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Uvalde, Buffalo underscore issue of gun violence against people of color

After mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas, left more than 30 people dead in two weeks, witnesses testified before Congress about how their lives were irrevocably changed.  

But a pattern quickly emerged — almost all the witnesses were people of color. 

These tragic events have reignited calls within communities of color for lawmakers to take action and curb gun violence, much of which disproportionately affects people of color.  

The NAACP reported that 50 percent of all gun-related homicide victims are Black, and gun violence is the number one killer of Black Americans between the ages of 15 and 34.  

However, advocates and survivors of gun violence say that in order to help communities of color, racism must also be addressed.  

Gregory Jackson, a survivor of gun violence, told The Hill that he was interrogated by law enforcement before getting to see a doctor or surgeon after he was shot.  

“I nearly bled to death,” he said. “Black and Brown folks are seen as criminals first and patients or people second.” 

Jackson is now the executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, a non-profit dedicated to ending gun violence in Black and Brown communities. The organization was founded after the 2015 massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina.  

When it comes to gun violence in predominantly Black communities, Jackson said, it’s often assumed to be part of gang violence or criminal activity. But only 11 percent of homicides in the Black community are connected directly to gang violence, and only 30 percent are connected to another felony. 

“What’s really connected to all of the violence is not crime, but trauma and the lack of resources to treat that trauma,” said Jackson. “It’s very clear that most people who commit a violent offense were a victim first.”  

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the experiences of trauma “the social determinants of life.”  

“If people had the education, were not in poverty, if they had jobs, mentors, their neighborhoods were invested into, there were after school programs and hobbies that they could pursue, I think things would look different,” she said. 

In Buffalo, most of the victims that died after the shooting were Black, and the incident took place in a majority-Black neighborhood that suffered economic inequality, food deserts and redlining that has historically prevented Black families from building wealth. 

Jackson argued that when a community outsider attacked, it highlighted the systemic inequities that made the community “vulnerable.”  

“In Buffalo, the community said they felt like because they had no real protection, they were vulnerable on top of everything else they were struggling with,” he said. 

Latino leaders have also expressed concerns about widespread gun violence.  

In her testimony to Congress following the Uvalde shooting, Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS, demanded recognizing gun violence as a public health crisis, one that requires significant support for mental health services.  

Laura MacCleery, senior policy director for UnidosUS, said that also includes requiring gun licenses the same way drivers’ licenses exist and limiting the number of firearms on the streets. 

“For way too many communities, gun violence is an everyday phenomenon,” said MacCleery. “In countries that have more guns more easily obtainable to more people, there is more gun violence.” 

Latino children and teens are three times more likely to be killed by guns than their white peers. Everytown for Gun Safety reported more than 4,100 Latino people die from gun violence in the U.S. every year, 60 percent of which are homicides.  

“Too much gun violence happens between family members, between people who know each other in some other way, suicide and homicide,” MacCleery said. “A lot of the gun policies, if they are effective in reducing those kinds of “ordinary” forms of gun violence, are equally important to consider.” 

But in recent years, the Latino community has been the victim of several mass shootings.  

In 2019, a white nationalist killed 23 Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; in 2016, a gunman massacred 49 people, 36 of whom were Hispanic, during “Latin Night” at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. 

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said these attacks are, in some ways, “permissible.”  

She pointed to the Walmart shooting, where the gunman drove 10 hours to kill Mexican immigrants.  

“He repeated language and phrases that Donald Trump stated from the most powerful bully pulpit in the world,” she said. “We also saw in Buffalo a very similar pattern of white supremacy. Racism and white supremacy are absolutely nothing new in our country, but especially during the Trump years, there’s been permission granted to white supremacists to espouse their hate and there are very few consequences.” 

Following these tragedies, Latino voters in battleground states are in favor of gun control legislation.  

In a new Voto Latino poll, a majority of Latinos expressed concerns about their personal safety from gun violence. A majority also said they support “common sense gun safety laws” introduced by Democrats. 

On Tuesday, the Senate agreed on a bipartisan bill that would provide funding for mental health services and take guns away from dangerous people, something Escobar said she wholeheartedly supports.  

But the bill doesn’t ban assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines or expand background-check requirements for gun purchases, which critics argue could bar white nationalists from obtaining these kinds of weapons.   

Kelly argued that Congress may not be able to track all white nationalists, but there are steps that can be taken to create an environment that discourages hate groups from getting their hands on assault weapons. 

“If the FBI or whoever has names of a white nationalist on a list then if they go to buy a gun, I think that’s something that should pop up that we need to vet as deeply as we can,” said Kelly.  

“This is not saying take guns away from people but as a Black person, I don’t want to be a sitting duck or someone’s target practice because I’m Black.” 

Kelly’s sentiments are indicative of a larger sense of anxiety in the Black community.  

In the first half of 2021, over 90 percent of gun retailers reported an increase in Black men purchasing firearms and nearly 87 percent reported an increase in Black women purchasing firearms, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.  

Those sales increases came after the FBI reported a nearly 40 percent rise in anti-Black hate crimes in 2020. 

Lucretia Hughes Klucken, whose son died from gun violence at 19, testified before Congress that owning a gun provides a sense of safety.   

“We must prepare to be our own first responders to protect ourselves and our loved ones,” Klucken said in her testimony. “I am a legal, law-abiding citizen. I don’t need the government to save me. I teach people how to use firearms and empower others that look like me to understand that the Second Amendment is their right, too.” 

Jackson, who testified after Klucken, said these feelings are understandable. But he also said he knows a gun wouldn’t have saved his life.  

“Most of these situations are happening extremely fast,” he said. That’s why getting guns off the streets and putting resources into communities instead is the best option, he added. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Ron Johnson embroiled in controversy over staff handing Pence fake electors list

Conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who faces a tough re-election race this year, finds himself embroiled in new controversy after the House Jan. 6 Select Committee revealed Tuesday that his staff attempted to hand a list of fake electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence.  

Johnson is facing tough questions about how much he knew of his staff’s effort to get Pence to recognize an alternate set of electors for Michigan and Wisconsin, two critical states that helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election.  

Johnson on Wednesday declined to say whether he authorized his aide Sean Riley to hand the list electors to Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, or whether he knew beforehand what his aide planned to do. He also declined to say whether he knew the contents of the envelope that was to be given to Pence’s staff. 

“This happened so fast, this is 18 months ago. This just happened, we took care of it. End of story. There’s nothing else to say about this,” he said when asked what he knew of the transaction. 

“There’s nothing else to say about this,” he said, accusing reporters who asked him for more details of “carrying water for the Democrat Party.” 

Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Johnson, issued a statement Tuesday claiming that Johnson “had no foreknowledge” that the fake slate of electors was going to be delivered to his office and generally minimized his involvement in the attempted transaction.  

“The senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office. This was a staff-to-staff exchange. His new Chief of Staff contacted the Vice President’s office,” Henning tweeted.  

But Johnson told reporters Tuesday afternoon “I was basically unaware of it.” 

“My chief of staff contacted the vice president’s staff and said, ‘Do you want this?’ They said ‘no’ and we didn’t deliver it and that’s the end of story,” he said.  

Johnson said “somebody delivered” the envelope to his office, and that asked that his staff deliver it to the vice president. The senator declined to say who reached out to his office.  

Asked Tuesday afternoon whether he supported the effort to get the slate of electors to Pence, Johnson said “I had no knowledge of this.” 

“I had no idea this was even going to be delivered to us. It got delivered staff to staff. My chief of staff did the right thing, contacted the vice president’s staff. They said they didn’t want it so we didn’t deliver it,” he said.  

But even fellow Republicans find it hard to believe that Johnson’s aide would be bold enough to give a fake slate of electors to Pence in attempt to stop the certification of Biden’s victory without alerting his boss in advance.  

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday said he wants to know more about who was involved to the effort to get Pence to throw out the duly elected electors for Michigan and Wisconsin.  

“My initial reaction was one of shock. Then Sen. Johnson said he was unaware of it. I and others like myself would like to dig into that, find out just who knew what and when. Obviously an attempt a false slate of electors would strike at the heart of our democracy,” he said.  

The House panel investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol on Tuesday made public a chain of texts showing Riley’s attempts to set up a hand-off between the senator and vice president.  

“Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise,” Johnson’s aide texted Pence aide, Chris Hodgson, shortly before Congress convened in a joint session to certify the election results.  

When Hodgson asked what it was, Riley texted: “Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them.” 

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson replied tersely.  

The revelation outraged Johnson’s Democratic colleagues, who say that his staff may have broken the law by attempting to submit a false set of electors to Pence.  

“Absolutely appalling if that took place,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). “I hope the details are fully explored by the press in a way that people get their hands around and understand how significant that is when you start trying to substitute electors from what a state has certified and submitted.” 

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), whose state’s duly elected electors might have been thrown out if Pence accepted and deployed the contents of the envelope, said trying to overturn the results of a legitimate election would be a violation of law. 

“First of all, it’s horrifying that they actually had a separate group of electors and thought that was okay. I don’t know what happened with Sen. Johnson but he certainly has promoted the ‘Big Lie,’” Stabenow said.  

Asked whether an Ethics Committee investigation is warranted, Stabenow said, “It is very serious. We’ll leave it to the Ethics Committee.” 

But she added “it’s serious if he in anyway was acknowledging any of this as legitimate.” 

“Fake electors literally would be an effort to overturn the government,” she added.  

Johnson said Democrats are already attacking him over the attempted hand-off.  

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is running in the Senate Democratic primary to challenge Johnson in November, accused the Republican senator of trying to undermine democracy.  

“He literally tried to hand Mike Pence fake ballots. Once again, Ron Johnson has proven he’s a danger to our country and our fundamental rights. I’m calling for him to resign immediately,” Barnes said.  

Philip Schulman, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said instead of focusing on what’s best for Wisconsinites, “Johnson’s focus in Washington is working to undermine democracy.”

A Marquette Law School Poll of 803 registered Wisconsin voters released on Wednesday showed Barnes leading Johnson 46 percent to 44 percent in a hypothetic matchup.  

The same poll showed Johnson trailing Democratic candidate Sarah Godlewski by two points and narrowly beating Democratic candidate Alex Lasry by three points.  

Brandon Scholz, a Wisconsin-based Republican strategist, however, predicted the impact of the Jan. 6 committee’s revelation will have little impact on the outcome of the Senate race.  

“Not many people care,” he said of the news coming out of the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings. “It really is kind of a D.C. show. Whether or not this has any traction amongst voters here, today I would tell you no.” 

Scholz said there’s “so much content” in the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation that “it bounces off people.” 

He acknowledged that Democratic voters are going to be fired up over the revelation “but they’re not going to vote for Ron Johnson anyway.”

And, he said, “I don’t think Republicans are going to take this as something that’s going to cause them to vote against Johnson.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 panel to hear from DOJ officials who battled Trump's 'misuse' of agency

Justice Department officials’ unwavering resistance to then-President Trump’s attempts to use their agency to legitimize his bid to remain in office will be the focus of Thursday’s hearing from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

“In the remaining weeks of the transition, President Trump tried to pressure the Department of Justice and help him overturn the 2020 election,” a select committee aide told reporters Wednesday.

“We’ll look specifically at how the president was trying to misuse the department to advance his own agenda to stay in power at the end of his term.”

The Department of Justice was met with a barrage of requests from Trump: that they publicly back his baseless claims of election fraud; that they file lawsuits alongside his campaign; that they announce a special legal counsel to investigate the matter; and, later, that they send letters to states asking them to hold off on certifying their election results while DOJ investigated alleged fraud. 

When none of that worked, Trump weighed firing his DOJ leadership and installing a man who would: Jeffrey Clark. 

The pressure campaign then burst into an hours-long meeting at the White House, where DOJ officials and White House lawyers united in warning Trump that any such move would lead to mass resignations. 

“Mr. President, these aren’t bureaucratic leftovers from another administration … What happens if, within 48 hours, we have hundreds of resignations from your Justice Department because of your actions? What does that say about your leadership?” then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue previously told the committee he asked Trump.

The panel is pledging to take viewers “into the Oval Office” for that crucial Jan. 3 meeting.

Joining the committee Thursday is former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, alongside his deputy Donoghue. Also appearing is Steven Engel, who led the Office of Legal Counsel at the time. 

Donoghue, one of the earliest figures to speak with the committee’s investigators, has already appeared consistently through its slate of hearings, with audio from his testimony used to debunk Trump voter fraud claims. 

Donoghue has previously offered “blunt and direct” remarks about his standoff with Clark, a mid-level attorney at DOJ who specialized in environmental law and who was introduced to Trump by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).

Clark will not be appearing, but excerpts from his deposition where he repeatedly relied on his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination are expected to be shown. 

“Jeff Clark certainly was advocating for change in leadership that would put him at the top of the Department, and everyone else in the room was advocating against that and talking about what a disaster this would be,” Donoghue said, according to portions of his deposition and others that were released by the committee in a March court filing.

“He repeatedly said to the president that, if he was put in the seat, he would conduct real investigations that would, in his view, uncover widespread fraud; he would send out the letter that he had drafted; and that this was a last opportunity to sort of set things straight with this defective election, and that he could do it, and he had the intelligence and the will and the desire to pursue these matters in the way that the president thought most appropriate.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), one of only two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel, is expected to take an elevated role in walking through the evidence and questioning the trio of witnesses.

It’s the committee’s last hearing this month after deciding to push its final two – or possibly more – into July after receiving new evidence in its ongoing investigation.

Many of the details of Trump’s pressure campaign at DOJ were documented by The New York Times shortly after President Biden’s inauguration and again in an October report from the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as the Jan. 6 House committee’s March filing.

“Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me,” Trump was reported to have said in a December meeting.

The committee has also relied heavily on clips from former Attorney General Bill Barr in saying the Justice Department was unable to substantiate his “absolute rubbish” voter fraud allegations.

It’s unclear if the panel will offer further details on Perry’s role in the effort after revealing in its first hearing that he was among those to seek a presidential pardon. Committee aides also refused to answer whether it was Sydney Powell — a Trump campaign lawyer who is now facing possible disbarment in Texas due to her false claims in court — whom Trump eyed as a potential special counsel.

“In every hearing there are parts of the story that have already been known,” a committee aide said. “There are parts of the story that haven’t been told yet. So, we will be providing greater context.”

Source: TEST FEED1

US gas pipeline leaks occur every 40 hours: report

U.S. natural gas pipelines are experiencing the equivalent of one leak every 40 hours, a new report has found.

From 2010 to 2021, almost 2,600 such leaks occurred that were serious enough to require federal reporting — with 850 resulting from fires and 328 from explosions, according to the study, released by U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) Educational Fund.

These incidents killed 122 people and injured 603, with total costs in property damage, emergency services and the value of unintentionally released gas totaling nearly $4 billion, the authors observed.

Such events also led to the leakage of 26.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas — the equivalent to more than 2.4 million passenger vehicles driven for a year, according to the report, published together with Environment America Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group think tank.

“House explosions and leaking pipelines aren’t isolated incidents — they’re the result of an energy system that pipes dangerous, explosive gas across the country and through our neighborhoods,” co-author Matt Casale, environment campaigns director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund, said in a statement.

“It’s time to move away from gas in this country and toward safer, cleaner electrification and renewable energy,” he added.

To draw their conclusions, Casale and his colleagues sifted through federal leak reporting data available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The authors — who referred to natural gas by its primary component of methane rather than using the word “natural” — stressed that the amount of gas leaking into the environment is likely far greater than the quantity captured in federal leak reporting.

Citing a Science study from 2018, they noted that leaks from gas lines over two decades had nearly doubled the climate impact of natural gas.

The resultant warming was on par with that of carbon dioxide-emitting coal plants, the study found, noting that while methane doesn’t persist in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide does, its warming effects are much stronger.

Natural gas releases can occur intentionally when a utility needs to lower pressure or empty pipelines for maintenance, or they can happen due to wear, equipment failure, natural causes, accidental force or puncture, according to the U.S. PIRG report.

While Environmental Protection Agency data showed that emissions from natural gas transmission had fallen significantly between 1990 and 2016, progress has slowed since, the authors found. 

They also expressed concern that some information regarding deaths and injuries might not be available in the federal leak reporting database, since not all the leaks occur in the pipeline system.

A considerable volume of leaks might be overlooked particularly in urban areas, the report found, citing a 2021 Harvard University study.

That study, they explained, found that methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure and use in U.S. cities was two to 10 times greater than federal estimates indicated. Meanwhile, Boston’s emissions were six times higher than those reported by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

More than half of those emissions came from non-pipeline sources both in and out of homes, according to the U.S. PIRG report.

“Leaks, fires and explosions are reminders that transporting methane gas is dangerous business,” report lead author Tony Dutzik, associate director and senior policy analyst at Frontier Group, said in a statement.

Moving forward, the report authors recommended that the U.S. curb its reliance on natural gas for home heating and cooking as well as for electricity generation.

They argued that policymakers should instead incentivize the transition to all-electric buildings and renewable energy. And in the interim, they suggested focusing gas infrastructure investments on fixing leaks.

“Fully protecting the public requires us to reduce our dependence on gas,” Dutzik added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Former Defense secretary says China 'could bring Taiwan to its knees' without invading

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates discussed China’s chokehold on Taiwan amid rising tensions between the two on the most recent episode of the “One Decision” podcast.

Gates talked to former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and international journalist Julia Macfarlane about major international concerns for the U.S., saying he does not believe China will invade Taiwan. 

“I personally think the likelihood of a full-scale invasion is very low. The Chinese have never undertaken an amphibious operation. It would look something like D-Day and it would have to be huge, and it would require a lot of softening up,” Gates said. 

Concerns of an invasion rose after Russia attacked Ukraine, with some afraid the action would embolden China to take its own measures against Taiwan. 

Taiwan says it is an independent country, while Beijing insists the island is part of China. The U.S. has supported Taiwan with weapons and training but does not formally recognize the island as independent from China. 

However, Gates says there is more to be concerned about than just an invasion. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping “can bring enormous pressure on Taiwan without ever firing a shot through cyber and through economic measures. He could bring Taiwan to its knees and create huge incentives for Taiwan to have a very different attitude toward China.”

The podcast discussed multiple international affairs, including the invasion of Ukraine.

“Just to illustrate expectations, we now know that the Russians who actually came down from the north and were headed for Kyiv had five days’ logistic support and actually had packed their ceremonial uniforms for the victory parade in Kyiv. That’s how confident they were,” Gates said. 

He continued to say Russian forces were so confident in the support they would receive that they paid off local governments and trusted them to follow Russian orders, but that was not the locals’ plan. 

“Someone told me that the Russians had paid off a lot of the local governments, but that the people that they had paid off, who they expected, as it were, to side with them immediately, were under the control of the Ukrainian services and had been told to act as though they were accepting the payoff and that they would get the balance of the money later. In fact, the Russians were really suckered into thinking that a lot of the local administrations north of Kyiv would welcome them,” he said. 

Russia and Ukraine are going into their fourth month of war as Russian forces were unsuccessful at taking Kyiv, but are making up ground in the eastern Donbas region.

Source: TEST FEED1

The 20 House Republicans who voted against the package to address substance abuse, mental health

Twenty House Republicans voted against a package on Wednesday that includes provisions aimed at addressing mental health and substance abuse.

The legislation, dubbed the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, cleared the House in a 402-20 vote. Six Republicans and one Democrat did not cast votes.

The lawmakers who voted against it were: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Bob Good (Va.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Michael Guest (Miss.), Clay Higgins (La.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Mary Miller (Ill.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Chip Roy (Texas), Greg Steube (Fla.) and Van Taylor (Texas).

The package seeks to set up a Behavior Health Crisis Coordinating Office within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that would strengthen access to crisis care.

Additionally, it reauthorizes grants for community mental health services supporting adults with mental illnesses and children with emotional disturbances, and calls for more research into the effects smartphone and social media use have on adolescents when it comes to health and development.

In a video posted on Twitter, Biggs said he opposed the legislation because the federal government does not have the authority to get involved in the matter.

“I want to talk to you about a bill that I voted no on today, H.R. 7666, which is Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022. Now that sounds good, but there really is no constitutional authority for the federal government to get involved in that,” he said.

He argued that the U.S. has seen “greatest efficacy” when these matters are overseen by state and local government for local churches, community clinics and associations.

“The problem is the federal government getting involved in something it has no expertise in, and it’s gonna spend more money on administrative costs ultimately than actually providing services,” he said.

“That’s why it need to be left at the local level,” he added.

In a separate video posted on Twitter, Burchett said the measure “allegedly” deals with mental health, and described it as “woke.”

He also argued that the measure is taking away “what the states have the right to do and just furthers more federal programs.”

Source: TEST FEED1

House passes package addressing mental health, 20 Republicans vote ‘no’

The House passed a bipartisan package on Wednesday that seeks to address mental health and substance abuse in the U.S.

The legislation, titled the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, passed in a 402-20 vote. Six Republicans and one Democrat did not vote.

All 20 “no” votes came from Republicans: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Bob Good (Va.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Michael Guest (Miss.), Clay Higgins (La.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Mary Miller (Ill.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Chip Roy (Texas), Greg Steube (Fla.) and Van Taylor (Texas).

The package calls for creating a Behavioral Health Crisis Coordinating Office in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which would be tasked with bolstering access to crisis care. The office would receive $5 million per year starting in fiscal year 2023 until fiscal year 2027.

It also reauthorizes millions of dollars in grants for states, territories, tribes and tribal organizations to go towards community mental health services for adults who have serious mental illnesses, and children who live with grave emotional disturbances. Up to five percent of that funding can go towards early intervention activities.

Additionally, the legislation reauthorizes a number of programs that address mental health, and calls for promoting the availability of high-quality housing and services that are dedicated to recovery for people who have substance use disorders.

And it compels the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to direct or support research that looks into the effect smartphone and social media use have on the health and development of adolescents.

Mental health concerns have increased around the world. The prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent globally in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a scientific brief released by the World Health Organization in March.

The Biden administration expressed support for the package on Tuesday. In a statement of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the legislation “will provide essential investments to build up our mental health and substance use care system.”

“The Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022 will help build a more robust behavioral health crisis system in the United States by investing in crisis response and addressing mental health and substance use disorder needs in communities,” the OMB added.

In a statement following passage of the package, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), a sponsor of the legislation, noted the elevated levels of anxiety and depression.

“This bill is needed today more than ever. Americans report rising anxiety and depression and increased use of opioids and other substances,” Pallone said.

“The Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act will help restore hope for millions of Americans. The legislation strengthens and expands more than 30 critical programs that collectively support mental health care and substance use disorder prevention, care, treatment, and recovery support services in communities across the nation,” he added.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), another sponsor of the package, hailed its package.

“I am grateful for all my colleagues who led on many solutions in this bill, and for the strong bipartisan work that led to today’s passage in the People’s House,” she wrote in a statement.

“Our goal is to continue to build on this for stronger families, stronger communities, and a brighter future for all,” she added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Thompson says Jan. 6 committee redoing Mo Brooks subpoena

The chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot told reporters on Wednesday that they had redone a subpoena for Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) after failing to find to serve an initial subpoena. 

“I have redone his subpoena. You know, we hadn’t been able to serve [him]  – he’s the only member we hadn’t been able to serve. So we are in the process of either redoing it or it’s out the door already,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said.

Thompson explained subpoenas only last for a certain period of time before they need to be reissued and those trying to serve Brooks “couldn’t find him. He hadn’t been here, he’d been campaigning, running for the Senate.”

Brooks on Wednesday said he would be willing to testify, according to CNN, but only about issues related to Jan. 6. He also reportedly said he wants to see any documents he may be asked about in advance.

“My basic requirement is it be in public so the public can see it — so they don’t get bits and pieces dribbled out,” Brooks said, according to the network.

Brooks has previously also made several stipulations on conditions that would need to be met for him to testify before the panel, including that only lawmakers on the committee should ask him questions and that it needed to be made public.

“I don’t want this witch hunt committee and [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] trying to interfere with a Republican primary election for the United States Senate in Alabama,” Brooks said on “Fox News Sunday” last month.

The runoff in that race took place Tuesday and Brooks lost to Katie Britt.

Asked if the panel would be willing to agree to Brooks’ terms, Thompson said “He hadn’t said that to us.”

“We will address anything that comes to us,” he added later.

It is not the first time officials have struggled to find Brooks to serve him. In a separate case, Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) legal team served Brooks a lawsuit related to the Capitol riot last June after trying to find him for months, according to Axios. 

The Hill has reached out to a spokesperson for Brooks for comment. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Shaquille O'Neal to donate DJ show proceeds to Buffalo shooting victims' families

Shaquille O’Neal will donate the proceeds from his upcoming DJ set in Buffalo to the families of the victims of the TOPS market shooting.

The NBA star-turned-DJ who now performs under the name “DJ Diesel” made the announcement during a Tuesday interview with Sirius XM host Swaggy Sie.

“My next show is in Buffalo, and I’m going to donate my proceeds to some of the family members who had a tragic loss,” he said at the Governor’s Ball music festival.

The basketball superstar also revealed that he loses money by performing.

“It ain’t about the money for me,” he said, noting his love for the art and helping people.

Shaq’s donation comes days after the U.S. Department of Justice filed federal hate crime charges against the accused Buffalo supermarket shooter. Payton Gendron faces 26 counts, including 10 counts of a hate crime resulting in death, for allegedly killing 10 and injuring three others during the racially-motivated May 14 attack.

Gendron previously pleaded not guilty to a 25-count indictment filed by a New York grand jury.

Source: TEST FEED1