, our daily podcast, abuse survivors reach a settlement with USA Gymnastics and the Olympic committee. — The Morning Edition live blog team(Carol Ritchie, Rachel Treisman, Nell Clark and Chris Hopkins)

Enter email address Sign Me Up You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting and the latest action in Sacramento. Although Northern California saw multiple huge fires, including the 960,000-acre Dixie fire, the state’s second-largest on record, Southern California did not. The Los Angeles Review of Books was conceived more than a decade ago during a dark period for the print literary ecosystem. (Los Angeles Times)In honor of today’s unofficial international Monkey Day, here’s a shot of a monkey caught looting a lunch basket in 1936.

County governments inherited much of the state’s responsibility for mental healthcare several decades ago but have seldom been up to the task. Opinion Editorial: Improve mental health care before forcing it on people It’s time for critics of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act to reconsider their approach to the state’s dire mental health crisis. The state and counties have to find a way to provide ongoing mental health care. They argue that it’s time to swing the pendulum in the other direction — away from self-determination and toward health, care and human dignity. Changing laws to enhance human health (including mental health) and dignity should certainly be on the table.

Television will not be kept down. Given the ongoing emergency — not the destruction of American democracy, the other one — the medium produced an impressive number of first-rate programs in 2021, bearing no mark of the straitened circumstances under which they were produced. Nearly all also treat the pandemic as a thing of the past or some other reality entirely. Whether this is good social policy is hard to say, but it’s surprisingly easy to get used to this unrestricted other world, where people go about their business in unmasked, relaxed close quarters. As always my list includes only programs that debuted in the past year.

In the game of chicken with vaccine-hesitant parents, L.A. schools are the losers. We don’t want to isolate tens of thousands of kids again unless it’s absolutely necessary for public health and safety. Hundreds of L.A. Unified staff lost their jobs by refusing to get vaccinated. AdvertisementOpinion Editorial: Now’s the time to mandate vaccination for public school students Teachers and other school staff have to be vaccinated. But L.A. Unified should be better prepared in the coming months to enforce a vaccine mandate to keep students, staff and their families safe.

2021 has been a bad year for disasters: Drought. Our Masters of Disasters reflect on the year and offer a bit of hope on apocalyptic issues such as the coronavirus, the environment and wildfires. AdvertisementHost: Gustavo ArellanoGuests: L.A. Times earthquake and COVID-19 reporter Ron Lin, wildfire reporter Alex Wigglesworth and coastal reporter Rosanna XiaMore reading:The American West went through climate hell in 2021. But there’s still hopeMore than 400 toxic sites in California are at risk of flooding from sea level riseNewsletter: We write about environmental calamity. Here’s what gives us hope

Two wrongs don’t make a right, governor. Three months ago, Gavin Newsom understandably railed against a new Texas law that undermines abortion rights and allows any private citizen to enforce it in court. Yet, on Saturday, Newsom said he would work to create a modified assault weapons law premised on the same despicable legal tactic. The Texas law was specifically drafted to evade federal court review. There’s work to be done reducing the deadly impact of assault weapons in California.

Nearly two-thirds of us believe that children growing up today will be worse off financially than their parents. We are seeing that on an ad hoc basis in a phenomenon some are calling the “great resignation.” A record number of workers quit their jobs in 2021, spawning a worker-driven labor shortage. Also this year, more than 20,000 janitors across the state in my union fought for and ratified a new contract. The Gallup organization, which has since 1936 periodically polled Americans on how they rate labor unions, found in September that support for unions is now at its highest point since 1965. David Huerta is president of Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West.

Garrick McFaddenopinion contributorI had the opportunity to hear secretary of state and candidate for governor Katie Hobbs give a speech that many Arizonans have been waiting for. Last month, a jury found, for the second time in three years, that Adams was discriminated against in the way she was terminated by – among others – Katie Hobbs. After that first verdict, many Black Democrats, including me, were shocked and angry to learn about Secretary Hobbs’ role in this matter. I’ve seen Hobbs work to convince our Republican governor to remove the Confederate monuments from our Capitol grounds (even when removal was unpopular). Garrick McFadden is an attorney and former vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party and co-chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party’s Black Engagement Committee.

Denver experienced this in the Nov. 2 election, when voters passed Initiative 301 and defeated Initiative 302. The proponents of Initiative 302 manufactured a message that the voices of Park Hill were being suppressed by voters across the city. As one of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods, Park Hill is naturally integrated with a proven record of fighting for equity and equality. Yet, if you saw the campaign material from the proponents of Initiative 302 you might believe that Park Hill is inhabited by racist bullies. He failed to understand that Black people live in Park Hill and like any other race or culture, are not monolithic in their viewpoints.

It was uncharted territory.”Nguyen was among the more than 8,270 Denver Public School students awarded scholarship money from the Denver Scholarship Foundation since the fall of 2007. Nguyen discovered DSF through her Abraham Lincoln High School counselor who encouraged her to get involved with the foundation. Donors, grants and the Prosperity Denver Fund — a .08% sales tax increase Denver voters approved in 2018 to boost college enrollment and degree completion — keep the foundation operating. She worked as a DSF adviser at John F. Kennedy High School — her alma mater — mentoring students. He works with students at the Fred N. Thomas Career Education Center Early College, North High School and West Campus.

By Josh WallaceDan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless AllianceQ: Having to deal with a global pandemic over nearly the past two years, how has your company changed with the challenges the pandemic brought? During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Homeless Alliance completely changed our operations in order to continue providing services while limiting the spread of the virus. The pandemic also added to the challenges we faced this past winter with the October ice storm and the February deep freeze. Through it all, our staff consistently demonstrated their commitment and flexibility to meet the evolving needs of our community. As an organization we recognize that we need to offer more and better opportunities for our staff to feel appreciated.

In 1977, the Myanmar military launched a national drive to register citizens and drive out people they deemed to be “foreigners”. “Facebook turned away while a genocide was being perpetrated,” claims Tun Khin, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. This meant that, for many in Myanmar, Facebook was the internet. That was three years ago, but it was only this week, after being notified about our legal actions, that Facebook announced it was closing further military regime accounts. Major international oil giants have planned production-sharing initiatives with the Myanmar regime within the Rakhine basin.

At a time when America is bitterly divided, democratic institutions are challenged at home and abroad, and the Supreme Court shows signs of joining politicians in suffering from declining public esteem, Chief Justice John Roberts is offering a strong warning to the Supreme Court, the American Bar Association and the nation about the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution. In the latest decision surrounding the controversial abortion law in Texas, Roberts, joined in this opinion by the three liberal justices of the Court, offered a strong dissenting opinion against key aspects of the majority opinion. The principles behind the Roberts dissent in the Texas abortion rights case raise fundamental legal questions about whether individual states can nullify constitutional rights decided by the Supreme Court, and whether the Supreme Court will lose its unique place as the guardian of constitutional rights and face increasing public disapproval. As the Supreme Court appears to act more political, its approval rating has fallen significantly, to 40 percent in a Gallup poll. If a Supreme Court majority proceeds on the course that Chief Justice Roberts warns against, it would be a national tragedy, a constitutional disaster and a scandal with incalculable legal and political consequences.

In the years that Donald Trump served as president, platforms faced frequent calls to remove his accounts. his power has arguably only increasedIf you believe social networks were a primary source of Trump’s power, it follows that removing him from those networks would lessen that power. And yet in nearly a year since Trump was removed from those networks, his power has arguably only increased. But in a larger sense, it’s clear that deplatforming Trump did little to improve the underlying political situation in this country. But the future of tech and the future of democracy are inextricably linked.

Not all EOTP were dissidents: simply belonging to the petite bourgeoisie often led to a trip to the gulag. In 1939, 1% of census respondents and 2% of gulag inmates had university degrees. Save for nine special EOTP camps, political prisoners were mixed in with common criminals. After the Soviet Union broke up, the number of registered firms also grew unusually fast near former camps with lots of EOTP . It might have comforted EOTP to know that their human capital has outlived the gulag by six decades.

Michael O’HanlonOpinion contributorCan it really be true, at this date in 2021, that large-scale war in Europe is again possible? Why are about 100,000 Russian troops massing near their country’s border with neighboring Ukraine – a country with which Russia shares a close history, religion, culture and previous membership in the Soviet Union? And most of all, what can the United States and allies do about the situation?

Obviously you’ve got powerful individuals who were prodding at the culture wars for their own reasons, like Trump- — people who knew they could utilize the culture war for their own ends. Social media gave a voice to voiceless people, and suddenly marginalized communities had a way of expressing what had been bubbling up inside, and they didn’t have an outlet for it before. Even if that means allowing the most offensive language to flourish unencumbered, even if it means allowing lies to flourish unencumbered. You’ve written so much about social media and the culture wars. Most culture war stories are partisan, and they’re all about making the culture wars flare even more, but if you’re taking the anger out of it then there’s space for curiosity.

As 2021 elections are demonstrating, traditional blue-collar, Hispanic, and rural Democratic voters are beginning to abandon the party. Though the new law does not allow illegal immigrants to vote, the arguments being used to justify it will easily apply to them. With Republicans gaining ground in municipal races, special elections and 2021 gubernatorial races, they are projected to take the House in 2022. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPThe trend in 2021 special elections bears out the bad news. Though states are unlikely to openly permit illegal immigrants to vote, they don't need to.

But coups and the states of emergency that follow them have long driven authoritarian history. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gave the presentation, which retired Army Col. Phil Waldron circulated to Trump's inner circle, to the House committee investigating Jan. 6. (After an unanimous vote in the House subcomittee Monday night, Meadows is now one step closer to contempt charges.) In fact, some states of emergency, which are meant to be temporary, can stretch on for years. A failed coup often begets a successful one, and we may yet find ourselves hearing about a trumped-up "national security emergency" like the one outlined in Meadows' PowerPoint.

“The extra tax revenue that longer work lives generate could help to alleviate the rising cost of old-age benefit spending. ”Let’s hope not, since longer work lives would have many benefits for an aging America. Meanwhile, in fiscal terms, the extra tax revenue that longer work lives generate could help to alleviate the rising cost of old-age benefit spending. Nor should it even be for them to work longer. More: While many are looking for work, some older workers are jumping at the chance for a new startAlso read: This is why Congress needs to act on Social Security — right now

For decades, Bob Dole wouldn’t talk about the war wounds that left him with crippling disabilities. He never regained the use of his right hand, and his right arm was virtually useless. The most infamous example of Dole throwing a low blow came during his 1976 vice presidential debate with Democrat Walter Mondale. Dole richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man tonight.”Later, Dole admitted he’d overreached and displayed his familiar self-deprecating humor. But Dole won the nation’s respect — and deserved it by acclimation.

Because a pet is truly “the gift that keeps on giving,” it’s important that the animal you choose is a good match for its soon-to-be guardian. A pet is a major commitment of time and resources, and not everyone is prepared to take on that responsibility. High-energy dog breeds — even small ones — won’t be a good match. Many animals prefer to be the only pet in the home, and can become aggressive when forced to share their space. • Is the pet’s temperament a good match?

Buying rooftop solar panels and a system to store extra power costs about $40,000, according to the solar industry. California now has 1.3 million solar systems on homes, far more than any other state, according to the solar industry. That number will only grow because since 2020 all newly constructed homes in California must have solar panels. But as solar panels proliferated, and the cost of installing them went down, criticism of the program grew. The changes would apply to new solar customers, but the new charges would be phased in over four years.

I see too many uneasy parallels between what was happening nearly 200 years ago and what is happening now. I see this country on the verge of another civil war, as the Calhounian impulse is reborn. In some ways, the abortion battle now being waged in the courts is a test case. Can the states make an argument that a civil right can be reversed on the state level? Can they make the case that all that the Constitution has not explicitly spelled out should be reserved for the states?

approves an over-the-counter version, it will be effectively saying that women with underlying health risks who choose that option will have to do their own research on how the birth-control pill would interact with their condition and any other medications they are taking. to make the switch to an over-the-counter version, and have been in communication with the agency about their plans. But after years of preliminary trials to clear the agency’s research and consumer-testing hurdles, neither has reached the stage of applying yet. defenders say that by asking many questions and demanding rigorous testing, the agency is being prudent about assessing the potential health risks of making the pill available without a prescription. But frustrated supporters of the switch are critical of the agency’s prolonged pre-application process — which at certain points requires F.D.A.

Like cities across the country, Newark—New Jersey’s biggest city, with a population of 311,000 — has seen homelessness worsen during the pandemic. The nonprofit that the city contracts with to do homeless outreach, Bridges, has tallied 1,366 people who have spent an unsheltered night so far this year. He created an office of homeless services last year and appointed a former Bridges official, Sakinah Hoyte, to be the city’s homelessness czar. It was in the context of these new programs that Ms. Hoyte sent out a “public feeding letter” on Nov. 19 announcing an outright ban on giving food to homeless people in public areas. “Feeding people in parks doesn’t encourage any sort of transitioning folks into housing,” Ms. Hoyte said in an interview.

Tobin and others familiar with the proposals said Biden officials can also draw upon lessons learned from the U.S. effort to resettle more than 70,000 Afghan evacuees through Operation Allies Welcome. While the use of military bases is not likely to be an option for housing asylum seekers, the co-location of federal agencies at a single site and the nondetained status of the Afghans are similar in concept to the reception center model.

To end the hysteria, public health officials must communicate effectively accurate, metric-driven data with advice (not mandates) on risk reduction strategies, rather than media-hyped conjecture. To end the hysteria, public health officials must communicate effectively accurate, metric-driven data with advice (not mandates) on risk reduction strategies, rather than media-hyped conjecture. Also, Americans shouldn't be getting public health updates from Big Pharma. Health officials should allow this coronavirus to become seasonal, like the many other respiratory viruses Americans live with. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFuture actions should focus on reducing COVID hospitalizations while permitting mild illness to circulate.

That has become a significant question in defamation lawsuits filed by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems Corp against Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. That is the standard of “actual malice,” which public figures must prove in order to prevail in defamation cases. A representative for Fox Corp and lawyers representing Giuliani and Bartiromo did not respond to requests for comment. Other Fox News coverage after the election refuted those claims, as did two Murdoch-controlled newspapers — the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. In legal filings and court hearings, Fox News has asserted that actual malice hinges on the state of mind of the individuals who made the claims about the election.

But other evidence suggests Trump’s appeal is becoming more selective — to borrow a term from Spinal Tap. Sen. Lisa Murkowski may have a tough reelection fight ahead of her, but Murkowski, not her Trump-backed opponent, will have the support of the national Republican Party. And, of course, there was the big GOP victory in Virginia last month, led by gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin. Now, it’s easy to tell the opposite story — that Trump remains the leader of the Republican Party and the presumptive nominee if he runs. Ron DeSantis for not publicly declaring he won’t run for president if Trump does.

But we talked about how it was good that she and others had shared it with parents, school administrators and law enforcement. We were reminded yet again a few weeks ago what happens when complacency reigns and threats are dismissed in a school setting. My daughter's texts from Friday offer a glimpse into the life of a high school student in 2021. While investigating that threat, deputies found a second, unrelated post of concern by another student. The pistol, a magazine loaded with 15 live rounds, and an extended magazine loaded with 27 live rounds were found in a small bag left on the bleachers in the school gym.

Michael Stinziano and Erica C. CrawleyGuest columnistsAs your Franklin County auditor and county commissioner, we know there are older homeowners in our community who have trouble paying their property taxes. Historically, with the help of private donations, this program provides one-time, emergency help for qualifying residents with paying property taxes. Another program that can help older homeowners pay their property taxes is the Homestead Exemption, which exempts part of a home’s value from taxation. It would go a long way toward making the Homestead Exemption a more effective program for many more Franklin County residents. Erica C. Crawley is a Franklin County commissioner.

When I think twister, I think destruction and darkness. The longer I live, the more I become aware that in the midst of the darkness, there is light. But darkness is not evil, and light is not good. This Yule season is a time of darkness — and of light. Who or what brought light into your darkness?

School teachers duked it out for the one-dollar bills to pay for classroom supplies. Why were public school teachers battling each other at a hockey game for much-needed funding that should be coming from the state and federal governments? Rural states with Republican governors, like South Dakota’s Kristi Noem – a Trump favorite – tend to underfund their public school systems. On a practical level, it’s important too – many public school systems struggle to retain young teachers. Instead, members of Congress could actually consider carving off a large chunk of that cash for the public schools of America.

Try refreshing your browser, or The Capitalist Manifesto: Free markets won in the Cold War, but threats like wokeism are rising Back to videoAdvertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content That left a lot of people feeling unfulfilled and in search of sources of meaning and purpose. As we now know 30 years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, he was fortunately wrong: liberal capitalism ultimately prevailed. Article content Capitalism may even be more susceptible today to such a threat. Article content The goal should instead be to strengthen a sociopolitical architecture that fosters a culture of freedom, choice and broad-based opportunity.

Russia human rights: Top court set to rule on dissolving prominent NGORussia's Supreme Court reconvened on Tuesday to hear a request to shut down Memorial, the country's most prominent rights group and a pillar of its civil society. In court for alleged violations of its designation as a "foreign agent", Memorial is facing its biggest threat since it was founded by Soviet dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, in 1989.

Advertising Read moreThe 182-page report published on Monday says that on Sept. 9-11, 2020, police in Colombia committed a “massacre” against civilians in low income neighborhoods. Taxi driver Javier Ordoñez died that night from his injuries. According to evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch, police in Colombia could be implicated in 25 of those deaths. Monday’s report calls on the Colombian government to reform the country’s laws so that municipal governments have greater control over police forces. The report also calls on Colombian prosecutors to investigate the role that high-ranking officers may have had in the violent response to the protests in September.

What you may have not realized, however, is that there is a bitter partisan battle brewing for control of the F.D.I.C. that may determine whether your bank survives, whether a financial crisis wipes out your savings and whether presidential elections matter for financial policymaking. The fracas erupted last week when the three Democratic members of the F.D.I.C.’s five-member board of directors voted to request public feedback on the agency’s approach to analyzing bank mergers. On this score, the Democratic directors have a strong case. Robust antimonopoly rules were embedded in the F.D.I.C.’s founding legislation and acts of Congress passed in the 1950s and 1960s.

For the vast majority of Americans, democracy ends when work hours begin. Most people in this country are subject, as workers, to the nearly unmediated authority of their employers, which can discipline, sanction or fire them for nearly any reason at all. In other words, Americans are at the mercy of what the philosopher Elizabeth Anderson calls “private government,” a workplace despotism in which most workers “cede all of their rights to their employers, except those specifically guaranteed to them by law, for the duration of the employment relationship.” With few exceptions — like union members covered by collective bargaining agreements or academics covered by tenure — an employer’s authority over its workers is, Anderson writes, “sweeping, arbitrary and unaccountable — not subject to notice, process, or appeal.”If “private government” sounds like a contradiction in terms, that is only because in the modern era we have lost an older sense of government as an entity that, as Anderson says, exists “wherever some have the authority to issue orders to others, backed by sanctions, in one or more domains of life.” The state, then, is simply one kind of government among others, albeit one with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. For most of human history, the state itself was essentially private; few individuals outside of the ruling class had any standing to question its decisions or demand accountability for its actions. The extent to which the state is public at all is, as Anderson notes, “a contingent social achievement of immense importance,” the result of a centuries-long struggle for “popular sovereignty and a republican form of government” such that the state is now “the people’s business, transparent to them, servant to their interests, in which they have a voice and the power to hold rulers accountable.”

As inspiring as he was humorous, Bob Dole was a giant in the GOP and in service to his country. Bob Dole joins a camp of numerous Americans who vigorously sought the Presidency with varying success, from Hillary Clinton to Kentucky’s own Henry Clay and Happy Chandler. In defeat, Bob Dole never shied away from public service, often helping his opponents, even after his own loss. Sen. Bob Dole's final column: 'Too many of us have sacrificed too much'So again, how will history remember the losers? Bob Dole lost.

The global vaccine price ranges from $2 (for AstraZeneca) to $37 per dose, with mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna the most expensive. Donor countries would thereby fund guaranteed volumes of vaccines from manufacturers to supply low- and middle-income countries. Not only is it way off track, millions of vaccine doses donated to African countries have passed their expiry dates and have either been sent back or destroyed. In April 2021 the WHO established a Covid-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub to try to speed up global manufacturing. Likewise, the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, unanimously endorsed by the UN human rights council, calls for “business enterprises … to comply with all applicable laws and to respect internationally recognised human rights”, and describes the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by businesses through policies, regulation and adjudication.

Russian court considers closing top rights group MemorialRussia's Supreme Court reconvened on Tuesday to hear a request to shut down Memorial, the country's most prominent rights group and a pillar of its civil society. In court for alleged violations of its designation as a "foreign agent", Memorial is facing its biggest threat since it was founded by Soviet dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, in 1989. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Commentator Douglas Herbert tells us more.

extremely capable of destroying the country on his own, but as senior advisers, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner frequently helped things along. According to the Religious News Service, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s book offers a “detailed account” of the 45th president’s “infamous Bible photo op at St. John’s Church in June 2020,” which, it turns out, was reportedly Ivanka’s idea. “The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens,” Senator Ron Wyden tweeted. “The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division,” episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde of St. John’s wrote. “The president used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities.” A senior White House official told Axios, “I’ve never been more ashamed.

With real-time data analytics, that future has arrived, and it is an important shift. In the light of real-time data and pattern analysis, brands have a clear lens through which to make decisions. With a proper approach to purpose and values, supported by that necessary real-time data lens, businesses have a template for action in all circumstances. Achieving this goal means embracing chaos, but also seeking to discern order through the use of real-time data analytics. It also means embracing brand purpose and using corporate values as a template to enable rapid decision-making as new situations present themselves.

This fall, MIT joined the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), a Boston-based statewide organization that works to advance the economic well-being of Black businesses, organizations, and people in the Commonwealth. MIT is addressing President Reif’s charge to grow purchasing with Black-owned businesses and also addressing our strategic DEI priorities. Black Expo, where she had an opportunity to meet with Black business owners and entrepreneurs and learn about the goods and services they provide. “We’re working together to strategize how to bring diverse suppliers to MIT and bring more MIT purchasing opportunities to them,” Lo says. Our goal is to bring forth tangible business opportunities with Black business owners that serve the range of purchasing needs at MIT.”

Although Kentucky bore the brunt of the storms, several other states sustained damage as tornadoes ripped through parts of the South and the Midwest, leaving behind loss and destruction on a scale difficult to fathom. There were at least six deaths in Illinois, all at an Amazon warehouse, and at least four in Tennessee.

In those small number of overrulings, the court has almost always expanded constitutional rights, not constrained them. None involved the kind of wholesale gutting of a recognized right of the kind that’s at stake in Dobbs. Today’s Supreme Court right wing, which was constructed almost deliberately to create a majority capable of undoing Roe, seems far more ideologically minded. To understand the significance of what it would mean to wipe a constitutional right off the books altogether, two concepts are foundational. The sleight-of-hand points to the second foundational concept at stake: what it means to recognize—or obliterate—a constitutional right in the first place.

It found that 20 countries have moved toward authoritarianism from 2016 through 2021, nearly triple the number that moved toward democracy during that time. Democracy is slow and deliberative, process oriented and, as a result, capable of manipulation by special interests that exploit information asymmetries. And advocates of democracy have done a lousy job of proving the superiority of their system. The real problem may well be that democrats no longer believe in the superiority of their system or the need to protect those rights. It will take more than a summit of democracies to re-instill that faith and that commitment.

Added: 14.12.2021 1:17 | 15 views | 0 commentsA Texas auto magnate has been indicted on charges that he paid a purported former Israeli soldier and two ex-Marines $750,000 to kidnap and kill a former

Added: 14.12.2021 0:58 | 31 views | 0 commentsThe president stopped short of blaming global warming for the deadly storms that ripped through four states. But he emphasized the tornadoes’ extreme violence and ordered his team to get more definitive answers.

Why my grandfather's story haunts the U.S.-Iran relationship to this dayAdded: 14.12.2021 1:17 | 15 views | 0 commentsHis murder scarred my family and shocked the world. It also exacerbated the deep political break between Washington and Tehran.

Photo: nightnurse images, Philip Montgomery, Brian Finke, Getty Images, Kelly Marshall, Daniel GaliciaIn 2021, New York City came stuttering — then roaring — back to life, and how (and where) we live and get around became our central preoccupation once again. In this year’s list of Curbed’s most-read stories, readers wanted to know: Where did all the yellow cabs go? We Staked Out Eric Adams’s House in Brooklyn Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty Images, Kevin Dugan, Willy Blackmore And he came home. Why Your Uber Ride Is Suddenly Costing a Fortune Photo: Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images A driver shortage, customer surplus, and harsh financial reality. Surfside Towers Broke Building Code From the Beginning Photo: Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images “Flawed from day one,” reads one report.

Photo: Joan MarcusI spent the morning after seeing Flying Over Sunset the same way I assume everyone else did — surfing Wikipedia. Like Huxley, Luce (the dazzling Carmen Cusack) is also in mourning. At one point or another, characters will raise their divisions on issues of public morality or war, but they’re hushed by Gerald. Step drag step drag. We learn early in the production that a trip, like a dream, is a private experience, full of the mind’s rich colors.

He’s a visionary who has created such innovative companies as Tesla and Space X when doubters saw only Mission Impossible. Time has some mumbo-jumbo about how we’re in a brave new world and the mercurial Musk somehow matches the post-pandemic moment. But it has to be acknowledged that his rocket company reinvigorated space travel, pioneering the reusable rocket, before Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson got into the game. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPBut you can see why Musk makes for colorful copy, which proved irresistible to Time. No way Time was going to pick Donald Trump, even with the caveat that the choice is about impact, good or bad.

CartoonistDavid is an editorial cartoonist and has been with the Star since 1986. He's won many awards and his cartoons are syndicated to over 700 clients worldwide. He was President of the Tucson Press Club for a decade in the 90s.

Rachel Maddow points out that not only was an exception to the filibuster made for raising the debt ceiling but two weeks ago an exception was made for a random Republican amendment. If exceptions are so simple, what was all that fuss for months about the filibuster being too sacrosanct to tamper with? Dec. 14, 2021

Efforts to reduce smog during next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics could hurt industrial production.

Poor People's Campaign in the nation's capitalMARTINSBURG, W. VA.—After decorating their cars with messages and holiday streamers, hundreds of Poor People’s Campaign activists descended on D.C. today in yet another show of support for President Biden’s Build Back Better social programs expansion legislation. Several days before the car caravan, the five leaders of the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign—including West Virginia native and longtime union organizer Stewart Acuff–demanded Manchin stop ducking meetings and explain his stands to the PPC face-to-face. There was one “virtual” meeting in February, via zoom, and none since, despite repeated demands, rallies, and town halls in West Virginia. We are the 187,000 children living in poverty in West Virginia and the more than 108,000 people without health insurance. 75% of West Virginia voters see the importance of the job creation potential of the Build Back Better Agenda.

He has spent the last several years talking with and documenting the circumstances of people who are homeless. He works with advocacy organizations, including the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, to find participants. When I moved to Chicago, the homelessness in a big city is in your face every day. Jeffrey WolinWith my portraits, I started working with the leader group [of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless], which includes people who have been homeless but are no longer homeless. They're not on the street; they're living with a grandma or an auntie or friends, and that's how they're getting through.

The regal lions of astrology certainly have innumerable traits that deem them worthy of our worship, but knowing Leo zodiac signs’ biggest weaknesses helps us know them in an even more holistic way. Glamorous Leos don’t like to be criticized, so when it comes to breaking down Leo zodiac signs’ biggest weaknesses, perhaps we’re better off calling them “growth points” instead. Either way, knowing the full spectrum of Leo zodiac qualities qualities can help you better understand the zodiac on the whole — especially if you’re trying to learn more about your personal planetary placements or get closer to the Leos in your life. Lo, and Kylie Jenner are all Leos — so diva behavior is basically built into this zodiac sign’s cosmic DNA. The Leo tendency to try to keep up with the Joneses and follow trends can make them come off as shallow or clout-obsessed.

She doesn't know how to explain to him that that they have no home to go to. She doesn't know how to explain to him that that they have no home to go to. On the phone, Victoria Byerly-Zuck begged her neighbors to search the wreckage for the one thing she could not bear to lose. The 35-year-old was surrounded at this makeshift shelter by others who lost everything when a deadly tornado tore apart their small town of Mayfield. She doesn’t know how to make him understand they don’t have one anymore.

A spending proposal in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan would deny funding for students who choose to attend private-sector career colleges rather than public community colleges. “We think it’s unfair and it’s unjustified,” said Dr. Jason Altmire, president and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Career Education Colleges and Universities. That would be a troubling break from traditional education grant funding, which has always followed the student, critics say. Career college students are also disproportionately people of color. Data show career colleges have a median completion rate that is twice as high as public career colleges.

Argentina agreed last month to hear a case against the Myanmar military involving the treatment of the minority Rohingya under the principle of “universal jurisdiction.” This principle holds that severe crimes can be tried in any jurisdiction. “There are universal jurisdiction provisions in different jurisdictions around the world," Polak said. "But the Argentinian one is the most realistic because the courts are actually able to use it. And they are very keen on using it because of their own history. The U.S. government and parliaments in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada have declared that Beijing’s policies against the Uyghurs amount to genocide and crimes against humanity.

Missouri legislators who oppose legal abortion are preparing an aggressive list of bills for the 2022 General Assembly that convenes in January. Proposals include requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion and raising criminal penalties for illegal abortions, The Kansas City Star reports.

Planas said the military ballot issue is the one area where Holness might have an argument. However, he said, it doesn’t appear to make a specific enough allegation to avoid getting dismissed. Also, he said, a case cited as precedent in the Holness lawsuit makes clear that even if the Canvassing Board was incorrect, Holness would have to prove that the board abused its discretion. “Whether or not the Canvassing Board was right or wrong in not counting the ballots isn’t the issue. It’s whether the Canvassing Board abused its discretion.”

The presence of the primaries for governor, along with congressional, state legislative and county posts will make it much more difficult for any candidate in a single race for Congress to attract as much attention as they did when when nothing else was on the ballot. All that political noise will also make it more expensive for candidates to reach a potentially larger pool of voters.

Ross BarkanRoss Barkan is a contributor to the Nation and a Guardian columnist. His debut novel, Demolition Night, was published in 2018.

Fresno Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula is considering a congressional run, multiple sources tell GV Wire. A spokesperson for Fresno City Council president Luis Chavez says he is also considering a congressional run. The most recent city financial reports shows more than $74,000 in his city council account. And, if Esparza decides to run for Assembly, that would create an opening for the District 7 Fresno City Council seat representing central and east Fresno. The proposed congressional seat would include portions of 22nd Congressional District, currently represented by Devin Nunes, R-Tulare.

LOCO HILLS, N.M. — At the diner she manages in the heart of New Mexico’s oil country, Joni Moorhead talks to roughnecks all day long about potholed roads, cramped lodging camps, soaring rents — and state politics. “I’d load up my guns for the fighting if we could just secede and join Texas,” said Ms. Moorhead from Loco Hills, population about 125. “They love the money from our oil up in Santa Fe. But they treat us like dirt .”Ms. Moorhead, 42, may sound more extreme than most. A frenetic oil boom is laying bare this divide, while suddenly lifting one of the poorest states in the country into the top ranks of global oil producers.

After launching a search for a progressive candidate to rally behind, LUPE Votes found their candidate for U.S. House District 15 in a young entrepreneur who co-owns one of the most prominent businesses in the Rio Grande Valley. Instead of seeking reelection to his current seat, Gonzalez is now running in neighboring U.S. District 34 after District 15 became more competitive. LUPE Votes reached out to Vallejo along with other community organizers informing them of their search for a progressive candidate through their “We the Pueblo” campaign. In addition to co-owning Los Portales, she also co-owns Hustle + Socialize, a women’s entrepreneurship conference held in San Antonio once a year. “When I think of Los Portales I also think about why I’m running for Congress,” she said.

Democratic State Senator Pam Jochum will not be a candidate for governor in 2022, she confirmed to Bleeding Heartland on November 1. The longtime senator from Dubuque seriously considered the gubernatorial race in recent months. In a written statement, Jochum said she had been “humbled by the outpouring of support” for a potential candidacy. Jochum did not endorse any other contender but expressed her best wishes to those seeking to make Reynolds a one-term governor. Other Democrats who have not ruled out the race include State Auditor Rob Sand and U.S. Representative Cindy Axne.

An old formula of comedy asserts; tragedy plus time equals comedy—aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show? They have taken what usually would be comedic figures, elevated them, and turned the country’s fortunes into tragedy. In response to an anti-Arab/Muslim bigot, John McCain, vying for the presidency against Barack Obama, said, “No, ma’am. If it were not so tragic, a party in the thrall of a liar, someone less than an intellectual, without principles and legendarily dishonest, would be funny. McConnell reasons, the left will destroy America: “You pass the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, you have fundamentally changed this country, fundamentally changed it into an unproductive place with significant unemployment and huge problems,” McConnell said.

He could, today, end student debt for everyone, forever. The average student loan payment is just shy of 400.00 per month. If you are someone with 30,000 in student loan debt, you are paying about 7% interest on that debt, and your payment is about 350.00 per month. Black students owe an average of 25,000.00 more in student loan debt that white people. This was President’ Biden’s campaign promise — "Forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities and private HBCUs and MSIs for debt-holders earning up to $125,000."

Growing up, I remember learning a song in grade school with the lyrics, ”This is my country, land of my birth. This is my country, grandest on earth.”Until recently, I fervently believed the lyrics were true. As a country and with every individual who selfishly thinks that their rights to do what they please supersedes everyone else’s, I am worried about the threat to our democracy. How do we get people to understand that sometimes, one must do what’s right for the majority? Get the vaccine, let everyone vote, read the Constitution and understand its true meaning!

I have been saying for a while now that I don’t see how blue states and blue enclaves will allow themselves to be ruled by a Republican death cult and their compliant Supreme Court. How they are replacing local and state elections officials with cult members who would overturn free and fair elections. And now we have a Republican dominated Supreme Court that is corrupt and illegitimate. The Republican Party is a cult. It’s time for blue states and blue enclaves to separate from the cult and form our own union.

So Fox dispatched their White House wanker, Peter Doocy, to annoy Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Does the President think that’s good governing?" x Doocy: We’ve seen an arsonist burn down a half a million dollar Christmas tree in New York City back on the streets. Does the President think that’s good governing? Fox News is still obsessing over the torching of their beloved fake Christmas tree by a mentally challenged homeless man.

A New York Times opinion piece yesterday sounds the SOS on what is blatantly clear to all of us: The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere on earth. But the truth is that we are already living in a world that is being transformed by climate change. That is the idea behind “Postcards From a World on Fire,” a major project from Times Opinion that published this morning. “Postcards” presents a stunning overview of how climate change is impacting each of the 193 United Nations countries. If you are a Times subscriber or haven’t yet met your free monthly limit, this one is a haunting immersive experience.

Our current Christmas Wrapping Paper stockpile. I went to where we keep our wrapping paper — our Attic also multasking as Mr. Brillig’s Office — and brought down our supply. You also need to have heavy duty paper for wrapping weird-shaped things, the kind that doesn’t rip through the minute you’re wrapping something not box-shaped. Some years it’s coded by wrapping paper, meaning a lot of patterns are needed. Do you even use wrapping paper, or are you a gift bag afficianado?

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday means that anyone who assists in providing an illegal abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy can still be sued. He then quoted from Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s strongly worded dissent in which the liberal justice went all the way back to the tumultuous pre-Civil War era. At its Dec. 1 hearing on whether to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated that he felt states had the right to choose what restrictions they wanted to place on abortion rights. Blow then wrote that it’s not just women who might need abortions, and their relatives and friends, who should be worried about what’s happening with these abortion cases before the Supreme Court. I see this country on the verge of another civil war, as the Calhounian impulse is reborn.

x NEW: the FULL house will vote on criminal contempt tomorrow for Meadows. The committee hearing and vote on Meadows are tonight at 7 PM EST. — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 13, 2021x Also, Meadows sent an email saying the National Guard would be there to PROTECT PRO TRUMP PEOPLE. 2/ pic.twitter.com/Y7VGSftCM6 — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 13, 2021x Note the several pages explaining the due diligence & good faith efforts the committee employed to give Meadows every opportunity to comply. pic.twitter.com/9EyWKJ8r0i — Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) December 13, 2021x Trump supporters flooded into DC on 11/14 and 12/12.

We’re not the stereotypical hapless millennials the right-wing loves to depict us as; people are literally getting their Social Security checks garnished over student loan debt. https://t.co/RraYkkzijw — Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) December 11, 2021x Today is a great day for @JoeBiden to cancel student loan debt. Student loans repayments start January 31st, 2022.”Me: pic.twitter.com/hQvIgcH1KZ — Ken™?? (@__ItsKen_) December 9, 2021x Biden I just got a email about my student loans. They telling me the payment pause on student loans ends at the end of January. I swear you told us you was canceling student loan debt.

It turns out the coal baron senator might have personal reasons for scuttling anything that might impede the sale of coal? In the news today: At least 800,000 Americans have now died of COVID-19, and topping the 1 million mark now looks almost certain. Sen. Joe Manchin has long hidden behind claims that his coal wealth was tucked away in a "blind trust"; it now seems the Maserati-driving senator's blind trust isn't as "blind" as he had previously claimed. In the probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection, every new document to emerge has told the same story. Inside the Trump White House last January, Trump, his allies, and other Republican leaders were drafting plans to nullify the last election rather than abide Trump's loss.

Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121"Rob Kall's book Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution is both a welcomed manifesto and a guide for rethinking the power of human agency, understanding the connections that both make us human and legitimate human planetary relations. Moreover it is a powerful call for providing the ideas, social practices, and relations that make human connections possible, enable them to work together from the bottom up, and to transform such connections into a powerful movement in which people take control of their lives and create a better future for everyone." Henry Giroux, Director of the McMaster Centre for Research in the Public Interest, author of Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism, America?s Education Deficit and The War on Youth, and dozens more.

There are now two videos available of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) telling a made-up story of encountering Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a Capitol Hill elevator. This assessment could not be further off base; Boebert knows exactly what she is doing. To Boebert and her base, these representatives are not fellow Americans but people "who want to destroy our country." Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action.

The United States went to war to liberate the world from fascism and tyranny. World War II was a foreign tragedy with a happy American ending. Maybe Looking for the Good War will nudge some people in a good direction, and they won't stop there. Samet does a good job of exposing some of the worst myth builders as concocting fairy tales. Samet is also good at debunking the troop-focused propaganda of more recent years and wars.

Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Over the years from the fall semester of 1964 onward, I took five courses from Father Ong at Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university in St. Louis, Missouri. Ong characterized his mature thought from the early 1950s onward as phenomenological and personalist in cast. In his mature work, he never tired of invoking Martin Buber's famous book I am Thou (1923). By invoking Buber's 1923 classic, Ong signaled the personalist cast of his thought.

Election recall efforts have recently become firmly entrenched in the political playbooks of the right. This year, in Colorado alone, 10 Democratic state legislators are now facing recall efforts. School board members in San Francisco are also facing recall, as is Los Angeles City Council member Mike Bonin. In the country as a whole, Ballotpedia is now tracking recall efforts against more than 200 school board members — an all-time high. Ballotpedia is now tracking recall efforts against more than 200 school board members — an all-time high.

The New York Times published an article last week under the headline, “Schools are closing classrooms on Fridays. The Times article conceals this fact and tries to paint a picture of working mothers up in arms over the difficulties of making last-minute child care arrangements to protect their jobs. There would be virtual school only. After the article appeared, Detroit parents and educators responded with disgust. It can be done well!”While Heyward excluded any voices of teachers from her article, educators quickly expressed their opinion on the DPSCD page.

Anger has exploded across the internet and among educators following a “Dash for Cash” spectacle staged among teachers at a hockey game in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last Saturday. South Dakota teachers at "Dash for Cash" spectacle (Twitter/Annie Todd)A local business, CU Mortgage Direct, sponsored the stunt, arranging to dump a $5,000 cash pile in the middle of the ice rink. The teachers’ schools also participated in providing an audience, receiving $5 for every ticket they sold. But you know they were in the stands making wagers on who would win.”South Dakota teachers are among the lowest paid in the country. It has recently come to light that South Dakota is one of the world’s most lucrative tax havens.

It is not the vaccines, but American capitalist society, which has failed to meet the test of the pandemic. The COVID vaccines were presented as the ultimate weapon against SARS-CoV-2 that would end the pandemic once and for all and allow the world to return to normal. However, any illusions that somehow the vaccines would bring the pandemic to heel have since been shattered. The original WHO criteria for COVID vaccines set the bar at 50 percent. This is on top of the current total of close to 150,000 COVID deaths in the UK.

This is the significance of fascistic presidential candidate José Antonio Kast traveling to United States at the beginning of December. José Antonio Kast giving press conference (source: Mediabanco Agencia)Very little has been revealed as to the content of the discussions. Over the last three years, the National Intelligence Agency has been revamped to combine military, security and public order divisions, permitting vast intelligence gathering operations. José Antonio is the son of Michael Kast, a Nazi officer who participated in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s genocidal war against the Soviet Union. Through the ballot box Kast proposes a police state and authoritarian regime.

The World Socialist Web Site published yesterday a detailed analysis of China’s Zero COVID policy that demands careful study by anyone who wants to understand what must be done to end the pandemic. The “dynamic zero” policy of China is a confirmation in practice of the viability of a policy aimed at eliminating SARS-CoV-2. There is enormous popular support for the Zero COVID policy, which expresses a level of social solidarity and consciousness that does not yet exist in the United States and Europe. The dilemma that China itself confronts is that the effort to maintain a Zero COVID policy in one country is, in the long term, unsustainable. A common reaction that the WSWS has received from the submission by the scientist is surprise at both the success of China’s Zero COVID policy and its broad popular support.

Jared Polis, who liberated himself from the “forever COVID” mentality that has gripped far too many lawmakers. Jared Polis declared that “public health [authorities] don’t get to tell people what to wear” in response to mask mandates. Hochul ordered a new indoor mask mandate in New York this week amid rising COVID-19 cases. More counties should take their lead, and more state officials and reporters should ask Hochul: What exactly do we stand to gain through this mandate? Polis, unlike Hochul, understands that the state cannot play the role of your parent, telling you where to go or what to wear.

But the AFT argues confusion around the law is inevitable. For example, the lawsuit says that a teacher could not be sure whether it was legal to teach students that affirmative action policies, which treat people differently based on race, were adopted because of the historical, and even contemporary, advantages that job or college applicants have when they are White.

Kristi Noem said Monday she has drafted legislation to create a moment of silence at the beginning of each day in South Dakota public schools, a move she said would restore protections for prayer in the classroom. Students and teachers can can engage in voluntary prayer, reflection, meditation or other quiet, respectful activity during the minute of silence, the bill states. The bill’s draft said the moment of silence should not be construed as a religious exercise. The bill isn’t Noem’s first attempt to introduce religion-inspired ideas into public schools. In 2019, she successfully required the national motto “In God We Trust” be displayed in all public schools, sparking a national debate and drawing criticism from groups like Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck its region of East Nusa Tenggara, the meteorological department said. The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 1,000 k.m. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake posed no tsunami threat to Japan. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre estimated the magnitude at 7.7, placing it at a depth of 5 k.m. PHOTO GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Try refreshing your browser, or Alberta government to delay some of controversial new school curriculum as it makes revisions Back to video “We’re getting to the end of this year and the new school year will come up very quickly and we can’t keep waiting,” Schilling said Monday. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Physical education and wellness studies will now include financial literacy, which was previously part of the draft social studies curriculum. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Monday signed a recently passed bill that repeals city ordinances making it illegal to possess 35 grams or less of marijuana. “Enforcing stringent marijuana laws diverts our police resources from addressing the most violent crime,” Jones said at a news conference in the City Hall rotunda before signing the bill. {{featured_button_text}}The measure also states that the smell or presence of marijuana no longer can be sole probable cause for search and arrest. The bill also prohibits police from enforcing state and federal laws against possession of small amounts with certain exceptions. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.

This is the Dec. 13, 2021, edition of the 8 to 3 newsletter about school, kids and parenting. I spend much of the summer months in Los Angeles obsessively monitoring air quality apps and just waiting for November to arrive. Prolonged exposure to air pollution is bad for everyone but especially children, whose growing lungs and immature immune systems are more sensitive to pollutants, experts say. I spoke with several air quality and pediatric lung health experts about how parents can reduce their kids’ exposure to air pollution year-round. If you don’t already, you should start monitoring the Air Quality Index (AQI) in your area.

With the midterms less than a year away, both parties are scrambling to find an electoral strategy. Do Republican voters want Donald Trump to continue to play a role in their party? Experts explain how Donald Trump's presence impacts the GOP and how Republicans that are distancing themselves from Donald Trump might approach the elections.

Share this Story: Maxwell's 'black book' will not be released at trial after judge warns against 'needless' name-droppingMaxwell's 'black book' will not be released at trial after judge warns against 'needless' name-dropping It was thought the phone directory would be a powerful piece of evidence in the trial, revealing the names of prominent figures in Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s circle Photo by Handout/U.S. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. However, just a few pages of the book, labelled “exhibit GX52,” were mentioned during the prosecution’s case after Judge Alison Nathan warned against “needless” name-dropping. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

I’m supposed to write about politics, but this isn’t politics. And even Republicans who have written legislation to limit the price of insulin, such as Sens. “This is not health care. (Let alone back to where Otto von Bismarck and Thomas Paine, two advocates of universal health care, were in their own time.) If Senate Republicans challenge the insulin provision, some policy experts say they expect the parliamentarian will determine that the plan to cap insulin costs for privately insured Americans is “merely incidental” to the federal budget.

It’s important to note, however, that reducing our dependence on fossil fuels wouldn’t just reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. It would also reduce other forms of pollution, notably nitrogen oxides and sulfur, that have negative effects on death rates, illness and crop yields. The most recent important example I can think of is the enactment of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. I was struck the other day by Elon Musk’s declaration that Build Back Better shouldn’t pass because it would increase the budget deficit. That is, it spent 17 years spending more money than it was taking in, because it was investing in the future.

And like a reckless shopaholic locked in toxic credit-card payments, US taxpayers are mired in astronomical interest payments. The federal government spends more on interest payments than on science, space, technology, transportation and education combined. Congress created the debt ceiling for a reason — to stop Treasury from going outside its executive-branch limits and borrowing too much money. Removing the debt ceiling would give more power to the executive branch — which might be what King Biden wants. They’re calling for America to stop its long-term debt addiction — instead of just giving another immediate payment to our debt pushers.

Image Robert Daniel, rightAt least 74 people were confirmed dead in Kentucky alone, the youngest 5 months old, the oldest 86 years. So severe were the injuries and so remote some of the areas damaged that officials in Kentucky have not been able to identify 18 of those who died. So wide was the swath of destruction wrought by four separate tornadoes in Kentucky — one of them a monster that cut a 223-mile path through the state — that deaths were tallied in eight counties. With more than 8,000 power poles down, about 25,000 customers were still without power on Monday evening. It may be weeks before we have final counts on both deaths and levels of destruction,” Gov.

From the right: A White House Kowtow to Beijing“The White House is cutting video feeds at a “Democracy Summit, lest the Taiwanese representative’s map irk the Chinese,” snarks National Review’s Jim Geraghty: The map showed Taiwan as independent, not a province of China as the mainland claims. “There’s no need for China to censor what our leaders can say to us. Those who can’t adapt, say, by spending money on private security, “are faced with one option: to leave their city and often the state.” How’d this happen? : Back in 2020, Hunter set up a business meeting with his dad and businessman Tony Bobulinski. But “all of this barely touches the surface of Hunter Biden’s” corrupt business dealings.

Future generations will look back with disbelief at the suffering America’s schoolchildren endured because of the destructive decisions educators made. In this context, what’s happening to New York City’s high-school wrestlers may not be the worst instance of COVID-inspired insanity. Just look at the restrictions that PSAL has cooked up for the hardworking athletes who are competitive high-school wrestlers. The PSAL also says wrestling activities must always be conducted with masks while observing social-distancing rules. Making wrestlers wear mask is the latest nonsensical rule being imposed on the city’s kids.

The shelter sued over the state’s unexplained stonewalling. On Thursday, on the eve of a court hearing, the new license magically materialized. DeSantis then released a confusing new “emergency rule” the following morning, which said existing shelters could continue operating and renewing their licenses for the next 45 days only. After that period, the state will license or re-license care providers only if the Biden administration agrees to onerous and possibly illegal demands, such as giving shelters new obligations usually handled by other federal contractors.

ET): The House's Jan. 6 committee voted unanimously Monday to refer Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress. Trump’s disapproval could affect Meadows’ book sales with supporters, making appeasement not just a political strategy but a business one. In the suit, Meadows trots out the same tired, unpersuasive claim of executive privilege that Trump has — unsuccessfully — tried to use. The law generally deems that a public disclosure of information waives any legal privilege that information might otherwise enjoy. Luckily, it seems the House select committee remains determined to investigate the insurrection fully and thoroughly.

Once again, the term “Latinx” is trending — and once again, it is all for the wrong reasons. Just like other polls before it, it found Latinx is not a popular term — like "2 percent support" levels of unpopular. “When Latino politicos use the term, it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. Yes, Latinx is an unpopular term, but it has greater awareness with younger Latina voters. There is no one label that accurately paints U.S. Latino voters, and there will never be one.

Supreme Court again leaves state vaccine mandate in place for healthcare workersEnlarge this image J. Scott Applewhite/AP J. Scott Applewhite/APThe U.S. Supreme Court has turned away a challenge to New York state's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers--a mandate that provide no exceptions for religious objectors. This was the second time the court has refused to block such a state vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The six-justice majority included the court's three liberals and three of its conservative justices, too-- Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts. They wrote no opinion, simply turning aside an emergency request asking the court to block the law. Gorsuch, writing for himself and Alito, maintained that religious objectors are ineligible for unemployment compensation, and that the state mandate "exudes suspicion of those who hold unpopular religious beliefs."

Ann OliverWalnut CreekLoss of Roe wouldreturn secrecy, dangerI appreciate David Brook’s opinion regarding abortion (“Abortion: Voice of the ambivalent majority,” Page A17, Dec. 5). However, being 80 and importantly a woman, I have had experience on both sides of Roe. Prior laws victimized women through threats, secrecy and shame. After Roe, women had rights to their bodies that had been taken by old, ignorant, White men. As we hit this important milestone, the memory — and awareness — of that brazen attack on America has continued to fade.

Fernández died on Sunday at the age of 81, after spending four months in an intensive care unit in Guadalajara. Alejandro Fernández also thanked the public and the media who were able to tell his father’s story, both in life and in death. That his fans sing “Volver Volver”. At one point during the mass, the Fernández family joined in a loving embrace. His final resting place will be at his estate Los Tres Potrillos, located near the arena.

“Renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,” President Joe Biden announced at the recent Summit for Democracy. Over the last 10 years, democracy has been in decline across the world, even, as Biden admitted, in the United States. This is an understatement: American democracy is under siege. The attack on democracy is supported by Republican politicians, donors, and party organs at state and national levels. American democracy itself is at risk.

The coronavirus has brought the world one grim milestone after another as infections, hospitalizations and deaths repeatedly surge, then decline, then surge anew. But on Monday, news of another sobering milestone was reported by the New York Times: One in 100 older Americans has now died of COVID-19. In all, three-fourths of the almost 800,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 are people 65 and over. From the beginning, statistics have shown that cases of serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths are much more likely among the older population. Which is why older Americans rightly were given high priority for the shots as the vaccine rollout began last December — and since then, 95% of Americans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Hong Kong's unique freedoms have been removed one by one by Beijing through a national security law and an electoral "patriots" rule. Ahead of the Legislative Council (Legco) elections on 19 December, and as more people have been sentenced to jail, we explain how Hong Kong’s global identity has changed forever. Produced by Paul Organe.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser, or Drunk Driver POV: Dashcam catches Escalade driver hitting cars, hydrant, and more Back to videoThe vehicle appears to spend about as much time on the left side of the yellow line as on the right, narrowly missing multiple oncoming vehicles. Shockingly, the 62-year-old driver refused to cooperate with police or blow into a breathalyzer. He was convicted of impaired driving anyway.

International students will start returning to Australia from tomorrow after a two week delay caused by the Omicron COVID strain. Small businesses say they can't come back soon enough as they deal with serious worker shortages.

“A smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration.” The administration is planning to allow the student debt payment pause to expire at the end of January. The Congressional Progressive Caucus called on the White House to take action, saying “45 million Americans are stuck in the student debt trap. But the Biden administration hasn’t just refused to cancel student debt– it’s also lied about the president’s ability to do so. According to recent data, the vast majority of student debt holders are not ready to restart payments. On the other hand, the analysis found that canceling student loans could add over $173 billion to the Gross Domestic Product each year.

DW NewsCOVID-19 Special: Brazil's success storyIn Brazil, over 75% of adults are fully vaccinated. In some big cities, the vaccination rate is even higher. Many Brazilians are hopeful that things could soon return to normal. But is there really a reason to celebrate?

Storm Drenching Drought-Stricken California, US WestA major storm is bringing rain and snow to California and other drought-stricken West states (Dec. 13)

BLOOD ON THE FOG, by Tongo Eisen-Martin. (City Lights, 107 pp., paper, $15.95.) Reminiscent of June Jordan in their near-embrace of violence, these poems have a powerful ambivalence about what effect they might have in the world; they are very aware of being poems: “A non-future dripping with real people/I mean, real people … Not poem people.” “I write poems today/I kill america today.” “Has the poem started yet?/I will tuck your shirt into the earth.” The language is visionary, sometimes trancelike. It reminds me that poetry can rewire our thinking — can actually change our minds — by using nothing like the rote language we’re so used to hearing in speech and in prose. It can jolt us out of patterns, back into intelligence.

As the lame ducks in the City Council prepare to exit, they’re making certain that the door hits New Yorkers as they make their way out. All-electric buildings are more expensive to build and maintain. The added electric demand will also spike the city’s electricity rates — already 50 percent above the national average — a particular bane to lower-income residents. And it’s not all that green, since most electricity is generated from fossil fuels. It’s another ticking time bomb that will explode on Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ watch, after the pols that passed it are long out of office.

Point your wagons WestNew series “1883” — probably when Biden was conceived — is also the name of Paramount’s prequel to its hit show “Yellowstone.”Billy Bob Thornton: “This is about a journey out West. Come to Fort Worth.’ Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott — who are in it — are all my old friends. Religious leaders repping 930 nonpublic school employees wrote him suggesting he reconsider. The only governor showing leadership in such tragedy is Democrat Andy Beshear of red state Kentucky. So, afterward he says to me ‘Hey, you were really good.’ So what do I say back to him?

Anthony ScroWhitestoneInexperienced Hochul casts a pall over another Christmas season for revelers and businesses with her nonsensical mask mandate. Carole CampoloEast HamptonI wondered how businesses would implement the governor’s hysteria-driven new mask mandate. It was “mask up or don’t come in.”Why get three shots if you still have to wear masks everywhere? This mask mandate has nothing to do with keeping me safe. My local supermarket already has a sign out that it will require all people to wear masks inside.

Jared Polis just put many of his fellow Democrats to shame — including New York Gov. Polis vowed not to impose a new mask mandate on his state, even with the spread of the Omicron variant. But even the COVID-hyping New York Times notes that cases are nearly irrelevant now, since, as Drs. And yes, the number of hospitalized COVID patients has also grown in New York, hitting 3,683 on Sunday. The gov should take a tip from her Colorado colleague: The emergency is over.

“I thought it important, especially because I was the person who made the motion in the 1970s to create a position on the board of trustees at Howard for students and for faculty, that I speak out in this compliant to make sure this unlawful act does not go unchallenged,” Jenkins, who graduated from the university in 1960, said in a statement. “I consider the board of trustees at Howard to be arrogant and ignorant and unlawful in the way in which they have reacted.”

“For too long we have heard promises during campaigns that sound like it’s going to lift up the people, and then once people get elected they disappear at the end and during the congressional session because somebody, somewhere has got some deep pockets say it’s not possible,” the Rev. William J. Barber II, a North Carolina preacher who is co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, told the crowd outside the Capitol. “Well, we refuse to accept the crisis of possibility.”

Police have not identified the officers who shot and killed a 55-year-old man Friday evening, and the man’s identity hasn’t been released either. The AG cited AB 1506, a new state law that allows the agency to take over investigations into police-related deaths of unarmed people. Police said the man had been firing a rifle at cars on the street and eventually shot down a police drone. Multiple SWAT officers shot and killed the man at around 7 p.m. An Antioch police news release doesn’t identify which officers fired their duty weapons, nor does it say why they fired. During the seven-hour standoff, the man rebuffed attempts to get him to surrender, according to a statement released by Antioch interim police Chief Anthony Morefield.

We still need enough water flow for our natural systems that support all life, however. The leader got six years, but will likely serve due to our state’s time off for good behavior. Paul TaylorSan JoseInfrastructure bill wasa first step for climateThe climate crisis is positioned to be one of the most crucial issues for upcoming generations. Related Articles Letters: Diablo’s beacon | Water cuts | Gun safety | Pulling togetherLetters: Pacheco Dam | Climate contradiction | Tinted windows | Causes unaddressed | Illegitimate court? Christianity, for example, requires that the hungry be fed, the thirsty be given drink and medicine be given to the sick.

On Monday, the City Council added millions more to the enormous tab it keeps paying out for police misconduct. We can almost hear Chicago taxpayer’s wallets groaning under the strain. EditorialsIn recent years, the city has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and judgments to plaintiffs alleging police abuse. And all those settlement and bond costs don’t even include the millions of dollars the city shells out to private attorneys to handle some of these cases. The more the city invests in reform now, the less it — meaning taxpayers — will have to pay later.

We’ve had enough," came a cherubic, bespectacled man named George Young, and thus began the halcyon days of a team that is now nearly 100 years old. More than 40 years after massive cleanup of a dysfunctional franchise began, the Giants now need to find their next George Young. Yet for all the similarities that Gettleman bore to Young, including decades’ worth of front-office experience, the franchise has devolved into one of the worst in pro football, a shell of the organization Young left behind. Mara saw firsthand how Young lifted the Giants from the depths, and he continues to think of him. Now he needs to find his own George Young.

As we approach the one-year mark of the Biden presidency, what should be unthinkable — a second victory for Donald Trump in 2024 — seems increasingly possible. Today, Joe Biden’s ratings are underwater, and polls show that a Trump vs. Biden election would result in a tie or a narrow victory for Trump — who leads decisively among Republicans. Meanwhile, Trump is no longer the center of attention, and people who aren’t closely following the news are not getting daily reminders of his awfulness. To say that a lot can happen by November 2024 is an understatement. While Biden is certainly not one of the radicals, he is rightly seen as too willing to genuflect to them.

One police officer and five firefighters from Covington are assisting with the disaster relief effort following the destructive tornadoes that tore through parts of Western Kentucky late last week. At least 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed as a result of the storms, with Kentucky Gov. Officials said all six responders are on formal assignment and more police and firefighters are on standby. Officials said in an updated report Monday five tornadoes touched down in Kentucky late Friday and early Saturday. The tornado that hit Bowling Green is also thought to be an EF3.

Historians, however, will hold Schiff in high esteem, a bright spot in an unusually dark chapter in American history. The extortion plot or, as then national security adviser John Bolton put it, the “drug deal,” was loathsome enough. Perhaps no one understands the danger to America posed by the witches’ brew of demagogues and toadies that comprise the Trump Party better than Adam Schiff. And Schiff was right. “There is a dangerous vein of autocratic thought running through one of America’s two great parties,” Schiff writes, “and it poses an existential danger to the country.”But Schiff refuses to write America off.

Charlie Baker’s decision to pass on a third term is looking smarter by the day. The Republican governor would have faced a grueling, uphill battle for the GOP primary against former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and seems preoccupied dealing with the surge in coronavirus in Massachusetts. It’s also no fun as a governor to watch the state’s COVID-19 case numbers rise to the highest they’ve been since last winter. Baker has often boasted about Massachusetts’ record on vaccination rates but you don’t hear him boasting too much anymore. This so-called commission would only just delay getting the payments out, but unfortunately Baker’s veto can be easily overridden by the Democratic-dominated Legislature.

However, it appears no official had the brainpower to foresee that such demand would overwhelm the NHS website, following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Sunday. All the paperwork was correctly filled in, and our online NHS records show the correct dates and times. Philip DulyHaslemere, SurreyIn search of a dentistSIR – Concerns over the availability of NHS dentistry (Letters, December 8) are not confined to Gloucestershire. It was our experience – shared with areas of London – that the crime rate in the city exactly matched the number of green things growing there. The highest crime rate came from a street without a blade of grass.

Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between the two neighbors, as Tokyo continues to make sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.

Woman sheltered in bathroom during twisterOne Kentucky woman hid with her dog in a bathroom to survive the deadly tornado that swept across the state and decimated her town of Mayfield; Gov. Andy Beshear says it will be days before an accurate death toll can be made.

Russia on Monday blocked a United Nations Security Council draft resolution, under negotiation for many months, that for the first time would have defined climate change as a threat to peace. The resolution, which enjoyed wide-ranging support, would have significantly expanded the criteria used by the most powerful U.N. agency to justify intervening in armed conflicts around the world. Russia’s derailment of the measure underscored the challenges faced by the United Nations in uniting the global community to combat climate change, which Secretary General António Guterres and others have called an existential threat. Despite progress made to counter greenhouse gas emissions with an agreement reached at the U.N.-sponsored climate summit in Glasgow last month, that accord fell far short of what many scientists say will be required to curb rising temperatures and disastrous changes in weather patterns from a warming planet. Among other weaknesses, the agreement left unclear how the most vulnerable nations will be able to afford the enormous investments needed to adapt.

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Charlie Baker has signed a $4 billion coronavirus relief bill ARPA and tax revenue surplus bill, ensuring billions in investments make it out the door before the end of the year, but said relief falls “far short” in some areas. But the bill boasts nearly $1 billion for health care — its largest investment. The bill also relies on $1.45 billion in fiscal 2021 surplus state tax revenue. A “frustrated” Baker and the Legislature have found themselves at odds over the bill for much of the process. The two-term governor filed his own legislation outlining spending priorities that made larger investments in nearly every category.

He said even if people don't use their mail-in ballot once every four years they can still remain on the permanent early voting list simply by returning a mailed notice asking if that's what they want. And even if they miss that notice, Ensign said, they can sign up again, either on a county website or returning a form by mail. "A full 30 states have no early voting list for anyone," Ensign said. He also argued that culling the list of anyone who has shown little interest in early voting would save taxpayer dollars. And then, Ensign said, there is the state's interest in preventing fraud.

The Edwardsville warehouse is part of a vast patchwork of concrete-and-steel structures that have popped up in the St. Louis region over the past decade, drawn by its confluence of major highways and railroads, cheap costs and Americans’ expectations for getting packages delivered soon after they click a link to order them. A researcher who studies the warehouse industry and the pressure put on Amazon workers to meet strict productivity quotas said even if Amazon’s team did everything right in responding to a devastating tornado, it raises the question about the structure of enormous warehouses popping up across the Midwest as some climate experts warn of more frequent severe storms. “We don’t think of warehousing as one of the industries that’s going to be severely impacted by climate change but then you have a case like this,” said Beth Gutelius, research director at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “How do we make sure the facilities are built in a way to best protect the workers inside?”

Lawyers for Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan high school shooting suspect, request the 15-year-old be moved to a juvenile jail. Crumbley has been charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Defending attorney Paulette Michel Loftin argued Crumbley should be moved out of Oakland County Jail where adult inmates, including his parents, are held. Loftin claimed Crumbley had not shown evidence he would be a “menace” to other juvenile inmates. Sign up to our newsletters.

For the few Western governments who have said their representatives will not attend, such a move is a relatively easy way to be seen to issue a rebuke, while avoiding the much more contentious step of preventing athletes from competing via a full boycott. The risk with sending politicians to Beijing to attend the Games is that inevitably it would be viewed as offering tacit approval of the government of President Xi Jinping, for whom the event is a matter of significant prestige.

This week on the podcast:— China has complained that Moscow’s response to coronavirus is discriminatory and risks damaging relations with Beijing. Associated Press correspondents Francesca Ebel and Dasha Litvinova looked at how Moscow authorities went into great lengths to track down Chinese nationals. — The battle for the Arctic is heating up — literally — as countries, companies and citizens wrangle to protect and advance their interests in the region. We’ll speak to American journalist Alec Luhn about the effects of climate change on the Arctic, and Russia’s political and economic strategy for its icy north. The episode was recorded and edited at CM Records Studio in central Moscow.

Share this Story: Matt Gurney: Apology-addict Trudeau can't be bothered to say 'sorry' to military sexual misconduct victimsMatt Gurney: Apology-addict Trudeau can't be bothered to say 'sorry' to military sexual misconduct victims The question now is whether anything is going to change Photo by Blair Gable / ReutersArticle content It is intriguing which apologies Justin Trudeau feels he should make personally and those he thinks he can or should skip. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Monday’s apology to members of the armed forces for government mishandling of widespread sexual misconduct in the ranks? But the military misconduct scandal, sadly, isn’t particularly high profile. She’s ordered military sexual misconduct scandals moved to civilian courts, and made Gen. Eyre the official chief of the defence staff (he’d been filling the role in an interim capacity for months after his predecessor went down after allegations of, you guessed it, sexual misconduct).

Could Navalny’s obsession weaken his big opponent, Vladimir Putin? According to the organization, this was at the president’s disposal. Then, tens of thousands of people hit the streets from Moscow to Yakutsk in Siberia with temperatures at -50C. People in more than 110 cities followed Alexei Navalny’s call to protest. With interviews with: Maria Lipman, political scientist; Clementine Fauconnier, professor and Russia specialist at the University of Upper Alsace; Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of the State Duma; Sergei Guriev, exiled economics professor at Sciences Po university; Vladimir Milov, former deputy energy minister, and Navalny ally in exile; Archives from protests; Alexei Navalny, on Putin’s Palace (YouTube); Vladimir Putin (archives)

NDP MP Don Davies has also tabled several private member's bills to lower the voting age going back to 2011, but none of those bills was brought forward for debate. In 2005, Liberal MP Mark Holland — now the government House leader — brought forward a bill to lower the voting age to 16, but it was defeated at second reading. Should Canada's voting age be lowered? 11:38Bachrach drew the 29th spot in this month's lottery to determine when backbench MPs could bring forward private member's bills or motions. That means his bill to lower the voting age could come up for debate sometime next year.

Wallace, the son of legendary broadcaster Mike Wallace, spent decades at ABC and NBC, where he once hosted Meet the Press, before joining Fox News in 2003. (Shep Smith, who also challenged Donald Trump’s lies, left in 2019 after 23 years at the network.) Wallace was known for grilling both Democrats and Republicans, including Trump, who typically got tossed softballs by sycophantic Fox hosts. Wallace’s announcement comes as the latest in a string of high-profile exits shaking up the TV world. (A Chris Cuomo spokesperson has denied the sexual misconduct allegation.)

In the fall of 2011, the total amount of outstanding student debt in the country had just surpassed nine hundred billion dollars. A group called the Occupy Student Debt Campaign took the stark moral position that all of this debt should be abolished. The amount of student debt in the country surpassed a trillion dollars, then a trillion and a half. The Occupy Student Debt Campaign tried to persuade a million student debtors to default, openly and collectively, on their loans. On April 1st, in an interview with Politico, Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, was asked whether Biden planned to cancel student debt via executive action.

But overhauling that system doesn’t seem to be a high priority for the current administration. The Dash for Cash did happen to coincide, however, with an announcing about what is considered a high priority for Team Biden as far as education is concerned. The announcement of this dash for student cash seemed to strike progressives as not merely in poor taste, but downright offensive. Psaki on the student loan payment pause that expires in Feb- “A smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration." Perhaps the reason that Biden has chosen not to extend the pause on student loan any further is for the sake of appearances.

When it comes to gender equity in the workplace, many organizations focus largely on hiring more women. Specifically, many companies employ some form of ranking mechanism to assess employees’ performance relative to each other, and then determine advancement accordingly. A performance management system in which employees are ranked against one another creates a particular kind of competitive environment. When participants weren’t told that they’d be ranked, men and women performed at essentially the same level. In sum, these findings suggest that competitive social ranking systems can have a major effect on performance, and more importantly, they can have very different effects on men and on women.

Boy charged in school deaths to stay in adult jailA Michigan judge declined to move the 15-year-old charged with killing four students at Oxford High School out of an adult jail (Dec. 13)

The virus made it dangerous for me to support my mother emotionally in person as she mourned her sister’s death. At the same time, my son and daughter-in-law traveled between their home and a neonatal intensive care unit to oversee their son’s care. I had learned about COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials but never imagined I would get the first dose after approval for use – or that it would push me to take on such an activist role. Nonetheless, I do hope it might set us on a path to transparency, trust and, ultimately, equal access to quality medical care across all communities. Sandra Lindsay, director of Patient Critical Care Services at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was the first person in the United States to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial.

You recently wrote an article about Gen Z being coddled and whiny in the workplace. This is also an important message for parents of Gen Zs who need to let them go and learn. I want to clarify your article concerning a vaccine exemption for vegans. An ethical vegan does not partake in products that are tested on animals, period. I will never get the vaccine because I am an ethical vegan.

This article is part of Times Opinion’s Holiday Giving Guide 2021. Read more about this guide in a note from Katie Kingsbury, the Opinion editor of The New York Times. Nicholas Kristof has left The Times to run for governor of Oregon, but his annual holiday guide to charitable giving lives on in new forms. A flower garden you plant for yourself that also pleases passers-by is another example of something with a positive externality. The existence of a positive externality is the economic justification for government funding of education — or, in this case, charitable funding.

The Post’s View | About the Washington Post Editorial BoardEditorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom. Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Karen Tumulty; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Ruth Marcus; Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao (education, D.C. affairs); Jonathan Capehart (national politics); Lee Hockstader (immigration; issues affecting Virginia and Maryland); David E. Hoffman (global public health); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Molly Roberts (technology and society); and Stephen Stromberg (elections, the White House, Congress, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care). They say no news is good news. But we know some news is good news — and we’d like your help calling attention to it. If there was good news in 2021 that you think we should highlight — here or abroad, in culture or sports or science or any other arena — please let us know, and we may include your suggestion in our end-of-year editorial.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been meeting with the Senate parliamentarian to determine whether the bill’s health provisions would technically qualify under budget reconciliation, a legislative maneuver that allows Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster and enact policy changes with a simple majority, so long as the legislation is linked to the federal budget. Under the Byrd rule, lawmakers can challenge individual provisions in the bill. If Senate Republicans challenge the insulin provision, some policy experts say they expect the parliamentarian will determine that the plan to cap insulin costs for privately insured Americans is “merely incidental” to the federal budget. In that case, Republicans could call a point of order to strip the provision from the bill.

Liberal New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow claimed over the weekend that the U.S. was "edging closer" to another civil war. Blow specifically pointed to Sotomayor's dissent against the law, which read, "This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. Blow wrote that he found Sotomayor's invocation of Calhoun "striking," and claimed that there were "too many uneasy parallels" between the run-up to the Civil War in the 1800's and the debate over Texas' ability to restrict abortions today. "I see this country on the verge of another civil war, as the Calhounian impulse is reborn," Blow wrote. "And this war won’t be only about the subjugation of Black people but also about the subjugation of all who challenge the white racist patriarchy," Blow wrote.

You’re looking at just a huge shortage.”Egg suppliers and lobbyists representing grocery stores are hopeful that state lawmakers can reach an agreement by the end of the year to keep supply stable. AdvertisementThe problem, according to the egg industry, is that over the past five years, the industry-standard has evolved. Massachusetts voters backed a required space of 1.5 square feet per bird. In addition to the egg industry and animal welfare groups including the Humane Society of The United States, the Massachusetts House and Senate both support the 1 square foot standard. The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed a bill to that effect in June, and the state House did so overwhelmingly in October.

AdvertisementThe decision, he said, will enable his administration to “immediately begin the process of distributing these funds,” Baker wrote. The law is built on billions in federal stimulus aid provided through the American Rescue Plan Act and $1.5 billion in state surplus money. The bill the Legislature sent Baker was packed with earmarks — 843 in total, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed budget watchdog. Baker criticized the proposal as creating a “lengthy, bureaucratic process,” and proposed giving his administration the power to administer the funds. “I support the focus of the Trust on equitable, culturally competent, affordable, and clinically appropriate behavioral health care and services,” Baker wrote.

Until his death at age 67, Rush never rested in his efforts to persuade others that whenever republics fail in their core responsibility to elevate leaders of “dignity and magnanimity” to public office, those republics risk unraveling. The outcomes of such a decline in civic virtue, he said, may include a descent into “mobocracy” as well as the rise of “men who thus wish to involve the state in the horrors of a civil war to gratify their ambition and personal resentments.”

What Smollett did was a serious crime. Racial division and animosity are worse than they have been in decades, and Smollett made things worse by snatching at the gold ring of victimhood to boost his career. (Never mind the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars wasted investigating his lies.) We are all worse off, Chicago is worse off and our country is worse off because of what he did. He deserves serious punishment, including prison time.

Utility companies say the current setup allows solar customers to sell their energy back into the grid for more than it’s worth. When solar households pay significantly lower electricity bills — or no bills at all — they’re contributing less to those things. That means more of the cost is shouldered by other customers, often households and renters without the financial means to install solar. The utilities and the state peg that cost at $3 billion, though the solar industry disputes that number. The commission’s proposal would lower the amount of money residential solar customers make by selling their excess energy back to the power companies and add a “grid participation charge” of about $40 per month for solar households.

This week, President Joe Biden hopped onto Zoom in an effort to shepherd the world along the path to stronger global democracy, during a two-day summit with other world leaders. He’ll be making his case, however, amid growing concerns about democracy here at home. Whether we like it or not, there is reason to be gravely concerned. But against this backdrop, an interesting debate has broken out about the press’s role in protecting our too-fragile institutions and raveled civic fabric from a Trumpian assault—and whether the media, in an effort to support democracy, must unflinchingly support Biden, as well. Over the weekend, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank made considerable waves with a column that rather lustily accused the media of offering President Biden worse coverage than President Trump.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and I have a few things in common. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who don't give a damn about the gun violence and trauma we are constantly cycling through as a nation, are the problem. Founding FathersNow, I'm not about to tell you that the Second Amendment doesn't say you can't have guns, because it clearly does, and the U.S. Supreme Court agrees. We must look to our God-given common sense to solve this uniquely American crisis. And common sense begs us to do better in electing our representatives and getting rid of them when they cross the line.

Both men teach what are called—unfortunately but inescapably—“great books” courses. How did the great books get caught up in it? That is the system the great books were designed for use in. British counterparts included Sir John Lubbock’s “One Hundred Best Books” (1895) and Frederic Farrar’s “Great Books” (1898). For the key to the concept of the great books is that you do not need any special training to read them.

Utterly—women have allegedly been liberated; the end of men has been heralded by pundits far and wide—and, somehow, not at all. Then, there’s Andy (Claybourne Elder), a flight attendant whose godly body comes tragically attached to an empty head. “You’re not dumb, Andy,” Bobbie reassures him, to which he replies, “To me, I am.” The logic is bulletproof. The stage fills with substitute Bobbies: Bobbie pregnant, Bobbie with a baby on her chest, Bobbie wiping up the piss that splatters around the toilet every time Andy takes a leak. She suffers from a rare genetic disorder that turns her into a kind of reverse Benjamin Button, aging at warp speed.

Every year when I read Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We” with my students, I wish the psychiatric-ward schedule were hanging in the classroom, because Zamyatin’s novel imagined a regimented way of life, and because it, too, seemed to subvert the flow of time. But Zamyatin had already written a novel that described many of the specifics of that terror, and of other terrors to come in the twentieth century. Hannah Arendt, in “The Origins of Totalitarianism” and elsewhere, argued that totalitarianism was a novel form of government, distinct from the tyrannies that preceded it. “He envisioned an exemplary totalitarian state, built on absolute reason, on logic . Zamyatin’s initial loss of professional and social standing preceded the publication of “We” abroad, and it likely preceded the completion of the novel.

Added: 13.12.2021 19:11 | 13 views | 0 commentsThe Jan. 6. attack should have served as a shocking wake-up call for Republicans about the dire consequences of their hyper-partisanship.

Added: 13.12.2021 20:26 | 8 views | 0 commentsPresident Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday aimed at rebuilding the public's trust in government by making it easier to do things like renew passports, apply for Social Security benefits and get aid after natural disasters.

Yellowstone Keep the Wolves Close Season 4 Episode 7 Editor’s Rating 3 stars * * * « Previous Next Photo: Danno Nell/ParamountAnd just like that, the fourth season of Yellowstone snaps into focus. After at least a few sleepy episodes of Yellowstone, “Keep the Wolves Close” gets the plot moving quick. As governor, John could put up all kinds of bureaucratic red tape, shutting down the development in a number of ways. When you think of it that way, a threat as banal as a new airport feels downright existential. • John snatching power back from his estranged son — and relishing it — inevitably reminds me of last night’s Succession finale.

It was clearly meant to be a moment of levity: 10 South Dakota teachers scrambling on the ice for $1 bills at a minor league hockey game. And the fact that these were teachers — and just shy of being the lowest-paid teachers in the country — really adds insult to injury. (That feels doubly true when you consider how many degrees teachers need, putting them even further below the median average for bachelor’s degree holders.) This is America, where nothing is given out freely, and those who need extra help have to earn that assistance. This is America, where nothing is given out freely, and those who need extra help have to earn that assistance.

All four officers were charged broadly in federal court with depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority, but the federal indictment broke down the counts even further. A count against Chauvin alleged he violated Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure and from unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are charged with violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck. All four officers are charged for their failure to provide Floyd with medical care. Specifically, the indictment says Chauvin kept his left knee on Floyd’s neck even though he was handcuffed and not resisting.

But Putin has been willing to massively invade or mysteriously kidnap and poison to get what he wants. Also, we recall Putin’s planned Sochi Two Step of 2014: To showcase Russia’s global economy potential, Putin planned to host the Sochi Winter Olympics -- and then host the G-8 economic summit in Sochi. But in between, Ukraine sought new economic ties with Europe -- and Putin exploded at having the world see Ukraine rejecting Russia. And last September, The Economist reported the success story that means most to Xi’s China: “Is China already the world’s most dominant economy? But Xi’s China has shamed itself by what the United States has called its “genocide” and abuses against the Uyghur Muslims.

(CNN) The Supreme Court turned away two emergency requests Monday from health care workers, doctors and nurses in New York to block the state's vaccine mandate. The dispute arose when three nurses and a group called We the Patriots USA, Inc, challenged the mandate, arguing that it allowed exemptions for those with medical objections but not for people with religious objections. The rule, which is currently in effect, covers workers in hospitals and nursing homes, home health agencies, adult centers as well as hospices. Several doctors who say they have treated many patients with Covid filed a separate request with the justices. So far, the justices have allowed state mandates from Indiana, Maine and New York to go forward suggesting a tolerance for state efforts to fight Covid-19 in the midst of a surge of the Delta variant.

(CNN) USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and their insurers agreed to pay $380 million in a settlement with the victims of Larry Nassar, the former Olympic doctor who sexually abused girls for decades, according to an attorney for multiple victims. The settlement is part of the USAG's plan to exit bankruptcy as the organization has struggled to recover from the Nassar scandal. This is the second nine-figure settlement for victims of Nassar's abuse. In 2018, Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by 332 victims of Nassar. Manly also called for the criminal prosecution of the FBI officials who failed to investigate Nassar and the Gymnastics and Olympic officials who "conspired" with them.

One way I’m protesting against the popular image of an old person is to be a showoff. On my 80th birthday, to celebrate my achievement of finally learning how to swim (the crawl, with flippers), I got a tattoo on my right biceps. I’d gotten my first on my left — my kids’ names and images reflecting them — for my 60th. But the newest has not shut me up.

Letting Iran go nuclear, if that proves unavoidable, might actually be the less dangerous option. The Iranian regime has employed suicide bombers in the past, but it isn’t suicidal itself. Its leaders know that Israel has a large nuclear arsenal — including nuclear missiles reportedly deployed on submarines that could survive any attack on Israel. The United States could further deter Iran by explicitly extending its nuclear umbrella not only to Israel but also to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other neighboring states. Nuclear weapons would allow Iran to avert a U.S. invasion that isn’t going to happen anyway but would do nothing to protect the regime against the biggest danger it faces: an uprising from its own people.

This week, Ben sits down with author Elbridge Colby to discuss his new book, The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict. Elbridge examines the impact of trust and resources, in regards to protecting American power across the world, in light of China’s strengthening desire for global dominance. Follow Ben on Twitter: @bdomenech

If rising gasoline prices are hitting you hard, Christian Walker, son of retired football great and Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, wants you to know he’s feeling the pain at the pump as well. Even if he’s voicing his opinions while sporting pricey designer duds. Christian took to Instagram and Twitter TWTR, -1.67% to share his thoughts about paying $98.37 for roughly 21 gallons of gas. ?” he wrote on Instagram. In the same post, he also criticized President Joe Biden, saying, “While Joe takes his afternoon naps and vacations at his beach house, GAS PRICES AND INFLATION ARE SOARING.”

A cursory glance at his record indicates that he has consistently opposed federal disaster relief measures. On disaster aid, Paul voted against a 2013 bill to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy, and earlier this year blocked accelerated passage of the Gulf Coast Hurricane Aid Act, a measure to aid victims of the storms in Louisiana. That points to a fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to disaster aid. Republican posturing against disaster aid “for thee, but not for me” is a hardy perennial on Capitol Hill. Of those votes, 31 came from Republicans who had previously sought disaster aid for their own states.

The latter policy, enacted last Thursday with overwhelming support from the City Council, is particularly historic. Boston, where there are roughly 98,000 legal noncitizens, should be next. It’s not like the issue of allowing legal immigrants to vote locally hasn’t come up in Boston. During this year’s mayoral campaign, Wu was on the record saying she supports giving legal immigrants in Boston the right to vote locally. “We were not pioneers at that time; other cities were doing it,” Arroyo’s son, Ricardo, who currently represents District 5 on the City Council, told me.

It has become impossible to watch, listen or read anything in the media without being confronted by Colorado’s crime tsunami. Colorado’s 2021 violent crime rate is on pace to be the highest since Peyton Manning graduated high school (1994). Our violent crime rate has outpaced the national average by more than 11 football fields (110%). Colorado’s 2020 crime rate is 35% higher than it was in 2011, while the nation’s grew by an anemic 3% over that same period. No state in the U.S. has seen the increase in the rate of property crime since 2011 that Colorado has.

Like others who ran for president in 2015-16, Rubio played hooky from his day job. His absenteeism was the Senate’s worst; he missed 35% of roll calls in 2015. When he switched to run for reelection, an opponent called him out for the worst voting record of any Florida senator in 59 years. PolitiFact consulted GovTrack to confirm that. From January 2011 to September 2016, Rubio missed 14.5 percent of roll calls, second only to George Smathers, a Democrat who skipped nearly 1 in 4 before he retired in 1969.

Another Social Security proposal, introduced by Rep. Al Lawson earlier this month, also attempts to fix and improve the program. See: Seniors get the biggest Social Security raise in years — and it’s already been eaten up by inflationThe bill, if passed, has numerous provisions to improve Social Security, which is currently facing insolvency. 1 antipoverty programs for seniors, for children and for veterans, who rely on Social Security more than Veteran Affairs. A lot more needs to be done for Social Security and its long-term solvency, but this deals with over 50% of the shortfall. Also see: Social Security proposal would raise revenue and temporarily enhance benefitsMW: Some critics take issue with funding the changes.

China’s Market Reformers China’s Market Reformers While China is often seen as an outlier from neoliberal trends, its transformation in recent decades was not at odds with tectonic shifts in the global system of growth but an essential part of it. The intricacies of this history, captured so effectively in Weber’s book, are essential to interpreting the larger meaning of China’s reform path. China’s reform era involved a fundamental remaking of the social fabric. Because the state was so integral to its process of economic reform, China is better positioned than other major economies to transition to something else. Jake Werner is a historian of modern China and Postdoctoral Global China Research Fellow at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

There is a moment in the intense life cycle of every reality show when reality starts to run out. Times columnist Ross Douthat has just published The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery about his battle with Lyme disease. He comes to believe he has Lyme disease. The author, a doctor who regularly treats Lyme disease, finds Douthat “treading on thin ice by describing and implicitly endorsing some potentially dangerous practices without scientific backing.” He writes that Douthat “admits to testing negative for Lyme disease. Does he even have Lyme disease?

But done right, mandatory voting isn’t about dragging people to the polls against their wills. Belgium was the first democracy to implement mandatory voting — back in 1893 — and its authors saw the policy as a way to empower the working class. Twenty other countries — including Bolivia, Brazil and Australia, but not the U.S. — now have mandatory voting, with uniformly high voter turnout. Mandatory voting became the law of the land down under in 1924, when voter turnout was below 50%. What causes would get a boost from mandatory voting?

Such developments explain a recent global survey that found nearly half of people consider the United States a threat to their democracies, more than both Russia and China. And if the United States is unwilling to agree to any limits on its foreign meddling, then why would any other country? In any case, this was still only one of three factors that simply “exacerbated” a preexisting loss of faith in democracy, according to Biden. “There is no perfect system of democracy in the world, nor is there a political system that fits all countries,” the report states. It’s not a great sign for Biden that his supposed rival seems to have a better idea than he does.

For many people, the disastrous outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan will be enough to discredit the idea of humanitarian intervention. The question is whether we can justify forcible military intervention from outside the country in question to prevent human rights violations. Upholding Sovereignty We can identify three broad positions on the issue of external military intervention in the name of human rights. However, that does not mean we would be justified in carrying out an external military intervention to overthrow such regimes. If their very existence as a people is at stake, then military intervention can be justified, regardless of what the intervener’s motives may be.

Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! The best of The Nation’s Books & the Arts, in your inbox biweekly. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issueSubscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Instead, we remain, however uncomfortably, on a hinge of history—a familiar position for The Nation, but also for the country.

Members of the Communist Party of Canada on the march in the late 1970s. | via CPCThe life of a Communist Party, in its everyday intensity and historical specificity, too often eludes commemoration. To celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party of Canada, the Center for Socialist Education has assembled a feature-length documentary tribute to the working people who comprise the strength and resilience of the Communist movement in Canada. The Communist Party’s centrality to the peace movement in Canada and its ongoing support for the cause of Indigenous sovereignty are but two pillars of anti-imperialist struggle depicted here, as popular history and an affirmation of the party’s work in the present. Through these difficult times, the Communist Party of Canada faced liquidation at the hands of a social-democratic faction—but a core group of dedicated comrades fought for its survival and won.

Starting my career as a public school teacher at Austin Independent School District in the middle of COVID-19 wasn’t the best timing on my part. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020 and my former job working on a congressional campaign ended, I decided to go into teaching. On our union chat, fellow teachers shared fundraisers for students who lost parents to COVID-19. It became clear to every educator who returned to school this year and thought COVID-19 was rock-bottom, we were wrong. My best guess at why this happens is that Texas schools are understaffed at all levels—in administration, counseling, teaching.

Nobody wants a repeat of last year’s postal delivery delays during the holidays, especially not my fellow postal workers. Postal Service. In Congress, a mix of Republicans and Democrats are supporting the Postal Reform Act, which would help stabilize USPS by eliminating unnecessary financial burdens that pre-date the pandemic. Six months after a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Postal Reform Act, it still hasn’t been brought up for a vote. The holiday rush is exhausting, but postal workers are committed to doing our job.

Given how narrowly Democrats hold Congress, it’s unlikely there will be federal action around vaccine mandates for students attending public schools. So yes, should be a part of it, and it’s not just school, right? And so, how much do you think schools will consume the midterms that are now officially on the horizon? BuzzFeed News: Do you think Democrats right now have a compelling message on schools in the age of COVID? We need to see like, we got public schools, Catholic schools, private schools, charter schools, home schools, we got all these different models.

She won votes even from working-class voters who normally respond to populist appeals. Parla, for example, is a city that has historically voted for Spain’s Socialists even in years like 2011, where Ayuso’s PP won the Madrid region in a landslide. This year, however, PP carried Parla decisively. “People wanted just to work, not to receive money from the administration,” she told me. “All of these people see the government of Madrid as one that supports the people who want a job.” Republicans who want to gain Hispanic working-class votes, take note.

And if Build Back Better passes, it will make a difference by shoring up our system of social supports; when you can’t rely on your health insurance or afford child care, you’re much more anxious and powerless at work. Which is part of the reason corporations and Republicans oppose those kinds of programs. On one hand, they fight against any expansion of workers’ rights or wages, and on the other, they oppose social programs that make people feel less insecure. It’s almost as if they want workers to be isolated and powerless.

The New York Times editorial board wrote Saturday that it didn't believe the coronavirus pandemic would be going away in the near future, and that Americans "paralyzed" with fear needed to learn to live with the reality of the virus in their lives. NEW YORK TIMES SAYS RUBIO'S QUESTIONS ON ‘WITHHOLDING’ INFORMATION ABOUT UYGHUR GENOCIDE ‘RECKLESS AND WRONG’"Nearly two years into the pandemic, it is clear that the coronavirus is not going to disappear anytime soon," the board wrote. "Too many Americans are still paralyzed with doubt and fear over each new uncertainty, as trust in government and other institutions to manage the virus ranges from shaky to nonexistent." WILL NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST RETURN PULITZER FOR MISLEADING RUSSIA COLLUSION STORIES? "Even as we remain vigilant against the coronavirus, we need not remain in a state of paralyzing hypervigilance.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailAmerican Greed: "Off Air Joel is Different Joel"Joel Greenberg is a privileged millennial from a rich Florida family who one day decides to run for Seminole County Tax Collector – and wins. Once in office he embarks on a breathtaking series of crimes, ranging from fraud to sex trafficking. Eventually the Feds set their sights on him – and it quickly becomes clear that his case may be bigger and stranger than anyone had imagined.

That’s the take-away from this year’s selection of the billionaire innovator as TIME’s Person of the Year, a role our newsroom has been deciding for almost a century without distinction for good or evil. And his peculiar indifference to the Establishment has made him a favorite target of those in power. Just a few years ago, Musk was largely written off as a fringe eccentric on the verge of poverty. He’s the richest private person on the planet, although he jokes that Russians’ Vladimir Putin probably has him beat in wealth and certainly in military might. And that’s why TIME picked Musk as its Person of the Year.

In the spring of 2020, Donald Trump had a dreadful habit of guessing how many Covid-19 fatalities the United States would see. When we cleared that total, Trump moved the goalposts, saying the total would "probably" be between 60,000 and 70,000 people. The United States passed another grim Covid-19 milestone Monday, as more than 800,000 Americans have now died from the virus that's plagued the country for nearly two years. It took the United States 119 days to go from 600,000 deaths to 700,000 deaths. It's an uncomfortable truth to consider as we wonder how long it might take for the United States to reach our 900,000th Covid-19 fatality.

Indoor mask rules are back in New York as cases surgeA sign reminds customers that masks are required in their store in New York, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. A mask mandate for shops and other indoor spaces in New York state took effect Monday as officials confront a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. A mask mandate for shops and other indoor spaces in New York state took effect Monday as officials confront a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)NEW YORK (AP) — A mask mandate for shops and other indoor spaces in New York state took effect Monday as officials confront a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. New York enacted a mask mandate at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020 that ended in June 2021 for vaccinated individuals.

If you’re looking for the best place to ring in the New Year, New York City’s got you covered. That’s according to a report from WalletHub, which found that the Big Apple is the best city to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Birmingham was found to have the lowest price for a three-star hotel room on New Year’s Eve while two California cities – Riverside and San Bernardino – had the highest. THE BEST CITIES FOR SINGLE PEOPLE IN 2021: REPORTWalletHub also found that six cities tied for the most nightlife options per capita. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERETo see the overall list, here are the 10 best cities for New Year’s celebrations, according to WalletHub.

Share this Story: Rupa Subramanya: Quebec teacher knew the consequences of defying secularism lawRupa Subramanya: Quebec teacher knew the consequences of defying secularism law The charges of Islamophobia are absurd. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Moreover, many English Canadians simply don’t understand the historical roots of Quebec’s secularism law, which is patterned after the law in France, which similarly bans visible demonstrations of faith in public even more broadly than the Quebec law. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Penguin Random House, the largest book publisher in the United States, said in a court filing on Monday that its plan to buy a competitor, Simon & Schuster, would be a boon for the industry, benefiting authors, booksellers and readers. Last month, it sued to stop the $2.18 billion acquisition, as the Biden administration takes a more skeptical view of corporate consolidation across industries. It documented several bidding wars between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster that went into six and seven figures and argued that if the proposed merger goes through, those authors wouldn’t have received such lucrative advances. By focusing on authors’ pay, the Justice Department signaled that it is taking a more sweeping view of antitrust law. But in its suit to block Penguin Random House, the government does not claim that the prices for books will rise for readers or for booksellers, but instead argues that if Penguin Random House gets even larger, it will have more leverage over authors.

I think people should wear masks, especially when they’re in settings when they’re supposed to. I think part of our duty as civic leaders is actually to model behavior, because it’s not just about masks. And part of what I don’t want to get lost here is why we were there. We were there to honor Bob Dole and his memory. Bob Dole was all about consensus, bringing people together.

“The Mattatuck Museum, so called after the Eastern Algonquin name for the land on which it was built, recognizes that the land we interpret as the ‘Mattatuck Plantation’ through our history mission, is the original homeland of the Tunxis, Paugussett, Pequannock and Potatuck tribal nations. We acknowledge the painful history of forced removal from this territory, and we honor and respect the Indigenous Peoples that were, and are still, connected to this land. We recognize the reverberations of colonialism past and present, and seek healing through this acknowledgment.”

Telsa and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. “Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote. Since 1927, the magazine has named a wide range of figures, including Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy, The Computer, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope Francis. In 2017, the magazine named “The Silence Breakers,” highlighting the #MeToo movement of victims coming forward to report sexual misconduct. Time previously announced finalists for Person of the Year, but did not reveal a shortlist for this year’s announcement.

Thomas SuddesColumnistThe restless right wing of the Ohio Republican Party might care to keep one thing in mind (besides its eternal sense of victimhood): When the GOP splits, Democrats benefit. That sort-of-religious outlook is a perpetual eddy in the stream of Ohio Republican politics. But as suggested by the recent rumpus at a meeting of the Ohio Republican State Central Committee, all is not placid in Lincoln’s party. In part because Ohio Republicans split over whether to re-elect Cincinnati’s William Howard Taft as president or return Bull Moose Progressive Theodore Roosevelt to the White House. In 1976, the Ohio GOP split over incumbent Gerald Ford vs. challenger Ronald Reagan as Republicans’ prospective presidential nominee.

As we deck the halls and sing "fa la la la la, la la la la" a year after the first coronavirus vaccines arrived in Greater Columbus in dry ice coolers, let's not forget the real damage ignited by COVID-19, a villain far more sinister than the Grinch, before and after Christmas 2020 was stolen. Let's also not forget to rejoice in the splendor that has returned, although not fully. People are exchanging Christmas cookies and convening in the name of holiday cheer again. Catch holiday gems like "A Christmas Story, The Musical" (Lincoln Theatre), " A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol" (Worthington Community Theatre) and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Riffe Center Theatre Complex) on local stages forced to go dark during the pandemic. Vaccines help slow the spread of coronavirus and are a big reason so many fewer families will celebrate Christmas via Zoom this year.

Drone footage has captured the devastation after a series of deadly tornadoes struck Kentucky on Friday. The US president, Joe Biden, declared a major federal disaster in the state, with officials saying the death toll could exceed 100 in Kentucky alone. The governor, Andy Beshear, said the tornadoes were the most destructive in the state’s history. One tornado that tore through four states over four hours of nighttime devastation is believed to be the longest distance for a tornado in US history. In Mayfield, a community of about 10,000 in the south-western corner of Kentucky, large twisters also destroyed fire and police stations

Here is an example of a Western power directly intervening to spread the tyrannical rule of Saudi Arabia over other Arab countries, writes As`ad AbuKhalil. Macron secured bilateral political deals with both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Macron evidently had secured certain concessions from the crown prince prior to his arrival in Saudi Arabia. Miqati is a typical representative of the corrupt Lebanese political class. The Arab people know full well that the West favors tyrannical rule because it serves western political and economic interests.

According to a Dec. 10 story in The Bellingham Herald, no information has been available on Ericksen’s whereabouts for three weeks, following news that he was receiving treatment for COVID-19 at a Florida hospital after testing positive in El Salvador. Several of Ericksen’s constituents have written The Bellingham Herald, wondering why there has been no updated information. As for contacting Ericksen’s family, The Bellingham Herald tried that and has heard bupkis. So, yeah, Republicans are doing their level best to make COVID-19 great again, and they’re falling on their spike proteins to make their point. More importantly, though, we should hope that he and other influential GOP lawmakers finally see the light.

What happens when you’re the Ivy League (Brown) economics professor who wrote successfully in major publications like the NYTimes, Washington Post, and The Atlantic stating schools should be open during the pandemic as “data show they’re safe”? Note success here was in being both published and accepted as valid by the readership. It does not mean being correct. Answer: You get invited to lecture at Harvard about Heart Disease. If this isn’t “New Orleans syndrome,” I don’t know what is.

*Did you have a good weekend? But it didn’t feel like it. Anyway, Greg Dworkin probably had a decent weekend, so we’ll rely on him for the big roundup, as usual. I’m just going to hold that truth to be self-evident, to bring us back to the politics theme and segue into the show. Even more ways to listen, live or by podcast, below the fold.

Our President in action- I can’t remember other Presidents acting so fast! Spread the word! “Before the federal declaration was issued, The White House said in a release that President Biden has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies to provide quick assistance to impacted communities.”Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article256511971.html#storylink=cpyWASHINGTON -- FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to the Commonwealth of Kentucky to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, flooding and tornadoes beginning Dec. 10, 2021 and continuing. The President's action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance, to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Breckenridge, Bullitt, Caldwell, Fulton, Graves, Grayson, Hickman, Hopkins, Lyon, Meade, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Shelby, Spencer and Warren counties.”www.fema.gov/...

And in that battle – whose centrality and urgency is now increasingly widely recognized – President Biden has largely been MIA. A Wartime LeaderBiden needs to transition into being a wartime leader, because this central political drama is truly a war. As the wartime leader for this political war, President Biden’s task is to defeat fascism in the arena of public opinion. in the 2022 elections -- the Republicans gain control of both Houses of Congress, it may be “game over” for American democracy. For starters, Biden can refrain, when suitable, from saying anything about “Republicans.” Biden can frame his denunciations in terms of the fundamental American values that he is defending against an assault (from wrong-doers who happen to be Republicans).

x Local teachers in South Dakota “Dash for Cash” to help their classrooms by fighting over $5,000 in $1 bills while the crowd hoots and hollers. And it is “all in good fun.” ? https://t.co/UIyJxFuxLb — Alina Stefanescu (@aliner) December 13, 2021x Here’s why I voted no on the NDAA. Photos: @argusleader #SouthDakota pic.twitter.com/mqiI4Jdr9k — Doug Murano ? (@doug_murano) December 13, 2021x South Dakota ranks lowest in the nation for teacher pay. pic.twitter.com/UqSQblB0YJ — ? ?? j????rec?'? ????????? ?????? ?? ? (@joeywreck) December 13, 2021x My mother was a public school teacher in South Dakota. https://t.co/6ZaVXIowjc — Nick Estes (@nickwestes) December 13, 2021x “I’m gonna go teach in South Dakota” said nobody EVER.

Twitter erupts after South Dakota teachers compete for cash: 'This should not be'here they go...x Here they go! The video showed local teachers in South Dakota wearing helmets scrambling in a hockey rink to grab $5,000 in $1 bills to use in their classrooms as part of a "Dash for Cash" event. pic.twitter.com/G0MH3Y1VXU — Annie Todd (@AnnieTodd96) December 12, 2021 Some national political figures like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Warren Gunnels, who is the staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted their responses, which criticized the country's military spending. school teachers scrambling for school funds.

I’ve seen colleagues break down in tears during staff meetings on multiple occasions this year. Just today, for example, I know of at least 10 teachers gone in the district with no substitute coverage — other teaching staff are covering, giving up their prep periods to do so. That, and legislators in my state are pondering introducing a bill that would essentially make doing my job a felony. And of course there is the usual selection of parents who’ve more or less abdicated their child-rearing responsibilities to the school. Some of our staff essentially are not getting a lunch period at this point some days.

The goal for primary school is not millions of different things but first and foremost education. If that goal is achieved, it certainly also provides other things: life opportunities, education and freedom, social interaction, a place for children to be and so on, but the school's goal is teaching a basic curriculum. Today, the school has become a means for various special interests rather than a goal in itself. To leave the era of panic, we need to navigate an era where school and school institutions and administration can maintain integrity. An era where the school is a cohesive unit that honors its knowledge and education mission - what I call the era of the monolith."

(CNN) President Joe Biden this week has confronted escalating tensions with China and Russia, testing his ability to manage antagonistic leaders and forcing other countries to pick sides. The White House insists Thursday's democracy summit isn't meant as a challenge to any single country or leader, even if some appear to be interpreting it that way. China's state council released a paper over the weekend titled "China: Democracy that works," despite the country not holding elections for its leaders and banning opposition political parties. "Things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now," Biden told Putin, according to Sullivan. Since then, Biden and his team have strived to bring the relationships with Russia and China into more predictable terrain, including by arranging summits between Biden and their leaders.

"Confined to our own bubbles, we are less informed about people who lead entirely different cultural, social and political lives. People tend to write about what they know. But what matters to most Americans, period, matters too. What they watch, what they read and, crucially, why and how they vote — or, for almost 80 million Americans, why they didn’t in 2020. This has more significance than what happens at colleges where people like me went or what we watch on television."

A new and insidious form of authoritarian control threatens democratic values and practices. The global proliferation of populist autocracies and hybrid regimes, some propped up by military bureaucracies, reflects the anti-democratic trend. Populist autocracies are becoming increasingly adept at using sophisticated spying techniques and state security apparatus to control their people, not unlike the totalitarian states. The erosion of democratic values and practices in established democracies gives a powerful impetus to various forms of authoritarianism. Yet populist autocracies do not offer a rosy future: Short-term economic progress at the cost of political and individual freedoms is deceiving.

red wine for the holidays(Image by lyndawaybi3) Details DMCAThe holidays can be the toughest time of year to stay abstinent from an addiction. The added stress of preparations, family relations, and feeling alone can trigger thoughts about your addiction. But even though it might be the toughest time of year to maintain a recovery program, it doesn't have to be difficult. A few simple steps can keep you safe from being at the mercy of addiction and keep you in charge of your hard-earned recovery. The thought of reengaging in your addiction is a warning signal that something is out of whack in your life.

Below is the 17th installment of the “American History for Truthdiggers” series, a pull-no-punches appraisal of our shared, if flawed, past. The green Union Army was out-led and, ultimately, outfought at the July 1861 Battle of Bull Run, near Manassas Junction, Va., and fled back to the District of Columbia in disarray. The Union Army would transform overnight into an army of liberation wherever it marched. The Civil War probably did more to expand federal and presidential power than any other war in American history. Though just 1 percent of the prewar Northern population, blacks eventually constituted 10 percent of Union Army volunteers.

During discussion, attendees voted unanimously to support the Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has been initiated by the World Socialist Web Site. The Omicron variant has been sequenced in over 68 countries with known community transmission in many major countries including the US. The spread of Omicron not only means continued mass infection, death and long-term illness, but also the ability for the virus to further mutate. The latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) shows 133,000 official COVID-19 cases among children were reported in the week ending December 2. This is why we, the West Coast Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees, join in the international support of the Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, an important initiative led by the WSWS.

On Sunday, the New York Times published a detailed report chronicling the systematic, years-long mass murder of civilians by the United States in Iraq and Syria, carried out by a death squad called Talon Anvil. Talon Anvil also labeled more and more strikes as “self-defense,” which did not require justification based on intelligence, as opposed to offensive operations, which did. Talon Anvil was the name of a Delta Force unit within the larger Task Force 9, which coordinated US military operations against the Islamic State (ISIS) forces in Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2019. Bombs rained down for nearly four hours, killing 1,654 men, women and children. Some of the women survived years of slave labor, but 82 children were gassed within weeks at the Chelmno extermination camp.

Accused Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley will be back in court on Monday on charges he killed four kids and injured seven other people. Crumbley, 15, is facing four counts of first-degree murder, one count of terrorism and seven counts of assault with intent to kill. Emily Elconin/Getty ImagesAlleged Michigan high school shooter Ethan Crumbley attends his arraignment via video link. Oakland County Sheriff's OfficeMichigan school officials might also see charges for ignoring red flags ahead of the deadly mass shooting, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald warned. Lawyers for a Michigan high school student injured in the shooting have accused the district of destroying relevant case evidence, according to recent court filings.

Complete coverage: Tornadoes hit several states, killing dozensOfficials in Kentucky are struggling to assess the extent of the devastation from the weekend’s deadly tornadoes, unsure of how many have perished and who remains missing as the emergency response enters its third day Monday. Live updates: Kentucky struggles to gauge death toll, destruction; thousands without powerPhotos and video: See the damage left by the tornadoesThe storm’s path: Satellite images show leveled buildingsThe candle factory: Family and first responders mount a desperate rescue effortExplainer: How Friday night’s rare and deadly December tornado outbreak unfoldedClimate: A warming world could add more fuel to tornadoes, scientists say

The first is an influx of more than 1 million immigrants to the country, largely from Haiti and Venezuela, since 2014. The second is the mobilization of Chile’s largest Indigenous group, the Mapuche, to reclaim control of land and resources that were forcibly taken from them during the country’s settlement. The third is the country’s rapidly shifting gender norms and women’s rights, including last week’s legalization of same-sex marriage and recent steps to decriminalize abortion.

But the text, released by the Senate Finance Committee, also highlighted the considerable work lawmakers must still do if they hope to bring the bill to the floor before the holiday. One of the most contentious issues — state and local tax relief targeting Americans in higher-cost communities — still has not been resolved. Democrats essentially left the section blank, as they continue to war over the future of that reduction, which some liberals see as too generous for the wealthy.

State officials are preparing to distribute 2.1 million free rapid coronavirus tests in more than 100 Massachusetts communities in a move that Gov. Cheaper rapid tests — which can be taken at home — are coming soon to other Bay State communities, Lt. Gov. “This is not just a one-time distribution of a one-time test,” Baker told reporters. The Republican governor declined to say how much people might expect to pay for the rapid tests, saying state officials are currently in negotiations. Anyone who tests positive for coronavirus using a PCR or rapid test should quarantine for 10 days in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidance, Sudders said.

The Columbus Dispatch USA TODAY NETWORKHome care workers deserve better pay, plus benefitsCiting the labor shortage in the Dec. 4 article "Why won’t Ohio boost pay for home care workers?" Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran asserts “We could give them every dime…They wouldn’t be able to hire people.”Oh really?! More:Ohio's home care industry asks for a lifeline in COVID-19 pandemic to boost worker wagesHome care workers are expected to keep patients alive, yet most do not receive the same benefits as state employees (like Corcoran). Benefits such as Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation if injured, PTO for sick leave or vacation, promotions, pay raises, support from co-workers, or breaks. More:Opinion: Higher pay, big bonuses alone will not fill home health aides jobsWe need an immediate boost, but not just in pay.

Letters to the EditorVaccinated should have to pay for those who won't get vaccine? I’m dismayed that so many can compartmentalize their political loyalty apart from their moral or religious convictions. More:Theodore Decker: Pumpkins lead to contemplation of waste, and wastefulnessEvery day in central Ohio, nearly a million tons of food waste enters the landfill. This takes up space and, as it breaks down, creates powerful methane gasses that are a leading cause of climate change. More:Progressive Democrat Morgan Harper enters U.S. Senate race, setting up challenge to Tim RyanRyan can’t win a U.S. senate seat.

To think of Tiger King is to immediately transport yourself to the heady days of lockdown 2020. The algorithm said that Tiger King was a hit so, guess what, now we’ve got loads more Tiger King to wade through. Last month’s Tiger King 2 tried to keep the party going, but it was clearly running on fumes. But Netflix, in all its infinite wisdom, has already churned out yet another Tiger King series. This one, Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, takes the form of a true crime documentary, aimed at a peripheral character from season one.

NGOs and activists have called for a ban on the use of autonomous weapons that are no longer strictly controlled by human hands, calling the so-called "killer robots" a "threat to humanity". Steve Goose Director, Human Rights Watch's Arms Division"These are weapons systems that would operate without meaningful human control. "Not coincidentally, these are the same countries that are the farthest along in developing killer robots," Goose revealed. However, according to Steve Goose, the CCW has made "very little progress" since it started discussing this concern in 2014. Watch the full interview with Human Rights Watch's Arms Division director Steve Goose in the video player above.

UncoveredWhat we've uncoveredVoids of oversight are widening in South Carolina. Newspapers are shrinking or closing altogether. The federal government is taking on corruption less often. The decline of these watchdogs is a national trend. The shadows are growing around the state.

Representative Devin Nunes announced last week that he’s resigning at the end of the month to go to work for former President Donald Trump. But it does tell us a fair amount about the House, the Republican Party and, perhaps, Trump himself. Paul Ryan became Ways and Means chairman in 2015 during a second period of Republican majorities. He wasn’t exactly known for policy expertise — but he was known for talking a lot about policy, even if there were a lot of questions about whether he was really doing the work. It could put Nunes in the position of having to vote for things that Trump might not support.

“After the first period local teachers will participate in the first-ever Dash For Cash. $5,000 is up for grabs for teachers to use in their classrooms,” Todd tweeted on Friday. The teacher pay gap is widening, says the National Education Association, the largest teacher’s unions in the country. In 2020, the Economic Policy Institute found in 2020 that the average classroom teacher’s salary is between 2% and 33% less than other comparably college-educated professionals. On Sunday, Illinois-based activist Anthony V. Clark echoed this disparity to his 55 million followers in response to Todd’s video.

The report reads like a blueprint for a coup — not just for the attempt that just happened, but also for a future one. It provides a glimpse into the story the committee is piecing together about this effort to thwart a legitimately elected government from taking power, first through almost unimaginably corrupt pressure on many government actors, and then through mob violence.

Health data have historically lumped all Asian American people together, obscuring distinct health disparities and leaving vulnerable communities neglected by researchers and policymakers. Asian American communities are essentially averaged-out into invisibility: Good health for some masks poor health for others. Health data have historically lumped all Asian American people together, obscuring distinct health disparities. What would be needed to construct a fuller representation of Asian American communities and their well-being? Reductive myths and stereotypes have allowed health disparities in Asian American communities to go unaddressed for too long.

It is worrisome that the protectionist policies all three countries have now signed onto could hinder economic development and supply-chain resiliency in North America. The value for North America would be transformative, going beyond trade. To recap, the USMCA signed by President Donald Trump is different from its predecessor NAFTA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Third, increased use of rail freight within North America could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions created by jumbo container ships. The USMCA can be a catalyst for three leaders to build a much stronger North America that can create transformative value for all three countries.

Share this Story: Arjun Singh: Breaking the grass ceiling — why Greenbelt development is essential to Toronto's futureArjun Singh: Breaking the grass ceiling — why Greenbelt development is essential to Toronto's future Legions of middle-aged and baby-boomer homeowners who moved into the Greenbelt decades ago have been quick to mobilize against any hint of relaxing regulationsArticle content The last six years have seen the average price of a single-family, detached home increase by $300,000. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content In many parts of the country, the problem is the absence of land to support a growing population. Try refreshing your browser, or Arjun Singh: Breaking the grass ceiling — why Greenbelt development is essential to Toronto's future Back to video It obviously would be unreasonable to build affordable housing complexes over parks and destroy the quality of life for residents. Article content Not even renting is an alternative for many people, as the upward pressure on prices has also increased rents.

I’m not sure how much more proof Sen. Kyrsten Sinema needs. Republicans at the highest level of the government were in possession of a blueprint to overthrow the government. Her colleagues are supporting legislation that sends voting rights back to Jim Crow days. But if they don’t, then I don’t think they belong in the Senate anymore.”Compromise is only possible if both sides are willing to participate. If Democrats like Sinema don’t act to protect voting rights while they have a chance there will be no need for any future compromise.

The court has never defined what counts as a compelling interest. Generally, it has relied on common sense: an interest that any reasonable person would understand to be very important. But compelling interest is the indispensable starting point. In October, the court declined to block Maine’s requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus notwithstanding their religious objections. Gorsuch, dissenting (joined by Thomas and Alito), wrote the following:"I accept that what we said 11 months ago remains true today — that '[s]temming the spread of COVID–19' qualifies as 'a compelling inter­est.'

Today in History for December 13thU.S. forces capture Iraq's ousted dictator Saddam Hussein; Authorities in communist Poland impose martial law; Union forces suffer defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia; Actor Dick Van Dyke is born.

Doctor in Michigan, Where Unvaccinated People Are Filling Hospital Beds” (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Dec. 8):Dr. Rob Davidson’s experiences at a small Michigan hospital mirror my own working as a staff pharmacist at a small regional medical center in Minnesota. For more than a month we have seen our patient census at two to three times normal, with anywhere from a third to two-thirds of patients ill with Covid-19. Our emergency room is constantly full with all manner of patients, though those with Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 make up the majority. Determination to give quality care coexists with fear of missing something important while caring for so many patients.

“Food Bank for New York City is the largest food assistance organization in New York City. We’re actually moving more food out of the warehouse than we ever have before. And then we also have to balance that with the fact that we’re constantly looking for drivers to put in those trucks. And across the city, we’re seeing a 44 percent increase in New Yorkers who rely on food bank services.” “In my house, there are eight people and two babies. Gratefully, we have the food that we need right now.

The 35-year-old social media manager from Cranston, R.I., left her job and deactivated her social media accounts, and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and complicated grief. “There’s the number of how many people who have been lost to Covid, but not a lot of focus on how hellish it is in the aftermath,” she said. Grief counselors say that Covid deaths may be as traumatic as losing someone suddenly and violently, like to a suicide, murder or fatal car crash. Prolonged grief disorder is associated with a greater risk for sleep disorders, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, hospitalization and suicide attempts. “None of these will prevent grief, but they can help us integrate and bear with inevitable losses with greater strength, support and wisdom,” he said.

It’s often suggested that White Americans owe something to Black Americans, or that White people should live with guilt over their “White privilege.” But White privilege is not a privilege at all. It’s the range of opportunities that are promised to all Americans. When we fall short of delivering on that promise, it’s incumbent not just on White Americans, but on the United States as a nation — as an institution — to rectify that imbalance. That’s why I have argued in favor of reparations for descendants of enslaved people.

Critics flamed the Los Angeles Times editorial board over the weekend for arguing that California's last remaining nuclear power plant needed to be closed in the name of doing even more to fight climate change. "It’s our planet at stake, and California’s leaders must ensure the sunset of nuclear power is not followed by a damaging rise in greenhouse gases," it added. Critics took to social media to blast the board, with some arguing that being against nuclear power meant they weren't serious about fighting climate change, and others suggesting that it was denying science to argue against the use of nuclear power to fight climate change. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, argued that there wasn't actually a better way to fight climate change as the board suggested. LIBERALS USE DEADLY TORNADOS TO ATTACK REPUBLICANS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich reacted Monday to the Democrats' scramble to pass Build Back Better amid rising inflation. CONGRESSIONAL DEMS ROILED BY DIVISION ON ISSUES FROM MASSIVE SPENDING BILLS TO VACCINE MANDATESNEWT GINGRICH: If you're Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer you’re already discounting next year and assuming you’re gonna get wiped out, so you’re trying to drive through everything to pay off your allies before the catastrophe hits. And I think it’s a little bit like people trying to build a house on a beach while a tsunami’s coming, and they’re trying desperately to finish the house and this wave gets bigger every week. I’m amazed by it, and it will be very interesting to see if Joe Manchin caves because what you’re seeing is a network of political power in Washington against the entire rest of the country. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW

La beca cubrirá a todos los estudiantes elegibles que se inscriban en una universidad estatal. Los estudiantes que cumplan con las calificaciones obtendrán automáticamente la financiación a través de su universidad. La percepción de que la educación superior es inasequible es una razón clave por la que los estudiantes no persiguen títulos universitarios de cuatro años, según Arnold. Él espera que una versión futura del programa pueda expandirse para pagar a los estudiantes para que también asistan a las universidades comunitarias de Arizona. La beca de la promesa se abrió paso en la Legislatura como parte del discurso más amplio de las universidades sobre la contribución a la economía de Arizona y la preparación de futuros trabajadores para el cambio económico.

There are numerous instances in which conception becomes a tragedy instead of a joyous expectation of birth. And for the last 50 years, when women have needed abortion before the point of viability, they have relied on the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey to exercise their right of personal autonomy to make a private decision about their health and well-being while weighing the burdens and obligations of parenthood.

For example, though Biden should be applauded for assembling a bipartisan commission to analyze potential reforms to the Supreme Court, the commission consists of an extraordinarily narrow constituency: The 36 commissioners consist of former federal judges, law professors and law scholars. Biden all but ensured that foundational questions would not be explored; that deliberations instead would circle around narrow, procedural concerns; and that the country, when all was said and done, would still lack anything approximating a road map or mandate for systemic change.

Real estate billionaire Stephen Ross’s Related Companies, Olympia Development of Michigan and the University of Michigan announced Monday that its $250 million Detroit Center for Innovation will be built in the District Detroit. Officials were expected to further discuss Monday the research and education center that will be anchored by the University of Michigan. It will be constructed on a four-acre surface parking area between Cass and Grand River and between W. Columbia and Elizabeth streets, officials said. "That impact will be best achieved in The District Detroit where it will connect with existing density and ignite additional development, especially with technology leaders like ServiceNow driving job creation, attracting entrepreneurs, and inspiring the next generation of trailblazing talent. But in July of this year, Ross and Bedrock announced the center would not be built on the 14-acre Gratiot property.

In yet another round of incoherent appearances last week, Dementia Joe once more laid out his strategy on how you too can become a booster person. “Get the booster shots at CVC.” OK, probably more Americans had considered going to CVS, but whatever you say, Mr. President. All kidding aside, Dementia Joe, nobody thinks you’re president. Is she by any chance related to Amy Klobuchar, who ran for president against Dementia Joe last year? Remember, to become a booster person, you must get vaccillated — at your nearest CVC.

It’s a staple of the student experience at Western Kentucky University and a local favorite in the Bowling Green community. The Bypass they mention is the US Route 31-W, which winds its way around downtown Bowling Green. As of this writing, at least 90 people are estimated to have died — 80 of them in Kentucky, and 11 in Bowling Green itself. Local churches stepped up to barbecue and provide food for the local community, as did several restaurants, which are feeding people free of charge. It is also not the Bowling Green I know, nor is it the Bowling Green I have seen these past few days.

That tech companies are reaching for these thin straws becomes even more apparent when looking at Facebook and Amazon’s “case” for FTC Chair Lina Khan’s recusal. The case for Khan’s recusal on principle is similarly nonexistent. For years, they have recruited antitrust regulators to revolve back and forth between the C-suites of Google, Facebook, and Amazon and the offices of the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division. Giving in to these demands would not only pose a direct threat to Biden’s antitrust enforcement agenda, it would also set a precedent that could undermine public-minded enforcement of all kinds. To understand why this would be so dire, one need only look at the last several decades of antitrust (non)enforcement.

Q: Former President Trump has been undermining the 2020 election result for most of this year; you know, he puts out statements, various releases. And I wonder why President Biden has not used his bully pulpit to push back on the misinformation coming from former president Trump, just given that democracy is such a top concern? MS. PSAKI: Why does President Bid — sorry, just so I understand your question: Why does President Biden not debate or lift up President Trump and his statements? Q: I don’t think that — no, I don’t think that’s what I was saying. Q: Why isn’t President Biden pushing back on the misinformation that the former President is putting out?

On the face of it, Stillwright Point looks like a poster child for the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law earlier this year. The largest tranche of money in the bipartisan bill goes toward so-called “hard” transportation infrastructure such as roads, highways, bridges, and public transit. Projects funded by the infrastructure bill will only be as useful and as forward-looking as the state officials who disburse the money. There is no guarantee that the states responsible for disbursing the new infrastructure bill funds will deal with these vulnerabilities rather than build new projects. The Senate version of the infrastructure bill, cobbled together by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who by and large do not sit on the relevant committees involving infrastructure, scrapped all these provisions , to the disappointment of House progressives such as Peter DeFazio (D-OR), who had spearheaded the earlier version.

FILE - This undated booking file photo provided by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office shows Alan James Swinney, a member of the Proud Boys right-wing group. Swinney has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his violent actions during August 2020 protests in Portland, Oregon. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office via AP, File) FILE - This undated booking file photo provided by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office shows Alan James Swinney, a member of the Proud Boys right-wing group. Swinney has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his violent actions during August 2020 protests in Portland, Oregon. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A far-right extremist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his violent actions during August 2020 protests against racial injustice in Oregon’s largest city.

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Only some small-scale workforce skills and the allocation of transportation funds toward apprenticeship programs. Onlysome small-scale workforce skills measures were included , such as digital trainingand theallocation of transportation funds toward apprenticeship programs. A little more than half of infrastructure workers have a high school diploma or less as compared to nearly 32% of all workers, according to the Brookings Institution. "Mammas didn't want their babies to grow up to be construction workers." Construction workers stand in front of wind turbine blades at a wind farm in Encino, New Mexico.

Tom Simplotopinion contributorHomeownership can be expensive with mortgage payments, utility bills, home insurance, property taxes and even homeowner’s association fees quickly adding up. Once approved, the financial assistance will go directly to the entity that is owed money – not the homeowner. The funds also pay for delinquent utility bills, internet services and other property fees that could lead to the homeowner losing their home. Working directly with the entities owed money increases efficiency of the housing assistance efforts. How to get helpWe at the Arizona Department of Housing know ensuring that the state can match the demand for housing is a critical issue.

“I’d be a lot better if kids would stop shooting each other,” he said matter-of-factly. It was one of those moments of instant perspective, when you suddenly realize that whatever you were worrying about doesn’t matter that much. That’s the question we take on in Kids Who Kill, a weeklong special report. It’s a symptom of multiple factors, including access to guns, generational poverty, drug abuse and kids who are forced to raise themselves on the streets. But the conversations at the center of Kids Who Kill do serve a purpose.

How did we get to this ugly state of affairs, where partisan interests trump our national interest? Although neither of our political parties has clean hands, the Republican Party is primarily responsible for today’s slash-and-burn political partisanship. GOP lawmakers must have supported Trump’s Putinophilia because we heard nary a peep of disapproval from them during Trump’s tenure. The GOP has done an about face on Putin and Russia since Joe Biden became president. There are many other instances where GOP extremism has damaged the national interest.

We also know that many of what were thought to be single tornadoes in history turned out to be families of tornadoes. Does climate change play a role? Significant tornado events outside typical tornado season raise the question of whether climate change may have played a role. Event-based attribution for climate change is still in development, particularly for tornadoes that need fine scales to model. Given the historical precedent, it would be misleading to definitively state a relationship to climate change without further assessment.

Over the last year, our adversaries around the world have watched the Biden-Harris administration stumble from one blunder to the next. Should Ukraine fall to Russian control, what’s to stop Putin from making incursions into Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia or Georgia? Capitulation to the now-complete NordStream II pipeline has already given Russia a firm grasp over European energy supplies. Instead of fly-swatters, the Biden-Harris administration must send Ukraine bear traps in the form of lethal military assistance. Now is not the time for the Biden-Harris administration to flinch in the face of Putin’s ambitions.

President Joe Biden is not in favor of real Supreme Court reform, and he formed a commission to all but ensure that none is forthcoming. President Joe Biden is not in favor of real Supreme Court reform. At the moment when we most need genuine, structural changes to the Supreme Court, we won’t get them. When President Biden was candidate Biden, it was clear he had little appetite for talking about, let alone committing to, real Supreme Court reform. By forming the commission, Biden can truthfully say he asked some of the most accomplished legal minds in the country to take a look at recommendations to reform the Supreme Court.

A 15-year-old accused of opening fire at his Michigan high school, killing four students and wounding seven other people, is due in court Monday for a procedural hearing. Ethan Crumbley is charged as an adult with murder, terrorism and other counts in the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School, about 30 miles north of Detroit. It’s possible that the case could be put on hold if his attorney seeks a mental competency exam. AdvertisementCrumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are accused of failing to intervene on the day of the tragedy and are charged with involuntary manslaughter and were arrested. The gun used in the shooting also was bought days before by James Crumbley, and their son had full access to it, prosecutors said.

The need for affordable housing is paramount – around the country and here at home. At its core, affordable housing should be, well, affordable. How will they find other affordable housing? Preserving existing housing stock is a smart and cost-effective strategy. Our community strategy to advance affordable housing should prioritize the preservation of existing homes.

Cheryl Lero Jonson, Brooke Miller Gialopsos and Melissa M. MoonOpinion contributorsMass school shootings are still a haunting reality for this country. So, how does this analogy relate to mass school shootings? We contend mass school shootings can be approached using these same three layers, each serving a critical role and having the ability to save lives. This work attempts to prevent mass violence from occurring in schools in the first place. Mass school shootings devastate the communities and the people impacted.

Their benefit can provide the couple with some supplementary income, which can enable the higher earner to delay. Then, when the higher earner signs up, the Social Security Administration will automatically switch the lower earner over to a spousal benefit if it's worth more than what they qualify for on their own. Whether you sign up for Social Security in 2022 is ultimately a personal decision. And if you don't think 2022 is the best time to sign up, put the decision off for a year and revisit it in 2023. The $16,728 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook

Things to know today: The latest from the deadly tornadoes that killed dozens in five states; a new Miss Universe is crowned; NFL Week 14 recap and more.

The Editorial BoardUSA TODAYYou’re reading Our View, one of two perspectives in Today’s Debate. For the Opposing View, read Democrats try to grab power through election 'reform.' USA TODAY's Editorial Board has never favored setting aside the Senate filibuster. It is not that the parliamentary rule requiring 60 votes to advance legislation is somehow sacrosanct. But it engenders the kind of consensus Americans yearn for in republican government and, as a result, can restore a measure of sorely lacking trust.

“Vista” opens with an interplay of oboes; “Innocence,” with just a handful of low instruments before the entrance of a wailing bassoon. Like Flaubert’s sentences, Saariaho’s writing here is crafted with the economy of an essentialist. And in that lies the wisdom of Saariaho’s most recent music, which feels like the culmination of a master’s practice. Magisterial in her command of such forces, Saariaho writes unwaveringly in service of the drama. So Saariaho should continue to be a highlight of the classical music year, for years to come.

What began as a special edition of The New York Times Magazine is now a national cultural phenomenon that has generated a book, a podcast, a forthcoming documentary series, an illustrated children’s book and educational materials for schools. “The 1619 Project” was the brainchild of Ms. Hannah-Jones, a correspondent for The Times Magazine, and has ignited a passionate and polarizing conversation about how America’s history is taught in schools. Often associated with critical race theory, “The 1619 Project” has become the subject of controversy in politics and education. How should they respond to detractors’ calls to ban “The 1619 Project” and other subject matter that addresses the history of racial inequity and the Black experience in America? Join Ms. Hannah-Jones and Donnalie Jamnah of the Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Education Network, in conversation with Jake Silverstein, the editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine.

American politics these days can often seem fairly normal. But American politics today is not really normal. An anti-democratic movement, inspired by Donald Trump but much larger than him, is making significant progress, as my colleague Charles Homans has reported. It has justified the changes with blatantly false statements claiming that Biden did not really win the 2020 election. Most leading Republican politicians have either looked the other way or supported the anti-democratic movement.

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Can We Have a Meaningful Life in a Virtual World? But what’s something that a virtual world might be missing that, in your thinking, could inhibit the pursuit of a meaningful life? You can build a meaningful life in a virtual world. We can get into deep social and political discussions and decisions about the shape of society in a virtual world. But most of these basic kinds of things that matter, you ought to be able to get in a virtual world.

Negret and a team of researchers blamed the deaths on an institutional failure to instruct officers not to use firearms against the crowds, and on a response that prioritized the protection of police stations over the lives of officers and protesters. They described the violence as “one of the most serious episodes of violations against human rights in the history of the city of Bogotá.”

Since Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which established federal sex trafficking crimes and protections for victims, we continue to see how the categories of “victim” and “defendant” have proven to be less than tidy. According to a recent study from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, women and girls represent the majority of human trafficking victims. Jeffreys was accused of trafficking women and teenage girls across multiple states in New England. Criminal law is a blunt instrument for navigating the challenges presented by the victim-defendant. Moreover, criminal law remains the dominant mode of governmental intervention.

Paul Koretz kills a bike lane on Melrose and fights a bus lane on Wilshire. Another issue in Los Angeles is that we tend to build bike lanes in small segments based on the city’s repaving schedule. The problem here is that just like car lanes, bike (and bus) lanes really work well only as a network. That requires a network of protected bike lanes that connect to other protected bike lanes, criss-crossing the city. It makes no sense to install bike share stations without building a network of safe bike lanes.

Ned Lamont, Connecticut is poised to act on this influx of funding. His Department of Transportation commissioner, Joseph Giulietti, has a strong track record of executing projects and is a well-known entity in the transit industry. The governor, himself an advocate of public transit, has spent significant political capital fighting for new infrastructure revenue sources and recognizes the vital role public transit plays in strengthening Connecticut’s economy. This misalignment with public preference was reflected in both the 2018 and the landslide 2020 statewide elections. As voters, if we continue to make our voices for public transit and infrastructure heard, we have the chance to write an exciting new chapter in this story.

A frequent claim made by opponents of lenient immigration policy is that undocumented immigrants harm employment opportunities for U.S. citizens. Some politicians target undocumented immigrants as the scapegoat for economic troubles and a threat to the American way of life. The villainization of undocumented immigrants pushes legislation that is restrictive towards undocumented immigrants and encourages the militarization of the southern border. Anti-immigrant sentiments villainize undocumented immigrants and devalue the American dream for millions of immigrants and asylum seekers. It is extremely expensive to deport undocumented immigrants, and it does not solve the recurring illegal entry into the United States.

The child welfare system is broad and complex, and government is only part of the solution. This is why I led an October committee meeting dedicated exclusively to wrestling with the complexities of Kentucky’s child welfare workforce. I have concluded that the best first step we can make toward preventing child abuse and neglect is investing in our child welfare workforce. We must identify and implement innovative recruiting and retention strategies to build and maintain our child welfare workforce. Investing in our state social workers, who invest in the lives of our families and children, is critical toward preventing child abuse and neglect.

They are the children who have lost a parent or other in-home caregiver to the pandemic, and they need our help. These children lost adults who loved them, provided for them, shepherded their education and cultivated their development. Caregiver loss has struck all populations, however, and across all 50 states. The virus has taken a gut-wrenching toll on the youngest children, with 70% of the total caregiver loss affecting children 13 years old or younger – the children most dependent upon their parents and loved ones for all kinds of supports. Evidence from decades of study shows what works to support children who have experienced grief and trauma.

We need Christmas. When we did not love him, when we were running from God, the love of God came to us. This Christmas, we must share the hope of Christmas and Christian community with those who are alone physically, or spiritually, or emotionally. People who are wandering, who are far from the heart of God, and aren’t just superficially lonely, but are spiritually lonely, emotionally lonely, and who need to know Jesus relationally. We need Christmas.

Louisville certainly faced challenges in 2021. COVID-19, gun violence, affordable housing, equity in education, workforce shortages and police reform were at the forefront of many conversations. Before the year ends, The Courier Journal wants to know what your hopes are for Louisville in 2022? Your response may be used for publication so please keep responses under 200 words. Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is The Courier Journal's opinion editor.

MOSCOW – Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Monday warned of confrontation should the United States and NATO fail to give Russia security guarantees concerning its eastern expansion, the RIA news agency reported. President Vladimir Putin has demanded legally binding security guarantees that NATO will not expand further east or place its weapons close to Russian territory; Washington has repeatedly said no country can veto Ukraine’s NATO hopes.

Read more about the guide in a note from Katie Kingsbury, the Opinion editor of The New York Times. NASHVILLE — At this point, you’re probably trying very hard to tread more lightly on this weary and fragile earth. Our collective efforts can make a huge difference, even as the greatest differences will be made in ways that are far beyond the reach of average citizens. I’m talking about supporting the environmental nonprofits that turn donations into collective action. The nonprofit news sources that inform the public about environmental hazards in their own community.

But the truth is that we are already living in a world that is being transformed by climate change. That is the idea behind “Postcards From a World on Fire,” a major project from Times Opinion that published this morning. Last summer, as the COP26 meeting in Glasgow approached, we began work on what I envisioned as an expansive climate project that would draw on nearly every journalistic tool at our disposal. I wanted an assessment of where things stood from every country in the world and to make a bold argument for urgency. That call to action felt even more necessary as we watched the Glasgow summit come and go with high hopes and, ultimately, tepid actions.

Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging.

They are also worried that Biden’s Build Back Better bill will only make matters worse, despite Biden’s non-credible assertions to the contrary. Some in the White House treated the issue as frivolous. Unhappily, the ideologues running the White House will not consider suspending the Jones Act or confronting unionized longshoremen to improve the efficiency of our ports. Instead, Biden and his Democrat colleagues will plow forward with Build Back Better. The reality is that the giant push toward a socialist society will not buy love, or Build Back Biden.

Indeed, two months before the 2020 election, Gellman laid out a similar doomsday scenario. In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Republican state legislative leaders refused to go along with Trump’s perfidy — even under enormous pressure from him. Second, why in 2024 would Republican officials do what they didn’t do last year — and go along with Trump’s coup attempt? Those fearful of a stolen 2024 election also point to new state laws that seek to give greater power to state legislatures and governors than nonpartisan election officials. In Iowa, prosecutors can now charge election officials with a crime for not being sufficiently vigilant in purging voter registration rolls.

Their version of the Build Back Better Act delivers the healthcare, childcare, and immigration reforms that my party has been advocating for decades. The Build Back Better Act certainly makes improvements to the status quo, by requiring PBMs to disclose the discounts they obtained. The House version of the Build Back Better Act would cap out-of-pocket spending at $2,000 annually. Democrats have a chance to dramatically lower drug spending for the most vulnerable seniors. Getting the Build Back Better Act through the House was a monumental achievement.

Over the past three decades, that's pretty much been the norm, regardless of which political party claims the White House. President Joe Biden has a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Nov. 15, 2021. AP Photo/Susan WalshThat's the message Taifa delivered to the Biden White House. In the meeting, White House staff appeared to agree, Taifa said. And the opposition party has been eager to pin blame on the White House, despite the trend beginning under its previous inhabitant.

Up Ship CreekWhen a cargo ship got stuck in the Suez Canal to the tune of $10 billion lost daily in global trade, an amused public giggled—and then our supply pain kicked in

One wants to change the world with movies; the other wishes the world would just leave him alone. An exclusive peek behind the stories. Content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. — Trump’s Capacity to Steal the 2024 Election Is Only Growing— From the Archive: Twitter’s Constant State of Turmoil— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.

Over the course of her life, Hillary Clinton has been a lawyer, a New York senator, a first lady, a presidential candidate, and secretary of state; now, she’s adding one more title to her résumé with a brand-new MasterClass. The MasterClass will address Clinton’s 2016 loss to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, a crushing blow that Clinton recently referenced by delivering the victory speech she would have given if she had won the election, which read, in part: “My fellow Americans, today you sent a message to the whole world. Our values endure, our democracy stands strong, and our motto remains e pluribus unum—out of many, one. We will not be defined only by our differences. The American dream is big enough for everyone.”Register for Clinton’s MasterClass here.

Earlier today, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it would be removing the Sackler name from seven of its exhibition spaces, including the famous wing that hosts the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur. The opioid crisis is estimated to have caused more than 700,000 deaths, with many millions still suffering from an opioid use disorder as a result. Between May 2020 and April 2021, more people died from an opioid overdose in America than in any other 12-month period. Today’s announcement marks an important shift in the conversation around removing the Sackler name from cultural institutions—where the Met goes, many others will likely follow. To see the family’s name no longer venerated in the most hallowed halls of cultural power represents a significant step forward for many Americans.

We are inching extremely close to learning the fate of Josh Duggar. Then came his turn, and on Tuesday, the former reality star's defense team rested its case after calling just two witnesses to the stand:1. Daniel Wilcox, a former Homeland Security Investigator and police officer who was involved in executing the search warrant at Josh’s use car lot in 2019. Michele Bush, an Arizona-based digital forensics expert who has examined a handful of devices seized from Duggar over two years ago. FIRST, tn her introduction as the defense’s first witness, Bush claimed she had 10 years experience as a forensic examiner.

Jinger Duggar has become the latest member of her infamous family to speak out against her brother. Josh Duggar, of course, was convicted on Thursday on two counts of possessing child sex abuse materials. Jill Duggar was far more harsh in her assessment, saying justice was served and Josh got what he deserved. We are also saddened for Josh’s family, his wife and precious children," wrote Jinger to open her critique of Josh. "When a professing follower of Jesus is exposed as a hypocrite, the response of many will be to challenge the integrity of Jesus himself.

“We are saddened for the victims of horrific child abuse. We are also saddened for Josh’s family, his wife and precious children,” Jinger began. She then wrote, “We are saddened for the dishonor this has brought upon Christ’s name. This reality makes the existence of sex trafficking and child abuse one of the most horrific evils imaginable. The 33-year-old was immediately taken into custody and faces up to 40 years of jail time and $500,000 in fines.

And as I researched the book, I kept coming back to the implications talking to strangers could have for entrepreneurs. All of which is to say, I decided that I needed to become an expert at talking to strangers. A lot of people hate small talk, which is understandable, because a lot of small talk is deadly boring. The key to talking to strangers, it turns out, is letting go, letting them lead. As I learned repeatedly while testing techniques of talking to strangers, I’d often be rewarded with free food.

Here are five things we must remind ourselves of as we embrace our coworkers and show up as great office mates. Part of being a great office mate means being considerate of how you use shared space. Remember to mute yourself Taking conference calls from our bedrooms will be very different then taking calls right next to our coworkers at an open table. advertisementEstablish new routines with coworkers Many of us will be reuniting with coworkers while also meeting some people for the first time. Let’s show each other kindness and patience as we make our way through the Great Reunion so we can show up as great office mates for each other.

You’re highly attuned to subtleties in your environment, as well as others’ emotions. The truth is that the trait of high sensitivity, if leveraged correctly, can be your greatest strength and professional asset. As work becomes increasingly automated, the need for highly sensitive professionals—and their strengths of natural intuition and creativity—have never been more crucial. How to tap into your strength of sensitivity in the workplace Choose a diplomatic approachadvertisementAs a highly sensitive person, you think longer and more deliberately before taking action. As a highly sensitive person who experiences strong emotions, you might feel like you’re carrying a heavy load, especially in the workplace.

News reports suggest that for low-income households, this burden has increased during the pandemic. The takeaway: Chile found a way to pay for water and sewer investment while still protecting the poor. How a US water aid program might work If the U.S. creates a national water aid program, key questions will include who is eligible and how much water is an “essential” quantity for households. Reliable national data on U.S. household water usage is nearly nonexistent, and there is no estimate of how much water low-income households use. Low-income households would not have to file new paperwork to receive benefits.

When it came to a new round of funding from the Andrus Family Fund, the foundation wanted to do something different. As part of its 20th anniversary, it launched the Visionary Freedom Fund, with an intention to include more young people in the grantmaking process. “The board felt that instead of focusing [on] and celebrating themselves, we should leverage this million dollars to make an impact in the youth justice field,” Arciniegas says. The Power Table, a new addition to the grantmaking process, steered the decisions for how the fund would distribute a total of $2.5 million. “These are the ways systems fail our kids, and kids know that,” Arciniegas says.

advertisementadvertisementThis is the scenario Matt Desmond, the Principal Investigator at Princeton’s Eviction Lab (which gets funding from my organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), has shared with me about the precariousness of our housing system. While the scale and gravity of this crisis is daunting, there’s also a little hope: we now have a historic influx of resources that can rebuild our housing system from the ground up. COVID brought widespread attention and magnified the current eviction crisis, but the systemic inequities within our housing system predate the pandemic. As it stands, landlords are able to deny housing if a potential rental applicant has a record of an eviction. JustFix, for instance, cocreates tools with tenants, organizers, and legal advocates to prevent displacement and achieve stable, healthy housing for all.

At the tip of lower Manhattan, New York City is building a a massive system of floodwalls and floodgates, in preparation for rising sea levels and more powerful storms. In a new project, the design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm HOK explores how the rest of the city could adapt to rising sea levels. The challenge is huge: By 2100, as the population in New York City grows to 10 million, the sea level could be 6 feet higher. In the project, as the designers mapped out where sea level rise will impact the city, they also looked at where there’s currently space to build on higher ground. “How we can create a really energetic urban city, thriving in the future, in the face of all these issues with sea level rise, and knowing we’re not going to build a 500-mile wall, right?

In a new study, researchers have identified a tipping point, beyond which extreme polarization becomes irreversible. The model allows researchers to study the effects of party identity and political intolerance on ideological extremism and partisan division. “We found that polarization increases incrementally only up to a point,” Macy said. At each time step, the model records two measures of polarization: partisan division and ideological extremism. Below the critical point in the level of polarization, the researchers found that the upward trend in polarization would reverse when the researchers dialed down the control parameters.

Several months in, the Great Resignation continues to upend workforces across the country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 4.4 million employees quit their jobs in September. With the masses behind it, the Great Resignation promises a sort of labor revolution for a formerly disenfranchised workforce. In all situations, it’s clear employers should take note, as the Great Resignation threatens to scuttle a full economic recovery following nearly two years of pandemic. The labor market is still in a shrunken state, 4 million jobs short of pre-pandemic times, and the number of job vacancies stood at 10.4 million in September.

Using the waste For the solar waste mentioned above, if the materials could be efficiently recovered, they would have an estimated value of $15 billion (£11.2 billion) and could make 2 billion new solar panels. For example, semiconductors–materials widely used in computer chips–are also needed for solar panels and low-energy lighting, the magnets needed for wind turbines are also needed for low-carbon vehicles. Already certain elements, such as indium, are being designed out of emerging solar technologies because of worries over supply. This contained an estimated 379,000kg of critical materials, with a potential value of £148 million. advertisementThese critical elements are not being efficiently recovered and recycled, meaning that this technology is inherently unsustainable at present.

Yet factors such as emotional intelligence, compassion, and flexibility are incredibly important in today’s changing work environment. While there isn’t necessarily a tangible way to measure emotional intelligence during the interview process, consider the way applicants paint the picture. Instead of experience or skills, team leaders need to focus on personality traits because you can’t teach personality. Highlight the ways that you may have struggled in your work amid COVID-19 and its shifting work environment. Take note of the way in which those in the interview process kept their chins up during more difficult times.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be committed and productive through astute virtual leadership. To get the work done, virtual leaders may become more directive because they feel a loss of control. advertisementadvertisementParadoxically, this more directive approach is the opposite of what is needed for effective virtual leadership. Navigating the benefits and challenges of virtual work Lack of visibility into team members’ work situation. Studies show that team leaders fear becoming dispensable and underestimate team members’ ability to lead when necessary .

But that’s not what we did: Instead, we entered a national dogfight over politics. As Americans struggled to pay bills, Congress spent months squabbling over stimulus aid. People quit jobs over employers failing to protect workers from the virus, and later, over company-wide vaccine mandates. A new study could shed light: Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, it suggests political polarization increases as people retreat into their party identities. In previous research, the model accurately predicted polarization trends in 28 of the past 30 actual U.S. Congresses.

Yes, there’s no shortage of time management advice out there, all of which promises to make us more productive than ever. advertisementadvertisementSo if you’re ready for a true shift in perspective and priorities, it’s time to go deeper. Armed with the knowledge from the five books below, you’ll be ready to finally focus on what matters and be able to build a life that is equal parts productive and profoundly meaningful. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals By Oliver Burkeman At best, we all get about 4,000 weeks (or, almost 77 years) of life. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.

It has likely helped you get to where you are today — and perhaps you’re happy and fulfilled with continually striving for the next goal. It’s imminently possible to shift ­– so long as you’re willing to look under the hood. Now let’s uncover the assumptions you’re making. Write your definition of success by pushing away fear of judgment and answering these questions in as much detail as possible:What does meaningful work look like for you? Once you’re on a roll and consistently completing your initial action, you can build up the intensity.

The use of smart tech by social service agencies and other nonprofits exploded during the pandemic. We use “smart tech” as an umbrella term for advanced digital technologies that make decisions for people. At many nonprofits, smart tech is becoming integrated into internal workflows, fundraising, communications, finance operations, and service delivery efforts. Making strategic decisions about when and how to use smart tech is therefore a leadership challenge, not a technical problem. We call the nonprofit organizations that are using smart tech responsibly “smart nonprofits.” The kind of leadership required to lead these organizations is:Human-Centered: These leaders take a human-centered approach to adopting new technology by finding the sweet spot between people and smart tech, while ensuring that people are always in charge of the technology.

If your organization isn’t making large tech investments, you’re in the minority. Much of their current tech investment, unfortunately, is made in an effort to “keep up” with the rising table stakes requirements of the digital age. How can technology help us excel at those differentiating capabilities? 2) Balance your investments across big tech, small tech, and no techNot every problem needs a big tech solution. Often, the solution requires complementing big technology platforms with simpler “small tech” automation and processes, new policies, and behavior changes.

The first step in your journey is to define different aspects of your philanthropic personality, such as thinking about the way you give today. One guiding question you may want to use when you’re thinking about your own philanthropic priorities is:What is my vision of a better world? In fact, you can have many different visions of a better world, each one with a specific action plan for making that vision a reality. Together, these become philanthropic mission statements. Creating philanthropic mission statementsOnce you’ve defined your visions, you can move on to the next step of formalizing them in one or more philanthropic mission statements.

Approximately 8,400 of the estimated 15,000-20,000 young people experiencing homelessness in New York City are LGBTQ+. Though there are many programs, nonprofits and shelters fighting to change these statistics, the numbers are daunting and the resources limited.

For employees who stay within an organization, this loyalty shift occurs as internal episodic loyalty as they take on new tasks, projects, and roles. However, suppose an organization demonstrates loyalty to a gig worker by providing them with an attractive benefit typically given only to FTEs — such as paid vacation time — but the gig worker doesn’t demonstrate reciprocal loyalty by continuing their relationship with the company. Certainly, it seems that organizations need to provide an incentive for gig workers to feel that their loyalty is warranted. Likewise, what are the gig workers offering that stimulates a sense of loyalty from the company? Whatever the anchor point for an organization’s affiliation with a gig worker, it needs to be communicated and reflected in its actions.

Member Free 5 free articles per month, $6.95/article thereafter, free newsletter. But, particularly for adults, remote learning worked relatively well. But, particularly for adults, remote learning worked relatively well. But these experiments made it possible to work in ways that organizations once felt customers wouldn’t accept — or that they as providers couldn’t execute. At its heart, it will require a radical rethinking of the assumptions that drive managerial decision-making and a change in mindset for leaders at all levels.

We call these mixed-mode meetings to avoid the confusion caused by labeling them hybrid. As the situation evolved, it became clear to the CEO that there were circumstances in which mixed-mode meetings made sense, such as when dealing with emerging contingencies or potential crises. But beyond these more exceptional cases, when does it make sense for leadership teams to have mixed-mode meetings? By their nature, mixed-mode meetings tend to erode this foundation, so their frequency should reflect that: If more mixed-mode meetings are being conducted, the investment in sustaining the foundation by bringing the whole team together should correspondingly rise. Convene mixed-mode meetings only when having some people together physically creates business value, not just because of proximity.

In an initial study, they examined how eight selection panels composed of senior managers and leading engineers allocate money to new research ideas. To improve their track record of choosing the right innovations to bring forward, leaders must first understand where R&D selection panels go wrong. Another way to assess innovation projects is to use workshops, which bring together experts from different fields to work together. Related ArticlesBy monitoring outcomes of the selection process — both successes and failures — it is possible to assess how well the current selection process works. Our research shows that by understanding the potential pitfalls and improving the process, companies can make smarter decisions and generate better outcomes.

To succeed in the next era, businesses and marketers must meet new expectations and build new strategies and skills. As technology continues to become more sophisticated — with increasing numbers of algorithm-based recommendation systems and chatbot-based customer service processes — more aspects of commerce can cut back on human interactions. Customer Assumption 4:Pandemic-era service restrictions are only temporary. And it’s easier to resist adding services when vocal customer segments argue that adding the services runs counter to their values. Yes, your customer may welcome an in-person visit to close a new deal or to maintain the relationship.

Image courtesy of James Fryer/theispot.comSwedish fashion giant H&M’s commitment to “operating with respect to human rights across the value chain” recently cost the company $74 million and the wrath of its third-biggest — and fastest-growing — market. Drawing on our research in business ethics and sustainability — including discussions with managers and human rights groups, and a close examination of how businesses have addressed these issues in the past — we’ve created a framework to help companies develop a business and human rights strategy that is applicable to their situations. Markus Scholz (@scholz101) holds the Endowed Chair of Corporate Governance & Business Ethics and is head of the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainable Strategy at the University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication in Vienna. He is also a visiting scholar at INSEAD’s Ethics and Social Responsibility Initiative. Jane Williams is a writer and editor who has conducted research in association with INSEAD’s Ethics and Social Responsibility Initiative.

You’ll gain more insight into organizational culture — and find targeted ways to change it — by also analyzing patterns of collaboration. Those same networks can also help leaders identify and overcome obstacles to cultural change and discover unexpected allies. Peterson, “The Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate,” 2nd ed. Warrick, “What Leaders Need to Know About Organizational Culture,” Business Horizons 60, no. E.H. Schein, “Organizational Culture and Leadership,” 5th ed.

Identifying and making allies of these game changers can help leaders who are finding it difficult to drive innovation in operations, the authors tell us. Get Updates on Transformative Leadership Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly. They suggest changing that game — and increasing the likelihood that great ideas won’t get away — by bringing many more voices and perspectives into the process. Hila Lifshitz-Assaf and Sarah Lebovitz write about some unexpected game changers who surfaced during a research study that centered on a time-limited innovation challenge. It’s likely that in the surge of resignations upending the labor market in the U.S., some of your would-be change agents have already resolved to change the game on their own terms and walked out the door.

Change Catalyst CEO and author Melina Epler is one of those people leading the charge. As a diversity and inclusion expert, Epler has given talks for such names as Google, McKinsey and The World Bank. Recently, Epler sat down with SUCCESS to talk about the meaning of allyship, building equitable workspaces and engaging others with humanity. Epler identifies “in-group, out-group” biases based on affiliation or other characteristics as one of the most common in the workplace. “So use your influence to really open those networks or open your own networks for somebody else.”5.

Seventy-three per cent of young people agree that capitalism fuels selfishness and greed, and that a socialist system would promote solidarity and compassion, for example. Sixty-seven per cent say they would like to live in a socialist system. Supporters of capitalism, says Niemietz, “should take ‘Millennial Socialism’ far more seriously than they currently do. Entrepreneurial capitalism is therefore the most moral, honest, altruistic economic system of them all. In doing so, they turn from the noble path of serving consumers to protecting themselves from competitors, and “crony capitalism” is born.

Not so very long ago, Chinese stocks looked like a good bet. The country’s passion for social control and its crackdown on dissent; state meddling in private businesses; and its deteriorating relations with the West. Some private sector businesses will undoubtedly do fine, but it may be increasingly hard to pick winners. Cris looks at some of the best ways to do that for those of you determined to buy in. He tells Merryn about how he shuns “glamorous” growth to find solid “cockroach” companies that thrive over the long term while their competitors wither and die.

Illustration by Serge BlochExcellence Now: Extreme Humanismby Tom Peters (Networlding Publishing and un/teaching, 2021)Tom Peters is an older man in a hurry. But the book, the best business book of the year on leadership, is significant for one big reason: it is the avowed summa of a man who has been the nation’s premier management guru for decades. Many of Peters’s traditional themes are here, including a conception of excellence as a way of life and business as a path of virtue. No one truly in search of excellence in business and leadership should ignore these sorts of difficult questions. When it comes to the very big things in business, Peters is right.

Photograph by Shannon Fagan“The Dream Team.” It was the name given to the 1992 US men’s Olympic basketball team composed of some of the greats of the game, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton. We’ve seen dream teams in other sports, of course—Brazil’s 1970 football team that won the World Cup; the 1980 USSR Olympic ice hockey “red machine” team; and the US team that won the 2019 Women’s World Cup. The best leaders don’t just stumble upon such teams; they know how to build a dream team, even under challenging circumstances. However, few corporate managers have the luxury of handpicking and assembling their dream team from the start. More often, you must create your dream team by conjuring brilliance from a group of inherited employees.

Photograph by Allison ShirreffsTom Peters’s Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism (Networlding Publishing and un/teaching, 2021) captures the highlights of a lifetime of reading, thinking, and making observations by the man who rocketed to fame in 1982 when he and Robert H. Waterman published In Search of Excellence, one of the most successful business books of all time. Many of Peters’s traditional themes are here, including a conception of excellence as a way of life and business as a path of virtue. For heaven’s sake, get out and talk to customers, and listen to people. Profit is hardly mentioned; business here is about making the world better, about beauty and compassion and meaning. —Adapted from “Best Business Books 2021: Old man and the C-suite,” by Daniel Akst

As heated arguments spread into the workplace, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rose high on corporate leaders’ agendas. But will the DEI initiatives launched over the past year produce anything more than slow, small, and easily lost gains? Experience suggests that it’s necessary to lower the structural barriers to DEI and set quantitative targets for creating more open and equitable organizations. “Allyship is empathy and action,” Epler, who is CEO of Change Catalyst, a DEI consulting, training, and coaching firm, said in an interview with me. The bottom line for leaders: if you want a company that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, personal change is as important as structural change.

The thinking behind vertical integration was that it made sense for a company to control as many links in the value chain as possible. If you were a hypercompetitive, efficiency-seeking machine, vertical integration offered a twofer: you could iron out costs, thus making your product more affordable for more consumers, while hoovering up those profits for yourself. Vertical integration fueled many of America’s greatest industrial triumphs. Over the past century, vertical integration has been cut down to size. In 2019, we interviewed John Foley, the CEO of Peloton, who described how the company backed its way into vertical integration.

Years ago they almost universally ended the practice of using small cages for chickens, calves, pigs, and other animals. The law, approved by voters by a wide margin back in 2016, effectively bars eggs laid by caged hens from being sold in Massachusetts. Now, according to Big Egg, grocers and shoppers in the state may soon be feeling the heat because of a looming shortage in supply from out-of-state egg producers that could leave shelves empty and prices surging. That’s because only a small percentage of the nation’s egg suppliers can meet that strict requirement, and in-state hens don’t lay enough eggs to meet the state’s needs. The state Legislature shouldn’t allow anyone — certainly not an out-of-state interest group — to stop it from protecting Bay State businesses or consumers.

New York will be the largest US jurisdiction to allow noncitizen voting, but it is not the only one. While Democrats have raised the alarm about GOP efforts to make voting more difficult, they have not coalesced around noncitizen voting. The national standard for voting that Democrats have proposed on Capitol Hill, which remains stalled there, does not include allowing noncitizens to vote. The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age from 21 down to 18, although some states let people who are 17 vote in primaries if they'll be 18 on Election Day. Felons voting.

Duterte said at the summit that Philippine democracy was a work in progress, “but the Filipino is free. The Philippines is free.”“Today, we have a vibrant democracy and an open and diverse society. Vibrant democracy? “How can Duterte speak of a vibrant democracy when his regime has robbed the Filipino people of their democratic rights and freedoms?” Fabro asked. Fabro said that instead of addressing the needs of Filipinos, Duterte waged a war on drugs, which she said was also a war against the poor.

Louise Wareham LeonardWolcott, N.Y.O’Gieblyn offers a variety of explanations for why some people seek out pain rather than avoid it. When an aversive stimulus, like pain, is applied, there is necessarily a reward when that stimulus ends—thus, one can learn to experience pain as the precursor to pleasure. Seen in this light, sexual masochism, and also the seeking out of nonsexual pain and suffering, looks less counterintuitive. Fires are a natural process, important for the health of a forest, and, if preventive burning is not adopted by the Forest Service immediately, the environmental consequences will be dire. Preventive burning has other benefits, too: aggressive winter burning will keep firefighters employed throughout the year.

When Amanda Gorman read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 U.S. Presidential Inauguration, she became both the inheritor of a long tradition and a herald of something new. Gorman continues to explore the “we” further in her new collection, “Call Us What We Carry,” which she calls an “occasional book”—one framed by our many mutating yet seemingly immutable pandemics, from COVID-19 and racism to climate catastrophes and a general malaise. Gorman insists that “We are not me— / We are we,” and her poetry is unafraid to name all that we carry. “Our scars,” she writes, “are the brightest / Parts of us.”—Kevin YoungSHIP’S MANIFESTContent This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. CALL USContent This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Illustration by João FazendaAn early sketch of the Omicron variant is coming into focus. In mid-November, South Africa recorded an average of three hundred coronavirus cases a day; only about two per cent of tests returned positive. But Omicron hasn’t overwhelmed the South African health-care system, even in Gauteng Province, where it first started to spread. They specialize in preventing infection, while T cells, which appear undiminished in the face of Omicron, focus on terminating it. This could mean that, though Omicron may cause many more breakthrough infections, vaccines will still help our immune systems avert serious illness.

Her father remarried and moved the family to Texas, where in high school Ms. Rice first met Stan Rice, a fellow student. She attended Texas Woman’s University for a time but dropped out and tried living in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. They married in 1961 and settled in San Francisco, where Mr. Rice, who died in 2002, became a poet and teacher. Ms Rice said the loss left her bereft and directionless for a time, until she tried returning to writing to shake off the melancholy. “I wanted to write and write and write, and pour out my emotions, and make stories, and create something,” she told ABC in the 1993 interview.

Why the 2022 midterms look like the opposite of 2018Added: 13.12.2021 5:17 | 27 views | 0 commentsSource: www.al.comWhat a difference four years makes in politics. At this point in 2017, Democrats were about to pull off a stunning Senate win against a very flawed opponent in the deeply red state of Alabama. It was one of many indications that Democrats were on their way to a big 2018 victory. More in www.cnn.com » Alabama Tags: Democrats

Added: 12.12.2021 7:00 | 44 views | 0 commentsBRITISH EXPATS in Spain have claimed that they are living in "third-world country" conditions without access to basic utilities, due to a toxic mix of historic planning failures, Spanish bureaucracy, and a lack of help from the government, Express.co.uk can reveal.

Dominic Cummings must go, Boris Johnson told as Tories warn him to get a ‘grip’ on Number 10 infightingAdded: 12.11.2020 12:24 | 30 views | 0 commentsSpin doctor Lee Cain denies he was behind leak over Lockdown 2‘If they have got rid of one Kray brother, the other has to go too’

Evan SchillerEditor's note: This is the second story in a two-part series looking at restorations of courses built during the Golden Age of course architecture. There’s an ongoing debate about the era in which we live, at least as it pertains to course design and restoration work. Some opine that we’re amidst the golden age of classic course restoration; others argue that such restoration work has been a prevalent component of course refinement for decades. Those classic course attributes mold the way you think.”In particular, he points to the putting surfaces. So it can only help any golf course architect to have a really wide source of reference material.

After founding Happy Family Organics in 2003, Shazi Visram grew it into the largest organic baby food company in the U.S. Since selling to Danone in 2013, Visram has built an investment portfolio that empowers sustainability-focused companies innovating in fields like recycling, sustainable farming, and environmental conservation. Visram sat down with Inc. to talk about how entrepreneurs can go green to make green. Industries are being forced to own up to the environmental cost of conven­ience that society had previously demanded above all else. It's a change we're willing to invest in, because our consumers value it too.

Like neo's pink, hairless body in The Matrix's great reveal, cities have been invaded by tubes for nearly their entire lives. Over the centuries, water pipes, gas pipes, steam pipes, electricity cables, and air ducts have crept across buildings and landscapes, coursing through walls, floors, and sidewalks on their way to making the modern world. Earthen conduits moved stormwater in Xi'an, China, millennia ago; lead tubes led drinking water under the stone-paved streets of classical Rome. Like the blood vessels of our own bodies, the pipes and wires of modern buildings and cities structure our lives while remaining almost entirely hidden. While cities have always been defined by the flow of ideas, for most of human history these were stored in our heads, or in objects we carried—scrolls, tablets, books, and paper.

I've been doing my best to learn your names, but I'm terrible with hexadecimal, so bear with me. I'd like to begin by thanking each of you for the warm welcome you've given me since I took over as product manager. If I can't see a straightforward way to make incremental progress and measure success with consistent, reliable metrics, I will remove a ticket. Also in this category: HUMN-9991, “End war.”CHEM-1083, “Delete most silicates.” Great ticket, but why didn't anyone step up to implement it before it was too late? It's too late to do anything now; if we remove the silicates, they're going to realize they're in a simulation, and we'll have broken the Stakeholder's rule.

I don't think we have other optionsand Ruha mentioned, Ruha Benjamin was quoting someone,I forget, saying hope is a discipline. You need to have the discipline of hope. So what I'm hoping to do is first of all,I'd like to see a lot more institutes,like the one I'm hoping to buildwith different incentive structures. And so what I want is a different incentive structurethat says,What is our incentive to do this research? It's not to make Google more moneyand it's not to help the defense department figure outhow to kill more people more efficiently.

You actually are not immune to actually being accountableto civil rights law for instance. And you are not immune,if you print and you amplify and move thingsthat are deeply untrueand you're not immune from consequences. Their money and the paid advertisementand the money that can be put behind,the kind of targeted approach to move content. The surveillance data mining,all makes these companies very differentthan media and freedom of speech is not freedomfrom the consequences of speech. I also don't think my civil rights should be valued,so that companies in Silicon Valley can make more money.

It represents a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and edges us all closer to the possibility of living in a post-Roe nation. After three months, the Supreme Court has failed to strike down Texas’s SB 8, a blatantly unconstitutional, vigilante-enforced ban on abortion before most people even know they are pregnant. Our colleagues in the reproductive justice movement have been connecting the dots between racism and attacks on reproductive freedom for decades. My family immigrated to the United States from India in 1973—the same year that Roe v. Wade was decided. If we are to achieve true reproductive freedom, it is on all of us to dismantle it.

The prosecution was brought in September by John Durham, the special counsel who was first appointed by former attorney general William Barr, against Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The case against Sussmann, one of three people Durham has prosecuted, was curious to many observers from the start because of how unusual it was from a prosecutorial and evidentiary perspective. And, of course, we do not know what is in the other accounts that Baker has given to the government. The fervor among liberals and the media for the Mueller investigation seemed to diminish that sentiment. Durham may end up reviving it.

The WNBA made a PSA for women’s-basketball fans, and Darius Rucker made one for … the opposite of women’s-basketball fans. None of this was enough to convince about 20 percent of New Yorkers over the age of 60 to follow through. The 30-second PSA could be a Schoolhouse Rock segment from some dystopian mirror world or maybe a retro Sesame Street interstitial. Rampage is clearly a graduate of Miss Gritty’s Finishing School for Ragamuffin Mascots, all cute pointy teeth and splotchy viral appendages. True, Rampage does tell New Yorkers to talk to their doctors — assuming they have doctors, which is not a given — but why should I trust a talking coronavirus?

After all, the ubiquity of Christmas in American life is self-evident; everybody has heard the cliché that Christmas decorations, music, sales, movies, and so on begin earlier every year. He saved Christmas,” prompting Trump to repeat his boast that he had indeed preserved the holiday from extinction (“You know, when I was running, 2016, Christmas was, like, you couldn’t say the word,” he said. And I said we’re going to bring back Christmas, and we’re going to be saying ‘Christmas’”). The War on Christmas has had a place in Trump’s regular spiel since his candidacy began. You do know who the enemy is that is supposedly waging the War on Christmas, right?

In this case, the wrong crowd is Donald Trump and his claque, and the Republicans are convinced that once Trump disappears, everything will return to normal. These Republicans have rallied around a candidate of choice: Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom they hope will run for president whenever Trump can be coaxed offstage, hopefully in 2024. And now he’s sending out a fundraising email calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be jailed:In a fundraising email sent out this morning titled, ‘Fauci For Prison, Ron Desantis called on Dr. Fauci to be prosecuted and put in prison. Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, two other Republicans in the DeSantis wing, have claimed a subsequent NIH letter disproved this testimony. He may be less unhinged than Trump, but DeSantis points the way toward a future in which the cancer that has consumed the Republican Party continues to grow.

Mike Pence chairing the January 6 joint session of Congress governed by the Electoral Count Act of 1887. For starters, a Democratic vice president will be presiding over the Senate when the Electoral College votes are opened. You cannot talk about fixing the Electoral Count Act without talking about what happened on January 6. First, he claimed, its provisions for counting electoral votes violate the 12th Amendment’s unconditional grant of authority to the vice president to deal with electoral votes however they want. Perhaps Trump will surprise us by at least staying out of the way of Electoral Count Act reform efforts.

The decision is a disaster for abortion patients, abortion rights, and constitutional rights more generally. Even though the Court allowed the lawsuit to move forward against the licensing officials, the Court did not stop S.B. And eventually, abortion rights might no longer be protected under the Constitution. This could have major ramifications for not only abortion rights, but all other constitutional rights, both those supported by liberals and those supported by conservatives. Friday’s ruling is a direct threat to abortion rights, and lays the groundwork for an obliteration of almost all constitutional rights in the future.

Go watch Hamilton, a concert-film-like document of the original-cast production that still miraculously manages to make good use of the form. The opening number of West Side Story, Steven Spielberg’s all-in adaptation of the landmark Broadway musical and remake of the 1961 Oscar winner, aims to be as exhilarating and breathtaking as humanly possible. It wildly succeeds, as do many of the classic set pieces we know and love, with flying colors (sometimes literally with flying colors). This West Side Story proves someone can still leave their mark on the legend without building it from the ground up. It’s a classic Spielberg joint, a classic hat-tip to Hollywood, and a classic, period.

To deflect such criticism, central banks claim that their monetary policy framework maintains “monetary dominance.” The idea is that central banks conduct monetary policy to keep medium and long-term price stability — such as achieving 2% inflation — by maintaining operational independence from the government, which is responsible for fiscal policy, such as overseeing spending and taxes. The polar opposite of monetary dominance is “fiscal dominance,” where fiscal policy takes precedence over monetary policy. And yet, the closer coordination of fiscal and monetary policy is increasingly giving the optics of fiscal dominance. This may put monetary policy normalization process in a challenging situation. The delayed process could undermine central banks’ credibility and intensify criticism that central banks’ operations are inching closer to fiscal dominance.

As Xi eschews diplomatic travel, the administration of Fumio Kishida has a golden opportunity to rekindle the momentum garnered by Abe’s leadership in the international arena to ingratiate itself in the core hubs of the Indo-Pacific region. Prioritizing the immediate stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region should not come at the expense of Japan’s relationship with Washington. Japan has much to gain from eschewing zoom-diplomacy for a return to leadership-level, face-to-face diplomacy. Whether Kishida will seize the moment to accrue invaluable diplomatic and political capital in the Indo-Pacific is yet to be determined. What is clear thought that Xi’s diplomatic absence its Kishida’s opportunity to shift the diplomatic dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region to favor Japan and like-minded countries’ interest.

President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor next week to three U.S. soldiers who fought in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House said Friday. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, 35, who suffered fatal injuries in Iraq while rescuing fellow soldiers from a burning vehicle in 2005. President Joe Biden ((pictured) is set to award the Medal of Honor next week to three U.S. soldiers, two of them post-humorously, who fought in Afghanistan and IraqThe Medal of HonorThe Medal of Honor is the United States' highest award for military valor in action. Cashe will become the first Black U.S. service member to receive the Medal of Honor for actions since Vietnam, according to the White House. He is currently serving with the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, Washington.

By Zeleb.es|On December 6, 2021, Burmese politician and human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced for two years in prison on charges of inciting riots and violating Covid-19 restrictions. Her trial was heavily criticized by the international community. For years, Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been a contested figure.

A primary school in Hong Kong has apologised after students as young as six were left in tears last week after teachers showed them unsettling video footage of the Nanjing massacre ahead of its 84th anniversary on Monday. The incident came after the Education Bureau called on local schools to run activities commemorating the massacre in a directive last month. The Po Leung Kuk Hong Kong Taoist Association Yuen Yuen primary school showed footage of executions and corpses during the Nanjing massacre to its youngest pupils during a class on moral and civic education, according to local media reports. The five-minute clip, pulled from an RTHK documentary on the massacre, showed Japanese soldiers executing civilians, and piles of corpses, including babies. Earlier this month, the Education Bureau issued a comprehensive new national education curriculum and guidelines for all local schools.

An Exchange on Radicals and the University Was the Long March a Dead End? An Exchange on Radicals and the University In the 1960s, young radicals saw the university as an ideal site for agitating and organizing. No wonder young radicals saw higher education as an ideal place to start their long march through the institutions. That’s fine in blue strongholds, though even then it doesn’t guarantee public funding for higher education. Getting a New Deal for higher education will require something like a New Deal majority.

That means we want to welcome 500 new monthly donors to our Press Club over the next few weeks. We also talked about the firewall between our sales and editorial teams (and between our editorial teams and Press Club donors). Editorial staff (including INDY editors) don’t know who our Press Club donors are unless they tell us. This is all to say: paying writers, photographers, designers, and others who work for the INDY is where your Press Club donations go. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.

Democrats have an electability problem in America’s industrial heartland that could flip the Senate red for a decade to come. An intervention seems necessary, and it should come not from the corporate Democrats who got us into this mess. He reports that 618 of these counties lost manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2019. Martin reports that, in the 382 manufacturing counties where Trump votes grew, 496,000 factory jobs were lost from 2001 to 2019. From 2010 to 2020, the United States lost 462,000 union members; 93% of that decline came in nine of the states studied (upstate New York data was not available).

(The proposal is referred to as a TRIPS waiver, a reference to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.) Even if we got rid of all intellectual property rules tomorrow, this would do little to boost immediate global vaccine supply. Pfizer and Moderna, both of which produce mRNA vaccines, have been purveyors of this narrative, warning of the laborious and time-intensive process of developing the ability to produce mRNA vaccines specifically. Some of the facilities are already producing other vaccines, or testing or making their own mRNA vaccines. In just one example, Sen. Mike Crapo (R?Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has been criticized for significant donations from the pharmaceutical industry.

Most troubling, the reports take the ravages of climate change as a given, and merely focus on how to protect U.S. ?“national security” in light of that inevitability. It’s not concerned with finding a cure (reversing climate change) or engaging in equitable treatment (paying meaningful reparations to poor countries harmed by climate change). At minimum, any climate policy must be housed in civilian institutions: The U.S. national security apparatus is fundamentally opposed to the solidarity and internationalism needed to combat the climate crisis. They can revoke permits that were issued without adequate consideration of their dangers.”Vows to pursue a ?“national security” response are not an alternative to such policies. ?“Just because climate change is recognized as a problem doesn’t mean the solution will be equitable.

And, against all odds, we are now on the precipice of maybe, just maybe, getting a wealth tax on billionaires signed into law. If, in fact, the current version of the wealth tax does make it into the final bill, it will be something that should make progressives smile. The reason to tax billionaires is not to pay for social programs. The reason to tax billionaires is not to produce income for the federal government. The reason to tax billionaires is that billionaires should not exist.

Congratulations to everyone who signed the Harper’s letter on the election of Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia. In the 1960s, politicians could stand up and rail against integration and successfully channel America’s racism for their own political benefit. Now, it is ?“critical race theory,” the latest acceptable format for Americans to express their racism in a public forum. Moral panic is a wonderfully effective political strategy. They have chin-stroked themselves right into validating the idea that any of this bullshit is A Real Thing, just like their ancestors did when the best and brightest minds of last century validated Joe McCarthy’s moral panic then.

), who has deep fossil fuel industry ties and is himself a coal baron, is hell-bent on preserving fossil fuel subsidies and gutting the proposed Clean Electricity Payments Program. That would mean ending all fossil fuel subsidies, including subsidies for green-washed fossil fuels such as carbon capture—something more than 500 organizations have signed an open letter calling for. This standard must define renewable energy carefully to exclude harmful, polluting energy sources such as nuclear energy, waste incineration, and biomass combustion. Federal climate legislation should increase funding for public transit by an order of magnitude to make up for decades of intentional underfunding. First, the president has a tremendous amount of executive power on climate, especially in the arena of fossil fuel supply.

Now is the time to rename every single park, school and building named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, and to remove every statue honoring him from any public venue, in America. A history of vicious white supremacyThe first park named after Nathan Bedford Forrest I ever encountered was in Memphis, Tennessee. But I had no idea that there were places named after Nathan Bedford Forrest. Moreover, the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest lived on in many Southern locales — shepherded, not coincidentally, by groups made up of the children of Confederate veterans. In addition to the aforementioned Memphis park, the ROTC building at Middle Tennessee State University is named after Forrest.

Our most important fundraising drive of the year is now underway. After you're done reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to ensure that In These Times can continue publishing in the year ahead. The Teamsters United slate has just won the election for the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Members have cast their votes for who they want to head the union in the new era. In this episode, we talk with journalist Indigo Olivier about the Teamsters leadership election and the 46th annual Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) convention, which was held in Chicago on October 1 – 3.

So even though a majority of members voted against ratifying this contract, it has nevertheless been ratified because the delegate count was in its favor. We know that because most IATSE members voted against accepting it. I do, however, have a strong opinion on a labor union voting system that allows a contract to be ratified after a majority of members voted against the contract: It’s bad. The badness of the IATSE system — much like the badness of the Electoral College — was there from day one. By ending this story with a contract that members voted against, that faith has been made a mockery of.

Three days after Hurricane Ida hit, I drove home to south Louisiana beneath a pall of oily smoke. Photo by Isabelle GuzmanColonization changed not only where people lived on the Louisiana coast, but how they lived. When R. Eugene Turner took his first flight over the Louisiana coast in 1974, he looked down and saw the makings of a disaster. Since 1932, the Louisiana coast has lost around 2,000 square miles of land. Though the state of Louisiana officially recognizes the United Houma Nation, the tribe has never been granted federal recognition and has no federally guaranteed reservation land.

The UN climate talks (Conference of the Parties, or COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, concluded in mid-November with deeply disappointing results. The Indian government’s actions must also be viewed against the backdrop of global inequalities in income, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Before pointing fingers at India, observers in the United States should consider a fundamental question of fairness. Literally no one other than the oil and gas industry — and major oil and gas producing countries such as the United States. While the United States also produces coal, our coal production is in terminal decline because of competition from cheap natural gas.

The union says that it is out on an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike, in which case it would be illegal to permanently replace strikers. For the striking student workers, however, the consequences are very real. It is unclear exactly how fast the NLRB could rule on a dispute if Columbia does, in fact, permanently replace the strikers. Mediation continues this week, but with the term ending soon and finals looming, the student workers are not the only ones under pressure. ?“I don’t think a lot of people are going to be persuaded by this threat [to permanently replace the strikers],” King-Slutzky says.

If 2020 was a ham-fisted dry run for stealing a presidential election, 2024 will be a much better rehearsed one. In 2000, Al Gore received 48.4% of the popular vote, and George W. Bush received 47.9%. In American history, a president has been elected who lost the popular vote five times. I say this simply to point out that America is not a democracy that is in newfound danger of being lost. But let’s not fucking kid ourselves here: This panic is not caused by the possibility that America might not be democratic.

In the process, they themselves fuel such paranoia by ignoring warnings by many scientists that the ongoing global vaccine apartheid will facilitate the emergence of evermore dangerous strains of the virus that will turn our efforts to thwart the pandemic to naught. One ray of hope in an otherwise bleak global landscape is the recent surge of the Black Lives Matter and the global climate justice movements. The surge in these two campaigns during the pandemic as well as its racially and geographically stratified impact suggests the possibility of a worldwide solidarity movement seeking to challenge global vaccine apartheid. First, the fact that solidarity for the populations in the Global South who do not have access to the vaccine does not presuppose idealistic altruism on the part of people in the Global North but simply a recognition that their own health and livelihoods depend on bringing global vaccine apartheid to an end. Faced with the irrationality of anti-vaxxers as well as of corporate capitalism and its political beneficiaries, if these cosiderations do indeed lead to a massive, worldwide movement against global vaccine apartheid, reason and science may, after all, be given another chance.

The book is a riveting account of the founding chapter of the political direct action group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) in some of the most desperate years of the epidemic. Schulman gives the reader an opportunity to learn from what ACT-UP New York did right and what they did wrong. Schulman concludes the book with an anecdote about her own health crisis, which her ACT-UP experience helped her manage. AIDS and ACT-UP New York prepared us for this too. Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT-UP New York, 1987-1993Macmillan Publishers 2021by Sarah SchulmanPlease support independent media today!

His name was Gerald “Jerry” Meyer. Nine years later, Jerry and I were still talking. • • •Jerry Meyer (left) at a ceremony in honor of his work at HCC and his many years of support for the college. Jerry helped mobilize students and faculty who marched and protested, took over campus buildings and successfully lobbied state legislators to allocate the funds needed to save the school. In 2006, Jerry helped start the Hostos Circle of 100 Scholarship & Emergency Fund.

At the age of 16, I was one of a very small number of young Israeli Jewish people with Palestinian friends. Jabalia is where the first intifada, or uprising, would begin while I was serving in the Israeli army. Who was I, an Israeli Jew, in this little bubble? Who was I, an Israeli Jew, in this little bubble? Day after day.

There is probably no neighborhood more synonymous with New York’s rise from a crime-ridden post-industrial metropolis to a high-rent playground than Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Historians Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper offer a fresh take: Williamsburg’s transformation as seen through the Hasidic Jewish experience. There was also the issue of bike lanes and the alleged moral outrage of scantily clad hipsters scandalizing Hasidic Bedford Avenue. A Fortress in Brooklyn dispels the moral outrage myth and ties the issue of bike lanes to Hasidic fears of further gentrification. It could start by converting foreclosed hotels into permanent housing, and shoring up public housing.

The long form poem is tethered in folklore and personal narrative, detailing the impact of the destructive mass incarceration system. The long form poem is a practice of poetics in joy, gratitude, sadness, resilience and pain. This literary work serves as a practice of self-reflection and accountability in the wake of the prison system. This poem is dirge work acknowledging unjust atrocities, but reveling in our human resilience.

Instead, the November 21 elections revealed a political scenario that has proven much more complex than many on the Chilean left acknowledged. Eduardo Artés, representing a more orthodox, Stalinist left, won a meager 1.5 percent. Neither the Left nor the Right — so far — has won the support of any large social majority in Chile. It cannot be emphasized enough, however, that the ultraright candidate has not consolidated support among working-class layers of Chilean society. Instead of moderation, the challenge for the Left is to show that it is capable of achieving reforms and responding to majoritarian social demands.

“Picket line means don’t cross,” they chanted. Most Columbia students and employees honored the picket line and the campus was effectively shut down for the day. The Indypendent had three reporters on hand, none of whom saw instances of violent behavior by picketers. One one occasion at 9: 41 am, Sue says she saw a campus employee become angry when he was urged not to cross the picket line. If we want to talk about violence at Columbia, let’s start there.

The Supreme Court’s December 1 hearing on Mississippi’s fifteen-week abortion ban confirmed what everyone had already guessed: anti-abortion justices will throw abortion rights on the scrap heap when they hand down their decision next summer. The three judges who support abortion rights were reduced to appealing to the court’s reputation. This appropriations rider banned federal funds going to abortion, cutting abortion access to those covered by Medicaid. It didn’t have to be this way: Democratic Congresses could have passed legislation protecting abortion rights starting in the 1970s. The legislative route has always been a possible strategy for the abortion rights movement, and current events suggests it would have had advantages over the judicial route.

Such processes would squeeze the majority of Indian farmers. A Reform Agenda for Indian Farmers We can briefly list some of the reforms that are needed. The alliance of farmer organizations, the SKM, has rightly been demanding a legal guarantee of MSP, not only for paddy and wheat but for a total of twenty-three crops. Modi’s Punjab Problem In seeking to explain Narendra Modi’s climbdown, most commentary has rightly pointed to the BJP’s concerns about the forthcoming state assembly elections in 2022. Modi’s party is also hoping to neutralize the anger of this section of the farmers’ movement and eventually win over its leadership.

At a White House briefing earlier this week, Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki was asked an extremely straightforward question by NPR’s Mara Liasson: Why doesn’t the United States government simply make COVID-19 testing free or even mail tests to every American household? Though some at-home tests will be set aside for those without insurance, it’s as yet unclear whether there will be adequate supply and merely underscores, yet again, the absurdity of tying health insurance to employment. Psaki: I would say, first, we have eight tests that have been approved by the FDA here. Whether or not all those tests would meet that standard is a question for the scientists and medical experts, but I don’t suspect they would. Liasson: All I know is that other countries seem to be making them available in greater quantities for less money.

Various Republicans have recently highlighted one of the critiques I made of the Democratic childcare proposal (Mitch McConnell and Tim Scott, among others). These numbers closely mirror similar figures produced by the Center for American Progress (CAP), with the lower figure being CAP’s “base quality” infant care cost and the higher one being CAP’s “high-quality” infant care cost. The DC OSSE report uses a much more sophisticated cost model than the one used by me or CAP and includes direct data from DC childcare providers. These days, when people ask me about this issue, I tell them to read the DC OSSE report, because it is much better than anything I have produced on the topic. How do you see the problem well enough to want to fix it when it comes to Obamacare but don’t see it well enough to want to avoid it when it comes to creating a childcare subsidy scheme?

And sure as the sun comes up, it’s happening again with former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who died this past Sunday at age ninety-eight. “To the Right of Genghis Khan” “I’m a conservative, not right-wing,” Dole would later say. Dole pioneered the relentlessly obstructionist use of the Senate filibuster that’s become de rigueur today. “Bob Dole has expanded its use with impunity.” “We’re thrilled that he’s an obstructionist,” said the hard-right direct-mail campaigner Richard Viguerie. Now safely unable to actually do anything about it, Dole became one of the most vocal voices for filibuster reform.

Warehouse workers, who also saw stagnant wages and poor conditions over this period, were also in relatively short supply for the same reasons. As the cross-craft rank-and-file organization Railroad Workers United points out, PSR reduced “railcar equipment when needed,” “clogged ports and terminals,” and exhausted train crews, thus contributing to the supply chain crisis. A lack of truckers, railroad workers, warehouse workers, and others along the nation’s supply chains means congested ports, stalled and unloaded ships, overloaded warehouses, increased delays, empty shelves, and higher prices. Even though there are more warehouses and warehouse workers than there were twenty years ago, little of this space and person-power is devoted to storage. Low inventories increase the risks of disruption, while speed propels the dislocation up and down the supply chain via “ripple” or “snowball” effects.

JWThe initial postwar period was marked by various arguments that built up the role of the resistance. Along with the stories of Jewish survivors of the occupation, they revealed the complicity of the Vichy regime in the crimes of the occupation, showing that Vichy enacted its own measures against Jews as a willing collaborator of Nazi Germany. Bousquet was not simply protected — he went on to enjoy a successful career in the postwar period. This brought back memories of Vichy and underlined the element of continuity between Vichy and the periods that preceded and followed it. Mitterrand had flirted with the far right before the war, and he was honored by the Vichy regime.

As the country’s CEOs complain of labor shortages and fearmonger about inflation, it’s becoming commonplace to observe that America’s workers are doing relatively well by conventional measures. First and foremost, it’s incorrect to assume that corporate profits and improved conditions for workers are directly correlated. Notably, then, America’s workers will need to gain a whole lot more before many achieve basic dignity or economic security. But most importantly of all, the country’s current economic outlook — an outlook characterized by new jobs and higher wages — is largely the result of direct economic stimulus and increased worker power. Thanks to unemployment benefits and a series of unprecedented cash injections, American workers have indeed seen their wages and bargaining power increase.

Planning and executing lessons that will motivate students with divergent interests and skill sets takes a great deal of time, research, and imagination. Every step of the way, teachers are prevented from actually performing their vocation. The trouble is that, at every step of the way, teachers are prevented from actually performing this vocation. I became an English teacher because I wanted to help students explore thrilling story-worlds, weave airtight arguments, and unravel sophistical rhetoric. State standards grids make them yawn and pull out their phones, or boil over with justified indignation.

Such a move would also be in keeping with Biden’s obvious ease with Trump’s Middle East policy. So it is first imperative that the United States and Israel disabuse themselves of their warmongering disposition towards that country. The aggression coming from Israel and the Trump and Biden administrations has only shrunk the space for diplomacy with Tehran. What does it mean for expectations of Israel, at home and abroad, if structurally it is finally becoming one with the despotic Gulf states? Perhaps the best example of an increasingly brutal regime already in lockstep with the Gulf despots is Israel’s other ally, Egypt.

Similarly, if we’re talking about “partial democratic socialism” — policies like Medicare for All advocated by socialists as reforms within capitalism — nothing about these measures would strengthen the power of bureaucrats. (This is the “full democratic socialism” advocated in the book I’m cowriting with Jacobin’s Bhaskar Sunkara and Mike Beggs.) Happily, we don’t live in that world (at least for precollege public education). But we very much do live in that world when it comes to health care. Along with these more dramatic considerations, an excellent reason to support socialist policies in these areas is that doing so disempowers bureaucrats.

None of the fatal victims were members of Hernández’s National Party. Like Colombia, Honduras is a narco-state in which the United States has a host of military bases. This takes neoliberalism and the dream of multinational capital to abhorrent levels: the sell-off of portions of the national territory to private enterprise. More importantly, unlike elections elsewhere (in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia), the National Party’s candidate, Asfura, has conceded defeat. So before Washington, its Honduran cronies, its European accomplices, and the world corporate media unleash any shenanigans, let’s say loud and clear: US hands off Honduras!

In the book, Rawls argued that “basic liberties” and the equality of citizens were essential to this idea of fairness. With its doctrine of fairness, A Theory of Justice transformed political philosophy. But as Forrester shows, the limits of Rawls’s theory and the political philosophy that it helped birth remain with us as well. The civil disobedience tactics that various youth movements used to challenge the war posed another problem for Rawls’s theory of justice. Rawls’s selective concentration on the homeland has parallels in the basic tenets of his political theory.

En el año 2020, fue nombrado por el presidente de Venezuela Nicolás Maduro; como Embajador Plenipotenciario de Venezuela en África. Siendo este un paso importante para el empresario, y sus relaciones diplomáticas en Venezuela; en calidad de ayudar durante la pandemia con los suministros de alimentos y medicina. Expresó Roi Lopez Rivas, en consecuencia, al sin fin de manifestaciones en solidaridad con Alex Saab en el mundo. ¿Creen ustedes que el gobierno estadounidense que la detención de Alex Saab sea una medida de presión electoral a Nicolás Maduro? El joven activista concluyó invitando a participar en las campañas de redes sociales y jornadas de protesta llevadas a cabo por el movimiento #FreeAlexSaab, para fortalecer lo que denomino la gran acción de denuncia de solidaridad mundial.

Abdulrazak Gurnah on Hebron Panel, 2009 / PalFest (Creative Commons)Wole Soyinka was the first Black African writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. But no Black African author has been considered for the Swedish Academy’s award since Soyinka—until this year when Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah was unexpectedly declared the Nobel Laureate for Literature. Gurnah and his brother, of Arab descent on their father’s side, also emigrated to England to study in late 1967. The Maji-Maji rebellion in Tanganyika was the most significant African resistance against German colonial rule. On December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, Abdulrazak Gurnah will receive the Nobel Prize for Literature on behalf of Black Africa.

David CavendishDavid Cavendish is a retired teacher, active in the union movement, the peace movement (many years in an anti-Iraq/Afghanistan War vigil), and other progressive political activities. He is a longtime contributor to People’s World. David Cavendish es un maestro jubilado, activo en el movimiento sindical, el movimiento por la paz y otras actividades políticas progresistas. Colabora desde hace mucho tiempo en People’s World.

These laws are designed to undo the gains made by people of color since the end of the Second World War. In the United States, our government reflects the power of the capitalist class (the industrialists and financiers). There is, however, a second type of democracy existing today, “proletarian” or “working-class democracy,” which is practiced in the socialist countries of China, Cuba, and Vietnam, among others. Democracy in socialist countries, when it functions as intended, comes directly from the people and reflects the aspirations, dreams, and hopes of everyday life. We must defend democracy in every way possible while working to broaden it in ways beyond what it is today.

Postal Workers are pushing Congress to deliver a major postal reform package before adjourning for the year. | David Zalubowski / APWASHINGTON—The Postal Workers are pushing Congress to approve comprehensive postal reform before the end of this year, but it appears that even the Democratic-run House isn’t listening. It would also reverse DeJoy’s slowdowns while letting Postal Workers and Letter Carriers really move the mail. “The Postal Service Reform Act (HR3076), would repeal the pre-funding mandate and enact critical reforms our union has long fought for, like protecting six-day delivery, adding cost-saving Medicare integration for future retirees, and increasing transparency in Postal Service management,” the union adds. “As Postal Workers, we have worked tirelessly to serve our communities through some of the toughest challenges this country has ever seen.

Nicholas James/PWST. LOUIS—At the campus of Webster University, a private college in St. Louis, students are fed up with the unilateral changes administrators have been forcing on them recently, and they’ve responding by organizing a new student union. On this occasion, a sit-in was taking place in the University Center (“UNCT”) building. “Webster decided without notice to cease student access to Adobe programs (Photoshop, Premier, Illustrator, etc.) With the new title came a $500,000 salary increase, amid all the cuts to staff and student benefits. Teachers have shown support for the formation of a student union, and other students have signed up to signal their backing for a formal organization in droves.

The U.S.' record on supporting democracy in other nations has more than a few dark spots. Of the 110 supposedly willing participants in this “democracy summit,” many are host to U.S. military bases and troops. There’s a much deeper issue underpinning U.S. “democracy” and all its contradictions, and it’s one Marxists have known about for some time. To quote Lenin again: “Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich…that is the democracy of capitalist society. There are other aspects of what China terms its “whole-process democracy” that could, and should, be addressed in greater detail.

This time, rather than bad cologne or suspect bottled water, he’s trying to put his stamp on how executive privilege works. I do not think it means what you think it means.”The Insurrectionist-in-Chief and his accomplices who are being subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection are crying “executive privilege” and stonewalling a full accounting of what actually led to that awful day. Never mind that executive privilege isn’t an ironclad lockbox that wipes away all criminal and undemocratic activity by a former President and his cronies. Trump’s cries of executive privilege have so far lost in court, but there’s definitely no guarantee that will continue if this fight finds its way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, go ahead, try and use executive privilege for your criminal acts, it’s all the rage!

Since April, the United States and its allies have been stepping up their military support for Ukraine. Some of these red lines clearly lie in the creeping U.S. and NATO military presence in and around Ukraine, including in the Black Sea. Increasing U.S. and NATO military support for Ukraine may be dangerously close to crossing yet another one. If push comes to shove, Ukraine is simply more important to Russia than to the United States. Therefore, it makes no sense for the United States to risk triggering World War III over Ukraine, unless it actually wants to trigger World War III.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden just signed into law allocates $1.75 billion toward making public transportation more accessible for disabled folks. As of 2019, nearly 20 percent of all transit stations in the United States were not ADA accessible. But according to the Federal Transit Administration, as of 2019, nearly 20 percent of all transit stations in the United States were not ADA accessible. And transit entities have repeatedly shown that unless they are required to spend money making stations accessible, they won’t. But now, $1.75 billion will be available for the asking transit entities to make accessible stations that have fallen through the cracks of the ADA.

The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the Build Better Act will not add a penny to the deficit. The bill would help millions of Americans get health care, child care, affordable housing, nutrition assistance and more. In other words, the bill helps Americans get good jobs and afford food, housing, health care and child care — a strong response to inflation. The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the Build Better Act will not add a penny to the deficit. The Build Back Better act would strike a significant blow against inflation — especially if its most popular provisions are included.

As climate disasters hit state after state, fossil-fuel-funded members of Congress focus on a false choice between economic prosperity and fighting climate change. The program is called Transformative Climate Communities. TCC uses climate action to build prosperous and thriving communities, focusing on neighborhoods with the biggest environmental and economic challenges. Transformative Climate Communities does nearly everything differently. If we truly want to build back better, Transformative Climate Communities has shown us how.

Preventative justice is uncomfortable. We need to establish preventative justice in our legal system. This requires fundamentally different expertise and skills than are now present in our legal system. There are solid examples of when preventative justice has worked. Preventative justice is uncomfortable.

It’s clear what must be done with our captured Supreme Court. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stole two Supreme Court seats, and Donald Trump as president outsourced judicial picks to a shadowy network of organizations spearheaded by the Federalist Society. Christopher Kang, who ran judicial picks for the Obama White House, puts it like this: “You wouldn’t have a climate change commission with climate skeptics. Here we have a Supreme Court commission with people who don’t think the Supreme Court is broken.”The incentives were for the commissioners to align with the status quo and hold off on any deep, thoughtful institutional criticism. The Supreme Court must be expanded now — even if the commission is too timid to ask for that.

A new campaign, Housing Not Handcuffs, is attempting to stop the criminalization of homelessness and poverty in the United States. Led by the National Homelessness Law Center, the effort builds on research the Law Center has been conducting since 2006. “Commensurate with the increase in homelessness, states and municipalities have increasingly enacted laws criminalizing activities engaged in largely by people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity,” the report concludes. The Build Back Better Act will provide needed funds for the repair of public housing units that have been deemed uninhabitable, increase the number of available vouchers, and create new or renovated supportive-housing units. For forty years, we’ve seen the supply of affordable housing units and public housing diminish.”In fact, the Law Center’s research found that, between 2001 and 2019, 12.8 percent of the nation’s supply of affordable housing was lost, including 10,000 units of federally subsidized housing per year.

× Expand Lawrence Mower via Creative Commons Protesters gathered in Tallahassee supporting voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. In 2018, voters in Florida overwhelmingly approved an amendment to restore voting rights to convicted felons once freed from prison. The shift — reversing a Jim Crow-era policy that largely targeted Black Floridians — was praised as one of the largest expansions of voting rights since the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was only in 1964, when the 24th Amendment was ratified, that poll taxes were finally prohibited in federal elections. Two years later, the Supreme Court ruled that poll taxes for state elections were also unconstitutional.

The recently passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill will provide desperately needed federal dollars to fix our roads, water systems and other public infrastructure. A provision in the bill incentivizes state and local governments to hand control over some of the new projects to corporations and private investors. But for large, federally supported transportation projects, state and local governments will be required to consider additional funding from private investors. But when it comes to public goods like infrastructure — roads, water systems and bridges — a business’s profit motive cuts against the public interest. That’s why we can’t let our state and local leaders sign expensive public-private partnerships that give away control over our roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The money these universities accept from the Koch network is, in some ways, more damaging and insidious than the university’s investment in fossil fuel companies. Charles Koch said back in 1974 that “the educational route is both the most vital and the most neglected,” for advancing his radical capitalist philosophy. In 2019 alone, the Charles Koch Foundation donated more than $112 million to 225 distinct campuses and campus-rooted nonprofits. Charles Koch and his late brother David had “decision-making roles” in the center’s academic appointments through at least 2009, according to The New York Times. The money these universities accept from the Koch network is, in some ways, more damaging and insidious than the university’s investment in fossil fuel companies.

There is no compelling evidence that national standards improve education. “The federal government is blocked from setting nationwide education standards,” Duncan and Bryant note. In other words, it would be much harder to pass any kind of national standards now because the last time it was attempted it went very badly. There is no compelling evidence that national standards improve education, nor is there reason to think that standards imposed top-down on a national level would be helpful. There is plenty of room to argue whether or not attacking public education was a winning stance in Virginia.

Under this reasoning, there is no relevant difference between denying a public education to a Catholic student and refusing to pay for private religious education. No one in Maine is prohibited from sending their children to a religious private school. The question is whether the Constitution requires the government — and, by extension, anyone who pays taxes to that government — to subsidize religious education. The only question in Carson is whether Maine must use tax dollars to pay for this religious education. Barely two decades ago, there was a serious constitutional debate about whether states are even permitted to fund religious education.

Though coronavirus cases have risen across the mainland in recent weeks, Puerto Rico has avoided a spike, with cases and hospitalizations even trending downward. So, how was Puerto Rico able to insulate itself from political polarization around the virus and outpace the rest of the country on vaccinations? “The island has developed an expertise around addressing public health emergencies,” said María Fernanda Levis-Peralta, a consultant in Puerto Rico working on improving systems for public health delivery. In November 2020, before the vaccines were available to the public, the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust conducted a study in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Puerto Rico Department of Health that found that only 57 percent of Puerto Ricans wanted the jab, Rodríguez-Orengo said. Puerto Rico made it easy — and for many, mandatory — to get the vaccineImportantly, Puerto Rico made it simple to get the vaccine for free, even for people who face mobility challenges or are in medically underserved areas.

The Power of the Dog is the latter. “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog,” he writes. The Power of the Dog — like all of Campion’s work — mixes the sublime and the surprising, art walking steadily toward a wholly unexpected conclusion. The conclusion of The Power of the Dog is less a happily-ever-after than a safe-for-now. The Power of the Dog opened in limited theaters on November 17 and begins streaming on Netflix on December 1.

As extreme weather caused by climate change becomes the new normal, it’s clear the US’s power infrastructure needs fixing more than ever. The grid, briefly explainedSometimes called the largest machine in the world, the American power grid is a sprawling behemoth of interconnected systems, strung together over thousands of miles, that mishmashes technologies old and new. One way to make that happen, Baker explains, is to make the grid smart. Grid hardening and building out a smart grid in the US would work hand in hand, and replacing infrastructure to make it more resilient is the ideal opportunity to add the kinds of sensors that could make the smart grid a reality. “We’re in the Motorola Razr stage of the smart grid transition right now,” Baker said.

Then there’s the question of how to measure what an effective pre-K program actually is: The proposal doesn’t lay out specifics on how to measure the quality of pre-K programs. Expanding high-quality early childhood education, namely pre-K programs, has been offered up as one way to close these gaps. Washington, DC’s universal pre-K program helped lead to a 10 percentage-point increase in labor force participation for women with young children. Plus, the cost of establishing or expanding universal pre-K could vary widely from state to state: Some states may have extra space to house pre-K programs, for example, while others may need to build from scratch. But in states like Georgia and Oklahoma, the pre-K programs experienced dramatic year-on-year increases in pre-K enrollment when they rolled out their programs.

Under current law, as Justice Elena Kagan noted during Wednesday’s argument, the question of whether to fund religious education is typically left up to elected officials. In these areas, students are provided a subsidy, which helps them pay tuition at the private school of their family’s choice. But Zelman, as Kagan pointed out today, merely held that states “could” fund religious education if they chose to do so. All families who send their children to private, religious schools choose to forgo this government benefit. So, under the rule articulated in Bindas’s brief, every state may be required to pay for private tuition at religious schools.

I found the progressive, for-profit recovery program after buying a popular book that took a feminist approach to addiction. It did exactly what the book suggested sobriety culture needed to do: It rebranded recovery. I was searching, even then, through the spectacle of self-optimization, for some balm for my wounds, the discomfort I felt living in my body. When I joined the recovery program, I didn’t want to get clean. There was nothing incredibly literary about scrolling through sparkling memes about how fun sobriety is on Instagram.

Made from compressed dirt, these blocks offer a sustainable alternative to bricks and concrete construction. Advanced Earthen Construction Technologies has been building compressed earth block machines for over 30 years. Each machine can churn out 480 blocks an hour, giving users enough to build an entire house in one day.

If an extinction-level comet ever does threaten Earth, then I imagine Don't Look Up might be something I'd want to watch. It isn't thoughtlessness that makes Don't Look Up so brutal. Like a funhouse mirror, Don't Look Up stretches and shrinks real elements from our world to the point of searing mockery. Like a funhouse mirror, Don't Look Up stretches and shrinks real elements from our world to the point of searing mockery. Don't Look Up is in select theaters, then hits Netflix on Dec. 24.

When you think "rugged American cowboy," the image that pops to mind probably isn't of Benedict Cumberbatch. When Cumberbatch strides into Jane Campion's new Western, The Power of the Dog, wearing buffalo-skin chaps and a battered cowboy hat, it's jarring. Credit: NetflixPart of the joy of watching The Power of the Dog for the first time is the uncertainty of where it might go. In the end, it's a twisted thrill to see how The Power of the Dog turns out. The Power of the Dog opens in theaters in limited release Nov. 17 and on Netflix on Dec. 1.

Judge Scheindlin ordered a number of remedies, including a pilot program in which officers in at least five precincts across the city will wear cameras on their bodies to record street encounters. She also ordered a “joint remedial process” — in essence, a series of community meetings — to solicit public comments on how to reform the department’s tactics. The installation of a monitor will leave the department under a degree of judicial control that is certain to shape the policing strategies under the next mayor. Judge Scheindlin’s decision grapples with the legacy of Terry v. Ohio, a 1968 ruling by the Supreme Court, which held that stopping and frisking was constitutionally permissible under certain conditions. “Blacks are likely targeted for stops based on a lesser degree of objectively founded suspicion than whites,” she wrote.

“It is central,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) said Monday in an interview with MSNBC, saying he agrees with Biden that pursuing a bold environmental agenda will also be good for the economy. “One of the things that’s always pained me is that so many working people think climate [action] will leave them out, when it actually will increase the number of good-paying jobs, as long as we make sure it’s American jobs.”

Stephen K. Bannon was indicted today by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol. An arraignment date has not yet been set in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “The subpoena required him to appear and produce documents to the Select Committee, and to appear for a deposition before the Select Committee. Bannon, formerly a Chief Strategist and Counselor to the President, has been a private citizen since departing the White House in 2017. The case is being prosecuted by the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The Chinese Embassy did not respond to a request for comment on any of the issues raised in this article. One Chinese student tells FP that the Chinese consulates have stepped in to fill a void for support not being provided by universities. “The current situation is not that Chinese students don’t have freedom after they come to the United States,” he tells FP. Student groups often use the money for cultural events such as an annual lunar new year gala. For Chinese students, however, a more important concern is potential political pressure, which can come in the form of explicit ideological vetting.

We applaud their continuing efforts to find solutions that will not only relieve the suffering inherent in homelessness but also implement measures that will help homeless individuals become self-reliant and deal with criminal elements that prey on the homeless. Over the last decade, the Church has donated cash and commodities totaling more than $42 million to eight community and religious organizations that serve the homeless in Salt Lake City. In addition, the Church offers counseling services, employment training, job placement and personal ministering to the homeless. In addition, we are in active discussions with community partners to identify where the greatest needs exist and how the Church may offer additional help. In addition, many members do what they can as individuals and families to support community efforts designed to assist the homeless, for which we express our gratitude.

It is common for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be considered one of the most conservative religious groups in the United States. While some historians point to the social upheavals in the 1960s and 1970s as the glue that united Mormons and conservatives, the connection began decades earlier during the Great Depression. Leaders of the Mormon Church interpreted Roosevelt’s New Deal as the fulfillment of eschatological prophecy. Anti–New Dealers used the Mormon welfare plan to construct a conservative ideology. Accordingly, Mormons are essential elements in the formation of a political movement that revolutionized the United States.

Paula Gold-Williams President & CEO of CPS Energy“Energy Transfer’s egregious natural gas price gouging during the disastrous Winter Storm Uri and their resulting report of record-breaking $2.4 billion quarterly profits are now on full display for the world to see. Energy Transfer made a choice to prioritize profits over people. That company took advantage of many citizens in Texas by selling natural gas at historically unprecedented levels and taking in sky high profits. If you look at the latest earnings results from certain gas suppliers, you will understand the potential scale of what is at stake. It is abundantly clear that some energy market participants took full advantage of the declared disaster or did not take the appropriate steps to stop the exorbitant and unconscionable prices working their way through the system.

The Biden budget, if enacted, would stifle investment and cause a precipitous decline in US production of affordable, clean, and reliable energy. Changes to Current IDC Tax Policy Would be Detrimental to America:When an operator drills a well, approximately 15 percent of the costs are tangible (pipe, controls, etc.) Intangible drilling costs (IDCs) allow oil and natural gas companies to recover their intangible costs more quickly, freeing funds up to reinvest in development, resulting in more jobs. Additionally, most manufacturing assets are eligible for bonus depreciation, which also allows for an immediate tax deduction. About the American Exploration and Production Council:AXPC is a national trade association representing the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States.

These Billionaires Received Taxpayer-Funded Stimulus Checks During the Pandemic IRS records reveal that 18 billionaires and some 250 other ultrawealthy people received aid intended to help middle-class Americans. The wealthy taxpayers who received the stimulus checks got them because they came in under the government’s income threshold. ProPublica Read More The Billionaires Tax Isn’t NewIn response to questions, the general counsel for Dart Container wrote, “Mr. Others among the superrich also received stimulus payments the last time Congress offered them when millions of Americans were struggling. A number of the billionaires who received stimulus checks were able to report negative incomes to the IRS despite getting richer.

Trump’s direct appeal to such donors — some of whom are longtime contributors to the Republican Party who have given millions over the years — stands in contrast to the tone he struck in 2016, when he sharply criticized the influence of wealthy donors over the political process and derided his opponents for accepting their money.

Twitter and Facebook said they have removed thousands of accounts connected to Chinese information campaigns, in the latest sign of Beijing’s ambitions to shape the global narrative around the country. In a notice posted early Thursday, Twitter said that it took action against two networks comprising more than 2,000 accounts that worked to undermine accusations of human rights abuses in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where Chinese officials have interned Muslim minorities and subjected them to harsh surveillance. Both networks promoted videos shot within Xinjiang that sought to portray the region as one of prosperity and freedom. One of the networks, which Twitter attributed to the Chinese Communist Party, also coordinated verbal attacks against activists and articles critical of China, while bolstering Chinese state media with positive comments and likes, according to a report on the takedown released by the Stanford Internet Observatory, a research group focused on the misuse of technology and social media. The New York Times and ProPublica first identified a large number of accounts in the network in a June report about the campaign to project normalcy in Xinjiang.

Behind China’s combative new messengers, a murky hallelujah chorus of sympathetic accounts has emerged to repost them and cheer them on. No doubt some of these accounts are run by patriotic, tech-savvy Chinese people who get around their government’s ban on Twitter and other Western platforms. But an analysis by The New York Times found that many of the accounts behaved with a single-mindedness that could suggest a coordinated campaign of the type that nation states have carried out on Twitter in the past. Of the roughly 4,600 accounts that reposted China’s leading envoys and state-run news outlets during a recent week, many acted suspiciously, The Times found. One in six tweeted with extremely high frequency despite having few followers, as if they were being used as loudspeakers, not as sharing platforms.

He hasn’t paid federal income tax in five consecutive recent years. Lawmakers targeted Marshall Field, the wealthy department store operator, because he had taken substantial tax deductions on his money-losing newspapers. The line drawn was simple: After five straight years of losses, further tax deductions would be sharply limited. That enabled the billionaire doctor to pay no federal income tax from 2013 through 2017. He paid federal income taxes in only two of those years, and even then he paid just about $422,000, according to ProPublica’s data.

Series: Killing the Colorado The Water Crisis in the WestProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Like the record-breaking heat waves and the ceaseless mega-fires, the decline of the Colorado River has been faster than expected. Earlier this month, federal officials declared an emergency water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time. In recent decades, hundreds of thousands more people have moved to the regions that depend on the Colorado River. Or do we ensure the survival of the Colorado River, which supports some 8% of the nation’s GDP?

Republicans don’t want to raise the debt ceiling, but they also don’t want to be held responsible for a government shutdown. And sometimes the minority party’s former president launches a pressure campaign from his Florida compound urging them to use the debt ceiling to “totally kill” the current government. Ultimately, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell caved on his threats and agreed to help Democrats lift the debt ceiling. The Senate voted later Thursday to pass the measure, 59–34. Republicans who voted for the debt ceiling deal painted it as necessary to avoid catastrophe.

A BuzzFeed News investigation, in partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, based on thousands of documents the government didn't want you to see.

Given how narrowly Democrats hold Congress, it’s unlikely there will be federal action around vaccine mandates for students attending public schools. So yes, should be a part of it, and it’s not just school, right? And so, how much do you think schools will consume the midterms that are now officially on the horizon? BuzzFeed News: Do you think Democrats right now have a compelling message on schools in the age of COVID? We need to see like, we got public schools, Catholic schools, private schools, charter schools, home schools, we got all these different models.

Indigenous people in the United States have lost nearly 99% of the land they historically occupied, according to an unprecedented new data set. The negative effects continue to this day: Modern Indigenous lands are at increased risk from climate change hazards, especially extreme heat and decreased precipitation. Centuries of dispossession Researchers quantified how much land Indigenous people have lost in the United States, including regions that were lost by more than one tribe or lost repeatedly. For the tribes that still have land, its average present-day size is a mere 2.6% of their historical lands. Present-day Indigenous lands also have 24% fewer oil and gas resources than did historical lands, the data set shows.

But by the end of my program, I realized the weekly updates didn’t need to be packed with data and accomplishments. I was nervous when I wrote my first email update listing all the papers I’d read and ideas I’d explored—but lacking concrete data. To my relief, my advisers didn’t object. Expanding my idea of progress helped me feel more productive and gave me the intellectual space to explore topics more deeply. On my last day in my Ph.D. lab, I did something I never could have foreseen during the first 6 months: I thanked my professors for the lab tradition of weekly progress reports.

Upon reflection, I realized that my cautious, defensive writing style didn’t just reflect my scientific training; it also had underpinnings in my background as a Mexican American. It has taken me time to unlearn my cautious approach. My cautious approach kept my lab productive. At first, I thought I had focused on incremental work because that’s a common approach in my subdiscipline. It has taken me time to unlearn my cautious approach.

Esophageal cancer was rampant in Hebei Province, China, in the early 1970s, with 20% of the population dying from the disease in some counties. It devastated families, creating economic hardship and untold emotional pain. The 5-year survival rate was a meager 10% or less. Using multiple complementary approaches, researchers, clinicians, and other health care professionals identified potential causes, investigated the disease etiology, and outlined solutions. Now, approximately 45 years later, the mortality rate from esophageal cancer is down over 80%, saving the province millions in medical costs and countless precious lives.

Last summer, the House, in its version of the NDAA, prohibited any scientist involved in those foreign talent programs from also receiving federal research funds. The Senate bill, which never reached the floor, did not include a similar exclusion. Although such a ban has broad bipartisan support, the NDAA provision overlapped with language in a different bill that is moving rapidly through Congress. Bowing to those committees, NDAA negotiators agreed to remove any related provisions from their bill, including the foreign talent ban and two other House-passed provisions. University lobbyists are breathing a sigh of relief about another provision that was dropped from the final NDAA bill.

Similar to how zodiac signs embody a set of strengths and weaknesses, your life path number consists of specific qualities that have a powerful influence on your life. If you calculate your life path number and find you’re an 8, it means you’re driven by the idea of being accomplished in life. Keep reading for more details the life path number 8 meaning and how these themes manifest in your life. You can use an online life path calculator to calculate your life path number, or you can do it yourself. Life Path Number 8 Characteristics Having a life path 8 is about attaining success and connecting with your inner power.

When she came to, 4 police officers were pinning her down. Scared and disoriented, she begged to be let go & fought to get free. In 2012, Tiara Helm, 17, was at a concert an hour outside of Birmingham, Alabama, when she collapsed, gripped by a seizure.

The quilts are part of the Stitch Their Name Memorial Project, on display at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State. The quilts are part of the Stitch Their Name Memorial Project, on display at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State. The two quilts are open for public viewing on weekdays through Dec. 17 at Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center. James Earl Green and 21-year-old Jackson State student Phillip Lafayette Gibbs were fatally shot on the Jackson State campus during a violent police response to a protest against racial injustice in 1970. Her mother would piece together quilts using pieces of aprons, hats and dresses from her grandmother.

The Biden administration’s efforts may not gain much traction if more countries don’t follow suit. But the international showing so far — hardly overwhelming — also underscores the risk that Washington would have seen even fewer countries participate in a full boycott, potentially embarrassing the United States as much, if not more, than China. Voice of America noted that winter sport powerhouse Norway will not join the United States in a diplomatic boycott, nor will NATO allies France and Italy. Eastern European governments like Poland and Hungary, with weak track records on human rights and an eagerness to court China as an economic partner, are also ignoring the boycott.

The White House Historical Association's 2021 Christmas tree ornament that honors President Lyndon Johnson hangs on a tree in the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)The White House Historical Association's 2021 Christmas tree ornament that honors President Lyndon Johnson hangs on a tree in the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. Those memories and more come rushing back when Luci Baines Johnson looks at this year’s annual Christmas tree ornament from the White House Historical Association. Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, had commissioned the watercolor for that year’s White House Christmas card. The 2019 White House Christmas ornament is one of those that depicts the White House, specifically the south side, to honor President Harry Truman.

California now has more than 1.3 million residential solar installations, more than any other state, according to the solar industry. That number will only grow because since 2020 all newly constructed homes in California must have solar panels. Currently, higher-income households are more likely to have solar panels than lower-income households because solar costs a lot of money up front. Solar panels on average cost between $20,000 and $25,000 to install on a California home, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director at the California Solar and Storage Association, which represents 700 businesses involved in the solar market. The utilities' desired changes wouldn't apply to people who already have solar panels on their homes, only those who choose to install solar panels going forward.

Ante la muerte de Vicente Fernández, Joe Biden, presidente de Estados Unidos, envió condolencias a su familia y a todos los que lo amaban, considerando que el mundo de la música pierde un icono. Puntualizó, que “El Gran Charro de Huentitán” será recordado por generaciones veniderasNOTA RELACIONADA:Fallece Vicente Fernández, 'El Gran Charro de Huentitán'“El mundo de la música ha perdido un icono. La música de Vicente Fernández creó recuerdos para millones. Vicente será recordado por las generaciones venideras”. The music of Vicente Fernández created memories for millions.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. Steve Sisolak’s grandstanding at the Nevada border with California Gov. Gavin Newsom regarding the addition of a third southbound lane for Interstate 15 created out of the road’s shoulder. All this five-mile shoulder project does is to re-establish the 20-mile back-up on the other side of the mountain pass where it will re-form.

This month, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development gave nine companies $12 million in tax abatements. It bragged that these companies will create 469 jobs by 2024. Jobs create the tax revenue that funds education, police and roads. He said it would help diversify Nevada’s economy. Handouts like these remain a distraction tactic, similar to how Roman emperors tried to appease the masses with food and entertainment.

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)Please, please don’t ever drop syndicated columnist Susan Estrich from your Opinion page. Yes, she is a liberal, progressive Democrat. And she’s also reasonable, adult and practical in her assessment of where we are as a nation. See her Tuesday column on “the Biden malaise.”I’d probably cross the aisle and vote for her. I like Ms. Estrich’s thought process and communication skills very much.

At the outset, let me plainly state again, I am unbeholden to any special interest group seeking to influence my future votes. If elected, my priority is to do the people’s work. I quit a high-paying job in technology and finance to run for state Senate, because I believe in public service, not self-service. I am running for state Senate to help ensure that our district continues to provide future generations the same opportunities that my family received nearly 50 years ago when they arrived in Boston. Anthony D’Ambrosio, with a bachelor or arts degree from Yale and a master of arts degree from the University of Cambridge, is a member of the Revere School Committee and candidate for state Senate.

1 seed of the AFC with a rookie quarterback and a seven-game winning streak in which they’ve outscored their opponents 225-73. But the Patriots, because of superior coaching and leadership, are giving me every indication that they’re going to win this season’s Super Bowl. Our past sanctions and future threats of sanctions on Russia are window dressing and are not producing the intended results. Also watch the strife and killings at the border cease as Russia will not start a war with NATO over Ukraine. Responsible minerals sourcing requires legally binding regulations to protect human rights and stringent environmental standards with independent, third-party verification of compliance.

At the same time, Democratic politicians, civil rights groups and their media allies are in a frenzy that the Supreme Court might allow states to restrict abortion. Congressional Democrats are even willing to pack the Supreme Court to stop it, a scheme most Americans oppose. Before the Supreme Court: A challenge to Maine’s mandate that all health care workers get vaccinated. In 1905, the smallpox vaccine had been in use for over a century, while the COVID vaccines are brand-new and evolving. The smallpox vaccine prevented infection, protecting not just the vaccinated but the community — a powerful argument to make it mandatory.

The stickers — with Biden pointing to the $3.50 a gallon gas price and saying “I did that!” — are part of a Republican guerrilla campaign to undermine the Democratic administration. A 100-pack of the stickers is going for just six bucks on Amazon. You might see the derisive stickers up in New Hampshire, the swing state Biden is set to visit on Tuesday to promote his $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that just passed Congress. The gas pump stickers are similar tactics to what Democrats did to Republican presidents like Trump. Biden is also planning to spend some quality time in the little middle class enclave of Nantucket over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Jonathan Haslam, the noted Sovietologist, understands perhaps better than anyone alive the effect the Russian revolution of 1917 had on the recalibration of international politics. To adopt an Americanism from the post-war period, while many statesmen and others of influence in the west saw Hitler as a bastard, they did at least consider him to be their bastard. Nothing, they felt, could be worse than Bolshevism: an idea that the ovens of Auschwitz and the Nazis’ innumerable other bestialities would eventually challenge. Hitler attempted to murder a whole race, and his ideological opponents; Stalin attempted to murder whole classes, and his ideological opponents. Because Hitler held power for just over 12 years, and Stalin for over 28, the latter’s toll of carnage was even higher than the former’s.

Unbeknownst to many, we are already knee deep in the Second Troll War. Russian trolls, Fox and other private American propaganda firms all worked to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect the Demagogue. In that respect, the Demagogue, Putin and his trolls are on the very same page. And so we find ourselves in the midst of the Second Troll War. If our voters can learn these two lessons in time, we just might survive, if not win, the Second Troll War.

DE OLIVEIRA: So- so we- we do not know, and one should always be very careful to look at the individual day- daily tests. What one has to do is to look at the general trend of seven or 14 days. What we know is that last week we were adding the highest number of infections from Omicron. And what we are going to be doing is looking very carefully at that data, potentially halting and Johannesburg may have peak. South Africa has nine provinces, which, like similar states in America and in all of the other eight provinces, the numbers are increasing and increasing very fast.

There is an assumption that any redistricting plan that ends up with Republicans losing more seats than Democratic opportunities in a Democratic-run state is a gerrymander. The problem is that, in many ways, the 2010 redistricting created significant problems, and the movement of population within a state means that to correct for past sins, there will be changes. Some of the plans have included moving the most diverse voting districts in the state outside of her congressional district. Unfortunately, in some states, we will create new gerrymanders in Republican states that will sit for the next decade. Fighting for redistricting that protects the Democratic majority by turning back horrific plans elsewhere with reasonable, open plans that provide people real representation?

The lasting images of 2021 Share this story Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. It would be easy to sum up 2021 as a year of fear and division, and it was that. Story continues below advertisement AdvertisementStory continues below advertisement AdvertisementThe images of 2021 tell a complex yet dramatic story. Story continues below advertisement AdvertisementStory continues below advertisement AdvertisementYet through it all, the people on this planet did wondrously good things, too. — Marc FisherExperience the most memorable photos of the year with audio interviews from our photojournalists who covered the events.

The ongoing review of EU fiscal rules provides a key test of whether it is ready for change | Olivier Hoslet/EPA-EFEArancha González is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain. Strategic autonomy means enhancing Europe’s ability to make its own choices, in line with its interests and values, irrespective of what others do. These levels of spending seem to indicate a Europe that is comfortable with continued reliance on the U.S. security umbrella. Despite important internal imbalances, the net value of its exports was roughly equivalent to the value of its imports. The ongoing review of EU fiscal rules provides a key test of whether it is ready for change.

A man was killed in an apparent drive-by shooting this weekend in northwest Las Vegas, police said Sunday. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)A man was killed in an apparent drive-by shooting this weekend in northwest Las Vegas, police said Sunday. Officers found a man sitting in a vehicle, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. An initial investigation found that the man was in a vehicle when someone drove by and shot him, before speeding away from the area. The Clark County coroner’s office is expected to identify the man after relatives are notified.

The St. Paul school board is expected Tuesday to make critical ethnic studies a required course for high school graduation, starting with the class of 2025. Three district high schools have been piloting the class this year with a total of 87 students expected to enroll. FOUR ANCHOR STANDARDSThe framework for the class was adapted from ethnic studies programs in California, Oregon, Indiana and elsewhere. Yang Thao said she started the school year with 35 students in critical ethnic studies, but seven dropped it early on. A 2016 working paper on San Francisco schools found positive and “surprisingly large effects” on attendance and grades among high-risk students who took an ethnic studies class as high school freshmen.

It began with a confab in Schumer’s car and continued long enough for McConnell to clear the way for Democrats to raise the debt ceiling Thursday afternoon. The war between House Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains hot. Since neither McConnell nor McCarthy has a beating heart, and only one has a brain, it’s hard to tell how much the congressional leaders don’t like each other. To the stoic McConnell, 79, McCarthy, 56, is a whippersnapper who worked in the district office of a Bakersfield congressman when McConnell was swiftly ascending the slippery pole to Majority Leader. That’s why McConnell speaking to the opposition and “caving” on the debt ceiling, as Trump saw it, is significant.

Politically liberal San Franciscans are used to living cheek by jowl with open drug use, feces-infested streets and petty crime. Caitlin Foster is among San Francisco shopkeepers who have repeatedly had to clear away used needles and other drug paraphernalia outside the bar she manages. The pandemic emptied parts of San Francisco and highlighted some of its drawbacks, including a laissez-faire approach by officials to open drug dealing just steps from the Opera House and Symphony Hall. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies. SAN FRANCISCO SAFEWAY CUTS HOURS, CITES 'OFF THE CHARTS' SHOPLIFTING: 'AN EQUITY PROBLEM'A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, usually both.

It’s 100% normal for teenagers to have guns in Price Hill or any inner-city neighborhood. These kids need resources. These kids don't realize that these guns, they don't care. Kids need to be educated about guns. I know Kris.

In the current circumstances, deeper integration with the United States is profoundly contrary to Canada’s long-term interests, writes Dimitri Lascaris. On November 30, at Oxford High School near Detroit, Michigan, the United States suffered its 29th school shooting since the beginning of 2021. Of the 25 wealthiest countries in the world, the United States remains the only one that does not provide universal healthcare. As a result, the United States is, and has been for many years, the world’s largest military spender by far. A 2014 study by Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page concluded, in essence, that the United States is now an oligarchy.

Liberal: Democrats’ Hispanic Voter Problem“The Democrats are steadily losing ground with Hispanic voters,” observes Ruy Teixeira at Liberal Patriot. “It’s not as bad as you think, it’s worse”: “In the most recent Wall Street Journal poll, Hispanic voters were split evenly between Democrats and Republicans in the 2022 generic congressional ballot. And in a 2024 hypothetical rematch between [Donald] Trump and [Joe] Biden, these voters favored Biden by only a single point. This is among a voter group that favored Biden over Trump in 2020 by 26 points.” Why? Right now, that’s not the Democrats.

For everyone else — those who worked for a U.S. government agency or U.S.-funded organization, the U.S.-trained Afghan military commandos, the women, civil society leaders and journalists and many thousands of others who are believed to be at risk — there is likely to be a significant, if not an indefinite, wait. Some who make it out on their own, or with the help of advocates on the outside, may never be admitted.

The United States and its other G7 allies are searching for a coherent response to Xi's growing assertiveness after China’s spectacular economic and military rise over the past 40 years. There was support for President Joe Biden's attempt to support Ukraine and deter Putin with a clear warning of severe economic sanctions. Moscow says the G7 - the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - is making aggressive accusations. China, which has never been a G7 member, retorted in June following that meeting that "small" groups no longer ruled the world. Canada joined Australia, Britain and the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Wednesday.

We’re encouraged by the city’s new plan to invest $1.3 billion in affordable housing across Chicago — an act that could rightly help curb gentrification in some neighborhoods while bringing much-needed redevelopment in others. Announced last week, the initiative would create 24 separate affordable rental housing projects, placing 2,400 units on the North, South and West sides. A different approach to affordable housingA mix of revenue sources will be used to pay for the plan, which the Lightfoot administration billed as the largest affordable housing initiative in the city’s history. This approach of bringing affordable housing to as many neighborhoods as possible reinforces the fact that these homes are an asset, rather than an afterthought. Playing catch-upA recent DePaul University study found that Northwest Side neighborhoods such as Logan Square and Avondale lost 14.4% of their affordable rental housing units since 2014.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was in Las Vegas on Sunday to address the worsening drought crisis in the West. Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo held a listening session with local elected officials, business leaders and stakeholders to hear about the impacts that the ongoing drought is having on their communities. Haaland also touted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that invests $8.3 billion in water and drought resilience that will fund water efficiency and recycling programs and rural water projects. The law also invests $2.5 billion in Indian Water Rights Settlements to help the Interior Department fulfill its obligations to tribes, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

But they chose to affirm it on the grounds of stare decisis, a doctrine counseling respect for precedent. AdvertisementAdvertisementConservatives despised this conception of stare decisis. AdvertisementAdvertisementToday’s conservative justices do not share their predecessors’ fear of appearing illegitimate. It certainly won’t convince the other conservative justices, who belong to a legal movement built, in large part, on a rejection of this reasoning. The reality is that Casey’s rationale is irrelevant for another, more fundamental reason: Today’s conservative justices do not share their predecessors’ fear of appearing illegitimate.

Many Indigenous leaders say the remains being discovered across Canada are the manifestation of criminal activity at the schools ranging from improper burial to neglect and murder. Officers tore Indigenous children from their homes, and delivered them to the schools. They also tracked down runaways from the schools and brought them back. “There must be an examination to determine if some of our children were murdered,” Chief Archibald said last month at Kamloops when she called on the United Nations to appoint an independent investigator. So the decision to involve law enforcement in the search for remains at the Mohawk Institute was not an easy one for the Mohawk community to make.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and I have a few things in common. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who don't give a damn about the gun violence and trauma we are constantly cycling through as a nation, are the problem. Founding FathersNow, I'm not about to tell you that the Second Amendment doesn't say you can't have guns, because it clearly does, and the U.S. Supreme Court agrees. We must look to our God-given common sense to solve this uniquely American crisis. And common sense begs us to do better in electing our representatives and getting rid of them when they cross the line.

Beijing exploits America’s top research universities to boost the Chinese military-industrial complex, and it needs to stop. A new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies details how China-sponsored Confucius Institutes at campuses across America facilitate Beijing’s espionage. In particular, research partnerships with 28 universities (including Stanford, Tufts and Texas A&M) boost Beijing’s military apparatus, including intelligence, nuclear weapons and cyberespionage platforms. And they facilitate forming the “research partnerships” that quietly let Beijing steal technology and other intellectual property. Congress cracked down on the spying by banning universities that host Confucius Institutes from receiving key Defense Department grants and contracts; two-thirds of the institutes across US academia have since closed.

No CPAC invitation will be in the offing anytime soon, but Vladimir Putin has picked up admirers on the populist right here and abroad that he doesn’t deserve. With Putin threatening to invade Ukraine, the Russian dictator will again become a top-of-mind concern. They think he has the right enemies, namely the same establishment that also scorned Donald Trump. Russian President Vladimir Putin sits during his talk with US President Joe Biden regarding Russian forces building up at the Ukraine border. Likewise, just because Putin is pursuing his self-interest in Ukraine, it doesn’t mean we can’t pursue ours.

Not surprisingly, among the three branches of government, the judiciary is the most trusted by the public. Americans know that many of the rights and liberties they cherish have been safeguarded by the Supreme Court in its sworn duty to support and defend the Constitution. The nation’s courts are admired across the globe — aspiring democracies look to the United States’ independent judiciary as the model for their own courts and as an essential pillar of democracy. They know that the rule of law depends upon an independent judiciary.

Perhaps the best way to comprehend the danger posed by this decision is to heed the words of the chief justice. Roberts quoted ominously from an 1809 ruling: “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery.” And Roberts, in his own words, added, “The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.”

Louisville Courier JournalCommunities across western Kentucky have been devastated by tornadoes that ripped across the state overnight Saturday. Here is a list of organizations that are aiding in disaster relief in areas like Mayfield, Bowling Green and beyond. Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief FundVisit https://secure.kentucky.gov/formservices/Finance/WKYRelief. Kentucky Tornado Relief FundThe University of Kentucky College of Medicine has established a GoFundMe page collecting donations at gofundme.com/f/ukcom-student-effort-for-tornado-relief-in-ky.Kentucky Volunteer Organizations Active in DisastersVisit kentuckyvoad.org/. Western Kentucky Red Cross Disaster Relief FundraiserFind the online fundraiser on Facebook.

“I can listen to her speak about equity, and walk away smarter,” said Miguel Cardona, the education secretary. Ms. Pringle is seeking to position her union at the forefront of the social justice movement — a tall order, some believe, for an organization whose membership is more than 70 percent white, with a large number of members living in purple and red states. Her success, she believes, is tied to having Mr. Biden as a partner. “It is not lost on me that I’m a Black leader in this moment, pushing this,” she said. Joe Biden talking about racial justice is no small thing.”

Anne is our guide to this decadent society, a wonderfully complex, not entirely likable character who shrewdly observes other people’s missteps but is sometimes maddeningly oblivious to her own failures of judgment. (Refusing to see her aristocratic lover’s weaselly nature is the prime example.) After her husband dies, constrained by law to leave the bulk of his property to their hostile eldest son, her desperate circumstances lead Anne to reluctantly enable Frankie’s increasingly reckless behavior. She wants more than the bold outfits Anne fashions to slyly assert feminine power. Frankie has fallen in love with Sir Robert Carr, who despite being King James’ handsome favorite seems equally enamored of Frankie.

The Buccaneers came into the game with the NFL’s stingiest run defense, and several previous opponents have chosen to skew heavily in favor of the pass. Of course, it has also been the case that most of the Bucs’ opponents have fallen behind and been forced to the air, as was the case for Buffalo, which found itself with a 17-3 deficit midway through the second quarter and went to the half losing 24-3. Still, Buffalo’s utter disregard to that point for a conventional rushing attack led to some criticism from online observers.

“It seems to take for bloody ever to go away,” she said, watching a boat carry food into the town of Wee Waa. WEE WAA, Australia — Two years ago, the fields outside Christina Southwell’s family home near the cotton capital of Australia looked like a dusty, brown desert as drought-fueled wildfires burned to the north and south. Its droughts and floods, although weather opposites, are driven by the same forces — some of them timeless, others newer and caused by humans. The cost of climate disasters in Australia has more than doubled since the 1970s. Ron Campbell, the mayor of Narrabri Shire, which includes Wee Waa, said his area was still waiting for government payments to offset damage from past catastrophes.

The small Baltic nation of Lithuania has provoked China’s wrath by agreeing, among other things, to open a trade office with Taiwan under its own name. Nicaragua has broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of China, further reducing the number of countries that still recognize the self-governing island as a sovereign nation. As recently as 2017, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, visited Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega vowed to help build international support for the island democracy. Now, only 13 nations and the Vatican still recognize Taiwan, down from 21 in all at the beginning of 2017. Nicaragua ended diplomatic relations once before, in 1985, after Ortega first came to power, but reversed that decision five years later, under President Violeta Chamorro.

I write in response to Neil Steinberg’s recent opinion column, “It doesn’t matter if Till whistled.” While I agree with Steinberg’s premise that whether or not Emmett Till whistled is beside the point, I find other parts of his piece deeply troubling and alarming. The Till family has endured immense pain and trauma since the horrific act of racial terror inflicted on their 14-year-old relative in 1955. We should not minimize the healing and symbolic power of justice — even justice that is long delayed. This case is about more than Emmett Till. Steinberg owes the Till family an apology for his insensitivity and arrogance.

Today, in any remotely similar scenario, those directly injured by the plutocrats’ negligence would almost certainly prevail in their tort lawsuits. But that doesn’t mean our legal system has done away with arbitrary limits on tort liability. But it wasn’t until 1968 that American courts first gave people in their situation a right to recover for their trauma. In practical terms, our courts are simply continuing the long judicial tradition of placing fences around tort liability. But in the absence of a family relationship (or a change in the law), such negligently-inflicted emotional distress doesn’t qualify as NIED.

With Putin threatening to invade Ukraine, the Russian dictator will again become a top-of-mind concern for the United States. Meanwhile, Putin has seen that a band of associates have gotten very rich, making these loyalists a pillar of his regime. AdvertisementWhile Putin sheathes himself in the symbols and rhetoric of the Orthodox Church, there is nothing genuinely Christian about his rule. There is something very strange about American conservatives finding things to admire about Putin, given how distinctively and unmistakably Russian he is. Likewise, just because Putin is pursuing his self-interest in Ukraine, it doesn’t mean we can’t pursue ours.

Julian Assange’s High Court judges offered no mitigation, no suggestion that they had agonised over legalities or even basic morality, writes John Pilger. Read more ?

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As we await the High Court decision on Julian Assange, we took a deep dive into the histories of the Espionage & Official Secrets Acts and their impact on the Assange case. Watch the replay here. Read more ?

That history includes the founding of the first automated data processing company, the Tabulating Machine Company, 125 years ago on Dec. 3, 1896. Population GrowthThe only use of the census clearly specified in the Constitution is to allocate seats in the House of Representatives. The first crucial innovation was to translate data on handwritten census tally sheets to patterns of holes punched in cards. Card processing served as a scaffolding for vastly more rapid and space-efficient purely electronic computers that now dominate, with little evidence remaining of the old regime. Appropriately enough, the first UNIVAC delivered, in 1951, was to the U.S. Census Bureau, still hungry to improve its data processing capabilities.

A strong similarity between Ida and Katrina still emerged: Low-income communities and communities of color remain at high risk from hurricanes. Hurricane Ida became the most destructive storm of the busy 2021 Atlantic hurricane season that ends Nov. 30. While many New Orleans residents breathed a sigh of relief as Ida’s storm surge subsided, the damage outside the city’s levee system was devastating. FEMA Aid Favors Wealthier HomeownersIn many parts of the U.S., the legacy of segregation means that low-income communities are more likely to live in high-risk areas. These changes now need to be publicized as part of a wider government strategy to increase protection for low-income residents.

Completely reversing the roles of the United States and Russia might help Westerners understand how the Russians see 2014 events that reverberate today. The following pretend scenario, putting those exact events inside Canada, instead of Ukraine, and exchanging the Russian and U.S. roles, may help Westerners better understand what happened then and the roots of the crisis today. The Islanders voted over 90 percent in favor of joining the United States following the Russian-backed coup. Moscow has refused to release any intelligence to support its claim, other than statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He has also written that Canada is the stepping stone to the United States and that if the U.S. loses Canada it will fail to control North America.

Hill’s presence on the ASPI council may surprise ASPI-watchers as his profile does not appear on the ASPI council webpage nor in its annual report. Another ASPI council member, Jane Halton, is also on the board of Naval Group Australia, although this is not mentioned on the ASPI website. Returning to Australia, he was engaged by Liberal defence industry minister Christopher Pyne on numerous sensitive defense projects while also on ASPI’s Council. Former Defence Secretary Allan Hawke was on the Lockheed Martin Australia board for the final six months of his time on the ASPI Council. Declassified Australia does not imply any illegality by any past or present ASPI Council members, fellows or staff.

With his “Summit for Democracy,” Joe Biden enthrones himself on the collapsed stage of American exceptionalism, writes Scott Ritter. Biden and his team of advisers have modeled the Summit for Democracy on President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the first of which was convened in 2010, and the last in 2016. Like the Summit for Democracy, the NSS was an exclusive event, limited to 53 nations. Given the scope and scale of Biden’s ambitions for democracy, perhaps a different organizational model should have been embraced. And guess what — it worked.”It worked so well that neither El Salvador, Guatemala nor Honduras are being invited to the Summit for Democracy.

By Fredrik S. Heffermehlin OsloSpecial to Consortium NewsThe 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, which will be presented on Friday, honored press freedom and, no surprise, was welcomed by the world press. Thus, the Nobel Peace Prize illustrates a black hole in press freedom. The attempt to realize a world peace order failed in the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899. The prize Nobel intended never happened, the Norwegian awarders chose never to conduct the necessary professional interpretation of Nobel’s intention. The book relates 114 heartbreaking stories of people who were cheated of the prizes Nobel wished to give them.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and NPR. Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoeHelp Us Cover the Assange Case!

Bregman cites “broken windows policing” as an example of bad policy based on a pessimistic view of human nature. Tough circumstances can lead to a remarkable level of cooperation, a trait that has allowed human beings to flourish as a species. “Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! The tragic view emphasizes how flawed human beings are, and tries to construct institutions that tame our natural bad instincts. Even the term “human nature” is too imprecise to be especially meaningful.

He recently joined Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson on an episode of the Current Affairs podcast to discuss the world of the American ruling class. RobinsonIf people don’t know your background, much of your writing focuses on the inner lives of the American elite. That’s right. Suddenly, they’re horrified because they don’t know how you’re going to qualify to be at a fancy dinner. There’s nobody on earth that doesn’t believe in money, right?

These policies also undermine federal efforts to get the pandemic under control, which the right then blames Biden for not controlling. They also might help sabotage the economic recovery, which the right will also blame Biden for not sufficiently juicing. Of course, the magnitude of the economic effect of these unemployment-benefit policies alone may be tiny, at least based on that recent experience with other unemployment benefit expansions. But that’s not what Republicans have said they believe.

Many first assumed the vaccine problem is South Africa was tied to lack of availability — vaccine hoarding by the U.S. and other developed nations. But while supply shortages do dog Africa’s poorer nations, it turns out that South Africa had of late been experiencing a vaccine glut. At the turn of the millennium, then-president Thabo Mbeki embraced science denial and conspiracy theory about AIDS that hampered South Africa’s response. In a revealing series of posts on Twitter, Eve Fairbanks — a U.S. born, Yale-educated freelance writer who’s been reporting from South Africa for a number of years — wrote that much of the viral disinformation plaguing South Africa was incubated in America. The results of either bad information or deep government distrust have been devastating to South Africa’s vaccination campaign.

You would think that the Supreme Court seeming pretty much okay with state laws forcing girls to bear their rapists' spawn would create a tidal wave of revulsion. But that would involve "norms," which are apparently in short supply. The data cited about maternal deaths among Black women comes from the CDC website. As many of you probably know already, the US has the highest rate of maternal death among developed nations. The $233,610 cost of raising a child is from a widely-cited USDA study announced in 2015.

Today, the common denominator running through all these schemes is empowerment. You feel like the world is changing too fast, that people who reject your values are in control of the culture, that established institutions you used to trust don’t represent you anymore? Give us your money, and you can impose order on a chaotic world, you can undo elections, you can reveal the truth behind the lies, you can stick it to the libs. You can even get rich.

Today’s episode of The Brief, our weekly show about politics, will be a little different than most. It’s a twin whammy: We’re not great at giving our own core a reason to vote, and we’re not great at convincing everyone else to switch to us. I think what Monica has to share could very well save your holiday gatherings if you must deal with … difficult relatives. It goes live Wednesday mornings at all the usual places, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. A full list of places to download the show is available here.

There’s a reason he’s almost never worn them in public:It’s quite amazing how this asshole fat-shames women when he himself is literally obese. These are the same people who talk about taking Vitamins C, D, and Zinc to “boost” their immune system. Don’t they have an immune system to handle any pathogens that might be picked up (including after using the bathroom)? The immune system isn’t a perfect system. There’s a reason death rates have plummeted as medicine and scientific knowledge (like the discovery of handwashing) has advanced.

This article that is all about how the shadowy “they’” are controlling you is totally not political at all. The problem with conservatism—they all think they know better and have “done their research” until they are personally affected. This is better than the alternative we see so often—people clinging to their anti-vaxx dogma on their death beds. And if their own daughter, a medical professional, couldn’t get through the propaganda machine, what chance does anyone else? Some people think gasping for air as COVID ravages your heart is worth it for some great anti-immigrant, anti-voting, anti-liberal memes.

The Republican Party has been accused of packing The Supreme Court to help them cement unearned political power. The Republican appointee dominated Court decided on hand counting only some of the ballots. This maintained the Republican appointee majority on The Court. Not only that, but the justices, who have the present party appointee majority, are going to have a powerful incentive to avoid handing down questionable rulings. I supposed others will have even better ideas than mine about a new method of filling Supreme Court justice vacancies.

At the same time Russia and others have been helping to spread the misinformation that supports those opposing public health measures. But spreading misinformation known to amplify the effects of a biological agent against a population is an attack on our country. But now, we have foreign propaganda programming citizens with misinformation designed to spread a deadly disease. Furthermore, the people we most need to protect from the misinformation are the individuals who are willingly taking it in. Seems to me that encouraging individuals to spread disease in another country is a violation of this treaty.

Of course, conservatives don’t feel similarly. This is a better reading:The dating question has really triggered conservatives, as they clearly chafe at their shrunken dating pool. This CNN story told tearful stories of conservatives shut out of the dating scene because of their bigoted politics. — Paul Hogarth (@paulhogarth) December 8, 2021Fundamentally, conservatives lose nothing when Democrats are in power. But unless they’re wealthy, they don’t lose anything, and even for the wealthy, the most they lose is money—which they, by definition, already have in excess.

Less than 1% of nurses have quit because of COVID vaccine mandates. That’s probably because that Fox News policy is actually more stringent than the one Biden has announced for large businesses. Really rich for assholes refusing to do what’s necessary to flatten the curve, then complaining that the curve hasn’t flattened. Wife died one month after her mask-free anti-mask rally, which is the usual time it takes for COVID to incubate and kill. He did, however, post his last anti-vaxx meme—that “flatten the curve” one—on Oct. 25, which suggests that he likely found out about her infection shortly thereafter.

As with droughts, regional dynamics play a significant role in generating flood events. For these and other reasons, modeling regional flood trends into the future can’t be done with great confidence. Regional weather patterns influence amounts and severity of snow and rainfall, and reduce our predictive ability on the regional scale. The frequency of torrential downpours and floods have increased over the past several decades. Given the current warming rate of 0.32°C per decade, this trend is expected to increase in years to come.

PROJECT #1 Project: Lego World! The cost of school supplies for families that have multiple children can be a hardship to families' basic needs. PROJECT #2 Project: Fabulous Fish Resources: Help me give my students an aquarium for them to be able to understand the underwater world of fish. x x YouTube VideoOur main project from last week was completed, thanks in large part to our readers, our readers/ We also have a note from a previous project to share. Mrs. Swilley wanted her Mississippi high school students to do a hands-on project raising carnivorous plants, but her school didn’t have the resources.

….. a bemused Brian Williams quipped:"We have products for nearly all of that ..... in just our first commercial break". One hundred years later in 2014 this statue — of a British and German soldier shaking hands and with a soccer ball between them — was cast by British sculptor Andy Edwards and named All Together Now. He also speaks of managing to meet the last surviving US service member from World War I (Frank Buckles) before his passing in 2011 at the age of one hundred and ten. each soldier strained to hearAs one young German voice sang out so clear "He's singing bloody well, you know!" "Tis 'Silent Night'," says IAnd in two tongues one song filled up that sky "There's someone coming toward us!"

According to the 54-page, newly unsealed indictment, workers were often required to dig onions with their bare hands and were paid only 20 cents for each bucket harvested. They were threatened at gunpoint and held in fenced-in work camps in “cramped, unsanitary quarters” and given “little or no food, limited plumbing,” and no safe water. Two dozen accused members and associates of the “Patricio” crime ring face myriad felony charges. The AJC reports that the bust is part of a shift in priorities by President Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Instead of targeting undocumented workers via raids on workplaces, today, authorities are targeting “exploitative employers” and businesses that violate labor laws.

Belcher pointed out that a sizable part of Biden's approval problems can be traced back to a double-digit drop among Democratic voters. In Belcher’s view, whether or not Democrats can actually pass a voting rights bill, they have to die trying, and I think he’s right. But voting rights is paramount. In my personal opinion, if Democrats wait until March to start making a big voting rights push, it will be too late. Clearing space for voting rights will also require decisive action soon on President Biden's Build Back Better bill.

The base that Fox has cultivated for Trump is psychologically the same as Hitler’s base. With Trump the biggest lie is that he won the very election that he lost. Trump flirted with the idea of declaring a state of emergency in order to achieve his coup. People used to laugh at the idea of Hitler becoming chancellor of Germany too. The Australian state TV has an excellent documentary about Trump, Fox News and the big lie.

The weekend is off to a very bad start. Friday night saw a horrific and unusual storm system that led to at least 30 tornadoes in six states, including one three-hour monstrosity that traveled over 200 miles through four states, leaving behind little more than rubble and dozens of lives lost. Elsewhere, the stories of conservatives and COVID-19 keep getting stranger, and there’s really just one New Year’s resolution Joe Biden can complete if he truly wants to claw back the nation from fascism and ensure we never get this close to the edge again. Here's some of what you may have missed:New and trending stories from the Community:

Recently, I had an argument regarding the value of Risk Matrices. I’ve some more thoughts regarding the benefits of risk matrices since:They force you to place likelihood and consequence orthogonally. And despite more regular experience, not all highly likely become less consequential. In a population, they’re both highly likely and highly consequential. Risk matrices may not be ideal in scoring yet they force two dimensions to provide scoring.

At the end of this week's episode of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace announced that this broadcast would be his last. That is if Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson don't pull rank over the weak-kneed Fox News executives who cower before them. Speaking of Tucker Carlson, there are good reasons to suspect that he might have given Wallace a shove out the door. After the airing of Carlson's false flag crocumentary, "Patriot Purge," Wallace complained to Fox News executives, Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO, and Jay Wallace, President of News. In addition to Wallace exiting Fox News, the network has another open primetime weekday slot at 7:00pm.

Several of Ericksen’s constituents have written The Bellingham Herald, wondering why there has been no updated information. Well-wishers have also sent messages to his public Facebook page, which has not been updated recently. As for contacting Ericksen’s family, The Bellingham Herald tried that and has heard bupkis. So, yeah, Republicans are doing their level best to make COVID-19 great again, and they’re falling on their spike proteins to make their point. More importantly, though, we should hope that he and other influential GOP lawmakers finally see the light.

Sudden cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating, whilst a heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked. And as Timaeus pointed out to me…..…...less than 10% of people who have cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive and most of those have extreme neurological deficits. As it says on Timaeus’s profile page….." Life is too short. " I was meditating, where i try to clear my mind of all thoughts….. and her picture, the one on her profile page, came in strong. Enough so as to look up her profile page, and discovering of her year and a half absence.

Major newspapers around the country seemingly ignored putting the threat to democracy above the fold or even on the first page. Curiously, the major threat to democracy was nowhere to be found on the front pages of major newspapers around the country. Major papers like the New York Times and Washington Post put Dole’s memorial front and center, with below-the-fold articles on the pandemic, foreign policy, and other pressing issues rounding out the rest of the page. Newspapers have to retain their readers somehow, though a major story like Meadows’ big revelation seems like an awful lot to overlook. But it’s a hell of a lot more consequential than a late-to-the-party New York Times piece on the “Birds Aren’t Real” meme movement that started in 2017.

pic.twitter.com/YPBJ00vN6z — Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) December 12, 2021The governor's plan attempts to capitalize off of the Supreme Court opinion in a way Justice Sonia Sotomayor predicted in a 48-page dissent. She wrote:My disagreement with the Court runs far deeper than a quibble over how many defendants these petitioners may sue. The dispute is over whether States may nullify federal constitutional rights by employing schemes like the one at hand. This choice to shrink from Texas’ challenge to federal supremacy will have far-reaching repercussions. Counsel even asserted that a State could further rig procedures by abrogating a state supreme court’s power to bind its own lower courts.

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJanuary 15, 2009President Bush Commemorates Foreign Policy Achievements and Presents Medal of Freedom to Ambassador Ryan CrockerU.S. Department of StateWashington, D.C. And there is one man who embodies these qualities above all: Ambassador Ryan Crocker. During his nearly four decades in the Foreign Service, Ryan Crocker has become known as America's Lawrence of Arabia. After any one of these brushes with danger, most people would have lost their appetite for adventure -- not Ryan Crocker. When the story of this transformation is written, historians will note the extraordinary partnership between two exceptional men: General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

That letter was followed up by a letter in May 1998 to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Currently: Just appointed as chairman ISAB, the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board, which advises the State Department on arms-control issues. In the Reagan Administration, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, and worked for Senator Henry Jackson (1969-1980). He is a member or advisor for several conservative think-tanks, including the Center for Security Policy, the Hudson Institute, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was a member of the Defense Policy Board in the Clinton Administration.

Many of the countries most at risk from ecological threats, including Nigeria, Angola, Burkina Faso and Uganda, are also predicted to experience significant population increases, the report noted, further driving mass displacements. “Ecological threats pose serious challenges to global peace. Over the next 30 years, lack of access to food and water will only increase without urgent global cooperation. “Lack of resilience will lead to worsening food insecurity and competition over resources, increasing civil unrest and mass displacement,” the report said. The report said 16 countries, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and Iceland, faced no threat.

The 21st century statecraft agenda addresses new forces propelling change in international relations that are pervasive, disruptive and difficult to predict. This is 21st century statecraft – complementing traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the technologies of our interconnected world. 21st century statecraft is rooted in American values that embrace open markets, open societies and open governments. 21st century statecraft – Diplomacy“These technologies are the platform for the communications, collaboration, and commerce of the 21st century. It will no longer be called 21st century statecraft, because it will simply be statecraft.

A couple of years ago, I was interviewing a former senior White House official when the name Jeffrey Epstein came up. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “He’s sensitive about the young women,” Carter told me at the time. ”We, the public, had access to all this information as it played out over the years in plain sight. One of the young women who spoke to me 16 years ago emailed Monday evening.

Democracy is not a prerogative of a certain country or a group of countries, but a universal right of all peoples. Democracy is the fundamental principle of its political system. Russia’s political system is evolving steadily and needs a stable and calm environment that guarantees the rights and interests of its people. There is only one international system in the world, i.e. the international system with the United Nations at its core.

For a decade, Ethiopia’s government has relied on repressive laws to silence dissenting voices and throw journalists and activists behind bars. The laws helped make Ethiopia into one of the most inhospitable places in the world for people speaking out against government policies, as well as for any human rights research and advocacy. Following this, the Federal Attorney General’s office established in July a 13-member justice reform advisory council to address a range of critical issues, including revising repressive laws and improving judicial independence. According to media reports, the new advisory council – chaired by Professor Tilahun Teshome, a well-known legal scholar – established working groups to propose amendments to these repressive laws. Ethiopia, like all countries, needs laws that protect free speech and free association, and needs to remove unreasonable and punitive barriers to the legitimate work of human rights groups and the rest of civil society.

The following is the text of a joint statement signed by the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Ethiopian government’s announcement of a State of Emergency on November 2 is no justification for the mass detention of individuals from certain ethnic groups. Reports by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Amnesty International describe widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans, including Orthodox priests, older people, and mothers with children. All armed actors should cease fighting and the Eritrean Defense Forces should withdraw from Ethiopia. Fundamentally, Ethiopians must build an inclusive political process and national consensus through political and legal means, and all those responsible for violations and abuses of human rights must be held accountable.

To provide quality protection support and services to IDPs. To address basic needs of IDPs through shelter, core relief items and camp management activities enhancing their protection. To support IDPs in achieving a durable solution of their choice to their displacement. In response to this internal displacement situation, in the first half of the year, UNHCR reached over 365,000 people in eight of Ethiopia’s regions including Afar, Benishangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa, Gambella, Oromia, SNNP, Somali and Tigray regions. When responding to internal displacement, UNHCR responds on a needs-basis and works closely with partner organizations and coordinates its activities with authorities and through the respective humanitarian Cluster for Protection, Shelter/NFI and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM).

Its descent into horrific, unconscionable violence — in Tigray, as well as other parts of the country — threatens the broader region’s security. If unresolved, it will impose steep costs on the international community as it struggles to manage the pandemic and complex crises elsewhere. The United States and the African Council members — Kenya, Niger and Tunisia — should insist on adding Ethiopia to the agenda. The international community has to increase the costs to Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) for continuing the killing. He is a former national intelligence officer for Africa, and he served at the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency.

Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121"The most effective ways to create a more inclusive, fair-for-all future will be from the bottom up. Rob Kall's book lays out how that would look with a hopeful, pragmatic vision that will change the way you see the world." Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, a columnist for The Progressive, and the author of eight books on the politics of sports, including What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States and A People's History of Spo

'A Day of Mourning,'" writes the onetime daily Bible of American mass culture, USA Today. The Washington Post fused a clickhole headline format with white guilt to create, "This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. Whether or not to enjoy Thanksgiving is not the hard part of the American citizen's test. Thanksgiving is awesome. The only logical complaint about modern Thanksgiving involves forcing the poor Detroit Lions to play a marquee role every year.

"These are dangerous times, and news organizations putting profits over democracy is a sure path to America ending up like Hungary with a corrupt, strongman “conservative” running the country.Donald Trump — the most corrupt president in our history — is getting better press right now (and has for 6 years) than Joe Biden, who is working to restore democracy and sanity to our country. Where the hell did this come from?The fact is that our media, particularly our broadcast media, is a business that profits when its viewership and listenership goes up. And Donald Trump, who NBC paid millions to train as a reality TV star, is walking, talking clickbait."

With his extraordinary new book, The Real Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, RFK, Jr. has made it very clear that he will not allow Orwell’s 1984 totalitarian boot to stamp on his face. His is a very rare moral courage, and he is asking us to join him, before it is too late and we enter into a new dark age, in recognizing and resisting the evil forces intent on stamping out democracy around the world. He is not pulling his punches with language as he accuses the "political intelligence media money medical corporate pharmaceutical" conspirators of executing “the controlled demolition of American constitutional democracy.” For a brilliant and highly accomplished lawyer and excellent writer and speaker, the choice of those words “controlled demolition” is clearly intentional.

To begin, I offer thanks for what sustains me: I thank the electric grid that allows me to publish this essay. I thank the natural gas, coal, hydro and nuclear power that fuel our electricity. I thank the people who made and installed the generators, transformers, power lines and breaker boxes that deliver electricity safely and reliably. I acknowledge that I spent more than six decades expecting safe, reliable, inexpensive power 24/7 without ever saying thanks for it. In the whole world, the average citizen annually consumes about 12 metric tons of natural resources.

What Needs to Be Done to Finally End ThemBy Karen J. GreenbergAs August ended, American troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan almost 20 years after they first arrived. As we face the future, it's time to finally focus on ending, formally and in every other way, that disastrous larger war. It's time to acknowledge in the most concrete ways imaginable that the post-9/11 war on terror, of which the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan was the opening salvo, warrants a final sunset. Nonetheless, the place where the war on terror truly needs to end is right here in this country. It's time for the war on terror to truly come to an end.

Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. I wonder what associations people have with the presidency of JFK today--those born well after his violent murder? Younger people I converse with aren't too interested in life during the sixties, as revolutionary as it was. The media have dissected the facts and served us some disappointing postscripts and certainly tragedies that have afflicted the extended family. Something died besides JFK and "Camelot."

From the outset, members of my own profession--psychologists--played key roles in operations at Guantanamo, CIA "black sites," and other overseas detention facilities. This, then, was the context six years ago when an extensive independent investigation uncovered compelling evidence that leaders of the American Psychological Association (APA)--the world's largest organization of psychologists--had failed to adequately defend the profession's fundamental do-no-harm ethical principles. Survivors of psychological torture often experience overwhelming feelings of helplessness, shame, and disconnection from other people, the result of harrowing mistreatment at the hands of another human being. These harms are vivid reminders that the victims of abuse and torture at Guantanamo deserve more than an apology. Undoubtedly, the association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling for the permanent closure of Guantanamo.

Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. The Supreme Court(Image by Politico) Details DMCALadies and gentlemen, the Neo-Catholic Supremes! Or like in 1554, when Bloody Mary was determined to place England under Neo-Catholic rule and revived medieval heresy laws so she could burn "non-believers" at the stake. Or like in 1933, when the very first bilateral concordat signed by Hitler was with the Neo-Catholic church. Next Page 1 | 2(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

President Biden's virtual Summit for Democracy on December 9-10 is part of a campaign to restore the United States' standing in the world, which took such a beating under President Trump's erratic foreign policies. Of course, these U.S. allies were not invited to the Democracy Summit that would be too embarrassing. Former UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas has blasted the United States for engaging in "economic warfare" and compared its illegal unilateral sanctions to medieval sieges. This gross violation of human rights continues, with most of the 39 remaining detainees never even charged with a crime. The United States enjoyed great wealth and international power under the UN system it devised.

Iran Foreign Minister(Image by Bing) Details DMCAThe Iranian delegation of playing hard ball was just that, a "playing act". They speculated that since the negotiations are going bad the value of foreign currency would cause further devaluation of Iranian money and additional increase in value of Dollars. During last week the value of American Dollars increased from 270.000 Rials (Iranian money) to 310,000 Rials. Iran's New Foreign SecretaryIran's new foreign minister, Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, was hand-picked by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and is also seen as being a true follower supreme leader's philosophy. Although, most countries have sent a handful of diplomats to the negotiations in Vienna, Iran has sent a 40-member strong team.

These fees are assessed when charter schools demand more space on public school campuses than they are entitled to based on their actual enrollment. Out of the 58 charter schools that are delinquent, 20 have not made any payments at all. The Charter School Division is supposed to be the first line of defense for the interests of students, but it is headed by a former staffer from the California Charter School Association. These payments will compensate students attending these schools for having to give up educational space so that charter schools could have them sit empty. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles."

--- Neem Karoli BabaToday, more than 2000 years after his purported demise, there is much controversy about Jesus and his teachings. In December 1945 the Nag Hammadi texts were found buried deep in the Egyptian desert. At times in the Nag Hammadi gospels the voice of Jesus is at odds the New Testament gospels. Marvin Meyers, a scholar of Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi texts, argues that Jesus emerges not as a person who performs miracles or dies for our sins. In the Gospel of Thomas, found in Nag Hammadi texts, Jesus teaches us to develop what is within us.

Like Israel, India backs terror proxies within imperialism's targets for intervention, as well as produces propaganda that can shift attention onto Washington's designated regional imperialist bogeyman. For all its talk about rule-based world order, the United States has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) either. So in south Asia and elsewhere, the imperialists are redoubling India's role in fomenting terrorism and destabilization. But can these narrative manipulations compensate for the liability that India's relationship with Russia poses to Washington's regional alliance, or for the mounting contradictions within Indian society? All while its U.S. proxy regime undermines the country's interests by investing in wars and giving up India's autonomy.

A worth looking at, rarely discussed section of the Constitution. "Much of this is straightforward. But what, exactly, does it mean for the federal government to “guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”? As Madison explains it in Federalist No. 43, it means that “In a confederacy founded on republican principles, and composed of republican members, the superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the system against aristocratic or monarchial innovations.”

The attack on teachers, schools, and school boards was ferocious: the movement to ban evolution from public schools seemed, for a few years, to be an unstoppable political juggernaut. The article draws a parallel to the furor over "critical race theory" and book banning today. Just as conservative legislatures today are passing bills to try to ban the ideas they don't like, so did conservative legislatures a century ago, like the conservative effort to ban the teaching of evolution. They raised a furor about "subversion" in the schools, claiming that teaching evolution subverted religious faith, which was intolerable. Teaching children that man was descended from other animals frightened conservative clerics and gave them an issue with which to alarm the rubes."

As a public school that is part of the LAUSD, the booster club should be working to improve their school, guide families in a sensible manner and not undermine public education. The Palisades is where the move to privatize Los Angeles education thrives. Money meant to improve local public schools and the lives of children is embezzled. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles."

Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. You're not going to hear much about that angle on the story in mainstream media reports on the topic, though. It doesn't care whether those groups are good or bad, loved or hated, socially accepted or socially ostracized. It includes immigrants who need an easy way to send money home. Cryptocurrency is money that doesn't care who you are.

sign up for a Advocate premium membershipWould you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. Next Page 1 | 2(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

For Migrant Families, COVID-19 Made Precarious Housing Much WorseAs the national lockdown went into effect in March 2020, Susana, a Latina woman in her early 60s, was living alone on the Northside of Minneapolis. Sometimes, to help contribute to the household income, Susana would cook large batches of food to sell to her neighbors. Susana was permanently stressed and anxious, not just for her family but the broader immigrant community in Minneapolis. But much like every other socio-economic inequality, COVID-19 exacerbated the discrepancies between the housing of the working poor and everyone else. Indeed, the reverberations of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWO) continue to haunt working-class, migrant families.

As COVID-19 Raged, Incarcerated Journalists Fought Isolation And Illness To Expose Abusive ConditionsIn the summer of 2020 we launched a collaborative writing program to connect incarcerated writers with outside journalists and editors. We began only a few weeks after COVID-19 came into San Quentin State Prison, where Rahsaan lives. They just didn’t get the same level of media attention as San Quentin. Having access to data, storytelling, and reporting from Empowerment Avenue writers around the country underscores that those changes need to be implemented nationwide. The majority of Empowerment Avenue writers said that filing grievances about lapses in COVID-19 safety were largely ignored.

One is led by the carers of the world in overcrowded hospitals, fighting to end the pandemic. As some countries roll out booster programs, less than 6% of Africa’s more than a billion people have been fully inoculated. Right now, the World Trade Organization is considering a proposal that would temporarily waive patent protections on vaccine recipes. From Brazil to India, the United States to Taiwan, nurses are bringing their emotions to bear. They have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response and witnessed the staggering numbers of deaths and the immense suffering caused by political inaction.

The protracted farmers’ protest has broken the pattern. The farmers’ protest tamed the institutional violence of the Indian state and the Hindutva far right by forging a broad unity of social forces. The farmers’ protest has now shattered his omnipotent image, opening up new opportunities for India’s political opposition to make gains at his expense. When sociopolitical conflicts like the farmers’ protest break out, they starkly reveal the exploitative and oppressive inner core of Hindutva politics. For the Indian left, which has attempted for many years to build unity among workers and peasants against neoliberal policies and Hindutva authoritarianism, the farmers’ movement is an important victory.

Because the governments of Canada and the United States exhibit contempt for human rights on an almost daily basis. Earlier this year, US-based Human Rights Watch joined with Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Yesh Din in accusing Israel of committing apartheid, the second-worst crime against humanity after genocide. Of course, these crimes in no way excuse human rights abuses committed by America’s official enemies. At the end of the day, further independent investigation of the human rights situation in Xinjiang is plainly warranted. Again and again, Canada’s government has invoked human rights to mask its true foreign policy objectives.

WTO leaders said negotiations would continue, and the WTO council on intellectual property rights met on Monday. Citing intellectual property protections, Moderna is not sharing its vaccine recipe and other know-how with Afrigen and the WHO technology hub, which would allow Afrigen to develop a generic vaccine much faster. In October 2020, India and South Africa introduced a WTO resolution that would temporarily waive international intellectual property rules for COVID vaccines and treatments. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he supports a waiver for vaccine patents at the WTO. However, critics note the U.S. has not backed India and South Africa’s proposal specifically, and say intellectual property protections for COVID tests and treatments must also be waived.

Disability and labor advocates cheered when President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda passed in the House of Representatives last week. $150 billion, the memo said, may end up pitting workers, who are predominantly women of color, against disability advocates for access to limited funding. Two-thirds of home care workers quit within a year, according to Home Care Pulse, a market research firm. The problem lies in the structure of Medicaid’s home care funding program, according to the memo. Last month, he attended a vigil in D.C. last month to push for home care funding.

On Thursday, a federal court denied an appeal from Donald Trump, ruling that the former president’s executive privilege claims — which he used to justify his refusal to release documents requested by the January 6 select committee — are unwarranted and improper. Biden officially rejected Trump’s executive privilege claims in October. As a former president, Trump had to demonstrate that his interests or the interests of future presidents were at risk, which he failed to do. Notably, the court recognized that the executive and legislative branches of government were in agreement on the matter. The former president can appeal the ruling to the entirety of the D.C. District Court, seeking what is called an en banc ruling.

On Thursday, the House passed a bill that will place restrictions on presidential power, aimed at rooting out blatant and continuous corruption like that of former President Donald Trump. In what seems to be a direct rebuke to Trump, the bill requires presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. Trump continuously utilized his presidential power to force political allies and foreign dignitaries to stay at his hotels, which he refused to divest from despite blatant conflicts of interest. Trump currently faces many civil and criminal cases; the bill would also suspend the statute of limitations for sitting presidents’ federal crimes. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), who introduced the bill, wrote in The Washington Post that similar anti-corruption bills have precedent in Congress.

In mid-October six fights broke out in one day at Lawrence High School in Massachusetts. “The unrest is the students’ way of screaming out, ‘We need help,’” said high school English teacher Kristin Colucci. “We are about test prep and assessing for test prep — and that means a lot of needs are not being met,” said Lawrence Teachers Union President Kim Barry. “We cannot pretend this should all be about raising MCAS scores,” said Masha Stine, who teaches math at Lawrence High School. Riley garnered accolades for raising test scores in Lawrence; he was made Massachusetts Commissioner of Education in 2018.

Critical race theory (CRT) has become a new bogeyman in conservative circles in the United States. Richard Delgado: CRT stems from critical legal studies and, a little before that, the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, which is most closely associated with the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. My book with Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, describes these intellectual origins. As a self-aware, cohesive movement, CRT began when a small group of scholars of color asked the Conference on Critical Legal Studies to include a panel on race at their 1986 conference in Los Angeles. CRT is primarily a graduate field of law and legal studies.

It’s no secret that the criminal legal system disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities. People directly impacted by the criminal legal system understand the unique barriers they face to gaining employment. The fact is that many employers and hiring managers are unclear about their institution’s policies or perspective on hiring those with criminal convictions. Increased employment opportunities for people with those directly impacted by the criminal legal system will improve access to opportunities and social mobility for entire communities, especially marginalized communities that are most directly impacted by the criminal legal system. If employers are truly interested in racial equity and diversity hiring practices, then they should actively include those directly impacted by the criminal legal system in their recruitment hiring practices.

In all, there were 188 pediatric flu deaths during the season that inaugurated the COVID pandemic. During the last flu season, more than 1.3 million flu specimens were obtained. Overall, there was a 98 percent reduction in mortality, a byproduct of the meager measures to mitigate the COVID pandemic. In line with this investigation, placing the COVID pandemic in context to the flu season will be important. If we compare these figures to the typical flu season, COVID is twice as deadly as the flu for children.

On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has now been found in 38 countries on every inhabited continent. The number of COVID-19 cases has risen nearly 40-fold over one month, from under 300 to 11,000 on Friday. That is not a necessary response.”Only two months ago, the US media was filled with stupid comments about the end of the pandemic. The global surge of the Omicron variant is still in its infancy. The emergence of the Omicron variant and its rapid spread throughout the world proves the urgency of the Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic initiated by the World Socialist Web Site.

It was the 29th and deadliest school shooting this year, according to a database maintained by Education Week. Authorities say a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at Oxford High School, killing several students and wounding multiple other people, including a teacher. School shootings have become a phenomena in the United States over more than two decades, with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, marking a major turning point. Countless tragedies, filled with bloody scenes of dead children and youth are conjured when one uses the term “school shooting”: Virginia Tech (2007), Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut (2012) and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida (2018), to name a few. Nor should one discount the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse and the glorification of his example by the right-wing media, which took place just two weeks before the shooting at Oxford High School.

The Biden White House is recycling the baseless charges made by Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State for the Trump administration. Washington has a long history of invoking “human rights” to justify its imperialist aggression, but the official boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics may well win the gold medal for hypocrisy. Waging each war under the blood-soaked banner of “human rights,” American imperialism leaves everything that it touches in ruins. In the “City Upon a Hill” of democracy and human rights, the police have killed over 30,000 people since 1980. While it speaks of democracy and human rights, Washington demands every government adopt its policy of mass death.

The protest by students at Howard University in Washington, DC entered its fourth week on Tuesday, with as many as 50 students continuing to occupy the Blackburn University Center while dozens more camped out in tents outside. Howard University (Photo: Derek E. Morton)Student protesters have advanced four main demands: an open town hall meeting with university president Wayne A.I. Last week, Frederick released an open letter, his first public commentary on the protests, in which he demanded an end to the student occupation. The publication reported Frederick saying that only 38 instances of mold had been found on campus. A critical stage has been reached in the protests at Howard University.

Howard University (Photo: Derek E. Morton)Students and workers share similar grievances against the university and the corporations with which it contracts. The petition noted that Sodexo workers at Howard are paid far less than cafeteria workers at other colleges in the Washington D.C. area. Thousands of Howard students and alumni signed the petition, voicing their overwhelming support for the workers’ demands. When last year’s layoffs took place, campus Sodexo workers asked Howard University to provide additional support, but at the time the Post article was published, Howard had not agreed. The Hilltop editors say they received an email from their adviser on Oct. 8 stating that Howard University President Wayne A.I.

In an article in the New York Times by Matt Ritchel, “Surgeon General Warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis,” for example, the author barely refers to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. However, the report also correctly notes that while the pandemic has accelerated the mental health crisis among youth, it certainly did not create it. Over the past two decades in particular, mental health issues have skyrocketed among young people. The same conditions which give rise to the litany of mental health disorders among the young also gives rise to social opposition. The struggles of students and youth must be linked to the fight of all workers against the pandemic, social inequality, war, and the capitalist system.

The Howard University #BlackburnTakeover protests received national attention, pitting undergraduate students from working class and middle class families against the school’s wealthy administrators, headed by the millionaire university president himself. Students occupied the student center, demanding safe and sanitary living quarters, free of rats, mice, mold and other dangers. Among the issues emerging in the protests was the university contracting dorm services to the private company Corvias. Students reported black mold and fungus growing inside the ventilation systems, with little support from the maintenance firm. “But, that agreement being confidential will make it hard to hold Howard to the standard we know it needs to reach.”

The ruling Peronist Frente de Todos coalition of President Alberto Fernández suffered a staggering defeat in the midterm legislative elections held Sunday, losing almost 6 million votes. The Sunday elections renewed half of the House nationwide, and a third of the Senate. Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after Peronist victory in 2019. She holds the view that the 1976 coup and the ensuing state terror regime were a necessary reaction to the actions of Peronist guerrillas. The deal was made in 2018 by former president Mauricio Macri, who lost his reelection bid to Fernández in 2019.

Beijing charged Washington with “bullying” Honduras over the issue, accusing Washington of continuing its long history of “hegemonic behavior” in the region. In 2007, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega returned to power as a born-again Christian, leaving the Taiwan relation alone in an attempt to placate Washington. For Washington, Central America is a battlefield in its preparations for global war with a rising China. The bonds between the region and Taiwan were forged under the tutelage of Washington in the aftermath of the 1949 Chinese Revolution and the Korean War. Washington directly intervened to prevent the rightist Hernández regime stealing the election as it did four years ago.

On November 18 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 903 published a letter to Dana Fort Wayne workers stating that they were waiting on the national leadership for direction on the local contract. This comes three weeks after Dana workers voted on a sellout contract brought back by the USW and United Auto Workers (UAW) unions. Louisville and Fort Wayne Dana workers expressed the widespread hostility to both the union and company management by rejecting the local TA. In response to the rejection vote, the USW has withheld information on the specific details of the local contract, including its status. The World Socialist Web Site encourages Dana workers to build and support the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee as their independent voice.

They did so despite the UAW using the same dirty tricks as the UAW and USW used against us Dana workers in recent weeks. Now is the time for Dana workers to join Deere workers and all auto workers to overturn the fraudulent contracts signed by the UAW in recent months and years. The Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee (DWRFC) declares the contract null and void. We should be striking with the Deere workers, not producing parts for scabs working behind picket lines! To join the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee, email DanaWRFC@gmail.com, text (248) 602–0936? or complete the form below.

Over 700 University of Michigan faculty members have signed an open letter to the dean of the School of Music, Theater and Dance (SMTD), David Gier, protesting the university’s campaign against the internationally renowned composer and Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition Bright Sheng. The World Socialist Web Site and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality welcome the open letters by faculty and students. It published and widely distributed an open letter dated October 15 demanding the immediate reinstatement of Sheng and a public apology from the university. … As concerned faculty, we deplore the treatment meted out to Professor Sheng and the denial of due process. There was a time when university students were expected to prepare for a course by actually reading the material under consideration.

University of Michigan (UM) officials responded Thursday to an open letter from some 740 faculty members protesting the witch-hunt organized against composer and Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition Bright Sheng. They ignorantly referred to this as “blackface.”The university took immediate action against Sheng, without the pretense of due process of any kind. The November 3 press statement repeats one of the falsehoods at the center of the attack on Sheng, and Olivier. University students are not infants, or are not supposed to be. Very likely, Professor Sheng would have been on his way out the door, like his counterparts in similar circumstances on other campuses, in the media and in the arts.

The outpouring of support continues for renowned composer and University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) professor Bright Sheng, with faculty and students expressing their criticisms of the anti-democratic victimization of Sheng. This letter was followed by an open letter dated October 21 with over 700 faculty signatories voicing their concerns over the administration’s actions against Sheng. The WSWS is publishing statements by professors and students who have given us permission to post their remarks in defense of Sheng and academic freedom. To this date, the university administration has neither apologized to Sheng nor given him the option to return to his composition course. Moreover, students and faculty, at Michigan and elsewhere, must take up the fight for academic freedom, due process and freedom of speech and thought.

Striking Deere workers (UAW Local 838)The Deere workers have carried out a courageous struggle for five weeks, their first strike in 35 years. “UAW John Deere members did not just unite themselves, they seemed to unite the nation in a struggle for fairness in the workplace. We could not be more proud of these UAW members and their families,” stated UAW President Ray Curry, who was recently revealed to have been under investigation for accepting high-value gifts from a vendor. First, workers must expand the John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee throughout every plant and warehouse, developing it as their fighting organization. Deere workers: Join the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee to carry forward the fight!

On Saturday, October 23, the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston hosted a debate between historians Gordon Wood and Woody Holton. The event, titled “The American Revolution from Two Perspectives,” was billed as a discussion of contending historical interpretations of the American Revolution. This thesis is developed in his book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Instead, Holton’s conception of the American Revolution is tailor-made to meet the present political needs of the Democratic Party. The family’s fortune is drawn from western Virginia coal mining, certainly one of the most exploitative industries in American history.

Billionaires saw their net worth grow by more than $3.6 trillion in 2020 alone, increasing their share of global wealth to 3.5 percent. Global wealth inequality is even more pronounced than income inequality. The ultra-rich have siphoned a disproportionate share of global wealth growth over the last few decades. However, inequalities between countries have declined in the last two decades, whereas inequality within “rich” countries has risen sharply. This disparity is also seen within nominally rich countries.

Sending every single American a COVID-19 test would cost the equivalent of less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the military budget, the largest in history, passed Friday by the US House of Representatives. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the summary of which alone is over 600 pages, was released just six hours before the overwhelming majority of lawmakers in both parties voted on it. There has been almost no oversight or analysis of this defense budget. … This means that, while the effort and expense required to control the threat of pandemic disease may be very great, these efforts do not logically trade against national security requirements. What is behind America’s binge in military spending?

The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) call for the immediate shutdown of schools and in-person learning in Michigan, now a major epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a growing movement of teachers and students to demand safe learning conditions. This week, students and teachers walked out at Martin Luther King High School in Detroit. This opposition must be organized and armed with scientific understanding and a program to stop the pandemic and save lives! As for the Detroit Federation of Teachers and other unions, they have played the critical role in forcing students, teachers and workers to accept mass death as a daily occurrence.

The Teachers-Students-Parents Safety Committee (TSPSC) in Sri Lanka condemns the threatening of Lisa Diaz in Britain with prosecution and the Family Court over her daughter’s school attendance. The initiative by Lisa Diaz to call for a strike over unsafe schools is a very significant step. We publish below comments condemning the threats against Lisa Diaz. The British bourgeoisie is threatening to prosecute Lisa Diaz, because she challenges this policy and defends children’s right to live. In fact, the kind of intervention made by Lisa Diaz goes against the pro-government policies of these unions.

While the expanded requirements position New York City’s vaccine program among the most aggressive in the country, by themselves they are grossly insufficient to stop the pandemic from once again engulfing New York City and beyond. Indeed, despite vaccination rates that approach 90 percent for adults, the city is experiencing a rapid increase in cases and hospitalizations. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)The first Omicron case in the US not linked to international travel was a vaccinated Minnesota man who attended an anime convention in New York City. They build on the mayor’s reopening of schools in September and his requirement for all city employees to return to office buildings. The nationwide labor shortage is acutely felt in New York City, where workers have quit in record numbers, unwilling to continue to risk their lives in miserable jobs for unlivable wages and few benefits.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is fighting anti-democratic electoral laws designed to silence political parties that don’t have seats in government. Support the SEP’s campaign against the legislation and sign up as an electoral member today. “The electoral laws have been brought about to reduce competition. The laws are ultimately censorship.”On the COVID-19 pandemic she said, “Hospitals have not been properly prepared, no adequate PPE, no adequate worker relief. “I noticed via a Facebook post from a friend that the SEP was highlighting the changes to electoral laws made by the government and felt I needed to stand up against them.

Deep-felt opposition has emerged among teachers and parents since the premature and unsafe reopening of schools in Australia, especially in the two most COVID-19-infected states, New South Wales and Victoria. Teachers and students are increasingly turning to the information and analysis being published by the CFPE and SEP. Having started to collect data on school infections in Term 3, we began daily postings of the information that we independently collected and collated. The unions—the Australian Education Union (AEU) and the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF)—are complicit in this reopening drive. In the latest indication of the discontent brewing up in schools, teachers in NSW are due to strike for 24 hours on December 7 to demand improved pay and conditions, the first such stoppage in ten years.

Socialist Equality Party (SEP) electoral members continue to voice their support for the SEP’s campaign to defeat Australia’s new anti-democratic electoral laws, which were rushed through parliament with Labor Party support on August 26. Support the SEP’s campaign against the legislation and sign up as an electoral member today. ****RaniaRania, 45, a teacher’s aide in a school for children with autism, became an electoral member last year. “The new electoral laws are ridiculous. He’s in his 60s and fit as a trout.”John met the SEP through Facebook and became an electoral member this year.

In this video, Socialist Equality Party (SEP) Assistant National Secretary Max Boddy warns of the dangerous spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, as governments around the world refuse to implement even basic lockdown or quarantine measures. Without such a strategy, the virus is able to spread and mutate into more infectious and potentially vaccine-resistant variants. The video is part of the campaign launched by the SEP against anti-democratic electoral laws rushed through the Australian parliament on August 26. They force the SEP, along with 35 other registered political parties, to submit a list of 1,500 members, treble the previous number, or face deregistration. Support the SEP’s campaign against the legislation and sign up as an electoral member today.

Socialist Equality Party (SEP) electoral members are continuing to speak out against Australia’s anti-democratic electoral laws which target parties without parliamentary seats, including the SEP. To join the SEP campaign against the legislation, sign up as an electoral member today. ****Jasper, a postal worker, became an electoral member last year. “I hadn’t heard about the laws when they were first introduced, I only found out from the SEP. Michael, 30, works in IT and has been an electoral member since 2012.

The horrific crash of a truck packed with migrants in southern Mexico has laid bare the human cost of the anti-immigrant policies pursued by the Biden administration with the collaboration of the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in Mexico. Reports indicate that a number of children and adolescents are among the dead and the more than 100 who were injured. Bodies of immigrants killed in truck crash in Chiapas Mexico [Source: Twitter]Videos and photographs from the accident site present a hellish scene. The screams and wailing of family members desperately trying to revive those killed in the crash could be heard on videos recorded at the accident site. The majority of those traveling in the truck were from Guatemala, while others were from Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)In a significant move last month, the US State Department invited a delegation from the pro-US Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka for talks with senior officials in Washington. The public cover for these talks was Washington’s support for “human rights” issues and “reconciliation” in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, Washington is exploiting the war crimes and human rights violations committed under former President Mahinda Rajapakse. Adding to the pressure on Sri Lanka, US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory W. Meeks and ranking member Michael McCaul sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to prioritise its Sri Lanka policy. These developments indicate the advanced stage of global geopolitical tensions and their sharp impact on the political crisis in Sri Lanka.

Only Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell represented the Republican Party, where Dole’s political views, once considered arch-conservative, would now be regarded as suspect. Trump issued a statement praising Dole, but that is only because Dole, unlike many other members of the Republican establishment, endorsed him as the Republican presidential candidate in both 2016 and 2020. He was the only previous Republican presidential nominee to make an appearance at the 2016 convention which nominated Trump. In 1985, he was elected to head the Senate Republican caucus, holding that position, either as Minority Leader or Majority Leader, until 1996. He moved steadily to the right, if perhaps slightly more slowly than the center of gravity in the Republican Party.

The spread of the more infectious Omicron variant threatens to compound the danger posed by a wave of delta infections. This total does not include suspected Omicron cases under investigation. Tam confirmed at her press conference that 87 Omicron cases have been confirmed across Canada. She acknowledged that a growing number of Omicron cases had no links to international travel, underscoring that community spread has begun. However, as the experience of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick demonstrates, a rapid upturn in infections is only a matter of time.

She is “disturbed” or “greatly troubled.” She’s told to rejoice but she trembles in fear. She sits in tension — a tension we all sit in when God is at work but pain is at hand. Then, soon after Jesus’ birth, at his circumcision, she is told that “a sword will pierce through” her own soul. But as the Gospel stories continue through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we find in Mary’s story that joy and pain constantly intertwine. Mary was called by God, and her life reminds me that the vocations that God calls us to inevitably involve both joy and pain.

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a decision allowing abortion providers in Texas to continue challenging a new law that bans most abortions in the state after about six weeks of pregnancy. But while the conservative majority didn’t close the door on abortion in Texas completely, the degree to which it is cracked allows in only a sliver of light. Roe v. Wade has essentially been overturned in the state, and soon that astonishing reality may not only become permanent there but may also spread to other states. A key component of women’s rights and body autonomy is being snatched away as we watch. In a dissent on Friday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure.

Robert Nelsonopinion contributorFife Symington was governor of Arizona in 1995, enjoying strong popularity at home while his star rose nationally in Republican circles. “Amid the wreckage of the reputation of Fife Symington, the man and developer, that record may not give him much solace. Today’s Fife Symington long ago had the convictions that forced him from office overturned on appeal. Business-first centrists and the fickle middle of Arizona’s sprawling suburbia – what one Symington advisor called “the squish vote” – loved Fife Symington and his policies when his administration ran smoothly and quietly and could guide the conversation. Robert Nelson co-authored with now deceased Arizona State Historian Jack L. August Jr. “Old Money, New West: Fife Symington and the Uniquely American Landscapes That Made Him, Broke Him, and Made Him Anew” (Texas Christian University Press, 2021).

C. Herbert Oliver, a civil rights activist who documented police brutality against African Americans in Alabama in the early 1960s and later fought for public school reform in New York City, has died. The committee documented more than 100 cases of alleged brutality and civil rights violations by Birmingham police. “I would keep my eyes on the newspapers, and the newspaper would carry stories about people who had been beaten and arrested by policemen,” Oliver told the Wheaton Magazine. Oliver led a new local school board in Brooklyn in the predominantly Black area Ocean Hill-Brownsville from 1967 until it was disbanded in 1970 amid controversy. "There was a lack of good education, and the teachers and principals were not from the community or invested in the students,” Oliver told the Wheaton Magazine.

This week, President Joe Biden hopped onto Zoom in an effort to shepherd the world along the path to stronger global democracy, during a two-day summit with other world leaders. He’ll be making his case, however, amid growing concerns about democracy here at home. Whether we like it or not, there is reason to be gravely concerned. But against this backdrop, an interesting debate has broken out about the press’s role in protecting our too-fragile institutions and raveled civic fabric from a Trumpian assault—and whether the media, in an effort to support democracy, must unflinchingly support Biden, as well. Over the weekend, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank made considerable waves with a column that rather lustily accused the media of offering President Biden worse coverage than President Trump.

I was also surprised that Cave had used the word “radicalized” to describe the transformation his sister-in-law had undergone. Before I became an MSNBC anchor, I was a foreign correspondent for NBC News and other news organizations based overseas. I had seen firsthand how families lost their loved ones to fanatical ideologies and a false sense of purpose or belonging. And those who had believed, like Boyland — who had written in her journal that “Donald Trump is a genius” — followed him to the tragic end. Until we can mitigate these three, I fear we will continue to see radicalism take root in American society, as I have seen overseas.

Canada this week banned conversion therapy, a debunked treatment that aims to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. "It’s official: Our government’s legislation banning the despicable and degrading practice of conversion therapy has received Royal Assent — meaning it is now law. Some of the nations, such as Germany, have passed bans exclusively for minors, whereas others, like Malta, have passed bans for all citizens. Three states — Florida, Alabama and Georgia — are in a federal judicial circuit with an injunction that blocks conversion therapy bans. This is your moment," No Conversion Canada, a Canadian nonprofit coalition to end conversion therapy, wrote on Twitter this week.

A Kentucky family was left shaken, bloodied and bruised, but alive after a tornado ripped them from a Dawson Springs home and sent them flying. The Koon family huddled together in the bathroom, knowing a twister was tearing a path of destruction toward them. They were “thinking we were going to die,” Jackie Koon said. “Whenever it subsided and I looked up, my 4-year-old little boy was just standing there screaming for daddy,” Doug Koon told MSNBC in an interview. “If Oaklynn wasn’t in her car seat she wouldn’t be here today,” Jackie Koon said in a post.

Diana GarcíaCorresponsal en la Cd. de MéxicoEl actor Jaime Camil, quien dará vida a Vicente Fernández, en la bioserie que prepara Caracol Televisión, sobre "El Gran Charro de Huentitán", expresó a través de sus redes sociales, su dolor por su muerte. MÁS:Fallece Vicente Fernández, 'El Gran Charro de Huentitán'“En mi opinión, “Chente” es el más grande ídolo de México y el exponente más monumental de la música mexicana en el mundo. Por lo dicho en aquel inicio de grabaciones de la bioserie de Vicente, la amistad y el cariño que unió a Jaime con la familia Fernández Abarca, hace aún más triste, el despedirlo. Vicente Fernández es el símbolo que representa a México y a la música ranchera", estas palabras hoy están más vigentes que nunca.

But nonprofits and community members have already begun collecting donations for families who've lost their homes and everything in them, through funds such as the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. Donate relief fundsTeam Western Kentucky Tornado Relief FundVisit https://secure.kentucky.gov/formservices/Finance/WKYRelief. Kentucky Tornado Relief FundThe University of Kentucky College of Medicine has established a GoFundMe page collecting donations at gofundme.com/f/ukcom-student-effort-for-tornado-relief-in-ky.Kentucky Volunteer Organizations Active in DisastersVisit kentuckyvoad.org/. Marshall County FundThe Marshall County Nonprofit Foundation has established a Venmo account to take funds at @MCNPF. Relevant ChurchThe church in Mayfield, Kentucky, is taking donations for a tornado relief fund at wearerelevant.churchcenter.com/giving/to/mayfield-tornado-relief.

), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R?Colo.) used her time on the House floor to launch into an Islamophobic tirade, calling Rep. Ilhan Omar (D?Minn.) When public officials use their platform to stoke anti-Muslim hate, people experience real violence — from verbal abuse to physical assault. Congress must draw a clear line and, at the very least, officially censure Rep. Boebert. It’s past time to set a precedent that representatives in office can’t use their bully pulpit to incite violence.

The Issue: The City Council’s passage of a bill to allow noncitizens to vote in New York City elections. They tell us that if we don’t like this voting bill, we can move. Michael O’BrienManhattanThe New York City Council has passed a bill to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. I suggest that he take a civics course and familiarize himself with the Constitution and legal voting rights. It’s only New York City now, but craziness often starts locally.

Omitted from the sayonara was any celebration of the broader Fox News product. Perhaps that’s because there’s not much to celebrate: In the last year of Chris Wallace’s tenure at Fox News, he’s had to watch as his colleagues on the opinion side of the network buttressed and amplified the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from former president Donald Trump. That strain of programming culminated in the recent three-part Fox Nation series from host Tucker Carlson titled “Patriot Purge,” which pushed the idea that the Jan. 6 rioters are victims, not perpetrators. “The domestic war on terror is here. It’s coming after half the country,” argues the documentary.

It’s the kind of transparently fake and utterly corrupt coup that you’d only expect to see in the type of less-developed country we used to call a banana republic. But the quickening flow of leaks and new discoveries from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection is no laughing matter. Jan. 6 was a far greater threat to American democracy than Watergate, or anything else that’s happened since the first shots at Fort Sumter. Now, the questions are becoming less about what we know, and more about ... what are we going to do about this? We can speed up the hearings, put the biggest story on the front page, and arrest the coup plotters, or we can let the fire burn.

Republicans blame Biden's spending, but ... According to the Republicans, Biden and congressional Democrats have flooded the economy with trillions in new government spending and are proposing trillions more. Prior to Biden taking office, Republicans had approved trillions in new spending themselves, during Donald Trump’s tenure. The other nominee Biden reportedly considered, Lael Brainard, is if anything even more dovish on inflation than Powell. Republicans should insist upon it as the price of rescuing the Powell renomination from likely progressive defections.

Further school closures will result in thousands of vulnerable children slipping through the net and being drawn into violent crime, drug dealing and sex abuse, campaigners have warned. There is growing concern that the anticipated spike in Covid-19 numbers will result in schools being closed once again and children being home schooled. She said: “The drop in referrals from schools to social services during last year’s lockdown shows the impact the pandemic had on safeguarding. “Covid has dealt a strong hand to those who exploit children, and we already know some vulnerable children have not returned to school since the last lockdown. Children dropping off the radar of schools and social services provides a golden opportunity for gangs and criminals.

Justice Sotomayor is correct to worry about public perception of the court’s decisions, but the Roberts court’s stench became noticeable with its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, in which Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion. Chief Justice Roberts and four other Justices disagreed. As if to cement the process of neutering the VRA, the Roberts court at the end of its 2020 term made it more difficult to challenge voting restrictions post facto. Examples of such Roberts court decisions include Shelby and Brnovich, as well as Citizens United v FEC (2010), which reversed longstanding campaign finance restrictions. What the Roberts Court has done in undermining voting rights is principally a domestic concern, but it also matters diplomatically.

In early December 2021, news from Colombia made international headlines that the leading cadre, alias 'El Paisa' of the communist guerrilla FARC Segunda Marquetalia had fallen. Coverage was dominated by reports that it was a group centered around top commanders Iván Márquez, El Paisa, Romaña, and Jesús Santrich. Life and death of El Paisa and RomañaEl Paisa and Romaña were senior commanders with lengthy resumes as FARC guerrilleros. For example, El Tiempo spread the unsubstantiated claim that the comrades of El Paisa killed him. With the two commanders El Paisa and Romaña killed and Jesús Santrich killed earlier, the supreme commander Iván Márquez is left with only a few confidants.

For 15 years, global freedom has declined, according to the human rights organization Freedom House. This is why President Joe Biden is bringing more than 100 governments together for the Summit for Democracy, which begins Wednesday. And whether you live in a country where democracy is strong or where the chance of a free and fair election is nonexistent, this matters to you. Without all democracies fighting corruption, the global financial system is undermined – with real consequences for the global economy and for people’s lives. Finally, the president convened this summit because to get democracy rising again, the United States must lead.

While there is no winner in cases like this, it's a rare step toward the justice system working as it should. Our daughter was killed during a mass shooting nearly 10 years ago. We reacted to the not guilty verdict in the Rittenhouse case with tears and anger. Still in Texas, I woke up in the middle of the night, just 30 minutes before the shooting, and texted my daughter. America's gun laws are the problemWe understand that in Wisconsin, the Rittenhouse verdict was more than possible.

John HobermanOpinion contributorThe International Olympic Committee, or the IOC, has a long entanglement with political dictatorships and their crimes. The approach of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is one more example of this disgraceful tradition and President Joe Biden’s announcement of an America “diplomatic boycott” is simply not enough. It is a shocking disregard of China’s horrific abuse of a million members of the Uyghur ethnic minority it has confined in concentration camps.

Chris Kemmitt and Kevin JasonOpinion contributorsFor decades, qualified immunity has provided a safe harbor for police malfeasance. Yet as bad as qualified immunity is, eliminating it is only the first step toward reining in discriminatory and violent police behavior. Eliminating qualified immunity will only hold police accountable for violent and discriminatory conduct that courts already view as unconstitutional. Other legal doctrines add police pressure on people of colorThe Supreme Court’s malign influence on police conduct is not limited to its permissive approach to police violence. This column is part of a series by the USA TODAY Opinion team examining the issue of qualified immunity.

For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. — USA TODAY Opinion editorsBy Kristen DelGuzzi""Parkinson's patients can be incredibly lonely," he says. It's because you're isolated in your experience and you can't relate it to anybody, and you have a million frustrations. Like someone says, 'Slow down,' and I say, 'If I could slow down, I'd friggin' slow down. By Sen. Bob Dole"Dwight Eisenhower said America is best described by the word "freedom."

Dr. Seth BerkleyOpinion contributorEvidence that COVID-19 vaccine immunity can decline significantly after eight months suggests an urgent need to reassess what is meant by vaccinating the world. Ambitious global targets, set by the World Health Organization and President Joe Biden, aim to fully vaccinate 70% of the population of every country by next fall.

… We expect the White House Medical Unit to reach out to anyone who is deemed by that office to be a close contact.”Who? And for the next several hours, of course, everyone who would have been anywhere near the White House press operation was speculating about who the COVID-19 positive person was. Revealing a positive COVID-19 test sounds very much like confessing to having contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Fighting the stigmaNot identifying the person who has tested positive could enhance the risk of further spread. Last I checked, no one at the White House Correspondents’ Association was refilling prescriptions or taking blood pressure readings.

On public health, the dissemination of misinformation about COVID-19 and the safety of vaccines has been responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths. Many Americans live in ideological bubbles where their main sources of information gain profit by feeding fear and anger. Invest in civic educationWe need to upgrade our expectations for civic education. And they need skills to navigate the era of alternative facts and false narratives in this misinformation age. The demand for modern civic education needs to come from parents, school leaders and state officials.

Mohamud and her friends were arrested on suspicion of federal witness tampering, and all three were indicted. “My life was never the same since the time I got arrested,” Mohamud told her Institute for Justice lawyers. Mohamud’s lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court and are waiting to see whether the high court will take the case. Federal cops enjoy an even broader immunity, based on recent Supreme Court rulings that have eaten away at a 1971 Supreme Court decision that allowed some lawsuits. Congress has given this critical problem little attention, so it’s up to the Supreme Court to ensure that Americans have a way to defend their constitutional rights.

That's because qualified immunity, a doctrine created by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1960s and emboldened in the 1980s, makes most government workers largely immune to civil lawsuits. USA TODAY Opinion is exploring the issue of qualified immunity and the need for reform on a national scale. The ongoing series will include personal stories from victims and their families, views from police departments and officers accused of abuse, and perspectives from criminal justice experts to explain the issues around qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protected him and his boss. Just compare the way a normal lawsuit proceeds through the civil justice system with the way a lawsuit involving qualified immunity proceeds.

The Editorial BoardUSA TODAYJust days before President Joe Biden convened a virtual summit of the world's democracies this week, China announced that it, too, is a democracy. It is a laughable attempt to grab a shred of legitimacy for a country engaged in the genocide of its Uyghur minority, crushing democracy and press freedom in Hong Kong, and intimidating democratic Taiwan with constant saber rattling.

The accident happened in the Mexican state of Chiapas, which is the first state migrants enter after crossing the Guatemalan border with Mexico. The details of this horrible crash are being revealed, as is the impact of America's immigration policy that has done nothing to stem the flow of migrants. I have written about it in the past months, and the migrant caravans dominate the news in Mexico. We have also known that they face significant, horrific acts of violence if they are forced to remain in Mexico. We have also known that Mexico cannot handle these populations, as the Mexican civil society and U.S. advocates have repeatedly reminded us.

Nicola SoaresOpinion contributorAmerica is in crisis this holiday season. Because we may not have enough truckers to deliver our gifts in time. To calm a stressed-out nation, President Joe Biden said this fall he might call up the National Guard (the White House quickly backed off from that idea). Wouldn’t it be great if the federal government could help fix the supply-chain problem in our schools, too?

I have to admit, I am engaged enough in the culture war that I enjoyed seeing Jussie Smollett convicted of five felonies for staging a heinous anti-gay and anti-Black hate crime to bring attention to himself. Nevertheless, the story was swallowed polar-vortex and all by many who should have known waiting for a few more facts was the wiser course. And it is not like it is the first time that most right-thinking liberals knew something that simply wasn't true. It is obvious to us that Democrats should know better than to believe a Hollywood B-lister and his Washington boosters, but are Republican politicians and reality-TV stars all that different from Jussie Smollett and Joe Biden? Democrats are now admitting that Smollett was full of it.

Peter RexOpinion contributorMy company won’t institute or enforce a vaccine mandate, no matter what form it takes. Maybe cities will demand that businesses require the jab, like New York City did on Monday. Maybe the Biden administration will somehow rescue its own nationwide mandate, which a federal court has blocked. Maybe other businesses will pressure their peers to join them in forcing vaccines on workers. And I’m convinced that respecting the rights of my 300-plus employees is best for everyone involved.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of Operation Warp Speed’s initial shipments of millions of safe and effective vaccines. Operation Warp Speed was the most successful public-private partnership since World War II. In less than 10 months, Warp Speed helped expand or set up vaccine-related manufacturing plants. Paul Mango was deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2019-2021, serving as Secretary Alex Azar’s liaison to Operation Warp Speed. His forthcoming book is "Warp Speed: Inside the Operation that Beat COVID, the Critics, and the Odds."

THE GENERATION MYTHWhy When You’re Born Matters Less Than You ThinkBy Bobby DuffyWhy is it that making sweeping generalizations about people on the basis of gender, race, sexuality or nationality is unacceptable, but stereotyping them based on arbitrarily defined “generations” is totally fine? Baby boomers, meanwhile, are selfish, technophobic sociopaths who have stolen younger generations’ future. What is the reality behind such stereotypes, and is there any merit at all in seeing the world through a lens that is generational? These are the questions addressed by Bobby Duffy, a British social researcher, in “The Generation Myth.” The title gives the impression that he wants to dynamite the whole idea of dividing people into generations. “A lot of what you’ve been told is generational,” he writes, “in fact isn’t.”

Another approach that authoritarian parents sometimes use is psychological control. This is when parents toy with children’s sense of self and intrinsic value to get the behavior they want. Other research has linked parental psychological control with antisocial behavior and anxiety in kids. Parents who use psychological control usually mean well — they think that controlling their kids will make them more successful — but “it kind of backfires,” Dr. Loeb said. Kids should be treated with respect and made to feel that their opinions and beliefs have worth.

He spoke and wrote of African civilizations as infinitely varied ethical, philosophical and aesthetic systems. To grasp their complexity and sophistication, he said, required a “guerrilla scholarship” that combined art history, anthropology, dance history, religious studies, sociology and ethnomusicology. This hybrid practice repeatedly took him out of the academic ivory tower and into rural Africa, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and hip-hop clubs in the Bronx. His father, Dr. Robert Farris Thompson, was a surgeon; his mother, Virginia (Hood) Thompson, was a local arts patron. There he studied with George Kubler, a historian of pre-Columbian Mexican and Aztec art, who approached his subject with the kind of unquestioned respect that at the time was customarily awarded in academia to European art.

In Memphis, as in America, the benefits of homeownership have not accrued equally across race. But Black families have largely been left behind, either unable to buy in the first place or hampered by risks that come with owning property. Homeownership’s limitations are especially apparent in Black neighborhoods. Owner-occupied homes in predominantly African American neighborhoods are worth, on average, half as much as those in neighborhoods with no Black residents, according to a 2018 Brookings Institution and Gallup report that examined metropolitan areas. For neighborhoods like Orange Mound in southeast Memphis, the solutions cannot come fast enough.

Tom Morello has often used his art to advance political causes — as with his alter ego The Nightwatchman, his album “The Atlas Underground” and his involvement in the musical groups Rage Against the Machine and Prophets of Rage. Music, of course, has played this vital role for as long as people have raised their voices in protest. Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” redefined patriotism during the Vietnam War. And Tom Morello’s acoustic guitar rang out as he performed at Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. If you’ve read Morello’s recent essays in his subscriber-only newsletter, you’ve heard the opening notes of his thoughts on music and the clashing of ideas that shapes the world today.

Criminalizing abortion also implicates health care providers, who will struggle to balance ethical and legal obligations to their patients with new ones to the state. The Post-Roe Politics of AbortionDavid Brooks, a columnist for The New York Times. If abortion were even partly removed from national politics, then it’s possible that national politics would be transformed. There are just a lot of single-issue voters who back Republican presidential candidates because they are pro-life. The punishing Supreme Court nomination battles — from Robert Bork to Clarence Thomas to Brett Kavanaugh — have really been about Roe to a significant degree.

A much smaller survey conducted by Axios and Ipsos was off by only 4 percentage points, the Nature article says. The lead authors are Valerie Bradley of Oxford and Shiro Kuriwaki, formerly of Harvard, now an incoming assistant professor at Yale. As I wrote:In a perfectly random sample there’s no correlation between someone’s opinion and their chance of being included in the data. Both the Delphi-Facebook survey and the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey have been widely quoted in the news and cited in academic research. The page adds, “Census Bureau experimental data may not meet all of our quality standards.”

Another way to think of this is that no one in 1928 had any inkling of what the next 20 years would bring. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging.

It’s too soon to say how long the current surge will last, or how it might be shaped by the Omicron variant. Ubiquitous testing could help schools stay open and make gatherings of every kind safer. With more than 1,000 people still dying of Covid-19 every day in the United States, it’s past time to make this basic tool as readily available as it is in other countries like South Korea or Britain. The Biden administration should have enough testing free and available — and push to have a critical mass of students vaccinated — by September. Many schools still require anyone who’s been in contact with an infected person to quarantine for several days, at least.

An engagement notice for a couple has gone viral, revealing a relationship forged in fire — and a man with a dark past. The bizarre announcement was shared to Twitter after the user’s parents noticed it in their local newspaper. When did he witness the miracle of love between mum and Dr. Johnson? Dr. Johnson, how could you? Can the “miracle of love” save Dr. Johnson from himself?

China is developing a 6,000 mph hypersonic nuke missile engine which is reportedly based on a design abandoned by Nasa — as it forges ahead in an arms race with the West. A Chinese research team has built and tested a prototype based on a radical design by an American space agency scientist more than two decades ago. It comes as China fired a hypersonic missile around the globe in October with the US left reeling by the terrifying display of military strength. A hypersonic missile travels five times faster than the speed of sound and can reach distances of up to 1,500 miles, with Russia using the technology to build cutting-edge missiles in recent years. A number of rocket launches have been publicly announced by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology – but the hypersonic missile test in August was reportedly kept secret.

Some people get excited about a new Whole Foods opening down the street, or a shiny Equinox on the corner. (Note: A New York “steal” is an Everywhere Else insult.) The popular East Village neighborhood is seeing more rats on the streets than ever. Every negative story in the press written about my neighborhood’s infestation and every Instagram video of a rat rave at a cupcake store is, in my opinion, a gift from God. As long as they keep humans out, and my rent low-ish, these little animals will be my best friends and cherished neighbors.

New York again scored as a major Judicial Hellhole, No. 2 in the nation, in the latest ranking from the American Tort Reform Foundation. The Empire State, for example, leads the nation in Web-site lawsuits under the Americans With Disabilities Act, as well in food-related class-action suits (which have tripled since 2017). Blame juries that grant wild damages, lawmakers who keep passing pro-ambulance-chaser laws and an unregulated litigation-financing industry. “Questionable lawsuits and extortionate settlements increase the cost of goods for everyone,” notes Tom Stebbins of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.

For the first three quarters of 2021, Asian women’s median weekly earnings surpassed those of white men, a trend that only began last year. In the most recent quarter (July to September), Asian women earned close to 10 percent more than white men. Full-time working Iranian, Turkish and Palestinian women’s earnings were higher than those of white women in the US. So how does the left explain the growing success of Asian women? When it comes to Asian women specifically, it is no wonder why they are achieving such success in the labor market.

How many more children and teens have to die in record numbers to capture your attention and be considered a “crisis”? Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner insists there is no crisis of lawlessness, crime and violence as the city of brotherly love has recorded a staggering 521 homicides this year. As an older black man from West Philly, I know that many black people are not actually against the police. No matter what he says, this city is experiencing a crisis of violence and murder. Michael A. Nutter was a two-term mayor of Philadelphia from 2008 through 2016.

Four weeks ago, however, the incumbents heard from the thousands of Minneapolis voters who had not attended their anti-police rally. When the dust settled, three incumbents were knocked off the council by challengers who promised to maintain or even increase law enforcement. REUTERSRepeated surveys reveal that, in contrast to ideologues who’ve captured our national parties, most Americans hold centrist positions on nearly every major issue, from crime to immigration to government spending. Rep. Paul Gosar, who was censured for his violent cartoon videos, is another extremist who doesn’t represent most American voters. Make no mistake: independent voters are alive and well, and they’re angrier than ever.

Help is on the way,” he said at an animated press conference where he introduced David Banks, his pick for schools chancellor. Addressing the hot-button issue of Gifted & Talented programs, the chancellor-in-waiting said they would not be ended, as de Blasio wanted, but instead would be expanded to give more kids opportunities for admission. We need to expand on the programs.”Banks, like Adams, is a proponent of Gifted and Talented programs in city schools. Mayor-elect Adams said that “help is on the way” for city schools when he announced his DOE pick. And because of Adams’ appointment of Banks and his repeated pledges to tackle crime, the future is already looking brighter.

Former President Donald Trump expressed admiration for predecessor Barack Obama at a ticketed Florida event Saturday, after spending years slamming the Democrat. Speaking at the kickoff of his four-date “History Tour” with Bill O’Reilly at an arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Republican said of Obama, “I liked him,” while also calling him “smart and sharp,” according to The Sun Sentinel. But Trump also told the crowd that Obama’s methods caused “tremendous division” and hatred in the country, the newspaper reported. The compliments were a drastic change for Trump, who spent five years falsely claiming that Obama wasn’t born in the US, and made bogus claims about his two terms in office. He had also labeled the former president “the most ignorant president in our history,” “a disaster” and the “founder of ISIS.”Trump’s stated admiration for Obama is not without precedent however.

I was born to Korean parents in America, and language has always been a conscientious choice. As a child, I knew I was going to speak only in Korean to my parents. As I’ve gotten older, my language skills stayed stagnant, and what was once a source of pride is now getting in the way of communicating with my parents.

“Nothing in these bills take away punishment or consequences,” White said. “What they do is, one, make sure that the way law enforcement approaches and advises young people of their rights is developmentally appropriate so that the system does not take advantage of less informed and developed minds. It also provides a possible path for alternatives to incarceration, when it is appropriate, so that we are focusing on rehabilitating young people.”

Ward said she has already heard from more than 100 people eager to make the case that they have a rightful claim to property now occupied by others. Her group is turning its attention to a tract of land in Cleveland now partly owned by the Cleveland Clinic that activists say rightfully belongs to former businessman Winston E. Willis. As with the Bruce case in California, advocates say, Willis was deprived not just of his property but also of decades of potential prosperity — a scenario that, repeated many times over, lies at the root of the wealth gap between Whites and African Americans.

Biden’s Build Back Better legislation would extend the enhanced credit for another year, through 2022. That one-year extension was part of a compromise. It’s something, but not enough. If Democrats lose control of the Senate or the House in next year’s midterms, the future of the expanded child tax credit could be dire. Among the complaints from conservatives is that the expansion to low-income households would diminish their desire to find employment.

Here in the United States, threats to the integrity of the electoral process are growing, as a recent article in the Atlantic highlighted. Former president Donald Trump continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. He badgers Republicans to do something, and Republican legislators in some key states have responded by seeking to make it easier, if there is a repeat of the 2020 results, to turn the administration of elections over to partisan politicians and to make it possible to challenge the certification of results and potentially overturn the next election.

Some Republicans suggested that they would consider that treaty once a dozen new senators were sworn in a few weeks later. That never occurred, not in the next two years of Democratic control, nor in the six years after that when McConnell held the majority leader post, and no movement in the past 11 months of Democratic control of the Senate.

“School Shootings,” Joshua O’Connor had titled the first page, above a reconstruction of the Columbine High School massacre that left 13 people dead. In the pages that followed, Joshua, who’d just turned 18, described a detailed plan to carry out his own massacre: the shotguns, pistols, assault rifle and ammunition he would buy and the bombs he would build; the doors he would zip-tie “so bitches can’t escape”; the spot by the bleachers where he would set off the first explosion; the route he would take on his killing spree; the moment, when it was over, that he would end his own life.

In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court upheld the mandate and the state’s right to fine citizens who did not comply, though it also decreed that no one could be forcibly vaccinated. “[T]he liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly free from restraint,” wrote Justice John Marshall Harlan in the majority opinion. With that, the mandate enacted nearly 100 years prior was affirmed as constitutional.

It is true that the annexation of Crimea gave Putin four years of stratospheric approval ratings of over 80 percent, even as the Russian economy tanked. A large-scale invasion of Ukraine, however, would be very different. It would involve massive numbers of regular Russian troops, not a few thousand “little green men,” proxies or mercenaries, and many of those troops would die. And however much Putin might believe that Russians and Ukrainians should share a government (presumably his), and no matter how much he talks about it on TV, only 17 percent of his compatriots share that opinion. (Even fewer Ukrainians do.)

The very essence of the Article I power is legislating, and so there would seem to be few, if any, more imperative interests squarely within Congress’s wheelhouse than ensuring the safe and uninterrupted conduct of its constitutionally assigned business. Here, the House of Representatives is investigating the single most deadly attack on the Capitol by domestic forces in the history of the United States. Lives were lost; blood was shed; portions of the Capitol building were badly damaged; and the lives of members of the House and Senate, as well as aides, staffers, and others who were working in the building, were endangered. They were forced to flee, preventing the legislators from completing their constitutional duties until the next day.

The debt ceiling debacle has also blown a giant hole right through one of the principal arguments of certain senators who fervently defend the filibuster: that bipartisanship is a prerequisite for important matters that make it out of the Senate. To be clear: Democrats are the ones raising the debt ceiling. Republicans are just promising not to obstruct — this time, anyway. This is not a sustainable path, and it will only breed more distrust in the Senate, an institution already suffering from an approval deficit. Democrats who continue to treat the filibuster as some sacred feature of the Senate instead of what it is — a fairly arbitrary rule that can clearly be altered on a whim — should be asked what they’re actually defending.

The Post’s View | About the Washington Post Editorial BoardEditorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom. Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Karen Tumulty; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Ruth Marcus; Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao (education, D.C. affairs); Jonathan Capehart (national politics); Lee Hockstader (immigration; issues affecting Virginia and Maryland); David E. Hoffman (global public health); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Molly Roberts (technology and society); and Stephen Stromberg (elections, the White House, Congress, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care). They say no news is good news. But we know some news is good news — and we’d like your help calling attention to it. If there was good news in 2021 that you think we should highlight — here or abroad, in culture or sports or science or any other arena — please let us know, and we may include your suggestion in our end-of-year editorial.

On this episode, Kennedy connects with higher education and national news reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Doug Belkin. Doug shares the causes of the gender imbalance being seen on college campuses, as fewer young men enroll in two to four-year collegiate institutions. Later, Doug and Kennedy discuss the lack of public funding’s impact on college enrollment. Follow Kennedy on Twitter: @KennedyNation

Story #1: A country boy can survive. Story #2: The return of the evil empire and Will’s weekly NFL Quarterback depth chart. Story#3: A conversation with the Co-host of FOX & Friends and author, Brian Kilmeade to discuss his latest book, “The President and the Freedom Fighter.”Tell Will why he is right…or wrong. Twitter: @willcainInstagram: @cwillcain

Fox News Contributor Lara Trump joins Fox Across America With Jimmy Failla to weigh in on the turmoil in Vice President Kamala Harris’ office and the VP’s treatment of her former employees. According to Lara, the press has gone out of their way to protect Biden at every turn and spin the news in a positive light for him. “It’s absolutely preposterous to think that Joe Biden gets more negative press than Donald Trump. It’s not that he’s getting bad press, it’s that he’s a bad leader, that he’s made bad decisions, that everything he’s done has been basically negative for the American people. Listen to the podcast to hear what else Lara and Brian had to say!

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) spoke to Brian Kilmeade about Oklahoma National Guard members who have refused COVID-19 vaccination are under threat of losing their pay. Lankford says the National Guard is under a governor’s authority unless they are active and sent overseas when they are under the leadership of the President of the United States. Lankford is part of legislation that would push back on cutting off the pay of National Guard members who are unvaccinated. Lankford says he is confident the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade. When asked about Senator Jeanne Shaheen saying there will be a revolution if Roe v Wade is overturned, Lankford responded Shaheen is basically threatening Supreme Court Justices if they overturn Roe v Wade.

They’ve simply moved to greener pastures: public charter schools, private schools and homeschool. Children at private schools, including private religious schools, have continued to live a relatively normal life throughout the course of this pandemic. It’s no wonder that alternatives like homeschooling, charter schools, and religious schools gain students as public schools lose them—they give kids a fighting chance. But there’s a catch: anyone who decides to attend a religious private school is immediately disqualified from accessing that aid. At its core, Catholic education is meant to be accessible to all, but especially to those in poor inner-city and rural areas.

The former first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, reading this week what would have been her victory speech after winning the 2016 election against Donald Trump. But eventually, as an adult, one would think Hillary Clinton, more than five years later, would show some class. Instead, here she is, a losing candidate reading a victory speech. Stolen election talk? CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTERCLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPAs Queen Elsa once said, let it go.

Big Government Socialism isn’t working. On issue after issue, and problem after problem, it is clear to most Americans that Big Government Socialism simply is not working. (And a recent Scott Rasmussen National Survey found 53% of Americans describe the Biden administration agenda as Big Government Socialism.) The impossibility of the thought processes of Big Government Socialism can be best understood through two Walt Disney movies. But much more importantly, they are proving to every American that Big Government Socialism just doesn’t work.

Politically liberal San Franciscans are used to living cheek by jowl with open drug use, feces-infested streets and petty crime. Caitlin Foster is among San Francisco shopkeepers who have repeatedly had to clear away used needles and other drug paraphernalia outside the bar she manages. And after too many encounters with armed people in crisis, the Seattle transplant's affection for her adopted city has soured. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, usually both.

Parents walk away with their kids from the Meijer's parking lot where many students gathered following an active shooter situation at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, November 30, 2021. James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teen accused of killing four students in a shooting at a Michigan high school this week, pleaded not guilty on Saturday to involuntary manslaughter charges. Prosecutors charged the Crumbleys with involuntary manslaughter on Friday. Crumbley, 15, opened fire at Oxford High School on Tuesday, killing four students. Under Michigan law, parents can be charged with involuntary manslaughter if authorities believe someone contributed to a situation where there was a high chance of harm or death.

Did you qualify for loan forgiveness under the Department of Education's temporary waiver? Most mornings, Christopher Handley diligently logged into his FedLoans account to check how much remained of his $167,000 student loan balance from college and law school. He had recently made the 120 necessary on-time payments and submitted his forgiveness application, and had been eagerly anticipating his balance reset. He was feeling dispirited with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) process and couldn't bear to see the six-figure account number staring back at him yet again when he was certain he should have already been granted forgiveness. He logged into his account and, with "excited disbelief," saw a $0 balance remaining, saving him over $1,000 each month in loan payments.

(CNN) Last year, like many people across the US, I couldn't imagine feeling more anxious about a presidential election than I did in November 2020. Now, an even more crucial election for me and my ancestral country is happening in Nicaragua this weekend—and most people in the US aren't following it. Nicaragua has regressed into a dictatorship led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. Additionally, Ortega's administration has imprisoned more than 140 people who have been deemed a direct threat to his corrupt regime. Well, the fate of my 77-year-old father, who was arrested over 100 days ago by the Nicaraguan military police hangs in the balance.

(CNN) It's only November, but already, Americans are panicking about holiday shopping . But when it comes to totally optional holiday spending, we can choose not to send companies so much of our hard-earned cash if we find them objectionable. Another: choosing to spend nothing on items at all, and instead investing your money in gathering, entertaining, and feeding your loved ones. There's a large body of research on what contributes to both short- and long-term joy, and the results are clear : Spending money on material goods brings far less happiness than spending money on experiences like concerts, dining out and sports games. So why not get each other what we actually value instead of spending money we don't have on things we don't need?

Now, the committee and the Justice Department need to fire back and impose real consequences on Clark for his lawlessness. In late December 2020, as Trump flailed about wildly trying to contest his election loss, Clark served as a would-be saboteur inside the Justice Department. The Justice Department had no evidence to support these purported "significant concerns" about election fraud, and none has emerged since then. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, placing truth and duty to the public over blind loyalty to Trump, refused to send Clark's false missive. And attorney-client privilege plainly does not apply here, either; Justice Department lawyers represent the United States, and not the president individually.

Amy Lauren Fairchild, dean of The Ohio State University College of Public Health, is a historian who works at the intersection of history, public health ethics, and public health policy and politics. (CNN) In times of public health crisis, leadership is critical -- not just from our elected officials, but also from the heads of the health institutions that help shape our understanding of, and response to, public health threats. While we have in the CDC a lead public health agency and hub for disease reporting and policy guidance, it is only one of the agencies contributing to public health goals. Join us on Twitter and FacebookSuccessfully managing Covid-19 and other public health threats requires sustained effort. And this requires leadership with the capacity to move beyond stewardship to exercising vested authority.

Dr. Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, a Democrat, is Houston City's councilwoman for District D. She is also an executive committee member of the NAACP-Houston Branch and the assistant treasurer. (CNN) As a member of the Houston City Council, I saw firsthand just how excited people in my city were to see rapper Travis Scott in the days leading up to Astroworld, the annual music festival he started in 2018. I watched as fans erupted into deafening screams when Scott ran onto the court to share a few words. The saying, "Life can turn on a dime," is one that has repeatedly come to mind throughout this pandemic. The mass casualty incident at Astroworld proved once again how quickly things can change in what may seem like the blink of an eye.

(CNN) I was born in a Chinese reeducation camp, where my mother was detained in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which many Uyghurs call East Turkistan. When I was born, the Uyghur region -- like the rest of China -- was in the throes of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution . According to several reports, Uyghur forced labor contributes significantly to the world economy -- particularly solar-panel manufacturing and cotton-growing industries . Our European partners -- another enormous market for Chinese products -- must follow suit, and the United States should encourage our allies to join us in rooting out this evil practice. If the EU is to have any credibility as a moral leader, it must ban the import of products from Xinjiang.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.1% in the third quarter. Under more normal circumstances, we would expect the President to enjoy some political benefit from the economic recovery and strong legislative wins, including the passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. There are also, of course, real economic problems such as inflation and supply chain issues Americans are confronting every time they go to the supermarket or gas station. With a Democrat in the White House, Americans who consume information from conservative media outlets like Fox News are likely to view Biden through a partisan lens. Despite the economic recovery, we may be a long way off from feeling good about the state of our nation.

Areva Martin is a CNN legal analyst and a civil rights attorney. Areva MartinThe prosecution's presentation of the evidence and surgically precise cross-examination of Travis McMichael, the shooter, on the stand, left in shreds the preposterous citizen's arrest/self-defense contentions that were raised. The prosecution had only to mention the elder McMichael's own words on the 911 call he made. By playing those words , the prosecutor gave the jurors a clear picture of what was in the defendants' minds. They could have waited for the police to arrive or followed at a distance without confronting Arbery; instead, they hunted him down, blocked him in and brandished a shotgun.

Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The defendants were found liable on state conspiracy and other claims, though the jury said it could not reach a verdict on two federal conspiracy claims. Still, it's a good day when some of the worst people in the country are held accountable and slapped with potentially crippling financial penalties. First, it should make others planning to make such a brazen public display of the horrifying views think twice.

Leopoldo López is a Venezuelan politician and opposition leader who was imprisoned on charges of inciting anti-government protests. In a 2x2 meter cell with a lock the size of a brick, I learned what freedom was when I didn't have it. Venezuelan leaders had successfully built this regime of freedom after the downfall of Marcos Pérez Jiménez's military dictatorship in 1958. Between the 1960s and 1990s , Venezuela was " the democratic exception " in Latin America, a title that every Venezuelan carried with pride. What I saw on that journey were Venezuelans who were more than ready to fight for freedom and democracy.

(CNN) I was 13 years old when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Iranian government in 1979. Though I was a Christian living in a largely Muslim country, I had never felt discrimination because of my faith. My father had become a successful ballroom dancing instructor in Tehran and taught Muslim couples the cha-cha and the tango. They used our grievances against Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, to win our trust and gain power. The irony was that a few of my Christian relatives had trusted Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic revolutionary leader, and celebrated when the Shah was forced into exile.

Harris, as the vice president, is a leading contender to be the face of the post-Joe Biden Democratic Party. Harris and Buttigieg instead could agree that, if Biden does not run again, they would run together in 2024, with Harris the nominee for president and Buttigieg for vice-president. Both nominees represent important Democratic Party constituencies -- Harris is an African American and Asian American woman, while Buttigieg is a gay man. Join us on Twitter and FacebookThis is something to which the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is particularly sensitive. When Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, he indicated that she was the future of the Democratic Party.

We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. Frida Ghitis noted, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney asked why Trump and Bannon are hiding behind such a dubious shield. Asnoted, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney asked why Trump and Bannon are hiding behind such a dubious shield. One approach is to follow the blueprint that led to last week's surprising defeat of Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who's also known as the Czech Donald Trump," wrote Dean Obeidallah. They both go by the very generic name of Joe, the often-used placeholder -- think of Joe Six-Pack, Joe Schmoe, Joe Blow and Joe College.

Lately, when that happens, I look to my Hanukkah menorah standing on my bookshelf, awaiting its role in the upcoming holiday. The legend can be one of meaning for us all, Jews and non-Jews alike. The 16th-century rabbi, Isaac Luria, taught that God formed the universe by contracting the ubiquitous light of the Divine presence to make room for the physical world. But God's brightness was so overpowering, that the vessels into which it was gathered shattered in a blaze of Divine sparks. Our human task is to find them, and nurture back to full brightness the Divine light burning in every human being and in the world around us.

We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. In the century since, central banks have taken pains to keep inflation in check, and for decades they've largely succeeded. But the global economic disruption sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic may have awakened the inflation monster. "For the sake of Democrats," Zelizer wrote, "the President will have to do more than say the situation is worrisome. But with polls showing some Americans losing faith in democracy, Kasparov worries for the future.

We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. In Virginia, it was a "wipeout" for Democrats, wrote Paul Begala. It's safe to say the next 12 months will be a time of high political anxiety. Virginia voters realized Trump was not on the ballot. They can win independent voters but "only if they keep the defeated former President Donald Trump at arm's length.

We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. The Georgia verdicts "represent a real strike against white supremacy and systemic racism in our criminal legal system," wrote. If it does, Black jurors would not be continuously discriminated against during jury selection. If it does, I'll feel less of a need to arm myself to go jogging alone, even in nearly-all White neighborhoods." "If Biden does run, as an incumbent, he has an advantage," wrote Lincoln Mitchell.

Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. (CNN) If we needed more proof of the magnitude of the threat posed by anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists and irresponsible public figures, look no further than the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, though we still don't know exactly how or where it first developed. Perhaps it wouldn't have appeared if more vaccines had been readily available, but that's likely not the whole story.

Even when the Supreme Court has heard challenges to Roe in the past, it has always left the basic constitutionality of abortion rights alone. I am of an age where I can remember what life was like for women in the years before Roe. According to Guttmacher, nearly one in four American women will have an abortion before she turns 45. On the other side, the Americans who called themselves "pro-life" and took action to curb abortion rights have been far more determined. For my students' sake, I'm hoping that we might find ourselves astonished by Chief Justice John Roberts and perhaps even Justice Brett Kavanaugh .

School shootings became more infrequent during the pandemic, with students learning remotely from home. Politicians who have tried to tackle the issue of gun control in more recent years have not been able to replicate Clinton's success. And even though the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, sparked a national student-led gun control movement, it didn't shake the political status quo. After yet another school shooting in Michigan this week, it's likely we'll see the same dynamic play out once again, with renewed calls for gun control followed by inaction in Congress. This country has had enough with limiting the response only to "thoughts and prayers" -- it's time to pass stronger gun control legislation.

My eyes were locked on the ultrasound monitor that showed what was happening inside of my wife's uterus. My wife wanted options. A D&E removes tissue in the uterus, ensuring those suffering pregnancy loss are spared the pain of birthing a stillborn child. To deprive women suffering pregnancy loss a surgical option and leave no other choice but to go through labor and contractions to deliver a lifeless baby is heartless. I can only hope that parents everywhere who suffer this same loss will have any options they desire to lessen the pain.

Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, is a professor of Emergency Medicine and associate dean at the School of Public Health at Brown University. I and other public health experts are cautioning Americans to take this variant seriously, but also to be patient, as we have much to discover. They genotyped incoming tests in only 36 hours, quickly identifying the dozens of mutations that are putting the public health community on edge. So we need to do more work to figure out answers to the questions that really matter about the Omicron variant. Unfortunately, this setting -- where many have already been infected with other variants -- also permits us to examine whether prior infection protects from the Omicron variant.

Jill FilipovicIf the many, many allegations against him are true, then Epstein, obviously, is the chief criminal here. The bad news is that Maxwell seems to have little remorse or interest in even being honest about what happened. It's a step forward that we are increasingly understanding abuse as a system rather than a single bad act. All were minors when the alleged abuse occurred. The Maxwell defense thus far has amounted to "memory, manipulation and money," as Maxwell's lawyer Bobbi Sternheim put it during her opening statement.

The far-left treats both Senators like pariahs or outcasts who simply don't get it or fail to reflect the values of the Democratic Party. Both Manchin and Sinema know how to appeal to swing voters and are routinely lectured by those who don't. Images of border chaos combined with calls to abolish ICE lend credibility to the narrative of those who say progressive Democrats support open borders. This law could be aptly titled, "Swing Voters Don't Matter Act." Winning swing voters requires candidates to show some restraint; exercising considered judgment that at times is nuanced and measured will yield electoral benefits.

This year, however, the new influenza season may be a " doozy ," as many people across the country have returned to in-person activities. In the teeth of a bad flu season, the positive rate often exceeds 10%. This chronic pandemic fatigue appears to be affecting influenza vaccine rates in the US. So far, influenza vaccination rates are down this year compared to previous years in many target populations. There is a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to the influenza vaccine , echoing a similar split on Covid-19 vaccines.

It was even more than George W. Bush, an actual evangelical whose faith was central to his identity, got in his two presidential elections. Even Pope Francis is a symbol of a comparatively liberal Christian tradition, at odds with many conservative traditionalists in his own church. This is a glimpse of a progressive Christian tradition that has been eclipsed by the rise of the religious right. And in the 1970s, Jimmy Carter rallied the faithful to become the first born-again evangelical president of the modern era. And if a progressive vision of Christianity emerges as a counterweight to the religious right, it may elevate our debates and help us reunite as a nation in commitment to the common good.

There are more questions than answers about the new Covid-19 variant known as Omicron first identified Thursday by South Africa's health minister. The variant was only first announced on Thursday and vaccine manufacturers explained Friday it will take about two weeks to study Omicron. (Reminder: When Biden took office, the Trump administration was averaging a little over 700,000 vaccines injected a day. This is a time for President Biden to show Americans what effective, science-driven, compassionate leadership looks like. It's a crisis like this that explains why Americans chose to elect Joe Biden as president.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month challenging Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, but fewer than a third of Americans want Roe to be overturned. And if the anti-abortion movement gets their way and the Supreme Court overturns Roe, the Republican Party and the Supreme Court itself will have a lot of angry Americans to contend with. This much is clear: Many of the most influential anti-abortion groups are also anti-contraceptive, and if they succeed in outlawing abortion, contraception could be next. Join us on Twitter and FacebookBut this is also a lesson for journalists and other media-makers: abortion rights are not broadly controversial. Americans support abortion rights.

(CNN) Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky released a holiday portrait on Twitter on Saturday that features him and six family members in front of a Christmas tree. At best, Massie's Christmas card was spectacularly ill-timed, but there seems to be more to it than that. Absent from his responses are recognition of the lives lost in the school shooting, or thoughtful dialogue about gun control. And it's not just those who lost loved ones last week who would feel anguish seeing Massie's insensitive "Christmas card." "The other photo," he continued, "is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting," he wrote alongside a photo depicting Jamie's gravestone.

Still, it's not a good idea to be very public about any of these internal deliberations based on the recent history and the plight of former GOP House speakers. Two months later, on September 25, and the day after Pope Francis addressed Congress, Speaker Boehner announced his intention to resign from Congress. This brings us full circle to the plight of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. A narrow GOP majority would spell real trouble for McCarthy with Trump and some hardline members like Rep. Taylor Greene. Should McCarthy become speaker, the bigger challenge for Republicans, given the head spinning dynamics within the GOP Conference, is this: what will they be able to accomplish?

(CNN) Stacey Abrams' 2022 campaign for Georgia governor represents a generational opportunity for Black women in American politics. While she may not become the first Black woman governor in America, as a public figure and a candidate, Abrams represents an enduring tradition of radical democratic political activism by Black women. Abrams' work puts her in historic community with the bold work of Black women activists, freedom fighters and elected officials who came before her. Black women's advocacy for a truly inclusive democracy resonates deeply in our own time as well. Whether or not she is elected in Georgia next year, Abrams is uniquely positioned to push for the progress we need.

We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. (CNN) On Christmas Eve, Dr. Anthony Fauci will turn 81. Yet, as Frida Ghitis wrote, Fauci has been the target of increasingly overwrought attacks from the right for his role supporting vaccines and other proven measures to stem the pandemic. The Omicron shadowIt's still not clear how serious a threat the Omicron variant poses, but it's already casting a shadow over people's lives, wrote David M. Perry. "It's unconscionable that his dad purchased the weapon, and that both parents failed to take the school's warnings seriously, even though they knew their son had access to a gun," wrote Kara Alaimo.

Each state seemed like its own country -- and yet American democracy appeared to somehow hold all of them together. We did not care about Democrats or Republicans or their political squabbles -- we only cared that American democracy seemed to bring peace, wealth and independence. And yet, despite my distance from Gambia, Jammeh still considered my writing a threat to his rule. American democracy wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. Now I'm watching with terror as American democracy falters, and I fear too many missteps could imperil global democracy, too.

Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is a Burmese human rights activist working for the nongovernmental organization Burma Campaign UK. He was among thousands of students who marched on the street calling for democracy, human rights and freedom in my country. It's no wonder Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the Burmese military, calculated that he could get away with staging a coup in February. Yes, the Burmese military denies this oppression and says it's part of its fight against terrorism, but the truth is that we are being persecuted. Despite the ongoing use of violence, I refuse to believe the Burmese military has won.

Even if the group can come up with workable recommendations, there is currently no good mechanism that would allow international democracies to work together to achieve them. The United Nations, whose charter reaffirms "faith in fundamental human rights," is not the best global body to promote these democratic ideas. The UN Human Rights Council , for example, a body that is ostensibly meant to ensure the "promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe," includes China, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela among its members. They are primarily profit-making machines ill-positioned to respond to authoritarian countries leveraging their might and money to bring the companies to heel. There's a certain irony in how dictators use social media technologies developed in the free world to undermine it.

His world view seemed formed on the battlefield, and one that Dole never left behind -- not even after decades on Capitol Hill. For an hour, Inouye spun out tales of how he and Dole first met and became friends in a military hospital during World War II. Before the war, both Dole and Inouye had wanted to become physicians; however, the injuries each sustained prevented them from pursuing those dreams. Dole told Inouye that he now wanted to run for local office in Kansas and then run for office in Washington. You could fill a book with his jokes and repartee that was aimed at all political parties, and often even at himself.

The Iran nuclear negotiations that resumed this week in Vienna after a suspension of almost five months are a case in point. And it's not so certain that one of the parties -- Iran, which seems to be using the talks as cover to ramp up its nuclear program -- believes that an accord is even desirable right now. All of which is to say that the game has just begun, and the outcome will be neither a quick accord nor a collapse. Indeed, today Iranian representatives presented texts of their own on sanctions removal and their own nuclear activities, offering to stay in Vienna to continue negotiating. Sanctions severely damaged Iran's economy, but they didn't force Iran to make concessions; in fact, Trump's sanctions resulted in Iran ramping up its nuclear program.

(CNN) Imagine, for a moment, what the world looks like to people living in China today — say, to an average couple. By the late 1970s, China was an exhausted, impoverished, isolated country, with a revolutionary regime whose Red China cause had lost any global relevance. The architect of China's opening, Deng Xiaoping, spoke of the need for China to hide its strength and bide its time. Will Xi be able to control this sprawling country and force it along the lines he wishes? Xi has changed China but in a way that makes its rise on the world stage far more dangerous.

He resigned from the Belarusian government in 1996 in protest against the rising authoritarianism of President Alexander Lukashenko. In 2010, he dared to run against Lukashenko for President of Belarus. But the risk of political lethargy following the departure of former President Donald Trump is not something to be written off. Three years from now, Trump could be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election, decrying another close election loss. While the US and Belarus are worlds apart, the Belarusian experience offers a frightening window into a world without basic freedoms.

Julian ZelizerTo be sure, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to pose global risks, nearly two years into the pandemic. Polls show that Americans are not pleased with the economy and President Biden's leadership on that front. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll , Americans are going into the midterm season feeling pessimistic about the future. In other words, there is a huge disconnect between the economic data and the way voters are feeling. This is a big problem for Democrats.

Mark Wolfe is an energy economist and serves as the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association (NEADA), representing the state directors of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. While families across the country have been hit hard by rising prices for many essential goods and services — especially for food, shelter, clothing and gasoline — those with the lowest incomes are being hit the hardest. While there is no specific program to help low-income families adjust to high inflation, the Build Back Better bill, the large social welfare and energy bill being considered by Congress, is our best chance at helping low-income families deal with rising prices and the continuing economic pain associated with the pandemic. The loss of those funds , which currently expire at the end of the month, would be devastating to millions of low-income families and would make it much harder for them to address rising prices. And 40% of these families used their payments to cover education costs, like schoolbooks and supplies, tuition and after-school programs.

Robert Rooks is CEO of REFORM Alliance , a victims' rights advocate, and a grassroots organizer for criminal justice reform. The solution lies with one of our nation's most underserved workforces: the formerly incarcerated and people on probation and parole. But we need criminal justice reform to fully activate this workforce's potential. Americans agree that our economy is in a precarious position, but there's not yet a widespread recognition that criminal justice reform can help fix it. Investments in criminal justice reform are investments in the economy that benefit both consumers and employers.

The New York City Council passed the "Our City, Our Vote" measure by a more than two-to-one vote. Allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections is smart policy that is legally sound. It might surprise people to know allowing noncitizens to vote is an idea that is neither new nor radical. New York City allowing noncitizens to vote could pave the way for more localities to move ahead with similar measures. New York City did the right thing in moving towards allowing noncitizens to vote.

After careful review, President Joe Biden agreed to release the documents and to reject Trump's request to assert executive privilege. A federal district court rejected Trump's request for a preliminary injunction, and he appealed. In its approach and its substance, this decision seems to have been written to be upheld by the US Supreme Court. Trump's lawyers have already said the Supreme Court is their ultimate destination and the appellate court -- even though it ruled against him -- gave Trump 14 days to go to the Supreme Court and get an injunction against further disclosure. The Supreme Court shouldn't bother with this case and should decline to intervene, just as they do in the vast majority of cases.

In this traffic, between the cities of Bentiu and Ding Ding, is a group of women, pushing to dislodge their makeshift raft that has become stuck in mud, weighed down by six children. A hut with a straw roof pokes out from the floodwaters in the town of Ding Ding. For years, South Sudan has been experiencing wetter-than-normal wet seasons, while its dry seasons are becoming even drier. Like many nations suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, South Sudan accounts for 0.004% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions . James Ling, a resident of Ding Ding, said he returned briefly to see what he could salvage from his home of eight years.

It speaks of the importance Xi attaches to party history, and his own place in it. In some ways, that obsession with history can be seen as rooted in a tradition dating back to ancient China. To the Chinese Communist Party, history -- or rather, certain curated versions of it -- can be extremely useful. But the upcoming "history resolution" is not only about reshaping the party's past. By issuing his own resolution, Xi seeks to further entrench his status as a towering leader on the same level as Mao and Deng.

And while the virus gathers strength, a pandemic of pandemic fatigue undermines our ability to stop the virus. The newly discovered Omicron variant quickly led to border closures, a stock market plunge, and a collective sigh of despair: Will the pandemic ever end? There's a lot we don't know yet about Omicron , and definitive answers to the most important questions will likely take weeks or longer. The most important unknown about Omicron is to what extent it evades protection from vaccines and prior infection. First, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.

I lived on the honor floor that had certain privileges; the officer allowed the women to cook and make food. So here we go, a catering company, soul food, connect it to justice, hiring incarcerated women, and not just the food — we gotta do the storytelling!" Courtesy Sharon RichardsonRichardson has been home for 11 years now and calls Reentry Rocks and Just Soul Catering her "babies." But whether the money comes or not, we are still going to have our mission to help formerly incarcerated women (come) home. Courtesy Sharon Richardson"Just Soul Catering is about soul food, touching the hearts of those in New York City, feeding those that never sleep and love to eat," she said.

Spearheaded by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders also aims to address the impacts of Covid-19 on Asian American livelihoods, including businesses that suffered disproportionately throughout the pandemic. Asian American civil rights organizations commended the move and hope the initiative will be used as a tool to support lower-income, underrepresented AAPI communities. “While Covid-19 has hit all Americans with unprecedented challenges, we appreciate the Administration’s recognition of the difficulties that are unique to Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” Marielle A. Reataza, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse, said in a statement. This is a particular problem for groups such as Hmong Americans, Indo Caribbeans and Native Hawaiians who experts say can be erased without looking deeper into Asian data. “Many Asian American entrepreneurs are immigrants,” he said.

It is important that the public — as well as the members of the select committee — understand exactly what it means that these witnesses are pleading the Fifth Amendment. The select committee has also stated that to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts, it will work with other investigatory agencies. For one thing, the Fifth Amendment is asserted on a question-by-question basis. Because he invoked the Fifth Amendment, the select committee gave him another chance to appear. Because of the Fifth Amendment, prosecutors are accustomed to putting cases together without help from defendants.

I know, Uncle Sam (and Uncle Joe) wants us to buy, buy, buy at this time of year. But if Covid-19 has taught us anything, it's that we can make do with a lot less stuff. He makes sure to find just the right gift by setting up a registry for our kids on SoKind, which allows them to request used items, experience gifts and charitable donations. What we’re trying to encourage, though, is less physical stuff, and more of the stuff of memories. No one said experience presents are necessarily cheaper!

An Afghan American friend, the daughter of a family friend in Paris who worked for UNESCO, became our host and guide. To help close this gap, the Biden administration recently announced the creation of The Sponsor Circle Program for Afghan refugees. Others are led by Afghan American families whose relatives were evacuated to military bases. We were lucky to have a family friend in the U.S who was willing and able to help us. Now Americans have a unique opportunity to help Afghan families rebuild lives that were suddenly torn away from them.

The defense in the Zimmerman case, for example, called on a white woman living in the neighborhood to testify about having her house burglarized by a Black man. The woman said she was scared to death, hiding upstairs, while the Black man was downstairs ransacking her belongings. The burglar wasn’t Trayvon Martin; the only thing the two had in common was that they were both Black males. Studies have shown that people tend to see ambiguously hostile behavior by a Black man as dangerous, violent and threatening, while seeing the same behavior by a white man as simply playing around. Indeed, during rebuttal closing argument, prosecutor John Guy told the jury, “Race.

According to October numbers from TV Newser, the three major cable networks attract an average audience of only 4.2 million viewers during primetime, which is when viewing peaks. Meanwhile, the three nightly news broadcasts together can reliably pull in 21.5 million viewers a night. Or compare the cable news audience to that of country music (31 million listeners daily) or Netflix (74 million subscribers) to gain another perspective. Obviously, some devoted viewers of cable news would notice if their channels disappeared. Pew Research estimates the three cable networks earn a combined $4 billion a year.

The Biden administration argues that these countries aren’t just being invited for reasons of realpolitik, but that including them provides opportunities for their civil societies to challenge authoritarian trends. Still, the risk is that leaders may walk away able to say the United States recognized them as democratic. In the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union shared interests on issues like arms control and smallpox eradication. Whatever sense of greater comity the Biden-Xi virtual summit fostered was punctured days later by Beijing’s protests over Taiwan’s summit invitation. To ensure participants are held accountable, Biden should fully endorse the June 2022 Fifth Copenhagen Democracy Summit, whose more than 500 participants will undertake a “civil society stocktaking of the commitments made” at Biden’s summit.

China, the envoys write, has an “extensive, whole-process socialist democracy,” while democracy is the “fundamental principle” of the Russian system. The United States saw fit to stand by the country as it faces aggressive moves along its border from Russian-backed Belarus. The Biden administration is counting on participating countries to commit to initiatives designed to strengthen and promote democracy and to spend the next year fulfilling those promises. “It’s important that the United States and the other democracies make real commitments because otherwise it will be seen as a PR exercise and it will increase cynicism,” he said. His group has released scorecards on the state of democracy in the countries participating in the summit.

But despite Biden’s slide, Della Volpe said young Americans are not unplugging from politics a year after helping him defeat then-President Donald Trump. Younger Americans are more difficult to survey, and the Harvard Youth Poll is perhaps the most rigorous measurement of their political opinions. A Fox News poll conducted a week earlier showed Biden’s approval rating upside-down among young voters: 44 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove. In the Harvard Youth Poll, approval of Republicans in Congress was 15 points lower, 31 percent, than Biden’s mark. Other polls are limited in their portrayal of younger voters ahead of next year’s midterms.

But Hungary’s prime minister might be too rogue to care. On Thursday and Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden will gather leaders from over 100 countries to a virtual “Summit for Democracy.” He invited rule-of-law troublemaker Poland. The ostracization is “humiliating” but “not surprising,” said Géza Jeszenszky, Hungary’s U.S. ambassador from 1998-2002, Orbán’s first term as prime minister. “Hungary doesn’t have such serious democracy problems as the United States,” Gergely Gulyás, Orbán’s chief of staff, told reporters last week. Orbán’s domestic opponents said the prime minister has brought on his own isolation.

The technology, however, failed to catch on due to a small delivery market and wariness of robot interactions — until the pandemic hit. What changed during the pandemic: When Covid-19 first hit and people were still unsure of how the virus was transmitted, demand for socially distanced services sky-rocketed. Starship Technologies, one of the early pioneers of delivery robots pre-pandemic, now deploys over 1,000 robots across the country, which is nearly quadruple the number they started off with before the pandemic, and accomplishes about 10,000 deliveries a day. Critics had long argued that the tests disadvantaged students of color and first-generation college students. A year into the pandemic, lawmakers approved child tax credit payments, giving families with children historic levels of aid.

Frazer’s situation highlights the impact of the pandemic on families that rely on women’s wages to remain in the middle class. (In the BCG data, 95 percent of IT workers wanted remote work, but only 77 percent were given it.) Washington’s supervisor was in favor of allowing him to continue full-time remote work, but the higher-ups vetoed the arrangement — despite the fact that they didn’t have a desk or cubicle for him to return to. What if these workers’ jobs just need to be done on-site? Per BCG, 92 percent of people who work in HR wanted to work remotely as of last fall, but only 53 percent did.

The civil society leaders and scholars to whom I had been talking were growing skeptical. When we talked again in October, though, the civil society organizer told me that their role had evaporated. There cannot, by contrast, be any doubt about Biden's commitment to restoring democratic rules and norms in the United States. For all their shortcomings, global summits on migration or climate may offer more hope for change than a global summit for democracy. She singled out as examples Zambia and Ecuador, neither previously known for their robust commitment to democracy.

The evidence of improved outcomes for children from universal preschool and universal child care is mixed at best. No one likes paying for child care and it’s an uncomfortable expense for nearly every family to add to the budget. Republicans have played on the edge with how to provide paid leave and how to rearrange existing benefits in a way that’s budget-neutral. Some Republicans have expressed concern about the cost of a paid leave program. A six- to eight-week paid parental leave plan is estimated to cost under $10 billion a year, less than 1 percent of our entitlement spending.

But the Republican Party has done more to alienate young, college-educated voters in recent years than ever before. And a striking 43 percent of respondents think the Republican Party is flat-out racist; only 31 percent disagree. Young women, for instance, are much more likely to have protested (36 percent) than young men (20 percent). Research has also found that young women, including young Black and Latina women, are generally more active as voters and participants in social movements than young men. They have a strong bias against the extreme positions of the current Republican Party, but they are not solid Democrats either.

Meanwhile, Putin has seen that a band of associates have gotten very rich, making these loyalists a pillar of his regime. While Putin sheathes himself in the symbols and rhetoric of the Orthodox Church, there is nothing genuinely Christian about his rule. There is something very strange about American conservatives finding things to admire about Putin, given how distinctively and unmistakably Russian he is. Likewise, just because Putin is pursuing his self-interest in Ukraine, it doesn’t mean we can’t pursue ours. But there is a serious question of how much any of this aggression is ultimately in Russia’s interest.

Because Peeples’ ruling was grounded in Texas’ state constitution, it can’t be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court (which has limited authority over state law). His ruling thus left Texas’ abortion ban in place, while disallowing private enforcement of a sort that conservatives might come to regret. And it has rejected the longstanding rule that someone claiming that their property has been “taken” by state law must first go to state court to get a conclusive ruling on what state law allowed. In religious liberty litigation by Christian groups, the court again shows scant regard for state courts’ views about state law. When it comes to regulating access to federal court, in other words, the present Supreme Court exercises a largely unfettered and ideologically infused kind of discretion.

Chrystul Kizer is pictured during a hearing in the Kenosha County Courthouse on Nov. 15, 2019. The site was shut down in 2018 after being linked to child sex trafficking. AdvertisementIn June 2018, a 17-year-old Kizer shot 34-year-old Volar in the head and set fire to his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Amid a second wave of public interest in Kizer’s case, here’s what you should know:Advertisement1. And we didn’t hear anybody that was out making noises for Kyle Rittenhouse.”Brown herself spoke out in Kizer’s defense in a January 2020 interview with BuzzFeed News’ “AM to DM.”

After the Jan. 6. insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, President Biden reminded the nation that “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. But a global presidential summit won’t help us to reinforce democracy if we are not also strengthening it in local communities right here at home. A global summit won’t help us reinforce democracy if we are not also strengthening it in local communities right here at home. In this sense, Biden’s democracy summit is an important signal that should reassure global leaders that the U.S. remains committed to addressing these threats to democracy and to strengthening democratic values and commitment. Developing a nationwide, community-rooted strategy to strengthen democratic values is an essential first step.

This was not the first time Oz had waded into the murky autism and vaccine misinformation pool. Greene’s style of xenophobic and conspiratorial politics is an outgrowth of the tea party movement, which developed a symbiotic relationship with the anti-vaccine movement in the 2010s. Similarly, the Nation of Islam’s opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine is an outgrowth of its anti-vaccine alliance with Kennedy. After focusing largely on arguments about “toxins,” the anti-vaccine movement is now more focused on arguments about “choice,” a broader rallying cry for the pro-freedom red state crowd. Like a tumor, the anti-vaccine movement has metastasized in other parts of the American body politic.

One is that after Meadows just published a book that contained some damaging and embarrassing revelations about Trump, his former boss predictably erupted. Trump’s disapproval could affect Meadows’ book sales with supporters, making appeasement not just a political strategy but a business one. In the suit, Meadows trots out the same tired, unpersuasive claim of executive privilege that Trump has — unsuccessfully — tried to use. The law generally deems that a public disclosure of information waives any legal privilege that information might otherwise enjoy. Luckily, it seems the House select committee remains determined to investigate the insurrection fully and thoroughly.

Under normal circumstances, senators can filibuster efforts to raise the debt ceiling. And this temporary carveout to the institution's filibuster rules apparently gave Sen. Elizabeth Warren an idea. Today's vote is proof that it's possible to create exceptions to the filibuster and move forward when it's important. Which brings us back to Warren's point: It really is possible "to create exceptions to the filibuster and move forward when it's important." If Warren is right — and she most certainly is — why not create more exceptions to the filibuster "and move forward when it's important"?

With plenty of kinetic activity on Capitol Hill this week, the House vote on the Protecting Our Democracy Act was largely lost in the shuffle, which is a shame because there's a lot to like in this bill. For example, the former president refused to disclose his tax returns, so the Protecting Our Democracy Act would require future presidents to share the materials with the public. Trump has been accused of several crimes, so the Protecting Our Democracy Act suspends the statute of limitations for any federal offense committed by a sitting president. Trump denied his successor a peaceful transition of power, so the Protecting Our Democracy Act imposes new instructions on the General Services Administration to make the process more efficient. But let's not forget that while Trump may have inspired the package of reforms, the Protecting Our Democracy Act would apply to all future presidents, regardless of party.

The vaccine mandates already in place have been shown to work in boosting vaccination rates, including the mandate covering federal employees. And as many people have pointed out, the Republican senators who demonize the mandate for the private sector are themselves already vaccinated. This rejection of a federal vaccine mandate is actually one of the most ideologically consistent stances that the Republican Party has held in a decade. The Republican Party drew in the remnants of the Dixiecrats in the Southern shift of the 1960s as reactionaries fumed over advancements in civil rights. Low vaccination rates and the resulting economic malaise that the continued pandemic inspires thus hurt Biden and boost the GOP politically.

Despite his claims to the contrary, then-President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election — but his campaign lawyer Sidney Powell apparently did very well for herself. Since the 2020 election, I have received dozens of email solicitations from Trump or someone writing on his behalf asking for money. Telling someone that Trump won the 2020 election, or that there was enough “election fraud” to flip the results, were false statements, and Powell almost certainly knew as much. Raising money for the purpose of changing the election result was fraud. Lying about nonexistent election fraud to a turbulent crowd ahead of their storming the Capitol and threatening to kill the vice president is incitement of insurrection, which can be criminal.

Biden will award Medal of Honor to three US soldiersPresident Joe Biden arrives to deliver closing remarks to the virtual Summit for Democracy, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor next week to three U.S. soldiers who fought in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House said Friday. The three will be recognized at a White House ceremony on Dec. 16. Cashe will become the first Black U.S. service member to receive the Medal of Honor for actions since Vietnam, according to the White House. He killed two insurgents, one with a well-placed grenade and the other by using precision sniper fire to detonate the insurgent’s suicide vest.

Indian farmers are showered with flower petals as they dance while leaving the protest site in Singhu, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. Tens of thousands of jubilant Indian farmers on Saturday cleared protest sites on the capital’s outskirts and began returning home, marking an end to their year-long demonstrations against agricultural reforms that were repealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in a rare retreat. Tens of thousands of jubilant Indian farmers on Saturday cleared protest sites on the capital’s outskirts and began returning home, marking an end to their year-long demonstrations against agricultural reforms that were repealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in a rare retreat. Farmers dismantled their makeshift accommodations at multiple protest sites and started to vacate long stretches of highways ringing New Delhi where they have camped since November last year. The farmers said the laws would drastically shrink their incomes and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Remembering Bernard Haitink, the anti-glamour conductorEnlarge this image toggle caption Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images Hiroyuki Ito/Getty ImagesBernard Haitink didn't fit the mold of a superstar conductor. I met him when I began producing the live Friday afternoon broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Haitink never raised his voice, but pointed out errors (not due to a lack of technique, mind you) with a stern conviction. Perhaps because Haitink was a true servant of the composer, not a mantra dreamed up by a marketing department, orchestral musicians loved him. No artist representative and management team got together and dreamed up Haitink's appointment as principal guest conductor of the BSO in 1995.

Nicaragua may be holding presidential elections, but it is edging toward dictatorshipEnlarge this image toggle caption Alfredo Zuniga/AP Alfredo Zuniga/APSAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is running for a fourth consecutive term to remain leader of the Central American country in elections that critics and U.S. officials have labeled a "sham." Student leaders, businesspeople and journalists have been rounded up, and tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have gone into exile. In the 1970s Ortega, then a Marxist guerilla fighter, helped topple U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza, whose family had ruled Nicaragua since 1936. "The people are really scared, I know, but this situation of total repression in Nicaragua isn't sustainable," he said. And he's hoping that after Sunday's election other nations will increase pressure on Nicaragua for a change of government.

"My concern was that these soldiers were being scapegoated and that we weren't being honest to Congress," Fishback told Hi-Phi Nation. Being a whistleblower put Fishback in a delicate position, just as he was completing the arduous selection process for the Army's Special Forces. Fishback deployed twice more to Iraq, with Special Forces, and lost none of his moral rigidity, according to Army Lt. Col. James Vizzard. You're at best kicking the can down the road," Fishback told Hi-Phi Nation. This is the most important type of mission for our sector, so get on the truck,' " Fishback told Hi-Phi Nation.

Suleika Jaouad is a journalist, author and the founder of The Isolation Journals community, and she's all too familiar with the "in-between" space. Today, as a cancer survivor and fellow human enduring the pandemic, she's dedicated her career to covering those living through interruptions. She spoke with Life Kit about living in limbo, coping with isolation and the power of creative resilience. On transforming isolation into creative solitudeDuring her treatment, Jaouad experienced isolation out of medical necessity before most of the world could comprehend the idea. If you have a good life hack, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Bob Dole of Russell, Kan., enlisted, risked his life, took gunfire that nearly killed him, and left him with injuries he carried for life. In reality, it allowed Serbian forces to turn the guns, rockets and tanks they already had from the old Yugoslav army against Bosnian Muslims, Croats and mixed-ethnic people. "The genocide of the people of Bosnia is continuing," Dole wrote President George H.W. Weeks later, Serbian forces shelled the Sarajevo marketplace at midday and NATO air forces struck at the Serbs. Western democracies had come to see the genocide committed in Bosnia with the moral clarity of Bob Dole, someone from a small town who had a large view of the world.

Yet it is increasingly using its rubber-stamp Parliament to enact domestic legislation asserting territorial claims and rights in international law. “Through psychological warfare, propaganda, and a cynical misuse of law, China is advancing its revisionist territorial ambitions without having to fire a shot. And in further defiance of international law, China gave Mandarin-language names to 80 islands, reefs, seamounts, shoals, and ridges, 55 of which are fully submerged. Flout international lawAs these examples show, domestic legislation is increasingly providing China with a pretext to flout binding international law, including bilateral and multilateral treaties to which it is a party. Despite these encroachments, very little international attention has been given to Xi’s lawfare or broader hybrid warfare.

After criticism about a lack of transparency, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott reversed course and said she’ll share details about her latest round of gifts. She released an update on her 2021 giving on Wednesday, but didn’t reveal which groups received funding or how much money she had given out. Scott said she left “dollar signs” out of her update because she wanted media coverage to focus on the groups working on the causes she supports. Scott also called for a broader definition of philanthropy — one that means more than just ultra-wealthy people doling out billions of dollars. Soskis, who studies the history of philanthropy, praised Scott’s subsequent update promising to share details.

The Biden administration announced that they would be expanding a major loan forgiveness program for public servants. We answer questions about the expansion and talk about ways to access it. Office Hours, Barron's and MarketWatch journalists take questions from readers

What’s happeningSince the start of the pandemic, the United States has experienced a troubling trend of rising traffic deaths even though Americans have been driving less. “We cannot and should not accept these fatalities as simply a part of everyday life in America.”The high rate of traffic deaths in the U.S. is not entirely tied to the pandemic. Why there’s debateThe National Transportation Safety Agency says that reckless driving is the primary reason for the spike in traffic deaths. That attitude, critics argue, ignores the ways the nation can make roads less dangerous through safety-minded design and better laws. PerspectivesCurbing unsafe driving speeds is the best way to save lives“Controlling speeds on roads is the most important goal of any car safety strategy.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco's people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies. San Francisco residents who are generally uncomfortable with government surveillance have installed security cameras and deadbolts to prevent break-ins, and they have started eyeing outsiders with suspicion. Families for San Francisco will elect Democrats, but it's organized outside the city's powerful Democratic Party establishment, he said. Lloyd Silverstein, a San Francisco native and president of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association, said businesses are considering hiring security guards and installing high-definition security cameras.

What’s happeningThe White House announced Monday that the United States will hold a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. American athletes are still free to compete. Critics argue that a diplomatic boycott is mostly empty posturing, and that pulling American athletes from competition is the only way to truly make an impact. PerspectivesSupporters of a full boycottAnything short of a full boycott is insufficient“Our ‘diplomatic boycott’ of the upcoming Beijing Olympics is comically typical of American geopolitical action in our time: We are depriving Beijing of the presence of diplomats who had not been expected to attend the Olympics in the first place. Permitting the American athletes to go to China will undercut the power of the Biden administration’s diplomatic gesture.

It is Where's Mark Kelly. Who is Mark Kelly? But now, as a senator from Arizona, he qualifies for the Where's Waldo book series. Where's Mark Kelly? Everyone's talking about this bill, except Mark Kelly.

WHAT'S IN THE $1.2T BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL? Per a recent American Trucking Association report, the industry is raising pay at five times the historic average. Modernizing existing regulations for America’s truckers allows professional drivers to have more freedom and latitude in their driving schedules. Transportation infrastructure is integral to our nation’s productivity, global competitiveness and quality of life for the American people. Parallel to progress on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, policymakers should also now support truckers with resolve rather than saddling them with harmful regulations to help America emerge from this crisis.

President Biden is making the same mistake President Obama made in his first term: catering to xenophobes while performing compassion toward immigrants. Either Democrats dramatically reinvent the immigration debate in defense of multiracial democracy, or they reinforce white paranoia and accelerate our descent into white nationalism. He defended the continued use of a Trump-era public health rule to expel most asylum seekers. Apparently, only people fleeing persecution can bring COVID to the U.S.Mayorkas insisted that the administration is committed to “respecting the dignity” of asylum seekers. Those groups were created or nurtured by John Tanton, a notorious white nationalist who promoted a race-based opposition to immigration.

On Jan. 6, when followers of President Trump stormed the Capitol to try to block the election of President Biden, the insurrection seemed like a bizarre anomaly — a freak storm whipped up by pro-Trump extremists and right-wing militias. Jan. 6 was the largest assault on the Capitol since the British army destroyed the building in the War of 1812. Supporters of President Trump rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump supporters rally outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix on Nov. 7, 2020. It may not come in the same shape as Jan. 6; the Capitol Police may be better prepared next time.

The air branch of the Guard was told to place an F-15C fighter jet on an alert status for a possible domestic mission, according to four Guard sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The Guard denies it.

A 2018 law requires state regulators to “avoid any increase in greenhouse gases” as a result of closing the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the Central Coast. California can’t allow the retirement of Diablo Canyon’s nuclear reactors to prolong its reliance on gas plants or increase planet-warming and health-damaging emissions. But there are good reasons to eschew nuclear power as a solution. That’s what happened in 2012, when California’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 2%, in part because of increased used of gas plants following the unanticipated closure of the malfunctioning San Onofre nuclear power plant. It’s our planet at stake, and California’s leaders must ensure the sunset of nuclear power is not followed by a damaging rise in greenhouse gases.

AdvertisementHe has also developed an avid interest in one of the most obscure jobs in state politics: secretary of state. The reason is no mystery: In most states, the secretary of state is the chief elections officer, responsible for administering voting laws. In many states, including Arizona and Georgia, the secretary of state is the official who declares the winner. “Other Republicans may not want to run the risk of running against the Trump folks,” Grayson warned. “Nobody loses sleep over who their state’s secretary of state is.”Thanks to Trump, they ought to.

My name is Deborah Netburn and I’m the faith and spirituality reporter for the Los Angeles Times. On Jan. 1, a state law will go into effect that requires Californians to separate all organic material from their other garbage. Los Angeles County alone projects it could need a dozen anaerobic digestion plants to process 1.9 million tons of food waste a year. “It’s not like everyone has to wake up Jan. 1 and, if they weren’t doing this already, worry they’d have to separate out all their green waste,” Rainey told me. Los Angeles TimesWhere to find the best tamales in L.A. Do you live in Los Angeles?

But new research on migration patterns in diverse middle-class suburbs firmly debunks that glowing picture of white flight. Race motivated white flight, and now there is even the growing acknowledgement that white flight itself, and the destructive economic changes that accompany it, actually created slum conditions. And last year, the city elected a majority minority City Council for the first time in history. Many Irvine residents are authentically proud of the city’s polyglot nature, and work to make it a reality. I cut my teeth as a reporter covering city council meetings in these far-flung suburban towns.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Newsletter The stories shaping California Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Enter email address Sign Me Up You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, lab data show the latest variant of concern, Omicron, was circulating in California weeks before health officials raised alarms. These are the 101 best restaurants in L.A. After nearly two brutal years fighting for survival, the soul of Los Angeles dining remains resilient.

They said the city also needs to continue building permanent housing units, with roughly 40,000 homeless people in L.A., 70% of whom are unsheltered. So we certainly need more temporary housing and resources should be focused on all the various strategies that have been done.”City Atty. The question of adding interim housing capacity in the city has been linked in recent months to debates about laws concerning where homeless people can camp. This concerned advocates for homeless people and certain members of the City Council, who say the city has made clearing unsightly street encampments a priority even when insufficient permanent housing exists for the people being moved. In the recent poll, voters expressed skepticism about clearing encampments without offering people a place to go.

So who is Alberto Carvalho, the veteran educator the Los Angeles school board has tapped to lead the second-largest school district in the nation? The superintendent at the time was so impressed that he brought Carvalho to work downtown without his having been a principal. Carvalho launched several initiatives, including a Parent Academy and a School Improvement Zone, focusing on schools with low academic achievement. However, the controversy did not stop him from being considered, and ultimately hired, as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the largest district in the state. SuperintendentHe has led Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 2008 and is among the nation’s most experienced and admired school district leaders.

Nearly 500 Los Angeles school district employees have lost their jobs for failing to meet the COVID-19 vaccination requirement, officials announced on Tuesday. Seven of the dismissed employees held teaching credentials, although officials did not indicate whether any of them were classroom teachers. More than 500 of the unvaccinated teachers were transferred to City of Angels to oversee the 16,000 students currently enrolled. L.A. Unified was among the first school systems in the nation to require employees to be vaccinated. The 496 district employees who’ve been dismissed do not include those who work at charter schools authorized by L.A. Unified, which also are required to follow the vaccine mandate.

Alberto Carvalho, who has led Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 2008 and is among the nation’s most experienced and admired school district leaders, has been named the next superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, district officials announced Thursday. “It has been the privilege of my life to serve as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools,” Carvalho said in statement released by L.A. Unified. Joan Sullivan, chief executive of the nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which operates 19 campuses under contract with L.A. Unified, also was considered to be among the group. Since Roy Romer’s departure in 2006, L.A. Unified has had eight school chiefs, including interim office holders. After becoming superintendent, Carvalho eventually filled a gap in his resume, serving as a principal.

In coming to L.A. Unified, Carvalho, 57, moves from heading the fourth-largest K-12 public school system to take on one of the highest-profile and most challenging posts in public education. AdvertisementIn remarks broadcast in Miami, Carvalho said long-standing challenges confront urban and rural school districts throughout the country. School board President Kelly Gonez agrees. “He won’t have the benefit of the relationships in L.A. that he had in Miami,” said former Miami and New York City schools chief Rudy Crew, for whom Carvalho worked as a top aide in Miami. After becoming superintendent, Carvalho eventually filled a gap in his resume, serving as a principal.

The Globe editorial board deliberates and takes positions on matters of policy in the public interest, holds leaders and institutions accountable for meeting high standards, and clarifies current events for the public. The board is a group of writers and editors on the Opinion team who conduct their own research and meet regularly to deliberate on the Globe's editorial viewpoint. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board and the Globe as an institution. The Globe editorial board is led by editorial page editor Bina Venkataraman and deputy editor Alan Wirzbicki. The Endorsement Process How and why does the Globe endorse presidential candidates A Q&A with editorial page editor Bina VenkatarmanThe Globe editorial board endorses political candidates and ballot questions in local, state, and national primaries and elections on a selective basis.

The car becomes the weapon Demonstrators around the country have been injured and killed by vehicle rammings, but there’s been precious little justice. And new laws could make accountability even scarcer.

One of the Capitol’s most enduring conflicts pits personal injury attorneys and their allies in consumer advocacy groups against corporate interests and their insurers. Dubbed “tort wars,” the conflict has raged for decades in the Legislature, in the courts and occasionally via ballot measures, each side depicting itself as the good guys and the other as rapaciously evil. The intensity of the war varies from year to year, and 2022 is shaping up as one its hotter periods as the factions propose dueling ballot measures. The napkin deal truce lasted for a few years, but tort wars resumed in the 1990s and have been waged ever since on specific issues, including several unsuccessful efforts to change MICRA. And regardless of what happens next year, the immense stakes mean tort wars will continue to rage indefinitely.

Jerry Brown overhauled school financing with the declared goal of closing a stubborn “achievement gap” separating poor and English-learner students from their more privileged peers. Critics have charged that many local school districts, under pressure from advocates for other purposes, didn’t focus the extra money on the targeted students. That said, there’s anecdotal evidence that some school districts, especially in rural areas, are making noticeable strides in closing the achievement gap. Three years ago, EdSource, a journalistic website devoted to California education, highlighted the impressive educational gains made in Brawley, a farm town in Imperial County. “A lot of families in our district moved to the U.S. in search of a better life for their kids,” Lopez, the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, told EdSource.

OAKLAND — A 21-year-old man was in very critical condition after he was shot multiple times in East Oakland on Saturday night, authorities said. Police responding to a ShotSpotter alert found the Oakland man about 10:27 p.m. Saturday unconscious outside in the 2100 block of East 19th Street, a mainly residential area not far from Garfield Elementary School. He was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken by ambulance to a hospital. Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $5,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Anyone with information may call police at 510-238-3426 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A man accused of running unlicensed funeral operations in four counties across Ohio has been indicted on seven new charges including abuse of a corpse. The charges against Shawnte Hardin are on top of 37 counts, mostly felonies, that he already faces. A Lucas County grand jury on Tuesday indicted Hardin on charges that included representing as a funeral director while unlicensed and theft. Authorities have said he ran funeral services in Summit, Cuyahoga, Franklin and Lucas counties without having a license. Harden previously denied allegations he was running an illegal funeral home, telling WBNS-TV in Columbus that he offered lower-cost services for transporting and washing bodies.

The new omicron variant is spreading fast. Meanwhile, South Africa studies have begun to offer a real-world glimpse of how much risk omicron poses. Can this be generalized given the younger population in South Africa, with very extensive prior COVID? A: In South Africa, about 3 to 3.5 new omicron infections are estimated to stem from a single case. A: In South Africa, omicron has surpassed delta as the dominant strain.

Cyril EstierBerkeleyToy guns as giftsteach poor lessonsWhen selecting Christmas presents for their young children, many parents will be tempted to buy toy guns. Toy guns are made for play-killing. Giving a child a toy gun reinforces a host of negative concepts — that killing is fun, that death is only temporary, that “might makes right,” and that compromise and cooperation are for wimps. Responsible parents should seriously question whether playing with toy guns is beneficial to their child’s development. Now if Rittenhouse were Black, he likely would have never made it inside the courtroom to stand trial.

I recently found out that a friend of mine — a smart guy — was not vaccinated, and I confronted him about it. Wasn’t he worried about the risk he was posing not just to himself, but to the rest of us? I will not indulge the fool’s errand of “I’m still doing my own research” anymore, either. So yes, I am furious at the unvaccinated, and I am not ashamed of disclosing that. The only reason for remaining unvaccinated that I now accept is from people who have medical conditions that prevent it.

But perhaps most troubling about the November enforcement collapse in Contra Costa was that top officials were clueless about what had been going on. To file a complaint about a Contra Costa County restaurant or bar failing to follow COVID-related health orders, call 925-608-5500, email CoCoEH@cchealth.org or complete the online form at https://cchealth.org/eh/file-a-cmplnt/. “We dropped the ball on the health enforcement in November,” county Health Director Anna Roth admits. Until the collapse, Contra Costa County officials had deserved commendation for requiring that restaurant workers wear masks and check to ensure customers had been vaccinated before allowing them inside. Unfortunately, even setting aside the November collapse, Contra Costa’s enforcement process has been way too slow.

At Harvard, Gallego found the dorms luxurious compared to his prior accommodations. "There is a stigma (about PTSD) that we have to fight," Gallego told The Arizona Republic in an interview. They have one son together, Michael Grant Gallego, who was born after the couple separated in late 2016. Gallego met Lance Corporal Jonathan Grant, who would become his best friend, in the Marine reserve unit in New Mexico. Gallego's unit went through the first two months of their Iraq deployment without taking a casualty and were thus dubbed "Lucky Lima."

Frank Narducci, who has been leading the Chandler Unified School District on an interim basis for six months, is taking on the role permanently. The decision was met with a standing ovation from board members, staff and attendees who lauded his commitment to Chandler. “We’re confident that he will be able to lead the district with his innovation and commitment to education,” Board President Barb Mozdzen said during the meeting. Narducci will oversee a workforce of nearly 5,000 that serves more than 44,000 students in the state’s second-largest school district. “I feel as though there was definitely strong support within the Chandler community for Mr. Narducci to continue,” she said.

Wallace dropped a bombshell Sunday as the show he hosts, “Fox News Sunday,” drew to a close: “After 18 years, this is my final ‘Fox News Sunday,’” he said. Chris Wallace leaving may be good for him, but it's bad for Fox NewsGood for him. Wallace famously nailed Jell-O to the wall when interviewing President Donald Trump in 2020, calling Trump out on lies and dodges. The threat from the smaller networks was short-lived, but in President Joe Biden, Fox News hosts found a reliable punching bag. “It’s silly,” Wallace, who came to Fox News from ABC in 2003, said of the reaction.

Diana GarcíaCorresponsal en la Cd. “El final de “La Casa de Papel” es el final de “La Casa de Papel”, si la pregunta es, si se deja abierta la puerta para una temporada seis, siete, no, es el final de la serie, y con esta culmina la historia, más allá de otro tipo de proyectos alternativos, que ahí no puedo hablar”, expresó Jesús Colmenar, director y productor de la serie que ha dado la vuelta al mundo con gran éxito. Úrsula revela que el proceso para su final en la historia, es en parteaguas en su vida y su carrera, porque le fue y sigue siendo, por demás demandante profesional y emocionalmente. “Tokio (Úrsula Corberó) ha muerto y el enemigo, herido y más temible que nunca, sigue dentro del Banco de España. ¡No se pierda la segunda parte de la quinta y última temporada de “La Casa de Papel”!

Wallace dropped a bombshell Sunday as the show he hosts, “Fox News Sunday,” drew to a close: “After 18 years, this is my final ‘Fox News Sunday,’” he said. Chris Wallace leaving may be good for him, but it's bad for Fox NewsGood for him. Wallace famously nailed Jell-O to the wall when interviewing President Donald Trump in 2020, calling Trump out on lies and dodges. The threat from the smaller networks was short-lived, but in President Joe Biden, Fox News hosts found a reliable punching bag. “It’s silly,” Wallace, who came to Fox News from ABC in 2003, said of the reaction.

de MéxicoCon una basta carrera artística, en la que sumó innumerables éxitos, Vicente Fernández logró un gran patrimonio, que le permitió dar lo mejor a su hijos, a toda su familia y él vivir tranquilamente hasta el último de sus días. Habrá que recordar que en 2014, el sitio especializado Celebrity Network, consideró que la fortuna de Vicente ascendía a 25 millones de dólares, todo ello producto de sus 60 años de exitoso trabajo artístico. El mismo Vicente, señaló que su amor por su carrera y su gran pasión por grabar, no tuvieron fecha de caducidad, menos su amor y agradecimiento por su público, que lo llevó a tener todo en la vida. “La gente me ha dado tanto y mi amor por ellos es tan grande que he pensado cuidadosamente en el día de mi retiro. Tengo más de 100 álbumes en el mercado y he grabado más de 300 canciones que aún no se han dado a conocer.

Show caption Hide captionJosefa Ramirez watches July 4 fireworks in Homestead, Fla., with her husband and sons. The Ramirez family fled Venezuela in 2019 to escape political oppression and are seeking asylum in the U.S. Nick Oza/The Republic

PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER / $35,000 Annual SalaryJob SummaryPublic Safety Officers safeguard the community and property the U.T. System Administration or an institution of The University of Texas System. The Public Safety Officer’s duties include patrolling assigned areas, observing, and investigating suspicious behavior, enforcing regulations, completing incident reports, and processing lost/found property. Public Safety Officers work collaboratively with members of our community, other departments, and external partners. Public Safety Officers are expected to be highly attentive to irregularities and problem solve situations in their assigned area.

I’m not sure Miller completely understands the force of nature that is Dallas’ historic preservation community, a hypervigilant group well accustomed to doing battle at City Hall. This estrangement has become more tense with every month since Miller, most recently Fort Worth’s historic preservation officer, began his Dallas stint. Office of Historic Preservation director Murray Miller says helping neighborhoods such as Tenth Street is among his preservation priorities. That means some big adjustments to the unique community-specific framework under which Dallas handles historic preservation issues. When each historic neighborhood formed, property owners, city staff and preservation experts gathered to create custom-made rules governing that district.

Americans are flocking to suburban towns, and North Texas suburbs are among their fastest-growing destinations. The growth patterns in North Texas are not coincidental; there is a secret sauce that explains why, for example, Frisco, which does very well in the Times assessment, is growing faster than Euless, which the Times ranks No. He points to the desirability of inner-ring North Texas suburbs such as Arlington, Euless, Garland and Mesquite. That’s why home price-to-income ratios are lower in the Collin County suburbs. To thrive, they must be diverse, vibrant places to live and work — the secret sauce that’s helping many North Texas cities win.

Visit just about any neighborhood social media page or crime watch chat in Dallas, and you will see posts about thefts and break-ins, and you will read about people’s fear for their own safety. That has been a cause of serious concern among members of the media and neighborhood and crime watch leaders. Nevertheless, we think city officials had good reason to make some of the changes they did. That would give the public, including crime watch groups and researchers, the chance to access data in a controlled portal during defined hours. And it would give members of the press, whom the department has credentialed for generations, a place where crime data could be accessed at any time.

With the arrival of the latest coronavirus “variant of concern” — omicron — the rest of us have also become intimately acquainted with the letters. Of course I’ve already contemplated backup plans, and backups to the backup, but the renewed murkiness has been disheartening. Experts won’t know for a week or two whether the variant is more infectious than previous ones or whether it evades immunity. At bedtime, my husband reads aloud from Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” novels, which are inspired by Greek myths. When — not if — we reach that variant, perhaps we’ll have to come up with a neologism to describe our world then.

Traditional philanthropic investments have been working for decades to make a dent in solving these problems. For better and worse, the success of philanthropic investments, however, is accountable to no one but the donor. “If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.”That’s where “moonshot” philanthropy comes in. That’s “moonshot philanthropy.” The same concept applies to any issue a donor is hoping to address. Moonshot philanthropy may be the only way to attain the better world we seek.

A report this weekend identified 10 omicron-linked hospital deaths at two South African hospitals, representing about 6% of 166 COVID-related admissions. Can this be generalized given the younger population in South Africa, with very extensive prior COVID? — South African Medical Research CouncilQ: What’s the latest guess about how infectious it is? — Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, Stellenbosch UniversityQ: Are vaccines protective against infection? We’re in such a better place.”— Dr. Warner GreeneJoin our Facebook group for the latest updates on coronavirus in Colorado.

Associated PressMADISON – University of Wisconsin System officials voted Friday to let freshman applicants forgo sending in their ACT and SAT test scores for another two years. UW System officials say continuing the exemption ensures applicants who can’t take the tests due to cancellations or face significant delays in scheduling time to take the tests won’t suffer a disadvantage. A UW System study on the tests’ usefulness is expected to be completed by April. The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents also approved tuition increases Friday for out-of-state undergraduates and graduate students at seven campuses. Tuition for UW System in-state undergraduates hasn’t increased in nine years at any system campus, due largely to a Republican-imposed tuition freeze.

EditorialsBecause the prairie includes 5 acres of excellent and intricate ecological quality, it was identified as an “outstanding” and high-priority Illinois Natural Area Inventory site in the 1970s. Environmentalists say there is enough available land to both expand the airport, help the Rockford area economy and protect the remaining swath of natural grassland. Environmentalists say if there is a quality natural area that would accept these plants, they would already be there. But with frosts already setting in, “This is among the worst times of year to transplant prairie plants,” he said. This is not just a Rockford area issue.

The summit is often billed as essential to putting into action the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, which Biden rejoined after becoming president this year. The Biden administration on Monday released its strategy for turning talk into reality in transforming the U.S. into an entirely clean energy nation by 2050. The Biden administration has succeeded, over 10 months of diplomacy leading up to the Glasgow summit, in helping win significant new climate pledges from allies. Biden arrived at the international climate summit with the fate of his own climate package still uncertain in Congress. “The largest investment in the history of the world” on climate, Biden told reporters Sunday.

President Joe Biden pledged to work with Congress to spend $9 billion through 2030 to protect trees. The Chicago region and Illinois need to do their part. Chicago can help by doing more to protect its mature trees. Last year, it was reported Chicago lost an average of 10,000 more trees since 2010 than it has planted every year. But the city also needs to act to protect its mature trees, many of which are threatened by infection.

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has done something that hasn’t been done by a presidential administration since 1986 — explicitly direct immigration agencies not to arrest undocumented immigrants who don’t pose a threat. Most importantly, the latest order promises to offer deportation protections to immigrants who report abusive employers. In November 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law, legalizing most undocumented immigrants who had been living here since 1982 and for the first time in history, making it illegal for companies to employ unauthorized immigrants. Undocumented immigrants saw the worst of these type of injustices under the Trump administration when, in 2019, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the largest immigration raid in Mississippi history and detained 680 undocumented workers at six chicken processing plants throughout the state in one day. With efficient execution, the Biden administration’s new immigration policies have a unique opportunity to bring fundamental change to how undocumented immigrants and every worker in America are treated.

With no class Friday at Chicago Public Schools for Vaccine Awareness Day, Chicago’s community college system is offering campus tours for any prospective students and their families. All seven City Colleges of Chicago campuses will offer free tours throughout the day Friday. Though CCC campuses won’t serve as vaccination locations Friday, the system plans to host several family vaccination clinics with the Chicago Department of Public Health. Starting Nov. 13, the clinics at CCC campuses will offer pediatric Pfizer vaccines, as well as regular COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots. The clinics, which will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be listed on the city’s vaccine finder page.

EditorialsOn Nov. 5, the U.S. House passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to fix roads and bridges, help public transit, expand internet access, build electric vehicle charging stations, protect against power outages and upgrade infrastructure in other ways. But most Republican House members, who have been calling for that kind of spending for years, decided to vote against it just because President Biden wanted it. After receiving threats, Upton had to close two offices for a day and then beef up security. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., called the bill “socialism.” Everyone knows fixing potholes is socialism. SubscribeThe House Republican leaders who lobbied against the legislation didn’t really have policy arguments against the infrastructure bill.

Like school custodian Maria Villegas, we’re frustrated. Rodent droppings, overflowing garbage, smelly bathrooms with no toilet paper, cockroaches, on and on — we’ve heard the same complaints, ad nauseam, since 2018. That’s when FitzPatrick first reported so many schools had failed cleanliness audits that CPS halted the inspections. Just as they did back then, custodial workers came forward with the same litany of issues that hampered their ability to do the job. But dirty schools, maddeningly, are nothing new.

Eighteen months is long enough for Little Village to wait for the details on a botched implosion at a former coal plant in 2020 that blanketed the community in a cloud of dust. So Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration should move as soon as possible to release the findings of the Chicago Office of Inspector General’s report on its investigation of the incident. The city may release the report publicly by the end of this month — or not. If not, residents will have to wait until the inspector general’s quarterly summary report in mid-January. The inspector general’s report recommended potential “discharge” for at least one city official and punishment for at least two others.

Flynn said the $66 billion “represents more funds than have been cumulatively invested in Amtrak over the first 50 years of our history.”That’s good news, at last, for historically cash-starved Amtrak. And it’s also good news, we hope, for the Chicago region, the nation’s rail hub. But we also hope it means a lasting change in the way Washington, D.C., thinks about and funds Amtrak. Keeping Chicago hard-wired by railAmtrak has not yet publicly identified specific Chicago-area projects that would potentially be funded with the infrastructure cash. The infrastructure funds will also be used to bring stations into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But the popular toy chain went under several years ago after it was loaded up with unmanageable debt by private equity firms. What happened at Toys ‘R’ Us and countless other companies illustrates why more rules are needed to govern private equity firms. Meanwhile, hiding behind opaque reports, some private equity firms offload the costs of high salaries and private jets onto their investors. But city, county and state governments can help by refusing to invest in private equity firms that don’t prioritize the public good. Private equity firms are here to stay.

That’s why about 45 acres on the Southeast Side at the mouth of the heavily industrialized Calumet River should become a park — now. The Army Corps wants permission to keep dumping the accumulated sediment until it rises about 20 feet higher than the adjoining parks. The Army Corps did look for other sites, but residents opposed any site in their community. Under the rules, the Army Corps itself can’t pay to transport the sediment away, but can we get creative here? This park has been promised for too long to delay it again.

It didn’t take long to find out that Chicago Public Schools officials apparently knew far more than the public initially was told about the sexual abuse scandal at a Northwest Side high school. Last Friday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez announced that the district’s inspector general had substantiated sexual misconduct and cover-up allegations against 13 adults at Marine Leadership Academy. It should go without saying that parents, and the public, deserve the full story about allegations of sexual abuse of students. Marine Leadership’s principal since 2015, Erin Galfer, was even promoted just months before she was among those fired for allegedly failing to report misconduct. Staff who fail to report abuse — not just those who are perpetrators — will be removed from their jobs.

In 1997, Samella McKenzie was approaching her mid-60s, had raised 10 children — eight of whom became ministers — and was preparing to retire from her position as a supervisor telephone operator. This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for Chicagoans like Samella McKenzie, whose legacy is an inspiration and a challenge to our city: Step up and help make our city a better place for all of us. When families aren’t hungry, children can focus more on school. When families aren’t hungry, adults have energy to put into addressing the critical issues affecting their neighborhoods. They just need more people like Samella McKenzie and her children.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel could surely have handled the police shooting of Laquan McDonald better. If there was ever a time to rise to a historical moment, put aside past policy at City Hall and be far more transparent, the McDonald murder was that time. EditorialsTwo months ago, as Emanuel’s appointment to be ambassador to Japan was working its way through Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in a statement, “As mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel helped cover up the murder of Laquan McDonald.”That’s a false narrative. Emanuel’s law department did not release police dash-cam video of the shooting as soon as it could have, but it was following past policy designed not to affect ongoing criminal investigations. Emanuel is no longer the mayor, but reform is just as essential now as it was under his administration.

Foxconn promised in 2017 to create 13,000 well-paying jobs and invest $10 billion in a 20 million square-foot facility to build giant video displays. As it turns out, the company has only hired a few hundred workers doing light manufacturing. Moreover, former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt exempted Racine County, where Foxconn is located, from federal smog standards. SubscribeThe long-reaching environmental impact of those decisions remain, even as the promised jobs never materialized. Over time, the economy and human health depend on a vibrant environment.

Renters, especially lower-income and working families, face daunting odds when it comes to finding affordable and safe housing in Chicago and in other big cities. Good housing policy must be fair to both the Chicagoans looking for safe and affordable housing and the landlords who are in the business of providing it. Paying relocation costsBetween 2010 and 2019, one in 25 Chicago renters faced eviction each year, according to the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing. “Placing affordable housing in neighborhoods that need it and increasing the supply is the key to addressing (the housing crisis),” Benedetto said. As well, a sufficient stock of rental housing that fits residents’ needs and price range, in every neighborhood, is a huge asset for a city.

Louis DeJoy — the arrogant and incompetent bust out of a U.S. postmaster general who’s been under perpetual fire for slowing down delivery of the nation’s mail — told a congressional hearing last February he had no intention of leaving his post. But after vowing not to leave, it now looks as if DeJoy is about to get pushed out. Postal Service Board of Governors. By law, a U.S. president lacks the direct power to replace a postmaster general. This was on top of his $305,681-a-year salary, which the Center for Public Integrity describes as the highest ever for a U.S. Postmaster General.

EditorialsThe troubling ruling was a classic case of prior restraint — an order not to publish. When courts gag news organizations, it takes away citizens’ right to know. Fortunately, prior restraint is rare. But that has nothing to do with reporting decisions by the New York Times. To call a halt to news gathering as well as imposing prior restraint is beyond worrisome.

The never-ending news reports of gun violence are numbing. It was the 651st mass shooting in America this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The tragic level of gun violence in America is a scourge that exists in no other high-income nation. To look away from gun violence is to look away from our collective safety. If shootings are not checked, the barrel of gun violence will point at every American.

But many judges, prosecutors, police officers and others in the system recognize how counterproductive it is to arrest people for small, user-level amounts of illegal drugs. Another possibility is police could just stop arresting people for user-level amounts of illegal drugs. Since February, police in Oregon, using a new law, have written 1,300 tickets for drug possession instead of arresting people. Imaginative new policies treating drug addiction as a health problem instead of a crime are needed. Yet year after year, the Illinois system has marched along, throwing people into jail without providing a solution to the scourge of drugs and drug crime.

One of America’s most glistening cities serves as a perhaps unlikely backdrop for a new three-part documentary series about the mostly unsolved strangulation murders in Chicago of 51 women, mostly African American, from 2001 to 2018. Spoiler alert: “The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler,” produced for Discovery+ by Canadian-based Entertainment One, doesn’t really break new ground. ‘The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler’: 3 out of 4 CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ A three-part docuseries available now on Discovery+. From Englewood to North Lawndale, where Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other businesses, once an economic lifeline for some Black families seeking a slice of the American dream, have long since faded. I wasn’t interested in being a part of any project titled, “… The Chicago Strangler.” For this story, at its core, isn’t about the killer or killers.

Bill Kenneally endeared himself to his congregation at St. Gertrude’s parish by being tough with those in power and kind to those without it. Kenneally, who was the pastor at St. Gert’s for 22 years. He died Oct. 28 at 85 in hospice care at the Wisconsin home of his nephew John Kenneally. Over the years, he served at churches including St. Paul of the Cross Church in Park Ridge, St. Edmund’s in Oak Park and St. Nicholas in Evanston. In addition to his nephew John, Rev.

This month, Southern Illinois University Carbondale opened more pathways to Chicagoland community college students with limited options, thanks to our new agreements with Harold Washington College (part of City Colleges of Chicago), Harper College and Oakton Community College. If students can’t move to Southern Illinois to complete their education, we will bring SIU Carbondale to them. But I faced a major obstacle: I couldn’t afford a college education in my native state of New Jersey. All the opportunities that come from a college degree cannot benefit a student who believes college is beyond their reach. Many SIU students do not come from privileged backgrounds.

School vaccination mandates have been around since the 19th century, and they became a fixture in all 50 states in the 1970s. Vaccine mandates initially applied to the general population. School vaccination laws underwent a major overhaul beginning in the 1960s, when health officials grew frustrated that outbreaks of measles were continuing to occur in schools. In 1968, just half the states had school vaccination requirements; by 1981, all states did. Expanding mandates in the mid-20th centuryWhat is most surprising about this major expansion of vaccination mandates is how little controversy it provoked.

The good faith and sound judgment of candidates and election officials. SubscribeThat’s how it has always worked: Losing candidates have conceded—for the sake of American democracy — even if they strongly believed they actually won. Trump is continuing on with the “Big Lie,” the delusion that he (not Joe Biden) was the real winner of the 2020 presidential election. In a Politico and Morning Consult poll released last week, 60% of Republicans said the 2020 presidential election results should definitely or probably be overturned. And, worst of all, Trump is positioning pro-Trump ideologues to be in charge of states’ presidential election operations in 2024.

I do not personally know Sean Duffy, the former U.S. Representative for northern Wisconsin, who, according to WisPolitics.com, is considering running for Wisconsin governor after being urged to do so by Donald Trump. But I do know his brother, attorney Thomas Duffy, who is familiar to many people in Sawyer County whom he has represented. OpinionDuffy looked over what we researched and issued another suggestion which I thought odd: invite the neighbors over for cake and coffee. All of which demands that Duffy be asked how he harmonizes cherished family values with Trump’s cruelty to children. Of course, Trump is infamous for other acts antithetical to family values, including covering up COVID-19 information that could have prevented loss of some of the 700,000 American lives to the disease (we heard it in his own words in the Bob Woodward interview).

In order to keep children protected against disease and its harmful medical and social after-effects, we believe that COVID-19 vaccines should be required for children in all Chicago schools. We urge schools to adopt policies that require COVID-19 vaccination. Schools have been legally allowed to require vaccinations for students beginning with the smallpox vaccine in the early 1900s. However, COVID-19 vaccination rates lag behind for people of color and in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status. Chicago would not be alone in this endeavor, as the Los Angeles Unified School District planned to require COVID-19 vaccination for students once the vaccine is fully approved.

Rather, it is because of the way the law treats internet access in America. This is an important recognition of the role that broadband access plays in perpetuating cycles of poverty and community underdevelopment. Broadband investment by the numbersThe act provides $65 billion in new funding for expanding broadband infrastructure and promoting adoption. A departure from business as usualCongress has long recognized the value of public investments in transportation, electricity and other essential infrastructure systems. By correcting course and enshrining a new vision, the infrastructure act is an important step toward affordable internet for all.

Shortly before the trial began, the trial judge entered a conditional ruling that should concern everyone. In each case, a claim of self-defense is being expanded into a pass to use deadly force against another person the defendant simply suspects of doing something unlawful. SubscribeAs a country, we have been rightly concerned about police use of deadly force and the role race plays in determining whom they suspect of crimes, and who police harm or kill. To suggest that the right to use deadly force extends to private citizens who suspect a crime and who then provoke violence is to lurch in the wrong direction. But there should be broad agreement about the harms of vigilante justice and its frequent racial bias.

Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, marks the ending of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. The McGovern-Dole global school lunch program is in action today, feeding hungry children in impoverished countries. McGovern-Dole school meals are making a huge difference in feeding hungry children in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, two countries suffering from severe hunger and conflict. On this Veterans Day, let’s dedicate ourselves, as our veterans have done before, to feeding the hungry. William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” Follow him on Twitter @williamlambersSend letters to letters@suntimes.com

Like many of her peers planning on enrolling in community college, Monique L. Harvey was facing challenges that often derail a student’s dreams. In her pursuit of a community college degree, Monique saw the promise of an exciting career and economic and social mobility. Yet, nationally, two-thirds of first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who enroll in community college do not earn a degree within three years. The pandemic has tested community college students like no other time, and made even clearer the importance of support programs. Community college students, no matter the challenges they may face, are capable of extraordinary things when surrounded by supportive relationships.

They were fighting world hunger. It began when The Friendship Train arrived at the Northwestern Train Station on Nov. 14. Americans responded with the Friendship Train, which ran from coast to coast collecting donations of food for Europe. A week later, another part of the Friendship Train rolled into Chicago on its way to the East Coast. William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” Follow him on Twitter @williamlambers

Illinois depends on nuclear power. Nuclear energy generation emits no carbon into the atmosphere and for millions of Illinoisans that means the lights stay on without contributing to climate change. But only if we are willing to invest responsibly in what is already the largest source of carbon-free power in America: nuclear energy. B. Pritzker signed the Clean Energy Jobs Act in September, he signaled that Illinois was prepared to lead the fight against climate change, and that nuclear energy would be a key tool in our arsenal. The bill includes more than $690 million to upgrade and support Illinois’ nuclear fleet as it continues to provide affordable, zero-carbon power and tens of thousands of jobs.

As an organization focused on promoting racial and ethnic wealth equity across Chicago, community empowerment is one of the core principles of The Chicago Community Trust. Preserving turf, at the expense of ChicagoansStarting last June, Change Illinois created an open, transparent and resident-driven process to produce a new ward map for Chicago. While no process will ever be perfect, this people-centered remap process contrasts with the official process we have seen thus far. Instead, we have prioritized a ward remap process that is transparent, is informed by the community and accurately represents the demographics of our city today. Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust.

According to a 2016 study by the National Partnership for Women & Families, 41% of America’s work force has employers that provide paid paternity leave to some workers, yet only 9% of workers work for companies that provide paid paternity leave to all workers. Usually, paternity leave is a perk for employees with skills that are in high demand. For lower-income families and individuals, taking paternity leave is far more difficult. A long-overdue fixWhile the Build Back Better bill was passed 220-213, largely along party lines, paid leave for parents is generally a bipartisan issue. Ninety-two countries already offer it, and although a handful of states and cities in the U.S. have passed family leave and paternity leave laws, that patchwork approach is not good enough.

When so many Chicago families are unable to afford the energy to heat their homes, the system is broken. At the Citizens Utility Board, we’re advocating for city leaders to envision a new way of heating our homes, powered by clean energy. This multibillion-dollar investment in Chicago’s gas infrastructure comes as our city looks to transition in coming years to clean energy across sectors. SubscribeThe first step in exploring a clean energy future is for Mayor Lori Lightfoot to commit to funding two to three pilot programs and a scalability plan that can serve as a roadmap for transitioning homes and buildings to clean energy. We hope to collaborate with Lightfoot’s administration on this opportunity to illustrate the money-saving potential of this clean energy technology.

In comparison to other affluent nations, the United States is sorely lacking when it comes to providing quality child care. Child care providers are underpaid, while parents languish on waiting lists and pay high prices for places in the best facilities. The federal child tax credit of up to $3,600 per child helps parents pay for child care, and President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, still under negotiation, would extend the credit for one to three years. Those campuses that already fund child care centers should be working now to improve and expand them. During my 13 years as president of Governors State University, I witnessed the benefit of quality on-campus child care.

On Dec 2, 1954 — 67 years ago this week — Republican members of the U.S. Senate voted to censure their colleague Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. Their issue had to do with the repeated breaches of conduct by Sen. Joseph McCarthy — himself a Republican — recklessly traveling along a fraught path. OpinionTwo Republican senators — Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont — opted to take on paramount roles. Twenty-two Republican senators, both moderates and conservatives, courageously stepped forward to vote “yea” on the motion to censure McCarthy. In doing so, Smith joined 26 other Republican senators who voted for the landmark legislation championed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

OpinionOlder undocumented immigrants are at higher risk of repeat hospitalizations, according to a 2019 University of California, Irvine study that revealed the disparities between undocumented immigrants and insured patients in California. Patients who can’t go homeIn December 2020, Illinois became the first state in the nation to begin providing health care coverage to seniors who are undocumented. Healthy Illinois For All is a first step in providing equitable health care coverage for all. Unfortunately, this new coverage for the elderly undocumented does not cover nursing home care, as similar health care plans do. Health care institutions should accept all health insurance plans, not just the ones that reimburse to their standards.

I was the lawyer who led the team that forced Rahm Emanuel’s administration to release the Laquan McDonald shooting video under the Freedom of Information Act. I have handled hundreds of state and federal FOIA cases against administrations of both political parties, at all levels of government. OpinionFirst, I disagree with Ferguson that violating the Freedom of Information Act isn’t a cover-up. Then there is the video release policy heralded in Ferguson’s letter. Release all materialFinally, in light of Ferguson’s letter, the IG’s office, the mayor’s office and the city’s law department should now release all records about any investigation into whether Emanuel was engaged in a cover-up.

Since 1981, the federal government has helped low-income households pay energy costs through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. But there wasn’t a national water aid program until Congress created a temporary version as part of the COVID-19 response. I believe the U.S. can learn from Chile, which has run an effective national water assistance program for 30 years. Subsidies for essential water useThere are hundreds of water and sewer customer assistance programs around the world, including programs in many U.S. cities. Reliable national data on U.S. household water usage is nearly nonexistent, and there is no estimate of how much water low-income households use.

In big letters I wrote: “Goldwater has a bright idea.”The Republican nominee lost that race for president. In fact, the party has become a corrupt force spouting violent rhetoric and plotting to overthrow our democracy. Obviously, more Americans lean that way, but the GOP hasn’t won a plurality in a national election since 2004. Two of the last six presidential elections have gone to the candidate with fewer votes — both times a Republican. They tried to overturn the last presidential election based on zero evidence of significant fraud.

Should we hold parents responsible for the terrorist acts of their children? Help me.”His parents dismissed concerns that their son might be a danger to his classmates. They didn’t ask their son if he had the gun on him and didn’t bother to search his backpack. Most of all, we need parents and families to teach values and reinforce behavior that challenges the gun-slinger culture. And parents, whether held criminally responsible if an act of terror is committed or not, are responsible for the example they set and for what they teach their children at home.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine has been available for children, divorce lawyers have seen a marked increase in fights among divorced and separated parents over whether or not to get their children vaccinated. Most courts seem to be siding with the recommendations of the CDC and the FDA, which approved the vaccine for children 5 and up. There may be a few exceptions, but it will be increasingly hard to justify in court not having your child vaccinated. Yet, the fights between some parents persist, even though the vaccine is free and widely available. Second, more children are now in the middle of ugly disputes between parents and victims of parental alienation.

Harris’ experience with legalized larceny, which she describes in congressional testimony she is scheduled to give on Dec. 8, illustrates how that system is rigged against property owners. “This is even worse than being victimized by a criminal,” Harris says in her testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. “When it is the police taking your property, who can you call?”Harris was lucky to have pro bono legal representation. For owners who don’t, challenging a forfeiture often costs more than their property is worth. “The police should not be able to take, and keep for themselves, the property of people never convicted of a crime,” she says.

Less than a year out from the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats could lose their control of Congress, President Biden’s approval numbers are under water. In some cases, voters won’t see the results for years, which is why they aren’t moving Biden’s poll numbers yet. The naivete of the strategy nicely encapsulates why Republicans have been winning the message wars for years: Democrats don’t know how to fight. It’s long-held conventional wisdom and popular mythology that Republicans fight dirty while Democrats play fair. The real problem is Democrats haven’t figured out the new right-wing playbook — the one the GOP’s been running for more than five years now.

Thanks, social media. In fairness, social media gets blamed for a lot these days. Likewise, anonymity and narcissism didn’t arrive with social media. Even then, social media tends to amplify a stance closer to hate than reason. It is hard to change habits, but we don’t need to change all of our habits at once.

The scandal-prone Illinois State Toll Highway Authority keeps trying its best to prove it shouldn’t exist as an independent agency. J.B. Pritzker, who appoints the tollway board members, must step in and sort this out. Spendthrifts with taxpayer moneyWhen the Illinois Tollway was created, it was thought that many of the tolls it collected would be paid by out-of-state truckers who wanted to use the Tri-State Tollway to circumvent Chicago and its traffic. The Illinois Tollway also has been a patronage dumping ground and a source of patronage contracts. “The benefit of having [the tollway authority] as a separate entity has become less and less apparent.

Worse, the system does not address the real issue that underlies the overwhelming majority of drug arrests in our country: individuals with substance use problems are not getting treatment. Absent treatment and recovery, police routinely see the same familiar faces of people in need as they are arrested repeatedy. Deflection eliminates much of the undue burdens, in time and money, to the justice system and taxpayers. The Chicago Police Department and several municipalities in suburban Cook County — through a partnership with the Cook County Department of Public Health — have active and expanding initiatives. Jac A. Charlier is executive director of the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative, a national collaborative of which TASC is a partner.

The school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan is a tragedy that cost four young people their lives and made survivors of countless others. Education programs like Moms Demand Action’s Be SMART program (www.besmartforkids.org) educate on the specifics of secure firearm storage. The S in Be SMART stands for Secure Guns in Your Home and Vehicle. I’m talking to others about secure storage. But most obituaries overlooked that 30 years ago Dole made breakthroughs in prostate cancer, the second most deadly cancer in American men.

The couple is now suing the appraisal company for discrimination under federal fair housing laws. Nothing short of robberyA September 2021 report by federal mortgage lender Freddie Mac found the race-based discrepancy affected not only individual sellers, but whole areas in which Black or Latino people were the majority. The report found only 7.4% of appraisals in census tracts that are majority-white came in below a property’s contract price, compared to 12.5% for majority-Black areas and 15.4% for the Latino tracts. The study also found homes in these areas were already more than twice as likely to be undervalued than those in white areas. Openly race-based lending practices are no longer legal, due to federal fair housing laws of the 1960s and 1970s.

The editorial criticizes the cost of relocation assistance, which ensures that tenants facing no-fault eviction avoid homelessness. But our coalition, the Chicago Housing Justice League, has already rewritten the bill to reimburse small landlords half of these costs. Without a rental registry, which the editorial board critiques, we cannot know for sure who owns Chicago’s rental housing. Each year, we estimate that 10,000 Chicago rental households lose their housing through no fault of their own. Annie Howard, Bridgeport, Chicago Housing Justice League

Thousands of hours of investigative time and resources were spent on the Jussie Smollett hoax. At that point, he was given a deal that no honest victim of a hate crime would ever have taken. Smollett blamed the investigation on racist cops and made a mockery of the court system. Hate crimes are a serious occurrence in our society, and must be investigated and prosecuted fully. Smollett and Foxx should also be recognized for their work, but not in a good way.

For more than 66 years, the family of Emmett Till has asked who would answer for his brutal 1955 lynching in the Mississippi Delta. Now, the public is left to consider the larger question of what justice requires in cold cases like Till’s. When the DOJ opened this matter in 2004, there was general public apprehension about reopening old wounds and subjecting victims, the survivors of racial violence, to resurrected trauma. Hopefully, the Emmett Till cold case unit will continue to send a different message: That it is never too late to seek justice, especially in cases of racial violence that remain symbols of America’s endemic racial problem. The Till case has been closed but the jury is still out on the question — Who will answer for Emmett?

EditorialsBy signing the pledge, candidates agree not to oppose any of the party’s choices for the 2022 ballot. The loyalty pledge will undercut any reformer who wants to challenge an unqualified candidate backed by the party. 47th Ward Committeeperson Paul Rosenfeld likens the loyalty pledge to trying out for a sports team. SubscribeOf course, the loyalty pledge, which was pushed by county Democratic Chair Toni Preckwinkle, is a one-way street. As has often happened in past elections, they are free to support anyone they choose, including opponents of those who signed the loyalty pledge.

Would you do the right thing even if it didn’t matter? “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski” now playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, teaches us that doing the right thing is always worth it, and that doing the right thing always matters. ‘Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski’ : 4 out of 4 CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ CST_ When: Through Nov. 14 Where: The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave., Navy Pier Tickets: $43-$75 Run time: 90 minutes, with no intermission, followed by a 20 minute talkback with the artists Info: www.chicagoshakes.com NOTE: For the theater’s COVID safety protocols policy, please visit the theater website. One of the things that makes “Remember This” so compelling is that it does not provide easy answers. And that is the triumph of “Remember This.” Though we collectively believe in the power of art to create change, that claim is often left unconfronted.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veterans, died Sunday. He served as a committee chairman, majority leader and minority leader in the Senate during the 1980s and ‘90s. Elizabeth Dole ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, then served a term as senator from North Carolina. Dole began his political career while a student at Washburn University, winning a seat in the Kansas House. The Dole Institute of Politics on the University of Kansas keeps an archive of World War II veterans from Kansas.

Anger, it passes quickly. That’s why, when I can, I try to write these columns, then, before sending them to my editor, set them aside a bit. Anger passes. Maybe that’s coming. As bad as the Trump administration — whoops, the first Trump administration — was, the terrible possibility is, things could still get a lot worse.

McALESTER, Okla. — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher after courts rejected his claim that the state’s lethal injection method would result in unconstitutional pain and suffering. Bigler Stouffer II, 79, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Thank you.”Stouffer has maintained his innocence in the attack that left Linda Reaves dead and her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, seriously injured. A final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court was denied Thursday morning, less than two hours before the scheduled executionStouffer was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned. Oklahoma had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium.

J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed legislation that will create local school councils for small public schools in Chicago, a move he said will increase the chance for families, teachers and community members to “make their voices heard.”The legislation creates local school councils for small schools within Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest school district. “These new changes will empower our Local School Councils and elevate student and community voices so we can improve the quality of education at every CPS school,” Martinez was quoted as saying. A “small” school is one offering a specialized school design, education focus or curriculum, according to a news release. It also must have a maximum enrollment of 600 students for high schools or 350 students for elementary schools. The councils will be able to reject or modify school improvement plans and the implementation of those plans.

Carroll claims he was threatened with violence and so were his family, his staff, even his synagogue. The anti-vaxxers, as it turns out, are even more wound up than the anti-taxers, although I’m betting it’s many of the same people who are perpetually angry about pretty much everything. Members of a Facebook page I regularly track that promotes anti-vaccine theories and tactics celebrated the news of Carroll’s retreat. Not only wasn’t Carroll’s bill legal, it also ran directly counter to Democratic Party doctrine, which favors health coverage for everyone. Carroll’s bill wasn’t going anywhere, and he knew it.

As the lights dimmed inside the Bryn Mawr Community Church, parishioners lit dozens of white candles meant to symbolize the South Shore residents whose deaths were COVID-19 related. We hear about it every day, and especially with COVID, and I just think this helps us mentally.”There could be more than 181 South Shore residents whose deaths have been linked to COVID-19. In total, 589 deaths were tied to COVID-19 from four South Side ZIP codes that includes portions of the South Shore community area, according to data from the city. As of Friday, 2,522 Black residents’ deaths were tied to COVID-19, according to data from city officials. For Denise Miller, hearing how many of her neighbors in South Shore died from COVID-19 makes the pandemic hit home.

Here’s the bad news about the Omicron variant: Scientists do not know yet exactly how transmissible the variant is, the severity of illness it might cause and whether existing vaccines will be effective against it. Omicron has now turned up in some 20 countries worldwide, including Canada. In a twist, it turns out that Omicron was in the Netherlands days before being reported in South Africa, according to NPR. Omicron has far more mutations than Delta, the variant now responsible for the vast majority of new COVID-19 infections. COVAX, the international effort to provide equal access to vaccines worldwide, has yet to come anywhere close to fulfilling its promise.

Chicago Public Schools students’ math and reading scores on standardized exams dropped this year compared to pre-pandemic days, newly released data showed. In late October, the Illinois State Board of Education released average statewide metrics showing test scores had dropped across Illinois and absenteeism had increased during the pandemic. On Thursday, the board published data on individual district and school levels; you can search schools or districts at illinoisreportcard.com. In math, only 16% met or exceeded expectations, down from 24% the year before the pandemic. About 23% of students met or exceeded expectations in English this year, down from 26% in 2019.

Prince Edward County made no provision for the education of Black students, and their parents were forced to scramble, setting up classrooms in church basements and storefronts. Opinion“The only places on Earth known not to provide free public education are Communist China, North Vietnam, Sarawak, Singapore, British Honduras — and Prince Edward County, Virginia,” said Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, trying to shame Prince Edward County into reopening its schools. Tuesday’s key gubernatorial race in Virginia pivoted on race, with former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe, who left office in 2018, losing to private equity manager Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who campaigned on the promise to keep critical race theory from being taught in Virginia schools. Critical race theory isn’t taught in Virginia public schools. You can’t quit your way to the top.” Here is where knowing history — real history — is a leg up.

Like a lot of other people, we’re out of patience with the willfully unvaccinated. The willfully unvaccinated undoubtedly drive up health care costs: Between June through August this year, preventable hospitalization costs for the unvaccinated reached $5.7 billion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But forcing the unvaccinated to pay for hospitalization on their own is a bad idea, as well as a violation of the Affordable Care Act. Next, it’s requiring smokers who refuse to quit to pay for their own lung cancer treatment. But employers can charge the unvaccinated more for their health insurance, as NPR Illinois reports.

“I value his insights and look forward to our continued work to ensure a full pandemic recovery and quality education for all of our students.”Torres served as deputy policy director on Pritzker’s first campaign for governor and later joined the administration as a senior policy advisor before moving to the first assistant deputy governor for education role. In a statement from the governor’s office, Torres was lauded for the “critical role” he played in coordinating Pritzker’s COVID-19 response in classrooms across Illinois’ municipalities. Torres also served as the associate director of the Latino Policy Forum where he managed that organization’s state policy agenda. Torres said in a statement he and the governor are “focused on making Illinois the best state in the nation to raise children. “Illinois students, now more than ever, need additional support to achieve their potential and pursue their dreams,” Torres said.

After more than two decades in health care, she has served as the executive director of public policy for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart since January 2020. Levin pointed to her background and “breadth of experience” as the main reasons why she should succeed Harris. While with the sheriff’s office, Levin has focused on efforts to decriminalize mental illness and poverty, connecting people to services and getting illegal guns off the streets. Levin said she and others in the office did “everything we possibly could” to curb the spread of the virus. Harris announced he would not seek reelection last month, ending a 15-year legislative career that saw him rise to the second most powerful position in the House.

President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)Why do I have this image of Nero fiddling while Rome burns when thinking about an increasingly detached from reality Biden administration? Instead of focusing on China’s aggressive moves toward Taiwan, Russia’s ambitions on reclaiming the rest of Ukraine and Tehran’s “talk to the hand” attitude toward denuclearization, Mr. Biden is interested only in esoteric political pursuits that most Americans outside of academia barely care about. President Biden will be in office for another three years, and the continuing destruction of our institutions signals to our enemies that now is the time to act. Our world is a far more dangerous place than we all suspect, and Mr. Biden is the wrong man for the wrong time

Nowhere is the gaping disconnect between Democratic aspirations and fiscal reality more clear than when it comes to entitlement spending — particularly on Medicare. It is against this backdrop that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposes a massive expansion of Medicare benefits as part of the Build Back Better Act now pending in the upper chamber. Sen. Sanders seeks to add dental, vision and hearing coverage, which a 2019 congressional report estimated would cost $358 billion over 10 years. They also argue that the new benefits will fall under the umbrella of Medicare Part B rather than the hemorrhaging hospital insurance trust fund. Get the entitlement — all of it — on firm financial footing before moving forward with additional costly benefits.

Vilardo, who retired in 2016 as president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, had an encyclopedic knowledge of tax law. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, seen at the KLAS Channel 8 studio in Las Vegas in 2011. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, seen in 2007. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)You always got more than you expected when you talked to Carole Vilardo. “The Carole Vilardo metric will survive Carole,” says Guy Hobbs, another fiscal policy expert.

Bill Hanlon’s Sunday column hit the nail on the head regarding what needs to happen at the Clark County School District (“Make learning the priority: School district officials preoccupied with everything but achievement”). While I agree 100 percent with his priorities, I question the reality of the current school board members and Superintendent Jesus Jara working together to immediately change things within the district. Didn’t Mr. Jara implement with them with board approval? This policy needs to change starting with the next semester. Unacceptable classroom and school grounds behavior is another area Mr. Jara — with board approval — “dumbed down” giving “more chances” and less suspensions to offenders.

Those who had lost income during the pandemic and could not pay their rent could not be evicted for non-payment. A fund was established to allow for tenants to file for rental assistance and to allow for landlords to recover losses. The program remains at risk and is extremely unfair to those who have been hurt the most. It is now the responsibility of our elected officials to step forward and fix this mess before it is too late. With no corrective action, this could be the greatest confiscation of private property in the history of our country.

Rachel Aston Las Vegas Review-JournalI applaud the agreement between Gov. Steve Sisolak and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to fix part of the traffic snarl that tortures drivers on their drive between Las Vegas and Southern California. What about the useless agricultural inspection station outside of Primm? How many times have we all driven through this station with no attendants or attendants who just wave you through with no inspections at all?

Clark County School District administration building located at 5100 West Sahara Ave. in Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 23, 2017. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotographThe flight from accountability goes on at the Clark County School District. This would seem to run counter to a two-year legislative effort culminating in a 2017 law that sought to decentralize decision-making in the nation’s fifth-largest school district. Predictably, the law met immediate resistance from defenders of the status quo, including the School Board. During the 2019 legislative session, Mr. Jara made an ill-fated push to take leftover funds from principals, punishing fiscal responsibility.

Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara, center, speaks during a news conference. (Amelia Pak-Harvey/Las Vegas Review-Journal)Responding to Barney Wintermute’s Dec. 5 letter blaming teachers for the poor student performance and grades:It is not the fault of the teachers. The Clark County School District has mandated that all students be given a minimum of a 50 percent grade regardless of their work in school. Also, students may retake a test as many times as they wish until they pass. The student can set up the time to retake the test (before or after class) and the teacher must be there.

In response to the need and training of skilled workers, Helix Electric developed Helix University. Helix University has allowed us to continuously develop a work force that can keep up with the increased development in our state. Helix Electric prides itself on its high retention rate of skilled employees. d training of skilled workers, Helix Electric developed Helix University. Helix University has allowed us to continuously develop a work force that can keep up with the increased development in our state.

President Joe Biden might be worse at foreign policy than he is at domestic policy. FILE - President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrive to meet at the 'Villa la Grange', in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File Pool)It’s terrifying to think about, but President Joe Biden may be worse at foreign policy than he is at domestic policy. Biden’s foreign policy in Afghanistan has led to trapped Americans, plotting terrorists and potential starvation for millions. Things are so bleak on that front, however, that Biden told his administration recently to be prepared for talks to fail.

Las Vegas police arrested nine men this week as part of an online sting targeting child sex predators. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfayeNathan Bruin (LVMPD)Jake Crawford (LVMPD)Guadalupe Bencomo (LVMPD)Kyle Stoltz (LVMPD)Thuan Hong (LVMPD)Kody Pore (LVMPD)Fredy Castillo (LVMPD)Eric Ruiz (LVMPD)Sheldon Young (LVMPD)Las Vegas police arrested nine men this week as part of an online sting targeting child sex predators. Police said each was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of luring a minor with the use of a computer to engage in sex. Officers from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, the Nevada attorney general’s office and Homeland Security all serve on the task forces. Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 702-828-3111 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Visitors enter Calico Basin on the eastern edge of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. Rachel Aston Las Vegas Review-Journal/@rookie__raeIf, as the Bureau of Land Management contends, there’s a recent increase in visitation at Calico Basin, any such increase is from the agency’s own actions. If anything, this absurdity proves the BLM’s plans for Red Rock and Calico Basin are critically flawed and need to be abandoned, not doubled down upon. First, the agency should not install gates or charge fees for access to Calico Basin. Given these givens, unless would-be visitors to Calico Basin gain the active and effective support of national, state and local politicians, it’s a done deal.

Clearly, the domestic challenges facing President Joe Biden and the Congress loom large enough to command full-time attention. Our goals must include not just our trade and strategic interests, but also, relevantly supporting human rights, territorial sovereignty and democracy. President Donald Trump projected passive appeasement toward Putin’s ambitions but Biden keeps a tough posture. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. will stand up to an "increasingly assertive and autocratic" China by strengthening regional alliances. We hope Biden and company can meet these tricky tests as the crises simmer.

Dole was an exceptional everyman, like many of his generation: a high school and Kansas University star in basketball, football and track, a student whose education was interrupted by World War II. Caring for veterans, wounded and otherwise, physically and emotionally, was a central focus of his political career. Dole supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And he was the last World War II veteran to receive a major-party nomination for the presidency. He fought tirelessly to get the World War II Memorial built.

On Oct. 20, he’d mandated that city employees, including cops and firefighters, have their first shot by Oct. 29 to keep working. Many policing leaders have said they think vaccinations for cops are a personal choice. I feel carrying a gun makes it more likely that someone will shoot me, and more likely that I’ll shoot an innocent bystander or another officer. But most Blue backers who argue vaccination is a personal choice would not think the same about cops carrying sidearms. And following them would not, for cops, be a matter of personal choice.

While nothing is known for sure, abortion-rights supporters are bracing themselves for Roe’s downfall while abortion foes anticipate victory. But besides the impact on abortion, there are also the political and cultural effects of state-level abortion battles. It's been long predicted that dismantling Roe would ultimately hurt Republicans on the state level. Yet short-term, the fall of Roe will almost certainly escalate the culture wars, which are already at critical levels. If only because of that, we should all hope that the Supreme Court will stop short of overturning Roe completely.

Now that would-be successors don’t see an open seat for the taking, the field for an AG primary thins out — but not all the way, at least not yet. The common expectation, based on numerous conversations with The Point on Friday, is that Sen. Michael Gianaris, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez, State Sen. Shelley Mayer will forgo a bid for AG. Andrew M. Cuomo, with millions in his campaign account, could wade in and pursue the AG job, which he held before, in a grudge match against James. All that buzz is about the Democratic state primary, which unlike the dynamic this year in New York City, might not be the whole game next year. But the past year shows that predicting what will be even six months ahead has become a high-risk business.

Proving Innocence: The Story of Keith BushKeith Bush was a 17-year-old junior at Bellport High School when Suffolk authorities charged him with killing Sherese Watson, 14, after a late-night house party in North Bellport. For the past 44 years, Keith Bush has claimed he was an innocent man, ever since he was accused and convicted of the 1975 Suffolk County sex-related murder. Credit: Staff

Educators and parents at specialized schools serving some of Long Island’s most vulnerable children say their programs have been shortchanged and are asking for the same funding that public schools receive. Kathy Hochul’s signature, also would ensure equitable funding in the future for the schools and special districts that serve disabled students. "You have this funding and increase that is given to schools to support all children, and yet these specialized schools are not getting funding and not getting that increase." Statewide, the schools serve preschoolers who are developmentally disabled, ages 3-5, and children with special needs, ages 5-21. Advocates say teachers who leave for the public schools typically are paid $30,000 more a year, making it difficult to hire and retain staff.

Like “love” in a now-dated 1970s movie, inelastic demand evidently means never having to say you’re sorry. There probably are hundreds of family dentists in the Twin Cities metro area dependent on happy patients’ word of mouth. Still monopolistic competition, but these depend more on referrals by family dentists and less on word of mouth. They depend on the good word of their own family dentists and often face a dental crisis. Related Articles Real World Economics: Parsing COVID’s mortal impactReal World Economics: Biden, too, embraces tariff regimeReal World Economics: Inflation’s roots go deeper than moneyReal World Economics: A little perspective on inflation as an issueSt. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

Bill of Rights Day, celebrated yearly on Dec. 15, commemorates the day in 1791 when three-fourths of the states ratified 10 amendments that became a permanent part of the U.S. Constitution. The quiz below, from the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, provides an opportunity for you to test your knowledge of the Bill of Rights. In 1992, one of the proposed amendments that was not included in the original Bill of Rights was ratified and became the 27th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has based decisions on all of the 10 amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights except one. Thirteen original copies of the Bill of Rights were sent to the then 13 states for ratification.

Mayor Melvin Carter has named Kristien Butler as the new director of St. Paul’s Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity. “The work of our Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity is critical in our efforts to rebuild,” Carter said in a Friday statement. The department has been beset by high-turnover recently with five directors leading it in the past five years. Butler, who was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, has called Minnesota a second home for 20 years. He joined HREEO earlier this year, serving as deputy director and has been interim director since April.

That infamous dayI remember Pearl Harbor. An old woman who lived across the street stood on her front steps wringing her hands and silently weeping. No matter where you stand on various gun safety proposals, there is one measure that every citizen must agree on, and that is safe storage of firearms. Safe storage as a matter of law and of best practice is an absolutely essential accompaniment to the right of gun ownership. Perhaps we need stiffer penalties for safe storage violations, and we most certainly need greater adherence to safe storage practices by those of us who own guns.

“God, what courage Bob Dole had,” the president said. “Bob Dole understood that it was just not enough recognition that this Greatest Generation deserved,” Roberts said. Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Dole once told him he thought about being buried at the World War II memorial. Dole served as a Kansas state legislator before running for Congress in 1960, joining the House for eight years then going on to win the Senate seat. During his Senate career, though, Dole grew to see the value of reaching across the aisle and secured his more lasting achievements.

When he took over the helm of Lowe’s in 2018, Ellison diversified the company’s ranks to better reflect its customer base. Lowe’s hasn’t required vaccines or testing ahead of the mandate, but Ellison says he’ll comply with any federal regulations. What I can tell you about is what Lowe’s has done, and I think we’ve made incredible progress. I think we’ve done it because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s good for business. What we’re going to do at Lowe’s is we’re going to be compliant to any government requirement.

SAN FRANCISCO — Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies. San Francisco residents who are generally uncomfortable with government surveillance have installed security cameras and deadbolts to prevent break-ins, and they have started eyeing outsiders with suspicion. Families for San Francisco will elect Democrats, but it’s organized outside the city’s powerful Democratic Party establishment, he said. Lloyd Silverstein, a San Francisco native and president of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association, said businesses are considering hiring security guards and installing high-definition security cameras.

President Biden wants the U.S. to be carbon-neutral by 2050. News outlets report this will be logistically and politically challenging. Thank God we have someone in the White House who has the foresight, courage and honesty to take on this challenge. We can’t just keep sticking our heads in the sand, and we can’t back down just because something is hard. We need action and a leader like Biden who calls for alliances with other countries to scientifically, logically and urgently meet the most difficult and pressing threat looming over the entire world.

Anyone who believes the Portland Association of Teachers union is serious about demanding Fridays be removed as an in-person instructional day for high school students (“Portland teachers union proposes self-taught Fridays for high schoolers, says educators need more planning time,” Nov. 30) has little insight into the process of these types of negotiations. This is clearly a cynical ploy to extract other concessions while posturing behind what are touted to be actions in the best interests of children. While there is no doubt many teachers are under duress, it is unlikely most educators would agree that reducing classroom time would in any way benefit students. Wouldn’t be nice if the union would simply be frank about what it wants and stop hiding behind what it purports to be in the best interests of kids? Here is the bottom line of this latest demand: Unions always put the rank and file above other concerns.

“When you think of innovation corridors and where they thrive, it is usually where there are strong educational institutions that are also there,” Berger-Sweeney said. “And I think that is because educational institutions don’t just teach specific skills, but a mindset: how to learn, how to teach yourself something, how to unlearn in light of new information and relearn.”

“To blame a piece of legislation that clearly does not prohibit anyone from doing a job that they would be assigned to do is pure political sour grapes and nothing more than that,” Stafstrom said. “I am not a proponent of pulling over folks for going a few miles over the speed limit. But I think we have all seen a fair amount of reckless driving on our highways that folks should be pulled over for, where you’re going 20 or 30 miles per hour over the speed limit, weaving in and out of the four lanes of I-95. That’s a different story.”

Over the course of its long and storied history, the Witte Museum has always aimed to transcend the status of being just another “museum” by offering rich experiences that transform humanity’s view of …

Many college students graduating from Ohio’s top universities and colleges aren’t staying. Lawmakers want to change that with income tax breaks and scholarships. If Ohio doesn't retain more of its current college population and attract new students, the state's population and income base will dwindle. "I'm sure it'll be big," said Cross, R-Kenton, of the lost income tax revenue. The bill would also expand Ohio College Opportunity Grant money for students with associate degrees seeking four-year degrees.

– If you live in Fairfield Township, a dog that barks loudly and often could take a $100 bite out of your budget. Trustees adopted a resolution that allows the police department to cite owners of dogs that cause a disturbance to neighbors by barking, yelping, or howling. “When we received complaints on barking dogs, the township had no ordinance or resolution to address it,’’ said police Chief Robert Chabali. Violators could be found guilty of a minor misdemeanor, subject to a fine of up to $100 plus court costs. Chabali said his officers would act on complaints, and will not be actively looking for dogs causing a disturbance.

Anu GuptaOpinion contributorCOP26 has placed a global eye on how climate change is impacting our world. Climate change isn’t just a political agenda item, it’s a human issue. We cannot understand how climate change disproportionately impacts people of color without talking about systemic racism. Addressing and breaking bias among our leaders holds the key to innovating and creating solutions to the myriad of challenges posed by systemic racism and climate change. Coming off the heels of COP26, I urge our politicians and representatives in the public sector to understand that climate change isn’t going to go away unless we also start addressing systemic racism.

While the need is year-around, this month gives us the opportunity to shine a spotlight on Ohio’s foster system and the children awaiting permanency through adoption. It emphasizes the importance of taking the time to listen and learn from youth in foster care. This is particularly important for the 1,400 teenagers in the foster system. If you’ve been a foster parent, or were ever in foster care, you know the system can at times seem overwhelming. To help, the state of Ohio just adopted a Foster Youth Bill of Rights, and a companion Bill of Rights for caregivers, the Resource Family Bill of Rights.

Mitch McConnellOpinion contributorKentucky and Washington, D.C. may only be separated by a few hundred miles, but the two places sometimes feel wildly out-of-step. I started my visit in Louisville, joining the national guardsmen of Kentucky’s 123rd Airlift Wing to celebrate the arrival of a new fleet of C-130J aircraft. Together, we helped Kentucky’s 123rd Airlift Wing receive their new squadron of C-130J aircraft, preserving their flying mission for years to come. After years of delays, Louisville’s new VA hospital is finally under construction, promising high-quality care to Kentucky’s heroes. Visiting these project sites offered just a small glimpse of the many ways I help deliver for the Commonwealth.

My sister was born here, and we quickly moved to the burb known as "Wyoming, Ohio." In Cincinnati, high school is one’s school, not university. While I have moved from Cincinnati three times – to Colorado, Michigan and Florida – I have always returned. I was never a committed Jew, which was apropos in Cincinnati, home of one of the oldest Reform Judaism communities in the nation. Jennifer Mooney was a Cincinnati resident for most of her life.

This outpouring of generosity encouraged the interim aid package passed by Congress which sent food aid to Italy, Austria and France. For this Thanksgiving, we can each do something to stop the fast-growing global hunger crisis. The UN World Food Program (WFP) just issued a warning that the number of people on the edge of starvation is now 45 million. Colleges are holding a FreeRice Challenge over Thanksgiving to raise donations and awareness of the global hunger crisis. William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book "Ending World Hunger."

Kevin NecessarySpecial to The EnquirerFor many Americans, the 2020 holiday season was spent apart from families and other loved ones due to the pandemic. But with over half the country vaccinated, the 2021 holidays seem to be a return to normal, for better or worse. Kevin Necessary is an illustrator and editorial cartoonist. His editorial cartoons appear Sundays in The Enquirer.

"Purpose helps solidify one's identity," Burrow said. How we react, overcome and persevere is intrinsically tied to our sense of purpose and it turns out that purpose is tied to how well we know ourselves. Purpose is a life aim, something that's always in front of you and never quite finished. Burrow and I learned something about ourselves in 4-H. Burrow grew up to be a researcher and I became a writer. I am grateful for what I've learned about purpose from his work, and now I get to share it with you through mine.

Jim WatersOpinion contributorWhile the coronavirus wreaked havoc on Kentucky’s education performance, it also resulted in many parents engaging in where and how their children are educated. Such parental engagement is a priority for reversing Kentucky’s education slide and ensuring many more of our students are prepared for success beyond their formative school years – whether that be in college or beginning a career. The pandemic’s pummeling of educational attainment especially affected our minority students. For example, Kentucky Kids Matter, a grassroots group comprised mostly of parents whose children attend the Bluegrass State’s public schools, currently has 37,000 members on their Facebook site. Jim Waters is president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s free-market think tank.

In Mexico, people have been paying the equivalent of $1,000 a dose for fake vaccines kept in portable coolers. The World Health Organization has issued an alert saying these fraudulent substances "pose a serious risk to global public health." If the Biden administration gets its way, the World Trade Organization could greenlight a proposal to waive the patent and other intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. Setting aside intellectual property rights, they say, is the best way to expand production to meet global demand, particularly in underdeveloped countries. Waiving intellectual property rights will make counterfeiting much easier and raise significant safety issues, even among manufacturers who are not acting maliciously.

But we're all becoming acquainted with Greek letters. And they are given Greek letters as names. Now we're facing the new omicron variant. All that's certain is until more people are vaccinated, depriving the virus of host bodies to infect, there will be future COVID-19 variants. More from Kevin Necessary:

Eating turkey on Thanksgiving, putting out flags on Memorial/Veterans/Independence Day, pretending I’m not home on Halloween. Judging by the number of Amazon deliveries, I’m sure my spouse has everything she could possibly need, or want, or even mildly consider buying. Judging by the number of Amazon deliveries, I’m sure my spouse has everything she could possibly need, or want, or even mildly consider buying. Christmas lights . The Detroit Lions playing on Thanksgiving Day.

Karen DolanOpinion contributorThe 2022 elections are still a year away, but all signs point to trouble for Democrats. To stay competitive next year, Democrats will need to take bold steps to protect our democracy – and to pass their own agenda. But there’s a problem: Most voters don’t know Democrats are actually trying to do all this. So Democrats have a few tasks before them if they want to survive 2022. Finally, Democrats need to address the anti-democratic voter-suppression bills that have proliferated around the nation.

And there’s only one man to blame: Robert Paduchik, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. As a new lawsuit against Paduchik outlines, fiscal mismanagement runs rampant at the Ohio Republican Party. In the long-run, what’s best for the Ohio Republican Party is reform. Only by cleaning house will the Ohio Republican Party survive and thrive. Laura Rosenberger is a member of the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee.

Anne D'InnocenzioAssociated PressNew York – Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison personally knows about racism. When he took over the helm of Lowe’s in 2018, Ellison diversified the company’s ranks to better reflect its customer base. What I can tell you about is what Lowe’s has done, and I think we’ve made incredible progress. I think we’ve done it because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s good for business. What we’re going to do at Lowe’s is we’re going to be compliant to any government requirement.

It's time to vote for the winner of The Detroit News Holiday Cheer for Charity. After 11 nonprofits fought for their place in the finale, the five with the most votes were sent to the final round. The five nonprofits participating in the final round are:Detroit Dog Rescue: A group that works to raise awareness about Detroit's forgotten, homeless and stray dogs. Facebook | TwitterReaders over the age of 18 can begin donating at www.detroitnews.com/donatecheer to their favorite charity. Last year, more than 12,600 votes were cast in the first round and more than $78,000 was raised in the competition.

Joseph GarrityGuest columnistFor decades, infrastructure in Ohio and across the nation has suffered from a systemic lack of investment. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave Ohio a C- on its infrastructure report card. To address this growing problem in Ohio and across the nation, Congress approved the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November. To learn more about how MORPC is planning for the future growth and sustainability of the region, go to morpc.org. Joseph Garrity is director of government affairs and community relations at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Ty MarshSWACO executive directorWhen it comes to reducing and disposing of waste, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio always is planning for the future. This year, the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill received and safely disposed of more than a million tons of waste. However, SWACO estimates that based on projected population growth, 600,000 additional tons of waste will be generated every year in Franklin County. This past year, we completed construction of a new 20-acre landfill cell, which will serve our community’s growing disposal needs. From Waste to Resources:Celebrating America Recycles Day is daily commitmentFrom Waste to Resources:Columbus Solar Park is beacon of sustainability, prosperityBut as 2021 draws to a close, I’m proud of a number of positive steps central Ohio has made toward this end.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has named a new leader to serve until the Vatican announces who the next bishop will be. On Thursday, the diocese announced that Monsignor Stephan J. Moloney, the vicar general of the diocese under three bishops, was selected by a panel of diocesan priests as the diocesan administrator. Brennan was called to serve in Brooklyn after serving approximately two and a half years as Columbus' 12th bishop. He was ordained by the late Bishop Edward J. Hermann, ninth bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, in June 1982. In July 2020, the diocese hired a licensed clinical counselor to take the reports, replacing Moloney as the victims' assistance coordinator.

I don’t remember where I heard it, but it was just within the week where I heard a preacher talking about God struggling for justice. Why, then, would God have to struggle to make “justice roll down like water” as the prophet Amos proclaimed? It does not seem that an omnipotent God should have to struggle at all; an all-powerful God surely has the skills to put the desire for all people to be treated with dignity in place. Does God yet struggle, though, because God knows that the people he created will never acquiesce to do what God says to do? Does God struggle because the people he created have ultimately rejected him and his son?

Joe BlundoSpecial to The Columbus DispatchSpecial weather alert to all motorists in central Ohio: It gets cold in the winter. To help you remember, today I present Joe’s Winter Driving Guide for the Forgetful:Does Columbus get a lot of snow? Conditions will always sound ominous because Columbus favors overwrought weather language (Snow Warriors, Storm Team 4, calamity days, etc.) Here’s how it works: Traffic backs up with any amount of snow. You find yourself stuck in a long line, sitting through light change after light change, creeping a few yards each time.

Joe BlundoSpecial to The Columbus DispatchOf course, Dr. Oz is running for the United States Senate. As Donald Trump proved, qualifications for high office are strictly optional now. If you’ve got them, great, but TV resume and social media followers are far more important. Oz announced his candidacy for a Pennsylvania senate seat recently, fueling questions about whether he really lives in that state. I’m sure Senator Doctor Oz will offer them a miracle cure for that.

Columbus police officers collected hundreds of winter coats Friday afternoon to distribute to kids in need across the city this holiday season. The division partnered with AEP Ohio and the Starfish Assignment, a local nonprofit that partners with volunteers and law enforcement to help those in need, to collect coats. It began at the suggestion of Columbus police officers, said Starfish Assignment Founder Nicole Banks. Donations from Macy's and AEP Ohio helped purchase the new coats. “It’s rewarding to see a child’s eyes light up with the gift of a new coat,” said Marc Reitter, president and CEO of AEP Ohio.

Guest columnistSince his death a year ago, Casey Goodson Jr’s family has been on a mission to tell his truth. More:Opinion: Deputy Jason Meade was 'the Goliath' in Casey GoodsonWhile preaching to a congregation, he told the crowd that “the people he hits, you wish you could hit.”That was who Jason Meade was while employed by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and that is the man that hunted Casey Goodson, Jr. Despite what Meade may say to justify his actions on the day he pursued and killed Casey, his alleged truth is simply implausible. Casey was a law-abiding citizen who had just left the dentist and was bringing home food to feed his family. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office allowed a deputy that was unfit to have any contact with inmates for nearly four years, to later become a SWAT team member.

As we deck the halls and sing "fa la la la la, la la la la" a year after the first coronavirus vaccines arrived in Greater Columbus in dry ice coolers, let's not forget the real damage ignited by COVID-19, a villain far more sinister than the Grinch, before and after Christmas 2020 was stolen. Let's also not forget to rejoice in the splendor that has returned, although not fully. People are exchanging Christmas cookies and convening in the name of holiday cheer again. Catch holiday gems like "A Christmas Story, The Musical" (Lincoln Theatre), " A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol" (Worthington Community Theatre) and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Riffe Center Theatre Complex) on local stages forced to go dark during the pandemic. Vaccines help slow the spread of coronavirus and are a big reason so many fewer families will celebrate Christmas via Zoom this year.

In the same vein, the Columbine High School perpetrators had set explosives that failed to go off. Generation has never known American without school mass shooting. Instead of arguing for the rights of all citizens, he argues for the concerns of his party capturing state offices. More:Democrats, leftists need to stop whining about redistricting and get better candidatesWe need to form new parties that reflect the concerns of all points of view. Slower police response time alarmingI suspect our police department is feeling unsupported and under appreciated by the general public.

Unemployment is down to 4.6% from nearly 7% when Joe Biden was elected president and average hourly wages are the highest for Americans than they have ever been. Perhaps the most significant of these so far is the Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill. In the one year since Joe Biden was elected president, the S&P 500, generally considered the broadest measure, is up over 37%. As President Biden said at his very humble news conference, throughout his career as a senator and the vice president, he has had to make compromises to advance core legislation. William Derrough has spent the last 30 years helping restructure hundreds of large enterprises at several leading investment banks.

Just follow the proven playbook from those out-of-state "party consultants” and hustle your jigsaw map to a quick party-line vote. Think of the generation born since 2011, growing up with no personal experience of true representative democracy. If current trends continue, something like this:“Granddaddy, what’s democracy?”That’s when each adult gets one vote, and the person who gets the most votes gets to represent all the people in their area. If there’s too many people voting in favor of these wrong ideas, then democracy lets them change America away from how it’s always worked for us. “Granddaddy, do you think we’ll ever go back to democracy?”No, every year there are more and more people who think the wrong way.

Perhaps someone can explain to me (and to any children who might have read the article) the difference between a prank and a crime. My feeling is that faith leaders are the most important and most trusted at this moment in time. Being within earshot of faith leaders – and especially in the presence of a higher power – often leads to one of the few quiet moments to be inspired toward love and compassion for others. We can and should respect and support them while also holding them accountable when individual officers cross the line. • Wrong is wrong.

Leatra HarperGuest columnistThe Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management has once again demonstrated its complete fealty to the fracking industry. It has done so by its continuing failure to propose rules to appropriately protect the environment and public health from the consequences of the irresponsible handling, processing and disposal of toxic, radioactive frack waste. Frack waste facilities are handling millions of tons of frack waste with inadequate traceability of where the resultant concentrations of toxic chemicals and radionuclides go to assure proper disposal and accountability for those generating the waste. This ruse of rulemaking process is just another example of industry capture of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Ohioans will pay with their health and tax dollars for the continuing designation of the state as the cheap dumping ground for frack waste generated within the state and imported from other states, solving the industry’s biggest problem at our expense.

Thomas SuddesColumnistThe restless right wing of the Ohio Republican Party might care to keep one thing in mind (besides its eternal sense of victimhood): When the GOP splits, Democrats benefit. That sort-of-religious outlook is a perpetual eddy in the stream of Ohio Republican politics. But as suggested by the recent rumpus at a meeting of the Ohio Republican State Central Committee, all is not placid in Lincoln’s party. In part because Ohio Republicans split over whether to re-elect Cincinnati’s William Howard Taft as president or return Bull Moose Progressive Theodore Roosevelt to the White House. In 1976, the Ohio GOP split over incumbent Gerald Ford vs. challenger Ronald Reagan as Republicans’ prospective presidential nominee.

Letters to the EditorHome care workers drawn by better pay like any other employeesOhio State Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran cited the labor shortage: “There are not people to hire. They wouldn’t be able to hire people.”More:Ohio's home care industry asks for a lifeline in COVID-19 pandemic to boost worker wagesSimply put, that’s ridiculous. How could more money not be effective in hiring home health care workers? More:Letters: 'Shame on' lawmakers who do not support the vulnerable and home health care heroesBecause Ohio cannot even commit to being the employer of record for home care workers, they are not considered state workers but rather independent contractors. More:Opinion: Higher pay, big bonuses alone will not fill home health aides jobsWe must uplift the status of individuals who work in home care.

Mantra among street officers became, “Stay clean by doing nothing,” or “The job I save may be my own.” Who suffers? More:Fatal shooting at Target near Easton ties Columbus homicide recordOver 300 officers retired or resigned over the last three years. The injunction was not appealed by the city and may be unconstitutional, but ideologically congruent to neuter CPD enforcement efforts. More:Federal injunction prevents Columbus police from using tear gas, wooden bulletsHow about using riot batons? How about physical strength of officers against physical strength of protesters?

Prime sponsors of that proposal, House Bill 227, are Republican Reps. Thomas Brinkman of Cincinnati and Kris Jordan, of Delaware County’s Ostrander. All House Republicans present for the rollcall voted yes, while all House Democrats present voted no. All Republicans present (except Rep. Gayle Manning, of North Ridgeville) voted yes, while all Democrats present plus the GOP’s Manning voted no. It’s true of course, that when parents send their children to school, the school district owes those families safety. At the top of Job’s List for World-Class Patience are the women and men of the Ohio Senate and Ohio House clerks’ offices and of the Legislative Service Commission.

With winter approaching, Black community leaders issued a joint warning that affordable housing remains desperately needed. Columbus has set aside a $50 million bond package for affordable housing and Mayor Andrew J. Ginther appointed the city's first assistant director of housing strategies in May. But Black leaders of various organizations said those efforts fall short, and a shortage of affordable housing persists. The city has a number of affordable housing projects in the works, including one on the site of the former Alrosa Villa music venue. That makes other ideas, like those floated by community activist and former Columbus City Council candidate Joe Motil, worth a look.

Edie RoodmanGuest ColumnistWith the world upside down and sideways, Hanukkah, the festival of light, coaxes hope out of the shadows. By placing lit menorahs in our windows the Jewish community fulfills the commandment of spreading light while inspiring others to do the same. Our neighbors on the frontlines committed to their everyday jobs inadvertently continue to fulfill the responsibility of spreading light and hope. Be strong, be strong and may we all be strengthened by the light. Edie Roodman is executive director of the Oklahoma Israel Exchange and former longtime director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City.

Who are we to put these young men of character in a position they need to apologize to us? These fine young men include Haskell Garrett, who survived being shot in the face in 2020 while trying to break up an altercation between a man and a woman in the University District. Stroud, whose first words when interviewed after every game, give thanks to God for giving him the abilities to do what he does. These young men owe us no apologies. We should feel humbled that we have such quality young men playing for OSU, and teaching us life lessons on how to be better people.

They people I met in Acuna, Mexico, who are seeing their small community overtaken not only by illegal immigrants from outside Mexico, but also by drug cartels. When President Trump was in power, they told me, the Mexican government deployed dozens of military officers to control border crossings. Now that President Trump is out of office, that military presence is almost non-existent and, as a result, drug trafficking and violence have grown exponentially. But there is another policy action that the federal government can take, immediately, to help regain control of the situation: declare Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Designating Mexican drug cartels as FTOs would give us added weapons to fight and win this out-of-control war.