The former president, warned a broad rights coalition, "executed more people than the previous ten administrations combined."
Monday, December 9, 2024
Disappearing bills: More than 2,300 bills died without a vote in the last two years
By Sameea Kamal
In summary
Few bills fail in the Legislature because lawmakers publicly vote “no.” Instead, most bills die when they are shelved, without lawmakers having to take tough votes.
We know how legislatures work: lawmakers introduce bills, debate on them and vote yes or no.
Right?
Not exactly. Of the 2,403 bills that died in the recent two-year session, CalMatters’ Digital Democracy data found just 25 failed because a majority of lawmakers voted “no.”
Most of the remaining bills disappeared through procedural tactics that leave little trace of responsibility for the policy decisions. Rather than vote no, lawmakers typically find ways to sideline bills they don’t want, causing them to fail when they don’t meet procedural deadlines.
‘Critical race theory’ takes heat from GOP lawmakers on House education panel
By Shauneen Miranda
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WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers railed against what they called “woke” curriculum in schools during a Wednesday hearing in a U.S. House education panel, the latest example of culture wars rocking public education policy.
The hearing brought “critical race theory” to the forefront. The academic framework focuses on the social construction of race and has drawn strong Republican opposition in states across the country.
Though critical race theory is used in college and graduate-level programs, GOP members on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education said the framework is also being taught in K-12 schools.
CBO Provides 'Stark Preview of Healthcare Under Donald Trump'
By Jessica Corbett
As Congress negotiates the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, a nonpartisan government analysis warned this week that letting the ACA subsidies expire next year would cause millions of Americans to lose health coverage in the years ahead.
10 points on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria
By Vijay Prashad
Vijay Prashad reflects on the latest developments in Syria and what they mean for the West Asia region
The development happens 14 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and weeks after signing a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. Below are reflections from Vijay Prashad regarding the takeover and key elements to understand it.
1. The Syrian state had been devastated by the war which began 2011, and then by the sanctions placed on the country by the United States and its allies. The Syrian Arab Army (the official state army) had never fully recovered in the aftermath of the major fighting and was incapable of taking back the main cities of Hama, Homs, and Aleppo.
2. The Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces’ logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces.
3. Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had weakened the ability of Hezbollah to operate even within Lebanon’s south, which forced the recent ‘ceasefire’ agreement with Israel. This demonstrated that Hezbollah was not in any position to enter Syria again to defend the Syrian government against any armed incursion on the Hama to Damascus road (highway M5).
4. The attacks on Iranian supply depots and military facilities in Syria as well as the attacks by Israel on Iran had prevented any build up of Iranian forces to defend the Syrian government. The weakening of Hezbollah also weakened Iran’s role in the region.
5. The nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or for the Russian naval base in Latakia.
6. Therefore, Syria’s government no longer had its Iranian and Russian military allies for assistance against the reinforced rebels.
8. What will the new HTS-led government do regarding the many social minorities in Syria? What will the new HTS-led government do regarding the Golan Heights and Israel? How will the new HTS-government regard the Israeli military incursion in Quneitra?
9. This story is not over yet. There will be much further unrest in the country led by ISIS as well as the Kurdish groups in the north; already Turkish-backed groups are in combat against the Kurdish YPG (People’s Defense Units) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) forces in Manbij; US forces are already in eastern Syria, where they say that they will remain as a buffer against ISIS (and will therefore retain control of the oil); Israel also announced that it took over the Golan buffer zone. There will be tension between the governments of Turkey and the US regarding what the new HTS-led government must, and must not do.
10. I hope very much that the statements made by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, that retribution must not be the new culture, will come true. The real fear is regarding the treatment of the minority populations. There is no word yet if the militia groups in Iraq will enter Syria. Much of this depends on what happens to places such as the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Damascus.
This article originally appeared in People's Dispatch on December 8th, 2024
Friday, December 6, 2024
9 States Poised To End Coverage for Millions if Trump Cuts Medicaid Funding
With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block.
More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. That’s because the states have trigger laws that would swiftly end their Medicaid expansions if federal funding falls.
The states are Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
DC Station Rewrites Gas Exposé After a Word From Its Sponsor
By Pete Tucker
A coalition of DC-area faith, tenant and environmental groups spent two years studying the health impacts of gas stoves. Just ahead of the holiday, when countless families would be spending hours in their kitchens cooking turkey and fixings, the coalition released their report, and it was a shocker.
After running the gas oven and two burners for 30 minutes, nearly two-thirds of homes studied registered higher levels of nitrogen dioxide than the EPA health-protective standard.
Nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, is a gas linked to wide-ranging health problems, from asthma to heart issues, and possibly “tied to increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, as well as cognitive development and behavioral issues in children,” the report noted.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
U.S. House Dem quartet calls for Biden to spare lives of federal death row inmates
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — House Democrats and anti-death penalty advocates pressed Wednesday for President Joe Biden to save the lives of federal death row inmates before his term expires in January.
The push comes as President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House. The former president expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term, which advocates said increased the urgency for Biden to spare prisoners now facing death sentences.
'Heartbreakingly Devastating': US Reportedly Plans to Approve $680 Million in Arms to Israel
By Jessica Corbett
"The Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as 'hell,'" said Amnesty International USA.
Just hours after a cease-fire between the Israeli government and Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect, the Financial Times revealed that "U.S. President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel," which has also spent the past nearly 14 months decimating the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Landlords are using AI to raise rents — and California cities are leading the pushback
By Wendy Fry
California and federal prosecutors have accused software company RealPage of enriching itself ”at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices.”
If you’ve hunted for apartments recently and felt like all the rents were equally high, you’re not crazy: Many landlords now use a single company’s software — which uses an algorithm based on proprietary lease information — to help set rent prices.
Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to “an unlawful information-sharing scheme” and some lawmakers throughout California are moving to curb it. San Diego’s city council president is the latest to do so, proposing to prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing software, which he maintains is driving up housing costs.
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