Author: Data and Research Manager

Biden administration imposes sanctions on Cuban officials following attacks on protesters

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The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions against Cuba’s defense minister and a special forces unit of the Interior Ministry it said was directly involved in human rights abuses during a government crackdown on widespread protests on the island this month.

President Biden said in a statement that the measures were “just the beginning” of efforts to sanction “individuals responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people.”

The measures were unveiled as Biden faces increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans to take decisive action in support of protesters on the island. Continue reading.

Pelosi says GOP antics won’t stop Jan. 6 panel’s work

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said the panel looking into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “will not let” GOP “antics stand in the way” of the investigation, offering her first detailed remarks on her rejection of two Republican lawmakers for the committee.

“It’s my responsibility as Speaker of the House to make sure we get to the truth on this, and we will not let their antics stand in the way of that,” Pelosi said at a press conference on Thursday.

Drama unfolded on Wednesday after Pelosi announced that she was rejecting two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) five nominees, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Continue reading.

Alabama district attorney aims to prosecute a woman for taking a prescribed drug while pregnant

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Kim Blalock’s spine is a mess. At 36, the Alabama mom is battling a degenerative disc disease as well as arthritis and chronic complications from back surgery. Two months before she got pregnant with her sixth child, a car crash compounded her agony.

Now she has been indicted on a felony charge because, when she was eight months’ pregnant, she refilled a legitimate opioid prescription to treat her crippling pain. If Blalock were to be convicted, her case could set a dire precedent, not only for pregnant people, but for anyone seeking a prescription for a controlled substance in the state.

Blalock says her orthopedist never asked if she were pregnant when she came in to refill her hydrocodone prescription, which she’d had for years. Weeks later, she gave birth to a baby boy with no sign of neonatal abstinence syndrome. A positive drug screen, however, triggered an investigation. Investigators confirmed Blalock had a valid prescription. A pill count proved she’d been taking her medication as prescribed.

As GOP supporters die of Covid, the party remains split in its vaccination message

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Analysis: Top Trump supporters keep casting doubt on Covid-19 vaccines. Ahead of next year’s midterms, that means missing a chance to give Trump credit.

WASHINGTON — As the delta variant of the coronavirus courses through the American bloodstream, the Republican Party can’t make up its mind about vaccines.

Former President Donald Trump has said that people should get inoculated but also that he wants to respect their right to choose not to. For the most part, he’s been as reluctant to urge vaccinations as his political base has been resistant — perhaps leery of crossing his own voters, even though deaths are higher in traditionally conservative regions.

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Americans to get dosed this week and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., released a photo of his injection, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation that played down the risk of the virus, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S. Continue reading.

Black officers say CBP forced them to profile. A study in one state backs them up.

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With nonstop tension along the Mexican border, it’s easy to forget the relatively tranquil boundary with Canada can also be the scene of serious problems.

A study by the Michigan ACLU shows how the Border Patrol operates far from the border and considers the entire state of Michigan to be within the agency’s operational zone. The report accuses the agency of using that broad reach “to instill fear in Michigan’s immigrant communities” through racial profiling and over-policing.

This report was issued just two weeks after a March racial profiling lawsuit lodged by three Customs and Border Protection officers in Port Huron, Mich. It charged the agency with targeting African American drivers, while discriminating and retaliating against Black officers who protested that treatment. Continue reading.

Businesses condemned Georgia’s voting law, then gave thousands to its backers

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Comcast is among several corporations that raised alarm about voting restrictions but donated to Georgia politicians who supported the state’s legislation

Three months ago, Comcast responded to the passage of Georgia’s sweeping voting lawby saying, “Efforts to limit or impede access to this vital constitutional right for any citizen are not consistent with our values.”

That was then.

On June 30, the telecommunications giant contributed $2,500 to Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, who has vigorously defended the law, which critics say will curtail voting access, including by limiting use of drop boxes for absentee ballots and making it a crime for third-party groups to hand out food and water to voters standing in line. President Biden’s Justice Department sued Georgia over the measure last month, saying it discriminated against Black voters, while the bill’s proponents maintain it is necessary to shore up confidence in the state’s elections. Continue reading.

‘Like Nixon drunk rambling’: Anderson Cooper shocked by new Trump recording blaming Capitol police for Jan. 6

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Reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker’s new book, I Alone Can Fix It, ends with a conversation with Donald Trump where he rattles off a random slate of conspiracy theories from attacking the 86 judges who wouldn’t rule in his favor to the Supreme Court.

But one major part of the recording has Trump saying that the whole ordeal was the fault of the Capitol Police because they “ushered” the protesters inside the building. Nothing of the sort happened, so it’s unclear where Trump got his information. Protesters used poles and stole police shields to break windows and doors in an effort to get into the building. 

“We want to understand what did you want when you said ‘go up there’?” Leonnig says in the recording, referring to Trump saying that he was going to march with the crowd to the Capitol. Continue reading.

Barr told Trump to his face ‘you’re going to lose’ because he was humiliating himself at COVID briefings: book

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Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker’s new book I Alone Can Fix It contains some stories about former Attorney General Bill Barr using surprisingly blunt language to convince former President Donald Trump to stop doing daily coronavirus briefings.

“I feel you are going to lose the election,” Barr told Trump in April 2020 as the virus was killing more Americans, according to the reporters. “I feel you are actually losing touch with your own base.”

Some of the Trump fans that Barr had talked to when traveling had confided in him that they were bothered by Trump’s petty squabbles with his perceived enemies when they needed him. They, like most Americans, wanted steady leaders that could steer the country through the pandemic and bring back the economy. Continue reading.

Audio: Trump says he spoke to a ‘loving crowd’ at Jan. 6 rally

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The former president described the atmosphere on Jan. 6 as largely friendly and peaceful in an exclusive interview for the new book ‘I Alone Can Fix It’

When former president Donald Trump sat down for an interview in late March at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., he described the events of Jan. 6 as largely peaceful and his supporters as friendly, saying the audience he addressed at a rally on the Ellipse before the attack on the U.S. Capitol was a “loving crowd.”

Five people later died after thousands of his supporters beat back police to storm through barricades and charge inside the Capitol, and hundreds of lawmakers and their staffers were forced to scramble for safety. But Trump, speaking in an exclusive interview for the new book “I Alone Can Fix It,” said the mob was “ushered in” by police.

“Personally what I wanted is what they wanted,” he said of the crowd. “They showed up just to show support because I happen to believe the election was rigged at a level like nothing has ever been rigged before.” Continue reading.

Texas Senate passes bill that removes requirement to teach Ku Klux Klan as ‘morally wrong’

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The change was included in some two dozen curriculum requirements that were dropped in Senate Bill 3.

The Texas Senate has voted to pass a bill that would remove a requirement for public school teachers to teach that the Ku Klux Klan is “morally wrong.”

The agenda item was included in some two dozen curriculum requirements that were dropped in Senate Bill 3, which the Republican-dominated Senate passed 18-4 last Friday.

The bill addresses Section 28.002 of the state’s education code and is a follow-up to House Bill 3979, which was already passed and recently signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. That bill is set to become law in September, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Continue reading.