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Biden confronts GOP on gas price criticism by questioning their support of Ukraine

President Biden on Wednesday pushed back on Republican lawmakers who lay the blame for high gas prices squarely on his administration by asking if they would have rather not supported Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“For all those Republicans in Congress criticizing me today for high gas prices in America, are you now saying we were wrong to support Ukraine? Are you saying we were wrong to stand up to Putin?” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

Rising gas prices have been exacerbated by the war in part due to the disruption it has caused on global energy markets due to sanctions placed on the Kremlin by the Biden administration and western Europe.

The president in his remarks on Wednesday officially backed the suspension of both federal and state taxes on gasoline. The effort to suspend the federal gas tax, which is 18 cents per gallon, would likely face challenges in Congress and has already drawn skepticism from GOP lawmakers.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have made a rare show of unity in their support of Ukraine, particularly when it comes to sending billions in U.S. military and monetary aid to help Kyiv fight off a Russian offensive.

 “Are you saying that we would rather have lower gas prices in America than Putin’s iron fist in Europe?” I don’t believe that,” Biden said, posing the question towards Republicans. 

Biden called it “nonsense” that Republicans accuse him of not doing enough to bring down gas prices. Biden also called on oil refinery companies to take steps to boost productivity to help alleviate gas prices. 

Democrats in Congress are also skeptical of the proposal, which Biden suggested be implemented until September meaning prices would rise again just two months before midterm elections. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement shortly after Biden’s speech that the consensus in Congress to pass a gas tax holiday remains to be seen.

“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President’s proposal in the House and the Senate,” Pelosi said.

Prices at the pump are averaging roughly $5 per gallon across the U.S., which the White House has consistently said are rising because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion into Ukraine and the disruption to the global energy markets it has caused.

“We could have turned a blind eye to Putin’s murderous ways and the price of gas wouldn’t have spiked the way it has. I believe that would have been wrong,” the president said.

“I promise you I’m doing everything possible, everything possible to bring the price of energy down, gas prices down,” he added. “And I want to make sure we all work on this together.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Why did the Uvalde schools police chief testify in private?

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) promised “transparency,” Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo exited secret closed-door testimony at the state Capitol on Tuesday, getting in an elevator while surrounded by law enforcement, without saying a word.

“I challenge the chief to come testify in public as to what happened here,” said Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) earlier in the day. “Don’t go hiding in the House. Come to the Senate where the public of Texas can ask these questions.”

Arredondo testified in front of a House committee, which, unlike the Senate hearing, was closed to the public. The committee chair, Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) said the investigative hearing is being held behind closed doors because of the “quasi-judicial nature” of their work.

“We’ve just now begin to see some things, to talk about some things, and I don’t want to be more part of the problem by giving a real-time accounting until we can be accurate,” Burrows said following the private hearing, “and make sure that we have a full complete representation of what it is that we’ve come to.”

Yet, DPS Director Steve McCraw also testified Tuesday, in public, about law enforcement’s response. During his testimony at the Senate’s special committee to “Protect All Texans,” McCraw called Arredondo’s handling of the massacre an “abject failure.” In gripping testimony, he revealed a minute-by-minute timeline of events, along with transcripts of police radio and phone calls made at the scene along with security details about communication capabilities and the school’s safety features, much of which was new.

The question that advocates of the first amendment are asking is why Arredondo’s testimony was kept secret, and why he was escorted into the chamber through a back door, out of public view.

“That right there shows that law enforcement information can be released to the public, should be released to the public,” said Kelley Shannon, the executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. “Law enforcement can release information about investigations any time they like and [do] if they have a motive to, or reason to.”

Shannon previously told KXAN she worries Texas’ so-called “Dead Suspect Loophole” could be used to block the release of public records that could shed light on what happened in Uvalde.

“The more information that comes out of this, and how the police handled it, the better,” said Shannon. “We want complete information. We don’t want snippets of information. We the public, starting with the citizens of Uvalde … want information about this so we can, hopefully, prevent it from happening again.”

KXAN has put in multiple public information requests with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Uvalde Police and Uvalde CISD.

Arredondo’s testimony came the same day Abbott promised transparency into what happened.

“All information the Office of the Governor has related to the shooting in Uvalde has already been released to the public or is in an expedited process of being released,” said Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze in a statement. “Governor Abbott has been adamant since day one that all information relating to the tragedy at Robb Elementary School be shared with the victims’ families, the Uvalde community, and the entire state.”

The governor’s office said it will work to make sure documents are released, including the full results of the investigations by the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

“The Governor wants all facts of this tragedy to be made public as quickly as possible and will do his part to achieve that goal,” said Eze.

Source: TEST FEED1

'THE': Ohio State awarded trademark on three-letter word

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio State University has successfully received a trademark on the word “THE.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Ohio State’s application Tuesday by issuing a registration certificate. It allows Ohio State to control use of “THE” on “clothing, namely, T-shirts, baseball caps and hats; all of the foregoing being promoted, distributed, and sold through channels customary to the field of sports and collegiate athletics,” the certificate reads.

In other words, that’s Ohio State apparel that may display only the word “THE” on them.

Ohio State had attempted as early as 2019 to trademark the word. In response to those questioning the move, it said at the time, “Like other institutions, Ohio State works to vigorously protect the university’s brand and trademarks because these assets hold significant value.”

As trademark attorney Josh Gerben detailed in a thread on social media, the process took years because a clothing company had filed its own application to trademark “THE” around the same time. Ohio State and Marc Jacobs, the clothing company, worked to resolve their dispute so both could claim use of the word on their products.

This is not the first time Ohio State has attempted to defend its trademark on something as simple as a common word. In 2019, it went to court with a high school apparel company over its use of the letter “O.”

For NFL fans living outside of The Buckeye State, an emphatic “THE Ohio State” might be a confusing but familiar reference made by players or broadcasters during a pre-kickoff introduction to the two teams.

The answer dates back to the 1980s, but the roots of the word’s inclusion go back to the 19th century, according to the school.

The “the” became a point of pride in 1986 when the university embraced the three-letter addition as a means of differentiating OSU from the other OSUs – Oregon State University and Oklahoma State University.

The “the” was also part of language included in state legislation when, in 1878, the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College was renamed “The Ohio State University,” according to OSU’s website.

Legend also has it that “The” was used to show the other colleges which institution was supposed to be the leader in the state – both in size and in financial support from the legislature.

Source: TEST FEED1

DeSantis edges Trump in New Hampshire poll

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) edges former President Trump in a poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters over their first choice for president in the upcoming 2024 election.

The new University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll released on Wednesday found DeSantis receiving 39 percent support from likely Republican primary voters in the state compared to 37 percent for Trump.

The difference between the two is insignificant and within the poll’s margin for error, meaning they are effectively tied at the top.

But it’s a significant rise for DeSantis in the poll. In previous polling conducted by the university, DeSantis had been trailing behind Trump, receiving 19 percent in July 2021 and 18 percent in October 2021. Trump, in contrast, had won 47 percent and 43 percent in those previous polls.

“Trump slipping in pre-primary polls is part of a typical pattern,” Director of the UNH Survey Center Andrew Smith said in a statement.

“A party’s losing candidate in the prior election is typically the best-known person in their party. As the primary gets closer, new candidates emerge and attract more media attention, and therefore more voter attention, than the losing candidate from the previous election,” he added.

Former Vice President Pence received 9 percent in the new poll, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received six percent. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) all received 1 percent each. 

This specific aspect of the University of New Hampshire poll surveyed 318 likely 2024 Republican primary voters. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.5 percent. 

Though none of the Republicans included in the poll have formally announced running in 2024, it has widely been speculated that some of them could enter the race should Trump decide against another run. 

The poll also demonstrates that DeSantis could be a formidable presidential challenger, though it is unclear if the Florida governor would run if Trump decides to jump into the race. DeSantis is also up for reelection this year as governor. 

However, the former president has remained confident that even if DeSantis did run, he would beat him for the Republican nomination.

“I don’t know if Ron is running, and I don’t ask him,” Trump said in a recent interview with The New Yorker. “It’s his prerogative. I think I would win.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump says 'go to the reporter' to find source of SCOTUS leak

Former president Trump suggested the Supreme Court look to the journalists at Politico who broke the bombshell story last month that a draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito would overturn Roe v. Wade, to find who leaked the document.

The story, written by reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, hinged on a leaked draft ruling from the court that sent shockwaves across the political and media landscape. The draft outlined the majority conservative court’s decision to overturn Roe, a landmark case that ruled abortion was constitutional.

In the days that followed Politico’s report, which was reportedly the most-viewed story in the history of the news organization, Congressional Republicans and conservative media figures expressed outrage that the opinion had been leaked before the court handed down its official decision on the matter and demanded the person responsible for the leak be found and punished.

“The U.S. Supreme Court must find reveal and punish the leaker,” Trump wrote in a post on his new startup social media website, Truth Social on Wednesday.

Trump suggested finding the source of the leak to Politico would be “very easy to do.”

“Go to the reporter who received the leak,” Trump said, adding “this is a tremendously serious matter that has never happened, to anywhere near this extent, before.”

Confidentiality between sources and journalists is key to the way reporters conduct their journalism and obtain information officials do not publicly provide. Courts have ruled in most cases government officials cannot legally compel journalists to reveal their sources.

Chief Justice John Roberts  has directed the marshal of the Supreme Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak shortly after the Politico story was published.

“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here,” Roberts said at the time. “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 committee delays hearing schedule until July

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is pressing pause on its hearings for next week and picking up again in July. 

Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters Wednesday that the committee would hold off on the two final hearings it had planned for this month. 

“There’s been a deluge of new evidence since we got started. And we just need to catch our breath, go through the new evidence, and then incorporate it into the hearings we have planned,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters. 

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) similarly mentioned a “mountain of new information.”

“I don’t think we’ve established a date yet, but we have a mountain of new information that’s come in that we have to go through,” Lofgren told The Hill. 

The committee has recently received more information from the National Archives and the committee.

But Raskin said it has received a “deluge” of  information from various sources — a comment that comes after the committee flashed its web address in the hopes of enticing new witnesses. 

The new evidence also includes recently turned over video footage from a British documentarian of the attack as well as interviews with former President Trump, his adult children and former Vice President Mike Pence — a figure the committee has been unable to convince to speak to investigators. 

The shift will leave Thursday’s hearing as the final event for the month of June. That session will focus on Trump’s pressure campaign at the Department of Justice. 

Mychael Schnell contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

A plan for CDC reform is long overdue

The last two years have demonstrated the harms of politicizing public health and of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has drifted away from its mission and core function as the nation’s public health fire department. 

Over 1,000,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and at the height of the pandemic, a $26 trillion economy contracted at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent mostly because of overreaching CDC-recommended infection control policies.

With roots stretching as far back as 1946 and expanded through the creation of the Epidemic Intelligence Center in 1951, the Communicable Disease Center, as it was then called, functioned to predict and protect America from infectious disease threats, most notably to fight malaria in war zones. Yet, over time, the agency’s core mission became diluted as bureaucracy expanded to encompass such concerns as environmental justice, health equity, and the social determinants of health.

Today, like a conglomerate of unrelated businesses lacking a clear strategic direction, the CDC tries to be all things to all people. Worryingly, this lack of strategic focus has produced a series of long-term operational failures, including the fact that despite investing over $1.1 billion in chronic disease prevention, the prevalence of diabetes and obesity in America has risen over the past decade. Other actions demonstrate a failure to understand basic strategy and operations, such as the creation of a disease forecasting center nearly two years into the worst global pandemic in a century.

And in the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a prism, magnifying the CDC’s weaknesses in what were prior core functions — forecasting, detecting and managing disease outbreaks. Operationally hamstrung by an unwieldy organizational configuration with 15 offices and centers reporting to the agency director, the CDC needs to return to a more focused and nimble structure. During the pandemic, the CDC struggled with crisis communications, early diagnostic test development, and transparent, timely, and sensible public health guidance on non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Simultaneously, the CDC failed to both anticipate and estimate basic tradeoffs in public health policy, such as the harms of school closures on childhood mental health, or lockdowns resulting in worsening of substance abuse and increased overdoses, or the CDC’s eviction moratorium, which expired July 31, 2021, while eventually struck down by the Supreme Court, still cost hundreds of thousands of landlords billions. Unlike nearly every other federal agency, the CDC exercised regulatory power without an opportunity for public input or evaluation of the economic effects of its policy decisions. The CDC failed at its core mission while contributing to the pandemic’s economic hardship.

Public mistrust also deepened as a consequence of constantly changing risk mitigation guidance founded on an unclear evidence base. The involvement of teachers’ unions — and not parental groups — politicized the CDC’s recommendations regarding the masking of students, and worsened public perceptions of what was once the country’s premier public health agency. This was subsequently compounded by opaque decision-making and even bureaucratic inaccessibility when the Department of Health and Human Services removed all departmental staff emails from the agency directory. The CDC today lacks accessible channels for feedback from the very public whose behavior it strives to change.

Americans have suffered at the hand of the CDC over the past two years. While the agency did commission a month-long “external” review by a small team of federal civil servants to demonstrate contrition, other public agency failures have prompted more thorough and incisive external reviews featuring a wide variety of stakeholders, including those economically affected by the agency’s decisions.

The CDC’s behavior during the pandemic calls for a congressionally-chartered commission to transparently review its performance, mission, and programs and help set the agency on a path back toward accountability for its original public health mission.

Recent congressional actions also highlight the frustration of politicians with the performance of the CDC. The proposed bipartisan legislation, the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats (PREVENT) and Pandemics Act requires the CDC to write a strategic plan every four years.

The failure of the very agency that is supposed to protect the nation from infectious disease and other public health threats, specifically, the CDC’s lack of preparedness when facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ignorance of the economic tradeoffs in public health policy, must never be repeated. The CDC must change, and this change won’t happen without an external motivating force.

Brian J. Miller is an assistant professor of Medicine and Business (Courtesy) at the Johns Hopkins University and a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Phillip Phan is Alonzo and Virginia Decker Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Carey Business School and professor of Medicine (Courtesy) at the Johns Hopkins University.

Source: TEST FEED1

Poliovirus detected in London sewage

Officials in the United Kingdom are investigating after they detected poliovirus in sewage samples from North and East London. 

The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a press release that finding one to three “vaccine-like” polioviruses in sewage samples is normal, but they have always not been detected again. The release states the agency found several closely related viruses between February and May. 

The release states the viruses can be described as “vaccine-derived,” resulting from individuals who were immunized with a live oral polio vaccine and “shed” traces of the vaccine-like virus in their feces. The virus can rarely cause serious illness, including paralysis, in individuals who are not fully vaccinated, but no associated cases of paralysis have been reported. 

The samples suggest there has “likely” been some spread between two closely linked individuals in North and East London and are shedding this strain of the virus in their feces. Officials will investigate if any community transmission is occurring. 

The last case of wild polio in the U.K. occurred in 1984, according to the release, and the country was declared polio-free in 2003. 

Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said in the release that vaccine-derived polio is rare and the risk to the public is low. 

Jane Clegg, the chief nurse for the U.K. National Health Service, said the NHS will begin reaching out to parents of children under 5 years old in London who are not up to date with their polio vaccines to encourage them to get vaccinated. But she said most London residents are fully vaccinated and do not need to take any action. 

“The UK is considered by the World Health Organization to be polio-free, with low-risk for polio transmission due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population,” the release said. “However, vaccine coverage for childhood vaccines has decreased nationally and especially in parts of London over the past few years, so UKHSA is urging people to check they are up to date with their vaccines.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Hoyer: More Jan. 6 hearings possible due to influx of new tips

The House panel examining last year’s mob attack on the U.S. Capitol might need to hold more hearings than initially expected due to public meetings this month that have resulted in new information being obtained by investigators, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said.

Hoyer said he spoke Wednesday morning with the select committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who indicated the panel has received a wave of new tips since it launched a series of public hearings in June. While Hoyer emphasized there’s been no final decision on staging additional hearings, the influx of new information might make that move necessary. 

“There may well be a need for further hearings based upon information that they are now receiving. We will see,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol. “I’m not saying there are going to be. But there may well be a decision by the committee to have further hearings on the information that has been elicited because of the hearings.”

Created by a vote of the House in June of last year, the bipartisan committee spent almost a year investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol before launching the public hearing phase earlier this month. The investigation has centered on the role played by former President Trump as he sought to use the powers of his office to overturn his election defeat — a months-long campaign that led a mob of Trump supporters to storm the Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from formalizing President Biden’s victory. 

Investigators say they’ve already interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and examined roughly 140,000 documents as part of the process. But they’ve also acknowledged that their narrative remains incomplete, largely because a number of Trump’s closest allies — including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — have refused to cooperate, even under congressional subpoena.

The committee has already staged four public hearings, with another one scheduled for Thursday. In each of the last two, Thompson has solicited help from viewers who might have additional insights into the Jan. 6 riot. According to members of the panel, the entreaties are bearing fruit. 

“The original hearings would have wrapped up in June, but we are picking up new evidence on a daily basis with enormous velocity,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who sits on the committee, said after Tuesday’s hearing. “And so we’re constantly incorporating and including the new information that’s coming out. So certainly the hearings will conclude before the end of the summer, but I don’t know that we’re going to make it by the end of June.”

Thompson on Wednesday told reporters that Thursday’s hearing — which will examine Trump’s campaign to pressure the Justice Department to help him flip the election results — will be the last of the month, since the House is scheduled to leave Washington on Friday for the two-week Fourth of July recess. 

Hoyer said the evidence presented by the committee has already revealed crimes that, in his eyes, amount to treason and insurrection. He suggested the influx of new information about the events of Jan. 6 might leave the committee no choice but to schedule more hearings, since a major objective of the select committee is to provide the public a window into exactly what happened that day. 

“The American people are the ultimate protectors of our democracy,” Hoyer said. “As they get more information, there may well be need for additional hearings so that the public will have the most information it possibly can.”

Mychael Schnell contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1