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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/31/covid-funding-deal-congress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_politics
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If passed in its current form, the $10 billion deal would represent a significant disappointment for the White House, which had publicly campaigned for at least $22 billion in new funds and would probably be forced to scale back elements of its planned response. But lawmakers are facing a rapidly approaching deadline, with Congress soon taking a two-week break, and administration officials warning that they are effectively out of cash for urgent coronavirus needs. The federal government has already begun to wind down a program to cover the costs of health-care providers that give coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccinations to uninsured Americans, an initiative that officials said has cost about $2 billion per month.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told The Washington Post he was “optimistic” a final deal would be reached, a stance echoed by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in remarks on the Senate floor.
“We are getting close to a final agreement that would garner bipartisan support,” Schumer said, adding that lawmakers were “working diligently” to agree on a package that would address both domestic and global needs.
Romney, who said the money would come from unspent funds in previous stimulus packages, added that he expected a vote on the deal next week.
About half of the money would go for covid therapeutics, while the other half would be at the “discretion” of the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters. A Republican aide said that $750 million was being eyed for research and development of new vaccines and treatments.
Several GOP lawmakers said about $1 billion in funding would be set aside to support global vaccinations — down from the White House’s $5 billion request for global aid. But that number appeared to be in flux, with several Democrats on Thursday arguing for considerably more and lawmakers acknowledging that they were still negotiating.
“If there was a deal, I think we’d be voting on it,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chamber’s No. 2 Republican.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) has been among the lawmakers pushing to include some funding for the global response after some lawmakers moved to drop it completely. “There [are] 2.5 billion people unvaccinated in the world, and that is an ongoing daily risk to the United States,” Coons said.
The funding package’s collapse three weeks ago prompted U.S. officials to warn that they had exhausted funds to purchase vaccines, antiviral treatments and other supplies, putting the nation at risk. The White House has already reduced the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments to states by 35 percent because of the lack of pandemic funding. Congress is also set to begin a two-week recess on April 9, raising fears that failing to secure a deal now could stall the U.S. response into May.
“Congress, please act. You have to act immediately,” President Biden said in a speech on Wednesday, saying that officials had already been forced to delay or cancel planned orders for covid treatments. “The consequences of inaction are severe. They’ll only grow with time, but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
A Biden administration plan to help vaccinate the world will also soon run out of money, administration officials said. That plan, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development, would boost the infrastructure for administering vaccinations in developing nations, which officials say will curb the risk of variants emerging overseas and leading to outbreaks in the United States.
“Without more funding … the United States would have to turn its back on countries that need urgent help to boost their vaccination rates,” Atul Gawande, who leads global health at USAID, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “We can’t let this happen. It not only endangers people abroad, but also risks the health and prosperity of all Americans. The virus is not waiting on Congress to negotiate; it is infecting people and mutating as we speak.”
Some Democrats have called for as much as $17 billion in global covid aid and criticized congressional leaders for backing away from international commitments.
“I recall the president saying that the United States should be, would be, the ‘arsenal of vaccines,’ ” said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), vice chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “And I’m extremely disappointed that ever since that statement, and at every possible opportunity, this has been de-prioritized.” Malinowski said he would not support a funding package if it did not include some money for the global response.
For weeks, the White House has publicly sought more than $22 billion for the response, although Biden officials in early January had privately concluded that they needed as much as $80 billion in additional covid aid for vaccines, therapeutics and other supplies.
By early March, congressional leaders had settled on about $15.6 billion and sought to attach that to a broader package to fund the government, an effort to ensure passage of the coronavirus aid.
But some House Democrats were upset over one of the financing mechanisms — an effort to claw back money for state governments to address their pandemic needs. The uproar caused House leaders to strip the coronavirus aid from the deal.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), the chairman of the National Governors Association, said it would have been unfair to rescind money states had been counting on. But he said he still wanted Congress to clinch a deal on more aid, as long as it was fully paid for.
“The last thing that Americans would expect is that we get caught flat-footed again,” Hutchinson said in an interview last week. “The administration says that takes additional funding. I take them at face value for those comments, and so then we got to figure out where that money’s going to come from.”
Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.
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Administration officials acknowledged this week that the move could significantly increase the record number of people trying to cross the southern border, where arrests by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have soared to an all-time high.
The decision, which is expected to be announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, puts Biden in a familiar political bind on an issue he has long struggled to navigate. Liberals are dissatisfied because they called for an end to use of the order, known as Title 42, months ago, while vulnerable centrist Democrats fret that he will further expose the party to attacks from Republicans who say he has not effectively controlled the border.
“There are just some issues in which there’s just no easy policy or political way to resolve them. This is one of those,” said Doug Sosnik, who was a policy and political adviser to President Bill Clinton.
Some Democrats gearing up for competitive races are already distancing themselves from the administration’s plans. The tension was evident in the response from Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who sent a letter to Biden urging him not to lift the order without a more robust blueprint in place for dealing with the aftermath.
“There is still not an adequate plan or sufficient coordination to end Title 42,” Kelly said in a statement after a conversation with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
In a preview of the midterm attacks Republicans plan to intensify this fall, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attacked Biden over the border in a speech on the Senate floor. “Throwing the floodgates open for an historic spring and summer of illegal immigration would be an unforced error of historic proportions,” said McConnell, who also brought up inflation and Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield distanced Biden from the decision to stop enforcing Title 42, saying “this is a decision that the CDC will make.” But she added, “We are preparing for contingencies. And so what I would say is, you know, our goal is going to be to process migrants in a safe and orderly manner.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) offered a mixed response to a draft plan to wind down the directive that had circulated earlier this week, applauding the end of Title 42 but urging swifter movement.
“This is simply unacceptable given they have had more than a year to prepare,” Menendez said in a statement to The Washington Post. “They should not wait nearly two months before ending Title 42 in its entirety, but rather start doing so in phases.”
The plan the White House is expected to adopt would not fully lift Title 42 until late May, which critics point out is roughly tantamount to another 60-day renewal. By setting the date in late May, the administration would have time to reassess its plans if a new coronavirus variant becomes a greater threat to public health.
Menendez said that the May deadline provides potential migrants with a target date to arrive and might incentivize even more people to come here, known to immigration policy wonks as a “pull factor”: “For an Administration afraid of creating ‘pull factors’, I fear their delay may create the biggest pull factor of them all,” Menendez said.
He discussed the issue briefly in a call Wednesday with Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s top aides, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. The call was focused on Menendez’s desire to get some time with the president to discuss a long-stalled effort to revamp the country’s immigration system, the person said.
Biden officials are making worst-case contingency plans for daily border arrests to more than double from the current volume of more than 7,000 daily apprehensions. They are hiring contractors to add tent facilities that can help process migrants faster, along with additional buses and aircraft to transfer migrants away from the border. And they have established a command center at Department of Homeland Security headquarters staffed by interagency teams that include Federal Emergency Management Administration officials who have handled major disasters.
Still unclear, however, is how the administration might structure a phased approach to ending Title 42 that would lift the restrictions on families first, and single adults later. Single adults are a far bigger challenge: records show migrants arriving as part of a family group accounted for just 16 percent of those taken into custody in February along the southern border.
Either way, Biden faces an uphill climb when it comes to public opinion. A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that just 33 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s handling of immigration. The only area where the president had a lower rating was on guns, where just 27 percent approved.
Even voters in areas far from the border are attuned to immigration. In Wisconsin, which could have one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, 36 percent of voters said they were “very concerned” over illegal immigration, according to a February Marquette Law School poll.
The Title 42 order has been in place since March 2020, when the Trump administration said emergency restrictions were needed to protect U.S. agents, migrants and the public from the spread of the coronavirus inside crowded border stations and detention cells.
The order gave U.S. Customs and Border Protection the ability to summarily “expel” border crossers to their home countries or to Mexico, denying most asylum seekers the right to apply for humanitarian refuge in the United States. CBP has used Title 42 to carry out more than 1.7 million expulsions over the past 24 months, records show.
The vast majority of those quick deportations have occurred under Biden, who ran for president promising a repudiation of President Donald Trump’s enforcement approach at the border.
After taking office, Biden halted construction of the border wall, ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy and sharply scaled back deportations and arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other measures. But he also said his administration would keep “guardrails” in place to avoid having “2 million people on our border.”
Title 42 remained the most significant border policy holdover from Trump. On Thursday, Democratic unity against Trump’s policies gave way to some infighting, creating an additional challenge for Democrats as they seek to show voters they are a unified party.
“It’s an abomination that the Biden administration did not lift Title 42 a long time ago,” said former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro. “They have been playing craven politics with the lives of desperate people and using public health as an excuses for political expediency.”
“Many of us applaud opening our arms to Ukrainians who are absolutely deserving,” Castro said. “But so are Haitians. So are many Central Americans.”
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a centrist who is frequently at odds with the president, reiterated his view that Biden should leave the health order in place.
His comments, reported by CNN, caused a rare public squabble between two Democratic senators. Using social media, Menendez called out his colleague: “Let’s not adopt the ‘they are not sending their best’ hate speech from the right, Joe,” Menendez tweeted.
On the Republican side, some lawmakers used Biden’s decision to highlight what they see as a larger and more intractable immigration framework. But others in the party did not hold back from criticizing Biden.
“There will be a deluge at our southern border!” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) in a House floor speech this week.
The Biden administration’s dependency on Title 42 deepened as border crossings soared during the spring of 2021. The president initially described the influx as a “seasonal” norm, but by summer 2021 CBP was reporting more than 200,000 border arrests per month.
The agency reported 1.73 million arrests during the 2021 fiscal year, the highest figure ever recorded. The current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, is on pace to eclipse that with the exact scenario Biden said he wanted to avoid, bringing “2 million people” into CBP custody.
Immigrant advocates and some Democrats called on Biden to end the expulsions and restore full asylum access, but instead his administration opted to make exemptions for vulnerable groups: unaccompanied minors, individuals with medical issues and later, most family groups.
That produced an enforcement regime at the border that was neither the kind of aggressive application of Title 42 witnessed under Trump nor a return to full asylum access, leaving immigrant advocates angry at Biden, but his border policies approach far less restrictive than his predecessor’s.
Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
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“But we know it’s hard when there are those out there that don’t see you and don’t respect you,” Biden added.
In addition to promoting policies benefiting the community, Biden’s White House hosted Amy Schneider, the most successful transgender woman to compete on “Jeopardy!,” as part of the celebrations. Just months after her record-breaking run on the show, Schneider met with Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Harris, to discuss the importance of advancing transgender visibility and equality.
She told reporters that the uptick in legislation prohibiting transgender youths from participating in school sports and banning teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues is “really scary.”
“Some of them in particular that are denying medical services to trans youth [are] really sad to me, and it’s really frightening,” Schneider said. But hope is not lost, she added.
“I think that this backlash right now is temporary,” she added. “It’s not going to be too long before these sorts of bills are seen as a thing of the past.”
The administration’s spotlight on these issues comes as several Republican-led states have passed laws and bills that erode protections for transgender people.
The White House announced Thursday that it would take steps to improve travel for transgender people.
Starting April 11, all U.S. citizens will be allowed to select an “X” as their gender marker on their passport applications. This move is aimed at expanding access to accurate identification documents for transgender and nonbinary people.
And the Transportation Security Administration will soon update its scanners with more accurate technology that will reduce the need for the pat-downs and additional screenings that are often required for many transgender travelers.
The Biden administration hopes to expand the “X” gender marker option to airlines and federal travel programs and to make it easier for transgender people to change their gender information in Social Security Administration records.
Andrea Hong Marra, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of the groups meeting with the White House, called the Biden administration “the most active in history” in supporting the transgender and nonbinary community.
“Our friends in the administration have held the door open to ensure we always know we matter and to translate that respect into policies that protect our rights,” she said.
Much of the White House’s attention will focus on transgender kids, some of whom will join their parents at the White House to meet Emhoff and Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health and the first openly transgender person to hold an office requiring Senate confirmation.
Biden said attempts to ban transgender youths from sports, outlaw conversations about the LGBTQ community in classrooms and criminalize medical care for transgender youths undermine America’s values.
Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called on “licensed professionals” along with “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender youths to state authorities if their children appear to be receiving gender-affirming medical care.
Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, signed a bill Wednesday that will prevent transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams. The Republican also signed legislation outlawing gender confirmation surgery for any person younger than 18.
Biden called these types of bills “wrong.”
“Studies have shown that these political attacks are damaging to the mental health and well-being of transgender youth, putting children and their families at greater risk of bullying and discrimination,” Biden said.
Anne Branigin contributed to this report.
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Of course, you don’t have to fill those jugs with milk. You could fill them with, say, oil. Four gallons of oil sitting there on your living room carpet, contained by thin plastic. Not the best decision, but useful as an illustration.
I was curious, given the Biden administration’s plan to release oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, exactly how much oil the United States keeps on hand. So I figured I’d convert it into something I can appreciate, like those milk jugs.
This did not work as intended.
As would be expected, the United States has a lot of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. As of March 25, 568.3 million barrels, to be specific. And since each barrel contains the equivalent of 42 gallons of oil, that means that the United States has at its disposal 23.9 billion gallons of oil.
An amount that would take an awful long time to pour into 23.9 billion gallon milk jugs.
But now we do our math. If we were to fill those milk jugs and line them up for the nation’s eventual strategic use, we’d create a line of jugs about 63,000 miles long. Enough to run the distance of the Great Wall of China, and back, and then to the end again, and back and then almost back to the far end once again. If we arranged them in a square, it would cover about 35 square miles, a bit more than half of the entire area of D.C.
This is not a smart way to store this oil, of course, since it wastes so much space. Instead, we would be wise to stack the milk jugs vertically as well, so that we don’t use so much space. If we shaped our milk jugs holding our oil — about 3,400 jugs wide and long and a bit over 2,000 jugs high, we’d have a nice little cube that would sit almost perfectly on the square that surrounds the U.S. Capitol.
If President Biden were to leave the White House and head to a building across the street to regard the petroleum reserve in its Capitol-submerging milk-jug format, it would look like this.
Of course, this storage process does introduce a few foreseeable problems. The Capitol would be unusable, for example, which has both positive and negative repercussions. It would be pretty common for some of those jugs to spring a leak, and quite a problem if one in the middle of the cube were to do so. Not to mention that it is not particularly smart to build a strategic reserve of something in a way that a ne’er-do-well could sabotage dramatically with a BB gun. So, as it turns out, this is not how the government stores all of that oil.
What it does instead is store it in four locations around the Gulf Coast. Were it held in oil silos, those cylindrical structures you see around refineries, it would require nearly 64,000 such silos to contain the country’s current reserve — a massive amount requiring a massive amount of infrastructure. (If the reserve were filled to its allowed limit of 714 million barrels, we’d need nearly 80,000 silos.) Those structures, too, would be at risk of damage.
Instead, we store that oil underground. It’s pretty ingenious, really; when the reserve was created, the government used water to carve massive caverns out of underground salt deposits, forcing water in and extracting a saltwater brine to create space for the oil. The largest storage facility, Bryan Mound in Freeport, Tex., has 19 caverns in which more than 247 million barrels can be stored.
A 1977 proposal to build the site explains how the oil would be inserted and removed. A nested set of tubes pushes oil in and allows brine to escape. (Oil, as you’ll recall from making pasta and/or school, floats on water.) Then, when oil is needed, water is injected and the oil forced up and out.
We can do some back-of-the-envelope math to figure out that the caverns at Bryan Mound are about 64,400 cubic yards big on average. That’s about a fifth of the size of the Hindenburg.
Biden has authorized the release of up to a million barrels of oil a day through the country’s network of pipelines. Were he instead to have it put in 42 million milk jugs, it would be enough to fit in somewhere north of 5,000 semi tractor-trailers.
Bringing a convoy like that to the capital every day, it’s safe to say, would shut things down.
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A year later, the anti-expert instinct Trump had fostered began to show in a different context. States with more Joe Biden voters began seeing much higher rates of vaccination than states that had preferred Trump. The former president’s advocacy was halting and constrained, recognizing that there was more political value in standing against the “so-called experts” than in trying to persuade people to protect themselves against the virus. So his most fervent supporters went looking for more miracles. Florida embraced those antibody treatments. Others began to hype the drug ivermectin.
There was never any evidence that ivermectin was particularly effective at treating coronavirus infections. A smattering of studies suggested that there might be some benefit, but they were limited in scale. By March 2021, the Food and Drug Administration was warning that it hadn’t found any demonstrable benefit from taking the drug to treat covid. But then the delta variant of the coronavirus began to spread, causing particular devastation in states that were less vaccinated and, relatedly, had shown more support for Trump. So many people in those areas sought out ivermectin, convinced that some cure existed beyond the highly effective vaccine promoted by the Biden administration and the “experts.”
We now know with a great deal of confidence that ivermectin does not show any appreciable benefit in treating covid-19. In fact, “volunteers who took ivermectin in the first three days after a positive coronavirus test turned out to have worse outcomes than did those in the placebo group,” as the New York Times reported.
What we don’t know is how many lives might have been lost because of the politicization of ivermectin as an anti-establishment alternative to treatments that did prevent death.
There is no real question that right-wing political leaders touted ivermectin specifically as a way to score partisan points. Consider Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) rhetoric last December.
“Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, & other treatments are saving lives,” she wrote on Twitter. " …[O]ur response to #COVID19 should be working towards ending obesity, promote covid treatments that are proven to work, & stop the politically driven mass hysteria.”
“Allow people to choose natural immunity or vaccines, w/o discrimination,” she added. Her account was later suspended for repeatedly sharing coronavirus misinformation.
That formulation — vaccines vs. “natural immunity” gained by catching and recovering from the virus — is key. To justify rejecting effective vaccines, you need to both denigrate the vaccines’ efficacy and propose an alternative. That was the role ivermectin played: It was hyped as something you could take to feel better in the event you caught the virus. Then you get “natural immunity” and you’re covered as well as if you had been vaccinated — if you lived.
The challenge, of course, is that many people didn’t live. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that about 163,000 people died during the delta surge because they weren’t vaccinated. Those deaths were disproportionately in places that had preferred Donald Trump in 2020.
The effect of encouraging people to rely on ivermectin was the same as asking them to rely on wishing upon a star: Some would live and might credit ivermectin for their survival. But that was simply coincidental. Those who might have lived had they been vaccinated were not around to instruct people that ivermectin didn’t work.
This was the central problem. People believed this. That includes some legislators, certainly; just because you see something as politically useful doesn’t mean you are doing so cynically. Using a large platform to amplify claims about an unproven treatment, though, would have the predictable effect of people taking it seriously. So we saw myriad cases in which patients or families, convinced that ivermectin was miraculous, sued medical institutions to force the administration of ivermectin. Hospitals were reluctant, given that, unlike wishing on a star, there were potential negative effects of taking the drug. (Poison-control centers noted an increase in calls about ivermectin.)
Those convinced that the drug worked — hearing it from trusted politicians or podcast hosts — saw conspiracy. The establishment was rejecting ivermectin because it wasn’t profitable, they argued. Or they were doing the bidding of vaccine manufacturers. Even the inefficacy of ivermectin was explained away: Hospitals weren’t administering enough! There was always some reason that could be constructed to explain why The Establishment was trying to suppress ivermectin, and those reasons were never that it wasn’t proven to work and that it risked serious side effects.
It’s important to emphasize how ivermectin correlated to politics. Research published last month showed that counties that supported Trump strongly in 2020 were those that saw more ivermectin prescriptions written in the final months of that year, as attention began to turn to the drug. Google searches for ivermectin in August and September of last year were far higher in a number of metropolitan areas that had backed Trump by wider margins in 2020.
Some of this is a function of ivermectin’s approved use in agriculture: rural areas would be expected both to show more support for Trump and to have more animals needing a drug like ivermectin that targeted parasites. But this was also the period in which ivermectin searches surged, so it’s clearly also linked to the pandemic.
Politics both drove and followed the fixation on ivermectin. Right-leaning political leaders and conservative media figures hyped ivermectin as an alternative to vaccination and their followers believed them. Then, conservative political figures responded to the outrage of the base at the pushback on use of the drug with legislation forcing it to be made available. Earlier this month, USA Today wrote about state legislators who seized on the issue to pass laws mandating the prescription of ivermectin when desired, even as the lack of utility of the drug was becoming more obvious.
Others have gone further. A candidate for attorney general in Wisconsin is pledging to launch homicide probes targeting doctors who didn’t prescribe ivermectin. It’s not just believing the hype, it’s leveraging the false confidence in ivermectin for political benefit.
We will never know how many Americans who might have lived had they been vaccinated decided against it, trusting that drugs such as ivermectin would keep them alive. We do know, though, that there was a concerted effort to convince people that ivermectin would do so, an effort that intertwined with partisan rejection of government expertise. We can say with confidence that the atmosphere of disinformation about ivermectin led to people dying who would otherwise have lived.
We know how deadly covid has been. We’ll never know just how deadly this rhetoric was.
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U.S. District Judge Mark Walker agreed with voters who sued the state that the bill “runs roughshod over the right to vote, unnecessarily making voting harder for all eligible Floridians, unduly burdening disabled voters, and intentionally targeting minority voters — all to improve the electoral prospects of the party in power.”
Walker said that for the next decade, changes to voting laws that affect third-party registration efforts, drop boxes or “line warming” — in which volunteers offer water or chairs to people waiting in line to vote — must be approved first by the court.
“Florida has repeatedly, recently, and persistently acted to deny Black Floridians access to the franchise,” Walker wrote. “This Court also finds that preclearance would prevent future violations.”
Voting rights activists hailed the ruling as a “landmark de”ision," while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dismissed it as “performative partisanship.”
“This is a huge victory for voters in this state,” said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground, one of the groups that sued the state. “It also feels like we are moving the needle forward in expanding access to the ballot box in Florida.”
DeSantis (R) signed the bill, known as SB 90, into law in May, live on Fox News. Although he had touted the state’s elections seven months earlier as flawless, he still pushed changes that critics say would make it harder to vote.
His enthusiasm for changing election laws continued this year, but Thursday’s court ruling means that many of those changes may not be enacted.
At a news conference in West Palm Beach on Thursday, DeSantis said Walker’s ruling “was not unforeseen,” and that it will be reversed on appeal.
“It’s just a matter of how quickly it’s going to get reversed,” he said.
Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R) called Walker’s pre-clearance order “an egregious abuse of his power.”
Walker presided over the nonjury trial in Tallahassee for three weeks this year. His 288-page decision issued Thursday included the recounting of several acts of violence against Black voters in Florida in the past, including a massacre of more than 30 Black residents in Ocoee in 1920 on Election Day after a Black voter went to the polls.
“What is this Court to make of this history? To be sure, there are those who suggest that we live in a post-racial society,” Walker wrote. “But that is simply not so. Florida’s painful history remains relevant; it echoes into the present and sets the stage for SB 90.”
Brenda Wright, senior adviser for legal strategies at the think tank Demos, said Walker recognized the “extremely egregious history of racial discrimination in voting” in his ruling.
“He put together the picture of what SB 90 has done to voting rights in the context of Florida’s history of discrimination,” Wright said. “I would hope this would give pause to those who would enact further restrictions on voting rights.”
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New York Democrats drew a new congressional map with boundaries that could gain their party as many as three new seats, a crucial advantage at a time when the House majority will come down to just a handful of wins.
The judge’s order was the latest redistricting disappointment Democrats have faced in recent weeks after what had been several initial legal wins. A Maryland judge invalidated a Democratic-drawn congressional map, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Wisconsin court-approved legislative maps that added a new majority-Black district, and an Ohio map that heavily favored Republicans, thrown out by the state Supreme Court, is now expected to remain in place for 2022.
The New York congressional map ruled unconstitutional by the state judge would give Democrats 22 seats to four Republican ones. The New York delegation is composed of 19 Democratic seats to eight seats for Republicans. The state lost a seat because of slow growth over the past 10 years.
Democrats, who had full control of New York state government for the first time in a century, argued they were using their power to right wrongs in previous maps. But Republicans decried it as a partisan gerrymander that ran afoul of voters’ wishes to take raw politics out of redistricting.
In 2014, New York voters approved a constitutional amendment to set up a separate entity outside the state legislature to control redistricting. The 10-member commission was split equally along partisan lines. Of the members, eight were appointed by partisan legislative leaders.
The commission was supposed to present a single map to the legislature that state lawmakers could adopt or reject. But beset with its own partisan infighting, the commission did not come up with a unified map, instead submitting two sets of lines, one drawn by the Democrats on the panel and another drawn by the Republicans. The commission’s drama effectively allowed state lawmakers to dismiss its work and create their own map.
“The scourge of gerrymandering is not unique to New York,” McAllister, a Republican, wrote. “In 2014, New York State took major steps to avoid being plagued by gerrymandering. … The 2020 census was the first time after the constitutional amendment that led New York to draw new districts. Therefore, this is a case of first impression in many respects.”
Democrats involved in the redistricting effort said that Republicans purposely took the case to a rural, conservative judge and that the outcome would ultimately be decided by a higher court, where they will fight for the maps to stand.
“This is one step in the process,” said Mike Murphy, a spokesman for New York state Senate Democrats. “We always knew this case would be decided by the appellate courts. We are appealing this decision and expect this decision will be stayed as the appeal process proceeds.”
Republicans cheered the lower-court decision, calling it a win for New York voters who wanted a less-partisan redistricting process. Democrats have made similar arguments in GOP-held states that also passed anti-gerrymandering ballot initiatives, such as Ohio.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a co-chairman of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, brushed aside a question about the similarity in circumstances between the two states.
“It’s very difficult to compare state to state in this,” he said during a call with reporters. “What we do see, though, is those who have looked at the New York map, independent experts and those like me involved in the political process, have stated right from the beginning that of all 50 states that have engaged in redistricting, this was by far the worst gerrymandering in the country.”
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Pelosi on Thursday declined to say whether Thomas should recuse himself or resign from the court, telling reporters, “I don’t think he should have ever been appointed, so, we could take it back to there.”
But she did say that the court’s lack of a code of ethics presents a serious problem.
“They have no code of ethics,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference at the Capitol. “And it’s — really? The Supreme Court of the United States? They’re making judgments about the air we breathe and everything else, and we don’t even know what their ethical standard is? … Why should they have lower standards than members of Congress in terms of reporting and all the rest?”
Pelosi noted that H.R. 1, the For the People Act, includes language calling for the establishment of a judicial code of ethics. The measure passed the House this month in a largely party-line vote, but its chances are dim in the Senate.
The speaker suggested that a House committee may have a hearing on the code of conduct issue soon, although she did not elaborate.
On Thomas, in particular, Pelosi said little about the Supreme Court justice but did make a pointed remark about his wife’s text messages urging the Trump White House to work to overturn Biden’s win.
“I’ve heard people say from time to time, ‘Well, it’s a personal decision of a judge as to whether he should recuse himself,’ ” Pelosi said. “Well, if your wife is an admitted and proud contributor to a coup of our country, maybe you should weigh that in your ethical standards.”
Ginni Thomas’s text messages were among thousands of documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, including other text messages and emails, that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the attack before he abruptly stopped fully cooperating with the panel in December.
In some comments, Ginni Thomas was zealous in appealing to Meadows to help overturn the 2020 election results. “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark,” she wrote on Nov. 10, 2020. “The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he was planning to call for a Supreme Court code of ethics as well in remarks on the Senate floor Thursday.
“I’m on the way to the Senate floor to talk about my Supreme Court Ethics Act and the need for the Supreme Court to adopt a binding Code of Conduct,” Murphy tweeted Thursday morning. “The Thomas revelations make it clear — the Supreme Court cannot and should not police itself.”
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When the pandemic emerged, the Trump administration saw a chance to build a different sort of wall. Using authority it claimed under U.S. Code Title 42, the government began immediately turning away thousands of people at the southern border instead of allowing them to undergo a process of adjudication or seek asylum. The presumptive rationale was that the government wanted to cut down the number of coronavirus-infected individuals entering the United States, but, in testimony before Congress, one official admitted that this move was not based on the statistics at the time. Instead, the quick-removal policy “may have been initiated for other purposes” — a fair assumption.
As a candidate, Joe Biden campaigned in direct opposition to Trump’s immigration policies. But Title 42 was an exception. It persisted, month after month, despite outcry from activists on the left and even despite resignations of administration officials in protest.
This week, the administration announced it would end the policy. One reason for doing so is that the government’s capacity to handle migrants has increased, allowing more people to enter the country to seek residency. But it seems clear that another reason for doing so is that there’s no political benefit to maintaining the policy — but, perhaps, political damage.
All of this centers on numbers. If 200 people were seeking to migrate to the United States per month, there would be little political consternation. But when 200,000 do, things get tricky. And since Biden took office, there have been multiple months in which that mark was surpassed, at least as measured in the number of stops made at the U.S.-Mexico border.
It’s important to note here that measuring the number of people entering the United States is necessarily cloudy. Some people enter illegally and are not detected, meaning they are not included in the government’s released totals. But the increase in barriers at the border after the passage of legislation in 2006 pushed more migrants to monitored crossing points where they could be stopped. So, while the numbers of people apprehended at the border doesn’t measure every entrant, it measures many if not most.
Those monthly figures — and in particular their growth relative to Trump’s presidency — were repeatedly touted by Biden’s opponents as indicating a laxity at the border. In January, for example, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) criticized the administration over the “1.9 million illegal immigrants” apprehended at the border last year. This is inaccurate and misleading for several reasons, as I explained at the time: For one thing, not all of those apprehensions were “illegal immigrants,” and for another, most of those who were apprehended were quickly slated for removal under Title 42.
On a month-by-month basis, you can see the difference between the two administrations under Title 42. When Trump was president, nearly all migrants were set for quick removal. Under Biden, that policy was less strict; children, for example, were allowed to remain. But it was still an important part of the administration’s approach to immigration.
In 2021, only about 300,000 people who were stopped at the border were granted humanitarian release into the country while waiting for their immigration hearings to progress — many, but far fewer than the 1.9 million Jordan cited.
That’s important. The administration faced a real challenge in handling the increase in migrants, making the removal policy useful. But that most of those who were stopped at the border were quickly removed from the country did not diminish any hand-wringing about the number of migrants who were coming to the United States. Jordan and other critics of the administration drew no distinction between those people who spent little to no time on U.S. soil and those who might be on a path to legal residency. It was all presented as “millions surging into the country.”
At the same time, Title 42 probably made those numbers worse. The quick-removal process meant that thousands of people each month would be stopped, removed — and would try again, only to again be stopped. The number of apprehensions was inflated by people being caught more than once, so the government began releasing data on repeat apprehensions. From June of last year through December, more than a quarter of apprehensions were people who’d already been stopped once, inflating the number of people stopped during that period from fewer than 1 million to more than 1.3 million; many of those people were the same people more than once.
These considerations were probably significant in the administration’s decision-making process, but it’s also likely to be the case that the administration is responding to months of anger from an important part of the Democratic base. Immigration activists have been understandably furious that Biden would continue a policy instituted by Trump that kept people seeking asylum in the United States from being able to do so. Removing the policy is also politically useful simply because it eases those criticisms. That Biden gained no credit from the political right for keeping the policy in place makes this easier.
Then, of course, there’s the ostensible rationale for the policy: the pandemic. It has waned, but even before it did, there was no reason to think that migrants were a significant source of new infections in the United States. Migrants were blamed for spreading the virus, yes, but that was rhetoric. The biggest factor in the country’s surges in new infections continues to be what it always was: Americans.
The administration expects by May to have enough capacity to hold migrants as needed. At that point, it plans to end Title 42 — and with it another of Trump’s strategies for limiting migration to the United States.
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Biden appeared to not only have license to take that step — he could also use it to reinforce the narrative that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bore blame for the ugly crooked numbers people were seeing at the pump. The White House even debuted a new talking point: the “Putin price hike.”
The reality, though, was never going to be so neat. Inflation and gas prices were already bad, and it’s a difficult task to pin their rise on a war that isn’t front-and-center for most Americans.
Evidence now suggests the narrative is coming up well short. Domestic pricing concerns are far outpacing Ukraine on Americans’ list of priorities, and Biden’s poll numbers on his handling of the economy continue to hit new lows. Whatever stomach Americans had for higher prices to support the war in Ukraine, it doesn’t appear particularly strong.
The result: The administration has now taken some extraordinary measures to stem the tide, including a massive release from the strategic reserves and a “use it or lose it” approach to unused permits for drilling on federal land. Biden also had some choice words Thursday for oil companies he accused of putting profits before production.
The impetus is pretty clear.
A poll released Thursday from the Kaiser Family Foundation found 55 percent of Americans say inflation and rising prices are the biggest problem right now — far more than the 18 percent who name the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Even Democrats pick inflation and gas prices by a 2-to-1 margin. Another poll from Quinnipiac University on Thursday found twice as many name “inflation” (30 percent) as “Russia/Ukraine” (14 percent) as their No. 1 issue.
And a poll last week from NBC News straight-up asked people which should be Biden’s top priority: reducing inflation and improving the economy, or working to end the war in Ukraine. Americans chose the former by an overwhelming 68-29 margin.
That last one is perhaps the most telling. It’s logical that people would consider inflation to be the bigger problem in this country, given this country isn’t directly involved in the war. But it’s striking that even amid the brutality of the Russian invasion — and after Americans initially signed off on paying a little more to help out — domestic prices are still far-and-away No. 1 on people’s priority list.
And when it comes to gas prices, specifically, Putin isn’t bearing a ton of the blame.
There’s a real argument to be made that Russia’s invasion is indeed the chief factor, at least of late. As PolitiFact noted this month, the biggest recent spike in prices occurred after the invasion, and most of the increase during Biden’s tenure has taken place in the six-or-so months since Russia’s buildup on Ukraine’s border began working its way into the collective consciousness. Other factors could have contributed in the meantime, but it’s a big one.
Americans don’t necessarily see it that way, though. The Quinnipiac poll shows just 24 percent say the war in Ukraine is “the most responsible for the recent rise in gas prices” — compared with 24 percent who blame oil companies and 41 percent who blame the Biden administration. (Another 5 percent blamed increasing demand from the easing of pandemic restrictions.)
If there’s a kernel of good news in there for Biden, it’s that more people blame some combination of oil companies and the war (48 percent) for gas prices than blame the administration (41 percent). The same is true for inflation, where the NBC poll showed 38 percent blamed Biden, while 28 percent blamed the pandemic, 23 percent blamed corporations and 6 percent blamed the war.
But practically speaking, the impact has been a drag on Biden. His approval rating on the economy dropped to 33 percent in the NBC News poll, and 31 percent in a poll last week from renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer for Grinnell College. Polling on Biden and the economy varies widely, but these are some of the very first quality polls to show his economic reviews hitting the low 30s — and at virtually the same time. (Quinnipiac pegged it at 34 percent.)
And that’s certainly Democrats’ biggest problem ahead of the 2022 midterms. People might have said they were willing to pay more. But when that becomes the new — and then — lasting reality, you tend to seek accountability from the things you have some measure of control over.
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“The problem that we have in Washington, D.C., right now is that there's too much talk, there's too much grandstanding and there's too much quitting,” said state Sen. Chuck Edwards at a Sunday congressional candidate forum in Flat Rock, N.C.
“I believe in truth over theatrics. I believe in no lies,” said Wendy Nevarez, a veteran and paralegal supported by an anti-Cawthorn PAC.
“I'm not the Washington, D.C., Instagram politician,” said Michele Woodhouse, a former local party chair. “I'm a patriot who literally answered the call when Congressman Cawthorn left this district for Charlotte and asked me to step in and run.”
Halfway into his first term, Cawthorn is one of several high-profile, anti-establishment members of Congress from both parties who won upset victories to get there — and now face primary challengers who want them gone.
None look vulnerable in a general election, after redistricting kept them in seats their party should easily win. All of them look beatable to challengers who believe their notoriety has backfired, especially with the new voters added to their seats when the lines were redrawn.
“We’re seeing our freedoms being slowly stolen across the country, and we don’t have a voice in the process,” said Jennifer Strahan, a health-care consultant challenging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), criticizing the freshman for being removed from congressional committees last year.
“If people are so busy critiquing everything you say, and not willing to actually hear you because you don't have a message that resonates, then it's distracting from really bringing results back to the district,” Strahan added.
Like Cawthorn, Greene won a crowded open-seat primary in 2020; both prevailed in runoff elections against conservative candidates less fluent in the language of the MAGA electorate. Both states still require runoffs if no candidate gets a certain share of the vote on primary day — 50 percent in Georgia, and 30 percent in North Carolina.
That has emboldened their opponents inside the party, even though both Greene and Cawthorn are among the GOP’s strongest fundraisers. On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Strahan over Greene, saying that it would help northwest Georgia to elect someone who “who doesn’t traffic in antisemitic conspiracy theories, doesn’t speak to white nationalist organizations and doesn’t applaud and cheer on” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Both seats were also altered by redistricting, with Georgia’s 14th Congressional District absorbing Democratic precincts outside Atlanta so that other Republican precincts could shore up another district. And those new voters, said Strahan, were “excited” to learn about their options.
Cawthorn’s 11th Congressional District, which ties liberal Asheville together with deep-red Appalachia, also grew slightly more Democratic, from a place Donald Trump carried by 16 points to one he carried by 14. But the bigger problem for Cawthorn was the one Woodhouse hammered at the candidate forum — his decision to run in a new district near Charlotte that Republicans had drawn as an even safer seat, with state House Speaker Tim Moore seen as a likely candidate.
When the state Supreme Court threw out that map, Cawthorn returned to the 11th Congressional District, but not without consequences. Candidates like Woodhouse and Edwards were already building campaigns, both saying that the congressman had failed to meet his potential.
“The U.S. House floor is not a training camp for folks to learn how to lead legislatively,” Edwards told Jewish Insider on Monday. An internal poll shared by the Edwards campaign put Cawthorn well ahead of the field, but that was before he told the conservative podcast “Warrior Poet Society” that the real Washington was just as corrupt as the one in “House of Cards.”
The 26-year old congressman had offered up fish stories before, telling one crowd in the district that he’d confirmed “rumors of alcoholism” about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who does not drink. But this time, Cawthorn had implicated Republican colleagues, and couldn’t defend himself when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked him to, McCarthy said.
A lurid story of watching anti-addiction advocates “doing a key bump of cocaine right in front of you” was downgraded, according to McCarthy, to “maybe” seeing a staffer snort cocaine from far away, in a parking garage. As for Cawthorn's podcast claim that a lawmaker had invited him to an “orgy,” McCarthy declared that Cawthorn “did not tell the truth.”
“I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole,” McCarthy told Axios after the meeting. Both of North Carolina's Republican senators criticized Cawthorn; on Thursday, Moore joined Edwards, who has scooped up endorsements from fellow state legislators, at a fundraiser in Raleigh.
Some of the House's most prominent left-wing Democrats are facing primary challenges too, thanks in part to the new maps. In New York City, a number of Democrats filed to challenge Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), hoping to take advantage of his vote against last year's infrastructure bill, and of his argument with Democratic Socialists of America over his refusal to support a boycott of Israel. There's no runoff law in New York, but Bowman's opponents were strategic, dropping out until county legislator Vedat Gashi was the only challenger.
“I didn’t like a number of the votes he took,” Gashi told the Somers Record this week. “I thought it didn’t represent the views of the party.”
In Missouri, where state legislators are still debating the next set of House maps, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) got an experienced challenger right before the filing deadline — state Sen. Steven Roberts Jr., who told local media that Bush was hurting the district with positions like slashing the defense budget.
“It's become pretty apparent to me that Congresswoman Cori Bush is not interested in serving as a U.S. Representative,” Roberts said.
Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, said in an email that voters would get to choose “between their Congresswoman who loves them and delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to St. Louis, and a host of ego-driven men who seem to think all that Black women leaders do is never good enough.” He pointed to allegations made against Roberts by fellow lawmaker Cora Faith Walker, who died 20 days ago, to add that the senator had been “credibly accused of rape.” (The candidate didn't respond to a question from The Trailer but earlier denied he had raped Walker.)
None of Cawthorn's challengers came with that kind of baggage. On Thursday, his campaign released a primary ad making no reference to any other candidate, saying instead that “smears and attacks” wouldn't bring down the “unstoppable” congressman. At the weekend forum, when each Republican was asked if they would support any winner of the primary, Cawthorn talked like he couldn't imagine losing.
“Absolutely,” Cawthorn said. “If you don’t, you’re a traitor.”
Reading list
All-party primaries — is there anything they can't do?
“Debate-dodging takes off in midterm campaigns,” by David Siders
Voters who don't trust the media may support candidates who avoid it.
“Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company,” by Matt Viser, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg
The laptop and the damage done.
“As election workers face increased threats and intimidation, some states are trying to protect them,” by Barbara Rodriguez
Defending members of a female-dominated profession from harassment.
How post-Jan. 6 MAGA mind-set plays in a swing seat.
“House Republicans tire of Madison Cawthorn’s antics. Some in his district have, too,” by Trip Gabriel
A rough welcome home.
Annapolis Democrats fight to keep a 7-to-1 advantage in Washington.
“One-on-one with Silicon Valley’s enemy No. 1,” by Theodore Schleifer
Chesa Boudin defends himself.
Culture wars
The new Florida law that prohibits discussion of “sexual orientation or gender identity” in public schools below fourth grade has a name: the Parental Rights in Education Act. Opponents who couldn't stop Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from signing it call the law something else: “Don't Say Gay.” To conservatives' frustration, that name has stuck — but it hasn't changed the politicking around gender ideology at all, with Republicans taking aim at Disney this week after the company condemned the law.
That's partly because conservatives believe the media is out of step with voters on gender and LGBT issues, and that voters recoil once they see and hear about sex education in early grade school. The conservative firm Public Opinion Strategies included questions about the Florida law in its rolling national poll, giving voters a summary of the law: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in Kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
When it's put like that, 61 percent of voters approved of the legislation, including a majority of Democrats and people who voted for President Biden in 2020. The firm added other questions about whether gender should be removed from birth certificates and whether transgender women should be allowed to play women's sports. Just 8 percent of registered voters said “yes” to the first question, and by a 36-point margin, most said people should “only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender.”
The numbers reminded POS pollster Robert Blizzard of the discourse around Georgia's 2021 voting law, which led to several corporate boycotts of the state, endorsed by Democrats, but which ended up being supported by most voters once Republicans sold it as an anti-fraud measure. A law that generated outrage among Democrats, and brutal media coverage, could have majority support if Republicans explained it correctly.
“This matches what I've seen over the last year or two, especially in focus groups and qualitative research I've done,” said Blizzard. “People think we're going too far left. Too woke. On the quote-unquote ‘Don't Say Gay' bill, Democratic voters support it 2-1, which kind of flies in the face of the conventional wisdom. On the transgender athlete question, they're not sure. It's almost like they're looking for their partisan cue.”
Ad watch
USA Freedom Fund, “Real Work.” It's been more than a week since Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidates Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons got into a near-physical argument at a forum, after Gibbons correctly said that Mandel had never worked in the private sector. Mandel and his allies have continued to say what the candidate said that night: that Gibbons was demeaning a veteran, saying what he did hadn't been real work. This ad uses Gibbons's quote — “Josh doesn't understand this, because he's never spent a day in the private sector” — but puts text on-screen saying that Gibbons was insulting veterans, and has Marine veteran Brian Sizer, who served with Mandel, calling it “disgraceful” and demanding an apology. “For this guy to imply fighting, getting shot at, dying is not work? It's more than work,” he says.
Tim Ryan for Ohio, “One Word.” A favorable Fox News write-up, condemnation from an Asian American political group: This ad for Rep. Tim Ryan's (R-Ohio) U.S. Senate bid got them both. The “one word” of the title, and the first word from Ryan's mouth, is “China,” and the ad plays a few overlapping clips of the candidate telling voters that America must defeat “Communist China” economically by “investing in Ohio workers.” That's not a new message for Ohio Democrats, but the state chapter of Asian American Midwest Progressives quickly condemned it, urging Ryan to “pull the One Word ad and eliminate all inflated anti-Asian messaging from his campaign.” He didn't pull the ad.
DSCC, “It's in the Plan.” In a 30-second digital spot, the Democrats' Senate campaign arm sums up the least-popular portions, told in scary headlines, of the “Rescue America” plan proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). It would “raise taxes,” “end Medicare” and “end Social Security,” warn Democrats — all technically true, as the plan would tax people who don't currently pay income taxes, and require all legislation to be reapproved every five years.
Perez and Sneed for Maryland, “Tireless.” Barack Obama hasn't endorsed a candidate for governor of Maryland, but he did endorse Tom Perez to run the Democratic National Committee after the 2016 election. Perez's first spot with running mate Shannon Sneed cuts down the audio from Obama's end-of-year news conference that year, when Perez was putting his DNC campaign together; asked about it, Obama talked about Perez's record as labor secretary. The ad splices in a clip of Obama calling Perez “a son of immigrants who worked on the back of a trash truck to pay for college.”
Sarah for Governor, “Educate.” No other Republican is challenging Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas's May 24 primary, but she has stayed on the air, releasing direct-to-camera spots full of conservative campaign promises. Here, she largely promises to keep Arkansas education running the way it is, including “keeping schools open” and pledging not to “indoctrinate” children “with the left's agenda.” (Last year, state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an opinion condemning “critical race theory” and saying that teaching it would violate the law.) The goal: “Prepare students for the workforce, not government dependency,” and let them build lives in Arkansas.
Kevin Rinke for Governor, “Rise.” The Republican candidate for governor of Michigan put $10 million of his own money into his campaign, and $500,000 of it is going behind this ad, a 30-second spot describing how he took over the Rinke Automotive Group after his brother died in a plane crash. The candidate appears in smiling b-roll footage as a narrator sells him as the right man for “a time when our economy, education and government are broken” — with a shot of empty store shelves representing the economy.
The Committee to Elect Rebecca Dow, “True Grit.” Dow, a conservative New Mexico state legislator, didn't enter the race for governor with as much buzz or name recognition as her primary opponent, former TV meteorologist Mark Ronchetti. She takes a whack at him here, lumping him together with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) as a phony as she rides along a stretch of border wall. “I'm not here to put on a show. I'm here to fight radical socialists, defend our constitutional rights and finish President Trump's wall,” she says. (New Mexico runs along the Mexican border for a bit less than 180 miles.)
Poll watch
“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Republican and Democratic Senators are handling the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson?” (Quinnipiac, March 24-28, 1462 adults)
How Republicans handled it
Approve: 27%
Disapprove: 52%
Don't know/no answer: 21%
How Democrats handled it
Approve: 43%
Disapprove: 34%
Don't know/no answer: 23%
How can you tell if a Supreme Court nomination strategy has backfired? In the moment, it's not clear; several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were reportedly worried about how Ketanji Brown Jackson handled days of questions about the sentencing of child sex offenders. But the first national poll on the question, taken during and after the hearings, suggests that the GOP strategy to attack her past sentences flopped. Every demographic group views the GOP's role in the hearings negatively, including White adults without college degrees; just 52 percent of self-identified Republicans approve of how their party handled the hearings.
Democrats, who made little news during the hearings, are viewed more positively, and so is Jackson — 51 percent of all adults support confirming her, to just 30 percent who don't. Just 36 percent of adults, in the same poll, approve of the president's job performance, so Jackson gets significant support from voters who are otherwise sour on Democrats.
“If the 2024 election for president were held today, who would you vote for?” (Marquette Law School, March 14-24, 1004 adults)
Joe Biden: 41%
Donald Trump: 37%
Someone else: 15%
Wouldn't vote: 7%
Joe Biden: 37%
Mike Pence: 33%
Someone else: 21%
Wouldn't vote: 8%
Joe Biden: 38%
Ron DeSantis: 33%
Someone else: 20%
Wouldn't vote: 9%
The president's job approval rating comes in at 44 percent in Marquette's national poll, higher than some other recent surveys but comparable to his numbers in the Gallup poll. No Republican candidate tested by the pollster is in a great position to take advantage of that. Sixty-one percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, and sure enough, 63 percent of voters pick either Biden, nobody or some hypothetical other option when asked about a 2020 rematch. Just 31 percent of voters view Pence favorably, and 25 percent view Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) favorably; both, like Trump and Biden, are underwater. (Thirty-nine percent of voters say they don't yet have an opinion of DeSantis.)
That's a change from the Trump's presidency, when Trump consistently had job approval ratings in the 40s or lower, and pollsters found a number of Democrats running far ahead of him. Before the 2016 and 2020 elections — i.e., before pollsters realized that Trump's support was underestimated — the idea that nearly any Democrat could beat Trump was rampant among party activists, and polling that showed Biden leading Trump by landslide margins helped power him to the nomination. But now, the key figures in the GOP, who candidates are asking for endorsements and modeling their own agendas on, are less popular than an unpopular president.
“Would you prefer the government to continue to adjust covid guidelines and mandates in response to different variants as they arise, to settle on a consistent set of covid guidelines and mandates that we will use from this point forward, or to have no covid regulations and mandates?” (Monmouth, March 10-14, 809 adults)
Continue to adjust guidelines/mandates: 50%
Have no guidelines/mandates: 34%
Settle on a consistent set of guidelines/mandates: 14%
The rollback of mask and vaccine mandates in states that had implemented strict ones happened quickly, and public opinion moved along with it. In another section of Monmouth's national poll, 73 percent of voters now agree with this statement: “It’s time we accept that covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” The new consensus is more nuanced. A third of all adults, but two-thirds of Republicans, share the view that there should be no mandates or rules whatsoever. White voters without college degrees are split, with a plurality of 44 percent saying there should be “no guidelines/mandates.” Most other adults say that the rules can be adjusted, not ruling out the return of some precautions, if they're convinced that they're necessary.
In the states
Michigan. On Tuesday, former Detroit police chief Ralph Godbee dropped out of the Democratic primary for the new 13th Congressional District, where Black politicians have worried that a glut of candidates will allow self-funded Indian American state Rep. Shri Thanedar (D) to win the Detroit-based seat with a plurality of the vote. “I have enough support to split the African American vote or siphon off votes that could be codified behind a consensus candidate,” Godbee explained in a statement.
Tennessee. The Republican supermajority in Nashville advanced legislation that would create residency requirements for federal races, which if implemented would make it impossible for former State Department official Morgan Ortagus to seek a House seat. If the law holds up in court, candidates for Congress would be required to prove that they've lived for at least three years in the district they want to represent; Ortagus relocated from D.C. to Nashville just last year.
“No one questioned my residency when I served our country in the intelligence community, the Trump Administration, nor in the U.S. Navy Reserves,” Ortagus told the Tennessean in a statement. “And President Trump certainly didn't question my residency when he endorsed me for this seat.”
Wisconsin. Chippewa Falls attorney Karen Mueller joined the GOP race for attorney general this week, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Molly Beck that she could use the powers of the office to investigate hospitals where Ivermectin was not prescribed for covid-19 sufferers. (A large study published Wednesday found, as others previously have, that Ivermectin did not help those suffering from covid.)
“I am running for attorney general because of potential homicides in hospitals, because of vaccines — so-called vaccines,” said Mueller, the founder of the conservative Amos Center for Justice and Liberty. “I would open investigations into those deaths and if the facts were substantiated; I would probably bring charges against the people that were responsible for this.” Previously, Mueller wrote a memo to state legislator Timothy Ramthun, now a candidate for governor, arguing that the legislature could and should invalidate the 2020 election.
Redistricting
On Wednesday afternoon, Republican legislators in Louisiana overrode a veto from Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and approved a congressional map that maintained the party's 5-to-1 seat advantage. Just hours later, plaintiffs supported by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee sued to get the map thrown out.
“Black Louisianians are sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to constitute a majority of eligible voters in a second congressional district stretching from Baton Rouge to the delta parishes along the Mississippi River,” attorneys for four Black voters wrote in their complaint, filed in the Middle District Court. “The new congressional plan has the effect of denying Black voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
In Missouri, the candidate filing deadline came and went this week while legislators in Jefferson City rejected the new congressional map — maintaining a 6-to-2 GOP advantage, and shoring up one Republican seat — in favor of further negotiations. That came after Senate Republicans had finally overcome a filibuster by conservatives who wanted a map that would eliminate a Kansas City-based seat that Democrats always win.
“When you have a lot of people who are fighting for what they want, eventually you may have to some kind of compromise,” Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) told 93.9 The Eagle on Wednesday. “I think that's what the Senate tried to do.”
Campaigning continued anyway, for the current district lines, and the legislative session isn't over until May. But there are already lawsuits in district court of Cole County (which contains the capital), asking a judge to intervene and draw maps, arguing that it's unconstitutional for candidates to run inside the old lines after 10 years of population changes.
Q&A
On Wednesday, House Democrats' super PAC announced $100 million in ad reservations across the country. None of the first reservations were in New York state. That surprised some Republicans, and Democrats, who see several New York seats as potentially vulnerable, including the 18th Congressional District that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney has represented for nine years. Maloney himself has said that the Hudson Valley seat, which has trended left but been redrawn to include more Republican precincts, could be in play, but the House Majority PAC hadn't reserved ads there yet.
“If I wasn’t managing the Frontline program, I’d be on the program,” Maloney said at this month's House Democratic retreat, referring to the DCCC's effort to protect its most vulnerable members.
Republicans see plenty of seats won by President Biden as winnable this year. Dan Conston, the president of the Congressional Leadership Fund — the GOP's PAC counterpart — said in an interview that the House Majority PAC's reservations were “a recognition that Democrats have already lost the House” and have “traditionally blue districts in real peril.” New York State Assemblyman Colin Schmitt (R), a 31-year old National Guard member, is running against Maloney on that theory. Ahead of the first quarter fundraising deadline — it's today, if a hundred campaigns haven't texted to tell you already — he talked about his race and why he thought Maloney could lose.
The Trailer: Why are you running, and why do you think you can win?
Colin Schmitt: This is my fourth year in the Assembly. I've been heavily involved in the community for a long time now. Sean Maloney is nowhere to be found. I don't think he was representing our values to begin with, but this is a guy who's not doing retail politics like I am. He's not at the Memorial Day parades or the Fourth of July parades. He’ll pop in for a press conference once a quarter in one of the cities in the district.
Then he gets made the chairman of the DCCC. This is a district that consistently has been good for Republicans in a gubernatorial year. And we've got a guy who can no longer triangulate his politics because of his job with the party. This is generally a working-class district, with some Westchester parts that are a little different. And he didn't check any of those boxes anymore.
In Middletown, one of the cities here, one day, there was no meat and no chicken on the shelves. A constituent sent us the photos, and they went viral. This is real life. The supply chain problems go right back to these big spending packages, which were unacceptable. And he voted for all of that. He's out of touch.
TT: Before this year, the district was trending away from Republicans. Why was that?
CS: In my own races, I’ve operated independently. I'm not relying on another elected official above me. I'm not reliant on any party committee operation. We obviously accept their help and whatever they want to offer, but we’ve been able to overperform.
I think that was there's a mix of factors for why we've slipped. There's obviously been demographic changes. You've had traditional conservative supporters who have moved out of the state at a growing rapid pace. Not too long ago, in the Hudson Valley, you could have “Republican” next to your name, wake up on Election Day, and get elected to what? That’s not the way it is anymore.
TT: Why is it winnable now?
CS: He was sending attack mailers about me before I started running, so this guy clearly thinks they have a winnable race here. I think that we're a juggernaut. No offense to previous opponents, but we're the first opponent, since he became a member of Congress, with a political base, name recognition and the ability to run a real campaign.
The district moved north and picked up new areas in Ulster County and Dutchess County, which Maloney has never represented. There are places where he’s had a kind of legacy of overperformance, running ahead of other Democrats, but they’re out of the district now. When we've polled it, we're both in the 30s — that's a canary in the coal mine. A lot of people don't know who Maloney is, and the polls may be underestimating the anti-Biden sentiment out there.
TT: Maloney has distanced himself from the “defund the police” slogan, but we've seen Republicans and some Democrats running against bail reform and blaming it for high crime. How does that play in the race? What do you actually do on it, at the federal level, if you win?
CS: It's probably the top issue that we're dealing with in the Hudson Valley: The crime issue, the lack of support for law enforcement. I've been fighting cash bail on the statewide level. It's something that my opponent has supported — he’s spoken glowingly of it; he wanted it in the race for attorney general. [Maloney ran for attorney general in 2018, losing the Democratic primary while seeking reelection to his House seat.]
And he’s hired advisers at the DCCC who made a wide range of anti-law enforcement comments. The one that sticks out in my mind was an adviser saying we should burn police precincts to the ground. That’s not acceptable to me. There’s a kind of nickname we have here: the land of guns and hoses. We’ve got so many cops, so many firemen, that work in New York City and live up here. I'm going to take my experiences here in New York and ensure that that is not something that gets advanced in Washington. I want to block the nationalization of our failed cash bail law.
TT: A lot of Republicans have talked about launching investigations into the Biden administration if you win, on everything from the withdrawal from Afghanistan to Hunter Biden's business career. Would you support that?
CS: I think that the situation in Afghanistan was a turning point. I served in the Army National Guard. A lot of my battle buddies were being deployed over there. And it's a real personal issue for a lot of the servicemen — it felt like a real failure. When we win, I'm going to look back at that as the pivot point where Biden and the Democrats started to lose the support of a lot of the people who probably were going to stick with him.
So we need to have the full story on that. The Hunter Biden thing, that's … well, my main focus would be Afghanistan.
TT: If you'd been in Congress last year, not Maloney, would you have voted to challenge the electoral results from Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6?
CS: Look, the violence that happened on that day is unacceptable. Anybody who illegally entered the Capitol that day or committed any of the crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Joe Biden won the election, and that's what we've got to deal with for now. I support legislation that ensures equal access to voting for everybody and equal confidence in voting for everybody.
TT: But did you agree with the legal questions there? And would you have voted for or against impeachment afterward?
CS: I was a state legislator at the time, so I only saw what's going on in my state. That issue should be left to state legislators in those states. It’s not my place to tell any other state what they should or shouldn't do. No, I would not have voted to impeach him. I didn’t support the impeachment of him either time. In 2021, he had already lost the election, he was leaving office and it was an unnecessary step.
TT: And how would you rate the Biden administration's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine? What would you be arguing for if you were in Congress?
CS: It's just another failure of the Biden administration on foreign policy and international security matters. Should this escalate, I mean, it would affect me personally. I'm the last person who wants anything to go worse for American soldiers on the ground. But I think we waited too long and there've been weaknesses that have been exploited. I think we need to continue to provide everything and anything we can provide, without putting our boots on the ground in Ukraine, at this point.
Countdown
… five days until the special primary in California's 22nd Congressional District
… 33 days until the next primaries
… 56 days until Texas runoffs and the special primary in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District
… 74 days until the special House primary in Alaska
… 216 days until the midterm elections
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The answer isn’t just a matter of curiosity; it could matter legally. Coverups, after all, can be used to prove criminal intent. And the Jan. 6 investigation is trending in that direction, with some recent validation.
All of the above-mentioned options are viable, given what we know so far. We know for a fact that the gap wasn’t the result of Trump staying off his phone, as we have at least five phone calls in the public record that aren’t accounted for in the call log. One of them appears in the White House daily diary — a retrospective summary of the president’s actions — but, for some reason, not the call log. And it, for some reason, lacks the detail of the other calls in the diary, including the other party to the call.
Since the news of the gap broke Tuesday, we’ve been able to connect a couple of key dots:
- That final call before the 7½-hour gap — at 11:17 a.m. — appears to have been with then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), based on another document. And according to the same document, it was apparently followed shortly thereafter by a Trump call with Vice President Mike Pence at 11:20 a.m. — a call that isn’t recorded at all in either the diary or call log.
- Another of the unaccounted-for calls — a 2:26 p.m. call mistakenly made to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) but meant for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) — appears to have come from a White House device.
That latter revelation comes courtesy of the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, who confirmed that the call to Lee came from a number listed as 202-395-0000. That number signifies it originated on an official White House phone.
Both of these suggest the gap didn’t result from the use of untraceable burner phones. If the idea was to shield communications as the plot to overturn the election unfolded, why would the 7½-hour gap feature a call from a White House device — smack in the middle, at 2:26 p.m.?
As for the idea that there was some kind of real-time effort to obscure Trump’s actions, a valid question is why it would begin that early — in the 11 a.m. hour, three hours before the insurrection. There’s very little reason for such an effort to obscure the calls to Loeffler and Pence, since they were calls you might well have expected Trump to make. Loeffler, after all, had just been defeated in a runoff, and the call logs show Trump had also called the other defeated Georgia GOP senator, David Perdue. That Trump would talk to Pence wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, either. (True, the content of the call was Trump asking Pence to overturn the election, but he had engaged in that kind of talk very publicly.)
The counterpoint is that those calls simply could have been wrapped up in a larger effort to cover Trump’s tracks. And that’s where the 11:17 a.m. call is particularly intriguing.
This call stands out. Not only did it omit the other party and other details — which all the other calls included — it also was listed in the daily diary but, for some reason, not in the call log. The other calls are listed in both.
It’s possible the lack of detail on that call and its exclusion from the call log simply reflected the beginning of 7½ hours of sloppiness. But it could also point to tampering after the fact.
As Lowell notes, the daily diary is a retrospective record put together by aides “who have some sway to determine whether a particular event was significant enough to warrant its inclusion.” Piecing together that record could involve reviewing call logs. So how would a call that doesn’t appear in the call logs find its way into the daily diary? It seems possible that someone knew about the call but couldn’t piece together who it was with or details, such as how long it lasted.
And why wouldn’t that information have been available in the call log? One possibility that hasn’t gotten enough attention is that a page of the call logs might be missing, for whatever reason.
As we observed Tuesday, the format of the call log and the gap it contains are notable. The final recorded call before the gap — the 11:04 a.m. call to Perdue — happens to come at the end of a page, and the next recorded call — a request for White House aide Dan Scavino at 6:54 p.m. — is at the top of the next one. If the gap were to have appeared in the middle of one of those pages, it wouldn’t rule out tampering, but the tampering would have been more involved (i.e., going into the document and editing it, rather than simply getting rid of a page).
This, of course, proves nothing; we simply don’t know. But Trump made a habit of not complying with record-keeping rules, notably ripping up papers and removing the very documents that the Jan. 6 committee has sought. His first impeachment included testimony that an unseemly document — the transcript of the call in which he tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide political dirt for his reelection campaign — was moved to a classified server. With someone who so cavalierly flouts record-keeping requirements, it’s difficult to rule such things out.
Stay tuned. The gap is important; the reason for it is more important.
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Here’s what the oil reserves are, how they can change gas prices and the political debate over them.
What are strategic oil reserves and how much oil reserves does the U.S. have?
The reserves are what they sound like: Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil tucked away — most of them in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana — for when there’s a crisis that raises oil prices. We have roughly 568 million barrels in the reserve right now, report The Post’s Tyler Pager and Jeff Stein.
The idea came about in the 1970s after an energy crisis. The U.S. at the time depended on the Middle East to deliver an influx of oil, and some foreign leaders tried to demand U.S. support for regional conflicts in exchange. The U.S. didn’t want to be beholden to other nations in times of crisis, so it started the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
When have they been used?
The idea is to only tap the reserves in a true crisis — a natural disaster or a war — not every time prices go up. “They are an insurance policy,” said Meg Jacobs, an energy expert and author of “Panic at the Pump.” The U.S. has dipped into its oil reserves various times during recent history, like during the Gulf War, or after Hurricane Katrina, when George W. Bush released 11 million barrels of oil.
What is Biden proposing?
The president proposes releasing 1 million barrels a day, for the next six months.
That means about 180 million barrels of oil will enter the economy that weren’t there before. It’s a truly historic amount — about a third of the strategic reserve.
For comparison, in November, Biden released 50 million barrels of oil to try to lower gas prices.
How do oil reserves affect gas prices?
This is debatable. On paper, the idea is that more oil on the market will mean lower prices. But the U.S. uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day, and Biden is temporarily injecting 1 million more barrels a day. “It’s hard to have any kind of release make a serious dent because our consumption is so high,” Jacobs said.
Still, when combined with other tools, strategic oil reserves can lower gas prices, said Jay Hakes, an energy expert and author of two books about the oil reserve, including “Energy Crisis: Nixon, Ford, Carter and hard choices in the 1970s.”
The government can encourage people to use less oil as a way to stick it to Russia, and that can help blunt prices, Hakes said. Biden is also encouraging other countries with strategic oil reserves to release barrels on the global market.
And the U.S. can encourage companies to ramp up oil production back home. That’s what Biden tried to do Thursday. “Too many companies aren’t doing their part and are choosing to make extraordinary profits and without making additional investment to help with supply,” read a White House announcement on the release of the oil. Biden asked Congress to make oil companies pay a fee if they’re sitting on permits to drill on federal land and not actively drilling oil from existing wells there.
But the main benefit is psychological, especially during a war that has united Americans against Russia. “The fact people know the reserves are there is a strength for the country,” Hakes said.
Jacobs said to think of these oil reserves as a weapon against Russia: “The strategic reserve is part of our arsenal, designed precisely for these kinds of situations.”
What are the downsides of using the oil reserve?
The first is that there is less oil to pull from in a future crisis. Building the reserves back up requires the government to purchase more oil, and that may take years.
The second is the impact on the climate. Environmentalists want the U.S. to drill and consume less oil, not more. Biden tried to counter that criticism by saying he would also invoke a law known as the Defense Production Act to have American companies produce materials for batteries used in electric vehicles. (Driving is the No. 1 reason Americans consume so much oil.)
The third downside is for Biden specifically. This might not significantly change oil prices in the short run, and won’t change them in the long run. It’s also hard to know how high prices would be, without the additional oil — so if Americans still suffer from relatively high prices, they might not notice if the reserves are easing the hit to their wallets.
But Biden doesn’t have many other tools at his disposal to shift oil prices. Though he could emphasize conservation — Americans taking individual actions to use less oil in their daily lives — it was not a popular tactic when Jimmy Carter tried it in the 1970s.
So there’s a risk that Biden makes a big deal about dropping more oil into the economy, it doesn’t work, and then he’s out of other significant actions to take.
What are the politics of the oil reserves?
High gas prices are bad news, politically speaking, for a sitting president and his party. Biden’s poll numbers have reflected that: Even as unemployment goes down, Americans still feel pessimistic about the economy — and largely blame him for it — in part because of high gas and food prices.
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In October, the nonprofit legal watchdog group American Oversight filed a lawsuit against Vos and the Wisconsin State Assembly seeking the release of records related to the investigation.
On Wednesday, Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn issued a ruling finding both Vos and the Wisconsin State Assembly in contempt of court for failing to provide those records, despite a court order in November to do so. Bailey-Rihn also ordered Vos and the State Assembly to pay American Oversight’s legal fees and costs.
In her ruling, the judge noted that trial testimony had revealed that a representative for Vos had taken “no reasonable steps to procure records from any contractors,” “no steps at all to review the records he did procure” and “no steps at all to prevent the loss or destruction of the contractors’ records.”
“Robin Vos and the assembly, after hearing and notice, continue to willfully violate a court order, and are therefore in contempt of court,” Bailey-Rihn wrote.
According to the ruling, Vos and the State Assembly have 14 days to submit proof that they have complied with Wisconsin’s public records law and have searched for records that were “deleted, lost, missing or otherwise unavailable,” or to provide an explanation of why a search would not be reasonable. After the 14-day period, they will be fined $1,000 per day until they comply.
Vos and his attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday morning.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, taxpayers are likely to bear the costs of these penalties, which could go beyond the $676,000 in public funds that Vos had approved for the initial partisan investigation.
In a statement, American Oversight noted that Bailey-Rihn’s ruling was a response to only one of three lawsuits the group is pursuing against Wisconsin officials and lawmakers over the Republican-led investigation.
“Speaker Vos and the Assembly have had ample opportunity to comply with the court’s order and produce records,” Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at American Oversight, said in a statement. “Maybe the threat of a $1,000/day fine until the records are produced will finally encourage compliance and give the people of Wisconsin the answers they deserve.”
Trump and his allies have baselessly alleged for more than a year that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have changed the outcome. In the weeks after the election, dozens of state and federal judges rejected Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election results.
Several Republican-led state legislatures — including in Wisconsin, where a recount showed Joe Biden had defeated Trump by about 20,600 votes — then launched partisan investigations into the 2020 election directly tied to Trump’s grievances. In Arizona, for example, Trump and his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani reached out personally to GOP officials there to push them to move forward with an election “audit.”
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“High school students are in a mental health crisis,” said Julissa Canales, another D.C. 16-year-old. She wants to be a therapist.
But these very D.C. teens on Monday weren’t posting on social media or complaining to their friends. They had gone to a virtual D.C. Council budget hearing, sitting before a government body, to ask for help.
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that nearly all the students who spoke or submitted testimony want to do the work — taking care of others — that the adults aren’t doing well today.
“Students are taking the lead on addressing mental health,” Alynah King, a student at Wilson High School, said at the hearing. “Not the adults.”
A few days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that confirmed to Americans what they had known all along in their classrooms, at their dinner tables and in their heads: Our children are in serious trouble. In the grips of the pandemic last year, 1 out of every 5 American teens that the CDC spoke to had considered suicide. Forty percent said they felt “persistently sad or hopeless.”
“These data echo a cry for help,” said Debra Houry, a deputy director at the CDC. “The covid-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental well-being.”
It’s “a national emergency,” the American Academy of Pediatrics declared last fall.
That’s what the kids in D.C. said on Monday, too, in the middle of an annual budget process for the public school system that had nearly 250 witnesses submitting testimony on behalf of their passion, their profession or their pet projects: more baseball fields, a food-education program, fixing the filthy bathrooms in one of the biggest high schools in the city.
And students from across the city who work with the Young Women’s Project, a nonprofit that helps kids find power in their voices, wrote impassioned arguments for more robust and effective mental health programs in all D.C. schools.
“My school doesn’t provide many mental health resources and does not share much information about what they do have,” said Noemie Durand, 17, a junior at BASIS. “It’s baffling and incredibly frustrating that the current health and school systems create so many obstacles to receiving that help.”
Durand said she, like many of her peers, suffered during the pandemic.
“The combination of stress from school, isolation from friends, and an extremely toxic relationship and eventual breakup led to destructive burnout and situational depression for most of my 10th-grade year,” she said. But she has parents with the money and means to get her help. Therapy pulled her out of her depression, she said. When she returned to school, she saw the same issues in peers all around her who didn’t know how to get help.
No surprise: She wants to study psychology.
She’ll have no trouble finding work — there’s a startling shortage of mental health workers in America right now. And that doesn’t bode well for the plan that D.C. Public Schools proposed to help students.
The proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year is big, up to $2.2 billion from last year’s $2 billion. And mental health services have a starring role, making sure that licensed therapists or psychologists from the Department of Behavioral Health are on all 216 public school campuses.
Staffing up isn’t going to be easy.
“Everybody knows that, around the country, there are really not sufficient numbers of [licensed social workers] to serve in various capacities,” the agency’s director, Barbara J. Bazron, told The Washington Post’s Perry Stein. “We are also working closely at getting more people in our pipeline through our internship programs and so forth. We are doing some of the same things that people around the country are doing.”
Good plan, adults. For the future.
But kids need help now.
“Many students don’t realize that their stress levels are rising until they have a panic attack,” said Abatan, a student at McKinley Tech High School. “They need to know what to do in the moment before they are overwhelmed to the point of adding more mental harm to themselves.”
The students proposed a $5 million initiative to create after-school mental health programs in 125 schools.
And they explained that while many schools do have resources, kids don’t know about them, are disconnected from them or are embarrassed to use them.
“At my school, you usually have to go to a teacher first to get help from a therapist,” Canales, a student at Columbia Heights Educational Campus, said in her testimony. “This presents a problem because students have to share why they need to see a therapist and may not feel comfortable sharing that with a teacher.”
Canales’s goal of becoming a therapist one day is a good one.
Let’s hope we can get it right sooner, though.
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Yet Putin and others around him no doubt see it differently. From their perspective, Russia is a global power surrounded by outright adversaries and frenemies like China. It has vast mineral wealth and a large military but also suffers from endemic economic and demographic weaknesses. The imperative to expand its borders as a means to defend them stretches back at least as far as Catherine the Great. Plus, Putin has faced few consequences for his prior adventurism. Throw in an erroneous assumption that all Russian speakers yearn for the motherland, and going for broke now may well seem like a viable political choice.
Clearly, the war isn’t going according to plan for the Kremlin. The West has also displayed more resolve than the reaction to Putin’s earlier excursions signaled.
These setbacks, combined with Putin’s worldview, help explain why he would risk even more damage to Russia by threatening to halt natural gas sales.
This week, the threat came in the guise of a reiterated demand that European buyers pay for gas in rubles rather than euros or dollars. There is a monetary angle to this, forcing buyers to sell hard currency and buy the battered ruble. But the main motivation is to remind those buyers who is heating their homes — and who controls the tap.
As it is, the Kremlin announced Thursday a convoluted plan whereby customers effectively keep paying in euros and dollars, but via designated accounts in Russia that convert that to rubles. Putin, it seems, wasn’t quite ready to follow through on his ultimatum.
Nor should he be. Like the nuclear weapons he has brandished rhetorically, an actual cutoff would entail some mutually assured destruction.
Putin’s war has pushed the European Union to radically rethink its long-term energy relationship with Russia, one that has endured for half a century, even during the Cold War. The incentive remains for both sides not to rock the boat too much. Europe still depends on Siberian gas, which is why it hasn’t sanctioned it. And Russia still relies on payments for it. Indeed, gas payments have risen in importance, according to Thane Gustafson, author of a history of the gas relationship with Europe. His rough math suggests that the share of gas in Russia’s hydrocarbon export revenue — which accounts for more than half of exports overall — has risen to half amid all this disruption, up from a typical level of one-fifth. He adds:
The irony is that one of the bigger investments under Putin has been the development of gas infrastructure to serve the European market for another generation. Yamal, Blue Stream, Nord Stream. All of that is now in ruins.
The economic and social impact in Europe of a prolonged cutoff, including the likelihood of a deep recession, would mark a big escalation of the conflict. Tempting as it may be to see a cutoff as just tit-for-tat following the sanctions on Russia, that ignores the fact that the original “tat” was the brutal and ongoing attack on Ukraine. In any case, if Putin does actually cut off supply, with all that entails, it perhaps should be read as a sign of desperation. Or that whatever method there may have been in his madness, madness has become the method.
More From Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
• Russia’s Other War of Attrition Is Against Europe: John Authers
• Putin’s New Alter Ego Is Igor Strelkov: Leonid Bershidsky
• Chechen Wars Foreshadow Putin’s Next Move: Clara Ferreira Marques
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times’ Lex column. He was also an investment banker.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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Meanwhile, your rental income may soon not be enough to cover your mortgage payments. Almost all of the city’s new loans are benchmarked against Hibor, which has been creeping up. Hong Kong pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar, so when the Federal Reserve starts hiking rates, borrowing costs in the city rise too.
You will have to stretch your math. The rental yield stood at 2.4% at 2021 year-end, according to realtor Centaline Property Agency Ltd. That should cover the 1.6% mortgage rate you could get from, say, HSBC Holdings Plc’s local subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank Ltd, which charges a 1.3 percentage-point premium over one-month Hibor.
But not for much longer. Fed fund futures are pricing in about 2 percentage points in rate hikes by year-end, so expect your cost of borrowing to rise in near lockstep. The average 30-year mortgage rate in the U.S. has reached almost 4.7%, the highest since December 2018.
If the futures market is correct on the Fed, by year-end, you will most likely earn negative carry for the first time since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. It will be a seismic mental adjustment for the city’s new generation of landlords.
To make matters worse, this is a renters’ market now. Owners are slashing rent to attract and retain good tenants, as the city enters its third month of soft lockdown. Expats are grumpy. Many have left the city for good. Meanwhile, young people, who make up a big portion of rental demand, may be struggling to find jobs right now. Last year, unemployment rate among those aged 20 to 29 averaged at 8.7%, well above the economy’s overall 5.5% rate. They might just move home and sleep on their parents’ couches.
What’s left is the prospect of rising home prices, which seems unlikely. The last time the Fed raised rates, in 2018, home prices fell by about 10% — and that was with economic growth at 2.8%. Now, Hong Kong is poised to enter a recession. Home prices may fall by 20% by 2025, estimates Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
For over two decades, Hong Kong’s real estate market has been pretty predictable — on the way up. So in the last two years, whenever the city lifted its social-distancing restrictions, home prices saw a mini-rebound. Some investors might be tempted again, as social life gradually comes back. Weekly transaction volumes at 35 housing estates reached a 45-week high, according to Midland Realty.
But think very carefully this time. If we look further back in history, Hong Kong property is by no means a sure bet. It was in a bear market for years, and many owners were deep under water. Home prices tumbled by two-thirds from their peak before the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 to the SARS outbreak in 2003.
So don’t fight the Fed, and learn to live with a recession. Hong Kong property’s got an infection it can’t shake.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
•
Hong Kong’s Covid Policy Is Less Than Zero: Trivedi & Ren
•
Singapore Property Is Hot Even Without Expats: Andy Mukherjee
• Hong Kong Expats, Where’s Your Next Destination?: Anjani Trivedi
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron’s, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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The U.S. and its allies were swift to act after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington led a coalition of more than 30 countries that halted the supply of U.S. goods and services, or those that use American technology or production equipment. A separate package of financial restrictions cut the nation off from global banking systems.
Russia can cope for a little while, but if its war in Ukraine drags on and sanctions remain in place then it’ll eventually run out of the components needed to not only build weapons and military vehicles, but run servers and networks used by the civilian population.
Chinese companies may be tempted to fill the void. Beijing and Moscow seem close — there is “no ceiling” for their cooperation, China said this week — and the two countries are united in their disdain for what they see as Western imperialism. Helping out a friend by shipping some U.S. chips, or computers that contain them, might seem like a friendly gesture and possibly even a lucrative one.
In addition to the aforementioned methods of masking its supply chain, a major Chinese corporation could also mislead its bankers, use external staffing companies to employ engineers in the target country, or simply claim that a subsidiary was no more than a business partner and thus not subject to U.S. embargoes.
We know about these various sanctions-busting schemes because they’re exactly how electronics companies ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Inc. skirted restrictions on sales to Iran. But they got caught, and the punishments were severe. In March 2017, ZTE was hit with a $1.2 billion fine and cut off from buying the U.S. components necessary to make many of its products. The company was forced to suspend operations, fire its board, and replace its management team. Revenue plummeted and the company has struggled to recover ever since.
Huawei this week showed just how damaging sanctions can be.(1) Banned from buying the crucial communications and computing chips needed to power the latest 5G phones and networks, the Shenzhen-based company was forced to reduce production. The result was a 29% drop in sales last year. Even domestic revenue fell 31%, highlighting the simple reality that you cannot sell what you can’t make.
Any Chinese executive running the risk-return calculation on skirting the Russian sanctions needs to remember two things: The U.S. is getting very good at catching violators, and the punishment could hurt not only that company but China as a whole.
President Joe Biden was blunt when he reiterated a warning this week to President Xi Jinping that “he’d be putting himself at significant jeopardy” if he helped his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. China has rejected suggestions that it would try to bypass the embargoes, but has made clear it’s opposed to them. “There has been unnecessary damage to the normal trade exchange with Russia, including between China and Russia,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing in Beijing this week.
Notable about this round of sanctions is the large coalition Washington has built to enforce them. It now has dozens of governments that have been updated on the rules and what to look out for. They will in turn serve as its eyes and ears around the world. In Asia, briefings have been held with industry groups and chambers of commerce in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China.
Even if it chooses not to be a willing informant, Beijing too knows the rules, with representatives of China’s Ministry of Commerce meeting their counterparts in Washington soon after the embargo was announced. The U.S. also has export-control attaches stationed in foreign countries, and companies themselves are likely to be snitches if they feel others in the supply chain are not following the rules, Deputy Assistant Commerce Secretary Matthew Borman said.
Thus, not only are the chances of getting caught higher than ever, but Beijing has a vested interest in ensuring no one breaks the rules.
Bans apply to components and hardware, as well as the software and equipment required to produce them. So while China is working hard to wean itself off chips made by Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp., it still needs software from Synopsis Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. as well as tools from Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. Any product made using inputs from these companies is subject to the bans.(3)
It could be more than a decade before Beijing can completely replace the entire design and manufacturing supply chain; losing access now would be disastrous. And that’s a real possibility. Should anyone be found breaking Russian sanctions, and Beijing seen aiding and abetting them, Washington may be forced to broaden its punishments — instead of merely forbidding sales to Russia using U.S. technology, Chinese businesses could also be cut off.
That would set China’s drive for technology independence back a long way. The smart move for Beijing now is to comply with the sanctions and make sure its companies do, too. Helping out a friend, and making a quick buck, isn’t worth sacrificing the nation’s long-term plan to become a global technology superpower that can stand on its own two feet.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
• Australia Sends a $7.5 Billion Cyber Signal to China: Tim Culpan
• China’s Ukraine Juggling Act Isn’t Over: Clara Ferreira Marques
• How China’s Cybersecurity Laws Could Backfire: Anjani Trivedi
(1) The reason for curbs on Huawei extend beyond Iran sanctions-busting to include Western bans against its networking equipment and claims by the U.S. that it’s a national-security threat.
(2) License exceptions apply to various categories, including consumer devices such as cellphones that are sold to individuals and NGOs, but not government or officials.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Tim Culpan is a technology columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Based in Taipei, he writes about Asian and global businesses and trends. He previously covered the beat at Bloomberg News.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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Russian troops also appeared to be withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, officials said.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said Moscow could be planning to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the eastern Donbas region, where Russians troops may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russia’s military has increasingly tried to seize towns in that part of Ukraine, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the country’s north appear to be heading there.
The focus on Mariupol came as Western officials attempted to assess Russia’s next moves, with troops withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, diplomats preparing for more discussions Friday and the war continuing to disrupt oil and natural gas supply around the world.
There were also new claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being further isolated from his advisers, with a picture of chaos emerging around Russia’s front lines and tensions at the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, said in a speech Thursday that Russian soldiers are short on morale and weapons and have refused orders, sabotaged their own equipment and shot down one of their own aircraft.
In Washington, President Biden said Putin “seems to be self-isolated, and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.”
“But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence,” Biden said.
Both Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed doubt Thursday about Russia’s claim that it is withdrawing from the area around Kyiv, with Stoltenberg saying Moscow has lied about its intentions before and appears to be repositioning troops for fresh attacks.
“We can only judge Russia on its actions, not its words,” he said at a news conference in Brussels. “According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning.”
The chief of Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian soldiers were withdrawing from what he characterized as the “main part” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, which Russian forces captured in February shortly after the war broke out. But Minister German Galushchenko noted that some troops remain at the facility and cautioned that “no one can predict their next steps.”
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm, said Russian forces were handing over Chernobyl to Ukrainian authorities and withdrawing troops. In a statement on Telegram, the company shared a letter in which Russian and Ukrainian forces purportedly agreed to the “transfer of protection” of the site. The claims could not be independently verified.
The Pentagon said Thursday that it was “unclear” about the accuracy of unconfirmed reports that Russian soldiers who are leaving the Chernobyl nuclear station had been exposed to high levels of radiation and presented signs of illness.
Biden’s remarks on Putin came after he announced he had authorized the release of an average of 1 million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months as a “wartime bridge” until U.S. production can ramp up later this year.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, unveiled new sanctions on Russia’s technology sector, focusing on an area that enables Moscow to acquire technology critical for its military, including one firm that is Russia’s largest microchip producer.
“We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims that the Russian leader’s advisers have misled him about the invasion of Ukraine.
“They don’t understand President Putin,” he said of Western government and intelligence officials who made those assertions Wednesday. “They don’t understand the decision-making mechanism, and they don’t understand our style of work.”
Putin announced Thursday that he had signed a decree requiring “unfriendly countries” to pay for natural gas in rubles through Russian banks. He said in broadcast remarks that existing contracts would be terminated for those countries that refuse to comply. The stipulation takes effect Friday, a day later than the initial deadline.
But French, German and British officials are rejecting Russian demands to pay for gas deliveries in Russian rubles.
Speaking during a joint news conference later in the day, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, said they would continue paying in euros. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that paying in rubles “is not something we will be looking to do,” Reuters reported.
The devastation wrought from five weeks of war showed no signs of ending. The death toll rose to 20 in Tuesday’s Russian missile strike on the regional government headquarters in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
In a Facebook post Thursday, the agency said rescuers had removed 19 bodies from the scene and that one person died in intensive care. Dozens more were injured.
Drone video published Wednesday and verified by The Washington Post shows widespread destruction in Mariupol. The video, which compared recent images with footage from 2021, shows the stark contrast of before and after the siege, including the Mariupol Drama Theater that was bombed two weeks ago.
The destruction within the city has drawn comparisons with the siege of Aleppo in 2016, when Russian forces helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crush rebels in an eight-month campaign that featured the use of cluster bombs, chemical weapons and other banned munitions, in addition to heavy shelling and conventional airstrikes.
Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the Russian three-star general who led forces in Syria, has been identified as the architect of the devastating siege of Mariupol and has been given a new nickname: the Butcher of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials blame him for the bombing of a maternity hospital, the Drama Theater and other buildings in the port city and vowed to see him tried for war crimes in The Hague.
“Remember him,” Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, tweeted recently over a photo of the 59-year-old general, a man with close-cropped gray hair and pale blue eyes. “This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol.”
The thousands of expected evacuees from Mariupol will be brought to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia. By Thursday evening, 45 buses had arrived to transport people, according to local officials. Neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians specified when the cease-fire and humanitarian corridor would end, but Ukraine said its soldiers would “guarantee a full cease-fire regime.”
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said its teams would travel with the convoy “to facilitate the safe passage of civilians out of Mariupol.”
Despite the agreement, part of the convoy was fired upon Thursday afternoon while driving toward the Russian-held city of Berdyansk, as the column of buses approached a checkpoint, damaging at least one vehicle, according Tetiana Ignatenkova, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk regional administration. Previous humanitarian corridors in the country also have been fragile, with both sides accusing the other of violating cease-fires and obstructing supplies.
Since the start of the conflict, 80,000 residents have been evacuated from Mariupol using buses and private transport, according to the local government.
Ukraine will resume peace talks with Russia online on Friday, a senior Ukrainian diplomat participating in the negotiations said on his Telegram channel, after tentative progress in discussions in Istanbul on Tuesday.
David Arakhamia said Ukraine stressed the need for a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a venue not in Belarus or Russia. But Russian officials declined, saying the sides should first work out a more coherent draft agreement, he said. Ukrainian officials have said any peace deal should be signed by the two leaders.
The two sides have been exploring ways for Ukraine to become a neutral country as part of a broader peace deal. Ukrainian officials have demanded a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian forces to the borders that existed on Feb. 23 — a day before Russia launched its invasion, Arakhamia said.
The negotiations have been met with skepticism by Ukrainian and Western officials. Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who visited Washington, D.C., this week as part of a parliamentary delegation, repeatedly said Putin was using the talks as a smokescreen to buy time for his forces in Ukraine to regroup.
“It is difficult to negotiate with someone when the gun is being [pointed] at your head,” she said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. In remarks to reporters published by CNN on Wednesday, she said Putin was “sending false, lying messages” to the world.
Bennett reported from the Dnipro region of Ukraine. Brittany Shammas, William Branigin, Sarah Cahlan, Jeff Stein and Meryl Kornfield in Washington, Andrew Jeong in Seoul, Kim Bellware in Chicago, Emily Rauhala in Brussels and Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report.
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It said the Adams County Coroner had determined that the child died after ingesting fentanyl and that Montoya and Casias “participated in illicit drug activity” in the child’s presence at home before and after her death.
Montoya was being held on $250,000 bail at the Adams County Jail. Bail was set at $100,000 for Casias. A status hearing for both was set for Monday.
Telephone and email messages seeking comment from Casias’ attorney, Rachel Lanzen, were not immediately returned. Montoya was being represented by the public defender’s office, which doesn’t comment on pending cases.
Court records that would provide details on the accusations weren’t immediately available from the county district court. Christopher Hopper, a district attorney’s spokesman, said he could not provide additional information.
Fentanyl is an unpredictable and powerful synthetic painkiller blamed for driving an increase in fatal drug overdoses. It’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton rejected the new policy in a February ruling, saying that impermissible “racial balancing” was at its core. Commonly known as “TJ,” the prestigious school near the nation’s capital is often ranked as one of the best public high schools in the country.
Earlier this month, Hilton also rejected a request from the school system to delay the implementation of his ruling. But the 4th Circuit, in a 3-2 ruling, said the school board had met the legal requirements for a suspension of Hilton’s order while its appeal is pending.
The 4th Circuit panel agreed with school officials who argued that because the selection process for the incoming freshman class is well underway, implementing Hilton’s ruling now would throw the process into chaos.
Judge Toby Heytens wrote that he has “grave doubts” about Hilton’s conclusions “regarding both disparate impact and discriminatory purpose” of the new admissions policy.
“In my view, appellant Fairfax County School Board is likely to succeed in its appeal,” Heytens wrote.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Allison Jones Rushing said putting Hilton’s ruling on hold while the school board appeals his decision is not in the public interest. Jones said any logistical difficulties or inconvenience associated with changing the admissions policy at this late date “simply do not outweigh the infringement of constitutional rights.”
“And everyone — even temporarily frustrated applicants and their families — ultimately benefits from a public-school admissions process not tainted by unconstitutional discrimination,” Rushing wrote.
The case has been closely watched as courts continue to evaluate the role that racial considerations can play when deciding who should be admitted to a particular school. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a similar case alleging that Harvard University discriminates against Asian Americans in its admissions process.
Fairfield County Public Schools said the order from the 4th Circuit allows the school board to continue with the current application process to select the Class of 2026 this spring.
“For the 2,500+ students in this application pool, this means the race blind process set out by the School Board in October 2020 will remain in place as an appeal challenging the February court decision plays out,” the board said in a news release.
The parents’ group Coalition for TJ, which filed the lawsuit, said the 4th Circuit judges have made a “grave error” in allowing the school system to continue to use its new admissions process.
“If the judges’ decision stands, we would see Fairfax County Public Schools usher in a second class of students to America’s No. 1 public high school through an unconstitutional race-based admissions process,” the coalition said in a statement.
For decades, Black and Hispanic students have been woefully underrepresented in the student body. After criticism over its lack of diversity, the school board scrapped a standardized test that had been at the heart of the admissions process and opted instead for a process that sets aside slots at each of the county’s middle schools. It also includes “experience factors” like socioeconomic background.
The parents’ group argued in its lawsuit that Asian Americans, who constituted more than 70% of the student body, were unfairly targeted in the new policy.
The school’s current freshman class, which was admitted under the new policy, saw a significantly different racial makeup. Black students increased from 1% to 7%; Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%. Asian American representation decreased from 73% to 54%.
The school system has insisted that its new policies are race neutral, and the panel evaluating applicants is not even aware of applicants’ race as it conducts its reviews.
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Bell was shot in his neck, arm, leg and hand and underwent surgery at Erie County Medical Center, where he appeared before a judge after regaining consciousness, said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, who offered dramatic new details of the events.
“You have a high-speed chase... you’ve got a guy firing out the driver’s side window. You’ve got blockades, you’ve got speed on highways, a girl jumping out of the car,” he said at a news conference.
Bell is accused of fleeing two police officers who approached his parked vehicle after noticing its tinted windows around 6 p.m. Tuesday, Flynn said. He cooperated at first but did not get out of the car because he was partially paralyzed in a 2012 shooting and uses medical equipment to walk, the prosecutor said.
When it appeared there was an issue with his registration, Bell drove off. Armed with an illegal handgun with an extended magazine of ammunition, he fired on police as they pursued him through city neighborhoods and on highways for more than 20 minutes, Flynn said.
Early in the chase, before shots were fired, the passenger exited the moving vehicle.
“He was making a turn and had slowed down at some point. She opened the front passenger door and jumped out of the car while it was moving and ended up rolling on the ground and hit up against a pole of some kind,” he said, “like right out of a movie.”
“She was obviously freaking out probably, to say the least, and wanted to have nothing to do with this,” Flynn said.
In the minutes that followed, Bell drove through a police barricade, entered and exited highways and drove wildly through several Buffalo neighborhoods, briefly entering the suburb of Cheektowaga, before turning back toward Buffalo with police officers radioing his route to each other and warning of the danger.
“They’re still shooting. Multiple officers hit!” an officer is heard shouting in a transmission captured by Broadcastify.com.
Three police officers were struck in separate vehicles. All are recovering.
By the time it was over, nine police vehicles were damaged by gunfire, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
Investigators have yet to determine how many shots were fired by Bell, or how many officers fired their weapons, Flynn said.
Bell is due to appear before a county judge at the hospital Friday for an alleged probation violation related to a 2020 illegal firearms charge in the town of Amherst. While on probation, he was prohibited from carrying a weapon.
The attorney who represented Bell at Thursday’s arraignment did not return a call seeking comment on his behalf.
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New York Democrats drew a new congressional map with boundaries that could gain their party as many as three new seats, a crucial advantage at a time when the House majority will come down to just a handful of wins.
The state congressional map ruled unconstitutional by the state judge would give Democrats 22 seats to four Republican ones. The New York delegation is composed of 19 Democratic seats to eight seats for Republicans. The state lost a seat because of slow growth over the past 10 years.
— Colby Itkowitz
Severe storms leave 2 dead in Florida
A line of severe storms packing isolated tornadoes and high winds ripped across the Deep South overnight — killing at least two in the Florida Panhandle, toppling trees and power lines and leaving homes and businesses damaged as the vast weather front raced across several states.
In Florida, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday morning that two people were killed and two people injured when a tornado touched down in the western panhandle.
At least two confirmed tornadoes injured several people Wednesday, damaged homes and businesses, and downed power lines in Mississippi and Tennessee after an earlier storm caused damage in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas.
— Associated Press
Student workers at Dartmouth to unionize
In a first for Dartmouth College, student workers have voted to unionize.
The college announced the successful vote Wednesday involving around 150 students working in the dining hall that provides meals to students living in college housing. It had pledged to remain neutral during the election and said it accepted the results. The vote, according to the Dartmouth, was 52 to 0. It was tallied by the National Labor Relations Board.
The push by the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth started in January. Some of its concerns were specific to work conditions, including a demand to pay all workers for missed hours due to covid-19 isolation. But it went beyond dining, accusing the administration of failing to respond to a range of issues including mental health and rising rents.
Dartmouth joins Hamilton College in New York, Grinnell College in Iowa and Wesleyan University in Connecticut where undergraduates voted in the past two years to unionize, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College. Graduates students at the University of New Mexico, University of California and Clark University in Massachusetts have also formed unions in those two years. The Columbia graduate teaching and research assistants walked off the job in 2018 to try to pressure the university to recognize their decision to unionize. The union, which has about 3,000 members, reached a tentative agreement with Columbia earlier this year.
— Associated Press
Student killed peer at South Carolina middle school, police say: A 12-year-old student was shot and killed Thursday by another 12-year-old student inside their South Carolina middle school, authorities said. The shooter was found hiding under a deck at a home not far from Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville about an hour after the shooting and was still armed, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said. The boy is charged with murder, possession of a firearm at a school and possession of a weapon by someone under 18.
— Associated Press
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The man died at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
The shooting is being investigated by state police officials.
Police didn’t immediately release the names or races of the dead man or the officer who shot him.
The man died at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
The shooting is being investigated by state police officials.
Police didn’t immediately release the names or races of the dead man or the officer who shot him.
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“This has been a long time coming,” said Sen. Antonio Hayes, a Baltimore Democrat. He thanked supporters who have “come together and really advocated on behalf of Maryland families.”
Republicans criticized the measure for failing to spell out how much employees and employers would have to contribute, leaving that for the state’s labor department to define later. They said Democrats were rushing to get the bill to the Republican governor just to meet a deadline so lawmakers will still be in session if the bill is vetoed.
“We’re pushing this bill as quick as we can to get it upstairs,” said Sen. J.B. Jennings, a Republican, who added: “We don’t know the numbers ... this bill is a hot mess.”
Because lawmakers are in the last session of the four-year term, they would not have a chance to override the veto next year if they adjourn before the governor acts on legislation.
The measure would create an insurance pool. Employees and employers would contribute to fund the program. Under the bill, the state’s labor department would set contribution rates to pay for the program. Employers with fewer than 15 employees would not be required to contribute.
The measure also includes job protections to protect employees from retaliation or termination for using the leave.
Seven states and the District of Columbia have paid family and medical leave insurance programs, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington. Colorado and Oregon have approved programs that have not started yet.
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Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the report, which lays out a series of recommendations to improve military procedures and strategy, will be used as the department develops its own broader plan to reduce civlian harm.
“No other military works as hard as we do to mitigate civilian harm, and yet we still cause it,” said Kirby. ”We’re going to continue to try to learn from past issues.”
RAND concluded that the battle for Raqqa provided important lessons.
Michael McNerney, lead author of the RAND report, called Raqqa “a cautionary tale about civilian harm in urban combat.” He said it “should serve as an extra incentive to the DoD to strengthen its policies and procedures to mitigate, document and respond to civilian harm.”
The RAND report noted that there has been a wide range of estimated civilian casualties during the seige, but also said it believes that 60%-80% of Raqqa was left uninhabitable by the time the city was liberated in October 2017.
Initially the U.S.-led coalition estimted that it was responsible for 38 incidents involving 240 civilian casualties — including 178 who were killed. A consortium of local Syrian and international groups, including Amnesty International and Airwars, put the number of casualties at a “high estimate” of 1,600, but said that about 774 of them could specifically be “verified” by data as the result of coalition action.
The report makes it clear that several thousand more civilians likely died, based on the number of bodies uncovered by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, but many were probably killed by IS or other fighters on the ground.
“Our report focuses on U.S. actions in Raqqa, but the actions of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian partners undoubtedly contributed far more to civilian harm and suffering in Syria overall,” McNerney said.
The report noted that the challenges in Raqqa were compounded by limits on the number U.S. troops that could be there, as well as where they could be positioned. U.S. troops on the ground could have provided better targeting and civilian information, including on Islamic State militants’ efforts to use civilians as human shields, the report said.
RAND recommended that the U.S. military provide more extensive training and guidance on the need to avoid civilian harm, and plan and execute operations in ways to achieve those goals. Changes could include improved planning, better assessments of potential collateral damage, increased mission rehearsals, improved intelligence gathering, and more selective use of air strikes and munitions that minimize bomb fragmentation.
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But for all that is known about the day, piecing together the words and actions of Donald Trump over that time has proved no easy task, even though a president’s movements and communications are closely monitored.
There’s a gap in the official White House phone notations given to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 — from about 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m., according to two people familiar with the congressional investigation into the riot. Details may still turn up; the former president was known to use various cell phones and often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly.
And over the past four-plus months a lot has surfaced about what Trump did do and say on Jan. 6 — in texts, tweets, videos, calls and other conversations.
The following account is based on testimony, timelines and eyewitness reporting gathered by The Associated Press and The Washington Post and CBS News, and from officials and people familiar with the events who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
SORE AT HIS NO. 2
Trump entered the Oval Office at 11:08 a.m. By that time, about 400 pro-Trump demonstrators had already massed at the Capitol. Trump placed a call to Vice President Mike Pence — their only conversation of the day. It didn’t go well: Trump wanted Pence to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and he was very unhappy the vice president wouldn’t do it.
At 11:38 a.m., the president left the White House to address his rally on the Ellipse, a big grassy oval behind the White House, about a mile or so from the Capitol. It was bitter cold, but that didn’t keep the crowd away. Trump was up on stage by 11:57 and addressed his supporters until about 1:15 p.m.
Among Trump’s challenging final words: “We fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country any more. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country. So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol.”
‘THEY’RE THROWING METAL POLES’
Growing crowds were migrating to the Capitol. Almost immediately after Trump concluded, a Capitol Police officer called for backup.
“They’re throwing metal poles at us,” the officer said in a panicked voice. “Multiple law-enforcement injuries.”
Would Trump himself head for the Capitol, as he’d suggested in his speech? It was unclear at first, but his motorcade turned to head back to the White House.
At 1:21 p.m., Trump met with his valet at the White House, logs say. At the Capitol, meanwhile, then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund begged for help from the National Guard as the crowd started to swell around the west side of the building and became increasingly violent.
By then the TV networks had picked up the melee and were broadcasting live as the mob broke through metal police barricades and advanced toward the doors of the building where lawmakers were gathered to certify the presidential election results. The surreal images soon filled television screens throughout the West Wing, where staffers watched, stunned.
LOCKDOWN
By 2 p.m. the U.S. Capitol was locked down. At 2:11, Pence was evacuated. At 2:15, congressional leaders were evacuated. At 2:43, demonstrator Babbitt was shot trying to enter the House chamber through a window broken by the mob.
No official record has surfaced yet of what Trump was doing during this time. The next entry in Trump’s daily diary is not until 4:03 p.m., when he went out to the Rose Garden to tape a public address after frantic urging.
But during this time Trump was hardly idle. He was in touch with lawmakers and he was, according to aides, watching the violence unfold on national television. And he was tweeting.
At 2:28, he tweeted not about the violence but to show his pique at his vice president:
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
At some point, Trump also talked to lawmakers. Republican Kevin McCarthy told a California radio station that he had spoken to the president.
“I was the first person to call him,” McCarthy said. “I told him to go on national TV, tell these people to stop it. He said he didn’t know what was happening.”
Washington Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler said McCarthy relayed that conversation to her. By her account, when McCarthy told Trump it was his own supporters breaking into the building, Trump responded: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Trump also talked to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, among other GOP lawmakers. Tuberville later said he spoke to the president while the Senate was being evacuated. Utah Sen. Mike Lee said Trump accidentally called him when he was trying to reach Tuberville.
Others, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, tried but failed to get through to the president.
‘IT HAS GONE TOO FAR’
At 3:14 p.m. a Trump tweet at last made a sideways reference to the havoc. “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”
At some point, he sequestered himself in the dining room off the Oval Office to watch the violence play out on TV, rewinding and re-watching some parts, according to former aides. Unable to get through by other means, allies including his former chief of staff and communications director resorted to tweeting at him to try to get through. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was getting a flurry of texts from lawmakers, from Fox News personalities and even Trump’s own children.
“Hey, Mark, protestors are literally storming the Capitol. Breaking windows on doors. Rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?” reads one text.
“We are all helpless,” says another.
As the violence continued, the president’s elder son texted Meadows:
“He’s got to condemn this s(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) Asap,” Donald Trump, Jr. texted.
Meadows responded: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Trump, Jr. texted again and again, urging that his father act:
“We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
At 4:08 p.m. Trump went out to the Rose Garden. At 4:17 p.m. he released a scripted, pre-recorded video, which included a call for “peace” and “law and order” and finally told his supporters “you have to go home now.”
But they didn’t. Things were still wildly out of control. In fact, the Capitol building was not secured until 5:34 p.m.
At 6:01, Trump’s message was back to indignant: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” he wrote. “Remember this day forever!”
At 6:27, he went back to the residence, and started calling his lawyers.
Congress did not resume counting electoral votes until 8 p.m. They finished at 3:40 a.m. and certified Biden as the winner.
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Associated Press Writers Jill Colvin in New York, Nomaan Merchant, Zeke Miller, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Mike Balsamo contributed to this report.
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Still Walz, Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma think the amount of players looking to change schools is getting out of control.
“I always like to say, ‘The grass is greener on the other side because it’s fertilized with a bunch of bull,’” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “I think there are a lot of players that will jump into the portal after one year that don’t really have a good grasp of why they’re doing it.”
Staley likened the portal to Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.
“It’s a big ol’ fad that just keeps continuing,” she said. “Is it out of hand? It absolutely is. I don’t know how you control it. But it’s their way. It’s their way of controlling their own destinies.”
Both Staley and Auriemma noted that there were currently more players seeking to transfer than there were scholarships available across the country.
“You know those 850 people in the portal? Three hundred of them are not going to find a school to go to because they’re going to realize it’s not the school they just left,” Auriemma said.
Despite the reservations, they’re still playing along. Emily Engstler (Syracuse), Kianna Smith (California) and Chelsie Hall (Vanderbilt) have been key for Louisville. Engstler and Hall just joined the program this season.
When Engstler was considering the Cardinals, Walz went to Mykasa Robinson to discuss how her role would likely shrink if Engstler were to come and gauge her comfort level.
“She looked at me, and she’s like, ‘I’m tired of guarding her. If we can get her, yes, because she likes to win, and she wants to play with other good players,’” Walz said.
SOUTH CAROLINA SUPPORT
The Gamecocks have led the nation in average attendance for seven straight years, buoyed by a base of more than 10,000 season tickets. Despite the 1,200-mile distance from campus to downtown Minneapolis, there will be plenty of garnet-and-black-clad South Carolina fans voicing their support on Friday night when the Gamecocks take on Louisville.
“They’ve been with us when we weren’t a popular team or we weren’t a whole lot to cheer about,” Staley said. “This is my 14th year being at South Carolina, but the last probably 10, the fans have given us a ride that’s kind of irreplaceable.”
One of the catalysts for the attendance boom was giving fans as much as access to the program as they could, to build relationships and let the locals get to know the players as people.
“You really feel the love in the community,” guard Brea Beal said. “You can go to the store and run into somebody and they’re like, oh my gosh, just freaking out. It’s like a family.”
FOND MEMORY
Walz spent one season at Minnesota on his climb up the coaching ladder, serving as an assistant under current Maryland coach Brenda Frese.
That was 20 years ago, when Hall of Fame finalist Lindsay Whalen was a sophomore for the Gophers on a breakthrough team that reached the Final Four two seasons later. The women’s team at that time played in a smaller gym, the Pavilion, next door to Williams Arena where the Minnesota men’s team has played since 1928.
A water pipe burst that winter, moving the women’s team into the bigger venue. The Gophers were on a roll, and the first game in the building known as “The Barn” was packed to the rafters.
“From that point on, we continued the rest of the season playing in the Barn in front of unbelievable crowds,” Walz said.
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More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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All-American guard Ochai Agbaji grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, before heading about 20 minutes west on Interstate 70 to become a star for Kansas, which faces Villanova in the first national semifinal Saturday night. His running mate, Christian Braun, grew up in southeast Kansas but also played his high school ball in suburban Kansas City.
Two-time Big East player of the year Collin Gillespie, who has Wildcats coach Jay Wright eyeing a third national title, also played his high school ball about 20 minutes from campus at Archbishop Wood in suburban Philadelphia. Eric Dixon grew up in nearby Willow Grove and Chris Arcidiacono in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve never put an emphasis on recruiting local kids. We’ve put emphasis just going out and getting the best kids,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, “and we’ve been able to recruit national for the most part.
“But it’s pretty special that within 45 minutes of your home you have arguably two of the very best wings in college basketball.”
There are hometown connections in the second semifinal between Duke and North Carolina, too, and those might produce a little extra motivation given that their rival campuses famously lie just 10 miles apart.
Justin McKoy, who played the entire overtime in the Tar Heels’ upset of No. 1 seed Baylor, grew up 30 minutes away in Raleigh. Duke captain Joey Baker only moved about 90 minutes north of his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
ONE-ON-ONE
Three years ago, Caleb Samuels had made the decision to transfer from Tulane and was taking a visit to Villanova, where Gillespie and another hometown player, Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, were given the job of showing him around.
Some of the coaches asked if they would have a little shooting competition and, well, one thing led to another.
“We’re two competitive guys. It turned into one-on-one,” Gillespie recalled Thursday, “and he got up on me like, 13-0, and I was scared. I was nervous. I was like, who is this kid? Because I hadn’t heard of him before. And I obviously looked him up and watched his highlights — ‘All right, he can help us.’”
That might’ve been an understatement. Gillespie and Samuels are now two of the Wildcats’ top three scorers.
“I was up 13-0 the first game, and I remember him coming back, making every shot after that, after I missed, obviously, a layup or something,” Samuels said. “He ended up winning that game. The series ended up being 3-1, Collin.”
TEAHAN TRADITION
The Final Four has become a Teahan family tradition.
First it was Connor. He played at Kansas from 2007-11 and went to the Final Four twice, winning a national championship with the Jayhawks in 2008.
Now it’s Chris’ turn. He was a freshman on the 2018 Final Four team and is back this year as a super senior.
“The Teahans have kind of become the first family of our program,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “They both put their handprint all over everything we do.”
CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
It’s not uncommon to see politicians making public bets on major sporting events with products highlighting their state’s industries. That’s not an option for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper considering home-state teams UNC and Duke have brought their rivalry to New Orleans.
So Cooper on Thursday instead issued a proclamation that the state is “The Center of the College Basketball Universe.”
“The stakes are high on Saturday and fans across the nation will get a firsthand look at two programs that have for decades competed fiercely and divided the loyalty of family and friends, but made our state proud,” Cooper said.
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More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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“It’s just been really slow in getting through that new independent process that’s wound up reinvestigating the entire case,” Emmert said, referring to the Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP).
The IARP was created out of proposals from the commission led by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2018 to reform the sport. It began looking into allegations against Kansas, Arizona, LSU, Louisville and North Carolina State on the heels of a federal investigation into corruption in college sports that resulted in convictions of shoe company executives, a middle man who worked with them and some assistant college coaches.
Of those FBI cases nearly five years ago, only one -- North Carolina State, tied to its recruitment of one-and-done star Dennis Smith Jr. -- has actually gone through the IARP system to completion and received a ruling that resulted in probation for one year, some vacated victories and penalties for previous coaches.
The four other cases are still pending in the IARP structure, while Auburn went through the more traditional process and received four years of probation in December from an NCAA infractions committee panel.
In the meantime, this year’s NCAA Tournament could be tainted should Kansas win the national championship and subsequently have an unfavorable decision come down in a now half-decade-old investigation.
Created to handle complex cases, the IARP includes independent investigators and decision-makers with no direct ties to NCAA member schools, and rulings cannot be appealed.
Emmert said NCAA institutions need to come up with a process that has “got to be fair. It’s got to be swift. And it’s got to not punish the innocent. ... That’s where the membership’s got to be in all of this, as they shape a new process or rebuild the one that’s in place.”
The Kansas case hinges on whether Adidas representatives were considered boosters — the school contends they were not — when two of them arranged payments to prospective recruits. Kansas does not dispute the payments. Kansas asked for referral to the IARP instead of having the NCAA’s infractions committee handle the matter.
While the lengthy IARP process has been going on, Self agreed to a new contract on April 2, 2021, that will keep him with the school until he retires.
The five-year deal adds one additional year after the conclusion of each season — in effect, making it a lifetime contract. It guarantees him $5.41 million per year with a base salary of $225,000, professional services contract of $2.75 million and an annual $2.435 million retention bonus.
The contact also includes a clause that says the school cannot terminate him for cause “due to any current infractions matter that involves conduct that occurred on or prior to” the signing of the new contract. Instead, he would forfeit half of his base salary and professional services pay while serving any Big 12 or NCAA suspension.
Emmert declined to weigh on on Kansas’ decision to double down on Self.
“I’ll leave it to the school to make decisions about their coaches’ contracts,” said Emmert, who also spoke at the women's Final Four on Wednesday. “That’s their business, obviously. They can do that as they see fit.”
The infractions process has also come up with the Division I Transformation Committee, which is working to recommend ways to modernize and reform NCAA governance and regulatory policies.
Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, who chairs the committee along with Ohio athletics director Julie Cromer, said the group is looking at both the overall infractions process and the IARP structure as part of its work.
“I don’t know fully what was envisioned and what wasn’t envisioned,” said Sankey, who has served on the NCAA infractions committee. “But we have to have timely outcomes, both for those accused and for those competing against those who are accused. That has to be a point of emphasis.”
Later, Sankey added: “I was on an implementation working group, and I disagreed with elements of the approach. So I think some of these problems were foreseeable. We have an opportunity to correct and enhance the process. That doesn’t mean everybody will like the process.”
Among other topics Emmert addressed:
NATIONAL NIL RULES
Emmert offered an urgent plea to Congress to craft what he said was needed, uniform national legislation governing financial endorsements for athletes know known as name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.
“This tournament’s put on full display the beauty of college sport,” Emmert said. “People love it and enjoy it, and we’ve got to work with the schools and with Congress to make sure we can continue that.
“We’ve got again a relatively short window of time — in my estimate, one and two years,” Emmert continued. “These decisions have to be made because of the dynamics that are underway right now that are far beyond the control of schools, coaches, (athletic directors) or presidents.”
Currently, more than 30 states have been working on their own NIL laws.
TRANSGENDER LEGISLATION
With a number of states considering or passing legislation restricting participation of transgender athletes, Emmert was asked whether the NCAA would bar those states from hosting championship events.
The NCAA has largely followed the Olympic model that allows transgender athletes to compete if they’ve had certain biomedical treatments, including hormone therapies, meant to promote fairness.
Emmert said the NCAA currently requires communities which wish to host events “to explain how it is that they’re going to make sure that the participants in that sport will be allowed to do that in a nondiscriminatory way. ... If they can do that, then we’ll be in those states.”
TRANFER RULES
Emmert said the current transfer rules continue to draw a lot of scrutiny and complaints from coaches and could be adjusted over time.
“The only thing that I can say right now is that it’s clear that students are getting more opportunities to play. They’re getting more freedom of movement in some respects,” Emmert said.
But he added that officials are keeping an eye on how the rules affect “students being able to finish their degrees in a timely fashion and go on and lead productive lives, because we know how few of them will be professional basketball players. It’s a constant point of discussion. I don’t anticipate it going away too soon.”
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AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard, Dave Skretta and John Marshall contributed to this report.
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More AP college basketball: http://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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“I sit here because of Title IX. Although we have so many wins, we have so much further to go. That’s why we went with having the Title IX story told through my eyes so that you can see if Title IX didn’t exist, I wouldn’t exist,” Parker said.
Parker considers herself a first-generation benefactor of Title IX, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Parker’s mother, Sara, attended Iowa before Title IX became law. Candace’s 12-year old daughter, Lailaa Nicole Williams, will have more opportunities.
“It means a lot to be able to have my mom and my daughter be a part of this,” Parker said. “I have inspiration from my mom and her story. And then as well for my daughter, I want to continue to open up doors, and I don’t want her to see limitations.”
The documentary also comes as inequities between the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are coming under intense scrutiny.
“Something as simple as March Madness, right? Like, now women can use that. That’s unbelievable. It’s 2022,” Parker said. “But things are changing. But it still doesn’t take away that we still have so much farther to go. I think that’s the whole point of doing this documentary is if you invest, it’s not a charity, it’s an investment. And it’s an honest investment of trying to make it work. And I think for so long, we just existed; women’s sports existed as something that had to be there. And now we look at it as an investment, and then I think we can start moving things forward.”
Parker won a pair of NCAA championships at Tennessee while being coached by one of the pioneers of Title IX, the late Pat Summitt. Parker has parlayed that experience into a successful career as a two-time WNBA champion and MVP and two gold medals in the Olympics.
Parker is also an accomplished analyst for Turner Sports on its NBA and NCAA Tournament coverage since 2018. During discussions about a contract extension at Turner, Parker and her representatives first pitched the idea of a documentary. It got the green light for production last November.
The documentary includes interviews with Billie Jean King, Peyton Manning, Lisa Leslie, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“There’s a number of influential voices that I think I have to pinch myself to realize that they’re a part of it,” Parker said. “To have Billie Jean King, like the 10-year-old girl that did a biography project on her, I just think it’s just so special.
“Title IX doesn’t just impact women. To watch Peyton Manning talk about how Pat really influenced his life, as a competitor and just as an individual. To see somebody that is an icon to say that I think speaks to how valuable women in leadership positions are.”
Having the documentary tip-off Turner’s Final Four coverage on Saturday should give it a broader audience. “The Arena” will air following the documentary and focus on the impact of Title IX on sports and society.
This is also the first project for Parker’s production company — Baby Hair Productions — and was also produced with Scout Productions.
“Having a diverse audience, that’s not just the women and girls, we want everyone to see how impactful and powerful women are in society,” Parker said. “To have this be something that we talk about, especially after with ‘The Arena’ show, I think it speaks to just how important it is.”
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More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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“I’m progressing very well from recent hip surgery, but have to exercise caution as I return to play,” English said on Twitter.
There are no alternates at the Masters, an invitation tournament. That puts the field at 90 players, with one spot available if the Texas Open winner this week is not eligible.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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“Always the elbow,’’ Price said. “It happens every year, all the way back to 2010. Now, everything feels good – arm, elbow and shoulder.’’
It was good enough to impress Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and anybody else who watched Price make his first spring appearance against Cleveland on Wednesday night. The left-hander worked only an inning, but he had two strikeouts and was clocked at 93 mph.
In an abbreviated camp, it wasn’t enough to determine his role. It did remind the Dodgers that Price is still in the mix.
From starter to bullpen, Price’s role with the Dodgers has been uncertain since they acquired the 2012 American League Cy Young Award winner from the Boston Red Sox in a three-team deal that included right-fielder Mookie Betts in February 2020.
Price didn’t pitch at all that year, opting out because of concerns about COVID-19. In 2021, he bounced between the starting rotation and the bullpen with 11 starts and 28 appearances as a reliever. His overall ERA was 4.03.
He arrived at camp in mid-March ready to do anything. Then Roberts mentioned him as a possible starter.
“I’m preparing that way, yeah,” said Price, who is in the final year of a seven-year, $217 million contract. “I think it’d be silly of me to prepare to be a reliever if I’m asked to start. So, I’m preparing to be a starter until otherwise.”
Otherwise looks to be the case. Roberts projects his starting rotation will be Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw, Andrew Heaney and Tony Gonsolin. He cautioned that nothing is set in stone, mostly because pitchers were limited in a camp cut short by major league baseball’s lockout.
The Dodgers signed career starter Tyler Anderson in mid-March, just in case. As for Price, Roberts said: “I just think that David, right now, is not an option in the sense of, he’s not built up. It just doesn’t seem feasible right now.”
The 36-year-old left-hander could still have an immediate role, like one inning in relief early in the season, Roberts said, and moving up to multiple innings as he gets stronger.
“I’m confident in David in any role,’’ Roberts said. “I like his versatility. The role doesn’t matter. It’s just knowing that he’s going to pitch valuable innings in whatever role.”
NOTES
Cody Bellinger took batting practice Thursday on the minor-league side of the Dodgers’ camp. The 2019 National League MVP is 4 for 27 with 17 strikeouts this spring.
“I wouldn’t say I’m alarmed,’’ Roberts said. “I think ‘progressing’ is the word. We’ve got to continue to log at-bats to make him feel as comfortable as possible when the season starts.’’
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Bieber will be the 12th pitcher in franchise history to make three consecutive opening-day starts.
The 26-year-old went 7-4 with a 3.17 ERA last season, but made only 16 starts because of the shoulder injury. He’s back to 100% now, but Francona wanted to double check Bieber was set given the accelerated, abbreviated spring training due to the lockout.
“We just wanted to make sure that he was ready and if we needed to alter it, because the way we’re coming into the season isn’t the way guys pitched,” Francona said. “It’s just because it’s a short spring and we need to give them the best chance to be as ready as they can be.”
Bieber has split his two previous opening-day starts. He struck out 14 in a win over the Royals in 2020 on his way to winning the Cy Young. Last year, he struck out 12 in a loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Francona hasn’t set his rotation for the season’s first week.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Marlowe may compete with second-year player Richie Grant, a second-round draft pick in 2021, for a starting job.
Marlowe had two interceptions with Buffalo in 2020. He had a fumble recovery and two passes defensed with the Lions last season.
The Falcons have made their secondary a focus in free agency. They also signed former Raiders cornerback Casey Hayward and former Chicago cornerback Teez Tabor.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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Bowles gets a second opportunity after going 24-40 in four seasons with the New York Jets from 2015 through 2018. He also was an interim head coach in Miami for three games in 2011. He becomes only the 12th minority to get a second head coaching opportunity since 1963, according to data in the NFL’s 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Report.
“When I first started in New York, you try to do things the right way and you don’t do it your way, you end up having regret. So I’m going to do it my way,” Bowles said.
Arians joined Bowles at his introductory news conference and learned the Buccaneers will induct him into the team’s Ring of Honor this season. Brady also was in attendance.
Arians, who turns 70 this year, said his decision to step down as coach was about “succession” and making sure he turned the team over to Bowles with an opportunity to succeed. When Brady unretired on March 13, Arians realized the time was right.
“Succession is way important to me,” Arians said. “This has been my dream for a long time. Guys that know me, they knew I wanted one of my guys to take over.”
Arians dismissed reports of friction with Brady, saying it “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Bowles and Arians have a relationship that dates more than 40 years. Bowles played safety for Arians at Temple in the 1980s and was defensive coordinator on Arians’ staff in Arizona before joining him in Tampa.
“He is the most influential coaching figure and father figure that I have ever had in this league,” Bowles said, adding that it was a bittersweet feeling when he got the news from Arians.
Bowles made it clear he has a different personality than Arians.
“The only thing we have in common is our bald heads,” Bowles said. “He smokes, I don’t. He drinks, I don’t. So, we never got in each other’s way.”
Arians led the Buccaneers to their second Super Bowl title in 2020 and an NFC South title in 2021. With Brady back, Bowles takes over a team that has championship aspirations.
“Good players make good coaches so you always want to have good players,” Bowles said. “I’m not going to apologize for inheriting a talented team. I’ve had less success with a team. It’s different to the fact that I don’t think I can go into this trying to be Bruce. I would fail miserably if I tried. ... I can be me.
“I understand a lot of things I’ve learned from my coaching experience, especially from him so I’m going to take that approach. The one thing I know is I know I can coach football players regardless if you’re an All-Pro or a rookie. All of your players want to be coached and help them get better. I can help people get better and I’m going to use my approach.”
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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The Bundesliga resumes to a full house as Union Berlin is allowed a capacity crowd for the first time in months for Cologne’s visit. Coronavirus restrictions are being scrapped in Berlin from Friday, part of a wider trend under national guidelines that will see full stadiums across the league. It’s going to be a special game for Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart, a fan favorite at Union for the two seasons he played at the club before its relegation to the third division in 2004. Baumgart played in Union’s heaviest ever second-division defeat, a 7-0 loss to Cologne in October 2002. Union’s record since it gained promotion to the Bundesliga in 2019 is far better. Of five games against Cologne in the top division, the Köpenick-based club has won four and drawn the other. Union has also won its last three Friday night games, in contrast to Cologne, which lost its last three. Another win would let Union replace Cologne in seventh place.
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In a televised appearance alongside President Nicolás Maduro, Khan said he welcomed the commitment of the Venezuelan government to explore cooperation and technical assistance as part of the efforts to investigate alleged crimes against humanity.
Among other measures, Khan said Maduro’s government agreed to provide visas to court officials and to the participation of international organizations and partners, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Any state that encounters difficulties in complying with the rule of law must be respected,” Khan said. He added that he is “aware that the visit has not been easy, perhaps; but I feel very grateful for the commitment and the frank debates that we have had.”
Khan announced the investigation in November. At the time, the court and Maduro’s administration signed a memorandum of understanding in which the government agreed to cooperate to clarify the facts that led to the initiation of the process.
That announcement followed a lengthy preliminary probe started in February 2018 that focused on allegations of excessive force, arbitrary detention and torture by security forces during a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2017.
Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, had indicated there was a reasonable basis to conclude that crimes against humanity had been committed in Venezuela, echoing the findings of the U.N.’s human rights council last year. But she left the decision to open any probe to Khan, a British lawyer who took the reins of the ICC earlier this year.
Maduro on Thursday said the opening of the office in Venezuela will allow for an “effective level of dialogue” that will help clarify the facts in a timely manner.
“We are first interested in seeing justice carried out, and where a crime of the characteristics is committed, it be punished according to the law, on time,” Maduro said. He added that the country’s judicial system is being overhauled.
Since its creation two decades ago, the ICC has mostly focused on atrocities committed in Africa. It could be years before any criminal charges are presented as part of the court’s investigation.
In a written statement, Khan said the start of the process “is not a one-way street” and should also serve as the basis for stronger partnerships.
He said efforts to put into effect the memorandum of understanding will include providing technical assistance and knowledge transfer to Venezuelan authorities “to support the effective investigation and prosecution at the national level of alleged crimes,” as well as offering training and expert advice to help implement domestic legislation.
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Yet Putin and others around him no doubt see it differently. From their perspective, Russia is a global power surrounded by outright adversaries and frenemies like China. It has vast mineral wealth and a large military but also suffers from endemic economic and demographic weaknesses. The imperative to expand its borders as a means to defend them stretches back at least as far as Catherine the Great. Plus, Putin has faced few consequences for his prior adventurism. Throw in an erroneous assumption that all Russian speakers yearn for the motherland, and going for broke now may well seem like a viable political choice.
Clearly, the war isn’t going according to plan for the Kremlin. The West has also displayed more resolve than the reaction to Putin’s earlier excursions signaled.
These setbacks, combined with Putin’s worldview, help explain why he would risk even more damage to Russia by threatening to halt natural gas sales.
This week, the threat came in the guise of a reiterated demand that European buyers pay for gas in rubles rather than euros or dollars. There is a monetary angle to this, forcing buyers to sell hard currency and buy the battered ruble. But the main motivation is to remind those buyers who is heating their homes — and who controls the tap.
As it is, the Kremlin announced Thursday a convoluted plan whereby customers effectively keep paying in euros and dollars, but via designated accounts in Russia that convert that to rubles. Putin, it seems, wasn’t quite ready to follow through on his ultimatum.
Nor should he be. Like the nuclear weapons he has brandished rhetorically, an actual cutoff would entail some mutually assured destruction.
Putin’s war has pushed the European Union to radically rethink its long-term energy relationship with Russia, one that has endured for half a century, even during the Cold War. The incentive remains for both sides not to rock the boat too much. Europe still depends on Siberian gas, which is why it hasn’t sanctioned it. And Russia still relies on payments for it. Indeed, gas payments have risen in importance, according to Thane Gustafson, author of a history of the gas relationship with Europe. His rough math suggests that the share of gas in Russia’s hydrocarbon export revenue — which accounts for more than half of exports overall — has risen to half amid all this disruption, up from a typical level of one-fifth. He adds:
The irony is that one of the bigger investments under Putin has been the development of gas infrastructure to serve the European market for another generation. Yamal, Blue Stream, Nord Stream. All of that is now in ruins.
The economic and social impact in Europe of a prolonged cutoff, including the likelihood of a deep recession, would mark a big escalation of the conflict. Tempting as it may be to see a cutoff as just tit-for-tat following the sanctions on Russia, that ignores the fact that the original “tat” was the brutal and ongoing attack on Ukraine. In any case, if Putin does actually cut off supply, with all that entails, it perhaps should be read as a sign of desperation. Or that whatever method there may have been in his madness, madness has become the method.
More From Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
• Russia’s Other War of Attrition Is Against Europe: John Authers
• Putin’s New Alter Ego Is Igor Strelkov: Leonid Bershidsky
• Chechen Wars Foreshadow Putin’s Next Move: Clara Ferreira Marques
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times’ Lex column. He was also an investment banker.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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Meanwhile, your rental income may soon not be enough to cover your mortgage payments. Almost all of the city’s new loans are benchmarked against Hibor, which has been creeping up. Hong Kong pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar, so when the Federal Reserve starts hiking rates, borrowing costs in the city rise too.
You will have to stretch your math. The rental yield stood at 2.4% at 2021 year-end, according to realtor Centaline Property Agency Ltd. That should cover the 1.6% mortgage rate you could get from, say, HSBC Holdings Plc’s local subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank Ltd, which charges a 1.3 percentage-point premium over one-month Hibor.
But not for much longer. Fed fund futures are pricing in about 2 percentage points in rate hikes by year-end, so expect your cost of borrowing to rise in near lockstep. The average 30-year mortgage rate in the U.S. has reached almost 4.7%, the highest since December 2018.
If the futures market is correct on the Fed, by year-end, you will most likely earn negative carry for the first time since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. It will be a seismic mental adjustment for the city’s new generation of landlords.
To make matters worse, this is a renters’ market now. Owners are slashing rent to attract and retain good tenants, as the city enters its third month of soft lockdown. Expats are grumpy. Many have left the city for good. Meanwhile, young people, who make up a big portion of rental demand, may be struggling to find jobs right now. Last year, unemployment rate among those aged 20 to 29 averaged at 8.7%, well above the economy’s overall 5.5% rate. They might just move home and sleep on their parents’ couches.
What’s left is the prospect of rising home prices, which seems unlikely. The last time the Fed raised rates, in 2018, home prices fell by about 10% — and that was with economic growth at 2.8%. Now, Hong Kong is poised to enter a recession. Home prices may fall by 20% by 2025, estimates Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
For over two decades, Hong Kong’s real estate market has been pretty predictable — on the way up. So in the last two years, whenever the city lifted its social-distancing restrictions, home prices saw a mini-rebound. Some investors might be tempted again, as social life gradually comes back. Weekly transaction volumes at 35 housing estates reached a 45-week high, according to Midland Realty.
But think very carefully this time. If we look further back in history, Hong Kong property is by no means a sure bet. It was in a bear market for years, and many owners were deep under water. Home prices tumbled by two-thirds from their peak before the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 to the SARS outbreak in 2003.
So don’t fight the Fed, and learn to live with a recession. Hong Kong property’s got an infection it can’t shake.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
•
Hong Kong’s Covid Policy Is Less Than Zero: Trivedi & Ren
•
Singapore Property Is Hot Even Without Expats: Andy Mukherjee
• Hong Kong Expats, Where’s Your Next Destination?: Anjani Trivedi
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron’s, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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The U.S. and its allies were swift to act after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington led a coalition of more than 30 countries that halted the supply of U.S. goods and services, or those that use American technology or production equipment. A separate package of financial restrictions cut the nation off from global banking systems.
Russia can cope for a little while, but if its war in Ukraine drags on and sanctions remain in place then it’ll eventually run out of the components needed to not only build weapons and military vehicles, but run servers and networks used by the civilian population.
Chinese companies may be tempted to fill the void. Beijing and Moscow seem close — there is “no ceiling” for their cooperation, China said this week — and the two countries are united in their disdain for what they see as Western imperialism. Helping out a friend by shipping some U.S. chips, or computers that contain them, might seem like a friendly gesture and possibly even a lucrative one.
In addition to the aforementioned methods of masking its supply chain, a major Chinese corporation could also mislead its bankers, use external staffing companies to employ engineers in the target country, or simply claim that a subsidiary was no more than a business partner and thus not subject to U.S. embargoes.
We know about these various sanctions-busting schemes because they’re exactly how electronics companies ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Inc. skirted restrictions on sales to Iran. But they got caught, and the punishments were severe. In March 2017, ZTE was hit with a $1.2 billion fine and cut off from buying the U.S. components necessary to make many of its products. The company was forced to suspend operations, fire its board, and replace its management team. Revenue plummeted and the company has struggled to recover ever since.
Huawei this week showed just how damaging sanctions can be.(1) Banned from buying the crucial communications and computing chips needed to power the latest 5G phones and networks, the Shenzhen-based company was forced to reduce production. The result was a 29% drop in sales last year. Even domestic revenue fell 31%, highlighting the simple reality that you cannot sell what you can’t make.
Any Chinese executive running the risk-return calculation on skirting the Russian sanctions needs to remember two things: The U.S. is getting very good at catching violators, and the punishment could hurt not only that company but China as a whole.
President Joe Biden was blunt when he reiterated a warning this week to President Xi Jinping that “he’d be putting himself at significant jeopardy” if he helped his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. China has rejected suggestions that it would try to bypass the embargoes, but has made clear it’s opposed to them. “There has been unnecessary damage to the normal trade exchange with Russia, including between China and Russia,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing in Beijing this week.
Notable about this round of sanctions is the large coalition Washington has built to enforce them. It now has dozens of governments that have been updated on the rules and what to look out for. They will in turn serve as its eyes and ears around the world. In Asia, briefings have been held with industry groups and chambers of commerce in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China.
Even if it chooses not to be a willing informant, Beijing too knows the rules, with representatives of China’s Ministry of Commerce meeting their counterparts in Washington soon after the embargo was announced. The U.S. also has export-control attaches stationed in foreign countries, and companies themselves are likely to be snitches if they feel others in the supply chain are not following the rules, Deputy Assistant Commerce Secretary Matthew Borman said.
Thus, not only are the chances of getting caught higher than ever, but Beijing has a vested interest in ensuring no one breaks the rules.
Bans apply to components and hardware, as well as the software and equipment required to produce them. So while China is working hard to wean itself off chips made by Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp., it still needs software from Synopsis Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. as well as tools from Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. Any product made using inputs from these companies is subject to the bans.(3)
It could be more than a decade before Beijing can completely replace the entire design and manufacturing supply chain; losing access now would be disastrous. And that’s a real possibility. Should anyone be found breaking Russian sanctions, and Beijing seen aiding and abetting them, Washington may be forced to broaden its punishments — instead of merely forbidding sales to Russia using U.S. technology, Chinese businesses could also be cut off.
That would set China’s drive for technology independence back a long way. The smart move for Beijing now is to comply with the sanctions and make sure its companies do, too. Helping out a friend, and making a quick buck, isn’t worth sacrificing the nation’s long-term plan to become a global technology superpower that can stand on its own two feet.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
• Australia Sends a $7.5 Billion Cyber Signal to China: Tim Culpan
• China’s Ukraine Juggling Act Isn’t Over: Clara Ferreira Marques
• How China’s Cybersecurity Laws Could Backfire: Anjani Trivedi
(1) The reason for curbs on Huawei extend beyond Iran sanctions-busting to include Western bans against its networking equipment and claims by the U.S. that it’s a national-security threat.
(2) License exceptions apply to various categories, including consumer devices such as cellphones that are sold to individuals and NGOs, but not government or officials.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Tim Culpan is a technology columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Based in Taipei, he writes about Asian and global businesses and trends. He previously covered the beat at Bloomberg News.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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“I want to say as plainly as possible, please don’t make the people of Afghanistan suffer twice,” Martin Griffiths, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief, appealed to a conference of donor countries Thursday. “Please don’t reduce assistance because of this wretched decision that we heard last week.”
Only 13 percent of this year’s $4.4 billion emergency humanitarian request for Afghanistan — the largest U.N. appeal ever for a single country — has been funded so far. The virtual conference, jointly hosted by Germany, Qatar and the United Kingdom, and attended by senior officials from dozens of countries, was long planned as a jolt to international donors to step up their efforts.
But their enthusiasm was undermined when girls above the sixth grade arriving for the first day of the Afghan school year last week were told to go back home indefinitely. The Taliban dictum reversed an announcement — demanded by and promised to donor countries — just days earlier that all schools for girls would be open. The change was variously attributed to a scarcity of female teachers, facility problems, delay in approving suitable school uniforms, and what an Education Ministry spokesperson said were some “cultural and religious obligations” still under consideration.
A number of Afghan experts, however, blamed it on what they described as deep ideological schisms within the Taliban leadership related to basic rights for women and girls, among other things. The school announcement was followed by rulings limiting the travel of women outside the country, and reports that no passports would be issued until further notice.
Top Taliban leaders reportedly rejected the girls’ schooling decision after interventions from hard-liners during a meeting in Kandahar the weekend before the opening — and rapid closure — on March 23. But “there are also indications that the reversal is a symptom of the movement’s broader failure to create a clear mechanism for making national policy decisions,” Ashley Jackson, an Afghan scholar who has written extensively about the relationship between civilians and the Taliban insurgents, suggested in a report for the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
The Taliban did not have a blanket policy on female education in the territory the group controlled before taking over the whole of Afghanistan in August. In some provinces, there was not a single girls school in Taliban-controlled territory. In some other areas, local leadership allowed women to pursue higher education.
In remarks to the donors conference, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the decision “inexcusable” and said it “must be reversed.”
Donations for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan had already slowed after a massive outpouring of aid last year following the Taliban takeover and U.S. troop withdrawal in August. The initial flow came as international aid organizations warned that the abrupt cutoff of foreign financing that had long provided more than 75 percent of Afghan government income would lead to mass unemployment and humanitarian catastrophe as the harsh winter approached.
The United States and most of the rest of the world provided donations for aid flows through the United Nations and other nongovernmental organizations, closely monitored so none of the food and medical supplies would go through the militants now in charge of the country. Diplomatic recognition and any direct assistance were withheld until the Taliban replaced what it said was a temporary governing structure that was more inclusive; ensured human rights for all, including women, girls and minorities; and eliminated any support for global terrorist groups.
Early this year, as it became clear that the lack of a banking structure and the absence of any cash income would lead to the collapse of infrastructure and services throughout the country, a U.N.-led effort was launched to pay salaries directly to health-care workers, teachers and other public-sector employees, and to develop at least a temporary financial system outside the reach of the Taliban to help stabilize the economy.
The World Bank agreed to release $1 billion from its Afghanistan development trust fund, which was frozen by bank member countries when the Taliban took over, to add liquidity to the banking sector. In February, President Biden signed an executive order to release $3.5 billion — about half of Afghan government assets held in the U.S. Federal Reserve that the administration had frozen — for the same purpose.
With no progress reported on an inclusive government, and little visible on the counterterrorism front, world attention turned to human rights, with the reopening of schools following Afghanistan’s traditional winter break seen as an opportunity for the militants to put actions behind their promises.
Within days after the Taliban about-face on education for girls, the United States canceled a round of U.S.-Taliban talks scheduled to take place this week in Doha, Qatar. The World Bank, expressing “deep concern,” said grants being prepared to spend part of the trust fund on “agriculture, education, health and livelihoods” would not be presented for approval until there is “a better understanding of the situation and assurance/confidence that the goals of the projects can be met.”
A State Department spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity under government-imposed rules, said the administration was “still working to establish a mechanism to allow” the $3.5 billion covered by Biden’s executive order “to be used to help Afghans stabilize their economy.” But there was no indication that would happen soon.
During the Thursday donor conference, no one disputed the sorrow and deprivation being endured by Afghans. “Ninety-five percent do not have enough to eat,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said. “9 million are at risk of famine. … Global food prices are skyrocketing as a result of the war in Ukraine,” he said, and “without immediate action, we face a starvation and malnutrition crisis.”
Families are selling some of their children to feed the rest, Guterres said, more than 80 percent of the population is in debt, key workers have not been paid for months, farmers cannot buy feed or fertilizer, and “international aid agencies can barely function.” The international community, he said, “must find ways to spare the Afghan people. It must make cash available so the Afghan people can breathe and the Afghan people can eat.”
Griffiths was visibly moved as he described a visit to a Kabul hospital this week, where he said the sight of malnourished and dying infants “left me quite speechless.”
Many countries pledged to increase their donations to humanitarian assistance, including the United States, which announced more than $200 million in additional funds. The State Department spokesperson emphasized that the aid for basic human needs was “unconditional” and separate from the $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets.
But there was widespread agreement that distributing food and medicine was only a stopgap remedy, without much more money to reestablish a functioning economy and financial system. That, several donors said, was a question that would depend on the Taliban.
“Even as we respond urgently to the crisis of Ukraine, we can’t neglect the people of Afghanistan,” said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. At the same time, she said, “our potential to provide support will depend on how willing the Taliban are to engage. … Women and girls must be allowed to study at all levels.”
Susannah George in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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Russian troops also appeared to be withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, officials said.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said Moscow could be planning to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the eastern Donbas region, where Russians troops may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russia’s military has increasingly tried to seize towns in that part of Ukraine, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the country’s north appear to be heading there.
The focus on Mariupol came as Western officials attempted to assess Russia’s next moves, with troops withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, diplomats preparing for more discussions Friday and the war continuing to disrupt oil and natural gas supply around the world.
There were also new claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being further isolated from his advisers, with a picture of chaos emerging around Russia’s front lines and tensions at the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, said in a speech Thursday that Russian soldiers are short on morale and weapons and have refused orders, sabotaged their own equipment and shot down one of their own aircraft.
In Washington, President Biden said Putin “seems to be self-isolated, and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.”
“But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence,” Biden said.
Both Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed doubt Thursday about Russia’s claim that it is withdrawing from the area around Kyiv, with Stoltenberg saying Moscow has lied about its intentions before and appears to be repositioning troops for fresh attacks.
“We can only judge Russia on its actions, not its words,” he said at a news conference in Brussels. “According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning.”
The chief of Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian soldiers were withdrawing from what he characterized as the “main part” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, which Russian forces captured in February shortly after the war broke out. But Minister German Galushchenko noted that some troops remain at the facility and cautioned that “no one can predict their next steps.”
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm, said Russian forces were handing over Chernobyl to Ukrainian authorities and withdrawing troops. In a statement on Telegram, the company shared a letter in which Russian and Ukrainian forces purportedly agreed to the “transfer of protection” of the site. The claims could not be independently verified.
The Pentagon said Thursday that it was “unclear” about the accuracy of unconfirmed reports that Russian soldiers who are leaving the Chernobyl nuclear station had been exposed to high levels of radiation and presented signs of illness.
Biden’s remarks on Putin came after he announced he had authorized the release of an average of 1 million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months as a “wartime bridge” until U.S. production can ramp up later this year.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, unveiled new sanctions on Russia’s technology sector, focusing on an area that enables Moscow to acquire technology critical for its military, including one firm that is Russia’s largest microchip producer.
“We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims that the Russian leader’s advisers have misled him about the invasion of Ukraine.
“They don’t understand President Putin,” he said of Western government and intelligence officials who made those assertions Wednesday. “They don’t understand the decision-making mechanism, and they don’t understand our style of work.”
Putin announced Thursday that he had signed a decree requiring “unfriendly countries” to pay for natural gas in rubles through Russian banks. He said in broadcast remarks that existing contracts would be terminated for those countries that refuse to comply. The stipulation takes effect Friday, a day later than the initial deadline.
But French, German and British officials are rejecting Russian demands to pay for gas deliveries in Russian rubles.
Speaking during a joint news conference later in the day, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, said they would continue paying in euros. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that paying in rubles “is not something we will be looking to do,” Reuters reported.
The devastation wrought from five weeks of war showed no signs of ending. The death toll rose to 20 in Tuesday’s Russian missile strike on the regional government headquarters in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
In a Facebook post Thursday, the agency said rescuers had removed 19 bodies from the scene and that one person died in intensive care. Dozens more were injured.
Drone video published Wednesday and verified by The Washington Post shows widespread destruction in Mariupol. The video, which compared recent images with footage from 2021, shows the stark contrast of before and after the siege, including the Mariupol Drama Theater that was bombed two weeks ago.
The destruction within the city has drawn comparisons with the siege of Aleppo in 2016, when Russian forces helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crush rebels in an eight-month campaign that featured the use of cluster bombs, chemical weapons and other banned munitions, in addition to heavy shelling and conventional airstrikes.
Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the Russian three-star general who led forces in Syria, has been identified as the architect of the devastating siege of Mariupol and has been given a new nickname: the Butcher of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials blame him for the bombing of a maternity hospital, the Drama Theater and other buildings in the port city and vowed to see him tried for war crimes in The Hague.
“Remember him,” Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, tweeted recently over a photo of the 59-year-old general, a man with close-cropped gray hair and pale blue eyes. “This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol.”
The thousands of expected evacuees from Mariupol will be brought to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia. By Thursday evening, 45 buses had arrived to transport people, according to local officials. Neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians specified when the cease-fire and humanitarian corridor would end, but Ukraine said its soldiers would “guarantee a full cease-fire regime.”
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said its teams would travel with the convoy “to facilitate the safe passage of civilians out of Mariupol.”
Despite the agreement, part of the convoy was fired upon Thursday afternoon while driving toward the Russian-held city of Berdyansk, as the column of buses approached a checkpoint, damaging at least one vehicle, according Tetiana Ignatenkova, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk regional administration. Previous humanitarian corridors in the country also have been fragile, with both sides accusing the other of violating cease-fires and obstructing supplies.
Since the start of the conflict, 80,000 residents have been evacuated from Mariupol using buses and private transport, according to the local government.
Ukraine will resume peace talks with Russia online on Friday, a senior Ukrainian diplomat participating in the negotiations said on his Telegram channel, after tentative progress in discussions in Istanbul on Tuesday.
The diplomat, David Arakhamia, said Ukraine stressed the need for a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a venue not in Belarus or Russia. But Russian officials declined, saying the sides should first work out a more coherent draft agreement, he said. Ukrainian officials have said any peace deal should be signed by the two leaders.
The two sides have been exploring ways for Ukraine to become a neutral country as part of a broader peace deal. Ukrainian officials have demanded a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian forces to the borders that existed on Feb. 23 — a day before Russia launched its invasion, Arakhamia said.
The negotiations have been met with skepticism by Ukrainian and Western officials. Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who visited Washington, D.C., this week as part of a parliamentary delegation, repeatedly said Putin was using the talks as a smokescreen to buy time for his forces in Ukraine to regroup.
“It is difficult to negotiate with someone when the gun is being [pointed] at your head,” she said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. In remarks to reporters published by CNN on Wednesday, she said Putin was “sending false, lying messages” to the world.
Bennett reported from the Dnipro region of Ukraine. Brittany Shammas, William Branigin, Sarah Cahlan, Jeff Stein and Meryl Kornfield in Washington, Andrew Jeong in Seoul, Kim Bellware in Chicago, Emily Rauhala in Brussels and Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report.
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“We were being bombarded,” Hamilton said.
Like hundreds of communities across the United States, Hamilton’s neighborhood had become the target of large companies amassing empires of suburban homes for rent. Since the Great Recession, when millions of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure, these companies have been expanding their portfolios of tens of thousands of single-family houses, a disproportionate number of them located in majority-Black neighborhoods like Potters Glen.
The rise of investor purchases has spawned complaints that the companies, flush with Wall Street money, are pricing out first-time home buyers and renting to tenants who have not been properly screened. In Potters Glen, one house owned by Invitation Homes, a $24 billion company created by a Wall Street firm, drew several reports of illegal drugs and gunfire, according to police reports and neighbors.
Facing the influx, Hamilton started asking: “Can’t we stop them?”
The answer, it turns out, appears to be yes.
Investors own more homes
in communities of color
Investor homes follow racial lines in Mecklenburg County, N.C., which includes Charlotte. A greater share of single-family homes are owned by investors in majority-minority areas than majority-White areas.
Share of single-family homes owned by investors
0%
5%
10%
15%
Majority-White areas
Huntersville
MECKLENBURG
COUNTY
485
Charlotte
485
Mint Hill
77
Matthews
Pineville
Majority-MINORITY areas
Potters Glen
Avalon
Reserve at
Back Creek
77
Charlotte
485
Pineville
Note: Census block groups with fewer than 25 single-family homes are excluded. UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute defined investors as entities that own at least 100 properties in Mecklenburg County.
Sources: UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute analysis, U.S. Census Bureau
Investors own more homes
in communities of color
Investor homes follow racial lines in Mecklenburg County, N.C., which includes Charlotte. A greater share of single-family homes are owned by investors in majority-minority areas than majority-White areas.
Majority-White areas
Share of single-family
homes owned by investors
0%
5%
10%
15%
Huntersville
MECKLENBURG
COUNTY
485
Charlotte
485
Mint Hill
77
Matthews
Pineville
Majority-MINORITY areas
Share of single-family
homes owned by investors
0%
5%
10%
15%
Potters Glen
Avalon
Reserve at
Back Creek
77
Charlotte
485
Pineville
Note: Census block groups with fewer than 25 single-family homes are excluded. UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute defined investors as entities that own at least 100 properties in Mecklenburg County.
Sources: UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute analysis, U.S. Census Bureau
Investors own more homes in communities of color
Investor homes follow racial lines in Mecklenburg County, N.C., which includes Charlotte.
A greater share of single-family homes are owned by investors in majority-minority areas than majority-White areas.
Majority-White areas
Majority-MINORITY areas
Share of single-family
homes owned by investors
0%
5%
10%
15%
Huntersville
Potters Glen
MECKLENBURG
COUNTY
Avalon
Reserve at
Back Creek
77
485
Charlotte
Charlotte
485
Mint Hill
77
Matthews
485
Pineville
Pineville
Note: Census block groups with fewer than 25 single-family homes are excluded. UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute defined investors as entities that own at least 100 properties in Mecklenburg County.
Sources: UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute analysis, U.S. Census Bureau
Investors own more homes in communities of color
Investor homes follow racial lines in Mecklenburg County, N.C., which includes Charlotte.
A greater share of single-family homes are owned by investors in majority-minority areas than majority-White areas.
Majority-White areas
Majority-MINORITY areas
Share of single-family
homes owned by investors
0%
5%
10%
15%
Huntersville
Potters Glen
85
MECKLENBURG
COUNTY
Avalon
Reserve at
Back Creek
77
485
485
Charlotte
Charlotte
Mint Hill
77
77
Matthews
Pineville
Pineville
485
485
Note: Census block groups with fewer than 25 single-family homes are excluded. UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute defined investors as entities that own at least 100 properties in Mecklenburg County.
Sources: UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute analysis, U.S. Census Bureau
Using the same legal authority that allows homeowners associations to punish people who fail to cut their grass, the Potters Glen board erected a hurdle for investors: a new rule required any new home buyer to wait two years before renting it out.
Since the board adopted the rule in 2019, property records show the pace of investor purchases has dropped by more than half.
“We didn’t want to become a renter’s paradise,” said Hamilton, a retired executive assistant from Ohio. “We want people who are going to plant flowers and trees because it’s their home.”
As neighborhoods in several states have moved to adopt similar rules, advocates for rental home companies argue that the restrictions make housing less affordable. They say rental exclusions also can be discriminatory, echoing a past when real estate restrictions were used to keep out racial minorities, and have asked state legislatures in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, as well as North Carolina, to protect them from such restrictions.
“Preventing single-family rental home companies — of any size — from purchasing homes in a community does nothing but reduce the availability of affordably priced rental housing,” said David Howard, executive director of the National Rental Home Council.
Invitation Homes, one of several big firms that own houses in Potters Glen, called the rental restrictions “prejudicial, discriminatory, uninformed, and misaligned with the concept of fair housing.” The company said it was “disheartened by the trend of HOAs [homeowners associations] determining that renters are not welcome in their neighborhoods.”
Of the house in Potters Glen where neighbors had reported gunfire, Invitation Homes said it had used a reputable third-party screening company to vet the adult tenants — and that it eventually asked them to leave.
Hamilton scoffed at the idea that the new rules discriminate against renters, arguing that the board has the right to encourage homeowners to live in the community.
“Don’t get me wrong — there are some very good renters in this neighborhood,” she said. “But people who own their homes usually take more pride in their property, and we wanted to make sure we keep a place for them.”
Corporate landlords take stakes in U.S. suburbia
As investors have targeted the American suburbs, faraway companies have begun to take over entire blocks. Last year, investors bought nearly 1 in 7 homes sold in the nation’s top metropolitan areas — the most in two decades of record-keeping, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from realty company Redfin.
In Charlotte and elsewhere, according to The Post’s analysis, investors have purchased a disproportionate number of homes in neighborhoods where a majority of residents are Black. Last year, 30 percent of home sales in majority Black neighborhoods across the nation were to investors, compared with 12 percent in other Zip codes, The Post’s analysis shows.
In Charlotte and surrounding Mecklenburg County, landlords backed by Wall Street own roughly 11,500 houses — more than 4 percent of single family homes, according to an analysis last year by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Urban Institute. Most of the houses are in the starter home price range, “likely putting the most pressure on the lower end of the market,” said the institute’s Ely Portillo.
Most of those purchases were made by one of six major out-of-state companies: Progress Residential, American Homes 4 Rent and Invitation Homes each owned more than 2,000 homes, according to the Urban Institute analysis, while Tricon, Amherst Residential and FirstKey each had more than 1,000 homes.
Faced with this surge of corporate landlords, many homeowners associations have begun to fight back.
At the Reserve at Back Creek, a subdivision of 39 houses near UNC-Charlotte, neighbors last year adopted a rule requiring an owner to live in a house for a year before renting it out. No more than 18 percent of the houses can be approved for rental at any time.
“Our main concern was with the faceless investment groups who were buying the homes more than just the renters,” said Justin Kerner, 41, a former association board member. “If we’re sending a notice about garbage on the lawn to a company in Las Vegas, it’s going to end up on the desk of someone who doesn’t care what the neighborhood looks like.”
At Avalon at Mallard Creek, a community of 110 townhouses not far from Potters Glen, a shooting last year that damaged several properties prompted the neighborhood to impose a one-year waiting period on rentals and cap them at 40 percent of units. They also required leases to be approved by the homeowners association board, which can reject a rental agreement based on investigative background reports.
“Six homes had bullet holes,” said Keri Miller, the homeowners association treasurer. The shooting, which involved outsiders targeting a tenant in a rental, Miller said, made her not only fearful but angry that the association had to pay for the repairs.
“Our gate was broken. We had all this traffic coming in and there was this shootout,” Miller recalled. “At this point I said, ‘This has to stop.’”
Since the new rules took effect, some investors have sold their properties, Miller said. The homeowners association has organized monthly neighborhood cleanups and property values have risen, she said.
“It’s working,” she said.
Worried neighbors come to a consensus
Restricting rentals is not always easy. Charlotte attorney Mike Hunter said homeowners associations come to him about once a week asking for advice. Some, like Potters Glen, are worried about long-term corporate leases, while others want to curtail short-term rentals offered by companies like Airbnb and VRBO.
In North Carolina, Hunter said, at least 67 percent of homeowners in a community typically must approve new rules, and reaching that threshold can be a challenge.
“There can often be a lot of apathy in neighborhoods. A lot of people don’t even bother to return the ballots,” he said. “But if the rental properties are causing a lot of problems, it’s much more likely that residents will rally and approve restrictions.”
The going initially was slow in Potters Glen. The homeowners association board seemed desperate for members when Hamilton moved from Ohio in 2015. A year later, she was board president.
She was, in a way, a natural pick. Formerly the executive assistant to the city manager of Middletown, Ohio, Hamilton knew her way around meetings, boards and votes.
“I’m a meticulous person. I believe in order,” she said.
Walking out her front door one February afternoon, she shook her head at lawn equipment littering the yard of a nearby home, a corporate rental.
“It irritates me every time I set foot outside,” she said “There’s so much clutter. So … unkempt.”
The idea for rental restrictions rose during an all-day board meeting in 2018. Gathered at a local Holiday Inn, Hamilton asked board members how to improve the neighborhood. They considered, among other things, whether to prohibit chain-link fences, whether sex offenders and other felons should be allowed in, and whether residents should be permitted to keep pit bulls and Rottweilers, breeds previously forbidden.
But the main topic was renters. The 280 houses of Potters Glen, most of them built in the early 2000s, are conveniently located between Uptown Charlotte and the UNC-Charlotte campus. Investors were flocking to their neighborhood.
“I’d never heard of these companies who wanted to buy in all of a sudden,” said Andrea Turner, a board member who worked with Hamilton to pass the rules. “We looked them up and realized they weren’t from Charlotte. We wondered: What do they want with us?”
So along with the ideas about the Rottweilers and felons, the board had a lawyer draft the rental restrictions and put up them up for a vote. They were not immediately popular.
“People didn’t like the idea at first. Some were worried that they wouldn’t be able to rent their properties,” Hamilton said. “But we assured them that the rental restrictions would not apply to the owners at the time.”
After three community meetings, Hamilton and Turner won the neighborhood over, and more than three-fourths of the community voted for the rental restrictions.
“People realized we couldn’t just become a community of renters,” Hamilton said. “These are our homes. We had too much to lose.”
The trouble with some rental homes persisted, however. In the spring of 2020, multiple police visits to the Invitation Homes property prompted Hamilton to write a letter to company CEO Dallas Tanner demanding more intensive screening.
“Would you want to live next door to lawless people?” she wrote. “I must express my disappointment. … This home has been a problem where the [police department] has been called out on several occasions.”
Invitation Homes did not renew the renters’ lease, but it didn’t immediately kick them out. In a statement, the company said that the incident in May 2020 “involved minors” and that the company notified the adult tenant that the lease would not be renewed when it expired a few months later.
Before the lease expired, however, police visited the block twice more, once after a drive-by shooting at the house in August, according to police reports. After that incident, the company said it asked the tenants to leave.
“When the shooting occurred in August, we asked the resident to vacate the home, which they did,” the company said.
The rental restrictions have slowed the pace of investor purchases in Potters Glen, however. In each of the three years before the rental limits, investment groups purchased about 12 homes in the subdivision. Since then, the pace has slowed to about four per year, according to property records.
Companies affiliated with some of the nation’s big rental firms have continued to purchase homes at Potters Glen, according to property records. Invitation Homes bought one in September 2020, about a year after the rental limits went into effect. The company said that the “neighborhood restriction was not noted in our system.”
Amherst, bought one, too. In a statement, the company said it aims to work collaboratively with homeowners associations and that “it does not appear this waiting period was communicated [to us] in documentation related to purchase of this home.”
‘Investors will not be considered’
Hamilton, meanwhile, recently learned that spurning investors can come with a cost.
After completing her term as board president, she put her home up for sale. She and her husband had moved to Charlotte to help her daughter raise their grandchildren. Now it was time now to go back to Ohio, where she has family.
Adamant that she would not sell to rental companies, Hamilton added a line to the real estate listing for her home: “Per seller, investors will not be considered!”
Investors tried anyway, deluging her real estate agent with calls. The Hamiltons received seven bids offering all-cash payment, according to her agent, Andre Dockery. But they took the one that came with a personal letter.
“Thank you for the opportunity to make an offer on your beautiful home,” began the letter from a teacher working at a local school who had two kids, ages 9 and 3. The 9-year-old had already claimed rights to a purple bedroom.
The teacher’s offer was $13,000 less than the investors’ highest offer. But, Hamilton said, “She touched my heart.”
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“I want to say as plainly as possible, please don’t make the people of Afghanistan suffer twice,” Martin Griffiths, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief, appealed to a conference of donor countries Thursday. “Please don’t reduce assistance because of this wretched decision that we heard last week.”
Only 13 percent of this year’s $4.4 billion emergency humanitarian request for Afghanistan — the largest U.N. appeal ever for a single country — has been funded so far. The virtual conference, jointly hosted by Germany, Qatar and the United Kingdom, and attended by senior officials from dozens of countries, was long planned as a jolt to international donors to step up their efforts.
But their enthusiasm was undermined when girls above the sixth grade arriving for the first day of the Afghan school year last week were told to go back home indefinitely. The Taliban dictum reversed an announcement — demanded by and promised to donor countries — just days earlier that all schools for girls would be open. The change was variously attributed to a scarcity of female teachers, facility problems, delay in approving suitable school uniforms, and what an Education Ministry spokesperson said were some “cultural and religious obligations” still under consideration.
A number of Afghan experts, however, blamed it on what they described as deep ideological schisms within the Taliban leadership related to basic rights for women and girls, among other things. The school announcement was followed by rulings limiting the travel of women outside the country, and reports that no passports would be issued until further notice.
Top Taliban leaders reportedly rejected the girls’ schooling decision after interventions from hard-liners during a meeting in Kandahar the weekend before the opening — and rapid closure — on March 23. But “there are also indications that the reversal is a symptom of the movement’s broader failure to create a clear mechanism for making national policy decisions,” Ashley Jackson, an Afghan scholar who has written extensively about the relationship between civilians and the Taliban insurgents, suggested in a report for the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
The Taliban did not have a blanket policy on female education in the territory the group controlled before taking over the whole of Afghanistan in August. In some provinces, there was not a single girls school in Taliban-controlled territory. In some other areas, local leadership allowed women to pursue higher education.
In remarks to the donors conference, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the decision “inexcusable” and said it “must be reversed.”
Donations for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan had already slowed after a massive outpouring of aid last year following the Taliban takeover and U.S. troop withdrawal in August. The initial flow came as international aid organizations warned that the abrupt cutoff of foreign financing that had long provided more than 75 percent of Afghan government income would lead to mass unemployment and humanitarian catastrophe as the harsh winter approached.
The United States and most of the rest of the world provided donations for aid flows through the United Nations and other nongovernmental organizations, closely monitored so none of the food and medical supplies would go through the militants now in charge of the country. Diplomatic recognition and any direct assistance were withheld until the Taliban replaced what it said was a temporary governing structure that was more inclusive; ensured human rights for all, including women, girls and minorities; and eliminated any support for global terrorist groups.
Early this year, as it became clear that the lack of a banking structure and the absence of any cash income would lead to the collapse of infrastructure and services throughout the country, a U.N.-led effort was launched to pay salaries directly to health-care workers, teachers and other public-sector employees, and to develop at least a temporary financial system outside the reach of the Taliban to help stabilize the economy.
The World Bank agreed to release $1 billion from its Afghanistan development trust fund, which was frozen by bank member countries when the Taliban took over, to add liquidity to the banking sector. In February, President Biden signed an executive order to release $3.5 billion — about half of Afghan government assets held in the U.S. Federal Reserve that the administration had frozen — for the same purpose.
With no progress reported on an inclusive government, and little visible on the counterterrorism front, world attention turned to human rights, with the reopening of schools following Afghanistan’s traditional winter break seen as an opportunity for the militants to put actions behind their promises.
Within days after the Taliban about-face on education for girls, the United States canceled a round of U.S.-Taliban talks scheduled to take place this week in Doha, Qatar. The World Bank, expressing “deep concern,” said grants being prepared to spend part of the trust fund on “agriculture, education, health and livelihoods” would not be presented for approval until there is “a better understanding of the situation and assurance/confidence that the goals of the projects can be met.”
A State Department spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity under government-imposed rules, said the administration was “still working to establish a mechanism to allow” the $3.5 billion covered by Biden’s executive order “to be used to help Afghans stabilize their economy.” But there was no indication that would happen soon.
During the Thursday donor conference, no one disputed the sorrow and deprivation being endured by Afghans. “Ninety-five percent do not have enough to eat,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said. “9 million are at risk of famine. … Global food prices are skyrocketing as a result of the war in Ukraine,” he said, and “without immediate action, we face a starvation and malnutrition crisis.”
Families are selling some of their children to feed the rest, Guterres said, more than 80 percent of the population is in debt, key workers have not been paid for months, farmers cannot buy feed or fertilizer, and “international aid agencies can barely function.” The international community, he said, “must find ways to spare the Afghan people. It must make cash available so the Afghan people can breathe and the Afghan people can eat.”
Griffiths was visibly moved as he described a visit to a Kabul hospital this week, where he said the sight of malnourished and dying infants “left me quite speechless.”
Many countries pledged to increase their donations to humanitarian assistance, including the United States, which announced more than $200 million in additional funds. The State Department spokesperson emphasized that the aid for basic human needs was “unconditional” and separate from the $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets.
But there was widespread agreement that distributing food and medicine was only a stopgap remedy, without much more money to reestablish a functioning economy and financial system. That, several donors said, was a question that would depend on the Taliban.
“Even as we respond urgently to the crisis of Ukraine, we can’t neglect the people of Afghanistan,” said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. At the same time, she said, “our potential to provide support will depend on how willing the Taliban are to engage. … Women and girls must be allowed to study at all levels.”
Susannah George in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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Russian troops also appeared to be withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, officials said.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said Moscow could be planning to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the eastern Donbas region, where Russians troops may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russia’s military has increasingly tried to seize towns in that part of Ukraine, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the country’s north appear to be heading there.
The focus on Mariupol came as Western officials attempted to assess Russia’s next moves, with troops withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, diplomats preparing for more discussions Friday and the war continuing to disrupt oil and natural gas supply around the world.
There were also new claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being further isolated from his advisers, with a picture of chaos emerging around Russia’s front lines and tensions at the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, said in a speech Thursday that Russian soldiers are short on morale and weapons and have refused orders, sabotaged their own equipment and shot down one of their own aircraft.
In Washington, President Biden said Putin “seems to be self-isolated, and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.”
“But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence,” Biden said.
Both Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed doubt Thursday about Russia’s claim that it is withdrawing from the area around Kyiv, with Stoltenberg saying Moscow has lied about its intentions before and appears to be repositioning troops for fresh attacks.
“We can only judge Russia on its actions, not its words,” he said at a news conference in Brussels. “According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning.”
The chief of Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian soldiers were withdrawing from what he characterized as the “main part” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, which Russian forces captured in February shortly after the war broke out. But Minister German Galushchenko noted that some troops remain at the facility and cautioned that “no one can predict their next steps.”
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm, said Russian forces were handing over Chernobyl to Ukrainian authorities and withdrawing troops. In a statement on Telegram, the company shared a letter in which Russian and Ukrainian forces purportedly agreed to the “transfer of protection” of the site. The claims could not be independently verified.
The Pentagon said Thursday that it was “unclear” about the accuracy of unconfirmed reports that Russian soldiers who are leaving the Chernobyl nuclear station had been exposed to high levels of radiation and presented signs of illness.
Biden’s remarks on Putin came after he announced he had authorized the release of an average of 1 million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months as a “wartime bridge” until U.S. production can ramp up later this year.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, unveiled new sanctions on Russia’s technology sector, focusing on an area that enables Moscow to acquire technology critical for its military, including one firm that is Russia’s largest microchip producer.
“We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims that the Russian leader’s advisers have misled him about the invasion of Ukraine.
“They don’t understand President Putin,” he said of Western government and intelligence officials who made those assertions Wednesday. “They don’t understand the decision-making mechanism, and they don’t understand our style of work.”
Putin announced Thursday that he had signed a decree requiring “unfriendly countries” to pay for natural gas in rubles through Russian banks. He said in broadcast remarks that existing contracts would be terminated for those countries that refuse to comply. The stipulation takes effect Friday, a day later than the initial deadline.
But French, German and British officials are rejecting Russian demands to pay for gas deliveries in Russian rubles.
Speaking during a joint news conference later in the day, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, said they would continue paying in euros. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that paying in rubles “is not something we will be looking to do,” Reuters reported.
The devastation wrought from five weeks of war showed no signs of ending. The death toll rose to 20 in Tuesday’s Russian missile strike on the regional government headquarters in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
In a Facebook post Thursday, the agency said rescuers had removed 19 bodies from the scene and that one person died in intensive care. Dozens more were injured.
Drone video published Wednesday and verified by The Washington Post shows widespread destruction in Mariupol. The video, which compared recent images with footage from 2021, shows the stark contrast of before and after the siege, including the Mariupol Drama Theater that was bombed two weeks ago.
The destruction within the city has drawn comparisons with the siege of Aleppo in 2016, when Russian forces helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crush rebels in an eight-month campaign that featured the use of cluster bombs, chemical weapons and other banned munitions, in addition to heavy shelling and conventional airstrikes.
Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the Russian three-star general who led forces in Syria, has been identified as the architect of the devastating siege of Mariupol and has been given a new nickname: the Butcher of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials blame him for the bombing of a maternity hospital, the Drama Theater and other buildings in the port city and vowed to see him tried for war crimes in The Hague.
“Remember him,” Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, tweeted recently over a photo of the 59-year-old general, a man with close-cropped gray hair and pale blue eyes. “This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol.”
The thousands of expected evacuees from Mariupol will be brought to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia. By Thursday evening, 45 buses had arrived to transport people, according to local officials. Neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians specified when the cease-fire and humanitarian corridor would end, but Ukraine said its soldiers would “guarantee a full cease-fire regime.”
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said its teams would travel with the convoy “to facilitate the safe passage of civilians out of Mariupol.”
Despite the agreement, part of the convoy was fired upon Thursday afternoon while driving toward the Russian-held city of Berdyansk, as the column of buses approached a checkpoint, damaging at least one vehicle, according Tetiana Ignatenkova, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk regional administration. Previous humanitarian corridors in the country also have been fragile, with both sides accusing the other of violating cease-fires and obstructing supplies.
Since the start of the conflict, 80,000 residents have been evacuated from Mariupol using buses and private transport, according to the local government.
Ukraine will resume peace talks with Russia online on Friday, a senior Ukrainian diplomat participating in the negotiations said on his Telegram channel, after tentative progress in discussions in Istanbul on Tuesday.
The diplomat, David Arakhamia, said Ukraine stressed the need for a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a venue not in Belarus or Russia. But Russian officials declined, saying the sides should first work out a more coherent draft agreement, he said. Ukrainian officials have said any peace deal should be signed by the two leaders.
The two sides have been exploring ways for Ukraine to become a neutral country as part of a broader peace deal. Ukrainian officials have demanded a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Russian forces to the borders that existed on Feb. 23 — a day before Russia launched its invasion, Arakhamia said.
The negotiations have been met with skepticism by Ukrainian and Western officials. Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who visited Washington, D.C., this week as part of a parliamentary delegation, repeatedly said Putin was using the talks as a smokescreen to buy time for his forces in Ukraine to regroup.
“It is difficult to negotiate with someone when the gun is being [pointed] at your head,” she said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. In remarks to reporters published by CNN on Wednesday, she said Putin was “sending false, lying messages” to the world.
Bennett reported from the Dnipro region of Ukraine. Brittany Shammas, William Branigin, Sarah Cahlan, Jeff Stein and Meryl Kornfield in Washington, Andrew Jeong in Seoul, Kim Bellware in Chicago, Emily Rauhala in Brussels and Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report.
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Administration officials acknowledged this week that the move could significantly increase the record number of people trying to cross the southern border, where arrests by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have soared to an all-time high.
The decision, which is expected to be announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, puts Biden in a familiar political bind on an issue he has long struggled to navigate. Liberals are dissatisfied because they called for an end to use of the order, known as Title 42, months ago, while vulnerable centrist Democrats fret that he will further expose the party to attacks from Republicans who say he has not effectively controlled the border.
“There are just some issues in which there’s just no easy policy or political way to resolve them. This is one of those,” said Doug Sosnik, who was a policy and political adviser to President Bill Clinton.
Some Democrats gearing up for competitive races are already distancing themselves from the administration’s plans. The tension was evident in the response from Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who sent a letter to Biden urging him not to lift the order without a more robust blueprint in place for dealing with the aftermath.
“There is still not an adequate plan or sufficient coordination to end Title 42,” Kelly said in a statement after a conversation with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
In a preview of the midterm attacks Republicans plan to intensify this fall, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attacked Biden over the border in a speech on the Senate floor. “Throwing the floodgates open for an historic spring and summer of illegal immigration would be an unforced error of historic proportions,” said McConnell, who also brought up inflation and Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield distanced Biden from the decision to stop enforcing Title 42, saying “this is a decision that the CDC will make.” But she added, “We are preparing for contingencies. And so what I would say is, you know, our goal is going to be to process migrants in a safe and orderly manner.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) offered a mixed response to a draft plan to wind down the directive that had circulated earlier this week, applauding the end of Title 42 but urging swifter movement.
“This is simply unacceptable given they have had more than a year to prepare,” Menendez said in a statement to The Washington Post. “They should not wait nearly two months before ending Title 42 in its entirety, but rather start doing so in phases.”
The plan the White House is expected to adopt would not fully lift Title 42 until late May, which critics point out is roughly tantamount to another 60-day renewal. By setting the date in late May, the administration would have time to reassess its plans if a new coronavirus variant becomes a greater threat to public health.
Menendez said that the May deadline provides potential migrants with a target date to arrive and might incentivize even more people to come here, known to immigration policy wonks as a “pull factor”: “For an Administration afraid of creating ‘pull factors’, I fear their delay may create the biggest pull factor of them all,” Menendez said.
He discussed the issue briefly in a call Wednesday with Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s top aides, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. The call was focused on Menendez’s desire to get some time with the president to discuss a long-stalled effort to revamp the country’s immigration system, the person said.
Biden officials are making worst-case contingency plans for daily border arrests to more than double from the current volume of more than 7,000 daily apprehensions. They are hiring contractors to add tent facilities that can help process migrants faster, along with additional buses and aircraft to transfer migrants away from the border. And they have established a command center at Department of Homeland Security headquarters staffed by interagency teams that include Federal Emergency Management Administration officials who have handled major disasters.
Still unclear, however, is how the administration might structure a phased approach to ending Title 42 that would lift the restrictions on families first, and single adults later. Single adults are a far bigger challenge: records show migrants arriving as part of a family group accounted for just 16 percent of those taken into custody in February along the southern border.
Either way, Biden faces an uphill climb when it comes to public opinion. A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that just 33 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s handling of immigration. The only area where the president had a lower rating was on guns, where just 27 percent approved.
Even voters in areas far from the border are attuned to immigration. In Wisconsin, which could have one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, 36 percent of voters said they were “very concerned” over illegal immigration, according to a February Marquette Law School poll.
The Title 42 order has been in place since March 2020, when the Trump administration said emergency restrictions were needed to protect U.S. agents, migrants and the public from the spread of the coronavirus inside crowded border stations and detention cells.
The order gave U.S. Customs and Border Protection the ability to summarily “expel” border crossers to their home countries or to Mexico, denying most asylum seekers the right to apply for humanitarian refuge in the United States. CBP has used Title 42 to carry out more than 1.7 million expulsions over the past 24 months, records show.
The vast majority of those quick deportations have occurred under Biden, who ran for president promising a repudiation of President Donald Trump’s enforcement approach at the border.
After taking office, Biden halted construction of the border wall, ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy and sharply scaled back deportations and arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other measures. But he also said his administration would keep “guardrails” in place to avoid having “2 million people on our border.”
Title 42 remained the most significant border policy holdover from Trump. On Thursday, Democratic unity against Trump’s policies gave way to some infighting, creating an additional challenge for Democrats as they seek to show voters they are a unified party.
“It’s an abomination that the Biden administration did not lift Title 42 a long time ago,” said former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro. “They have been playing craven politics with the lives of desperate people and using public health as an excuses for political expediency.”
“Many of us applaud opening our arms to Ukrainians who are absolutely deserving,” Castro said. “But so are Haitians. So are many Central Americans.”
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a centrist who is frequently at odds with the president, reiterated his view that Biden should leave the health order in place.
His comments, reported by CNN, caused a rare public squabble between two Democratic senators. Using social media, Menendez called out his colleague: “Let’s not adopt the ‘they are not sending their best’ hate speech from the right, Joe,” Menendez tweeted.
On the Republican side, some lawmakers used Biden’s decision to highlight what they see as a larger and more intractable immigration framework. But others in the party did not hold back from criticizing Biden.
“There will be a deluge at our southern border!” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) in a House floor speech this week.
The Biden administration’s dependency on Title 42 deepened as border crossings soared during the spring of 2021. The president initially described the influx as a “seasonal” norm, but by summer 2021 CBP was reporting more than 200,000 border arrests per month.
The agency reported 1.73 million arrests during the 2021 fiscal year, the highest figure ever recorded. The current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, is on pace to eclipse that with the exact scenario Biden said he wanted to avoid, bringing “2 million people” into CBP custody.
Immigrant advocates and some Democrats called on Biden to end the expulsions and restore full asylum access, but instead his administration opted to make exemptions for vulnerable groups: unaccompanied minors, individuals with medical issues and later, most family groups.
That produced an enforcement regime at the border that was neither the kind of aggressive application of Title 42 witnessed under Trump nor a return to full asylum access, leaving immigrant advocates angry at Biden, but his border policies approach far less restrictive than his predecessor’s.
Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
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“The problem that we have in Washington, D.C., right now is that there's too much talk, there's too much grandstanding and there's too much quitting,” said state Sen. Chuck Edwards at a Sunday congressional candidate forum in Flat Rock, N.C.
“I believe in truth over theatrics. I believe in no lies,” said Wendy Nevarez, a veteran and paralegal supported by an anti-Cawthorn PAC.
“I'm not the Washington, D.C., Instagram politician,” said Michele Woodhouse, a former local party chair. “I'm a patriot who literally answered the call when Congressman Cawthorn left this district for Charlotte and asked me to step in and run.”
Halfway into his first term, Cawthorn is one of several high-profile, anti-establishment members of Congress from both parties who won upset victories to get there — and now face primary challengers who want them gone.
None look vulnerable in a general election, after redistricting kept them in seats their party should easily win. All of them look beatable to challengers who believe their notoriety has backfired, especially with the new voters added to their seats when the lines were redrawn.
“We’re seeing our freedoms being slowly stolen across the country, and we don’t have a voice in the process,” said Jennifer Strahan, a health-care consultant challenging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), criticizing the freshman for being removed from congressional committees last year.
“If people are so busy critiquing everything you say, and not willing to actually hear you because you don't have a message that resonates, then it's distracting from really bringing results back to the district,” Strahan added.
Like Cawthorn, Greene won a crowded open-seat primary in 2020; both prevailed in runoff elections against conservative candidates less fluent in the language of the MAGA electorate. Both states still require runoffs if no candidate gets a certain share of the vote on primary day — 50 percent in Georgia, and 30 percent in North Carolina.
That has emboldened their opponents inside the party, even though both Greene and Cawthorn are among the GOP’s strongest fundraisers. On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Strahan over Greene, saying that it would help northwest Georgia to elect someone who “who doesn’t traffic in antisemitic conspiracy theories, doesn’t speak to white nationalist organizations and doesn’t applaud and cheer on” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Both seats were also altered by redistricting, with Georgia’s 14th Congressional District absorbing Democratic precincts outside Atlanta so that other Republican precincts could shore up another district. And those new voters, said Strahan, were “excited” to learn about their options.
Cawthorn’s 11th Congressional District, which ties liberal Asheville together with deep-red Appalachia, also grew slightly more Democratic, from a place Donald Trump carried by 16 points to one he carried by 14. But the bigger problem for Cawthorn was the one Woodhouse hammered at the candidate forum — his decision to run in a new district near Charlotte that Republicans had drawn as an even safer seat, with state House Speaker Tim Moore seen as a likely candidate.
When the state Supreme Court threw out that map, Cawthorn returned to the 11th Congressional District, but not without consequences. Candidates like Woodhouse and Edwards were already building campaigns, both saying that the congressman had failed to meet his potential.
“The U.S. House floor is not a training camp for folks to learn how to lead legislatively,” Edwards told Jewish Insider on Monday. An internal poll shared by the Edwards campaign put Cawthorn well ahead of the field, but that was before he told the conservative podcast “Warrior Poet Society” that the real Washington was just as corrupt as the one in “House of Cards.”
The 26-year old congressman had offered up fish stories before, telling one crowd in the district that he’d confirmed “rumors of alcoholism” about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who does not drink. But this time, Cawthorn had implicated Republican colleagues, and couldn’t defend himself when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked him to, McCarthy said.
A lurid story of watching anti-addiction advocates “doing a key bump of cocaine right in front of you” was downgraded, according to McCarthy, to “maybe” seeing a staffer snort cocaine from far away, in a parking garage. As for Cawthorn's podcast claim that a lawmaker had invited him to an “orgy,” McCarthy declared that Cawthorn “did not tell the truth.”
“I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole,” McCarthy told Axios after the meeting. Both of North Carolina's Republican senators criticized Cawthorn; on Thursday, Moore joined Edwards, who has scooped up endorsements from fellow state legislators, at a fundraiser in Raleigh.
Some of the House's most prominent left-wing Democrats are facing primary challenges too, thanks in part to the new maps. In New York City, a number of Democrats filed to challenge Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), hoping to take advantage of his vote against last year's infrastructure bill, and of his argument with Democratic Socialists of America over his refusal to support a boycott of Israel. There's no runoff law in New York, but Bowman's opponents were strategic, dropping out until county legislator Vedat Gashi was the only challenger.
“I didn’t like a number of the votes he took,” Gashi told the Somers Record this week. “I thought it didn’t represent the views of the party.”
In Missouri, where state legislators are still debating the next set of House maps, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) got an experienced challenger right before the filing deadline — state Sen. Steven Roberts Jr., who told local media that Bush was hurting the district with positions like slashing the defense budget.
“It's become pretty apparent to me that Congresswoman Cori Bush is not interested in serving as a U.S. Representative,” Roberts said.
Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, said in an email that voters would get to choose “between their Congresswoman who loves them and delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to St. Louis, and a host of ego-driven men who seem to think all that Black women leaders do is never good enough.” He pointed to allegations made against Roberts by fellow lawmaker Cora Faith Walker, who died 20 days ago, to add that the senator had been “credibly accused of rape.” (The candidate didn't respond to a question from The Trailer but earlier denied he had raped Walker.)
None of Cawthorn's challengers came with that kind of baggage. On Thursday, his campaign released a primary ad making no reference to any other candidate, saying instead that “smears and attacks” wouldn't bring down the “unstoppable” congressman. At the weekend forum, when each Republican was asked if they would support any winner of the primary, Cawthorn talked like he couldn't imagine losing.
“Absolutely,” Cawthorn said. “If you don’t, you’re a traitor.”
Reading list
All-party primaries — is there anything they can't do?
“Debate-dodging takes off in midterm campaigns,” by David Siders
Voters who don't trust the media may support candidates who avoid it.
“Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company,” by Matt Viser, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg
The laptop and the damage done.
“As election workers face increased threats and intimidation, some states are trying to protect them,” by Barbara Rodriguez
Defending members of a female-dominated profession from harassment.
How post-Jan. 6 MAGA mind-set plays in a swing seat.
“House Republicans tire of Madison Cawthorn’s antics. Some in his district have, too,” by Trip Gabriel
A rough welcome home.
Annapolis Democrats fight to keep a 7-to-1 advantage in Washington.
“One-on-one with Silicon Valley’s enemy No. 1,” by Theodore Schleifer
Chesa Boudin defends himself.
Culture wars
The new Florida law that prohibits discussion of “sexual orientation or gender identity” in public schools below fourth grade has a name: the Parental Rights in Education Act. Opponents who couldn't stop Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from signing it call the law something else: “Don't Say Gay.” To conservatives' frustration, that name has stuck — but it hasn't changed the politicking around gender ideology at all, with Republicans taking aim at Disney this week after the company condemned the law.
That's partly because conservatives believe the media is out of step with voters on gender and LGBT issues, and that voters recoil once they see and hear about sex education in early grade school. The conservative firm Public Opinion Strategies included questions about the Florida law in its rolling national poll, giving voters a summary of the law: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in Kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
When it's put like that, 61 percent of voters approved of the legislation, including a majority of Democrats and people who voted for President Biden in 2020. The firm added other questions about whether gender should be removed from birth certificates and whether transgender women should be allowed to play women's sports. Just 8 percent of registered voters said “yes” to the first question, and by a 36-point margin, most said people should “only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender.”
The numbers reminded POS pollster Robert Blizzard of the discourse around Georgia's 2021 voting law, which led to several corporate boycotts of the state, endorsed by Democrats, but which ended up being supported by most voters once Republicans sold it as an anti-fraud measure. A law that generated outrage among Democrats, and brutal media coverage, could have majority support if Republicans explained it correctly.
“This matches what I've seen over the last year or two, especially in focus groups and qualitative research I've done,” said Blizzard. “People think we're going too far left. Too woke. On the quote-unquote ‘Don't Say Gay' bill, Democratic voters support it 2-1, which kind of flies in the face of the conventional wisdom. On the transgender athlete question, they're not sure. It's almost like they're looking for their partisan cue.”
Ad watch
USA Freedom Fund, “Real Work.” It's been more than a week since Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidates Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons got into a near-physical argument at a forum, after Gibbons correctly said that Mandel had never worked in the private sector. Mandel and his allies have continued to say what the candidate said that night: that Gibbons was demeaning a veteran, saying what he did hadn't been real work. This ad uses Gibbons's quote — “Josh doesn't understand this, because he's never spent a day in the private sector” — but puts text on-screen saying that Gibbons was insulting veterans, and has Marine veteran Brian Sizer, who served with Mandel, calling it “disgraceful” and demanding an apology. “For this guy to imply fighting, getting shot at, dying is not work? It's more than work,” he says.
Tim Ryan for Ohio, “One Word.” A favorable Fox News write-up, condemnation from an Asian American political group: This ad for Rep. Tim Ryan's (R-Ohio) U.S. Senate bid got them both. The “one word” of the title, and the first word from Ryan's mouth, is “China,” and the ad plays a few overlapping clips of the candidate telling voters that America must defeat “Communist China” economically by “investing in Ohio workers.” That's not a new message for Ohio Democrats, but the state chapter of Asian American Midwest Progressives quickly condemned it, urging Ryan to “pull the One Word ad and eliminate all inflated anti-Asian messaging from his campaign.” He didn't pull the ad.
DSCC, “It's in the Plan.” In a 30-second digital spot, the Democrats' Senate campaign arm sums up the least-popular portions, told in scary headlines, of the “Rescue America” plan proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). It would “raise taxes,” “end Medicare” and “end Social Security,” warn Democrats — all technically true, as the plan would tax people who don't currently pay income taxes, and require all legislation to be reapproved every five years.
Perez and Sneed for Maryland, “Tireless.” Barack Obama hasn't endorsed a candidate for governor of Maryland, but he did endorse Tom Perez to run the Democratic National Committee after the 2016 election. Perez's first spot with running mate Shannon Sneed cuts down the audio from Obama's end-of-year news conference that year, when Perez was putting his DNC campaign together; asked about it, Obama talked about Perez's record as labor secretary. The ad splices in a clip of Obama calling Perez “a son of immigrants who worked on the back of a trash truck to pay for college.”
Sarah for Governor, “Educate.” No other Republican is challenging Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas's May 24 primary, but she has stayed on the air, releasing direct-to-camera spots full of conservative campaign promises. Here, she largely promises to keep Arkansas education running the way it is, including “keeping schools open” and pledging not to “indoctrinate” children “with the left's agenda.” (Last year, state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an opinion condemning “critical race theory” and saying that teaching it would violate the law.) The goal: “Prepare students for the workforce, not government dependency,” and let them build lives in Arkansas.
Kevin Rinke for Governor, “Rise.” The Republican candidate for governor of Michigan put $10 million of his own money into his campaign, and $500,000 of it is going behind this ad, a 30-second spot describing how he took over the Rinke Automotive Group after his brother died in a plane crash. The candidate appears in smiling b-roll footage as a narrator sells him as the right man for “a time when our economy, education and government are broken” — with a shot of empty store shelves representing the economy.
The Committee to Elect Rebecca Dow, “True Grit.” Dow, a conservative New Mexico state legislator, didn't enter the race for governor with as much buzz or name recognition as her primary opponent, former TV meteorologist Mark Ronchetti. She takes a whack at him here, lumping him together with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) as a phony as she rides along a stretch of border wall. “I'm not here to put on a show. I'm here to fight radical socialists, defend our constitutional rights and finish President Trump's wall,” she says. (New Mexico runs along the Mexican border for a bit less than 180 miles.)
Poll watch
“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Republican and Democratic Senators are handling the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson?” (Quinnipiac, March 24-28, 1462 adults)
How Republicans handled it
Approve: 27%
Disapprove: 52%
Don't know/no answer: 21%
How Democrats handled it
Approve: 43%
Disapprove: 34%
Don't know/no answer: 23%
How can you tell if a Supreme Court nomination strategy has backfired? In the moment, it's not clear; several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were reportedly worried about how Ketanji Brown Jackson handled days of questions about the sentencing of child sex offenders. But the first national poll on the question, taken during and after the hearings, suggests that the GOP strategy to attack her past sentences flopped. Every demographic group views the GOP's role in the hearings negatively, including White adults without college degrees; just 52 percent of self-identified Republicans approve of how their party handled the hearings.
Democrats, who made little news during the hearings, are viewed more positively, and so is Jackson — 51 percent of all adults support confirming her, to just 30 percent who don't. Just 36 percent of adults, in the same poll, approve of the president's job performance, so Jackson gets significant support from voters who are otherwise sour on Democrats.
“If the 2024 election for president were held today, who would you vote for?” (Marquette Law School, March 14-24, 1004 adults)
Joe Biden: 41%
Donald Trump: 37%
Someone else: 15%
Wouldn't vote: 7%
Joe Biden: 37%
Mike Pence: 33%
Someone else: 21%
Wouldn't vote: 8%
Joe Biden: 38%
Ron DeSantis: 33%
Someone else: 20%
Wouldn't vote: 9%
The president's job approval rating comes in at 44 percent in Marquette's national poll, higher than some other recent surveys but comparable to his numbers in the Gallup poll. No Republican candidate tested by the pollster is in a great position to take advantage of that. Sixty-one percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, and sure enough, 63 percent of voters pick either Biden, nobody or some hypothetical other option when asked about a 2020 rematch. Just 31 percent of voters view Pence favorably, and 25 percent view Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) favorably; both, like Trump and Biden, are underwater. (Thirty-nine percent of voters say they don't yet have an opinion of DeSantis.)
That's a change from the Trump's presidency, when Trump consistently had job approval ratings in the 40s or lower, and pollsters found a number of Democrats running far ahead of him. Before the 2016 and 2020 elections — i.e., before pollsters realized that Trump's support was underestimated — the idea that nearly any Democrat could beat Trump was rampant among party activists, and polling that showed Biden leading Trump by landslide margins helped power him to the nomination. But now, the key figures in the GOP, who candidates are asking for endorsements and modeling their own agendas on, are less popular than an unpopular president.
“Would you prefer the government to continue to adjust covid guidelines and mandates in response to different variants as they arise, to settle on a consistent set of covid guidelines and mandates that we will use from this point forward, or to have no covid regulations and mandates?” (Monmouth, March 10-14, 809 adults)
Continue to adjust guidelines/mandates: 50%
Have no guidelines/mandates: 34%
Settle on a consistent set of guidelines/mandates: 14%
The rollback of mask and vaccine mandates in states that had implemented strict ones happened quickly, and public opinion moved along with it. In another section of Monmouth's national poll, 73 percent of voters now agree with this statement: “It’s time we accept that covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” The new consensus is more nuanced. A third of all adults, but two-thirds of Republicans, share the view that there should be no mandates or rules whatsoever. White voters without college degrees are split, with a plurality of 44 percent saying there should be “no guidelines/mandates.” Most other adults say that the rules can be adjusted, not ruling out the return of some precautions, if they're convinced that they're necessary.
In the states
Michigan. On Tuesday, former Detroit police chief Ralph Godbee dropped out of the Democratic primary for the new 13th Congressional District, where Black politicians have worried that a glut of candidates will allow self-funded Indian American state Rep. Shri Thanedar (D) to win the Detroit-based seat with a plurality of the vote. “I have enough support to split the African American vote or siphon off votes that could be codified behind a consensus candidate,” Godbee explained in a statement.
Tennessee. The Republican supermajority in Nashville advanced legislation that would create residency requirements for federal races, which if implemented would make it impossible for former State Department official Morgan Ortagus to seek a House seat. If the law holds up in court, candidates for Congress would be required to prove that they've lived for at least three years in the district they want to represent; Ortagus relocated from D.C. to Nashville just last year.
“No one questioned my residency when I served our country in the intelligence community, the Trump Administration, nor in the U.S. Navy Reserves,” Ortagus told the Tennessean in a statement. “And President Trump certainly didn't question my residency when he endorsed me for this seat.”
Wisconsin. Chippewa Falls attorney Karen Mueller joined the GOP race for attorney general this week, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Molly Beck that she could use the powers of the office to investigate hospitals where Ivermectin was not prescribed for covid-19 sufferers. (A large study published Wednesday found, as others previously have, that Ivermectin did not help those suffering from covid.)
“I am running for attorney general because of potential homicides in hospitals, because of vaccines — so-called vaccines,” said Mueller, the founder of the conservative Amos Center for Justice and Liberty. “I would open investigations into those deaths and if the facts were substantiated; I would probably bring charges against the people that were responsible for this.” Previously, Mueller wrote a memo to state legislator Timothy Ramthun, now a candidate for governor, arguing that the legislature could and should invalidate the 2020 election.
Redistricting
On Wednesday afternoon, Republican legislators in Louisiana overrode a veto from Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and approved a congressional map that maintained the party's 5-to-1 seat advantage. Just hours later, plaintiffs supported by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee sued to get the map thrown out.
“Black Louisianians are sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to constitute a majority of eligible voters in a second congressional district stretching from Baton Rouge to the delta parishes along the Mississippi River,” attorneys for four Black voters wrote in their complaint, filed in the Middle District Court. “The new congressional plan has the effect of denying Black voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
In Missouri, the candidate filing deadline came and went this week while legislators in Jefferson City rejected the new congressional map — maintaining a 6-to-2 GOP advantage, and shoring up one Republican seat — in favor of further negotiations. That came after Senate Republicans had finally overcome a filibuster by conservatives who wanted a map that would eliminate a Kansas City-based seat that Democrats always win.
“When you have a lot of people who are fighting for what they want, eventually you may have to some kind of compromise,” Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) told 93.9 The Eagle on Wednesday. “I think that's what the Senate tried to do.”
Campaigning continued anyway, for the current district lines, and the legislative session isn't over until May. But there are already lawsuits in district court of Cole County (which contains the capital), asking a judge to intervene and draw maps, arguing that it's unconstitutional for candidates to run inside the old lines after 10 years of population changes.
Q&A
On Wednesday, House Democrats' super PAC announced $100 million in ad reservations across the country. None of the first reservations were in New York state. That surprised some Republicans, and Democrats, who see several New York seats as potentially vulnerable, including the 18th Congressional District that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney has represented for nine years. Maloney himself has said that the Hudson Valley seat, which has trended left but been redrawn to include more Republican precincts, could be in play, but the House Majority PAC hadn't reserved ads there yet.
“If I wasn’t managing the Frontline program, I’d be on the program,” Maloney said at this month's House Democratic retreat, referring to the DCCC's effort to protect its most vulnerable members.
Republicans see plenty of seats won by President Biden as winnable this year. Dan Conston, the president of the Congressional Leadership Fund — the GOP's PAC counterpart — said in an interview that the House Majority PAC's reservations were “a recognition that Democrats have already lost the House” and have “traditionally blue districts in real peril.” New York State Assemblyman Colin Schmitt (R), a 31-year old National Guard member, is running against Maloney on that theory. Ahead of the first quarter fundraising deadline — it's today, if a hundred campaigns haven't texted to tell you already — he talked about his race and why he thought Maloney could lose.
The Trailer: Why are you running, and why do you think you can win?
Colin Schmitt: This is my fourth year in the Assembly. I've been heavily involved in the community for a long time now. Sean Maloney is nowhere to be found. I don't think he was representing our values to begin with, but this is a guy who's not doing retail politics like I am. He's not at the Memorial Day parades or the Fourth of July parades. He’ll pop in for a press conference once a quarter in one of the cities in the district.
Then he gets made the chairman of the DCCC. This is a district that consistently has been good for Republicans in a gubernatorial year. And we've got a guy who can no longer triangulate his politics because of his job with the party. This is generally a working-class district, with some Westchester parts that are a little different. And he didn't check any of those boxes anymore.
In Middletown, one of the cities here, one day, there was no meat and no chicken on the shelves. A constituent sent us the photos, and they went viral. This is real life. The supply chain problems go right back to these big spending packages, which were unacceptable. And he voted for all of that. He's out of touch.
TT: Before this year, the district was trending away from Republicans. Why was that?
CS: In my own races, I’ve operated independently. I'm not relying on another elected official above me. I'm not reliant on any party committee operation. We obviously accept their help and whatever they want to offer, but we’ve been able to overperform.
I think that was there's a mix of factors for why we've slipped. There's obviously been demographic changes. You've had traditional conservative supporters who have moved out of the state at a growing rapid pace. Not too long ago, in the Hudson Valley, you could have “Republican” next to your name, wake up on Election Day, and get elected to what? That’s not the way it is anymore.
TT: Why is it winnable now?
CS: He was sending attack mailers about me before I started running, so this guy clearly thinks they have a winnable race here. I think that we're a juggernaut. No offense to previous opponents, but we're the first opponent, since he became a member of Congress, with a political base, name recognition and the ability to run a real campaign.
The district moved north and picked up new areas in Ulster County and Dutchess County, which Maloney has never represented. There are places where he’s had a kind of legacy of overperformance, running ahead of other Democrats, but they’re out of the district now. When we've polled it, we're both in the 30s — that's a canary in the coal mine. A lot of people don't know who Maloney is, and the polls may be underestimating the anti-Biden sentiment out there.
TT: Maloney has distanced himself from the “defund the police” slogan, but we've seen Republicans and some Democrats running against bail reform and blaming it for high crime. How does that play in the race? What do you actually do on it, at the federal level, if you win?
CS: It's probably the top issue that we're dealing with in the Hudson Valley: The crime issue, the lack of support for law enforcement. I've been fighting cash bail on the statewide level. It's something that my opponent has supported — he’s spoken glowingly of it; he wanted it in the race for attorney general. [Maloney ran for attorney general in 2018, losing the Democratic primary while seeking reelection to his House seat.]
And he’s hired advisers at the DCCC who made a wide range of anti-law enforcement comments. The one that sticks out in my mind was an adviser saying we should burn police precincts to the ground. That’s not acceptable to me. There’s a kind of nickname we have here: the land of guns and hoses. We’ve got so many cops, so many firemen, that work in New York City and live up here. I'm going to take my experiences here in New York and ensure that that is not something that gets advanced in Washington. I want to block the nationalization of our failed cash bail law.
TT: A lot of Republicans have talked about launching investigations into the Biden administration if you win, on everything from the withdrawal from Afghanistan to Hunter Biden's business career. Would you support that?
CS: I think that the situation in Afghanistan was a turning point. I served in the Army National Guard. A lot of my battle buddies were being deployed over there. And it's a real personal issue for a lot of the servicemen — it felt like a real failure. When we win, I'm going to look back at that as the pivot point where Biden and the Democrats started to lose the support of a lot of the people who probably were going to stick with him.
So we need to have the full story on that. The Hunter Biden thing, that's … well, my main focus would be Afghanistan.
TT: If you'd been in Congress last year, not Maloney, would you have voted to challenge the electoral results from Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6?
CS: Look, the violence that happened on that day is unacceptable. Anybody who illegally entered the Capitol that day or committed any of the crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Joe Biden won the election, and that's what we've got to deal with for now. I support legislation that ensures equal access to voting for everybody and equal confidence in voting for everybody.
TT: But did you agree with the legal questions there? And would you have voted for or against impeachment afterward?
CS: I was a state legislator at the time, so I only saw what's going on in my state. That issue should be left to state legislators in those states. It’s not my place to tell any other state what they should or shouldn't do. No, I would not have voted to impeach him. I didn’t support the impeachment of him either time. In 2021, he had already lost the election, he was leaving office and it was an unnecessary step.
TT: And how would you rate the Biden administration's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine? What would you be arguing for if you were in Congress?
CS: It's just another failure of the Biden administration on foreign policy and international security matters. Should this escalate, I mean, it would affect me personally. I'm the last person who wants anything to go worse for American soldiers on the ground. But I think we waited too long and there've been weaknesses that have been exploited. I think we need to continue to provide everything and anything we can provide, without putting our boots on the ground in Ukraine, at this point.
Countdown
… five days until the special primary in California's 22nd Congressional District
… 33 days until the next primaries
… 56 days until Texas runoffs and the special primary in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District
… 74 days until the special House primary in Alaska
… 216 days until the midterm elections
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Maryland would join the District and nine other states, including New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, that have created similar job protection programs. President Biden campaigned on establishing a federal paid family leave policy, bringing the country in line with other developed nations, but efforts have stalled on Capitol Hill.
In Annapolis, momentum began to build this year after the coronavirus pandemic sharpened a focus on meeting the personal and family needs of health-care workers, and the impact on the workforce when those needs aren’t met. The legislation the Senate passed late Thursday, 31 to 15, left several key questions about the plan unanswered, including how much employees and employers would be responsible for contributing to the fund.
“This is a great day for Maryland workers,” said Myles Hicks, who led a coalition of unions, religious organizations and others advocating for the bills, in a statement.
It remains unclear whether Hogan will sign the bill or veto it. Michael Ricci, a Hogan spoken, said the governor has not taken a position on the measure, which counts among its detractors many Republican state lawmakers and business owners.
“It’s incredibly disappointing to see the General Assembly pass a payroll tax at a time of record inflation and rising prices on everything from a loaf of bread to a gallon of gas,” Mike O’Halloran, state director of Maryland and Delaware for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement. “The legislature is telling small businesses and their employees to stretch their paychecks even further at a time when they can least afford it.”
Under the program, employees would have to use all of the leave offered by their employer, without their job being jeopardized, before receiving leave under the new program.
Looming questions over critical details — how much workers and employers should pay and who should administer the program — result from a compromise between proposals with contrasting approaches.
The Senate bill called for employees to cover 75 percent of the costs of the program, with employers paying 25 percent. The final approved bill leaves that issue unresolved; instead, it requires the state labor department to do a cost analysis to figure out how much the program should cost. Another study would decide whether the state or contractor should administer the program.
Republican lawmakers argued the program will squeeze businesses that are still struggling to survive since the pandemic.
Del. April Rose (R-Carroll) compared the bill to going to a car lot and saying: “Tell me how much it cost later and I’ll just sign the check.”
They offered numerous unsuccessful amendments, including a cap of 12 weeks instead of the 24 weeks that would be offered to certain new parents; an allowance for an employer to deny a claim if the worker’s absence will cause an employer “a hardship”; and an exemption for agricultural workers under the H2 visa program.
They argued that people will misuse the benefit, creating bigger problems for businesses struggling with staffing. “If you pay people to stay home, they will,” Del. Brian Chisholm (R-Anne Arundel) said.
Economic Matter Chairman C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) said the bill is for new birth or adoptive parents and employees who have a “serious health problem” or are caring for a family member who is seriously ill. A new parent who used 12 weeks due to a serious illness would be eligible for another 12 weeks to bond with a new child.
Several lawmakers, including Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City), the bill sponsor, told personal stories about the impact of paid leave on their lives during debate. For Hayes, it meant being able to care for his grandmother, who helped raise him and suffers from Alzheimer’s, without worrying about losing his job.
“No individual should ever have to decide between their job and their families need,” he said. “This is a long time coming.”
The bill exempts employers with fewer than 15 workers from having to contribute to the fund, but their full-and part-time employees — who worked more than 680 hours in the last year — would pay into the fund and be eligible to receive the benefit. Wilson objected to efforts to exempt other workers.
“We shouldn’t treat them less than our white-collar workers,” Wilson said of the amendment to exempt agricultural and workers in the crab picking industry. “We’re not trying to leave the least of us behind.”
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1. What’s a yield curve?
It’s a way to show the difference in the reward investors get for choosing to buy shorter- versus longer-term debt. Most of the time, they demand more for locking away their money for longer periods, with the greater uncertainty that brings. So yield curves usually slope upward.
2. What’s the difference in Japan?
Normally market forces determine the yield curve. The BOJ takes a more hands-on approach. Its policy of yield curve control, adopted in 2016, aims to keep 10-year government bond yields around zero with 25 basis points of wiggle room either side -- part of its effort to flood the economy with cheap money to try to revive growth. But its control came under tremendous pressure this year because the Fed started raising interest rates, prompting investors to speculate that Japan would follow suit, meaning it would allow the yield to go higher.
3. What’s the BOJ’s response?
The bank intervened in the market, aggressively buying government debt to keep a lid on the yield. The bank repeatedly offered to buy an unlimited amount of 10-year Japanese government bonds at fixed yields. It also bought longer-term debt and ramped its scheduled buying on March 30 and its purchase plans for the following three months. The bank has used fixed-rate buying several times before, including purchases of 1.6 trillion yen ($13 billion) on July 30, 2018, but never for such a sustained period. As a result, 10-year yields eased back to 0.21% on March 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
4. Why is the yen so weak in 2022?
The biggest reason is the move toward higher interest rates in the U.S., making dollar-denominated assets more attractive for investors seeking higher returns. Kuroda -- who famously rattled markets with a surprise shift to negative interest rates in 2016, before settling on yield curve control -- keeps saying that it’s too early to cut back monetary easing and raise rates in Japan, where inflation remains relatively muted. The different stances are helping weaken the yen. Other factors include the strength of the U.S. economy and its labor market while Japan continues to lag behind its peers in recovering to pre-pandemic levels.
5. What does the weak yen mean for the economy?
Historically Japan has welcomed a weakening of the yen as it helps exporters including carmaking giant Toyota Motor Corp. when they repatriate profits made overseas. In the past decade, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ushered in a period of a much weaker yen largely to the applause of the business world. The mood is shifting now though given that costs for commodities and other inputs are rising at the fastest pace in four decades. A sharply weaker yen amplifies that pain. The average household is also feeling the bite from higher prices for imports from energy to food. With the central bank unlikely to budge, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is left trying to temper the impact through government spending, such as fuel subsidies.
6. Where does this leave Kuroda?
It’s an awkward way to spend the last year of his second five-year term as governor. But he’s shaken off any concerns about the negative side effects of a weaker yen, sticking to protecting the credibility of his policy framework. Kuroda often points out it’s the finance ministry, not the BOJ, that is in charge of foreign exchange matters. Japan’s chief currency official said in March he’d discussed the foreign exchange as a major issue with his U.S. counterpart. What happens after Kuroda leaves in April 2023 is another matter. Kishida may choose a successor who takes a more conventional line on policy.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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All three officers were taken to hospitals. One of them has been pronounced dead. A second was in critical condition, but stable, and a third was in stable condition, Capello said.
“This is an extremely difficult moment for everyone,” Capello said.
The suspect, a 34-year-old man from Lebanon, was killed in the shooting, Lebanon Police Chief Todd Breiner said.
“As one can imagine, it’s clearly a traumatic event,” Breiner said. “Our guys are strong, but we’re human and we have families.”
The slain officer’s name is being withheld pending notification of extended family members.
Police did not release further details.
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Lee owned a commercial building on East Boyd Street in the city’s Toy District that caught fire on May 16, 2020. Firefighters had to run for their lives when a ball of flames shot out the building and scorched a fire truck across the street.
Firefighters inside the building had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet (9 meters) high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.
Fire officials said the building was a warehouse for Smoke Tokes, a wholesale distributor of supplies for smoking and vaping products including butane hash oil, a concentrated cannabis extract that can be eaten, smoked or vaped. Highly flammable butane is used in the manufacturing process.
Most of the injured firefighters still haven’t returned to work and one, Capt. Victor Aguirre, was hospitalized for more than two months and all of his fingers had to be partially amputated, according to a lawsuit he filed against the building and business owners.
Aguirre alleged that the area contained “hundreds of illegally and improperly stored butane canisters and thousands of illegally and improperly stored nitrous oxide cylinders.”
A fire department report concluded that the blaze, which spread to a nearby building, was fueled by an “excessive quantity” of the containers.
Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that the fire started under a storage rack in the building and that a worker with a lit cigarette was seen in the area. The cause of the fire was ruled accidental.
However, city prosecutors filed more than 300 misdemeanor charges of violating fire and safety codes against Lee, his companies and owners of businesses in the building and nearby properties. That included more than 160 counts against Lee and his companies.
If Lee meets all conditions of his judicial diversion program for two years, the charges will be dismissed.
“Mr. Lee will be deemed by law to have never been charged,” said his attorney, Blair Berk. “The exhaustive federal investigation of the tragic fire objectively concluded that the cause was accidental, and there was no finding of any wrongdoing by Mr. Lee or his companies.”
City Attorney Mike Feuer opposed diversion for Lee, noting the severity of the fire, the injuries suffered by the firefighters and Lee’s alleged failure “to take steps which could have mitigated the extent of the blaze.”
The owners of Smoke Tokes and another business, Green Buddha, agreed in November 2020 to pay $139,000 each to cover investigative costs and to move out of the building. Charges against them were later dismissed.
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This story has been updated to correct that Lee and his companies must pay more than $15,000, not $125,000.
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She led tours at the park and museum honoring the women who worked in factories during wartime and shared her own experience as a Black woman during the conflict. She worked for the U.S. Air Force in 1942 but quit after learning that “she was employed only because her superiors believed she was white,” according to a Park Service biography.
“Being a primary source in the sharing of that history – my history – and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling,” Soskin said in the Park Service statement. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
Soskin won a temporary Park Service position at the age of 84 and became a permanent Park Service employee in 2011. She celebrated her 100th birthday last September.
“Betty has made a profound impact on the National Park Service and the way we carry out our mission,” Director Chuck Sams said. “Her efforts remind us that we must seek out and give space for all perspectives so that we can tell a more full and inclusive history of our nation.”
Soskin was born Betty Charbonnet in Detroit in 1921 but recalled surviving the devastating Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 while living with her Creole family in New Orleans, according to the Park Service biography.
Her family then moved to Oakland, California, and Soskin remained in the San Francisco Bay Area, where in 1945 she and her first husband founded one of the first Black-owned record stores in the area, the biography said.
She also was a civil rights activist and took part in meetings to develop a general management plan for the Home Front park. She has received several honors.
She was named California Woman of the Year in 1995.
In 2015, Soskin received a presidential coin from President Barack Obama after she lit the National Christmas tree at the White House.
In June 2016, she was awakened in her home by a robber who punched her repeatedly in the face, dragged her out of her bedroom and beat her before making off with the coin and other items. Soskin, then 94, recovered and returned to work just weeks after the attack. The coin was replaced.
Soskin also was honored with entry into the Congressional Record. Glamour Magazine named her woman of the year in 2018.
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“I mean he’s got to turn himself around,” McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday, soon after the closed-door meeting. “This is unacceptable and there is no evidence to this, he changes what he tells and that’s not becoming of a congressman. He did not tell the truth.”
McCarthy has made clear that he believes the pathway to regaining the majority requires Republicans to present a united front and keep the public focused on the Democrats’ intraparty fights rather than those within his own party. He wants to focus on telling voters exactly how Republicans will introduce needed legislation and hold the Biden administration accountable, and he doesn’t want that message overshadowed.
But there’s a splintering divide among House Republicans between staunch Trump allies who tend to offend more than legislate and members who have grown restless over McCarthy’s lack of an upper hand with the former group.
McCarthy listed other unbecoming behavior that Cawthorn has displayed: driving on a suspended license earlier this month, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” amid Russia’s violent invasion and lying to a Capitol Police officer in an attempt to sneak a GOP candidate onto the House floor. But the Republican leader stopped short of punishing Cawthorn, allowing him to remain on committees.
Cawthorn has remained defiant and has not recanted his tale of a Washington filled with “sexual perversion” and drugs.
“The radical left, the establishment, and the media want to take me down,” Cawthorn tweeted on Thursday, even though the challenges have been coming from within his own party. “Their attacks have been relentless. I won’t stop fighting. I won’t bow to the mob. They want to silence the America First movement. I’m not going anywhere.”
McCarthy met privately with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump ally who is being investigated for potentially violating sex-trafficking laws, accusations he has denied.
“I’ve spoken to Mr. Gaetz about the accusations. He’s told me he’s innocent of the accusations,” McCarthy told reporters last year after previously pledging to remove Gaetz from committees if the allegations proved true.
McCarthy has also met privately with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) and Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) following their numerous offenses, most recently when both addressed attendees at a white nationalist event.
McCarthy called their attendance “unacceptable,” stressing that the party does not embrace those values. But he has also promised to reassign both members to committees after Democrats stripped them of that right following numerous controversies.
He stayed notably silent when Gosar posted an anime video showing himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and assaulting President Biden.
He did not publicly condemn Greene when she posted the office number of 13 Republican colleagues who voted for the infrastructure bill, which led to members receiving violent threats against them and their families. Instead, McCarthy told colleagues at a weekly conference meeting to stop attacking one another and drawing unwanted attention, according to numerous aides in the room. It struck some members as McCarthy needing to do more to discipline the group.
It’s not that he doesn’t know how. For months, McCarthy has proudly punished those who voted to impeach Trump, particularly Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).
Some of his critics say that McCarthy’s approach is based on his ambitions to be speaker if Republicans regain control of the House in the midterm election this fall and the need to appease a majority of his conference, including the most rambunctious members.
While the discipline may seem like a contradiction to many onlookers, fellow Republicans defend it.
Many Republican members have a similar mentality to McCarthy, saying that dealing with intraparty riffs behind closed doors diminishes the chances of giving even more oxygen to a colleague’s bad behavior.
“As far as some of this goes — which sometimes is nonsensical, sometimes it’s personality conflict, sometimes it’s just some folks that are a little weird, I don’t know how else to say it — I think it’s best to try and deal with it internally and see if you can bridge those gaps,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said.
He continued, “You know what we don’t need? We’re going to get the majority. We don’t need a circular firing squad. We don’t need to beat each other up. We don’t need to literally destroy the possibilities of really making some positive change.”
GOP members and aides, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, noted that McCarthy is publicly more vocal when a majority of his conference is united against the behavior of a particular colleague. When members began to complain that Cheney’s constant criticism about Trump was becoming too much of a distraction about a year ago, McCarthy endorsed the movement to remove her as conference chair, as she no longer resonated with her colleagues.
A similar scenario played out with Cawthorn as members, including those who typically do not complain, expressed their outrage when they returned to Washington this week.
In an interview last week with the “Warrior Poet Society” podcast, Cawthorn was asked whether the hit television show “House of Cards” was an accurate reflection of life in the nation’s capital. Cawthorn responded by talking about the “sexual perversion that goes on in Washington.”
“I mean, being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 or 70 — you know, I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve always looked up to through my life, always paid attention to politics, guys that, you know. Then all of the sudden you get invited to, like, ‘Oh hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes. You should come,’ ” Cawthorn, 26, said in the interview, which was reported Sunday by Business Insider. “And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy.”
Cawthorn also claimed that he had witnessed “people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country” consume “a key bump of cocaine right in front of you.”
Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) does not consider himself one to call out his own colleagues or cause much of a stir. He said Tuesday was only the third time during his decade-long career on Capitol Hill that he stood up during a weekly GOP conference to say something. This time it was about Cawthorn.
“I’ve not had anything really get to me quite like the remarks made by my colleague from North Carolina in the time that I’ve been here,” he said. “It’s not because there haven’t been other things said, by him or anybody else, that would be judged as nonsensical or out of line. I mean, a lot of people say things up here that are just kind of crazy talk.”
He told all his colleagues that they all better prioritize behaving from now to the midterms, noting their singular focus should be on “not bringing negative attention to ourselves.”
A Republican in the room said that when Womack spoke up, members audibly groaned and grumbled, expressing that they too were upset by Cawthorn’s remarks and how it implicated them.
“Those remarks were very unfortunate, a terrible exaggeration of the truth, and that if you’re going to make an accusation like that, name names; just name names. And spare the people like me who kind of live boring lives, I’m in bed by 9 o’clock every night,” Womack added.
Republicans also demurred that Cawthorn’s remarks brought unwanted attention to the conference just days after retreat in Florida, where members worked to finalize issue policies they believe would unite them.
“When you actually run on a platform, here’s what we care about, here’s what we’re going to do because the American people care about that —- that will help keep the team together and accomplishing what we told the people we were going to do when we ran for the job and the reason why they’re gonna put us in the majority and make Kevin speaker,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said last Friday in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
For Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) Cawthorn’s latest comments were not the tipping point for him. He listed multiple reasons Cawthorn lost his trust, including the congressman’s decision to declare he would compete in a neighboring district, only to jump back into his race weeks later. Fed up with the antics, Tillis on Thursday endorsed state senator Chuck Edwards over Cawthorn in primary race in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.
“The fact that he would leave, move on to another district 11 months into his current tenure; and some of his comments, at the worst possible time on Ukraine, calling Zelensky a thug; they just speak to a lack of judgment that I expect more of a member in our congressional delegation,” Tillis said.
McCarthy acknowledged the same, telling reporters that Cawthorn’s repeated patterns and consistent lying to spin his way out of problems is not the way to behave on Capitol Hill. He said that during their meeting, Cawthorn denied knowing what cocaine is after suggesting he had seen a congressional staffer using the drug in a garage 100 yards away.
“It’s just frustrating. There’s no evidence behind his statements when I sat down with him of what’s true,” he said.
During the retreat in Florida last week, McCarthy often touted the need to not just win the majority next year, but to ensure that a “governing majority” is prioritized. Members and aides privately acknowledged that also means electing candidates who prioritize legislating over publicity that could make a potential speakership difficult.
McCarthy previously said he still supported Cawthorn’s reelection following his anti-Ukraine remarks. But when pressed on it Thursday, McCarthy dodged the question.
“We talked about Madison yesterday,” McCarthy told reporters. “In the process, there was just no evidence that he provided that make me think that that story is right.
Asked again, McCarthy responded with silence.
Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
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When specifically asked if he believed that there “are really transgender people,” the governor paused for several seconds before answering.
“I’m going to ask you to read the legislation and to see that the legislation that we passed was in the spirit of fairness to protect girls sports in competitive situations,” Ducey said, referring to the new law that targets transgender girls who want to play on girls sports teams. “That’s what the legislation is intended to do, and that’s what it does.”
Asked again if he believed there are “actual transgender people,” he again answered slowly and carefully.
“I ... am going to respect everyone, and I’m going to respect everyone’s rights. And I’m going to protect female sports. And that’s what the legislation does,” Ducey said.
Ducey’s response was “appalling,” according to the Arizona director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights group that advocates for equality for LGBTQ people. The organization worked to ensure families and transgender young people came to the Capitol to testify against the bills as the Republican-led House and Senate considered them this session.
“It’s quite shocking that he can’t even address trans people or even say that he thinks they exist,” Bridget Sharpe said.
Wednesday’s signing of the two transgender bills and a third that bars abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and is currently unconstitutional put Ducey right in the middle of two top issues national Republicans are highlighting in the runup to November’s midterm elections.
Ducey also signed election legislation that minority Democrats said amounted to voter suppression by requiring longtime Arizonans to be thrown off the voter rolls if they did not prove their citizenship and residence location.
The governor leads the Republican Governors Association, which is charged with helping elect GOP chief executives in U.S. states. He in is the last year of his second term as Arizona governor and term limits bar him from seeking reelection.
The top Democrat in the state House, Rep. Reginald Bolding, called Wednesday “probably one of the darkest days we’ve seen in the history of Arizona.”
“With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Ducey has hurled Arizona backwards to its ugliest past,” Bolding said Wednesday. “And today, he put in jeopardy pregnant people, transgender youth in danger and curtailed voting rights for people of color.”
Social conservative groups and the Arizona Republican Party praised Ducey’s action. The Center for Arizona Policy, whose president shepherded the abortion and women’s sports bills through the Legislature, called it a victory.
“Thank you, Governor Ducey, for taking a bold stand for women athletes, vulnerable children, and the unborn by putting your signature on (the bills) in the face of intense opposition from activists,” Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod said in a news release she posted on Twitter.
She said the legislation protects the unborn, ensures a level playing field for female athletes and shows that “Arizona will do everything it can to protect vulnerable children struggling with gender confusion” by enacting the surgery ban.
Ducey said the surgery ban protects children from irreversible decisions.
“These are permanent surgeries of reassignment that are irreversible, and those discussions can happen once adulthood is reached,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Association has vowed to sue over the surgery ban. U.S. Supreme Court precedent currently says women have a constitutional right to abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy, although it is considering whether to uphold a 15-week ban enacted in Mississippi and may overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision enshrining a woman’s right to choose.
Arizona joins 13 other states in enacting laws preventing transgender girls and women from playing on girls teams. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a transgender sports ban in his state, saying it would harm transgender girls, but the Legislature overrode the veto. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb also vetoed a sports bill, but lawmakers hope to override his action as well.
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At the time, Trump’s EPA said perchlorate was not found widely enough in drinking water or “at levels of public health concern” to warrant federal regulation. The decision was one of many Trump-era rollbacks or eliminations of existing or pending public health and environmental protections. The Biden administration ordered a review of that decision at the start of his term.
EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox said the agency was “applying the right tools to support public health protections.”
Environmental groups slammed the Biden administration’s decision.
“The Trump EPA gave perchlorate a pass; it was a bad decision then, and it’s a bad decision now,” said Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council advocacy group. “Tap water across America will remain contaminated by this toxic chemical.”
Perchlorate from runoff contaminates the drinking water of as many as 16 million Americans, the Obama administration said in 2011 when it announced the EPA would for the first time set maximum limits for the chemical compound. It has been used in the U.S. for decades, particularly by the military and defense industries, and is commonly found in munitions, fireworks, matches and signal flares.
Exposure to the compound can damage the development of fetuses and children and cause measurable drops in IQ in newborns, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in 2019, when it called for stringent federal limits. It damages human development by disrupting the functioning of the thyroid gland.
In its 2020 review, the EPA said state-level regulations and cleanup activities at contaminated sites had lowered the health risks posed by the compound. Massachusetts and California, for example, limit perchlorate in drinking water to 2 parts per billion and 6 parts per billion, respectively.
“But the problem is that for the rest of the country the states have not set standards,” said Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He said the compound is in “the top tier of problematic chemicals in our water.”
In the Southwest, perchlorate has been detected in groundwater that entered Lake Mead in Nevada. Manufacturing facilities in Henderson, Nevada, were the source of the chemical. The EPA said cleanup activities at two industrial sites in the state between 2002 and 2006 resulted in reduced levels of perchlorate in data provided since then by Nevada environmental and water agencies.
The EPA said Thursday it was considering other steps besides a federal drinking water limit, such as setting standards at open burning and detonation sites, where severe perchlorate contamination is generated from the burning of hazardous byproducts from weapons manufacturing and munitions. One such site is in Colfax, Louisiana, where environmentalists have long advocated for reform.
But environmental advocates said such measures fall short of what’s needed.
“Simply put, toxic chemicals used in rocket fuel do not belong in our drinking water,” said John Rumpler, senior attorney with Environment America.
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AP reporter Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment
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A few yards from goal, she ripped the ball to the upper left corner of the net. It was a remarkable shot, one that looked sure to break the evening’s stalemate. Instead, it was met by an even more remarkable save, as Colgan’s Chase Rooney dove to her right and deflected the ball with a long, outstretched arm.
It was that type of match. The two best girls’ soccer teams in Northern Virginia battled to a scoreless draw on a blustery afternoon in Lorton.
“That game really tested our team chemistry, and it asked us to go all in,” Stallions senior defender Brooke Birrell said. “We became a better team because of this game.”
The Sharks controlled the run of play in the first half, with junior forward Samantha DeGuzman creating a chances. But the script flipped at halftime as South County looked more dangerous in the second half and overtime. Mills’ close-range opportunity was one of several created by the Stallions in the game’s closing minutes.
The Stallions (5-0-1) returned eight of 11 starters and 16 players in total from last year’s undefeated state championship team. Coach Nina Pannoni likes to keep a big roster for this purpose, so that the transition from year to year goes more smoothly. In a title defense, that helps.
But, while the Stallions might resemble last year’s group, they have to find their own formula for success. With that in mind, Pannoni said the focus of the season’s first month has been on building an identity and finding ways to grow.
“Last year we had a great run and we’d love to continue that, but this is a different year,” Birrell said. “We want to build this team and make it even better. We’re starting over and creating a whole new thing.”
Colgan (4-1-1), similarly, is seeking to build on a young and talented roster. After reaching the region semifinal each of the past two years, Coach Tom Warzywak recognized the potential for this spring and scheduled a difficult nonconference schedule. The Sharks opened the season with wins over Prince William County contenders Patriot and Battlefield.
“You always want to play a team that can beat you,” Warzywak said. “You want to play a team that’s going to make you uncomfortable and makes you come together as a group. … You’re not going to improve by pouring in eight goals against a team that’s overmatched.”
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The MLB began looking into the matter when it learned of it Thursday, but was unaware any of those involved other than Nix, a spokesman said.
Court records offered no names of the players who worked for Nix or those who placed bets with his business, but they provide a glimpse of the kind of money being wagered, earned and lost.
A professional football player paid Nix $245,000 for gambling losses in 2016. An MLB coach paid $4,000 in losses that same year. It was not disclosed if either bet on their own games or their own sports.
MLB prohibits players from betting on baseball or gambling illegally on sports. They can bet on other sports if it’s legal. The National Football League policy bars all personnel from betting on football games.
A Los Angeles check cashing business that has agreed to plead guilty to failing to prevent money laundering in the scheme cashed over $18 million in checks from two single bettors, prosecutors said.
One client wagered $5 million on the Super Bowl but it was not revealed if that gambit paid off.
Sports betting is legal in 30 states, but not in California. However, voters will have a chance to legalize it at the polls in November.
Nix, 45, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to run an illegal gambling operation and faces up to eight years in prison. He also admitted he failed to report $1.4 million in income in 2017 and 2018. He has agreed to pay back taxes and interest of $1.25 million and forfeit $1.3 million seized from bank accounts.
Nix began the sports bookmaking business about 20 years ago after his six-year minor league career — with stops in Arizona, Texas and California — ended, prosecutors said.
His client list was created from contacts he had made in the sports world and included current and former pro athletes. The agents he hired helped expand that clientele.
The operation eventually began using a Costa Rican business, Sand Island Sports, to create accounts where bets could be placed and tracked and credit limits set, prosecutors said. Bets were placed online or through a call center, though Nix paid winners and kept most of the money from losing bets.
Those who exceeded credit limits were shut off, though exceptions were made, according to court documents.
A sports broadcaster’s account was reactivated in February 2019 after he told Nix he was refinancing his home mortgage to pay off his gambling debts.
In September 2019, Nix increased the credit limit to a baseball player with debts so he could make additional bets.
In November, 2019, Nix’s partner, Edon Kagasoff, told a business manager for a professional basketball player that he would increase the maximum wager he could place to $25,000 per NBA game.
Kagasoff, 44, faces the same conspiracy charge as Nix. He also agreed to plead guilty and forfeit over $3 million in funds seized from his home and bank accounts.
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Hojgaard fired a 66 despite a double bogey on his final hole. Matt Kuchar is another stroke back after an opening 5-under 67 and is among a group that includes Denny McCarthy, Aaron Rei and J.J. Spaun.
Defending champ Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy finished at even-par 72. They were outside the top 60 after one round and could flirt with the cut line on Friday.
Bryson DeChambeau had a 1-over 73. After holing a bunker shot for eagle on his 11th hole and following with a birdie on the next, he made bogey on four of his last six holes.
Knox, a 32-year-old Scotsman with two career PGA Tour wins, started his birdie streak at No. 12. All of his birdie putts were inside 10 feet. At the 15th, he was about 20 feet away from a back pin position following his approach and chipped in from the fringe. It was his second chip-in in the round.
“That was one of those kind of bonus birdies that you need when you’re going to have a good day,” Knox said. “Obviously thrilled with the round. It’s been more of the way I want to play.”
Hogjaard, a 21-year-old from Denmark and two-rime winner on the European Tour, had his sights on the first-round lead heading to his closing hole. But, his drive sailed well left of the fairway. It took him four shots to reach the green on the par-4 ninth.
“I had to chip sideways back into the fairway,” he said. “Just was a little too aggressive after that. Yeah, short-sided myself and I didn’t get up and down and suddenly you walk away with double-bogey. Yeah, that was a bit annoying, but it happens.”
Kuchar was 5 under after 11 holes. Thirty feet away from the pin on the next hole, he failed to get up and down and missed a seven-foot putt for par. He got a shot back with a birdie on his 14th hole, and parred out, falling short in a bid to match his season-best round of 64 at the Sony Open, where he finished in the top 10.
“A lot of good and bad that can happen here on this course,” Kuchar said. “I was kind of managing early on in the round and then found a little something on about the fifth or sixth hole. I started having some birdie chances and converted on a few late in my first nine.”
Kuchar has won nine times on the PGA Tour. McCarthy, Rai and Spaun are looking for their first.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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What started as lingering thunderstorms turned into a heavy rain that delayed the start of the second round for for seven-and-a-half hours. That led to what should be a longer day, but far more fun on Friday.
Fifty-one players will finish the second round in the morning — some with only one hole to play, others with nine holes — before heading over to Augusta National for a practice round.
It starts with an elite competition. It ends for so many of them with a dream come true.
Of the nine players who finished, Davis was at 2-over 146 and in a tie for eighth, virtually assured of being among the 30 players from a field of 60 who advance to the final round at the home of the Masters.
No one was under par.
Beatrice Wallin of Sweden was 1 under for the round through 16 holes and even par for the tournament, tied with Amari Avery, who also was 1 under for the day through 16.
Joining them at even par was Hailey Borjas, the Californian who plays at Michigan. Her day ended on a sour note with consecutive bogeys. Even so, she was excited for Friday.
She was at Augusta National earlier in the week, driving down Magnolia Lane and having a group dinner hosted by the club chairman.
“Seeing Augusta for the first time, it was like a dream come true,” Borjas said.
She was more excited about her first chance to play it than her position in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, in its third year but already considered elite among amateur events because of where it’s at.
“I don’t really like to think about golf when I’m playing golf, if that makes any sense,” Borjas said. “I like to talk about other things, like shoes. So to think about Augusta National tomorrow will keep me going.”
U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Jensen Castle had the best round going at 2 under through 16 holes, leaving her one shot out of the lead.
The course was just as difficult as the opening round, when strong wind allowed only five players to break par. The wind subsided after the rain, though it left the course soggy and longer, even as the greens were slightly more receptive.
Rose Zhang, the No. 1 amateur in the world, made progress by not really going anywhere. She put together one bogey and 13 pars and improved from a tie for 39th to a tie for 26th.
Rachel Heck of Stanford, the No. 3 player in women’s amateur golf who won six times in one semester last year as a freshman, was going the other direction. Heck had a pair of double bogeys in her opening four holes and was 5 over through 10 holes, leaving her outside the projected cut line at 6 over.
The cut is a hard 30. Any ties lead to a sudden-death playoff to see who advances, although everyone gets to play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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A two-time All-Star, and the winner of the 2014 Vezina as the NHL’s top goalie, Rask announced his retirement last month after a setback in his attempt to come back from a torn labrum in his hip. The Bruins invited him back to drop the ceremonial first puck before Thursday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils, and again – perhaps for the last time – the chants of “Tuuuuk!” echoed through the TD Garden.
Rask took the ice with his wife, and their three daughters dressed for a ballet class. He bumped fists with the players on the Bruins bench while both teams tapped their sticks on the ice to salute him.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Rask told reporters beforehand, saying that he would be showing up at games and golf outings as a team ambassador. “Maybe I’ll get into coaching. Maybe not, but for now, I’ll be hanging out with sponsors.”
The franchise’s all-time leader in wins, Rask helped the Bruins allow the fewest goals in the NHL in the pandemic-interrupted 2019-20 season, when Boston finished with the most points in the league. He injured his hip during the 2021 playoffs and worked his way back to the team midway through this season.
But after just four starts, he aggravated his injury on Jan. 24 against the Anaheim Ducks. Two weeks later, he announced he was through.
“It was kind of time to be honest with yourself,” he said. “I just figured it was better for everybody to call it. I had a great career. No regrets.”
While his hip still has some good days, Rask said no one could talk him out of retirement. His immediate future will involve as much golf as he can squeeze in between shuttling his daughters to dance class and school.
He may need a hip replacement at some point.
“It was at a point where it affected my everyday life,” Rask said. “I’m a guy who makes pretty quick decisions, anyway. So I wasn’t dwelling on it too long.”
Rask was 308-165-66 with a 2.28 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in a franchise-leading 564 games. He was the backup goalie for the Bruins team that won it all in 2011, and he led the team to Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2013 and ’19.
Although coaching is not in his plans, Rask said he would be available if Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman wants him.
“I told him right after I retired: Tell me if you need anything,” Rask said. “Just make sure you don’t get too high or too low.”
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Just 34 seconds later — and more than 500 miles away — the Hurricanes’ Aho scored his 31st goal in Carolina against Montreal. Both gave their teams 1-0 leads in the first period.
It’s not the first time the two have combined on a statistical oddity. In 2018, New York’s Aho committed a hooking penalty on Carolina’s Aho, causing MSG Networks Islanders play-by-play broadcaster Brendan Burke to exclaim: “A little Sebastian Aho-on-Sebastian Aho crime.”
The two Ahos are not related, by the way. The Islanders’ Aho, Sebastian Johannes Aho, is 26 and from Sweden. He has three career NHL goals in limited action.
The Hurricanes’ Aho, Sebastian Antero Aho, is 24 and from Finland. He’s a two-time NHL All-Star and has 176 career goals.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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1. What’s a yield curve?
It’s a way to show the difference in the reward investors get for choosing to buy shorter- versus longer-term debt. Most of the time, they demand more for locking away their money for longer periods, with the greater uncertainty that brings. So yield curves usually slope upward.
2. What’s the difference in Japan?
Normally market forces determine the yield curve. The BOJ takes a more hands-on approach. Its policy of yield curve control, adopted in 2016, aims to keep 10-year government bond yields around zero with 25 basis points of wiggle room either side -- part of its effort to flood the economy with cheap money to try to revive growth. But its control came under tremendous pressure this year because the Fed started raising interest rates, prompting investors to speculate that Japan would follow suit, meaning it would allow the yield to go higher.
3. What’s the BOJ’s response?
The bank intervened in the market, aggressively buying government debt to keep a lid on the yield. The bank repeatedly offered to buy an unlimited amount of 10-year Japanese government bonds at fixed yields. It also bought longer-term debt and ramped its scheduled buying on March 30 and its purchase plans for the following three months. The bank has used fixed-rate buying several times before, including purchases of 1.6 trillion yen ($13 billion) on July 30, 2018, but never for such a sustained period. As a result, 10-year yields eased back to 0.21% on March 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
4. Why is the yen so weak in 2022?
The biggest reason is the move toward higher interest rates in the U.S., making dollar-denominated assets more attractive for investors seeking higher returns. Kuroda -- who famously rattled markets with a surprise shift to negative interest rates in 2016, before settling on yield curve control -- keeps saying that it’s too early to cut back monetary easing and raise rates in Japan, where inflation remains relatively muted. The different stances are helping weaken the yen. Other factors include the strength of the U.S. economy and its labor market while Japan continues to lag behind its peers in recovering to pre-pandemic levels.
5. What does the weak yen mean for the economy?
Historically Japan has welcomed a weakening of the yen as it helps exporters including carmaking giant Toyota Motor Corp. when they repatriate profits made overseas. In the past decade, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ushered in a period of a much weaker yen largely to the applause of the business world. The mood is shifting now though given that costs for commodities and other inputs are rising at the fastest pace in four decades. A sharply weaker yen amplifies that pain. The average household is also feeling the bite from higher prices for imports from energy to food. With the central bank unlikely to budge, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is left trying to temper the impact through government spending, such as fuel subsidies.
6. Where does this leave Kuroda?
It’s an awkward way to spend the last year of his second five-year term as governor. But he’s shaken off any concerns about the negative side effects of a weaker yen, sticking to protecting the credibility of his policy framework. Kuroda often points out it’s the finance ministry, not the BOJ, that is in charge of foreign exchange matters. Japan’s chief currency official said in March he’d discussed the foreign exchange as a major issue with his U.S. counterpart. What happens after Kuroda leaves in April 2023 is another matter. Kishida may choose a successor who takes a more conventional line on policy.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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The General Assembly set aside $2 million in 2020 to begin the process of selecting a new system, and elections officials said last year that they intended to choose a vendor by the end of 2021. The new system, which was projected to cost as much as $29 million, was to have operated side-by-side with the old one for most of 2022 before the transition could be complete.
But no contract was awarded. Youngkin’s office said Thursday that “mismanagement of deadlines resulted in a project that is critically behind schedule.”
Youngkin recently replaced former elections commissioner Chris Piper, who was appointed by former governor Ralph Northam (D), with Susan Beals, a Republican and former member of the elections board in Chesterfield County.
On Thursday, Piper said the delay in awarding a contract was a consequence of trying to make the best decision for the state. “There was a desire to get it done this summer, but better to get it right than meet any deadline,” he said. “A strong working database that can last the commonwealth a decade or more is the goal.”
Officials in the Youngkin administration, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing procurement, said the goal is to get the contract awarded as soon as possible.
In the meantime, the state will take the VERIS system offline every Friday through Sunday for the next six weeks for maintenance and to update it with the state’s new political districts. The Supreme Court of Virginia redrew political boundaries last year after a bipartisan redistricting commission did not get the job done, and Youngkin administration officials said the VERIS system can’t absorb the new data without being periodically shut down.
The shutdowns could interrupt some activities of registrars, such as updating voter rolls, but should not cause lasting problems, the Youngkin officials said.
The officials said they were not suggesting any problems with past elections because of VERIS. The 2018 legislative report said the system “provides a broad range of functions, including those related to voter registration, geographic alignment of streets with precincts and districts, and recording and transmitting election results on election night.”
But the review faulted VERIS for lacking “functionality,” saying its crude mapping capability makes it difficult for registrars to assign voters to precincts, paper ballots must be scanned in small batches “to prevent system outages,” and the system is not intuitive to use, “making it more likely that registrars will enter information incorrectly.”
Youngkin officials said they expect the system to be functional for this fall’s congressional and local elections, and noted that even if the new system had been selected on schedule, it was not expected to handle this year’s elections on its own.
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“High school students are in a mental health crisis,” said Julissa Canales, another D.C. 16-year-old. She wants to be a therapist.
But these very D.C. teens on Monday weren’t posting on social media or complaining to their friends. They had gone to a virtual D.C. Council budget hearing, sitting before a government body, to ask for help.
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that nearly all the students who spoke or submitted testimony want to do the work — taking care of others — that the adults aren’t doing well today.
“Students are taking the lead on addressing mental health,” Alynah King, a student at Wilson High School, said at the hearing. “Not the adults.”
A few days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that confirmed to Americans what they had known all along in their classrooms, at their dinner tables and in their heads: Our children are in serious trouble. In the grips of the pandemic last year, 1 out of every 5 American teens that the CDC spoke to had considered suicide. Forty percent said they felt “persistently sad or hopeless.”
“These data echo a cry for help,” said Debra Houry, a deputy director at the CDC. “The covid-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental well-being.”
It’s “a national emergency,” the American Academy of Pediatrics declared last fall.
That’s what the kids in D.C. said on Monday, too, in the middle of an annual budget process for the public school system that had nearly 250 witnesses submitting testimony on behalf of their passion, their profession or their pet projects: more baseball fields, a food-education program, fixing the filthy bathrooms in one of the biggest high schools in the city.
And students from across the city who work with the Young Women’s Project, a nonprofit that helps kids find power in their voices, wrote impassioned arguments for more robust and effective mental health programs in all D.C. schools.
“My school doesn’t provide many mental health resources and does not share much information about what they do have,” said Noemie Durand, 17, a junior at BASIS. “It’s baffling and incredibly frustrating that the current health and school systems create so many obstacles to receiving that help.”
Durand said she, like many of her peers, suffered during the pandemic.
“The combination of stress from school, isolation from friends, and an extremely toxic relationship and eventual breakup led to destructive burnout and situational depression for most of my 10th-grade year,” she said. But she has parents with the money and means to get her help. Therapy pulled her out of her depression, she said. When she returned to school, she saw the same issues in peers all around her who didn’t know how to get help.
No surprise: She wants to study psychology.
She’ll have no trouble finding work — there’s a startling shortage of mental health workers in America right now. And that doesn’t bode well for the plan that D.C. Public Schools proposed to help students.
The proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year is big, up to $2.2 billion from last year’s $2 billion. And mental health services have a starring role, making sure that licensed therapists or psychologists from the Department of Behavioral Health are on all 216 public school campuses.
Staffing up isn’t going to be easy.
“Everybody knows that, around the country, there are really not sufficient numbers of [licensed social workers] to serve in various capacities,” the agency’s director, Barbara J. Bazron, told The Washington Post’s Perry Stein. “We are also working closely at getting more people in our pipeline through our internship programs and so forth. We are doing some of the same things that people around the country are doing.”
Good plan, adults. For the future.
But kids need help now.
“Many students don’t realize that their stress levels are rising until they have a panic attack,” said Abatan, a student at McKinley Tech High School. “They need to know what to do in the moment before they are overwhelmed to the point of adding more mental harm to themselves.”
The students proposed a $5 million initiative to create after-school mental health programs in 125 schools.
And they explained that while many schools do have resources, kids don’t know about them, are disconnected from them or are embarrassed to use them.
“At my school, you usually have to go to a teacher first to get help from a therapist,” Canales, a student at Columbia Heights Educational Campus, said in her testimony. “This presents a problem because students have to share why they need to see a therapist and may not feel comfortable sharing that with a teacher.”
Canales’s goal of becoming a therapist one day is a good one.
Let’s hope we can get it right sooner, though.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/31/youngkin-virginia-elections-data-system/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage
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The General Assembly set aside $2 million in 2020 to begin the process of selecting a new system, and elections officials said last year that they intended to choose a vendor by the end of 2021. The new system, which was projected to cost as much as $29 million, was to have operated side-by-side with the old one for most of 2022 before the transition could be complete.
But no contract was awarded. Youngkin’s office said Thursday that “mismanagement of deadlines resulted in a project that is critically behind schedule.”
Youngkin recently replaced former elections commissioner Chris Piper, who was appointed by former governor Ralph Northam (D), with Susan Beals, a Republican and former member of the elections board in Chesterfield County.
On Thursday, Piper said the delay in awarding a contract was a consequence of trying to make the best decision for the state. “There was a desire to get it done this summer, but better to get it right than meet any deadline,” he said. “A strong working database that can last the commonwealth a decade or more is the goal.”
Officials in the Youngkin administration, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing procurement, said the goal is to get the contract awarded as soon as possible.
In the meantime, the state will take the VERIS system offline every Friday through Sunday for the next six weeks for maintenance and to update it with the state’s new political districts. The Supreme Court of Virginia redrew political boundaries last year after a bipartisan redistricting commission did not get the job done, and Youngkin administration officials said the VERIS system can’t absorb the new data without being periodically shut down.
The shutdowns could interrupt some activities of registrars, such as updating voter rolls, but should not cause lasting problems, the Youngkin officials said.
The officials said they were not suggesting any problems with past elections because of VERIS. The 2018 legislative report said the system “provides a broad range of functions, including those related to voter registration, geographic alignment of streets with precincts and districts, and recording and transmitting election results on election night.”
But the review faulted VERIS for lacking “functionality,” saying its crude mapping capability makes it difficult for registrars to assign voters to precincts, paper ballots must be scanned in small batches “to prevent system outages,” and the system is not intuitive to use, “making it more likely that registrars will enter information incorrectly.”
Youngkin officials said they expect the system to be functional for this fall’s congressional and local elections, and noted that even if the new system had been selected on schedule, it was not expected to handle this year’s elections on its own.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/04/01/paid-leave-maryland-employees/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage
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Maryland would join the District and nine other states, including New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, that have created similar job protection programs. President Biden campaigned on establishing a federal paid family leave policy, bringing the country in line with other developed nations, but efforts have stalled on Capitol Hill.
In Annapolis, momentum began to build this year after the coronavirus pandemic sharpened a focus on meeting the personal and family needs of health-care workers, and the impact on the workforce when those needs aren’t met. The legislation the Senate passed late Thursday, 31 to 15, left several key questions about the plan unanswered, including how much employees and employers would be responsible for contributing to the fund.
“This is a great day for Maryland workers,” said Myles Hicks, who led a coalition of unions, religious organizations and others advocating for the bills, in a statement.
It remains unclear whether Hogan will sign the bill or veto it. Michael Ricci, a Hogan spoken, said the governor has not taken a position on the measure, which counts among its detractors many Republican state lawmakers and business owners.
“It’s incredibly disappointing to see the General Assembly pass a payroll tax at a time of record inflation and rising prices on everything from a loaf of bread to a gallon of gas,” Mike O’Halloran, state director of Maryland and Delaware for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement. “The legislature is telling small businesses and their employees to stretch their paychecks even further at a time when they can least afford it.”
Under the program, employees would have to use all of the leave offered by their employer, without their job being jeopardized, before receiving leave under the new program.
Looming questions over critical details — how much workers and employers should pay and who should administer the program — result from a compromise between proposals with contrasting approaches.
The Senate bill called for employees to cover 75 percent of the costs of the program, with employers paying 25 percent. The final approved bill leaves that issue unresolved; instead, it requires the state labor department to do a cost analysis to figure out how much the program should cost. Another study would decide whether the state or contractor should administer the program.
Republican lawmakers argued the program will squeeze businesses that are still struggling to survive since the pandemic.
Del. April Rose (R-Carroll) compared the bill to going to a car lot and saying: “Tell me how much it cost later and I’ll just sign the check.”
They offered numerous unsuccessful amendments, including a cap of 12 weeks instead of the 24 weeks that would be offered to certain new parents; an allowance for an employer to deny a claim if the worker’s absence will cause an employer “a hardship”; and an exemption for agricultural workers under the H2 visa program.
They argued that people will misuse the benefit, creating bigger problems for businesses struggling with staffing. “If you pay people to stay home, they will,” Del. Brian Chisholm (R-Anne Arundel) said.
Economic Matter Chairman C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) said the bill is for new birth or adoptive parents and employees who have a “serious health problem” or are caring for a family member who is seriously ill. A new parent who used 12 weeks due to a serious illness would be eligible for another 12 weeks to bond with a new child.
Several lawmakers, including Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City), the bill sponsor, told personal stories about the impact of paid leave on their lives during debate. For Hayes, it meant being able to care for his grandmother, who helped raise him and suffers from Alzheimer’s, without worrying about losing his job.
“No individual should ever have to decide between their job and their families need,” he said. “This is a long time coming.”
The bill exempts employers with fewer than 15 workers from having to contribute to the fund, but their full-and part-time employees — who worked more than 680 hours in the last year — would pay into the fund and be eligible to receive the benefit. Wilson objected to efforts to exempt other workers.
“We shouldn’t treat them less than our white-collar workers,” Wilson said of the amendment to exempt agricultural and workers in the crab picking industry. “We’re not trying to leave the least of us behind.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/03/31/fourth-circuit-rules-tj-lawsuit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage
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In its order, the court also signaled that it would probably decide the suit in the school system’s favor. Two members of the court — Judges Toby Heytens, who wrote the order, and Robert King — voted for granting the stay, allowing for the current policy to stay in place temporarily. One judge, Allison Jones Rushing, voted against the stay and penned a dissenting opinion.
Heytens wrote: “I think the public interest favors a stay given the timing and logistical constraints associated with scrapping the current admissions policy and creating a new one so close to the end of the current admissions cycle. If the district court’s order is not stayed, thousands of students and their families will be thrown into disarray for the next several months.”
He added, “In my view, appellant Fairfax County School Board is likely to succeed” in the case.
In a statement Thursday, the Fairfax board’s chair, Stella Pekarsky, said that “we are pleased with the ruling from the Fourth Circuit.”
But the Coalition for TJ called the court’s decision “a grave error.” Members wrote in a statement Thursday that they are convening with legal counsel to ponder next steps.
“If the judges’ decision stands, we would see Fairfax County Public Schools usher in a second class of students to America’s No. 1 public high school through an unconstitutional race-based admissions process,” coalition members wrote. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The court’s granting of the stay is the latest twist in a legal fight that has sent Fairfax County Public Schools into overdrive working to defend the recently revised admissions system at TJ, as the highly sought-after school is known.
TJ, which is frequently ranked the No. 1 public high school in the nation and is seen as a steppingstone to an Ivy League education, has historically enrolled single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students. Hoping to boost diversity — and spurred by the nationwide reckoning with racism that followed George Floyd’s killing — top Fairfax school officials altered the admissions program in 2020 by eliminating a notoriously difficult test and a $100 application fee.
Instead, officials implemented a “holistic review” process that requires students to prove high grade-point averages and a difficult course load, as well as write a “problem-solving essay” focused on a question in math or science. It also asks admissions officials to consider four “experience factors” for each applicant, including the applicant’s socioeconomic status, whether the applicant speaks English at home, whether the applicant has a disability and whether the applicant’s middle school has historically sent few students to TJ.
Last year, the first year in which the admissions cycle took effect, Fairfax admitted the most diverse class of TJ freshmen in recent memory. The TJ Class of 2025 has more Black, Hispanic and low-income students than previous classes, while the proportion of White students receiving offers — 22 percent — was about the same as in the past four years. The percentage of Asian students receiving offers, however, dropped from a typical 70 percent to roughly 50 percent.
The Coalition for TJ sued to reverse the changes to the school’s admissions system in March 2021. The parents are being represented pro bono by conservative legal advocacy group — and known affirmative action opponent — the Pacific Legal Foundation. In their suit, the parents argue that the admissions changes are racially discriminatory and were designed to reduce the number of Asian students, charges that Fairfax officials have repeatedly denied.
In a late February ruling, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton sided with the parents on almost every point. He concluded that the admissions system constitutes an illegal act of “racial balancing” and that emails and text messages between Fairfax board members, which emerged during the lawsuit, “leave no material dispute that … the purpose of the Board’s admissions overhaul was to change the racial makeup of TJ to the detriment of Asian Americans.”
He ordered Fairfax to cease using the revised TJ admissions system. Fairfax officials at first requested a stay of the order — so they could finish processing applications for the 2,500 prospective members of the Class of 2026 who had already applied — but Hilton denied their request in mid-March.
On March 14, the Fairfax school board filed an appeal of Hilton’s ruling with the 4th Circuit Court.
In the order Thursday, Heytens wrote that he finds the coalition’s arguments unpersuasive and Hilton’s reasoning and findings deeply flawed, as well as at odds with previous Supreme Court rulings. In particular, he took issue with the idea that the TJ admissions process amounts to racial balancing, which is illegal.
“The Coalition appears to have identified no evidence that TJ’s current race neutral policy is intended to achieve a certain percentage of Black, Hispanic, or Asian American students,” Heytens wrote.
In a dissenting opinion, though, Rushing took the opposite view.
“The Board acted with an impermissible racial purpose when it sought to decrease enrollment of ‘overrepresented’ Asian American students at TJ to better ‘reflect the racial composition” of the surrounding area,’” she wrote. “Board member discussions were permeated with racial balancing, as were its stated aims and its use of racial data to model proposed outcomes.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/31/georgia-south-ossetia-join-russia-federation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage
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Here’s what you need to know about South Ossetia, its ambitions to become a part of Russia and how the conflict relates to the war in Ukraine.
What is South Ossetia?
South Ossetia is a small Russian-backed breakaway region inside the internationally recognized borders of Georgia. Moscow recognized South Ossetia as an independent state, along with Abkhazia, also in Georgia, following the brief Georgia-Russia war of 2008. Since then, it has provided the region with financial support, stationed troops in its territory and offered Russian citizenship and other benefits to its roughly 55,000 residents.
Georgia has lost de facto control of these regions. But not many countries aside from a few Russian allies — such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Syria — and three small Pacific Ocean island states have recognized South Ossetia as an independent state.
Over the years, South Ossetia and Moscow have become closer, signing multiple treaties of cooperation.
“Since 2008, when the war happened, Russia has become pretty much the only power controlling and backing South Ossetia, and the region has been cut off from Tbilisi, from mainland Georgia,” said Maia Otarashvili, research fellow and deputy director of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
What has South Ossetia said about joining Russia?
Bibilov said Thursday that South Ossetia will take legal steps to join the Russian Federation “in the near future,” according to comments published by the United Russia party press service carried by Russian news agency Tass.
“I believe that unification with Russia is our strategic goal. This is our way and an aspiration of our people. We should move forward along this path,” he said. “The corresponding legal steps will be made in the near future. The Republic of South Ossetia will become part of its historical motherland — Russia.”
South Ossetia has previously said that it wants to join Russia, only to be shut down by Moscow.
“I think there are a couple of reasons for that,” Otarashvili said. “One, Moscow is already de facto in charge of South Ossetia and overseeing all aspects of it. And two, an annexation … a big, formal annexation, would be yet another move that Moscow would make that would be frowned upon by the West.”
This time, the Kremlin also played down South Ossetia’s suggestion. “We have not taken legal or any other measures,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said to journalists Thursday, according to Reuters. “This concerns the choice of the South Ossetian people, which we respect.”
How has Georgia reacted?
Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, David Zalkaliani, said Thursday that “speculations about any referendum” in South Ossetia about the possibility of joining the Russian Federation “are unacceptable,” according to Tass.
What does this have to do with Ukraine?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought back painful memories for Georgians who experienced the 2008 war. Since the conflict in Ukraine started on Feb. 24, Georgia’s government has been careful not to provoke Russia.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said on Feb. 25 that the country would not join its Western allies in imposing economic sanctions against Russia. Georgia also allegedly blocked volunteer fighters from traveling to Ukraine.
When Georgia’s president, Salome Zurabishvili, traveled to Brussels and Paris in early March to express support for Ukraine, the country’s governing party said that her trip was out of bounds and that it planned to sue her.
“Everyday Georgians are extremely supportive of Ukraine. And many of them are even fighting in Ukraine right now as volunteers, so the government and the people are extremely diverging on Ukraine,” Otarashvili said.
The current government in Georgia came to power in 2012 and has been known for its “extreme appeasement strategy with Russia,” Otarashvili added. “There’s been a lot of opening between Russia and Georgia, and the current government has worked very hard to not provoke Russia.”
On the other hand, South Ossetia’s leader has further aligned himself with Russia, saying on Telegram on March 26 that the region was sending troops to fight on the Russian side to “help protect Russia,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Bibilov has supported Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
“The Russian world today is defending the interests of its adherents, those who are opposed to Nazism, who respect universal humanitarian values and the fundamental rights and norms shared by the entire international community,” he said Thursday, Tass reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin initially sought to justify the invasion by saying his troops planned to ‘denazify’ the country, a claim that experts say is part of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign surrounding the war.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/31/japan-lawmaker-ayaka-shiomura-laugh-comments-teen-pornography/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage
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Women make up less than 10 percent of the 465-member Japanese parliament. Kishida’s 20-member cabinet will have two women as of April. (Women make up 51 percent of the Japanese population. For context, the U.S. Congress is 27 percent female.)
In April, Japan will lower its legal age for adulthood to 18 from 20 for the first time in more than 140 years, a move aimed at giving young people more rights and responsibilities and encouraging more civic participation in an aging and shrinking society.
They will have the right to sign employment contracts and lease agreements and apply for credit cards and loans. They can be tried as adults in criminal court. The legal age for drinking, smoking and gambling remains at 20.
Some experts and advocates have raised concerns that, without proper protection and guardrails, the change could harm the most vulnerable young people. Among those are teenage girls who have been targeted by the adult film industry in Japan and coerced to appear in films, human rights advocates say.
Previously, parents could intervene on behalf of underage girls who participated in the films or who changed their minds afterward. If they signed employment contracts as minors, the teens could void them or their parents could do so on their behalf, and they could stop the films from being published.
Last month, Shiomura, an opposition lawmaker, raised the issue in the Japanese Diet and urged lawmakers to come up with a mechanism to allow 18- and 19-year-olds to void their employment contracts for adult films. In response, the Japanese government issued a statement saying that the “issue of coercion to appear in adult videos is considered a serious violation of human rights.”
But that wasn’t enough for Shiomura and other advocates. Last week, nearly 40,000 people — including former adult film stars and sex workers — signed and submitted an online petition to the government demanding that lawmakers allow 18- and 19-year-olds to void adult-film contracts.
On Monday, lawmakers debated whether current laws protecting people from coercion were adequate. Shiomura proposed a bill, and Kishida responded that the government will “closely monitor” it and “consider how to deal with the issue,” effectively declining to take it up. After some back-and-forth, with Shiomura asking Kishida to “take this issue very seriously,” she conceded that the chamber would not debate the bill.
“Hearing today’s discussions, I guess you’re holding off,” she said.
Then her colleagues laughed.
“Everyone, this is no laughing matter. It is an important issue,” she said. “I hope that instead of laughing, we can work together on this.”
The moment went viral on Japanese social media. One user commented: “This video makes me think that no matter how much it is a man’s world, we really need women in the Diet. Even if they are laughed off, we need people to speak up for us.” Another said: “More than what happened with Will Smith, it was far more shocking to see on the same day, lots of male lawmakers laughing aloud at Shiomura’s comments.”
18歳でAV出演させられる事になるかもという瀬戸際の質疑で爆笑できる神経が理解不能
— 𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐋 (@emil418) March 28, 2022
(2022.3.28参院決算委員会/塩村あやか議員)#国会中継 pic.twitter.com/km20iDQjjX
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The incident, experts say, reveals the Venezuelan state’s lack of understanding when dealing with Indigenous cultures in a military-controlled territory that is rife with illegal mining. The latter impedes the way of life of the Yanomami, one of the largest Indigenous communities in South America.
On March 20, a group of Indigenous men approached soldiers at a military base in Parima B — a remote part of the Venezuelan Amazon that borders Brazil — to ask them for the WiFi password, according to five people with knowledge of the situation. The Indigenous community and the military had agreed to share the router, but the soldiers changed the password without the authorization of the Yanomami, igniting the conflict, said the five people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab launched an investigation into what he referred to as a “clash” between the Venezuelan soldiers and the Yanomami. No information has been shared since the investigation started, and Saab did not answer questions from The Washington Post about the inquiry.
More than 40,000 Yanomami live in the southern part of Venezuela’s Amazonas state and in northern Brazil, according to Survival International, a nonprofit that advocates for Indigenous groups.
In 1993, at least 16 Yanomami, including women and children, were killed by a group of wildcat miners, known in Brazil as garimpeiros.
“After that massacre, the Venezuelan state committed to protect the Yanomami lands, and instead, they are being attacked again,” said Burelli of SOS Orinoco.
How the conflict in Parima B escalated is unclear. The Post reviewed an internal police report that listed the four dead, as well as six wounded — three Yanomami and three soldiers. Security forces arrived days after the incident, according to the report.
Two of the soldiers were held hostage and released only after several days of mediation. They were later taken to a hospital in Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas state.
According to the report, the clash involved guns as well as bows and arrows. Police seized a 9mm gun and at least 70 rifle shells.
“I wouldn’t call it a massacre,” said Guillermo Marciales, a lawyer, Indigenous rights activist and member of local group Wataniba. “There was a clash because protocols were not clear. There was a rupture in the dialogue, and the Venezuelan state has more responsibility for that.”
In a video shared by SOS Orinoco three days after the incident, an unidentified Yanomami woman is heard talking to a military official. “We weren’t doing anything,” she is heard saying. “They had no right to use their guns.” The group of around 15 Yanomami, some apparently wounded, gathered around a man in military uniform who promised to bring higher-ranking officials to the negotiation.
“We are in the process of writing a letter to Venezuelan authorities asking for an investigation,” said Fiona Watson, research director for Survival International. “I know tensions are high in the Yanomami territory, on both sides of the border, because of the mining invasion and because authorities have done nothing to remove the problem.”
She said the military’s control over information made it difficult to ascertain what happened.
“It is necessary to review the relationship of the Venezuelan state with the Indigenous peoples,” said Venezuelan anthropologist Aimé Tillett. “They are supposed to be there to protect the territory, but that’s the last thing they do.”
A person working directly with the Yanomami who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals told The Post that garimpeiros have been exploiting the Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve for years and contaminating the rivers, with the Venezuelan military aware of the situation. The Yanomami, he said, have been recruited by the miners in exchange for weapons and gold, creating a dependency on the gold business and the government.
“They didn’t die just for an Internet service, but for the blood gold that exists in the Amazon,” said Romel Guzamana, an Indigenous opposition congressman. “All the soldiers sent to the Amazon go with the intention of working for gold with no understanding of their worldview and culture.”
In 2019, a report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found that Indigenous people in Venezuela had lost control of their lands due to the presence of the military, mining activity and a rise in organized crime.
“Mining, particularly in Amazonas and Bolivar … has resulted in violations of various collective rights, including rights to maintain customs, traditional ways of life, and a spiritual relationship with their land,” the report said.
Since then, activists say, no real advances have been achieved.
“The Amazon is loved by everyone but forgotten by the entire planet,” Guzamana said. “There is nothing there. They have been abandoned.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/03/31/crime-novelist-richard-lipez-dies/
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Strachey first appeared in the 1981 novel “Death Trick,” which explored dark strains in gay culture and brought a new sensibility to hard-boiled crime fiction. (Mr. Lipez’s detective was named after Lytton Strachey, an openly gay British writer of the early 20th century.)
There had been other gay protagonists in crime fiction before — most notably Joseph Hansen’s angst-ridden insurance underwriter Dave Brandstetter, who debuted in 1970. But the typical private eyes in the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald or Robert B. Parker were hard-bitten men who had fraught relationships with women and booze.
Gay characters, when they appeared at all, “were either the masochistic killers or the pathetic victims or the blackmail victims,” Mr. Lipez said in a 1998 interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
Strachey was matter of fact about his identity and had a strong relationship with his partner, Timmy Callahan. The smart repartee between them had echoes of Nick and Nora Charles in Dashiell Hammett’s “Thin Man” novels of the 1930s.
Mr. Lipez’s books “were a crucial expression of the transformation of the American hard-boiled genre during” the 1980s, critic and literary scholar Maureen Corrigan wrote in an email, “when suddenly women, people of color, and gay and lesbian characters stepped into the role of detective, which, up until then, had been dominated by straight White guys who looked and acted like Sam Spade,” another character created by Hammett.
“Dick’s mysteries were not only politically pointed, but witty and engrossing,” Corrigan added. “I often teach them in my American Detective Fiction course at Georgetown.”
Mr. Lipez’s novels frequently dealt with questions related to gay life, such as “conversion” therapy by a quack therapist or the killing of a gay activist who exposed closeted gay men. Strachey, a onetime police detective, was left to sort out the villains from the victims and restore a semblance of order to the lives of his clients.
Many of Mr. Lipez’s Strachey novels are set in Albany, N.Y., or in other fading locales in the Northeast. In “Strachey’s Folly” (1998), he described Log Heaven, a small city clearly modeled on his hometown of Lock Haven, Pa.:
“Three big furniture factories I passed on the edge of town were dark and boarded up. And the only sizable employer I spotted was a mobile home assembly plant. I doubled back up River Street. The Susquehanna, one of the loveliest streams in America, was no longer visible from the town that the river had apparently once made prosperous.”
Richard Stevenson Lipez was born Nov. 30, 1938, in Lock Haven. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was a broadcaster who founded a radio station, where young Richard was a jazz disc jockey.
After graduating from what is now Lock Haven University, Mr. Lipez joined the Peace Corps in 1962 and spent two years in Ethiopia. He then worked as a Washington-based program evaluator, visiting Peace Corps workers around the world. In 1967, he moved to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, where he directed a social services agency.
He became a full-time writer in 1970, contributing humor articles to magazines and writing editorials for the Berkshire Eagle newspaper. He published his first novel, “Grand Scam,” written with Peter Stein, in 1979.
Beginning in 1985, he wrote almost 200 book reviews for The Post, most of them about crime fiction. His reviews usually appeared in the Style section, often covered four or five books at a time and drew effortlessly on a wide range of cultural references, from Shakespeare to the films of François Truffaut to the poetry of T.S. Eliot and a century-long parade of mystery writers.
“He was an ideal reviewer: engaged, skilled at summarizing a plot, not shy about making judgments, witty and glad to take advice from an editor,” Mr. Lipez’s former Post editor, Dennis Drabelle, said in an email. “When he liked a book, he would review it with the same kind of verve that a high-spirited guest shows in introducing a friend to the rest of a party.”
Mr. Lipez’s final review for The Post appeared on the day he died.
Mr. Lipez’s first marriage, to Hedy Harris, ended in divorce. Survivors include Joe Wheaton, an artist and onetime restaurateur who was his partner since 1990 and husband since 2004, of Becket; two children from his first marriage, Sydney Lipez of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Zachary Lipez of New York City; a brother; and a sister.
Before his death, Mr. Lipez had completed two new novels, one featuring a gay detective in 1940s Philadelphia and another that will be the 17th installment in the Strachey series. Several of the Strachey books have been adapted for film, and many of them are being republished by ReQueered Tales, a company specializing in gay and lesbian fiction.
“I don’t think any of my books are frivolous,” Mr. Lipez said on “Fresh Air.” “They’re always about serious matters — sometimes serious moral matters. And they have humor in them and I hope that they are entertaining, but there’s always a gravity that I intend.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solomon-islands-says-china-deal-wont-include-military-base/2022/03/31/9575db7c-b15c-11ec-9dbd-0d4609d44c1c_story.html
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The leader of neighboring Micronesia added his voice to those expressing trepidation by invoking the bloody battles of World War II and warning that the pact could again see the South Pacific region become a battleground for much larger powers.
The Solomon Islands government said Thursday a draft agreement of the new security pact had been initialed by representatives from the Solomons and China and would be “cleaned up” and signed.
In a statement Friday, the Solomon Islands government said that “contrary to the misinformation promoted by anti-government commentators” the agreement did not invite China to establish a military base.
“Government is conscious of the security ramification of hosting a military base, and it will not be careless to allow such initiative to take place under its watch,” the statement said.
The statement seemed to more emphatically rule out the possibility of a base after Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare had earlier told parliament it had no intention of asking China to build a base.
Sogavare said his nation sought only peace and prosperity, citing its foreign policy mantra: “We are friends to all and enemies to none.” He said it wasn’t a secret deal but a sovereign issue.
Under the terms of the draft agreement, China could send police, military personnel and other armed forces to the Solomon Islands “to assist in maintaining social order” and for a variety of other reasons. It could also send warships to the islands for stopovers and to replenish supplies, which had led to speculation about the possibility of China establishing a naval base on the South Pacific islands.
Micronesia President David Panuelo wrote a letter to Sogavare saying Micronesia had “grave security concerns” about the “novel and unprecedented” arrangement.
He said the two small nations had become battle grounds during World War II and that it could happen again as China, the U.S. and Australia asserted themselves in the region.
“And is it plausible that, once the spheres have been carved out, that our concerns about climate change — today’s problem — would manifest into all-too-real concerns about a war in our backyards, with our people, our islands, as the playground for children playing as adults?” Panuelo wrote to Sogavare.
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said Friday that while it respected the Solomons’ sovereignty, the deal showed that China was acting aggressively in the region.
“We need to be very cautious here because the Chinese are incredibly aggressive, the tactics that they’re deploying into small island nations are quite remarkable,” he told Sky News.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week described the possibility of Chinese military forces stationed on the Solomon Islands as “the potential militarization of the region.” And the U.S. State Department said Washington did not believe China’s security forces and methods needed to be exported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that “relevant parties should see the China-Solomon Islands security cooperation objectively and rationally and stop making irresponsible remarks.”
“Attempts to provoke, obstruct and undermine China’s friendly relations with the island countries is not popular and will not succeed,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.
“China-Solomon Islands cooperation does not target any third party and is not in conflict with Solomon Islands’ cooperation with other countries. Instead, it complements the existing regional cooperation mechanisms in a positive way,” he added.
The Solomon Islands, home to about 700,000 people, switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019 — a contributing factor to riots in November last year between residents of different islands within the country.
Australian police have been in the capital, Honiara, maintaining peace since then under a bilateral security treaty established in 2017. It provides a legal basis for the rapid deployment of Australian police, troops and associated civilians in the event of a major security challenge.
Chinese police are already on the islands conducting a training mission.
The Federated States of Micronesia is home to about 100,000 people. It has diplomatic relations and considers itself a “friend” of China, as well as having a close relationship with the U.S. under a compact of free association.
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“Athletics Australia continues to have many concerns around the event and its management of COVID protocols,” Athletics Australia said in a statement this week. “It is Athletics Australia’s view that it cannot endorse competition for Australian athletes in an environment that could put athletes at risk.”
A spokesman for Switzerland-based FISU — the International University Sports Federation — told AP that it has raised many concerns with Chinese authorities.
FISU has said that Chinese officials have reassured them that Chengdu will not face a lockdown. This is a concern since China’s most populous city Shanghai, with 26 million people, is now under lockdown because of worries over spreading COVID-19 cases.
The Shanghai lockdown was unforeseen, as would be a lockdown in Chengdu.
It’s expected that the World University Games will operate on a closed-loop system similar to one used in the just-completed Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing.
That kept athletes and officials walled off from residents of the city of Beijing, required daily testing of all participants, extensive protocols to enter the country, and tracking by China-issued smart-phone apps.
Olivier Van Bogaert, a spokesman for FISU, said about 6,000 athletes from 90 delegations were expected to attend. He said the number was in flux.
The World University Games, scheduled to be held every two years, are to open on June 26 and close on July 7. They were pushed back from 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China is also scheduled to hold the Asian Games from Sept. 10-25 in Hangzhou. This event involves more than 11,000 athletes and is usually larger than the participant numbers at the Summer Olympics.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Caputo replaces Jamion Christian, who was 29-50 in three seasons at the school.
Caputo has been an integral part of Miami coach Jim Larranaga’s staff for two decades, including helping George Mason to the Final Four in 2006 and the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight this season. He has been associate head coach at Miami since May 2015, overseeing much of the team’s recruiting efforts and serving as the team’s defensive coordinator.
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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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Colby Jones scored 21 points for the Musketeers (23-13) and was selected the tournament’s most outstanding player. Dwon Odom added 18, and Nunge had 15 points and 11 rebounds to help Xavier erase an eight-point halftime deficit under interim coach Jonas Hayes.
“I can’t say enough about our guys,” Hayes said. “That’s what Xavier basketball is.”
It was the final National Invitation Tournament title game at Madison Square Garden for at least a couple of years — ending a college basketball tradition that dates to 1938.
MSG won’t host the semifinals and finals in 2023 and 2024, the NIT announced this week, saying a bid process has begun to find new sites for those years and an announcement is expected this spring. Nothing has been determined beyond 2024.
Quenton Jackson had 23 points for the Aggies (27-13), left out of the NCAA Tournament despite reaching the SEC final, where they lost to Tennessee. It was a surprising snub by the selection committee that drew criticism from Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams and others.
After getting over their disappointment, the Aggies nearly took the consolation prize.
In a championship game with 17 lead changes, Adam Kunkel made one of two free throws to give Xavier a 71-70 advantage with 1:28 left.
Jackson was fouled by Odom on a drive and sank both free throws to put the Aggies in front with 27 seconds remaining.
Texas A&M blocked a shot out of bounds on the other end, and Xavier inbounded from the baseline. Jones found Nunge inside and he wheeled into the lane and banked in a one-handed turnaround shot that put Xavier ahead 73-72.
After a timeout by the Aggies, they still had a chance to win. Tyrece Radford dribbled up the left side and tossed up a runner from the 3-point line that rimmed out.
Nunge grabbed the rebound at the buzzer to seal Xavier’s second NIT championship. The other one came in 1958.
Radford finished with 15 points and Hassan Diarra, a New York City native, added 12 for Texas A&M.
Hayes took over when head coach Travis Steele was fired following Xavier’s victory over Cleveland State in the first round of the NIT.
Sean Miller, the former Arizona coach, was hired for his second stint at Xavier and will now take charge of the program. A smiling Miller watched from the MSG stands Thursday night.
Texas A&M had a 10-point lead, its largest of the night, late in the first half.
Jackson and Diarra combined for 22 points to give the Aggies a 40-32 edge at the break. Texas A&M shot 14 for 25 from the field.
Diarra came off the bench to spark a 18-10 surge over the final six minutes of the first half. His layup evened it 26-all and he capped a 7-0 spurt with a 3-pointer that extended the Aggies’ lead to 31-26.
Jackson then took advantage of a Xavier turnover and ignited another 7-0 run with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws before Radford tipped in Jackson’s miss to make it 40-30.
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Kupcho shot a 6-under 66 in sunny and calm morning conditions to join fellow early starter Minjee Lee atop the leaderboard after the first round of the final edition of the major championship at Mission Hills.
“I really like the layout of this golf course, the beautiful shape that it’s in every year,” Kupcho said. “It always is so fun to be here, so just taking advantage of how much I like the course and the atmosphere.”
Unable to find a sponsor willing to remain at Mission Hills, the tournament that started in 1972 as the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle and became a major in 1983 is shifting to Houston next year under a deal with Chevron.
“Definitely sad,” Carolina Masson said after a 68. “I understand why we’re doing it, but I’m just trying to soak in every second being out here. The golf course is playing as good as ever.”
Defending champion Patty Tavatanakit was a stroke back, finishing late in the afternoon in gusting wind.
“Really proud,” Tavatanakit said. “I feel like I really got my momentum going, was really present today.”
Kupcho birdied Nos. 11-14 to get to 8 under, then bogeyed the next two holes. She birdied four of the first five and finished with nine birdies and three bogeys.
“You really need to hit fairways on a major golf course, so that was like my biggest thing today, to hit a bunch of fairways,” Kupcho said. “That really set me up for all my birdies.”
Winless on the LPGA Tour, Kupcho won the 2018 NCAA individual title for Wake Forest and took the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur the following year after passing up a spot that week at Mission Hills.
The 24-year-old from Colorado arrived early in the desert after missing the cut Friday in Carlsbad. “I just used the two days that I did have on the weekend to come here and practice,” she said.
Lee birdied all four par 5s in a bogey-free round on the mountain-framed course.
“It was perfect,” Lee said. “Not like a breath of wind when we played. Maybe just a tiny bit. But conditions are great. Putting greens are rolling real nice. I don’t think you can get better than that.”
The 25-year-old Australian, ranked fourth in the world, won the Evian Championship last summer for her first major title and sixth LPGA Tour victory.
“I know I have one under my belt, but I do want a little bit more,” Lee said. “I just think I have a little bit more belief in myself and my game, so I can be a little bit more comfortable just hitting the shots.”
Third-ranked Lydia Ko, the 2015 champion, was at 68 with Masson, Anna Nordqvist, Georgia Hall, Gabriela Ruffels and Pajaree Anannarukarn. Lexi Thompson, the 2014 winner, was another stroke back with Sarah Schmelzel, Annie Park, Lauren Stephenson, Pauline Roussin-Bouchard and Hinako Shibuno.
Thompson marveled at course she first played as a 14-year-old amateur.
“I’ve never seen it this good,” Thompson said. “It always surprises me every year. It’s always better. The greens are amazing. I’m one to putt and usually aim at things along the way, and there is just not an imperfection on greens to aim at. It’s a good problem.”
Schmelzel is making her fourth appearance.
“This place is really special,” Schmelzel said. “I feel like growing up watching the LPGA Tour, these are holes that I remember. These are holes that I wanted to be on one day.”
Park played as a single in the first group in the afternoon off the first tee.
“It was kind of weird the first couple holes just playing by myself,” Park said. “It was really peaceful.”
Top-ranked Jin Young Ko, the 2019 winner, shot a 74 to end her under-par streak at 34 rounds. Her run of at least one birdie ended at 53 rounds.
“I was hitting lots of great shots, but my putting wasn’t good,” she said. “I couldn’t see the break as much or speed. Everything was wrong.”
Ally Ewing and Moriya Jutanugarn had an eventful finish on the par-5 18th when the sprinklers on the green turned on at about 6 p.m. as Ewing was preparing for a 4-foot birdie putt. After a short delay, she holed out for a 70.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Cade Cunningham scored 27 points for Detroit, which snapped a three-game losing streak and had a 39-8 edge in scoring off the bench.
“This is one of those nights where everyone steps up and does their job,” Cunningham said. “We’ve grown to the point where, when we all get rolling, we’re probably going to win the game.”
Joel Embiid had 37 points and 15 rebounds and James Harden finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the 76ers.
“I thought we played with very little life tonight,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought we were pretty good for about the first eight minutes of the first quarter and after that we just stood around. That’s something we’ve been doing too often lately.”
Detroit didn’t lead until the fourth quarter, and Isaiah Livers’ 3-pointer with 5:05 left gave the Pistons a 90-87 advantage. After Harden missed, Bey made it 93-87 with another 3-pointer, forcing Rivers to call a timeout.
Embiid answered with a dunk, but Bey scored seven points in a 9-0 run that gave the Pistons a 102-89 lead with 1:54 to play.
“We stopped executing in the fourth quarter,” said former Piston Tobias Harris, who finished with 14 points. “We weren’t stopping them on defense and we had too many turnovers to change the momentum. They just kept making plays.”
Embiid had 18 points and nine rebounds in the first half, going 10 for 11 from the line. Philadelphia attempted 20 free throws in the half compared to four for Detroit. But the Pistons’ 21-0 advantage in bench points kept them within 54-50.
“We played a complete 48 minutes tonight, and our second unit was a big part of that,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “We even had Kelly Olynyk playing tough defense on Joel Embiid, and that’s not easy for anyone.”
Detroit stayed close through most of the third, but Embiid dunked over Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart to give the Sixers a 79-73 lead going into the fourth. He had 15 points and six rebounds in the quarter, giving him 33 points and 15 rebounds.
Marvin Bagley III left the game in the third quarter with a hip injury after landing awkwardly while being fouled by Embiid. Casey said he’s doubtful for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma City.
TIP INS
Sixers: Shake Milton’s 3-pointer with 4:03 left in the third quarter was the first basket from Philadelphia’s reserves after the starters had scored the first 69 points.
Pistons: Cunningham could become part of a very rare double. No city has swept the NHL and NBA Rookie of the Year awards since Ray Bourque and Larry Bird did it in Boston in 1980, but Cunningham could join defenseman Moritz Seider or forward Lucas Raymond of the Red Wings, two of the leading candidates for the Calder Trophy.
TWO HUNDRED AND COUNTING
Bey’s four 3-pointers gave him 201 for the season, extending his single-season franchise record. Bey also holds the team’s rookie record with 175 last season.
“I like the idea of breaking my own record every season,” he said. “So I’m going to have to keep getting better.”
UP NEXT
Sixers: Host the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.
Pistons: Visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Kevin Durant had 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for the Nets, but missed a 3-pointer that would have won it. Kyrie Irving scored 25 points and Bruce Brown had 23.
Antetokounmpo entered the game 39 points behind Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s career scoring leader who had 14,211 points after beginning his career in Milwaukee. Antetokounmpo passed him with a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left that knotted it at 110.
HAWKS 131, CAVALIERS 107
ATLANTA — Trae Young scored 30 points and surging Atlanta never trailed while beating short-handed Cleveland and clinching a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
Cedi Osman led Cleveland with 21 points. Darius Garland had 18 points and eight assists while sitting out the final quarter of the blowout loss. Cleveland has lost two straight and five of six as it attempts to keep the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference.
Young had nine assists as the Hawks’ fourth consecutive win clinched no worse than the No. 10 spot in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Huerter had 23 points and Clint Capela added 12 points with 14 rebounds.
PISTONS 102, 76ERS 94
DETROIT — Saddiq Bey scored 10 of his 20 points in the final 4:23 as Detroit pulled away down the stretch and beat Philadelphia.
Cade Cunningham scored 27 points for Detroit, which snapped a three-game losing streak and had a 39-8 edge in scoring off the bench.
Joel Embiid had 37 points and 15 rebounds and James Harden finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the 76ers.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Kevin Durant had 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for the Nets, but missed a 3-pointer that would have won it. Kyrie Irving scored 25 points and Bruce Brown had 23.
Just as in the memorable end to their second-round series last summer, when the Bucks overcame 48 points from Durant — most ever in a Game 7 — overtime was needed to determine a winner. Milwaukee took that one 115-111 and pulled it out Thursday out behind a second straight 40-point game from Antetokounmpo.
He came into the game 39 points behind Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s career scoring leader who had 14,211 points after beginning his career in Milwaukee. Antetokounmpo passed him with a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left that knotted it at 110.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Cavaliers standout rookie Evan Mobley missed his second consecutive game with a sprained ankle. Cleveland has lost two straight and five of six as it attempts to keep the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference.
Young had nine assists as the Hawks’ fourth consecutive win clinched no worse than the No. 10 spot in the Eastern Conference and a berth in the play-in tournament. The Hawks began the night one-half game behind Charlotte and one game behind Brooklyn.
“We’re in a tight race here at the end and we’re starting to click at the right time,” Young said, before offering the reminder the Hawks advanced to the Eastern Conference finals last year. “We did the same thing last year and we were able to make a run.”
Kevin Huerter continued his strong finish to the regular season with 23 points, his fourth consecutive game with at least 20 points. Clint Capela added 12 points with 14 rebounds.
Cavaliers coach B.J. Bickerstaff said before the game “we’re searching at this point” for a playing rotation due to injuries. Guard Rajon Rando (ankle) missed his 10th consecutive game. Center Jarrett Allen missed his 12th straight with a finger injury.
Bickerstaff said he respected the Hawks’ “firepower” and said “they have the ability to blow you out because of that.”
The Hawks delivered on Bickerstaff’s assessment.
Atlanta took its first double-digit lead at 29-19 on Bogdan Bogdanovic’s 3-pointer with 3 minutes remaining in the opening period. The Hawks stretched the lead to 20 points, 73-53, early in the second half on Young’s 3 and extended the advantage to 30 points in the final period.
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: Mobley did not travel to Atlanta and is “headed in the right direction,” according to Bickerstaff. ... G RJ Nembhard was converted to a standard NBA contract. ... C Moses Brown had 15 points and 13 rebounds in his second consecutive start after he was signed to a two-way contract.
Hawks: C Onyeka Oknogwu had 17 points and 12 rebounds. ... There was no update on F John Collins almost two weeks after the team announced he would be out indefinitely with a plantar fascia tear in his right foot and a right finger sprain. Coach Nate McMillan said Collins “is not doing anything as far as running and jumping” but added “we’re not saying he’s shut down.” ... In a pregame ceremony, Young was presented the team’s Jason Collier Memorial Trophy for community service. The award is given each year in honor of the late Atlanta center who died in 2005.
INJURY SCARE
Young played the third quarter after suffering what McMillan said he feared was a serious groin injury in the first half.
“It’s been kind of sore these past couple of weeks,” Young said. “... I just took a wrong step and it kind of shocked me for a second. ... I’ll be all right.”
HUERTER’S SCORING SURGE
Huerter is taking advantage of increased scoring opportunities, especially in games when Danilo Gallinari (right elbow contusion) has joined John Collins on the inactive list. Huerter sank five of six 3-pointers, his fourth consecutive game making at least four 3s.
Some of Huerter’s shots are the result of defenses placing extra attention on Young.
“Kevin has been getting more minutes, and playing with Trae the ball has found him,” McMillan said.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Continue a stretch of three games in four days when they visit the New York Knicks on Saturday.
Hawks: Remain home to play the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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“I think we wanted to play a complete game and I thought we did,” Andersen said.
Tony DeAngelo and Jaccob Slavin both assisted on two goals.
Andersen faced 14 shots in the third period, when the Hurricanes killed off three penalties. By then, the Hurricanes were in control.
Coach Rod Brind’Amour said he liked how Carolina set the tone and Andersen came up big when necessary.
“We didn’t give up much,” Brind’Amour said. “There was a breakaway in the first period.”
Some of Carolina’s good work came in the final minutes, withstanding Montreal’s extra skater before Svechnikov’s second goal went into an empty net and pushed him to 200 career points in 270 games.
“He probably should have more if you look at how he’s played,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s getting a lot of empty-netters so he’s kind of making up for those stretches when it’s not going in for him.”
The Canadiens were blanked for the fifth time this season, the last one coming on Dec. 30 in the same building against Carolina. Jake Allen stopped 40 shots for Montreal, which has won just once in its last six games (1-3-2).
The Hurricanes held a 42-18 edge in shots through two periods.
“We were a little taken aback by how aggressive they actually are,” Canadiens center Nick Suzuki said. “We had no time to make plays.”
Aho scored the first goal 3:48 into the game on a power play. Thirteen of Aho’s team-high 31 goals have come on power play — the most for a Carolina player in man-advantage situations in a dozen years.
Svechnikov worked his way to the front of the net and was there to guide the puck past Allen with 11.2 seconds left in the opening period.
Teravainen scored at 3:43 of the second period for his first goal in 12 games, though he owns a six-game points streak.
“They work for all their chances,” Allen said. “That’s the culture they have on that team.”
CRUSHING CANADIENS
The Hurricanes outscored Montreal by a combined 12-1 in three meetings this season. Carolina has won 13 of the past 18 games (13-3-2) in the series.
BRUTAL STRETCH
Montreal will play three of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference in terms of points this week. This was the middle of the matchups with Florida, Carolina and Tampa Bay.
“We knew this trip was going to be tough for us,” Allen said. “Find a way to improve on this trip and realize what it takes to be one of the best teams in the league. This is probably the toughest road trip in hockey right now.”
Suzuki said those three teams have earned their status: “They find ways to win games and we just got to learn how to do that.”
RETURN OF THE MARTINOOK
Left winger Jordan Martinook was back in the Hurricanes lineup after a seven-game absence with a lower-body injury. He drew the game’s first penalty to set up Carolina’s power-play goal.
“That’s the value of that kind of player,” Brind’Amour said. “He had been out so it was nice that he brought that energy to the group.”
UP NEXT
Canadiens: At Tampa Bay on Saturday night to complete a four-game road trip.
Hurricanes: Host Minnesota on Saturday night.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Brad Marchand scored two goals for Boston and had a third waved off — even as fans littered the ice with caps to celebrate the would-be hat trick. Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, and David Pastrnak had three assists to help the Bruins to their most goals since Thanksgiving, 2019.
Matt Grzelcyk, Jake DeBrusk, Erik Haula and Taylor Hall also scored for Boston. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves to help the Bruins win for the fifth time in six games and the 15th in their last 19.
Jack Hughes scored for the Devils, whose ninth straight road loss eliminated them from playoff contention.
“Nobody’s on the outside of this,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We all had a part in this one.”
Haula and Marchand scored early in the second period to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead, then Bergeron, Marchand and McLaughlin scored three times in 3 minutes, 3 seconds off two different goalies to make it a runaway.
Nico Daws was pulled after allowing Bergeron’s goal that made it 5-1, having stopped 15 of 20 shots. Jon Gilles didn’t do much better, allowing goals on two of the first three shots he faced before settling down and stopping 17 overall.
A native of nearby Billerica who had 31 points in 33 games at BC this season and also played for the United States in the Beijing Olympics, McLaughlin signed with the Bruins when the Eagles’ season ended and took a spot on the third line because of an illness to Craig Smith.
He joined in on a two-on-one breakaway, going to his knee to make sure the perfect pass from Trent Frederic was redirected into the net. He coasted backward into the boards with both hands raised in the air as the fans — including an estimated 50 friends and family — got back on their feet for the seventh time.
“Did you see the bench? That tells you a little bit,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think everybody on the bench was excited for him, to get your first goal, in front of your family.”
Hall made it 8-1 four minutes later on Pastrnak’s third assist of the game. Marchand put another one in the net with about a minute left in the second, but the officials waved off the goal, ruling that he was offside.
“I’ve never see that. Do we refund the hats?” Cassidy said, asking whether the Pro Shop policy of awarding a 25% discount on hats after a hat trick would be honored. “Those people should get the benefit of the doubt on that. I don’t know how they police it. But it’s out of my hands.”
TUUKKA TIME
The Bruins honored longtime goalie Tuukka Rask before the game. The 2014 Vezina Trophy winner was on the ice with his wife and three daughters for a ceremonial puck drop and — perhaps for the last time — the chants of “Tuuuuk!” echoed through the TD Garden.
“It’s a good way for him to kind of say bye to the fans,” Marchand said. “I don’t think he really had that moment. He deserved to be honored for all that he did for this team and the city.”
The franchise’s all-time leader in wins and the winner of the 2014 Vezina as the NHL’s top goalie, Rask announced his retirement last month after a setback in his attempt to come back from a torn labrum in his hip.
“It was kind of time to be honest with yourself,” he said. “I just figured it was better for everybody to call it. I had a great career. No regrets.”
UP NEXT
Devils: Host Florida on Saturday.
Bruins: Host Columbus on Saturday night.
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Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves in his second consecutive start and third straight appearance with Ilya Sorokin sidelined with an upper-body injury.
“When we stick to our game, we can be very effective against anyone,” Pulock said. “I thought we did a good job of responding in the third and just played our game.”
Emil Bemstrom and Justin Danforth scored for Columbus, which lost its fifth straight. Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves.
Palmieri broke a 2-2 tie at 3:16 of the third period with his 12th goal of the season. The 31-year-old winger breezed by Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine and roofed a wrist shot to give New York a one-goal advantage. Merlikins was unable to close off the short side and Palmieri took advantage of the opening.
Pulock added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
“They want you to turn the puck over and a couple of times we were doing that,” Blue Jackets defenseman Andrew Peeke said. “That leads to long shifts, that leads to possession time for them, kind of screws up the rhythm of the game.”
The Blue Jackets erased a two-goal deficit in a span of 1:39 midway through the second period. The Islanders left Bemstrom all alone at the top of the crease and he finished a pass from Eric Robinson at 8:47. Jake Bean also assisted on the play.
Danforth tied it at 2 with his fifth goal of the season. Yegor Chinakov skated into the offensive zone and found Vladislav Gavrikov in the slot after Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara prevented the forward from getting behind him. Varlamov stopped the initial shot from Gavrikov, but was unable to hold onto the rebound and Danforth was able to capitalize.
“There’s no quit in the group, there hasn’t been all year,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “There’s been at times maybe some frustration, but there’s never been any quit where they, you know, they throw up their hands and just walk away. There’s none of that at all.”
The Islanders took a 2-0 lead with two goals in 11 seconds midway through the first period.
Aho opened the scoring when he stopped short and wired a wrist shot over the glove of Merzlikins at 8:39. Brock Nelson extended his point streak to six games with an assist on the play.
Wahlstrom extended the Islanders lead to 2-0 after he buried a feed from Zach Parise at 8:50. Barzal started the sequence with a floating backhand that Parise was able to corral in the offensive zone.
New York outshot Columbus 10-0 in the first half of the opening frame.
“I think we knew we didn’t come out with any fire and they came out flying,” Danforth said. “We just didn’t have it early, I thought we fought back. We are a team that battles hard and will battle adversity. Tonight we didn’t have enough to get back in the game.”
90 YEARS YOUNG
The Islanders honored hockey historian and veteran journalist Stan Fischler at the game to celebrate his 90th birthday. “The Hockey Maven” has been a hockey television personality in the northeast since the early 1970s and has authored over 100 books. He began his career with the New York Rangers in the 1950s, working in the team’s public relations department.
COVID IN COLUMBUS
Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen and assistant coach Steve McCarthy were placed in the COVID-19 protocols and each missed their second straight game. Associate coach Pascal Vincent led the team behind the bench. ... D Zach Weresnki missed his second straight game after he sustained a hit to the head late in the late first period of Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime loss against Minnesota.
MARCH MAYHEM
The Islanders closed out a hectic March schedule with a 10-6-1 record. The 17 games New York played in March are the most the franchise has played in a single month in franchise history.
DIVISION FOES
Nine of the final 16 games remaining in the Islanders’ regular season are against division opponents. The Islanders are 8-2-1 against Metropolitan teams since returning from the holiday break.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Visit the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
Islanders: Visit the New York Rangers on Friday night.
—
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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William Nylander had two power-play goals and an assist and Ilya Mikheyev scored short-handed and had a three-point game. Mark Giordano added a goal and an assist and John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren also scored Toronto, which got 20 saves from Erik Kallgren. Mitch Marner added three assists.
Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny also scored for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.
PANTHERS 4, BLACKHAWKS 0
SUNRISE, Fla. — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 37 shots for his third shutout of the season, leading Florida past Chicago.
Aleksander Barkov scored twice, Gustav Forsling had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Lomberg scored his fourth goal in three games as the Panthers won their 28th home game, a club record for a season.
Jonathan Huberdeau recorded his 71st assist, an NHL record for assists by a left winger. Huberdeau has 94 points, tied with Pavel Bure. He is closing in on the club record of 96 set by Barkov in the 2018-19 season.
The Panthers could clinch a playoff spot as early as Saturday.
Collin Delia stopped 40 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost their third straight game.
HURRICANES 4, CANADIENS 0
RALEIGH, N.C. — Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and Andrei Svechnikov scored twice as Carolina dominated Montreal.
Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen each had a goal and an assist as the Hurricanes stretched their points streak to six games with their third win in the last four outings. Svechnikov’s second goal went into an empty net. Tony DeAngelo and Jaccob Slavin both assisted on two goals. Andersen faced 14 shots in the third period, when the Hurricanes killed off three penalties.
The Canadiens were blanked for the fifth time this season, the last coming on Dec. 30 in the same building against Carolina. Jake Allen stopped 40 shots for Montreal, which has won just once in its last six games (1-3-2).
BRUINS 8, DEVILS 1
BOSTON — Former Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin scored in his NHL debut, capping a five-goal second-period outburst that propelled Boston over New Jersey.
Brad Marchand had two goals for Boston and had a third waved off — even as fans littered the ice with caps to celebrate the would-be hat trick. Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, and David Pastrnak had three assists to help the Bruins to their most goals since Thanksgiving, 2019.
Matt Grzelcyk, Jake DeBrusk, Erik Haula and Taylor Hall also scored for Boston. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves to help the Bruins win for the fifth time in six games and the 15th in their last 19.
Jack Hughes scored for the Devils, whose ninth straight road loss eliminated them from playoff contention.
ISLANDERS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2
NEW YORK — Kyle Palmieri scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to lift New York past Columbus.
Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist, and Sebastian Aho, Oliver Wahlstrom and Ryan Pulock also scored as New York improved to 7-1 in its last eight home games dating to a 6-0 win against the Blue Jackets on March 10.
Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves in his second consecutive start and third straight appearance with Ilya Sorokin sidelined with an upper-body injury.
Emil Bemstrom and Justin Danforth scored for Columbus, which lost its fifth straight. Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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William Nylander had two power-play goals and an assist and Ilya Mikheyev scored short-handed and had a three-point game. Mark Giordano added a goal and an assist and John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren also scored Toronto, which got 20 saves from Erik Kallgren. Mitch Marner added three assists.
Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny also scored for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.
Matthews joined Andreychuk, Rick Vaive (three times) and Gary Leeman as the only Maple Leafs players to reach the half-century goal mark.
Kallgren got the start with Petr Mrazek likely to be out at least six weeks with his third groin injury of the season suffered in Tuesday’s 6-4 victory over Boston. No. 1 goalie Jack Campbell (rib ailment) has been cleared medically to resume action for the first time since March 8, but didn’t dress with Toronto set to head out on a four-game road trip starting Saturday in Philadelphia.
Trailing 2-1 after the first period, Toronto tied things up 1:58 into the second when Nylander banged a Matthews’ rebound off the end boards past Comrie for his 25th goal of the season.
Ehlers scored his 21st — and seventh in the last 10 games — on a Winnipeg power play at 3:45 past a screened Kallgren.
The Leafs got even at 3-all 23 seconds later when Tavares swatted his 23rd past Comrie, who got the start in place of Connor Hellebuyck in the second of a back-to-back.
Nylander poked in his second of the game and 26th of the year on another man advantage at 8:40 as the Leafs’ top-ranked power play connected for Toronto’s first lead.
Mikheyev made it 5-3 when took a pass from Pierre Engvall with the Leafs killing a penalty, settled the puck on his stick and scored his 15th at 13:55 for his team’s league-leading 11th short-handed goal.
Winnipeg opened the scoring at 3:19 of the first when Wheeler stepped around Giordano before scoring his 12th.
The Jets made it 2-0 at 7:45 when Stastny took a rebound off the end boards and fooled Kallgren on a wraparound for his 18th.
Giordano made up for his earlier mistake on the Wheeler goal when his attempted pass pinged off two defenders for his seventh of the campaign — and first as a Leaf at 15:03.
Matthews was twice robbed of 50 goals by COVID-19. He found the back of the net 47 times in 70 games in 2019-20 before the pandemic abruptly ended the regular season before putting up 41 in 52 contests over the course the 2020-21 coronavirus-shortened campaign to win his first Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer.
Thursday was Matthews’ 62nd game of the season — he missed three because of injury and two via suspension — while Draisaitl has suited up for each of Edmonton’s 68 contests.
UP NEXT
Winnipeg: Host Los Angeles Kings on Saturday to open a three-game homestand.
Toronto: At Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday in the start of a four-game trip.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Jonathan Huberdeau recorded his 71st assist, an NHL record for assists by a left winger. Huberdeau has 94 points, tied with Pavel Bure. He is closing in on the club record of 96 set by Barkov in the 2018-19 season.
The Panthers could clinch a playoff spot as early as Saturday.
Collin Delia stopped 40 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost their third straight game.
Barkov’s second goal stretched the Panthers lead to 4-0. During a 5-on-3 power play, Barkov took a pass from Huberdeau in the right circle and beat Delia with 6:13 left in the game.
Lomberg put the Panthers ahead 2-0 when he took a pass from Joe Thornton, skated in and beat Delia on the glove side at 7:23 of the second.
Forsling’s shot from the point got through traffic and into the net to make the score 3-0 with 8:14 left in the second. The goal survived a coach’s challenge from Chicago for goalie interference.
Barkov gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead with 1:36 left in the first when he stuffed in the puck during a scrum in front of the Chicago net.
The Panthers had a goal disallowed 41 seconds in when it was ruled that Barkov kicked the puck in with his skate.
SIX WITH 20
The Panthers have six 20-goal scorers for the first time. Only seven teams in the last 25 years have had more than six players score that many goals. Detroit (2005-06) had eight. New Jersey (2000-01), San Jose (2010-11), Philadelphia (2013-14), Toronto (2018-19) and Washington (2008-09 and 2018-19) all had seven.
NOTES: Blackhawks C Jonathan Toews played his 1,000th NHL game. Toews is the 366th NHL player to reach the milestone and the eighth Chicago player. ... FanDuel Sportsbook lists Florida currently as the second betting choice to win the Stanley Cup, behind only Colorado. ... This was the start of Chicago’s next-to-last back-to-back of the season. The Blackhawks visit Arizona on April 20 and Los Angeles on April 21. ...
UP NEXT
Blackhawks: Visit Tampa Bay on Friday.
Panthers: Visit New Jersey on Saturday.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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The storm system responsible for the potential twisters is the same one that unleashed dozens of tornadoes across the South on Wednesday and into Thursday morning, resulting in numerous injuries and at least two fatalities.
Ahead of the possible tornadoes, the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch early Thursday afternoon highlighting the potential for damaging straight-line winds and mentioning the possibility of a couple tornadoes. The Weather Service had placed the Washington region in an “enhanced risk” zone for severe thunderstorms.
Unlike in classic summertime tornado setups, which are fueled by high heat and humidity, instability or “fuel” for storms was limited. It was only 70 degrees at the time of the storm at Washington Dulles International Airport. That said, there was an extreme amount of shear, or a change in wind speed and direction with altitude. That allowed for storms to rotate.
How the potentially tornadic storm developed
A storm began looking ominous in eastern Prince William and western Fairfax counties just before 8 p.m. It was riding a differential heating boundary, or an interface between slightly cooler surface temperatures to the north and acutely milder air to the south. Boundaries are like railroad tracks that storms can chug along; sometimes, storms consume extra twist along these boundaries.
By shortly after 8 p.m., the storm was showing the characteristics of a supercell, or rotating thunderstorm. It had a circulating updraft and was located at the southern end of a line of storms. That usually gives a storm room to strengthen, since there’s nothing to the south to impede its “inflow” of warm southerly winds.
The storm rode directly over Interstate 66. Although rotation was evident on radar from the Weather Service office in Sterling, it didn’t look terribly tight. Still, the National Weather Service issued a precautionary severe thunderstorm warning at 8:18 p.m.
That’s about the time when the first tornado may have touched down.
Possible touchdown near Centreville
Despite unimpressive rotation from the Weather Service’s WSR-88D radar — a more powerful device that offers slightly coarser resolution — a high-resolution and ultrasensitive terminal Doppler radar at Dulles painted a different story. It showed a tight couplet of spin between Chantilly and Centreville.
Green marks winds heading toward the radar, and red away.
Chantilly, Fair Oaks, Wolf Trap – seek shelter!
— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) April 1, 2022
There's no #tornado warning yet, but I'm looking at a special ultra-sensitive radar from Dulles Airport with better low-level coverage, and everything I see makes me think y'all should be below ground. @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/uXrDSXHW4p
The Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Fairfax County seconds later, though a brief tornado already may have been on the ground. The couplet was strong for two scans, and there are indications that debris may have been lofted into the atmosphere. That can be seen on the bottom right of four-panel image below. A low “correlation coefficient,” marked in blue, is usually an indicator of spiky objects in the atmosphere that aren’t rain or hail. That can be commensurate with radar debris.
Karyn Miller, a Capital Weather Gang follower on Facebook who lives in the Sully Station area of Centreville, commented that a possible circulation “ripped some ... siding off the chimney and a couple other small places” of her home. That damage would be suggestive of an EF0 tornado or straight-line winds in the 70-80 mph range. Her propane grill was moved four feet across the deck.
Possible touchdown No. 2 near Tysons Corner
A second probable touchdown occurred about 8:39 p.m. in Tysons Corner. That’s where radar showed a tight “spectrum width” signature, revealing turbulent motions within pixels on the radar. A similarly tight couplet also briefly materialized on velocity mode.
The above image shows fine scale radar structure of the possible tornado signature. The top row shows an “inflow cleft” where a rapidly developing, small counterclockwise circulation along the storm’s leading edge, draws in warm, moist air. The bottom row shows continuation of the notch structure several minutes later, and at this time a subtle Doppler signature of rotation develops (green pixel = flow toward radar located at Sterling Virginia, bright pink pixel = flow away from radar).
One video on social media (caution: strong language) captured what appears to be a 30- to 50-foot-wide funnel moving through the Tysons commercial district, flanked by strong westerly “rear flank downdraft” winds on the south side of the circulation. That’s where cool air wraps counterclockwise around a circulation.
Debris can also be seen falling from above and becoming entrained in the apparent vortex, indicative of a probable EF0 or EF1 tornado. Winds were probably below 90 mph. The damage in the rear flank downdraft from straight-line winds was probably equivalent in magnitude to that caused by the tornado.
Damage was reported at multiple gas stations along Chain Bridge Road. The Sunoco Station off International Drive suffered serious damage to its canopy, which was toppled, and the Mobil station next door lost at least three window panes and suffered damage to an awning. That would suggest a path length of about a quarter-mile.
@capitalweather @ABC7 @nbcwashington Tornado touched down and hit the local gas station here right outside of Tyson’s corner Mall. Thankfully the gas station attendant is ok!!!! pic.twitter.com/noUMTFBuhZ
— Amanda (@achnva) April 1, 2022
Possible tornado debris landed on the Silver Line Metro track near Tysons, causing rail delays and single-tracking, according to a tweet from WMATA.
STORM DAMAGE
— Rail Transit OPS (@RailTransitOPS) April 1, 2022
⚪️ Tysons Corner
At about 8:45PM a ceiling panel became dislodged and landed on the outbound track @ Tysons Corner https://t.co/8e4o7kOLax
Tornadoes in March in the Washington region are not terribly common. On average, the region sees about one tornado every decade in March, according to Ian Livingston, a Capital Weather Gang contributor.
Jason Samenow and Capital Weather Gang severe weather expert Jeff Halverson contributed to this report.
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Strachey first appeared in the 1981 novel “Death Trick,” which explored dark strains in gay culture and brought a new sensibility to hard-boiled crime fiction. (Mr. Lipez’s detective was named after Lytton Strachey, an openly gay British writer of the early 20th century.)
There had been other gay protagonists in crime fiction before — most notably Joseph Hansen’s angst-ridden insurance underwriter Dave Brandstetter, who debuted in 1970. But the typical private eyes in the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald or Robert B. Parker were hard-bitten men who had fraught relationships with women and booze.
Gay characters, when they appeared at all, “were either the masochistic killers or the pathetic victims or the blackmail victims,” Mr. Lipez said in a 1998 interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
Strachey was matter of fact about his identity and had a strong relationship with his partner, Timmy Callahan. The smart repartee between them had echoes of Nick and Nora Charles in Dashiell Hammett’s “Thin Man” novels of the 1930s.
Mr. Lipez’s books “were a crucial expression of the transformation of the American hard-boiled genre during” the 1980s, critic and literary scholar Maureen Corrigan wrote in an email, “when suddenly women, people of color, and gay and lesbian characters stepped into the role of detective, which, up until then, had been dominated by straight White guys who looked and acted like Sam Spade,” another character created by Hammett.
“Dick’s mysteries were not only politically pointed, but witty and engrossing,” Corrigan added. “I often teach them in my American Detective Fiction course at Georgetown.”
Mr. Lipez’s novels frequently dealt with questions related to gay life, such as “conversion” therapy by a quack therapist or the killing of a gay activist who exposed closeted gay men. Strachey, a onetime police detective, was left to sort out the villains from the victims and restore a semblance of order to the lives of his clients.
Many of Mr. Lipez’s Strachey novels are set in Albany, N.Y., or in other fading locales in the Northeast. In “Strachey’s Folly” (1998), he described Log Heaven, a small city clearly modeled on his hometown of Lock Haven, Pa.:
“Three big furniture factories I passed on the edge of town were dark and boarded up. And the only sizable employer I spotted was a mobile home assembly plant. I doubled back up River Street. The Susquehanna, one of the loveliest streams in America, was no longer visible from the town that the river had apparently once made prosperous.”
Richard Stevenson Lipez was born Nov. 30, 1938, in Lock Haven. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was a broadcaster who founded a radio station, where young Richard was a jazz disc jockey.
After graduating from what is now Lock Haven University, Mr. Lipez joined the Peace Corps in 1962 and spent two years in Ethiopia. He then worked as a Washington-based program evaluator, visiting Peace Corps workers around the world. In 1967, he moved to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, where he directed a social services agency.
He became a full-time writer in 1970, contributing humor articles to magazines and writing editorials for the Berkshire Eagle newspaper. He published his first novel, “Grand Scam,” written with Peter Stein, in 1979.
Beginning in 1985, he wrote almost 200 book reviews for The Post, most of them about crime fiction. His reviews usually appeared in the Style section, often covered four or five books at a time and drew effortlessly on a wide range of cultural references, from Shakespeare to the films of François Truffaut to the poetry of T.S. Eliot and a century-long parade of mystery writers.
“He was an ideal reviewer: engaged, skilled at summarizing a plot, not shy about making judgments, witty and glad to take advice from an editor,” Mr. Lipez’s former Post editor, Dennis Drabelle, said in an email. “When he liked a book, he would review it with the same kind of verve that a high-spirited guest shows in introducing a friend to the rest of a party.”
Mr. Lipez’s final review for The Post appeared on the day he died.
Mr. Lipez’s first marriage, to Hedy Harris, ended in divorce. Survivors include Joe Wheaton, an artist and onetime restaurateur who was his partner since 1990 and husband since 2004, of Becket; two children from his first marriage, Sydney Lipez of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Zachary Lipez of New York City; a brother; and a sister.
Before his death, Mr. Lipez had completed two new novels, one featuring a gay detective in 1940s Philadelphia and another that will be the 17th installment in the Strachey series. Several of the Strachey books have been adapted for film, and many of them are being republished by ReQueered Tales, a company specializing in gay and lesbian fiction.
“I don’t think any of my books are frivolous,” Mr. Lipez said on “Fresh Air.” “They’re always about serious matters — sometimes serious moral matters. And they have humor in them and I hope that they are entertaining, but there’s always a gravity that I intend.”
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The storm system responsible for the potential twisters is the same one that unleashed dozens of tornadoes across the South on Wednesday and into Thursday morning, resulting in numerous injuries and at least two fatalities.
Ahead of the possible tornadoes, the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch early Thursday afternoon highlighting the potential for damaging straight-line winds and mentioning the possibility of a couple tornadoes. The Weather Service had placed the Washington region in an “enhanced risk” zone for severe thunderstorms.
Unlike in classic summertime tornado setups, which are fueled by high heat and humidity, instability or “fuel” for storms was limited. It was only 70 degrees at the time of the storm at Washington Dulles International Airport. That said, there was an extreme amount of shear, or a change in wind speed and direction with altitude. That allowed for storms to rotate.
How the potentially tornadic storm developed
A storm began looking ominous in eastern Prince William and western Fairfax counties just before 8 p.m. It was riding a differential heating boundary, or an interface between slightly cooler surface temperatures to the north and acutely milder air to the south. Boundaries are like railroad tracks that storms can chug along; sometimes, storms consume extra twist along these boundaries.
By shortly after 8 p.m., the storm was showing the characteristics of a supercell, or rotating thunderstorm. It had a circulating updraft and was located at the southern end of a line of storms. That usually gives a storm room to strengthen, since there’s nothing to the south to impede its “inflow” of warm southerly winds.
The storm rode directly over Interstate 66. Although rotation was evident on radar from the Weather Service office in Sterling, it didn’t look terribly tight. Still, the National Weather Service issued a precautionary severe thunderstorm warning at 8:18 p.m.
That’s about the time when the first tornado may have touched down.
Possible touchdown near Centreville
Despite unimpressive rotation from the Weather Service’s WSR-88D radar — a more powerful device that offers slightly coarser resolution — a high-resolution and ultrasensitive terminal Doppler radar at Dulles painted a different story. It showed a tight couplet of spin between Chantilly and Centreville.
In the radar image presented below, green marks winds heading toward the radar, and red away.
Chantilly, Fair Oaks, Wolf Trap – seek shelter!
— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) April 1, 2022
There's no #tornado warning yet, but I'm looking at a special ultra-sensitive radar from Dulles Airport with better low-level coverage, and everything I see makes me think y'all should be below ground. @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/uXrDSXHW4p
The Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Fairfax County seconds later, though a brief tornado already may have been on the ground. The couplet was strong for two scans, and there are indications that debris may have been lofted into the atmosphere. That can be seen on the bottom right of four-panel image above. A low “correlation coefficient,” marked in blue, is usually an indicator of spiky objects in the atmosphere that aren’t rain or hail. That can be commensurate with radar debris.
Karyn Miller, a Capital Weather Gang follower on Facebook who lives in the Sully Station area of Centreville, commented that a possible circulation “ripped some ... siding off the chimney and a couple other small places” of her home. That damage would be suggestive of an EF0 tornado or straight-line winds in the 70-80 mph range. Her propane grill was moved four feet across the deck.
Possible touchdown No. 2 near Tysons Corner
A second probable touchdown occurred about 8:39 p.m. in Tysons Corner. That’s where radar showed a tight “spectrum width” signature, revealing turbulent motions within pixels on the radar. A similarly tight couplet also briefly materialized on velocity mode.
The above image shows fine scale radar structure of the possible tornado signature. The top row shows an “inflow cleft” where a rapidly developing, small counterclockwise circulation along the storm’s leading edge, draws in warm, moist air. The bottom row shows continuation of the notch structure several minutes later, and at this time a subtle Doppler signature of rotation develops.
One video on social media (caution: strong language) captured what appears to be a 30- to 50-foot-wide funnel moving through the Tysons commercial district, flanked by strong westerly “rear flank downdraft” winds on the south side of the circulation. That’s where cool air wraps counterclockwise around a circulation.
Debris can also be seen falling from above and becoming entrained in the apparent vortex, indicative of a probable EF0 or EF1 tornado. Winds were probably below 90 mph. The damage in the rear flank downdraft from straight-line winds was probably equivalent in magnitude to that caused by the tornado.
Damage was reported at multiple gas stations along Chain Bridge Road. The Sunoco Station off International Drive suffered serious damage to its canopy, which was toppled, and the Mobil station next door lost at least three window panes and suffered damage to an awning. That would suggest a path length of about a quarter-mile.
@capitalweather @ABC7 @nbcwashington Tornado touched down and hit the local gas station here right outside of Tyson’s corner Mall. Thankfully the gas station attendant is ok!!!! pic.twitter.com/noUMTFBuhZ
— Amanda (@achnva) April 1, 2022
Possible tornado debris landed on the Silver Line Metro track near Tysons, causing rail delays and single-tracking, according to a tweet from WMATA.
STORM DAMAGE
— Rail Transit OPS (@RailTransitOPS) April 1, 2022
⚪️ Tysons Corner
At about 8:45PM a ceiling panel became dislodged and landed on the outbound track @ Tysons Corner https://t.co/8e4o7kOLax
Tornadoes in March in the Washington region are not terribly common. On average, the region sees about one tornado every decade in March, according to Ian Livingston, a Capital Weather Gang contributor.
Jason Samenow and Capital Weather Gang severe weather expert Jeff Halverson contributed to this report.
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“We’re staggered by really the amount of similarities,” said Daniel Balson, advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.
The conflicts are not the same: In Ukraine, Russia launched a ground invasion and has sustained significant casualties, while in Syria, where Russia intervened in 2015, it mostly offered air support.
But Russia continues to employ weapons and strategies honed on Syrian cities to deadly effect.
Syrians “have the best experience in dealing with the Russian targeting of civilian neighborhoods,” said Farouq Habib, deputy chair of external relations for the Syria Civil Defense, the volunteer search-and-rescue group known as the White Helmets.
Ukrainian officials have warned that Mariupol is “becoming a second Aleppo.” Manolis Androulakis, Greece’s consul general in Mariupol who became the last European Union diplomat to leave the city this month, said it will join Aleppo as “part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war.”
The Syrian metropolis came to symbolize the willingness of Russian and Syrian forces to use ruthless tactics against civilians.
In 2016, during a nearly six-month siege of opposition-held parts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, Russian forces attacked factories and water stations and cut off supply lines, leaving 250,000 residents with severe shortages of food, medicines and fuel. Humanitarian catastrophe followed.
In Mariupol, Russian forces have surrounded and bombarded the city, cutting off communications, water, gas and electricity, and preventing aid convoys from entering. Reports have emerged of residents melting snow for drinking water, rationing food among hungry children and running out of vital medicines.
Other Ukrainian cities, such as Chernihiv, face similar conditions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia this month of “starving” Ukrainian cities.
Russia has attacked medical facilities in both Aleppo and Mariupol, as well as schools and buildings where civilians had taken refuge — such as the theater Ukrainian authorities say Russia bombed in Mariupol — in a “complete violation” of the international principle that “belligerents have an obligation to distinguish between military and civilian targets,” Balson said.
Syria also provided a testing ground for weapons Russia is using in Ukraine. Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu said in August that Russia had tested more than 300 weapons in Syria, Russian state media reported.
As in Syria, “a lot of the civilian casualties that we’re documenting [in Ukraine] are being caused by dumb bombs — not targeted weapons,” Balson said. “It’s impossible to use such weapons in these heavily built-up areas while ensuring that no civilians lose their lives.”
In 2016, Human Rights Watch accused Russia and Syria of killing more than 440 civilians, among them more than 90 children, in a month-long bombing campaign in Aleppo.
Civilian harm monitor Airwars said in a report published last week that nearly 25,000 civilians have allegedly been killed by Russian strikes in Syria since 2015.
Russia and Syria deliberately bombed civilian areas, including medical facilities, and used indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions and incendiary bombs, HRW found. Russia’s alleged use of “vacuum” and cluster munitions in Ukraine has drawn scrutiny in part because of the damage the weapons wreaked in Syria.
Five years after Russia began bombing Syria, the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria accused Russia of committing war crimes through its indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas. But no Russian officials have faced trial.
Russia has also been accused of violating international law in Ukraine. Moscow has denied committing war crimes in Syria and said its forces are not targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Russian and Ukrainian officials said they had agreed to a temporary cease-fire Thursday, to allow aid in and evacuees out.
Habib said that fixating global attention on the establishment of humanitarian corridors, and away from efforts to end hostilities or to establish safe zones, plays into Moscow’s hands, in strategic terms.
“They want to empty those cities of their population, so it will be less costly for Russia to take over,” Habib said of Russian authorities.
The war in Syria has forced 6.6 million Syrians to flee the country, according to the United Nations, with large numbers heading to Europe following Russia’s intervention in September 2015. More than 4 million people fled Ukraine in just over a month of fighting, the United Nations said Wednesday. Three-quarters of Mariupol’s population have left the city, according to some estimates.
It was four years before the number of Syrian refugees reached 4 million. Ukraine passed the 4 million mark today, 35 days into the war pic.twitter.com/DauHwKNehH
— Liz Sly (@LizSly) March 30, 2022
The refugee exodus is a sign of Russia “exporting the problem,” Habib said. As it did in Syria, Russia will seek to portray civilians who stay behind as enemy combatants — and therefore legitimate targets, warned Hanna Notte, senior research associate at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.
Another element of Russia’s Syria playbook on display in Ukraine: disinformation. In Syria, Russia and allies portrayed the White Helmets as terrorists. In Ukraine, the Kremlin has cast Ukrainian officials and soldiers as Nazis.
International law and conflict experts have raised concerns that the lack of accountability for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Syria emboldened the Russian leader. Balson pointed to what he described as a broader pattern of Russian forces killing civilians with impunity, stretching back to its siege of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, in 1999.
“When the Russian government has intervened,” he said, “there has been long-standing, well-documented incidences and patterns of human beings losing their lives, losing access to their resources, losing access to their homes.”
In the lead-up to the Ukraine invasion, observers speculated that Putin might be less willing to kill Ukrainians because of the cultural and family ties they share with Russians.
That hasn’t proved to be the case. The United Nations said 1,189 civilians had been killed as of Wednesday in Ukraine, in what officials say is a vast undercount. Local officials in Mariupol estimate that 5,000 people have been killed in that city alone.
Still, Ukraine is in many ways better positioned to counter Russian attacks than Syrians were. Ukrainians have taken refuge in bunkers and deep subway systems built to withstand missiles and bombs. And they’ve put up a fierce and unified resistance, defying Russian and Western expectations.
Unlike the Syria conflict — which Russia fought at relatively low cost by attacking from the sky while Syrian forces and allied militias attacked from the ground — Russia has sent tens of thousands of ground troops into Ukraine, where they are suffering heavy losses.
But as Russian casualties mount and ground offenses falter, experts said, Putin may continue to pivot toward fighting the type of air war he waged in Syria.
“He’s started to resort to the Syria low-cost tactics,” said Natasha Hall, senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Russia does not respect human lives."
— Connect the World (@CNNConnect) March 15, 2022
Ismail Al Abdullah of @SyriaCivilDef survived the ruthless bombardment by the Syrian regime Russia. Now, knowing Russia's playbook well, he wants to help Ukraine. @JomanaCNN has the story pic.twitter.com/jTpTsrhsWE
But Ukraine has received greater international attention and backing than did opposition groups and civilians in Syria, she said — and Russia has already faced greater consequences.
The surprise of some Western observers about Russia’s willingness to attack Ukrainian cities has frustrated many Syrians.
“We as Syrians are really saddened to see the same atrocities that we have been suffering from, and we have been calling for the world to stop, are now repeated,” Habib, of the White Helmets, said. “And we see that as a direct result for the lack of accountability for what happened previously in Crimea and in Syria.”
Syrians who survived Russian bombardment have offered Ukrainians practical tips: Don’t respond to bombing scenes until you’re sure a second bomb isn’t coming, and stock up on food.
The White Helmets, meanwhile, are sharing lessons learned from Syria with Ukrainian partners and translating into Ukrainian its safety guidebook for civilians under attack, Habib said.
“I don’t see this ending soon, so they need to be prepared for a long-term war,” he said.
Miriam Berger contributed to this report.
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Yet, as Abramovich and other Russian oligarchs are finding, somebody always loves a billionaire. Luckily for Abramovich, those somebodies appear to include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Abramovich, who has attended the ongoing Russian and Ukrainian peace talks being hosted by Erdogan in Istanbul, has reportedly moved not one, but two superyachts to Turkish waters. Reports emerged that he’s flown his lavish private jet to Turkey, a country that has not sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Even financial safe havens such as the Cayman Islands are implementing sanctions. But Erdogan last week seemed to make a point of rolling out a red carpet for the Russians. “Certain capital groups,” he said, could “park their facilities with us.” A day later, his foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told CNBC that sanctioned Russian oligarchs were welcome in Turkey as tourists and investors, as long as their business dealings adhere to international law.
Despite a bevy of new Western sanctions on Russian oligarchs since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Turkish outreach to oligarchs suggests just how hard it could be for the United States, Britain and the European Union to punish a rogue’s gallery of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s richest friends.
When it comes to reining in sanctioned Russian wealth, the West faces a multitude of challenges. The assets of the super-rich are often professionally hidden, with legal ownership buried inside in a Matryoshka doll of shell companies within shell companies. So opaque is the world of asset ownership that the E.U. Tax Observatory, a Paris-based research lab, is proposing a new “European Asset Registry” to cut through the legal subterfuge and establish the owners of significant holdings.
“There are a lot of pieces of information on who owns what, but they are not linked, and they’re not routinely verified,” Theresa Neef, a research fellow at the E.U. Tax Observatory, told me. The asset registry would “gather all the information you have from land registries, from commercial registries, from central securities depositories [and other sources] and link them. This would make it possible to check for Russian oligarchs, but also cases of tax evasion, money laundering and more.”
But after decades that saw real estate markets in cities like London and Miami transformed by Russian wealth, other countries now appear to sense opportunity in the West’s crackdown. Even Russians who have not been blacklisted are getting skittish about holding assets in the West. Vagit Alekperov, CEO of Russian oil and gas company Lukoil, for instance, has not been sanctioned. But he has nevertheless reportedly relocated big-ticket assets like yachts from Western ports. Others, like Abramovich, have been slapped with sanctions in Britain and the European Union, but not in the United States.
That’s created something of a gray area for countries eager to court Russian cash. The Turks aren’t alone. My colleagues reported that a handful of luxury yachts owned by Russian billionaires had been moving toward the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Montenegro, a non-E.U. nation that for years has struggled with a reputation as a center for money laundering, organized crime and corruption.
Bloomberg News reports that Abramovich — estimated to be worth nearly $14 billion — is just among many wealthy Russians who have been house hunting in Dubai. Like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates has rejected sanctions against oligarchs linked to Putin and is increasingly being viewed as a sanctuary for Russian cash. The same teenage tracker who trolled Elon Musk by monitoring his private jet’s movements also tracked the March arrival in Dubai of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner belonging to Abramovich on March 4.
At least 38 business executives or officials linked to Putin own a multitude of properties in Dubai worth more than $314 million, the New York Times reported, citing data compiled by the nonprofit Center for Advanced Defense Studies. Some of those owners are under sanctions by the United States or the European Union.
“Sanctions are only as strong as the weakest link,” Adam M. Smith, a lawyer and former adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department, told the New York Times. “Any financial center that is willing to do business when others are not could provide a leak in the dike and undermine the overall measures.”
Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, told me Turkey has seen a rush of almost 30,000 Russian exiles since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Most, he says, are professionals — employees of multinationals, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks and others who have fled Moscow’s Orwellian crackdown on dissent within Russia, where it is now illegal to even call the invasion a “war.” These are people seeking safe haven, and Istanbul — the city where most are flocking too — is almost sure to see a positive cultural and economic injection from their arrival.
Erdogan may also see the extreme wealth of Russian oligarchs as one way to plug a gaping hole in the Turkish economy, which has suffered a serious bout of inflation under his unorthodox economic policies. Though Turkish officials have sought to make clear they are not condoning transfers or investments that violate international law, they have been equally clear that Turkey is a sanctions-free zone for Russians worried about the security of their wealth in the West.
“This is a very slippery slope,” Ulgen said. Erdogan “is trying to mitigate the economic shock in Turkey, and one way to do this is to attract Russian money that is not under sanctions. That is Turkey’s argument. However, it remains to be seen if even this amount of flexibility will be condoned, particularly by the United States.”
“There is the legal argument that this can be done,” he continued. “But it’s the wrong optics. And there’s no real economic benefit from having a Russian megayacht in a Turkish port.”
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I did send her a message about one post, stating that it wasn’t true, and she sent a tirade back at me, rehashing a number of points about covid-19 and the vaccine that are all untrue.
I don't make friends easily. I have serious trust issues, but I don't see being able to maintain a friendship with someone who is so diametrically opposed to my values and views.
I am willing to accept her being against vaccinations, but she is posting pure falsehoods and is argumentative when called out with facts, stating that anyone who disagrees with her or counters her arguments is brainwashed by the government and media. I keep thinking that once we get past the pandemic, maybe things will be better.
I try not to bring it up, but when I see some of the posts, and when we are together with other friends, it comes up. I put my head down and keep quiet, but this is eating me up.
My challenge is — how do I end the friendship? I am afraid to end it, as we are part of a group of friends, and if I need to pull my friendship away from her, I will lose those friends, who are my only friends right now.
But I wonder if being alone would be better than this.
— Stuck
Stuck: You see this as an “all-or-nothing” situation, where because of this person’s behavior, all of your other friendships are at risk, but she is not in charge of your other relationships. You are.
You should completely disengage from her on social media. She is not reasonable and does not want to engage in an exchange of ideas, so remove your access to her on this platform. Quietly “hide,” “block,” or “unfriend.”
Change the channel. There is no need to abruptly end the friendship by declaring it to be over. You simply need to back away from the relationship. Detach from her.
Don't gossip about her with others. If she asks you why you are distant, you can truthfully tell her that you've become exhausted by her declarations and tirades, which run counter to your own values.
Dear Amy: My mother-in-law is a smoker. Her own house is permeated with the smell of cigarettes. Even though I don’t like it, I can handle this when we’re visiting.
I know it is her house and she has the right to do what she wants when she’s at home, but I cannot stand it when she lights up at our place. We have a balcony, and I am fine with her smoking on the balcony if she wants to, but — please — not in our townhouse. My husband doesn’t want to say anything to her, but I do.
Do you have any ideas?
— Puffed-Out
Puffed-Out: Smoking anywhere indoors has become so rare that at this point it is almost taboo.
Many rental units and condo associations ban smoking — even inside units — because of the risks associated with secondhand smoke. You should check to see if there are any rules within your townhouse development, and if even smoking on a balcony is permitted (balconies are sometimes considered “common areas”).
If smoking is banned inside units where you live, you should notify your mother-in-law. Otherwise, even if your husband won’t say anything to his mother, you should.
Keep your tone neutral, and simply say: “I hope you won't mind standing outside to smoke.”
If she says, “Why yes, I do mind,” you'll have to say — “Well, smoke really bothers me, so I'd appreciate it if you could do that for me.”
Dear Amy: The writer signing her question: “Just Say: Get Well Soon!” said she had shared the fact that she was getting surgery on Facebook, but she didn’t like the fact that one friend queried her about the details.
Thank you for pointing out the obvious: When you post personal news on social media, you don’t get to control how people respond!
— Aggravated
Aggravated: My own life without a personal Facebook presence (I maintain a professional page) has been a little less colorful, but a lot less aggravating.
©2022 by Amy Dickinson distributed by Tribune Content Agency
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I feel guilty that I am having these snide thoughts — these people are perfectly nice and have done nothing wrong to me personally. I don’t want to be the kind of person who harbors grudges and stays bitter over these things. How do I move on, so I can stop feeling so miserable?
— Feeling Overlooked
Feeling Overlooked: Could be worse! They could succeed!
Still, I'm not sure there is a cure for watching someone prove you should have gotten their job.
Schadenfreude leaves a guilty aftertaste, as you rightly point out. Dammit.
Corrections — where they say “oops” and hand the job to you after all — are rare, if not unicorns.
Reframing is a great option when your life takes a rewarding turn after a rejection, allowing you to credit the rejection for making the good thing possible. But it is a bit like waiting for your life to happen.
Averting your eyes is a strong, underrated approach — I get so few chances to counsel denial! — but only when used sparingly. Leaving everywhere puts you nowhere.
Logic, maybe? I'm all for it: It's true that you don't know, can't know, whether you deserved the job equally or wanted it more, or would have done it better, worked as hard, or appreciated it more. It's also true that selective positions generally could be filled many times over by qualified candidates, so someone deserving almost always goes home empty-handed, you included. It's true that people choosing candidates are flawed and can make mistakes. It's true that accepting this and moving on and remaining open to new opportunities is the only way to live fully and not go nuts. And win one eventually. Yay logic. But now try to tell your feelings how great logic is.
Time and maturity are cures since they ease both competitiveness and the disappointment of losing, but if, “You'll feel better in a few decades,” is the only cure, then there is no cure.
Creating your niche, then owning it? Yes!! Also slow.
So I have this: If you can't beat it, dilute it.
When your nagging disappointments and the next competition are all you have, they’re all you think about. When you have other pursuits besides competitive work/school, however, ones that aren’t subject to judges or a selection committee or aimed at a prize — when they’re entirely your own — then your life will have less room for these disappointments to settle in.
Such interests must be genuine to be effective, but you can prod them along, whether it’s cultivating hobbies or immersing yourself in friends or singing badly to your playlists in the car. Anything but notches in the “success” belt. I ask you, does your dog care that you lost out to a lesser candidate? No, he does not. (Good dog.) Full lives can absorb a lot.
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I would like to word the invitation: “We are pleased to announce our niece, Mia, has recently become engaged to Jordan, a delightful woman from Chicago. We would like you to join us for dinner on Saturday, March 15 at 6 to see Mia and meet Jordan. Please let me know if you can join us.”
I thought it necessary to add the “delightful woman” wordage because her name could be a man's or woman's.
Does this sound appropriate? What do I do if people ask about presents? It will be a small wedding out of town, so most of the guests will not be invited.
There is no need to announce the reason for having a dinner party, merely that you are having it. This, Miss Manners points out, will not only eliminate the need for superfluous details, but also for guests asking about presents.
“Please join us for dinner on March 15 at 6 p.m.” will suffice. Then, at the dinner, give a toast to the happy couple, introduce your prospective niece-in-law and announce their engagement. As a bonus, this plan will make it far less rude when these same guests are not invited to the wedding.
Dear Miss Manners: I have been part of a “family meal swap” for a little over a year now, but recently, the woman in charge specified a menu for everybody to cook, including specific ingredients and side dishes. When I joined this meal swap, I did it to taste other families’ dishes and expand my own cooking. Now I feel kind of peeved that I have to cook somebody else’s specific menu.
I don’t think that it’s wrong that I feel this way, but I am unsure how to approach it with the hostess. My first instinct is just to lie and say I’m too busy after this first month’s rotation, but I like and respect her enough that I feel I should tell her the truth. Thoughts?
That you tell her why before ghosting her: “I’m afraid that I must have misinterpreted the point of this meal swap. While your menu plan sounds tasty, I thought we were making and trying new dishes. I understand if, as hostess, you want to change the plan, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to join anymore.”
And then Miss Manners asks that you wait a respectable amount of time before starting up your own meal swap and poaching all of this person’s guests.
New Miss Manners columns are posted Monday through Saturday on washingtonpost.com/advice. You can send questions to Miss Manners at her website, missmanners.com. You can also follow her @RealMissManners.
©2022 by Judith Martin
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Economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet expect the Labor Department’s jobs report for March to show that employers added 478,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.8% to 3.7%. That would mark the lowest unemployment rate since just before the pandemic struck two years ago, when joblessness reached a 50-year low of 3.5%.
The government will issue the March jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
“With the war in Ukraine, economic uncertainty rising and surging energy prices, we may see a modest slowdown in hiring in March,’’ said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the jobs website Glassdoor. “However, employer demand remains strong, which should sustain a healthy level of hiring.’’
The booming U.S. job market reflects a robust rebound from the brief but devastating coronavirus recession, which wiped out 22 million jobs in March and April 2020 as businesses shut down or cut hours and Americans stayed home to avoid infection.
But the recovery has been swift. Fueled by generous federal aid, savings amassed during the pandemic and ultra-low borrowing rates engineered by the Federal Reserve, U.S. consumers have spent so fast that many factories, warehouses, shipping companies and ports have failed to keep pace with their customer demand. Supply chains have snarled, forcing up prices.
As the pandemic has eased, consumers have been broadening their spending beyond goods to services, such as health care, travel and entertainment, which they had long avoided during the worst of the pandemic. The result: Inflation is running at 40-year highs, causing hardships for many lower-income households that face sharp increases for such necessities as food, gasoline and rent.
It’s unclear whether the economy can maintain its momentum of the past year. The government relief checks are gone. The Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate two weeks ago and will likely keep raising it well into next year. Those rate hikes will result in more expensive loans for many consumers and businesses.
Inflation has also eroded consumers’ spending power: Hourly pay, adjusted for higher consumer prices, fell 2.6% in February from a year earlier — the 11th straight month in which inflation has outpaced year-over-year wage growth. According to AAA, average gasoline prices, at $4.23 a gallon, are up a dizzying 47% from a year ago.
Squeezed by inflation, some consumers are paring their spending. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending rose just 0.2%% in February — and fell 0.4% when adjusted for inflation — down from a 2.7% increase in January.
Still, the job market has kept hurtling ahead. Employers posted a near-record 11.3 million positions in February. Nearly 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, a sign of confidence that they could find something better.
“We’re still seeing a very tight labor market,’’ said Karen Fichuk, CEO of the staffing company Randstad North America, who noted that the United States now has a record 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person.
Even so, so many jobs were lost in 2020 that the economy still remains more than 2 million shy of the number it had just before the pandemic struck. Over the past year, employers have added an average of 556,000 jobs a month. At that pace — no guarantee to continue — the nation would recover all the jobs lost to the pandemic by June. (That still wouldn’t include all the additional hiring that would have been done over the past two years under normal circumstances.)
Brighter job prospects are beginning to draw back into the labor force people who had remained on the sidelines because of health concerns, difficulty finding or affording daycare, generous unemployment benefits that have now expired or other reasons.
Over the past year, 3.6 million people have joined the U.S. labor force, meaning they now either have a job or are looking for one. But their ranks are still nearly 600,000 short of where they stood in February 2020, just before the pandemic slammed into the economy.
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Meanwhile, Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, appear to have rejected a union bid but outstanding challenged ballots could change the outcome. The votes were 993-to-875 against the union. A hearing to review 416 challenged ballots is expected to begin in the next few days.
If a majority of Amazon workers ultimately votes yes in either Staten Island or Bessemer, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the company’s history. Organizers have faced an uphill battle against the nation’s second-largest private employer, which is making every effort to keep unions out.
John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said the early vote counts in New York have been “shocking.” The nascent Amazon Labor Union, which is leading the charge on Staten Island, has no backing from an established union and is powered by former and current warehouse workers.
“I don’t think that many people thought that the Amazon Labor Union had much of a chance of winning at all,” Logan said. “And I think we’re likely to see more of those (approaches) going forward.”
After a crushing defeat last year in Bessemer, when a majority of workers voted against forming a union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union got a second chance to organize another campaign when the NLRB ordered a do-over after determining that Amazon tainted the first election.
Though RWDSU is currently lagging in the latest election, Logan said the early results were still remarkable because the union has made a good effort narrowing its margin from last year.
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, said on Thursday that the union would be filing objections to how Amazon handled the election in Bessemer but declined to specify. He also took the opportunity to lash out at current labor laws, which he believes are rigged against unions and favor corporations.
“It should not be so difficult to organize a union in the United States,” he said.
Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon employee who has been leading the ALU in its fight on Staten Island, remains hopeful of victory.
“To be leading in Day One and be up a couple hundred against a trillion dollar company, this is the best feeling in the world,” Smalls said after the conclusion of Thursday’s counting.
While Smalls’ attention has been focused on securing victory in New York, the efforts in Alabama also weighed heavily.
“I’m not too sure what’s going in Alabama right now, but I know that the sky’s the limit if you can organize any warehouse,” he said, noting that the vote in Alabama could well end up differently. “I hope that they’re successful. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but we know we show our support and solidarity with them.”
Amazon has pushed back hard in the lead-up to both elections. The retail giant held mandatory meetings, where workers were told unions are a bad idea. The company also launched an anti-union website targeting workers and placed English and Spanish posters across the Staten Island facility urging them to reject the union. In Bessemer, Amazon has made some changes to but still kept a controversial U.S. Postal Service mailbox that was key in the NLRB’s decision to invalidate last year’s vote.
In a filing released on Thursday, Amazon disclosed it spent about $4.2 million last year on labor consultants, which organizers say the retailer routinely solicits to persuade workers not to unionize. It’s unclear how much it spent on such services in 2022.
Both labor fights faced unique challenges. Alabama, for instance, is a right-to-work state that prohibits a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them.
The mostly Black workforce at the Amazon facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70% Black residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
Pro-union workers say they want better working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual median household income for Bessemer of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
The ALU said they don’t have a demographic breakdown of the warehouse workers on Staten Island and Amazon declined to provide the information to The Associated Press, citing the union vote. Internal records leaked to The New York Times from 2019 showed more than 60% of the hourly associates at the facility were Black or Latino, while most of managers were white or Asian.
Amazon workers there are seeking longer breaks, paid time off for injured employees and an hourly wage of $30, up from a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated average wage for the borough is $41 per hour, according to a similar U.S. Census Bureau analysis of Staten Island’s $85,381 median household income.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company invests in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401(k) plans and a prepaid college tuition program to help grow workers’ careers.
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
—-
Associated Press staff writers Tali Arbel and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed to this report.
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Officials said most social distancing restrictions could be removed, except for an indoor mask mandate, if the outbreak further slows and the medical response remains stable over the next two weeks.
Kim’s announcement from a government anti-virus meeting came after the country reported a daily average of 316,000 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, a modest decrease from the average of 357,800 a week before. The one-day record was 621,187 on March 17.
While Kim said the country has likely passed the peak of infections, there’s still worry about the pressure on hospitals, given the week or longer intervals between infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Officials also say the highly transmissible omicron subvariant called BA.2 is slowing the decline in overall infections.
“Fortunately, the outbreak has slowed for the second consecutive week,” Kim said. “But there’s persisting concern about an increase in serious cases and deaths that might come after time lags, the spread of ‘stealth omicron,’ or BA.2, which has become the dominant strain, and an expected increase in travel during spring weather.”
The country has averaged 328 deaths in the past week, including 360 in the latest 24 hours, while around 1,300 virus patients were in serious or critical condition. More than 64% of South Korea’s 2,800 intensive care units designated for COVID-19 treatment were occupied.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said social distancing measures have clearly become less effective because omicron is much more contagious than previous variants of the virus.
“Even if we ease social distancing, the increase in infections is expected to be only around 10 to 20%,” he said during a briefing.
Quarantine requirements for close contacts, hospitalization for mild cases and proof of vaccination or negative tests when entering public spaces were some of the measures eased or lifted earlier.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/closing-arguments-next-in-michigan-gov-whitmer-kidnap-plot/2022/03/31/ca7ce588-b16e-11ec-9dbd-0d4609d44c1c_story.html
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Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr. and Brandon Caserta declined to testify, and defense attorneys called only a few witnesses. The four deny any scheme to get Whitmer at her vacation home in fall 2020, though they were livid with government as well as restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The men were arrested in October 2020 amid talk of raising $4,000 for an explosive that could blow up a bridge and stymie police after a kidnapping, according to trial evidence. Fox twice traveled to northern Michigan to scout the area.
Defense attorneys, however, insist they were under the spell of informants and agents who got them to say and do violent, provocative things.
Harris repeatedly answered “absolutely not” when asked by his lawyer if he was part of a plot. His testimony was perilous because he exposed himself to numerous challenges by prosecutors who had been offering evidence against the group for days.
Harris and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth sometimes talked over each other. At one point, Harris snapped, “Next question.”
“Everyone can take it down a notch,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said later.
Roth confronted Harris with his own chat messages about posing as a pizza deliveryman and killing Whitmer at her door. He reminded Harris, a former Marine, that he worked with explosives while training with the group, especially in Luther, Michigan, in September 2020, about a month before their arrest.
Roth played a conversation of Croft talking about militias overthrowing governments in various states and “breaking a few eggs” if necessary.
“When this man talks to you at a diner about killing people, you don’t stand up and walk out, do you sir?” Roth asked. “You don’t say, ‘This group is not for me,’ do you sir?”
“No,” Harris answered.
A “shoot house” that was intended to resemble Whitmer’s second home was a key part of the Luther training weekend, according to the government. Harris admitted that he brought materials but said he didn’t build it with her house in mind.
He didn’t participate in an evening ride to Elk Rapids, Michigan, to scout Whitmer’s home and a bridge during that same weekend. Harris said he had purchased $200 of cheap beer and cigarettes so he could return to the camp and “get wasted” with others.
Two more men, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. Garbin last week said the group acted willingly and hoped to strike before the election, cause national chaos and prevent Joe Biden from winning the presidency.
Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the kidnapping plot, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seemed like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.
She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case. Whitmer has said Trump was complicit in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
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White reported from Detroit.
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