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  • Biden expands 2 national monuments in California

    Biden expands 2 national monuments in California

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    President Joe Biden on Thursday expanded two national monuments in California following calls from tribal nations, Indigenous community leaders and others for the permanent protection of nearly 120,000 acres of important cultural and environmental land.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Joe Biden has expanded two culturally significant California landscapes: the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Southern California and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Northern California

    • The move follows calls from tribal nations, Indigenous community leaders and others for the permanent protection of nearly 120,000 acres of important cultural and environmental land

    • The designations are part of the Democratic president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative, launched in 2021 in line with Biden’s campaign promises, and builds on the Great American Outdoors Act

    • Some Republicans and other critics of the president’s initiative say it unnecessarily ties up resources that could be crucial for agriculture and other uses


    The designations are part of the Democratic president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative, launched in 2021 in line with Biden’s campaign promises, and builds on the Great American Outdoors Act. The designations are aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal goals to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030 and addressing climate change, the White House said in a news release.

    Against the backdrop of Biden’s reelection campaign, the White House emphasized the role of Vice President Kamala Harris in ensuring protections in her home state. The state of California also has conservation targets.

    “These expansions will increase access to nature, boost our outdoor economy, and honor areas of significance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples as we continue to safeguard our public lands for all Americans and for generations to come,” Harris said in a written statement.

    Some Republicans and other critics of the president’s initiative say it unnecessarily ties up resources that could be crucial for agriculture and other uses. In some cases, they allege he has exceeded his legal authority. Some of the president’s past actions have included restoring monuments or conservation land that former Republican President Donald Trump had canceled.

    In Pasadena, Southern California, Biden expanded the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, driven by calls from Indigenous peoples including the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrieleno San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. Both are the original stewards of the culturally rich and diverse lands, advocates noted in a separate news release.

    The president also expanded Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Sacramento in Northern California, to include Molok Luyuk, or Condor Ridge. The newly renamed ridgeline has been significant to tribal nations such as the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for thousands of years. It is a central site for religious ceremonies and was once important to key trading routes, advocates said.

    Expansion of both sites makes nature more accessible for Californians, while protecting a number of species, including black bears, mountain lions and tule elk, the White House release said.

    Californians are calling on the Biden administration to make a total of five monument designations this year. The other three include the designation of a new Chuckwalla National Monument, new Kw’tsán National Monument and a call to protect and name Sáttítla, known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, as a national monument.

    Expansion and designation efforts are made under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which authorizes the president to “provide general legal protection of cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on Federal lands,” according to the Department of the Interior.

    Across the nation, coalitions of tribes and conservation groups have urged Biden to make a number of other designations over the past three years. With Thursday’s news, the administration has established or expanded seven national monuments, restored protections for three more and taken other measures, the White House said.

    Biden signed a national monument designation outside Grand Canyon National Park called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni last August, a move which the top two Republicans in Arizona’s Legislature are currently challenging.

    In 2021, Biden restored two sprawling national monuments in Utah and a marine conservation area in New England where environmental protections had been cut by Trump. The move was also challenged in court.

    Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, sacred to Native Americans in southern Nevada, was designated in 2023 along with the Castner Range in El Paso, Texas.

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    Associated Press

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  • Man who said he ‘fed’ officer to mob on Jan. 6 gets 5 years in prison

    Man who said he ‘fed’ officer to mob on Jan. 6 gets 5 years in prison

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    A Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.

    What You Need To Know

    • Jack Wade Whitton, a Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison

    • Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace

    • Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, prosecutors say

    • More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot; over 850 of them have been sentenced


    Jack Wade Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Whitton later boasted in a text message that he “fed him to the people.”

    Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, prosecutors say. He also kicked at, threatened and threw a construction pylon at officers trying to hold off the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters.

    “You’re gonna die tonight!” he shouted at police after striking an officer’s riot shield.

    Whitton, of Locust Grove, Georgia, expressed remorse for his “horrible” actions on Jan. 6 before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to four years and nine months in prison. The 33-year-old will get credit for the three years that he has been jailed since his arrest.

    “I tell you with confidence: I have changed,” Whitton told the judge.

    Whitton, who pleaded guilty to an assault charge last year, told the judge that he has never been a “political person.”

    “I’ve never been a troublemaker. I’ve always been a hard worker and a law-abiding citizen,” he said.

    The judge said the videos of Whitton attacking police are “gruesome.”

    “You really were out of control,” the judge told him.

    Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of eight years and one month for Whitton, who owned and operated his own fence building company before his April 2021 arrest.

    “Whitton looked for opportunities to attack: In his three documented assaults, he was either a leader or a solitary actor,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

    Videos show that contemporaneous attacks on police by Whitton and a co-defendant, Justin Jersey, “ignited the rageful onslaught of violence that followed” on the Lower West Terrace, prosecutors said.

    “As Whitton and Jersey commenced their assaults, the tenor of the crowd audibly changed,” they wrote. “Other rioters surged towards the Archway and joined the attack, throwing objects at the officers and striking at them with makeshift weapons such as a hockey stick, a pieces of wood, a flagpole, and a police riot shield.”

    Whitton was among nine defendants charged in the same attack. Two co-defendants, Logan Barnhart and Jeffrey Sabol, helped Whitton drag an officer into the crowd before other rioters beat the officer with a flagpole and a stolen police baton.

    That evening, Whitton texted somebody images of his bloodied hands.

    “This is from a bad cop,” he wrote. “Yea I fed him to the people. (I don’t know) his status. And don’t care (to be honest).”

    Defense attorney Komron Jon Maknoon said Whitton traveled to Washington to support his girlfriend because she wanted to “witness an historic event” on Jan. 6, when Trump, a Republican, held a rally as Congress was about to certify his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

    “While his motives were not politically driven, he does possess a genuine love for his country and shares the desire for a free and fair election, much like any other citizen,” Maknoon wrote.

    The judge previously sentenced seven of Whitton’s co-defendants to prison terms ranging from two years and six months to five years and 10 months.

    More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 850 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

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    Associated Press

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  • Blinken pushes Hamas to agree on Gaza cease-fire

    Blinken pushes Hamas to agree on Gaza cease-fire

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Wednesday to press for a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war, saying “the time is now” and warning that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to reach an agreement to halt the war in Gaza.

    Blinken greeted the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza who were protesting outside a meeting between him and Israel’s president, telling them that setting their loved ones free was “at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas

    • Blinken, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and pause fighting, contended that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to achieve a deal

    • A truce could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering

    • The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal
    • Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza


    Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October, aiming to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.

    The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.

    Before agreeing to an initial, short-term cease-fire and partial hostage release, Hamas wants assurances that the eventual freeing of all the hostages will bring the end of Israel’s offensive and its full withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has offered only a pause after which it would resume its offensives until Hamas is destroyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his determination to attack Rafah in talks with Blinken on Wednesday.

    Blinken put pressure on Hamas, saying it would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal. Hamas said in a statement it would likely reply to the latest proposal on Thursday.

    “We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv.

    “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now,” he said.

    Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis and displaced much of the territory’s population.

    Blinken later Wednesday visited the Port of Ashdod, located south of Tel Aviv, where American flour — enough for one-and-a-half million Palestinians — arrived to be transported to Gaza. The United States’ top diplomat hailed the “real, demonstrable progress” made in getting increased aid to the people of Gaza, but said that “given the immense need in Gaza, it needs to be accelerated” and “sustained.”

    But Netanyahu’s vow to carry out a military operation in Rafah, which Israel says is the last major Hamas stronghold showed the remaining challenges in the talks.

    “The operation in Rafah doesn’t depend on anything. The prime minister made this clear to Secretary Blinken,” Netanyahu’s office said after the two met Wednesday. A day earlier, Netanyahu pledged to move on Rafah “with or without” a cease-fire deal.

    The United States has staunchly supported Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 into southern Israel. But it has grown increasingly critical of the staggering toll borne by Palestinian civilians and has been outspoken against an assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has packed in and around the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the territory.

    Washington says it opposes a major offensive but that if Israel conducts one it must first evacuate civilians.

    In Rafah, Palestinians terrified of a potential Israeli invasion clung to hope that, after months of reported near-deals, this time a cease-fire would be sealed. Hundreds of thousands are living in vast tent camps filling the once empty areas around Rafah

    Salwa Abu Hatab, a woman who fled Khan Younis, said she wants to go home. “Do you think we like life in tents? We are tired and suffering,” she said. “Every day they say there is a truce and negotiations, and in the end it fails. We hope they will succeed this time.”

    “If the invasion happens, we do not know where to go,” said Enas Syam, a woman from Gaza City carrying her child in the camp. “There is no safe place left.”

    In his talks with Netanyahu, Blinken urged him to build on what he said has been the “improvement” in the delivery of aid to Gaza over the past month. Bowing to U.S. pressure to increase aid deliveries, Israel re-opened its Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday for the first time since it was damaged in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

    Throughout his regional visit, with previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Blinken urged Hamas to accept the latest cease-fire proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.

    The proposal — brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar — would put a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza up for discussion, according to leaked details confirmed by an Egyptian official and a Hamas official.

    The proposal lays out three stages of six to seven weeks each with a detailed timetable of steps. The first phase would bring a pause during which Hamas would release some hostages, particularly civilian women, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

    Israeli troops would withdraw from a coastal road in Gaza to facilitate passage of aid and the return of displaced people to the north, then the troops would withdraw from central Gaza. In the meantime, talks would start on restoring “a permanent calm,” the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal negotiations.

    The next stage would bring implementation of the calm, including Hamas’ release of all remaining hostages – soldiers and civilians – and a withdrawal of Israeli forces out of Gaza.

    The last stage would see the release of bodies of dead hostages and the start of a five-year reconstruction plan. The plan says that Hamas would agree not to rebuild its military arsenal. The details were first reported in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

    The Egyptian official said Hamas wanted the language of the second phase to be strengthened to specify a “complete Israeli withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip” to avoid different interpretations. It also wants clearer terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza, since the current outline didn’t fully explain who would be allowed back, the official said.

    Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza continued. Late Tuesday, a strike hit a house in Rafah — where strikes have been continual despite the masses of Palestinians taking refuge there — killing at least two children, according to hospital authorities. An Associated Press journalist saw the children’s bodies at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital as their relatives mourned the deaths.

    On Wednesday, Israel’s military said it was operating in central Gaza, where it said jets struck militants, including one said to be setting up explosives.

    The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

    The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

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    Associated Press

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  • Anger may increase the risk of heart disease, stroke

    Anger may increase the risk of heart disease, stroke

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    Being angry is bad for your health. Even a brief amount of anger could negatively impact blood vessels, increasing the risk of stroke and heart disease, according to a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

    What You Need To Know

    • A brief episode of anger may negatively impact blood vessels

    • Blood vessels’ inability to relax increases the risk of stroke and heart disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association

    • The new study bolsters an AHA finding that mental well-being can positively or negatively affect a person’s health

    • Anxiety and sadness have also been linked with heart attack risk

    “Observational studies have linked feelings of negative emotions with having a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease events,” Columbia University Irving Medical Center Dr. Daichi Shimbo said in the journal article accompanying the study results. “The most common negative emotion studied is anger, and there are fewer studies on anxiety and sadness, which have also been linked to heart attack risk.”

    For the study, researchers randomly assigned 280 adults to one of four emotional tasks for eight minutes. They either had to recall a personal memory that made them angry, a personal memory that made them anxious or read a series of depressing sentences that evoked sadness or count repeatedly to induce a state of emotional neutrality.

    The researchers then assessed the cells lining their blood vessels both before and after the assigned task to determine if the vessels’ ability to dilate was impaired or if it increased cell injury or the cells’ capacity to repair.

    The only one of the four tasks that caused impairment to blood vessel dilation was recalling a personal memory of being angry.

    “We saw that evoking an angered state led to blood vessel dysfunction, though we don’t yet understand what may cause these changes,” Shimbo said.

    Blood vessels’ ability to relax is important for proper blood flow, according to the American Heart Association. Impaired blood vessels may increase the risk of atherosclerosis, of cholesterol building up in the artery walls, which may increase the risk of stroke and heart attack.

    The new study bolsters an AHA report from in 2021 that found mental well-being can positively or negatively affect a person’s health.

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • Trump says it’s up to states if they want to prosecute women for abortions

    Trump says it’s up to states if they want to prosecute women for abortions

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    Former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presumptive presidential nominee, said in an interview with TIME magazine he would defer to individual states if they want to enforce abortion laws by monitoring women’s pregnancies and prosecuting them if they get abortions.

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Donald Trump told Time magazine he would defer to individual states if they want to enforce abortion laws by monitoring women’s pregnancies and prosecuting them if they get abortions

    • When asked if states “should monitor women’s pregnancies so they can know if they’ve gotten an abortion after the ban,” Trump said. “I think they might do that”

    • He wouldn’t say if he believed the federal government should ban the shipping of abortion drugs across state lines

    • On a House GOP proposal to grant full legal rights to embryos, Trump said “I’m leaving everything up to the states. The states are going to be different. Some will say yes. Some will say no”

    “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions,” Trump said when asked if he would be comfortable with states criminally charging women for getting abortions. “And by the way, Texas is going to be different than Ohio. And Ohio is going to be different than Michigan.”

    Trump has proudly taken credit for appointing three of the six judges who authored the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which undid the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade and allowed states to implement abortion bans, but has tempered his enthusiasm for the most severe state laws and proposals, arguing they can be political liabilities as he seeks to return to the White House. 

    But in the TIME interview published Tuesday and conducted over the course of two conversations this month, Trump said his personal level of comfort did not matter and he would leave those decisions up to the states if he were elected president again.

    On a proposal by the Republican Study Committee — which includes around 80% of House Republican lawmakers, including Speaker Mike Jorhnson, R-La. — to grant full legal rights to embryos, Trump said “I’m leaving everything up to the states. The states are going to be different. Some will say yes. Some will say no.” He did not say he would veto federal legislation if it reached his desk, arguing again it would be left up to state governments.

    When asked if states “should monitor women’s pregnancies so they can know if they’ve gotten an abortion after the ban,” Trump said. “I think they might do that” before launching into an aside where he falsely claimed “every legal scholar, Democrat, Republican and other” wanted the question of abortion’s legality sent back to statehouses and state courts.

    Trump described his adopted home state of Florida’s six-week ban, which is set to take effect on Wednesday, as “too severe,” but wouldn’t say how he would vote on a state referendum in November that would undo the ban by codifying abortion rights in the state constitution. He also wouldn’t say if he believed the federal government should ban the shipping of abortion drugs across state lines, telling TIME he would have an announcement on his views within two weeks (and then delaying it another week or two as of Saturday). And he refused to entertain a hypothetical national abortion ban, pushed by many Washington Republicans, by arguing his party would “never” have the 60 votes in the Senate required to pass that kind of legislation.

    “It’s all about the states, it’s about state rights. States’ rights. States are going to make their own determination,” Trump insisted. “And you know what? That’s taken tremendous pressure off everybody… it was ill-defined. And to be honest, the Republicans, a lot of Republicans, didn’t know how to talk about the issue. That issue never affected me.”

    Despite his unwillingness to publicly offer his own distinct opinions on a national abortion ban or  the prosecutions of women who have abortions, Democrats were not willing to let him off the hook on Tuesday morning.

    “All of this cruelty and chaos can be traced back to Donald Trump,” Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said on a pre-scheduled Democratic National Committee press call. “He repeatedly refused to rule out a national abortion, ban endorsed the prosecution of women and doctors and left the door open to legislation that could rip away access to” in-vitro fertilization.”

    Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday for a rally focused on the fight for abortion rights. The Biden campaign said she will be there to “continue to make the case that Donald Trump did this.”

    Biden, Harris and Democrats across the country are campaigning against abortion restrictions in the hopes of repeating their electoral successes since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. A stronger-than-expected showing congressional Democrats that fall and in federal and local special elections since, as well as a successful series of statewide referendums protecting abortion rights in states like Ohio and Kansas, has encouraged them that the issue can be a winner for them this year.

    Biden, a devout Catholic who has long held personal objections to abortion, has said he would work to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.

    “Donald Trump’s latest comments leave little doubt: if elected he’ll sign a national abortion ban, allow women who have an abortion to be prosecuted and punished, allow the government to invade women’s privacy to monitor their pregnancies, and put IVF and contraception in jeopardy nationwide,” Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “The horrific and devastating stories in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona with extreme abortion bans unleashed by Trump overturning Roe are just the beginning if he wins.”

    “Simply put: November’s election will determine whether women in the United States have reproductive freedom, or whether Trump’s new government will continue its assault to control women’s health care decisions,” she added.

    Polling suggests most Americans agree with Biden and Democrats on the issues, even as the president runs about even with Trump in national polls and lags behind him in key swing states. 

    Two-thirds of Americans, including 67% of independents, would support a federal law codifying the right to an abortion, according to a February poll from the health policy nonprofit KFF. Nearly 60% of respondents said they oppose a 16-week abortion ban. And 41% of women said they trusted Biden more to “move abortion policy in the right direction,” compared to 25% for Trump and 22% who said neither. 

    Last month, Fox News’ polling outfit found a record high number of voters — 59% —  believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Compared to April 2022, the poll found double-digit increases in support for the legal right to an abortion among voters 65 and older, conservatives, Republicans and white evangelical Christians. Majorities opposed six-week and 15-week abortion bans.

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    Joseph Konig

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  • House Democratic leaders say they’ll oppose motion to oust Johnson

    House Democratic leaders say they’ll oppose motion to oust Johnson

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    House Democratic leadership announced Tuesday that their conference will intervene to oppose far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., if put up for a vote.

    What You Need To Know

    • House Democratic leadership said they will vote to kill an effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., if put up for a vote

    • Democrats had previously indicated that they could come to Johnson’s rescue should the Louisiana Republican put forward a long-stalled bill to provide aid to Ukraine

    • The effort, led by far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has the support of just two other Republican lawmakers; some in the House GOP appear to be lukewarm about the pospect of plunging the House into the chaos that ensued last year after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy
    • Greene filed her motion last month after Johnson put forward a bill to fund the government and avert a shutdown


    “We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said in a statement. “If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

    In a press conference shortly after the release of the statement announcing the decision, Aguilar argued there was a “distinction” between voting in favor of Johnson and voting to table the motion to oust him. 

    “None of the discussion that we had in caucus was about saving Mike Johnson,” Aguilar told reporters. “The underlying motion to vacate was not discussed, the motion to table was.” 

    Aguilar noted that each member of the House Democratic caucus should “vote their district and their conscience.”

    Democrats had previously indicated that they could come to Johnson’s rescue should the Louisiana Republican put forward a long-stalled bill to provide aid to Ukraine. Given the House’s passage of the bill earlier this month and signature into law by President Joe Biden after quick Senate action, their intervention appeared all but assured.

    “At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction,” the Democratic leaders wrote in their statement on Tuesday.

    Greene filed her motion last month after Johnson put forward a bill to fund the government and avert a shutdown. In the weeks since, two other hardline Republican lawmakers — Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar — have joined Greene’s effort, citing the agreements Johnson has negotiated on foreign aid, federal spending and government surveillance.

    In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Greene called the decision by House Democratic leadership to table the motion against Johnson an “official endorsement of his Speakership.”

    “Mike Johnson is officially the Democrat Speaker of the House,” Greene wrote, going on to question whether he made a “deal” to get their support. 

    The Georgia Republican went on to say Johnson should “resign” and “switch parties.” 

    Republicans have largely appeared lukewarm on the prospect of plunging the chamber into the chaos that engulfed the House last year after a group of GOP lawmakers rebelled against then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and forced his ouster over a deal he cut with Democrats and Biden to avert a shutdown. 

    “She is a legislative arsonist and she is holding the gas tank and Kevin McCarthy allowed that to happen – that’s not lost on anybody,” Aguilar said on Tuesday of Greene. “What we are saying is we don’t need to be a part of that. Let’s turn the page.” 

    In his quest to win the speakership in Jan. 2023, McCarthy yielded to demands of members of the party’s right flank to allow just one member to force a vote to oust the speaker.   

    Greene, in her post on X on Tuesday, added she was a “big believer” in recorded votes so that Americans can see what every member of Congress decides. 

    “If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the chance to do it,” Greene wrote, indicating she will not drop her bid to force a vote on ousting Johnson. 

    Greene has threatened to force a vote on the matter for weeks but has yet to say when she will act. 

    Johnson on Tuesday said he has not spoken to Jeffries about the prospect of saving his speakership.

    “I have to do my job,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference. “We have to do what we believe to be the right thing. What the country needs right now is a functioning Congress.”

    “I have to do what I believe is right every day and let the chips fall where they may,” the Louisiana Republican said. “We shouldn’t be playing politics and engaging in the chaos that looks like palace intrigue here.”

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    Justin Tasolides

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  • Biden tries humor on the campaign trail

    Biden tries humor on the campaign trail

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    President Joe Biden is out to win votes by scoring some laughs at the expense of Donald Trump, unleashing mockery with the goal of getting under the former president’s thin skin and reminding the country of his blunders.

    What You Need To Know

    • In recent campaign stops, President Joe Biden has used mockery with the goal of getting under the skin of former President Donald Trump, his prospective opponent in November’s election

    • Biden has been testing and expanding his jokes over the past few weeks; it started with jabs about his Republican opponent’s financial problems, now Biden regularly jeers Trump’s coiffed hair, his pampered upbringing and much more

    • The jokes are the latest attempt to crack the code on how to clap back at Trump, whose own schtick has redrawn the boundaries of what’s acceptable in modern politics

    • The Republican’s campaign said the insults will only intensify as Biden tries to give them a taste of their own medicine


    Like a comic honing his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and expanding his jokes over the past few weeks. It started with jabs about his Republican opponent’s financial problems, and now Biden regularly pokes fun at Trump’s coiffed hair, his pampered upbringing and his attempt to make a few extra bucks by selling a special edition of the Bible.

    The jokes are the latest attempt to crack the code on how to clap back at Trump, whose own insult comedy schtick has redrawn the boundaries of what is acceptable in modern politics. Few have had much luck, whether they try to take the high road or get down and dirty with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

    “This is a constant challenge,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. Trump is “not someone who plays by the rules. So it’s up to Biden to figure out how to adapt and play by new rules of engagement.”

    So far, Biden has been trying to thread a delicate needle to boost his chances of a second term. He uses humor to paint Trump as a buffoon unworthy of the Oval Office, but the president stops short of turning the election into a laughing matter.

    Sometimes he finds that a few jokes can energize an audience even more than a major policy victory and draw precious attention away from an opponent who otherwise commands the spotlight even while stuck in a New York courtroom for his first criminal trial.

    The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. After years of Trump constantly needling Biden as “sleepy” and mocking his age (Biden is 81, Trump is 77), Biden lobbed the insult back after Trump appeared to doze off in court. Trump’s campaign disputed that he was asleep, and with no video camera in place and trained on him there’s no way of knowing for sure.

    Still, Biden nicknamed his rival “Sleepy Don,” adding, “I kind of like that. I may use it again.”

    “Of course the 2024 election’s in full swing and, yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old.”

    Trump didn’t seem to appreciate the ribbing, posting on his social media platform that the dinner was “really bad” and Biden was “an absolute disaster.”

    But jokes at the annual black-tie affair, which also features a professional comedian (this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), are nothing new. The real meat of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he devotes a few moments to taking digs at Trump in between recitations of policy proposals and legislative accomplishments.

    “Remember when he was trying to deal with COVID? He suggested: Inject a little bleach in your vein,” Biden said Wednesday to a labor union, describing Trump’s guidance from the White House during the pandemic. “He missed. It all went to his hair.”

    In Tampa, Florida, the day before, he assailed Trump for the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned abortion protections — with three justices nominated by Trump voting in the majority of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — and then pivoted to the former president’s hawking of a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible.

    “He described the Dobbs decision as a ‘miracle,’” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell. Whoa. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it.”

    Biden rarely references Trump’s court cases, but jokes about financial problems that began soon after the former president was ordered to pay $454 million in a civil case in New York.

    “Just the other day,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Dallas last month, “a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, I need your help. I’m being crushed with debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ I had to say, ‘Donald, I can’t help you.’”

    Even when Biden tries his hand at humor, he rarely strays far from talking about policies. He likes to note that he signed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law — after his opponent failed to do so despite repeatedly holding White House events to drum up support for an idea that never materialized.

    “He promised ‘Infrastructure Week’ every week for four years and never built a damn thing,” Biden said this month to a group of laughing union members.

    The dilemma is that Trump, who tells voters the whole American political system is hopelessly corrupt, can get away with name-calling that would backfire on other candidates. During his rallies, Trump imitates Biden as a feeble old man who cannot find the stairs after giving a brief speech, and he calls the president “crooked” and “a demented tyrant.”

    The Republican’s campaign said the insults will only intensify as Biden tries to give them a taste of their own medicine.

    Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said Biden is “shuffling his feet like a short-circuited Roomba,” referring to the robot vacuum, while failing to address the “out-of-control border” and “runaway inflation.”

    Rick Tyler, who worked on the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2016, said voters have a double standard because expectations are different for Trump, who first became famous as a real estate developer and the star of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

    “Celebrities don’t really have standards, and Trump is in that lane,” Tyler said. For a politician going up against Trump, “it’s like trying to play a sport with the wrong equipment.”

    Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., found that out the hard way in the Republican primary in 2016. After Rubio joked about Trump having “small hands” — suggesting that another part of him was small, too — Trump swung back by saying, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”

    “Nobody has ever beaten Trump by getting in the ring with him,” said Alex Conant, communications director for Rubio’s campaign.

    Karen Finney, who advised Democrat Hillary Clinton in her 2016 White House run, said Trump can bait opponents into “communicating on his terms, not your terms.”

    “It’s the kind of thing where you have to have a balance,” she said. “You could spend all day just responding.”

    But if Trump’s humor is blunt, Biden sometimes tries to get the most mileage by staying subtle. During a Pittsburgh stop earlier this month, Biden spoke elliptically about Trump’s trial, betting his audience was already in on the joke.

    Trump, he said, is “a little busy right now.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Texas sues Biden admin. to stop expansion of Title IX protections

    Texas sues Biden admin. to stop expansion of Title IX protections

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    TEXAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday announced he has sued the Biden administration to stop the expansion of the gender equity law known as Title IX.

    What You Need To Know

    • Texas Attorney Generla Ken Paxton has sued the Biden administration over the expansion of the gender equity law known as Title IX

    • The changes were announced last week and are set to take effect in August 

    • According to the Department of Education, the update prohibits discrimination “based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs” 

    • Paxton, in a news release announcing the lawsuit, said “Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology”

    The Biden administration last week detailed changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender, LGBTQ+ and pregnant students to federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination. Those changes are set to take effect in August.

    Also set to change is a Trump-era guidance on how schools should handle cases of sexual assault.

    Specifically, according to a Department of Education fact sheet, the update prohibits discrimination “based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs.” That includes protections for transgender students.

    Paxton, in a news release announcing the lawsuit, characterized the changes as an attack on women.

    “Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton said. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”

    Paxton said America First Legal is serving as co-counsel. It’s president, Stephen Miller, who was senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, said the update will force women and girls to share locker rooms and bathrooms with assigned males at birth.

    “America First Legal is honored to stand with the great Ken Paxton and the State of Texas in filing this emergency lawsuit to stop Biden’s war on women. Biden’s new Title IX regulation is a vile obscenity: it forces women and girls to share locker rooms and restrooms with men,” Miller wrote.

    The 1,577-page regulation finalized last week seeks to clarify Title IX, the 1972 sex discrimination law originally passed to address women’s rights.

    At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from using girls’ and women’s bathrooms at public schools.

    The new regulation opposes those sweeping policies.

    It states that sex separation at schools isn’t always unlawful. However, the separation becomes a violation of Title IX’s nondiscrimination rule when it causes more than a very minor harm on a protected individual, “such as when it denies a transgender student access to a sex-separate facility or activity consistent with that student’s gender identity.”

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    Craig Huber

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  • Dozens in Italy give a fascist salute on anniversary of Mussolini’s execution

    Dozens in Italy give a fascist salute on anniversary of Mussolini’s execution

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    Dozens of people raised their arms in the fascist salute and shouted a fascist chant during ceremonies Sunday to honor Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution.

    Dressed in black, these nostalgics marched through northern Italian towns where Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II, and also in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place.

    What You Need To Know

    • Dozens of people in northern Italy have raised their arms in the fascist salute to honor Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the 79th anniversary of his execution
    • Dressed in black, the neo-fascist supporters marched through northern Italian towns where Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II
    • The anniversary Sunday fell on the same day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara
    • Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement, which was founded in 1946 by a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government and drew fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks


    Mussolini was stopped by anti-fascist partisans in Dongo, on the shores of Lake Como, on April 27, 1945, as he tried to escape with his lover, Clara Petacci, following the Allied liberation of Italy.

    On Sunday, a group of his supporters marched through Dongo and placed 15 roses in the lake in memory of the ministers and officials from the Mussolini government who were killed there, according to video of the event by LaPresse news agency.

    The partisans executed Mussolini and Petacci the following day in the nearby lakeside town of Mezzegra-Giulino, where commemorations were also held Sunday. After a rendition of Taps, the leader of the commemorations shouted “Comrad Benito Mussolini,” and the crowd responded with a stiff-armed fascist salute and chant of “present.”

    Several police trucks separated the demonstrators in Dongo from hundreds of protesters who sang the famous partisan song “Bella Ciao” during the ceremony.

    The anniversary of Mussolini’s execution fell on the same day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was leading her far-right Brothers of Italy party in an election rally in the city of Pescara. Brothers of Italy traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement, which was founded in 1946 by a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government and drew fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks after Mussolini’s fall.

    Meloni, who joined the MSI’s youth branch as a teenager, has tried to distance her party from its neo-fascist roots. She has condemned fascism’s suppression of democracy and insisted that the Italian right handed fascism over to history decades ago. On Sunday, Meloni accused the left of being more of a totalitarian threat to Italy today.

    She noted that Communist Party members had made a formal complaint about the tent structures built on the Pescara beachfront to host the Brothers of Italy rally, during which Meloni announced she would head the party’s campaign ahead of European Parliament elections in June.

    “I note that the Communist Party still exists, and I say so to show where the nostalgics for totalitarianism are in Italy today,” she said.

    She earned rounds of applause as she listed her government’s accomplishments since coming to power in 2022, and drew cheers when she reaffirmed her working-class roots.

    “If you still believe in me, just write ‘Giorgia’ on the ballot, because I am and always will be one of you,” she said.

    The message recalled one of her most famous campaign slogans, “I am Giorgia,” which emphasized her Christian nationalistic messaging and went onto become a viral meme and the title of her memoir.

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    Associated Press

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  • New litter of red wolf pups brings hope for most endangered wolf in the world

    New litter of red wolf pups brings hope for most endangered wolf in the world

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    For the first time since 2019, the Museum of Life and Science has welcomed a litter of red wolves, the world’s most endangered wolf.

    What You Need To Know

    • Durham’s Museum of Life and Science welcomed a litter of red wolves for the first time since 2019

    • The red wolf is the most endangered wolf in the world, with a combined population under 300 in the wild and captivity

    • The species was declared extinct in the wild in 1980, but 45 facilities around the U.S. have started breeding programs

    • The Museum of Life and Science received its first red wolf in 1992, and has seen five litters before this most recent one

    Seven pups were born at the museum on Sunday. All seven pups, four males and three females, were found to be in good health on Wednesday.

    “Their arrival is a beacon of hope for the species and a significant milestone in our conservation efforts,” the museum said in a press release.

    Oak and Adeyha, the first-time parents to the new litter, were identified by the museum last summer as a “high-value breeding pair.” The museum said their litter will help maintain genetic diversity in a red wolf population that has dwindled to fewer than 300 in the wild and under human care combined.

    Red wolves suffered a similar fate as gray wolves. Their population was decimated by predator control programs and degradation of their habitats.

    The species was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 after the last remaining red wolves were captured for a captive-breeding program. Once common throughout Eastern and South-Central United States, the Fish and Wildlife Service says only there are only 15 to 17 red wolves in the wild.

    Red wolves are currently classified as critically endangered. While they could once be found from Texas to New York, they are now confined to a small area in eastern North Carolina.

    It’s the sixth litter of red wolves born at the museum. (Museum of Life and Science)

    But there are around 250 red wolves in captivity at 45 captive breeding facilities throughout the United States, including the Museum of Life and Science in Durham.

    The museum received its first red wolf in 1992, and has since had five litters before this most recent one. Throughout the years, the museum has been home to over 50 red wolves and had more than 30 pups born.

    The museum’s Senior Director of Animal Care Sherry Samuels said that the parents and pups are healthy, and regular monitoring is scheduled throughout the next few weeks.

    “This summer promises to be filled with excitement as we watch this family grow,” Samuels said in a press release. “Patience and quiet observation will be key when observing our new pups.”

    The public could see the baby wolves late next month, but the museum says red wolves tend to be reserved around crowds and loud noises. Museum staff will be present throughout the summer to help the public respectfully observe the new family.

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    Walter Reinke

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  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim downing U.S. Reaper drone

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim downing U.S. Reaper drone

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    Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.

    What You Need To Know

    • Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones
    • They aired footage Saturday of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft. The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile
    • The U.S. military acknowledged to The Associated Press that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” It said an investigation is underway
    • The rebels have launched a renewed series of assaults this week after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war

    The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

    U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

    The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country’s Saada province.

    Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi’s slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

    The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

    Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday’s shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

    Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

    The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

    The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

    Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

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    Associated Press

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  • UAW, Daimler reach tentative deal for workers in N.C., Georgia and Tennessee

    UAW, Daimler reach tentative deal for workers in N.C., Georgia and Tennessee

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    CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The United Auto Workers announced a tentative deal with Daimler late Friday night covering thousands of workers at plants in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. 

    What You Need To Know

    • The United Auto Workers and Daimler have reached a tentative deal covering thousands of workers in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee

    • UAW President Shawn Fain announced the agreement late Friday night

    • The deal came a week after workers in Tennessee overwhelmingly voted for the first Southern auto union outside of the Big Three automakers

    UAW President Shawn Fain addressed over 7,000 workers live on Facebook at nearly 11 p.m. shortly before a contract with the Mercedes-Benz-owned company was set to expire.

    Daimler workers will get at least a 25% pay increase over four years, including a 10% raise immediately when the deal is ratified, Fain said. He hailed the contract as a “major victory for the members who build Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses.”

    It will end wage tiers, he said, enabling workers who make trucks and those who make buses to receive equal pay. He said the lowest-paid workers, who make buses at Thomas Built, which has its headquarters in High Point, N.C., will get pay bumps of over $8 an hour.

    Fain said the deal includes profit sharing and a cost of living adjustment to protect workers against inflation.

    The four-year agreement — which covers workers at plants in North Carolina as well as distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis, Tennessee — will go to union members for approval.

    “The UAW members at these locations will now be asked to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties,” Daimler said in a statement. 

    The UAW says its workers face declining real wages as the cost of living increases. “Daimler’s profits have increased by 90% while workers’ buying power has fallen 13%,” the UAW said in a press release.

    The agreement comes after a month of negotiations with the company. Daimler workers had voted by 96% to authorize a strike.

    Fain was joined in Charlotte by the UAW Daimler Truck North America Bargaining Committee for the livestreamed address.

    The UAW filed four unfair labor practice charges against Daimler on Tuesday. The charges allege, among other things, that the company retaliated and discriminated against union members, interfered with workers’ right to organize and has not bargained with the UAW in good faith.

    “Daimler Truck thinks it can intimidate us by trampling on our rights,” said UAW DTNA Council President Kenny Dellinger in a press release. “These unfair labor practice charges are a necessary step. It’s time for Daimler Truck to get serious about negotiating a record contract without violating the law.” 

    All of this comes on the heels of a historic victory for the UAW. Workers from a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted April 19 to join the UAW, becoming the first Southern autoworkers outside of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Stellantis) to win a union. 

    North Carolina has the second lowest unionized rate in the country, followed closely by Georgia at sixth and Tennessee at 13th. 

    Workers at Mercedes factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the 18th least unionized state, could become the next Southern factory to join the UAW. An election is set for May. 

    Six Southern Republican governors, including Tennessee’s, Georgia’s and South Carolina’s, signed onto a statement on the eve of the union vote in Chattanooga, saying that unions would be a detriment to manufacturing in their states and lead to job cuts. 

    The UAW won 25% raises for autoworkers in Detroit last year. With cost of living increases, the raises will reach 33% by the end of those contracts. 

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    Associated Press

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  • Sen. Alex Padilla emerges as persistent counterforce for immigrants

    Sen. Alex Padilla emerges as persistent counterforce for immigrants

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden had a question.

    “Is it true?” Biden asked Sen. Alex Padilla, referencing the roughly 25% of U.S. students in kindergarten through high school who are Latino. Padilla said the question came as he was waiting with the president in a back room at a library in Culver City, California before an event in February.

    What You Need To Know

    • He is the son of Mexican immigrants and first Latino to represent his state in the Senate

    • Padilla has emerged as a persistent force at a time when Democrats are increasingly focused on border security and the country’s posture toward immigrants is uncertain

    • Padilla has urged the president and fellow Democrats to hold firm to the position that border enforcement measures be paired with reforms for immigrants who are already in the country

    • During Senate negotiations earlier this year over border policy, Padilla asserted himself as the leader of congressional opposition from the left

    It was exactly the kind of opening Padilla was hoping to get with the Democratic president. Biden was weighing his reelection campaign, executive actions on immigration and what to do about a southern border that has been marked by historic numbers of illegal crossings during his tenure.

    Padilla wanted to make sure Biden also took into account the potential of the country’s immigrants. “Mr. President, do you know what I call them, those students?” Padilla recalled saying. “It’s the workforce of tomorrow.”

    It was just one of the many times Padilla, who at 52 years old is now the senior senator of California, has taken the opportunity — from face-to-face moments with the president to regular calls with top White House staff and sometimes outspoken criticism — to put his stamp on the Democratic Party’s approach to immigration.

    The son of Mexican immigrants and first Latino to represent his state in the Senate, Padilla has emerged as a persistent force at a time when Democrats are increasingly focused on border security and the country’s posture toward immigrants is uncertain.

    Illegal immigration is seen as a growing political crisis for Democrats after authorities both at the border and in cities nationwide have struggled to handle recent surges. The party may also be losing favor with Hispanic voters amid disenchantment with Biden. But Padilla, in a series of interviews with The Associated Press, expressed a deep reserve of optimism about his party’s ability to win support both from and for immigrant communities.

    “Don’t be afraid, don’t be reluctant to talk about immigration. Lean into it,” Padilla said. “Because number one, it’s the morally right thing to do. Number two, it is key to the strength, the security and the future of our country.”

    The senator has tried to anchor his fellow Democrats to that stance even as the politics of immigration grow increasingly toxic. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has said immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood” of the country and accused Biden of allowing a “bloodbath” at the southern border. Biden, meanwhile, has shifted to the right at times in both the policies and language he is willing to use as illegal border crossings become a vulnerability for his reelection bid.

    Such was the case when Biden, during his State of the Union address, entered into an unscripted exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, and referred to a Venezuelan man accused of killing a nursing student in Georgia as an “illegal” — a term anathema to immigration rights advocates.

    After the speech, Padilla discussed the moment with Rep. Tony Cárdenas in the apartment they share in Washington. Cárdenas said their conversation turned to how they wanted politicians to avoid labeling migrants as “illegals” because it deprived them of dignity.

    Padilla told him he would call the White House.

    “He’s is the kind of person who steps in and steps up, and, you know, he’s tactical about it,” Cárdenas said.

    It’s a difficult role to play, especially as Democrats try to shore up what’s seen as a weakness on border security in the battleground states that will determine control of the White House and Congress.

    Even in California, Republicans have been emboldened on immigration as they try to reassert statewide relevance, said Mark Meuser, a lawyer who lost elections against Padilla for the Senate in 2022 and California Secretary of State in 2018. He argued top California Democrats like Padilla “are driving hard towards the extreme edges of their party.”

    Padilla has urged the president and fellow Democrats to hold firm to the position that border enforcement measures be paired with reforms for immigrants who are already in the country.

    During Senate negotiations earlier this year over border policy, Padilla asserted himself as the leader of congressional opposition from the left.

    Padilla, along with four other Democratic-aligned senators, eventually voted against advancing the package, ensuring its failure as Republicans also rejected it.

    “He is a lone voice but it is a courageous voice in the Senate,” said Vanessa Cardenas, who leads the immigration advocacy organization America’s Voice.

    It’s been a quick ascent for Padilla, who is just beginning his fourth year in Congress. Yet for Padilla, it’s the very reason he entered politics in the first place.

    When he graduated in 1994 with an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was a dream fulfilled for his parents — his father a short order cook and his mother a house cleaner. But he was soon drawn into politics as the state’s attention turned to Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that was approved to deny education, health care and other non-emergency services to immigrants who entered the country illegally.

    It was branded by supporters as the Save Our State Initiative. Padilla still remembers the ads for the campaign.

    “Trying to try to blame a downward economy on the hardest working people that I know was offensive and an outrage,” he said.

    Now he sees parallels between California in the 1990s, which approved the ballot measure but then had it invalidated in federal court, and the wider country today: changing demographics, economic uncertainty and political opportunists “scapegoating” immigrants.

    Yet it also spurred the state’s Latinos to get involved politically. To Padilla, there’s no coincidence that California, the state with the most immigrants, now boasts the nation’s largest economy and is a stronghold for Democrats.

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    Associated Press

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  • JPMorgan’s Dimon says stagflation is possible outcome for U.S. economy

    JPMorgan’s Dimon says stagflation is possible outcome for U.S. economy

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    JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says stagflation could be one of a number of possible outcomes for the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve attempts to tame stubbornly high consumer prices.

    In an interview with The Associated Press at a Chase branch opening in The Bronx, Dimon said he remained “cautious” about the U.S. economy and said inflation may be stickier for longer and that “stagflation is on the list of possible things” that could happen to the U.S. economy.

    What You Need To Know

    • Stagflation is one of a number of possible outcomes for the U.S. economy, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Friday

    • He is “cautious” about the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve attempts to tame stubbornly high consumer prices

    • Inflation may be stickier for longer

    • Dimon said he is still hopeful for the U.S. economy to experience a soft landing

    “You should be worried about (the possibility of stagflation),” Dimon said.

    Dimon did emphasize that he’s still “hopeful” for the U.S. economy to experience a soft landing, where growth slows but the economy avoids a recession even if inflation remains a little high, but he’s not certain it’s the most likely outcome.

    “I’m just a little more dubious than others that a (soft landing) is a given,” he said.

    The Fed rapidly raised interest rates in 2022 and 2023 after inflation reached the highest level in four decades. Fed officials have indicated they expect to begin lowering rates at some point, but the timeline has been pushed back as inflation remains well above the central bank’s target rate of 2%.

    Dimon spoke to the AP on a range of issues, including the independence of the Federal Reserve, the health of the U.S. consumer, the need for banks to open branches and the pressing geopolitical issues of the day.

    Inflation has been stubbornly elevated so far this year, and a report Thursday showing growth slowed in the first three months of this year fanned fears of “stagflation,” which occurs when the economy is weak, or in recession, yet prices keep moving higher. It’s a particularly miserable combination of economic circumstances, with high unemployment occurring along with rising costs. Typically, a sluggish economy brings down inflation.

    Stagflation last occurred in the 1970s, when conditions were far worse than today. In 1975, for example, inflation topped 10% while the unemployment rate peaked at 9%. Inflation is now 3.5% and unemployment just 3.8%, near a half-century low. If stagflation did occur, Dimon said he believes it would not be as bad as it was in the 1970s.

    Fears of stagflation eased Friday after a government report showed consumer spending stayed strong in March, suggesting the economy will keep expanding at a solid pace in the coming months.

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    Associated Press

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  • Milk is safe, despite bird flu fragments, FDA says

    Milk is safe, despite bird flu fragments, FDA says

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    The Food and Drug Administration said the U.S. milk supply is safe, despite this week’s finding of bird flu fragments in 20% of commercial milk samples.

    The majority of milk samples that tested positive for the strain of avian flu known as H5N1 were in areas with infected dairy herds.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Food and Drug Administration said the U.S. milk supply is safe

    • Testing earlier this week found bird flu fragments in 20% of commercial milk samples

    • The FDA said pasteurization and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows has kept the U.S. milk supply safe

    • The agency continues to conduct tests

    “To date, the retail milk studies have shown no results that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said Thursday.

    The FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture said pasteurization and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows has kept the U.S. milk supply safe.

    On Tuesday, the USDA said it had found the H5N1 virus in livestock in Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas.

    Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as bird or avian flu, can be transmitted by wild birds to domestic poultry and other bird and animal species, the FDA said. They do not normally infect humans, though sporadic infections in people have occurred.

    The FDA is currently conducting egg inoculation tests to determine if infectious virus is present in milk. Early research from the National Institutes of Health indicates there is no infectious virus in milk sold commercially.

    “Positive results do not necessarily represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers,” the FDA said in a statement on its website. “Additional testing is required to determine whether intact pathogen is still present and if it remains infectious, which would help inform a determination of whether there is any risk of illness associated with consuming the product.”

    The Centers for Disease Control has not found any cases of H5N1 beyond the one known case related to direct contact with infected cattle.

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbs for fourth week

    Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbs for fourth week

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    The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level since late November, another setback for home shoppers in what’s traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of the year.

    What You Need To Know

    • The average long-term mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level since late November 

    • The rate rose to 7.17% from 7.1% last week, according to Freddie Mac

    • A year ago, the 30-year mortgage rate averaged 6.43%

    • The rate increase is a setback for homeshoppers in what is traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of year

    The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.17% from 7.1% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.43%.

    Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week, lifting the average rate to 6.44% from 6.39% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.71%, Freddie Mac said.

    When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford at a time when the U.S. housing market remains constrained by relatively few homes for sale and rising home prices.

    The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has now increased four weeks in a row. The latest uptick brings it to its highest level since November 30, when it was 7.22%.

    After climbing to a 23-year high of 7.79% in October, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had remained below 7% since early December amid expectations that inflation would ease enough this year for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its short-term interest rate.

    Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Fed’s interest rate policy and the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

    Home loan rates have been mostly drifting higher after a string of reports this year showing inflation remaining hotter than forecast, which has stoked doubts over how soon the Fed might decide to start lowering its benchmark interest rate. The uncertainty has pushed up bond yields.

    Top Fed officials themselves have said recently they could hold interest rates high for a while before getting full confidence inflation is heading down toward their target of 2%.

    The rise in mortgage rates in recent weeks is an unwelcome trend for home shoppers this spring homebuying season. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last month as homebuyers contended with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices.

    While easing mortgage rates helped push home sales higher in January and February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage remains well above 5.1%, where it was two years ago.

    That large gap between rates now and then has helped limit the number of previously occupied homes on the market because many homeowners who bought or refinanced more than two years ago are reluctant to sell and give up their fixed-rate mortgages below 3% or 4% — a trend real estate experts refer to as the “lock-in” effect.

    “The jump in mortgage rates has taken the wind out of the sails of the mortgage market,” said Bob Broeksmit, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Along with weaker affordability conditions, the lock-in effect continues to suppress existing inventory levels as many homeowners remain unwilling to sell their home to buy a new one at a higher price and mortgage rate.”

    Homebuilders have been able to mitigate the impact of elevated home loan borrowing costs this year by offering incentives, such as covering the cost to lower the mortgage rate homebuyers take on. That’s helped spur sales of newly built single-family homes, which jumped 8.8% in March from a year earlier, according to the Commerce Department.

    “With rates staying higher for longer, many homebuyers are adjusting, as evidenced by this week’s report that sales of newly built homes saw the biggest increase since December 2022,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

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    Associated Press

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  • Live Updates: Trump hush money trial resumes

    Live Updates: Trump hush money trial resumes

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    Opening statements began Monday in the hush money trial against Donald Trump, the first criminal case against a former president in U.S. history, after a full jury was selected last week. Witness testimony continues Thursday.

    Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records around purported efforts to cover up his alleged infidelity with an adult film actress during his 2016 presidential campaign. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

     

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    Spectrum News Staff

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  • U.S. growth slowed last quarter to 1.6% pace

    U.S. growth slowed last quarter to 1.6% pace

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    The United States’ economy slowed last quarter, growing at an annual rate of 1.6% in a sign that the high interest rates may be taking a toll on borrowing and spending.

    Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — decelerated from its brisk 3.4% growth rate in the final three months of 2023. Consumers continued to drive growth last quarter but slowed their spending. Growth was also held back by businesses reducing their inventories.

    The state of the U.S. economy has seized Americans’ attention as the election season has intensified. Although inflation has slowed sharply, to 3.5% from 9.1% in 2022, prices remain well above their pre-pandemic levels.

    Republican critics of President Joe Biden have sought to pin responsibility for high prices on Biden and use it as a cudgel to derail his reelection bid. And polls show that despite the healthy job market, a near-record-high stock market and the sharp pullback in inflation, many Americans blame Biden for high prices.

    This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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    Associated Press

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  • Biden administration announces new National Zero-Emission Freight Strategy

    Biden administration announces new National Zero-Emission Freight Strategy

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    Trucks, railroads and ships used to transport freight will be set on a path to zero emissions, under an ambitious new plan the Biden administration announced Wednesday.

    As part of President Biden’s goal of reaching net-zero transportation emissions by 2050, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and Department of Energy announced nearly $1.5 billion in funding for various programs to transition freight from diesel to zero-emission electrics.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Biden administration announced a new National Zero-Emission Freight Strategy to reduce emissions from trucks, railroads and cargo ships

    • The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and Department of Transportation announced almost $1.5 billion in funding to help the transition

    • The Biden administration has set a goal of net-zero transportation emissions by 2050

    • Trucks and buses account for almost a quarter of emissions from the transportation sector, which is the largest source of polluting emisisons in the United States

    Using a whole-of-government approach, the new National Zero-Emission Freight Strategy is focused on addressing hot spots for air pollution. Every day, trucks, ships, trains and planes move about 55 million tons of goods, according to a White House fact sheet. Trucks and buses make up almost a quarter of emissions from the transportation sector, which is the largest source of polluting emissions in the U.S.

    To help replace diesel-powered school buses, trash trucks and delivery trucks, the Environmental Protection Agency announced almost $1 billion for cities, states and tribes to replace such vehicles with zero-emissions models and to create fueling infrastructure and workforce development to help build it.

    To help reduce truck pollution at the nation’s ports, the Department of Transportation announced $400 million in grants, while the Department of Energy announced a $72 million investment to create a program for integrating electric heavy-duty trucks with the power grid to increase resiliency.

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • Less sugar and salt is on the menu for school meals under new USDA rules

    Less sugar and salt is on the menu for school meals under new USDA rules

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    Schools will need to phase in meals with less sugar and salt under new nutrition standards the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. The new rules will phase in gradually between fall 2025 and fall 2027.

    What You Need To Know

    • Schools will need to limit sugar and salt in meals under new nutrition requirements the USDA announced Wednesday

    • The new standards call for limiting added sugars in cereals, yogurts and flavored milks by fall 2025

    • Sodium will need to be reduced 10% in breakfast and 15% in lunches by fall 2027

    • Around 30 million children receive breakfasts and lunches at K-12 schools currently

    “This is designed to ensure that students have quality meals and that we meet parents’ expectation that their children are receiving healthy and nutritious meals at school,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday during a briefing on the new rules.

    The new nutrition standards call for limiting added sugars in cereals, yogurts and flavored milks by fall 2025 and reducing sodium 10% in breakfasts and 15% in lunches by fall 2027. Beginning this fall, schools will also have the option of requiring unprocessed agricultural products to be locally grown, raised or caught when purchased for school meal programs.

    “The goal here is to make sure that we are doing everything we can to be supportive of our own producers and our own industry,” Vilsack said.

    Schools will have limits on the percentage of non-American grown and produced foods they can purchase starting with the 2025-2026 school year. Non-American foods will be capped at 10% in fall 2025 and reduce to 8% by fall 2028 and 5% by fall 2031.

    The USDA expects the new rules will result in a 1% cost increase over the next 10 years.

    About 30 million children receive breakfasts and lunches at K-12 schools. The USDA says school meals are the main source of nutrition for more than half of the children who receive them.

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    Susan Carpenter

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