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Health Care — Not all Dems buying 'go vote' message on abortion

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is clinging to power, and all eyes are on Larry the Cat, Downing Street’s chief mouser who may hold the key to the PM’s future.

Today in health care, the “go vote” message on abortion from top Democrats may be falling flat. 

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Why Dems’ message on abortion is falling flat

Voters are becoming disillusioned by Democrats’ calls to storm the polls following Roe v. Wade’s demise, arguing the party’s failure to prepare for the moment means it could face an unpleasant fate in November. 

Almost from the moment the Supreme Court announced it was ending the constitutional right to an abortion, Democrats began working to make it a midterm issue, presenting a vote for their side as a way to help codify Roe at the state and perhaps federal level — or at least prevent Republicans from doing the opposite. 

But that message is already falling flat. Frustration with the lack of progress on many women’s issues and what some see as a lack of a clear vision on abortion have left voters skeptical that the solution lies at the ballot box. 

“Here we are with leadership basically [reduced] to begging for people to vote,” said Aaron Chappell, political director of the grassroots group Our Revolution. “No clear plan, no promises of what those votes will translate to.” 

“The people chanting ‘just vote blue’ make me lowkey want to die,” said another disgruntled operative involved with strategy for progressive candidates. “It’s nuts.” 

How it’s playing in campaigns: 

• Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-N.H.) campaign became the first to launch a television advertisement on the issue since the Supreme Court decision last month. 
• In Florida, Rep. Val Demings (D), who is challenging incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), rolled out a digital hitting him over his abortion stance. 
• On Thursday, Planned Parenthood Votes launched a $3 million television campaign in Pennsylvania hitting GOP Senate nominee Mehmet Oz over his anti-abortion stance. 

Read more here.

Dem drug pricing bill removes insulin cost cap

Senate Democrats have a revised drug pricing bill, and it doesn’t include a key insulin provision from prior versions.  

The latest bill to lower prescription drug prices removes a provision to cap patients’ insulin costs at $35 per month, amid a push for a separate bipartisan bill on insulin.   

Capping out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month has been a high-profile selling point for Democrats’ economic package and has been touted by President Biden, so removing it carries some risk.    

Alternate path to passage? The provision is part of a separate bipartisan bill from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), which is moving forward and could get a vote in the Senate this month. 

The obstacle: The Shaheen-Collins bill will require support from at least 10 Republican senators in order to clear a filibuster and pass. By contrast, the Democratic-only drug pricing measure is part of Biden’s economic package, which uses a process known as reconciliation to bypass a GOP filibuster, meaning it can pass with only 50 Democratic votes.   

It is therefore unclear if going the bipartisan route on capping insulin costs will result in the measure being blocked by Republicans and not becoming law.   

Read more here.

FDA TEMPORARILY SUSPENDS ORDER BANNING SALES OF JUUL

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday night announced it had temporarily suspended its ban on sales of the popular e-cigarette maker Juul just weeks after its products were ordered to be removed from the market. 

“On July 5, 2022, FDA administratively stayed the marketing denial order,” the agency’s tobacco division said. “The agency has determined that there are scientific issues unique to the JUUL application that warrant additional review.” 

The move was first announced in a tweet on Tuesday evening, though FDA noted the move did not rescind the marketing denial.  

“This administrative stay temporarily suspends the marketing denial order during the additional review but does not rescind it,” FDA said. “The stay and the agency’s review does not constitute authorization to market, sell, or ship JUUL products.” 

A federal appeals court temporarily blocked the FDA ban on Juul one day after it was issued, granting the e-cigarette maker’s request for a stay. Juul has also filed for a longer-term appeal of FDA’s ruling.  

Read more here.

FDA TO ALLOW PHARMACISTS TO PRESCRIBE PAXLOVID IN SOME CASES

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued a revision to its emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid that will allow pharmacists to prescribe the treatment with certain limitations. 

Under the original EUA from the FDA, only physicians, advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants were permitted to prescribe Paxlovid to patients.  

The FDA said in its announcement that state-licensed pharmacists would now be able to prescribe Paxlovid, meaning many more pharmacy locations will now be able to provide coronavirus antivirals to patient sooner. 

According to the FDA’s revised authorization, people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are seeking antiviral treatment should bring pharmacists their “electronic or printed health records less than 12 months old,” “the most recent reports of laboratory blood work” and a list of current medications they are taking so pharmacists can be aware of possible drug interactions. 

The initial exclusion of pharmacists from the providers able to prescribe the antiviral treatment was a point of contention in the White House’s “Test to Treat” initiative, with pharmacists arguing that leaving them out severely limited the initiative’s effectiveness.

Read more here.

Commercial labs to begin monkeypox testing, CDC says

Labcorp, one of the largest commercial laboratory testing networks in the U.S., will begin testing for monkeypox on Wednesday as the recent outbreak continues to spread. 

Labcorp will begin conducting tests using orthopoxvirus tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Orthopoxvirus is the genus of viruses that includes pathogens like smallpox, cowpox and monkeypox. 

The CDC’s tests detect all non-smallpox orthopoxviruses, and Labcorp will eventually have the capacity to conduct around 10,000 daily, according to the company. 

Labcorp Chief Medical Officer Brian Caveney said in a statement that all tests will initially be performed in the company’s largest facility in North Carolina and that testing will expand to other locations if the need arises. The company will accept samples from anywhere in the country. 

A clearer picture: This announcement comes as the number of detected monkeypox cases in the U.S. continues to rise, with many cases almost certainly going underreported due to the lack of testing capabilities. 

“The ability of commercial labs to test for monkeypox is a key pillar in our comprehensive strategy to combat this disease,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. 

“This will not only increase testing capacity but will make it more convenient for providers and patients to access tests by using existing provider-to-lab relationships,” Walensky said. 

Read more here.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Lesions, headaches, debilitating pain: Gay men with monkeypox share their stories (NBC News) 
• Pediatric COVID-19 cases rising for 1st time since May (ABC News) 
• ‘Free’ screening? know your rights to get no-cost care (Kaiser Health News)

STATE BY STATE

• Scramble as last Mississippi abortion clinic shuts its doors (Associated Press) 
• LSU Health’s New Orleans lab says it has discovered two new Omicron subvariants (KSLA) 
• Nebraska medical marijuana campaign seeking 5,000 more signatures before Thursday (Omaha World-Herald)

THE HILL OP-EDS

• We can’t keep shooting at moving targets with COVID 
• Restore, fund and reconcile abortion: the case for a new anti-Hyde Amendment

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.

VIEW THE FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

A beleaguered abortion workforce braces for things to get far worse

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion providers in states that have banned abortion, or soon will, are mourning the closing of their clinics. While they are concerned about their own and their colleagues’ future employment, they are even more deeply worried about the future reproductive health needs of the communities they have served for so long. 

Meanwhile, abortion providers in states where abortion remains legal have worries of a different order. For these providers, the worry is that because abortion will remain legal in their state, they will likely receive a huge increase in patients traveling out of ban states in order to receive care. 

In the past few months, we have interviewed providers in both states that were expected to ban abortion and those that are expected to receive patients from neighboring states. It is clear that the latter are concerned about the impact of the coming “tsunami,” as several have put it, on both their patients and their staff. They are preparing as best they can, but as one administrator told us with a sigh, scaling up to treat all who will request services once abortion is illegal in half the country is “unattainable.” Abortion clinics in the state of Illinois, for example, anticipate receiving up to thirty thousand additional out of state patients a year.  

The considerable challenges facing abortion clinics in the states where abortion remains legal were already in evidence, even before the court’s decision was announced. These challenges started early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in the spring of 2020, when several states abruptly shut down abortion facilities for a period, claiming they were “non-essential” care. Then came the imposition of Texas’ Senate Bill 8 in September 2021, which banned abortions after roughly six weeks. Both of these events dramatically increased demands on clinic capacity in states neighboring the states that banned or severely restricted abortion. So many patients came from those states to the states where abortion remained legal that it created a domino effect of sorts. Clinics quickly became overbooked, with appointments often only available three or more weeks out, and travelers and local residents were forced to travel to yet other states for care, increasing similar pressure in those states.  

SB8 and the pandemic-caused closings also, unsurprisingly, revealed the desperation of patients determined to get an abortion, no matter the obstacles. A clinic administrator in a state that saw a surge in people seeking abortions recalled one such memorable patient. The patient had driven 12 hours from Texas in a snowstorm. The patient’s mother apparently had just the day before been admitted to an Alzheimer unit and her daughter was uneasy about leaving her. The administrator told us the patient “had her mother and her mother’s caregiver in the car with her. And the patient was just like, ‘I got to take care of this woman and I got to have an abortion, all in the same day.’”  

It bears mentioning that this round-trip drive of 24 hours (not counting the time at the clinic) in difficult conditions was to receive medication abortion. In other words, this patient drove for a day with her sick mother just to be handed some pills. In a sane world, these pills, which are safer than Tylenol, would be dispensed in her home town or received via mail right to her door. However, because of telehealth restrictions and abortion bans, this travel ordeal was the only possible solution for this patient. 

Staff shortages and supply chain issues—issues that are familiar to so many through these pandemic years — are also a major concern and are expected to intensify, as clinics in states where abortion remains legal attempt to expand their capacity. One administrator expressed her frustration to us that adding a desperately needed additional procedure room for her clinic has been delayed because of the difficulty of getting a new exam table. But she told us that the greatest challenge she faces is hiring an adequate number of nurses and medical assistants, as the labor shortage appears to have hit this field particularly hard. A clinic director in another state who was facing a surge of patients and thus an increased need for employees spoke wistfully of the $5,000 signing bonuses that a major hospital in her area was offering nurses, an offer she was not able to match.  

The difficulties in hiring additional staff predictably add to the stress and fatigue of current clinic staff. Several managers we spoke with raised concerns about the morale of their current employees because of the rising patient loads. In clinics that provide other reproductive health services in addition to abortion, the stress has been especially acute, as these services compete with abortion care for limited clinic capacity. As one administrator told us about her attempts to reassure her staff, “And what I have said to them, is that they’re now operating in a theater of war. It’s not their fault they’re not able to provide the care to all these people who are coming in with extraordinary circumstances, but they still take it to heart.” Her response is to “invest in our employees,” which in practical terms means mental health days, paid leaves, and “all the things you can imagine that people need to work in a good environment.” However, these are also things that require more staff to make up the time, compounding the personnel problems clinics are facing. 

Some clinics with the resources to do so are strategically opening new facilities near the borders of states that will likely ban abortion after Dobbs is announced. But in this new environment of abortion care, older problems of abortion provision remain. Recounting for us a visit to a border town where her organization was considering opening a new clinic, an administrator casually mentioned that, in addition to an extensive set of meetings with local elected officials and health care workers, “I met with the FBI agent there, they have some bomb squads there.” After all, when abortion is banned in half the country, antiabortion extremists who have had to operate in 50 states will now be able to concentrate their efforts in just 25, making the conditions on the ground even more terrifying in the states where abortion remains legal. 

All the challenges mentioned here for clinics operating in states where abortion remains legal will only intensify after the expected overturning of Roe. The abortion providing community will, as it has always done, make extraordinary efforts to meet the health care needs of those who come to them. We saw this happen with a good measure of success with Texas and SB8. But when two dozen states ban abortion after Dobbs, it very well might be impossible to amass a response on this scale. As a result, many pregnant people will inevitably not be able to be served. 

David Cohen is a professor of law at Drexel University. Carole Joffe is a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco. 

A beleaguered abortion workforce braces for things to get far worse 

David Cohen and Carole Joffe, opinion contributors 

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion providers in states that have banned abortion, or soon will, are mourning the closing of their clinics. While they are concerned about their own and their colleagues’ future employment, they are even more deeply worried about the future reproductive health needs of the communities they have served for so long. 

Meanwhile, abortion providers in states where abortion remains legal have worries of a different order. For these providers, the worry is that because abortion will remain legal in their state, they will likely receive a huge increase in patients traveling out of ban states in order to receive care. 

In the past few months, we have interviewed providers in both states that were expected to ban abortion and those that are expected to receive patients from neighboring states. It is clear that the latter are concerned about the impact of the coming “tsunami,” as several have put it, on both their patients and their staff. They are preparing as best they can, but as one administrator told us with a sigh, scaling up to treat all who will request services once abortion is illegal in half the country is “unattainable.” Abortion clinics in the state of Illinois, for example, anticipate receiving up to thirty thousand additional out of state patients a year.  

The considerable challenges facing abortion clinics in the states where abortion remains legal were already in evidence, even before the court’s decision was announced. These challenges started early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in the spring of 2020, when several states abruptly shut down abortion facilities for a period, claiming they were “non-essential” care. Then came the imposition of Texas’ Senate Bill 8 in September 2021, which banned abortions after roughly six weeks. Both of these events dramatically increased demands on clinic capacity in states neighboring the states that banned or severely restricted abortion. So many patients came from those states to the states where abortion remained legal that it created a domino effect of sorts. Clinics quickly became overbooked, with appointments often only available three or more weeks out, and travelers and local residents were forced to travel to yet other states for care, increasing similar pressure in those states.  

SB8 and the pandemic-caused closings also, unsurprisingly, revealed the desperation of patients determined to get an abortion, no matter the obstacles. A clinic administrator in a state that saw a surge in people seeking abortions recalled one such memorable patient. The patient had driven 12 hours from Texas in a snowstorm. The patient’s mother apparently had just the day before been admitted to an Alzheimer unit and her daughter was uneasy about leaving her. The administrator told us the patient “had her mother and her mother’s caregiver in the car with her. And the patient was just like, ‘I got to take care of this woman and I got to have an abortion, all in the same day.’”  

It bears mentioning that this round-trip drive of 24 hours (not counting the time at the clinic) in difficult conditions was to receive medication abortion. In other words, this patient drove for a day with her sick mother just to be handed some pills. In a sane world, these pills, which are safer than Tylenol, would be dispensed in her home town or received via mail right to her door. However, because of telehealth restrictions and abortion bans, this travel ordeal was the only possible solution for this patient. 

Staff shortages and supply chain issues—issues that are familiar to so many through these pandemic years — are also a major concern and are expected to intensify, as clinics in states where abortion remains legal attempt to expand their capacity. One administrator expressed her frustration to us that adding a desperately needed additional procedure room for her clinic has been delayed because of the difficulty of getting a new exam table. But she told us that the greatest challenge she faces is hiring an adequate number of nurses and medical assistants, as the labor shortage appears to have hit this field particularly hard. A clinic director in another state who was facing a surge of patients and thus an increased need for employees spoke wistfully of the $5,000 signing bonuses that a major hospital in her area was offering nurses, an offer she was not able to match.  

The difficulties in hiring additional staff predictably add to the stress and fatigue of current clinic staff. Several managers we spoke with raised concerns about the morale of their current employees because of the rising patient loads. In clinics that provide other reproductive health services in addition to abortion, the stress has been especially acute, as these services compete with abortion care for limited clinic capacity. As one administrator told us about her attempts to reassure her staff, “And what I have said to them, is that they’re now operating in a theater of war. It’s not their fault they’re not able to provide the care to all these people who are coming in with extraordinary circumstances, but they still take it to heart.” Her response is to “invest in our employees,” which in practical terms means mental health days, paid leaves, and “all the things you can imagine that people need to work in a good environment.” However, these are also things that require more staff to make up the time, compounding the personnel problems clinics are facing. 

Some clinics with the resources to do so are strategically opening new facilities near the borders of states that will likely ban abortion after Dobbs is announced. But in this new environment of abortion care, older problems of abortion provision remain. Recounting for us a visit to a border town where her organization was considering opening a new clinic, an administrator casually mentioned that, in addition to an extensive set of meetings with local elected officials and health care workers, “I met with the FBI agent there, they have some bomb squads there.” After all, when abortion is banned in half the country, antiabortion extremists who have had to operate in 50 states will now be able to concentrate their efforts in just 25, making the conditions on the ground even more terrifying in the states where abortion remains legal. 

All the challenges mentioned here for clinics operating in states where abortion remains legal will only intensify after the expected overturning of Roe. The abortion providing community will, as it has always done, make extraordinary efforts to meet the health care needs of those who come to them. We saw this happen with a good measure of success with Texas and SB8. But when two dozen states ban abortion after Dobbs, it very well might be impossible to amass a response on this scale. As a result, many pregnant people will inevitably not be able to be served. 

David Cohen is a professor of law at Drexel University. Carole Joffe is a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco. 

Source: TEST FEED1

South Dakota skies turn green amid severe thunderstorm

The sky above Sioux Falls, South Dakota turned a bright shade of emerald green on Tuesday right before severe weather barreled through the southeastern part of the state.  

Sioux Falls was hit with more than three inches of rain over a few hours last night and strong wind gusts as part of a derecho, the Midwest’s answer to a hurricane.  

Derechos are massive thunderstorm bands that can travel hundreds of miles in a relatively straight line and can be just as destructive as a tornado, according to the National Weather Service.  

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Tuesday’s derecho traveled almost 1,150 miles impacting roughly half a dozen states including Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Montana, according to the Mitchell Daily Republic. Winds reached over 90 mph in places like Huron and Agar, SD.  

Derechos are relatively rare but this is the second time South Dakota and its surrounding states have been hit with one this summer at one point leaving close to 30,000 people without power, according to USA Today.  

Green skies are not an uncommon phenomenon during severe weather but the exact reason why it occurs is still unclear, according to AccuWeather.  

But it may have to do with the time of day that thunderstorms occur.  

Severe weather like thunderstorms tend to take place later in the day when the sun is closer to the horizon. As the sun’s position in the sky drops lower, the spectrum of light changes from blue to more red, AccuWeather explains. 

When the light from under thunderclouds, which appears blue due to water droplets, mixes with red sunlight the resulting color is green.  

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Source: TEST FEED1

Climate protesters plan to disrupt Congressional Baseball Game

Climate protesters are planning to disrupt the Congressional Baseball Game unless Congress gets legislation across the finish line. 

At the annual event, Democrats face off against Republicans in a friendly match to raise money for charity.

But this year, the activists say they will try to prevent it from happening unless the players get climate action across the finish line in Congress.

“We refuse to watch a member of Congress play baseball while the world burns,” Jamie DeMarco, federal policy director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network, told The Washington Post. 

A website that appears to be affiliated with the action — which, according to The Post will include members of several climate groups — says that activists will “converge en masse” on the event, and “shut it down” if politicians don’t deliver. 

The Post reported that the protesters are pushing for the passage of a climate bill through reconciliation – a process that only requires a simple majority. 

Senate Democrats have pushed for months on a major spending bill that includes significant climate investments, but have stalled amid disagreements with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). 

Manchin is still negotiating with Senate leadership; it’s not clear what will ultimately come of those negotiations. 

The game is slated to take place on July 28. The website says that if by that time, Congress had passed or is close to passing climate legislation “we may use a more conciliatory tactic. “

Ryan Thompson, the chairman of the Congressional Baseball Game said he still believes the event will go on.

“We are anticipating a record-breaking crowd, we’re expecting record-breaking fundraising, we’re expecting to have just a huge event and it’s going to be as big or bigger than we’ve ever had it,” he said.

He also said that multiple federal law enforcement agencies would provide security for the event. And, Thompson noted, that the event is for charity, arguing that any disruption would do more harm than good.

“The Congressional Baseball Game for Charity is not a platform for any political or policy statements,” he said. “It’s about Democrats and Republicans coming together to help the vulnerable and underserved in our community.”

“Disrupting the game would only result in the potential loss of support and funding for dozens of nonprofits in the D.C. metro area that are doing important work like feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, providing after school and other leadership programs for vulnerable underserved children and women’s shelters,” Thompson added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Capitol Police arrest man with two Molotov cocktails

U.S. Capitol Police officers arrested a man who had two Molotov cocktails on Wednesday not far from the U.S. Capitol. 

Capitol police said in a tweet that they arrested the man at around 3:30 p.m. along Massachusetts Avenue, west of North Capitol Street.

The tweet said police have no indication that the man’s activity was related to the Capitol itself, members of Congress or any protest. 

Capitol police will send out a news release Wednesday evening with more details.

Source: TEST FEED1

Hillicon Valley — TikTok scrutiny heats up

Senators on the Intelligence Committee asked the Federal Tade Commission (FTC) to investigate TikTok, ramping up scrutiny of the company’s data practices.  

Meanwhile, Apple announced on Wednesday that it will be releasing a new security feature called “lockdown mode” intended to protect its devices against spyware deployed by state-sponsored hackers, The Associated Press reported. 

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Senators ask FTC to investigate TikTok

Top senators on the Intelligence Committee requested the FTC investigate TikTok over concerns that the company is misleading the public about its data practices.  

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the FTC Tuesday urging the agency to launch an immediate investigation on “the basis of apparent deception by TikTok.” 

• The letter escalates the scrutiny from lawmakers, largely among Republicans, on the popular video sharing app since BuzzFeed reported last month that employees of TikTok’s parent company in China have access to private data on U.S. users.  
• “In light of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok concerning its data security, data processing, and corporate governance practices, we urge you to act promptly on this matter,” the senators wrote. 
• In response to the letter, a TikTok spokesperson said “for two years, we’ve talked openly about our work to limit access to user data across regions, and in our letter to senators last week we were clear about our progress in limiting access even further through our work with Oracle.”

Feds warn against North Korean ransomware

U.S. federal agencies issued a joint advisory on Wednesday regarding North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors using Maui ransomware to target the health sector. 

The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of the Treasury said that particular ransomware has been used by North Korean government-backed hackers since at least last spring to target health care and public health sector organizations. 

“This malicious activity by North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors against the healthcare and public health sector poses a significant risk to organizations of all sizes,” said Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity. 

Read more here.

APPLE INTRODUCES NEW SECURITY FEATURE

Apple announced on Wednesday that it will be releasing a new security feature called “lockdown mode” intended to protect its devices against spyware deployed by state-sponsored hackers, The Associated Press reported.  

The new safeguard, which is expected to be released in the fall, will initially be offered as a test version so that researchers can assist the tech giant in identifying bugs or vulnerabilities, the AP said. 

Read more here.

PRIME, GRUBHUB STRIKE DELIVERY DEAL

Amazon and Grubhub announced a deal Wednesday that will allow Amazon Prime subscribers in the United States to get free delivery from certain restaurants. 

The e-commerce giant also has an option to purchase a 2 percent stake in Grubhub as part of the deal. Amazon can purchase a further 13 percent stake at a “formula-based price,” calculated primarily by the number of new customers added in the deal. 

Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to sign up for a free one-year membership of Grubhub’s premium service starting Wednesday, according to a press release from Just Eat Takeaway.com, the Dutch company that owns Grubhub. 

“I am incredibly excited to announce this collaboration with Amazon that will help Grubhub continue to deliver on our long-standing mission to connect more diners with local restaurants,” Grubhub CEO Adam DeWitt said in a statement. 

Read more here.

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Restaurants show weakness of the case against ‘big is bad’  

Notable links from around the web: 

How a fake job offer took down the world’s most popular crypto game (The Block / Ryan Weeks) 

Disinformation Has Become Another Untouchable Problem in Washington (The New York Times / Steven Lee Myers and Eileen Sullivan) 

Google Eases Ad Restrictions for Abortion Pill Providers After Roe (Gizmodo / Shoshana Wodinsky) 

Lighter click: Inflation hitting home

Cipollone to testify

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to testify Friday behind closed doors before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to multiple news reports. 

A person familiar with the discussions told The New York Times Cipollone would be participating in a transcribed interview. 

The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the testimony is scheduled to take place for the first half of the day on Friday. 

Read more here.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.

VIEW THE FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Trade restrictions making food crisis worse: World Bank

Bans and restrictions on food exports are “counterproductive” against the global food crisis and drive rising domestic prices “even higher,” World Bank directors said Wednesday. 

In a blog post, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships Mari Elka Pangestu and Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg called for export restrictions to be “halted and reversed” to combat the worsening crisis.

The current price surge has been fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain bottlenecks, the high cost of energy and other global issues, but is exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, a top global food supplier. The conflict not only disrupted production in Ukraine but also blocked critical ports in the Black Sea.

The directors compared this year’s crisis with the global food crisis of 2008, during which 36 countries imposed export restrictions. As of June 2022, 34 countries have active restrictions.

Bans imposed since the start of the war in Ukraine have increased the price of rice by more than 12 percent, of wheat by 9 percent and of maize by about 6 percent, a World Bank report found. 

Between mid-2007 and mid-2008, the global food crisis saw an increase in the price of rice by as much as 180 percent, of wheat by 120 percent and of maize by 70 percent.

In 2020, Ukraine was the world’s fifth-largest supplier of wheat, and Russia was the top exporter of fertilizer.

In early June, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres gave remarks warning that, “without fertilizers, shortages will spread from corn and wheat to all staple crops, including rice, with a devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America, too.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also sounded alarms about a global famine risk if Ukraine is unable to export its wheat. 

“The war in Ukraine has created needless suffering for the most vulnerable people everywhere,” wrote the World Bank’s Pangestu and van Trotsenburg in their blog post, calling for countries to lift “misguided” export restrictions. 

“The global community has a duty to cooperate fully to expand the flow of food across the world.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Bernie Sanders weighs into Vermont House race

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has endorsed Becca Balint, the president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate, in what is likely the race to be Vermont’s first woman in Congress.

Balint is among the leaders in her bid to replace Rep. Peter Welch (D), who is leaving the House seat he has held for more than a decade to run for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D). 

Polls have shown Balint in a close race with Vermont’s lieutenant governor, Molly Gray, to fill the state’s lone house seat. Vermont is the last state to have never sent a woman to Congress.

“Becca is a person of deep integrity,” Sanders tweeted on Wednesday. “She is the kind of person Vermonters need in Congress. That’s why I’m proud to endorse @BeccaBalintVT today and look forward to serving with her in Washington.”

Balint tweeted in response to Sanders’s endorsement, “Bernie has changed this country with his moral clarity, and it is an incredible honor to have his support.”

Balint, who would also be Vermont’s first openly gay representative, is facing three other candidates for the Democratic nomination, including Gray, social worker Sianay Chase Clifford and physician Louis Meyers. 

Sanders previously held Vermont’s House seat before being elected to the Senate. 

A Republican has not held the seat for more than 30 years, and Cook Political Report considers the seat to be solidly Democratic.

Source: TEST FEED1

Abortion restrictions will disproportionately burden low-income Americans

Three out of four women who receive an abortion are considered poor or low-income and now that the Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to abortion, large swaths of the U.S. population will find the procedure effectively out of reach — facing long distances and high costs. 

Among the 75 percent of abortion patients who are poor or low income, 49 percent live at less than the federal poverty level and 26 percent live at 100 to 199 percent of the poverty level, according to research from 2014. 

Even though abortion was a protected federal right in 2014, women still struggled to afford the procedure. Many lived in areas of the country that lacked an abortion clinic, adding additional travel expenses to reach an area that did have an available abortion provider. 

Abortion access is hitting an inflection point in the US, after the Supreme Court reversed a nearly 50-year precedent in June and overruled Roe v. Wade. The decision means abortion access is no longer considered a constitutional right. 

At least a dozen states jumped on the court’s decision, enacting strict abortion restrictions and bans, with little to no exception. 

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It’s a situation that abortion policy and advocacy group Guttmacher Institute predicted, writing in its 2014 report that given 75 percent of abortion patients were poor or low-income, “any additional barriers to abortion care—including travel and its associated costs, such as lost wages and expenses for childcare, transportation and accommodations—may be significant for many women.”  

An abortion procedure itself can come with a hefty price tag, with the National Abortion Federation (NAF) saying the average cost of a first-trimester aspiration abortion is $508, while a medication abortion averages $535. A second-trimester abortion can cost more than $2,000. 

That cost could increase for thousands of people who now might also need to factor in travel expenses, like those living in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and more—all states that have enacted hostile abortion laws, restricting or outright banning the procedure, according to Center for Reproductive Rights. 

Take Alabama, which began enforcing a total abortion ban after Roe was overturned. 

The closest state to Alabama that offers legal abortions is Florida, which has its own restrictive 15-week abortion law in place. After that, the nearest state would be Illinois, which has enshrined the right to abortion within the state’s constitution.  

However, Illinois is over 700 miles away from Alabama—about a 12-hour drive. 

That means a trip to Illinois for many Alabama residents will require time off from work, childcare accommodations and even a plane ticket and hotel stay, all things that can be costly for a low-income person or family. 

The Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) told Changing America that during the first quarter of this year, 80 percent of the calls it received were from outside of Illinois—including Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.  

“I would say that pretty much everyone who calls the Chicago Abortion Fund is needing financial support to help them access care,” said Qudsiyyah Shariyf, deputy director of CAF. 

Shariyf said the financial needs span from the cost of the abortion appointment itself to having money to travel out-of-state to a legal abortion provider or being able to pay for childcare during the process. 

Not receiving a wanted abortion can compound poverty. The 2018 Turnaway Study found that because many women are already experiencing economic hardships at the time they seek an abortion, if they are denied one, they are three times more likely of being unemployed than women who are able to access an abortion. 

Elizabeth Anant, a professor of women and economics, explained in an analysis for Teachers College at Columbia University: “Short term, what you’re going to see is a rise in child poverty. Women use the access to abortion as one of the tools for family planning and for timing birth so that they come at a time when the parent is best able to support a family.” 

Source: TEST FEED1