Thursday, April 29, 2021

Wake-Up Call: Biden Focuses On Jobs

The Daily Mail Screenshot 4/29/21

President Biden focused on jobs last night as he presented sweeping plans in his first address to a joint session of Congress that would expand federal programs to move the economy forward, presenting America in competition with other nations on the economy and technology of the future, and with autocratic enemies over whether democracy can still work and lead the world. Biden cited his administration's accomplishments in his first 100 days on battling the coronavirus and the economic fallout from it, speaking about the success of the ongoing vaccination campaign and the number of jobs created. He spent a significant amount of time talking about his American Jobs Act infrastructure plan, describing it as as "blue collar blueprint" to build America, and also saying that, quote, "jobs, jobs, jobs" is the most important word when tackling the climate crisis.

Biden also spoke about social safety net proposals, including universal preschool, two years of free community college, paid family medical leave, extending the child care tax credit and reducing health insurance premiums for people who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act. On other issues, Biden called for police reform with passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, urged an end to what he called the "exhausting war" over immigration with immigration reform, and said "we need to protect the sacred right to vote," calling for the Democrats' voting rights legislation to be passed. He was impassioned as he said America's enemies, who he called "the autocrats of the world," are "betting" the U.S. can't overcome its divisions and that we need to, quote, "prove that democracy works."
 
Unlike usual addresses before a joint session of Congress, there were far fewer lawmakers present because of the pandemic, and they were masked and seated distanced from each other. In another striking difference, for the first time, two women were seated behind the president, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which Biden remarked on by saying, "It's about time."


Senator Tim Scott (Republican response): The Republican response was delivered by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, who accused Biden and the Democrats of, quote, "pulling us further and further apart." While Biden touted the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, Scott was critical of it passing without Republican support, and took aim at Biden's sweeping economic and social safety plans. He was critical of Democrats who say intuitional racism is a problem, saying, "Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country." Scott also portrayed Biden's infrastructure plan as a "partisan wish list," and pushed back on criticism of voting law changes being made in many Republican-led states, saying, "Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat, and so do the voters."

➤FEDERAL AGENTS RAID GIULIANI'S HOME, OFFICE: Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan home and office Wednesday as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the business dealings Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York City mayor. Computers and cellphones were among the items taken by the agents, with the raid an escalation of the probe over Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine. Giuliani issued a statement through his attorney accusing federal officials of a, quote, "corrupt double standard," referring to allegations he's made against prominent Democrats.
 

➤JUDGE REFUSES TO RELEASE BODYCAM VIDEO OF MAN SHOT BY NORTH CAROLINA DEPUTIES: A judge refused yesterday to publicly release bodycam video of the fatal shooting by North Carolina deputies of Andrew Brown Jr., a 42-year-old Black Man, last week. Judge Jeffery Foster said that doing so at this point could jeopardize the investigation of the shooting. But he did order that Brown's family be allowed to privately view five bodycam videos and another video from a dashboard camera within 10 days. The ruling came soon after a North Carolina prosecutor said Brown had hit law enforcement officers with his car before they opened fire last week. The deputies were serving drug-related search and arrest warrants at Brown's house in Elizabeth City. Brown’s family released an independent autopsy showing he was shot five times, including in the back of the head.

➤FEDERAL HATE CRIMES CHARGES BROUGHT IN DEATH OF AHMAUD ARBERY: Federal hate crimes charges were brought by the Justice Department yesterday against three men who are accused in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot and killed in February 2020 while running in a Georgia neighborhood. Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael were charged along with William "Roddie" Bryan with interference with civil rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. The indictment charges that the McMichaels, quote, "armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighborhood while yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with firearms." The three remain jailed in Georgia on state murder charges. The McMichaels’ attorneys have said they chased Arbery because they thought he was a burglar, and that Travis shot him while afraid for his life as they struggled over a shotgun.


➤BIDEN'S ADDRESS HISTORICALLY LONG:  Presidents' addresses to a joint session of Congress -- which are usually called State of Union addresses, but not in a president's first year -- are usually long, but if President Biden's seemed particularly lengthy to you last night (April 28th), you weren't wrong. The speech was two seconds short of one hour and five minutes, according to C-SPAN, historically long by their count for a new president. C-SPAN tweeted a picture of a notebook page with the length of presidents' first addresses to a joint session of Congress since Ronald Reagan, and Biden's was the longest. The count also showed that except for one president -- George W. Bush -- they've gotten progressively longer since Reagan too. Reagan's first address in 1981 was 32 minutes, 40 seconds, George H.W. Bush's in 1989 was 42 minutes and 13 seconds, Bill Clinton's in 1993 was one hour and six seconds, George W. Bush's in 2001 was 49 minutes and 10 seconds, Barack Obama's in 2009 was 51 minutes and 37 seconds, Donald Trump's in 2017 was one hour and 12 seconds, and Biden's was one hour, four minutes and 58 seconds. Aware of how wordy he'd been, Biden ended last night by saying, "Thank you for your patience."


➤BAN EXPECTED ON MENTHOL CIGARETTES:  The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that it plans to ban menthol cigarettes, according to media reports yesterday after it was first reported by the Washington Post. Public health organizations are in favor of a ban because data shows menthol cigarettes disproportionately affect the health of racial minorities and young people, who are more likely to smoke them. 



However, there are some concerns about potential unintended consequences. The American Civil Liberties Union and other criminal justice groups warned the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a letter that a ban would have what they said are "serious racial justice implications." They said it would, quote, "trigger criminal penalties, which will disproportionately impact people of color." The expected ban wouldn't go into effect immediately, with CBS News noting there would be a rulemaking process that could take years, and there might also be legal challenges from the tobacco industry.

➤APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUT MICHAEL COLLINS DEAD AT 90: Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who piloted the command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface in July 1969, died yesterday of cancer. He was 90. His family said in a statement, "Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge, in the same way." After his days as an astronaut, Collins later became the director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Armstrong died in 2012, leaving Aldrin the only one of the three-man crew still alive. Aldrin tweeted a picture yesterday of the three men laughing and said, "Dear Mike, Wherever you have been or will be, you will always have the Fire to Carry us deftly to new heights and to the future."

➤AMAZON TO GIVE MORE THAN 500,000 WORKERS PAY RAISES: Amazon said yesterday that it will give more than 500,000 of its workers a raise as it tries to attract new workers. Amazon, which already pays new hires at least $15 an hour, said it will start increasing pay between 50 cents an hour to $3 an hour starting next month. Those getting raises include warehouse workers, as well as those who work in Amazon's package sorting centers and other facilities. While Amazon said this is about attracting new workers, the pay raise also comes after a high-profile, but failed, union push at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama.

➤GLACIERS ARE MELTING FASTER: Glaciers are melting faster, according to a new research, and scientists say climate change is to blame. Three-dimensional satellite measurements of all the world’s mountain glaciers found that they are losing 31 percent more snow and ice per year than they did 15 years earlier. The study published yesterday in the journal Nature said that scientists used 20 years of recently declassified satellite data to calculate that the world’s mountain glaciers are losing more than 328 billion tons of ice and snow per year since 2015.

➤STUDY..GOSSUP CAN BE A POSITIVE THING:  A new study suggests that gossip doesn't deserve its bad reputation, finding that it can be a good thing. Dartmouth College researchers said that gossip works to create social connections and can even help people learn new things about the world that they haven't personally experienced. The scientists created an online game that involved players getting $10 they could keep or invest in a group fund, which would multiply and then the total savings would be divided equally among the six players. It was what scientists call a public good game, that creates tension between selfish and cooperative players. In some instances, the game restricted information so players could only observe the behavior of a couple of their teammates, and during some games, players could privately chat with someone else in their group. When players had little information about their teammates’ choices, more spontaneous conversations about others started. When players could see what everyone in their group was doing, talk was about a wider variety of neutral topics. Participants also relied on second-hand information coming from other players when they couldn’t see what some teammates were doing for themselves. Researchers say this shows how gossip helps people to learn from another person’s experiences. Study authors added that players who could chat with each other felt more connected after the game.

🗲OKLAHOMA NAMED NEW LIGHTNING CAPITAL OF AMERICA: Florida has been edged out by Oklahoma when it comes to lightning. Meteorologists at the environmental monitoring company Vaisala found that Oklahoma had narrowly surpassed Florida for the most lightning flashes per square kilometer from 2016 to 2020. In that period of time, there were 83.4 lightning events per square kilometer in Oklahoma, and 82.8 in Florida. The company also reported that two Central Florida counties led the nation with an annual average of more than 159 lightning strikes per square kilometer. Rounding out the top five states for lightning activity, in order, were Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

🏀SUNS MAKE PLAYOFFS FOR FIRST TIME IN 11 YEARS: The Phoenix Suns clinched a playoff spot with a 109-101 win over the Los Angeles Clippers last night, making the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. It's a major turnaround for the Suns, who had a 19-63 record just two seasons ago, and were near the bottom of the standings in the West for many years. But they are now 44-18 and are ranked Number 2 in the Western Conference standings.
 

⚾PHILLIES' HARPER HIT IN THE FACE BY A PITCH: Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper had to leave the game last night after being hit in the face by a fastball from St. Louis Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera with his first pitch in the sixth inning. Blood was coming from a cut on the side of his nose as he walked off the field after being hit by the ball in his left check. But Harper said in a video posted on Instagram after the game, which the Phillies won 5-3, "Everything feels good," and that he'd had a CT scan and other tests and that "Everything came back good." He appeared to be little swollen and bruised. Cabrera said through a translator later, I’m really sorry for everything that happened. It was not intentional."

🏀HEAT COACH SPOELSTRA GETS 600TH WIN: Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra got his 600th regular-season career win last night as the Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 116-111. Spoelstra is now the 27th coach in NBA history with 600 wins and just the sixth to do so with one franchise. He's been the head coach of the Heat since 2008.

🏈PANTHERS TRADE QB BRIDGEWATER TO BRONCOS: The Carolina Panthers traded quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to the Denver Broncos on Wednesday in exchange for a sixth-round pick in this weekend's NFL draft. Bridgewater, who was just 4-11 as the Panthers' starter last year, became available when the Panthers traded for former New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold three weeks ago. The 28-year-old has a 26-23 career record as a starter over his six seasons in Minnesota, New Orleans and Carolina.

🏈REPORT: BROWN RE-SIGNING WITH BUCCANEERS FOR ONE YEAR: Wide receiver Antonio Brown is re-signing with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers for one year for $6.25 million, the NFL Network reported yesterday. Brown caught 45 passes for 483 yards and four touchdowns in his eight games with the team last year, and also scored two postseason touchdowns, including one in Tampa's 31–9 Super Bowl win.  

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