Paid family leave falls out of Biden bill as tempers rise
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Democrats signaled a deal is within reach on President Joe Biden's big domestic bill but momentum fizzled and tempers flared late Wednesday as a paid family leave proposal fell out and a billionaires' tax appeared scrapped, mostly to satisfy a pivotal member of the 50-50 Senate.
With his signature domestic initiative at stake, Biden will head to Capitol Hill on Thursday morning to urge Democratic lawmakers to bring talks on the social services and climate change bill “over the finish line” before he departs for global summits overseas.
Still in the mix: expanded health care programs, free pre-kindergarten and some $500 billion to tackle climate change remain in what's now at least a $1.75 trillion package.
And Democrats are eyeing a new surcharge on the wealthy — 5% on incomes above $10 million and an additional 3% on those beyond $25 million — to help pay for it, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks.
“They’re all within our reach. Let’s bring these bills over the finish line.” Biden tweeted late Wednesday.
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America 'on fire': Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The reports of hateful and violent posts on Facebook started pouring in on the night of May 28 last year, soon after then-President Donald Trump sent a warning on social media that looters in Minneapolis would be shot.
It had been three days since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd for more than eight minutes until the 46-year-old Black man lost consciousness, showing no signs of life. A video taken by a bystander had been viewed millions of times online. Protests had taken over Minnesota’s largest city and would soon spread throughout cities across America.
But it wasn't until after Trump posted about Floyd’s death that the reports of violence and hate speech increased “rapidly” on Facebook across the country, an internal company analysis of the ex-president’s social media post reveals.
“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd and I won’t let that happen,” Trump wrote at 9:53 a.m. on May 28 from his Twitter and Facebook accounts. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts the shooting starts!”
The former president has since been suspended from both Twitter and Facebook.
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Exacerbated by pandemic, child care crisis hampers economy
SEATTLE (AP) — After Bryan Kang’s son was born in July, the occupational therapist and his wife, a teacher, started looking for child care in the Los Angeles area. The couple called eight day care centers: Some didn't have spots for months; others stopped taking their calls and some never answered at all.
So with no viable options, Kang scrambled to find a new job that would allow him to work remotely.
“I told my manager, ‘Hey, by the end of the month, I have to transition out,’" Kang said. "They were very supportive and very understanding because they’re all mothers. But now there’s one less body to see patients.”
Kang said he's fortunate he found a job teaching online classes, but the unexpected career pivot forced him to take an 11% pay cut.
The truth is, even if he could find a day care spot for his now 3-month-old son, the $2,500 monthly cost of infant care is so high that taking a lower-paying job so he can work from home and care for the baby is the most financially sensible thing to do.
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Sheriff: Movie set showed 'some complacency' with weapons
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Investigators said Wednesday that there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the movie set where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer and wounded another person, but it's too soon to determine whether charges will be filed.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza noted that 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and suspected live rounds — were found while searching the set of the Western “Rust.”
“Obviously I think the industry has had a record recently of being safe. I think there was some complacency on this set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico,” Mendoza told a news conference nearly a week after the shooting.
Authorities also confirmed there was no footage of the shooting, which happened during a rehearsal.
Investigators believe Baldwin’s gun fired a single live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
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Cheap antidepressant shows promise treating early COVID-19
A cheap antidepressant reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk adults with COVID-19 in a study hunting for existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat coronavirus.
Researchers tested the pill used for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder because it was known to reduce inflammation and looked promising in smaller studies.
They've shared the results with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which publishes treatment guidelines, and they hope for a World Health Organization recommendation.
“If WHO recommends this, you will see it widely taken up,” said study co-author Dr. Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, adding that many poor nations have the drug readily available. “We hope it will lead to a lot of lives saved.”
The pill, called fluvoxamine, would cost $4 for a course of COVID-19 treatment. By comparison, antibody IV treatments cost about $2,000 and Merck's experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 is about $700 per course. Some experts predict various treatments eventually will be used in combination to fight the coronavirus.
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EXPLAINER: Why Congress is looking closely at Jan. 6 rally
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has focused some of its early work on the planning of the rally at which President Donald Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.” The rally, held that morning and planned by former White House and campaign aides, became a staging ground for hundreds of supporters who marched to the Capitol, pushed past police and broke inside.
What the committee still doesn’t know — or at least hasn’t revealed publicly — is whether Trump and the organizers of the rally, along with Republican members of Congress, were in touch with protesters who later breached the Capitol or aware of plans for violence. Around 800 people eventually busted through windows and doors and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, repeating Trump's false claims that he had won the election.
But there were strong signals of what was to take place, starting with Trump’s December tweet promising that the Jan. 6 event would be “wild” and encouraging supporters to come. In the weeks and days beforehand, some people — including those from far-right militant groups — planned for violence openly online. And when they arrived, some wore tactical gear as if prepared for battle.
“Why would you bring bear spray, Kevlar vests, and other items to a peaceful rally?” asked Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. Thompson says there were people who came to Washington just for the rally, and others who came “to do just what happened here at the Capitol.”
As part of the probe, the committee is looking at what members of Congress knew about the event. Some lawmakers spoke at the rally, while others helped plan it. Thompson said that “we’re not there yet” in terms of reaching any conclusions, but added that there is “a school of thought that there were some people who misinformed as to what was happening on Jan. 6” as they encouraged Trump supporters to attend.
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In Haiti, the difficult relationship of gangs and business
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Youri Mevs knew that the call was coming, and she was terrified.
Mevs is a member of one of the richest families in Haiti; she owns Shodecosa, Haiti’s largest industrial park, which warehouses 93 percent of the nation’s imported food. Like everyone else, she has watched with despair as her country descended into chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Her office got the call one early morning in August. It was from Jimmy Cherizier -- aka Barbecue, a former policeman who leads the G9 gang coalition which controls the coastal strip of Port-au-Prince. Most of Haiti’s food and gasoline flows through his domain, and he can stop it with a single word.
Barbecue’s demand: $500,000 a month, a “war chest” he claimed would be used to buy food for the hungry and fight for democracy.
Pay the price, no problems. Refuse, and Shodecosa would be ransacked, and the gangs also would block the roads around the port terminal owned by the Mevs family.
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AP Sources: Letitia James will run for New York governor
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to run for governor, according to three people directly familiar with her plans who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
James will enter the race as a formidable candidate for the Democratic nomination just months after issuing a damning report that drove Andrew Cuomo from office in a sexual harassment scandal.
The three people familiar with her plans were not authorized to speak publicly. James is expected to make an announcement later this week, according to one of the people.
Kimberly Peeler-Allen, a James campaign adviser said in a statement: “Attorney General Letitia James has made a decision regarding the governor’s race. She will be announcing it in the coming days.”
James, 63, is the first woman elected as New York’s attorney general and the first Black person to serve in the role. With a power base in New York City, she is poised to be a top threat to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had been Cuomo’s lieutenant governor.
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United States issues its 1st passport with 'X' gender marker
DENVER (AP) — The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and expects to be able to offer the option more broadly next year, the State Department said Wednesday.
The department did not identify the passport recipient, but Dana Zzyym, an intersex activist from Fort Collins, Colorado, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that they received it. Since 2015, Zzyym, who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun, has been in a legal battle with the State Department to obtain a passport that did not require Zzyym to lie about gender by picking either male or female.
Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) picked up the UPS package with the passport after getting an early morning text and phone call from their lawyer, Paul Castillo of Lambda Legal, that it had arrived. Zzyym had stayed up late celebrating Intersex Awareness Day with two visiting activists.
While Zzyym, 63, said it was thrilling to finally get the passport, the goal was to help the next generation of intersex people win recognition as full citizens with rights, rather than travel the globe, Zzyym said.
“I’m not a problem. I’m a human being. That’s the point,” said Zzyym, who has an arm tattoo that reads, “Never give up,” a reminder of goals to accomplish in life.
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Rookie goes from Gwinnett hotel to World Series in whirlwind
HOUSTON (AP) — Tucker Davidson was in the lobby of a Courtyard Marriott near the Gwinnett Stripers' ballpark in Georgia, eating a salad from The Cheesecake Factory and watching the Atlanta Braves play their World Series opener, talking with Triple-A strength coach Paul Howey and Paul Davis, the roving pitching coordinator.
“We were just kind of sitting there, and Charlie went down, and we kind of looked around, like: This is why we’re here,” Davidson said. “I stayed up, and I kind of had an idea that it might be me. I just had that gut feeling.”
His phone rang shortly before 1 a.m. Ben Sestanovich, the Braves' assistant general manager for player development was on the line.
Less than 24 hours later, the 25-year-old rookie left-hander from Amarillo, Texas, a pitcher with just five games of big league experience, was sitting in the interview room of Minute Maid Park, added to Atlanta’s World Series roster after Charlie Morton’s right fibula was broken in the opening 6-2 win over the Houston Astros.
“I found out, went to the clubhouse about five minutes from the hotel and packed my stuff and just kind of threw everything in the bag,” Davidson said. “Then proceeded to unload my car again, because all my stuff from my apartment is in my car. So I just kind of threw everything on the hotel floor and just kind of started packing things.”
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