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Newsom says 'education is under assault' over banning books, suppressing speech

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on Wednesday that “education is under assault,” criticizing the banning of books across the country, efforts to suppress speech and “the othering of our students, teachers, parents.”

“I do believe education is under assault in ways that I’ve never experienced in my lifetime. I really believe that. I thought it was bad back in the day when folks were debating the merits or demerits around vouchers,” Newsom said while giving remarks at the National Forum on Education Policy after receiving the Frank Newman Award for State Innovation from the Education Commission of the States.

“You know, back in the good old days, in the 90s, the black and white movie days, and people have different opinions about something called ‘charter schools,’” he mused. “But what’s happening now? Banning books, suppressing speech, the othering of our students, teachers, parents? It’s alarming.”

He slammed Florida, for example, after its Department of Education in April rejected dozens of math books, citing references to or the inclusion of critical race theory (CRT) and social emotional learning (SEL) in them.

CRT, which is generally taught in institutions of higher education, is a decades-old theory that asserts that racism is woven into U.S. laws, institutions and history. 

SEL programming aims to help students manage their emotions, develop and manage health identities and relationships and make responsible decisions, among other goals.

Newsom also slammed Texas for cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in mental health funding after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) earlier this year redirected more than $200 million from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Texas’s mental health services, toward his border security initiative.

“But what about the whole person? What about the wellness of our kids? Everybody’s talking a good game now about mental health. Everybody’s talking a good game now about mental health,” Newsom said. 

“There’s one large state, Texas, where they cut mental health funding by $211 million. You know why I’m up here? Because we just expanded mental health by $4.7 billion in our public education system in the state of California.”

Newsom has been considered a possible 2024 Democratic presidential contender, though the California governor said in an interview last year that a presidential bid has “literally 100 percent never been on my radar.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Common migraine prescription could treat obesity: study

A commonly prescribed migraine medication, called Triptan, has shown positive signs for treating obesity, according to a new study.  

The experimental study found that mice who were given the drug daily consumed less food and lost more weight over the course of a month than mice not given the drug. 

“We’ve shown that there is real potential to repurpose these drugs, which are already known to be safe, for appetite suppression and weight loss,” said study leader Chen Liu, an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern.   

Researchers tested six prescription triptans over a seven-week period on obese mice that were being fed a high fat diet. Mice that were fed two triptans ate roughly the same amount as before. But mice who were given the other four triptans ate less.  

Mice given frovatriptan lost an average of 3.6 percent of their body weight after 24 days, while mice not given triptan gained 5.1 percent of their body weight on average.  

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“We found that these drugs, and one in particular, can lower body weight and improve glucose metabolism in less than a month, which is pretty impressive,” Liu said.  

Scientists have long determined that the chemical messenger serotonin affects appetite. But because there are 15 serotonin receptors, scientists have yet to determine the role of each receptor.  

Further, earlier drugs treating weight gain, such as fen-phen and lorcaserin, were taken off the market due to their side-effects. But for the study, researchers engineered mice to lack Htr1b or Htr2c, the serotonin receptor targeted by fen-phen and lorcaserin.  

They noted that this led them to conclude triptan worked by targeting the serotonin 1B receptor. 

“This finding could be important for drug development,” Liu continued. “We not only shed light on the potential to repurpose existing triptans but also brought attention to Htr1b as a candidate to treat obesity and regulate food intake.” 

The World Obesity Atlas, released in March, projected one billion people across the globe will be living with obesity by 2030.   

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Lawmakers, experts squabble over what’s driving up US housing costs

Members of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday agreed that America is facing a housing crisis, but found little consensus on why, or what to do about it. 

Republicans blamed inflation, which they say has been fueled by pandemic government spending, while Democrats put the onus on corporate landlords and experts at the hearing highlighted the severe lack of supply. 

Housing prices for Americans have shot up 5.6 percent over last year, the largest percent increase since 1991, according to government data. The average price for an urban shelter as of June was above $350,000, up from about $318,000 in June 2019, before the pandemic began. 

Republicans repeatedly pounced on eye-popping inflation numbers released by the Labor Department Wednesday, showing the consumer price index has increased 9.1 percent since June of last year, the highest rise since 1981.

“American families and workers are finding that Joe Biden’s economy is a very cruel economy,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) at the hearing. “Democrats in Washington are blaming everyone under the sun for the cruel rise in housing costs.”

Inflation has been a global phenomenon as countries recover from an unprecedented pandemic that has caused lasting supply disruptions and labor shortages. Russia’s war on Ukraine has added to the upward pressure on gas prices and food, in particular.

Democrats on Wednesday refused to accept that their spending policies were partly to blame, instead arguing that rising housing prices were due to a multitude of pandemic-related factors — and corporate greed. 

“Just when our homes became more important than ever, a range of forces converged to drive up prices faster than in recent memory,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats blasted the role that corporate investors have played in raising housing prices. Private equity landlords, the lawmakers argued, are outbidding potential buyers and jacking up rent and fee prices for tenants.

In the final quarter of 2021, corporate investors bought a record 18.4 percent of homes that were sold in the U.S., according to data from the real estate brokerage Redfin.

“With ordinary Americans locked out of the market, private equity fat cats are outbidding families and driving up prices,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). 

Democrats last month at a House Financial Services subpanel similarly railed against the purchasing practices of private firms.

Expert witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing focused on the shortage of affordable housing units available to buyers and renters, arguing government investment is needed to facilitate the construction of low and moderate-income housing.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a tax incentive to help fund investments into affordable housing projects in rural and urban areas, was lauded as a success story of federal intervention.

“Affordable housing is affordable because of financing,” said Audra Hamernik, president and CEO of Nevada HAND, an affordable housing developer. “The LIHTC is the nation’s primary tool to create and preserve affordable rental housing.”

Witnesses also agreed the corporate purchasing was an issue.

“Institutional investors are a big part of the surging demand over the last couple of years,” said Elora Lee Raymond, urban planner and assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech. 

“These investors are highly incentivized to very efficiently extract rent through hidden fees, late fees and through increasing rents.”

While Democrats joined the call for increased federal support for housing programs, Republicans cautioned against more government spending.

“We have printed so much money in the last couple of years, I think it’s incredible the fact that we have any ink or paper left,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.). “It’s incredible to me that we could still be adding more fuel to the fire by doing this.”

Source: TEST FEED1

As UK conservatives dump Johnson, most in GOP still embrace Trump’s far graver threat

Winston Churchill, the figure embattled UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims as his role model, once defined a politician as someone who “is asked to stand, wants to sit, and is expected to lie.” Yet in the end, Johnson’s incessant lying was proven was so brazen that even a somewhat truth-challenged UK Conservative Party grew embarrassed, and its more principled leaders forced his pending resignation. In disturbing contrast, leaders of the U.S. Republican Party continue to embrace or fail to denounce the arguably far more dangerous lies of former President Donald Trump that increasingly threaten the fundamental basis of American democracy.

At this point, the American right-wing has propagated and accepted so many baseless ideas, including challenging almost any election loss as fraudulent, that the Republican Party as we once knew it has ceased to exist. Instead, America now faces the “ReTrumplican” Party — an ideological movement devoted to Trump and based primarily on stoking rapid resentment and grievance, with little or no regard for truth, the rule of law or the basic tenets of democracy. Americans of all stripes, but especially conservatives in leadership positions with any semblance of conscience, must now recognize a profound obligation to face down and defeat this perverse political faction.

Despite their many differences and the far more serious threat posed by Trump, Johnson’s political rise to power did share some key traits with Trump. It could be argued that Johnson’s ascendance as Conservative Party leader was based on a kind of “Big Lie” of his own, claiming the EU was somehow the root of UK problems. In fact, British trade has suffered from Brexit, according to The Economist, and has not recovered despite Johnsonian assurances it would. Brexit has also inflicted most harm on those who can least afford it, exacerbating near-record UK consumer inflation by raising the cost of food. Meanwhile, the separatist movement in pro-EU Scotland has gained ground, and may force a new referendum to leave the UK.

It was, however, a long string of other lies that led key conservatives to revolt against Johnson. Johnson and his staff repeatedly held parties, violating UK lockdown during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.The coup de grace forcing him to announce his resignation occurred earlier this month and involved Johnson’s support for a conservative member of parliament with a history of sexual assault, a fact Johnson falsely claimed to be ignorant of when he appointed him to a government post.

No doubt, Johnson’s double-dealing predated the political rise of Trump. Yet, it seems Trump’s own even more brazen style may have encouraged Johnson to push the limits.

Johnson and Trump share basic characteristics of successful populist communicators, including the glib willingness to deliberately violate conventional notions of fairness, civility and honesty. Each titillates the baser instincts of average voters with purposely outrageous innuendoes and attacks on opponents. And each appears to incite contempt for fact-based discourse and institutions, deliberately inflaming rancorous grievances, real or imagined.

When employed as the primary means of communication by a nation’s top political leader, the cumulative effect of these repeated assaults on reason and civility is to undermine respect for normal political fact-based discourse and institutions. This purposefully opens the door to the political chaos of complete relativism, into which they step sprightly as self-anointed solitary saviors. Their personas belittle conventional figures while creating powerful cults of personality around themselves alone.

It is no coincidence Trump and Johnson each cut their teeth in the cutthroat world of New York and London tabloid media culture, Johnson as a journalist, Trump as the subject of constant tabloid coverage. Each spent decades perfecting its particular (but to many irresistible) blend of fact-bending, vicious attacks thinly veiled as humor and false moral high ground. And while Johnson’s approach was always more subtle, droll and restrained than Trump’s, as befits British culture, it was no less effective for it.

Still, in the end, UK institutions have proven just strong enough to stand up to Boris’s fundamental dishonesty. Yet, U.S. Republicans and their media and political allies continue to indulge in a far more dangerous game.

A majority of the Republican Party leadership and rank-and-file members seem willing to embrace Trump’s Big Lie, even in light of the devastating revelations of ongoing congressional hearings on the January 6 insurrection. This is the most damning possible reflection of a Republican Party gone mad. This is not merely rhetoric: Republican political operatives across the country are spending millions of dollars on plans to challenge the legitimacy of any election result that does not elect Republicans in the upcoming mid-term elections and beyond.

As Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a speech denouncing Trump last week, “We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before — and that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.”

Cheney has faced intense backlash from her party, even been subject to death threats, forcing her to curtail her campaigning in Wyoming for reelection, as have other anti-Trump candidates. Jan. 6 hearings witness and former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson received a menacing call before a deposition before her testimony, in what appears to be a case of witness tampering, and is now “sequestered with her family and a security detail.” We have also learned Trump himself “tried to contact a witness after the last hearing held in June,” according to Cheney. This suggests that Trump and his followers may now be radicalized to the point of threatening and perpetrating routine political violence of the type historically practiced only in fascist regimes and developing world dictatorships.

The peril now goes far beyond Trump himself to the huge cadre of would-be Trump imitators at every level of office and election who mimic his divisive policy positions and political strategy of stoking grievance, the fundamental ideology of the new “ReTrumplican” Party. These Trump-imitators copy him shamelessly — even when they claim to challenge him, think of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Conservatives — and the rest of America’s body politic — must pull ourselves back from the brink of this abyss if America is to defeat the “ReTrumplican” mania, and restore a fact-based, functioning democracy.

Paul Bledsoe is strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute. He served as a staff member is the U.S. House, Senate Finance Committee and at the Interior Department and White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton.

Source: TEST FEED1

Fully renovated Tops supermarket in Buffalo to reopen after moment of prayer for mass shooting victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New York, will be reopening this Friday, just over two months since 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at the store.

On May 14, 10 people at the supermarket were fatally shot and three others were injured by a gunman who reportedly traveled “hours” to carry out the attack, officials said. Every victim who died was Black; the accused shooter is a suspected white supremacist.

“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said shortly after the shooting. “A straight-up racially motivated hate crime.”

Since the shooting, the store has remained closed as crews have been working to redesign and renovate the space.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, while previewing the work in late June, had said he hoped the redesign will help the community feel more safe about returning to the market.

“The store looks completely different inside, it does not look like the same store,” Brown said at the time.

Still, some in the community say they’re unsure about going back.

“Some say … they’re not sure how they will feel when it reopens, if they want to even shop there. And some say they may not even shop at all,” said Leonard Lane, president of the anti-violence organization Buffalo F.A.T.H.E.R.S.

“That’s a long time for anyone to go without fresh fruits and fresh vegetables in the neighborhood, but at the same time, the wounds are still fresh,” Lane told WIVB. “People are still grieving over their loved ones and over their families.”

The day prior to the store’s reopening on July 14 — exactly two months after the mass shooting — a number of elected officials and community representatives are planning to hold a moment of silence and prayer at the store. Tops President John Persons will also be present during the observance, scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

When the building reopens on July 15, shoppers will notice an entirely new layout, new products and even more organic options.

There will also be substantial security improvements, according to Brown.

“Everyone is not gonna feel comfortable coming back to the store and we certainly understand that, but thousands of people in the community rely on that shopping option and I give Tops tremendous credit for listening to the community,” Brown said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Texans hit with second power conservation request this week as temperatures hit triple digits

The Lone Star State’s grid operator is asking Texans to voluntarily conserve electricity Wednesday during a major heat wave, just two days after issuing a similar warning for Monday.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a “conservation appeal” asking customers to reduce their electricity use 2-8 p.m. Texas time.

Monday’s appeal cited “record high electric demand” and low wind to power turbines. Wednesday’s appeal adds two new issues: cloud cover reducing solar power in West Texas and a number of forced thermal power outages that “exceeds ERCOT forecasts.”

ERCOT said that Texans complying with Monday’s ask – by turning down thermostats and refraining from running major appliances – reduced energy use by 500 megawatts. 

The state’s struggle with its power grid has been a pillar of Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s campaign against Gov. Greg Abbott (R). 

“Abbott wouldn’t be repeatedly telling us to cut the A/C in 100+ degree heat if he had just fixed the grid,” O’Rourke wrote Wednesday on Twitter, responding to the second appeal.

Abbott’s press secretary and senior communications advisor Renae Eze responded to O’Rourke’s Monday comments, saying that ERCOT’s appeal for voluntary conservation is “one of the many tools at their disposal to ensure enough power keeps flowing.”

According to ERCOT’s most recent release, conservation “has been deployed more than four dozen times since 2008 to successfully manage grid operation” and is used when reserves fall below a 2300 megawatt standard for a half hour or more. 

The grid operator made a similar request in May, after six power plants shut down during a heat wave, The Texas Tribune reported.

Source: TEST FEED1

Greg Norman knocks 'firestorm' over Saudi-backed golf tour

Former pro golfer Greg Norman is defends his newly launched professional golf tour, LIV Golf, saying the “firestorm” surrounding the Saudi-backed group isn’t fair. 

In an interview with USA Today published Wednesday, Norman blasted criticism of the new tour, which is in a war with the PGA, the main organizer of professional golf competitions in the United States.

he noted that other leagues also do business with Saudi Arabia.

“Shame on (those) who create this firestorm of controversy when you look within their own system when they got 23-odd sponsors who do $40-plus billion dollars of business with Saudi Arabia,” Norman told USA Today. “C’mon, seriously? If you’re going to go down this path just be ready to accept you’re going to get some stuff coming back your way. And it’s not hard to find it.” 

Norman said that LIV Golf being a Saudi-backed golf tour is a non-factor, noting that this wouldn’t have been an issue if a U.S.-based hedge fund backed the league financially. 

“If it was a hedge fund out of New York, would it be any different?” the 67-year-old CEO asked. “Maybe, because it was U.S. money. I can’t answer that question because it’s not the case. But I will say, the business model, because it’s disrupting a monopolist, it would have happened.” 

A number of golfers have defected from the PGA to join LIV Golf. Tiger Woods, perhaps the world’s best-known golfer, this week said he “disagrees” with the player movement. 

“I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position,” he said of those leaving the PGA for LIV.

The PGA Tour on Monday acknowledged that the Department of Justice launched an investigation into their organization over allegations of anti-competitive behavior, which comes after the organization earlier this year declined some players’ release forms requests to participate in LIV Golf’s inaugural tournament. 

In response to the high-profile defections, the PGA Tour has fined or banned golfers who have joined the Saudi-backed golfing league, which included Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau. 

Norman told USA Today that he hopes that both golfing leagues can form a merger in the near future, adding that the sport of golf will be in a much better place if that happens.

Source: TEST FEED1

3 arrested after hate symbols left at New York synagogue, Black church

Three people were arrested after pamphlets with hate symbols were distributed at various locations in Hornell, N.Y. including a synagogue and a Black church.

Aubrey Dragonetti, 31, Dylan Henry, 30 and Ryan Mulhollen, 27, were each charged with 115 counts of aggravated harassment, according to a statement from the city’s police department.

Police said that on July 9 and 10, officials began an investigation into a number of pamphlets and stickers depicting swastikas and racial slurs that were left at the places of worship as well as other public and private properties in Hornell, which is located about 55 miles away from Rochester in southern New York.

A flyer with the words “Aryan National Army” and an illustration of a skull inside a swastika was discovered by a member of Rehoboth Deliverance Ministries, which has a predominantly Black congregation, according to Hornell newspaper The Evening Tribune. The pamphlet was attached to the church door Sunday morning as people were arriving for services.

“Because of all that has happened over the last few years, months; especially what happened in Buffalo, people get scared,” a church member told the Tribune, referencing the Buffalo, N.Y. shooting in May that was carried out by a shooter who harbored white nationalist beliefs.

Police said the same flyer was also left at Hornell’s Temple Beth-Elsynagogue.

A search warrant in conjunction with New York State Police was conducted in the 130 block of River Street, which lead to the arrest of the three accused perpetrators, the Hornell Police Department said.

Police Chief T.J. Murray told the Tribune that the search resulted in the discovery of “a lot of their electronic equipment,” adding that the suspects “were using the internet to recruit people, as they explained it to us.”

The aggravated harassment charge is a Class E felony and is defined under New York law as an action “with intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm another person” based on “such person’s race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion.”

The three suspects appeared in Steuben County centralized arraignment court Monday, according to the Tribune. Henry was listed as being held without bail, and Dragonetti and Mulhollen were arraigned and released.

Source: TEST FEED1

Health officials: pharmacists can't deny patients abortion drugs

The Biden administration on Wednesday said retail pharmacies and pharmacists must comply with federal civil rights laws and must provide patients with the medication they were legally prescribed, even if it could be used in an abortion.

The guidance to about 60,000 retail pharmacies from the Department of Health and Human Services comes amid reports of pharmacists turning away women seeking abortion medication, or even other treatments that can be used in abortions.

“The Department is committed to improving maternal health—including for individuals who experience miscarriages—and vigorous enforcement of our civil rights laws is one way in which we plan to do so,” the guidance stated.

Senior HHS officials said civil rights laws, including provisions of the Affordable Care Act, prohibit pharmacies and pharmacists from making determinations regarding the suitability of a prescribed medication for a patient, or advising patients about medications and how to take them.

This can include mifepristone, used in combination with misoprostol, to assist with a first-trimester miscarriage. Those drugs are also used in medication abortion, which is now illegal in states that have banned abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

In another example, the agency said pharmacists must dispense methotrexate, a common drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune conditions. The drug is also used off-label to end ectopic pregnancies. 

If the pharmacy refuses to fill the individual’s prescription or does not stock methotrexate because of its alternate uses, it could be violating the patient’s civil rights. 

“HHS is making a very bright line here on federal law,” a senior agency official told reporters. “This is meant to remind folks of their obligation when they take federal funding and to remind folks of obligations under federal civil rights laws.” 

“HHS is committed to ensuring that people are able to access reproductive health care, free from discrimination,” Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

A senior official told reporters the guidance “helps take a step in this direction in help providing patients, providers and pharmacists and pharmacies reassurances that federal law can help protect that access to care.”

The guidance follows President Biden’s executive order on reproductive health issued Friday, and comes as the White House fends off criticism for its seemingly sluggish response to the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The White House earlier this week reminded doctors and hospitals that they need to follow federal law and provide abortions if there is a medical emergency and the health or life of the patient is at risk, regardless of state law.

Source: TEST FEED1