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Yellowstone mountain's 'derogatory' name changed

(NEXSTAR) – Mount Doane, a mountain within Yellowstone National Park, has a new name as part of the Department of Interior’s process to remove derogatory terms from the names of federal lands.

In a November order, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, in addition to declaring “squaw” a derogatory term, kickstarted the process to review and replace derogatory names of the nation’s geographic features.

Following a 15-0 vote by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names – the federal body responsible for “maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government” – Mount Doane becomes the latest feature to be renamed. It is now named First Peoples Mountain, the National Park Service announced.

The 10,551-foot peak found east of Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming was previously named after U.S. Army Lt. Gustavus Doane.

Who is Gustavus Doane?

Doane was born in Illinois in 1840 but grew up in California, according to Montana State University. After graduating from the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, he enlisted in a volunteer unit known as the California Hundred. The unit was later absorbed by the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.

In 1867, Doane became mayor of Yazoo, City, Mississippi, before becoming a second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Cavalry. For the next 24 years, Doane served with this unit and was stationed throughout Montana, California, and Arizona. Doane was part of the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition in 1870, where he and others explored present-day Yellowstone National Park.

After a white fur trader was allegedly murdered, Doane led an attack on a band of Piegan Blackfeet, research has found. The Marias Massacre of 1870 left at least 173 American Indians dead, including women, children suffering from smallpox, and elderly Tribal members.

“Doane wrote fondly about this attack and bragged about it for the rest of his life,” NPS explained.

Doane also tried – and failed – to become superintendent of the park toward the end of his life, Montana State University reports.

Renaming Mount Doane

Following suggestions from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council, votes within the Wyoming Board of Geographic Names, and support from NPS, the vote to rename Mount Doane was held earlier this month.

In the months leading up to the vote, Yellowstone officials spoke with 27 associated Tribes and said there was no opposition to the name First Peoples Mountain. The park may have additional features renamed to remove derogatory or inappropriate names.

Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier calls the name change “long overdue.”

According to the Board of Geographic Names, there are 17 other geographic features with ‘Doane’ in their name, including Doane Peak in Grand Teton National Park. Not all of the sites are named after Gustavus Doane, though, like Sam Doane Mountain in North Carolina.

“Words matter, particularly in our work to make our nation’s public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Consideration of these replacements is a big step forward in our efforts to remove derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue,” Haaland said earlier this year.

Both the Secretary of the Interior and the Board on Geographic Names have previously nixed other derogatory terms. In the 1960s and 70s, derogatory terms related to Black and Japanese people were eliminated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: TEST FEED1

Who is Bill Stepien and why is he testifying on Jan. 6

On Monday, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will host its second public hearing and hear additional testimony from witnesses including former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien.

Stepien, who was subpoenaed by the committee last November, managed the former president’s 2020 reelection campaign.

He is currently an adviser to Harriet Hageman, a Trump-endorsed opponent to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), according to The New York Times. Cheney is the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee.

Stepien reportedly “supervised the conversion” within Trump’s campaign around “Stop the Steal” messaging and associated fundraising, the committee said at the time of his subpoena.

That messaging “included the promotion of certain false claims related to voting machines despite an internal campaign memo in which campaign staff determined such claims were false,” the committee added.

But when Stepien took over Trump’s campaign in 2020, he was viewed as an operative with ties to the traditional GOP establishment.

“Bill knows who the boss is, but I also think he’s willing to tell the boss in the appropriate forum when he thinks the boss is making a mistake,” former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), said in 2020. “His greatest attribute is he knows what he doesn’t know, so he’s willing to ask questions.”

Stepien was one of the closest advisers to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) until he was sacked in 2014 over the “Bridgegate” scandal, in which the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey’s Fort Lee to New York City was reportedly closed off to punish a political opponent. 

Christie said he was “disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude of callous indifference” in emails from Stepien at the time, adding that it “made me lose my confidence in Bill’s judgment.”

But in 2020, the former governor walked those statements back, praising Stepien as Trump’s new campaign manager.

Stepien attended Rutgers University, where he was an academic all-American hockey player. After that, he worked in ​​state and local Republican campaigns in New Jersey, on former President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign and on voter turnout programs for the Republican National Committee. 

He also ran field programs for the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) after he secured his presidential nomination in 2008 and for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

Stepien worked for Giuliani alongside Jason Miller, another former Trump strategist. Both Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer, and Miller were also subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee. 

In addition to Stepien, the Monday morning hearing will include testimony from former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg, former U.S. Attorney BJay Pak and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the committee announced on Sunday. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Abrams invites Biden and Harris to campaign for her in Georgia

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) invited President Biden and Vice President Harris to join her on the campaign trail during an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday.

Host Symone Sanders, who previously served as a senior adviser to Harris, asked Abrams whether White House support could be expected in her battle against Gov. Brian Kemp (R).

Abrams, who won her party’s nomination late last month after facing no challenger, said she would welcome their appearance.

“We invite anyone who wants to see Georgia move forward to come here, and that means President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,” Abrams said. “But what we’re talking about are the needs of the state of Georgia.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Abrams-Kemp election is a rematch from 2018, when Kemp narrowly won.

Kemp easily fended off a primary challenge by former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who was endorsed by former President Trump.

After losing to Kemp almost four years ago, Abrams and a team of grassroots organizations registered more than 800,000 voters in 2020. Biden won the state by nearly 12,000 votes, and Democrats flipped both of Georgia’s senate seats in a runoff election weeks later.

Abrams is hoping to win the governor’s mansion in November on a platform that includes combating voter suppression and expanding affordable housing.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House faces uphill challenge getting kids under 5 vaccinated

The Biden administration faces an uphill battle to convince parents to give COVID-19 shots to children under 5 years old.

More than a year and a half after the first vaccines were authorized for adults, federal regulators and outside advisory panels will finally meet on Wednesday to examine data from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech about their shots’ effectiveness in the youngest children.

If all goes well and the vaccines get authorized, the administration is planning a massive public education campaign to help make sure parents can have their questions answered and learn about the importance of getting their children vaccinated.

Officials have outlined a plan that includes partnering with the online What to Expect community, as well as a range of national organizations, including a “speaker’s bureau” of pediatricians and family physicians who will be able to answer questions about the shots at community events. 

Vaccines will be distributed across thousands of different sites, but the administration will focus on frontline providers including pediatricians and primary care doctors, as that is where they expect many families will want to go. 

“Our lessons from the past have taught us that in addition to us speaking directly to the public, that our partnerships — partnerships we built over the last 18 months — are going to be critical here — partnerships with doctors and nurses, with faith leaders, with educators, and with community organizations across the country,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said.

Children under 5 are the last group eligible to be vaccinated, and there are about 18 million of them who would become eligible. But infectious disease experts think it’s an open question just how strong demand will be.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha said vaccination campaigns and building vaccine confidence takes time, especially if you need to earn peoples’ trust. 

“It builds with trusted voices, physicians, faith leaders, others helping people get vaccinated. This is not a one-and-done, this is not an automatic. That’s what we have seen for kids 12 and above. We’re continuing to see that with kids 5 to 11. And we expect that to be an ongoing journey for kids under 5,” Jha said. 

But Jha said the administration doesn’t have internal targets for the initial vaccination rate.

Julie Morita, a pediatrician and executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said it’s important for trusted providers to listen to and address parents’ concerns, and that won’t happen overnight. 

“The reason that parents pause or may not get their children vaccinated is because they’re trying to do what they think is best for their children. And they may have questions or concerns about the safety or the efficacy of the vaccine. And so as pediatricians, as health care providers, … it’s really in our best interest and in the patient’s best interest to really spend the time to talk with the parents, understand what their specific questions and concerns are, and then really address those questions and concerns and over time, work with them to get their children vaccinated,” Morita said.

While some parents of tots are eager to get them vaccinated as soon as possible, the numbers have lagged for older children. Only about 30 percent of kids ages 5 to 11 have been vaccinated with two doses, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. 

An April poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that less than a fifth of parents of kids under 5 were eager to vaccinate them right away. About half said they definitely wouldn’t, or would do so only if required. 

Some parents have expressed concerns about side effects, or that the vaccine is worse than the disease. Others are just ready to get back to normal.

Rupali Limaye, a vaccine expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the widespread acceptance of the virus as a part of everyday life will likely contribute to reduced vaccination rates among the youngest kids.

“Most people here in the states kind of think COVID is over. I think there’s a lot of complacency even compared to a few months ago. And as a result, I think that’s gonna be a key factor here with regards to risk perception,” Limaye said. 

The administration’s efforts to partner with trusted messengers are commendable, Limaye said, but the public’s risk perception ultimately matters more.

“I think if people are done with the pandemic, I think that supersedes everything else. I think the trusted messengers, obviously, are very critical and are important. But honestly, I think at this point, people are like, it’s here to stay, what’s the point, why would we get a shot?” Limaye said.  

Rachael Piltch-Loeb, a fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the long gap between the initial rollout of adult vaccines and the expected authorization of kids’ shots will also likely prove to be an enthusiasm barrier.

“I think that initial excitement around the vaccine would have been significantly higher if we were talking about a year ago,” Piltch-Loeb said, but added that it was important to rush out shots for the most vulnerable first.

“I think the fact that initial data on COVID was showing that there were other populations that were at higher risk for severe infection, morbidity and mortality meant that those populations should be prioritized,” Piltch-Loeb said. “But I do think that the point in time we are at in the pandemic is not necessarily incentivizing parents to get the vaccine for their kids.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden says any potential Saudi trip would not relate to energy

President Biden said Saturday he has not yet decided about making a possible trip to Saudi Arabia but said any potential visit to the kingdom would not relate to energy.

But in answering a follow-up question, Biden appeared to suggest he was going – and that he wasn’t waiting for any specific commitments from officials in Riyadh.

“No. Not yet,” Biden replied in response to a question about whether he had decided to go to Saudi Arabia.

But when asked what was holding up the decision and whether it had to do with waiting for commitments from the Saudis or negotiations over peace talks, Biden said it was not, then referred to a larger meeting in the kingdom that he suggested he would attend.

“The commitments from the Saudis don’t relate to anything having to do with energy,” the president said.  “It happens to be a larger meeting taking place in Saudi Arabia. That’s the reason I’m going,” he said. “And it has to do with national security for them, for Israelis…  It has to do with much larger issues than having to do with the energy piece.”

Several outlets have reported in recent weeks that Biden is planning to go to the kingdom and potentially meet with its Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, known as MBS, partially in an effort to stabilize global oil markets amid skyrocketing gas prices and icing out Russia amid its war in Ukraine.

The Hill reported earlier this month that discussions about the visit were taking place but that it was still in the planning stages.

A trip to the kingdom and a meeting with Prince Mohammad would prove controversial, with lawmakers and group’s critical of its dismal human rights record likely to voice opposition.

The larger meeting Biden referred to was likely the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting expected to be held in Riyadh later this month, which is likely to dovetail with an expected visit by Biden to Israel.

Source: TEST FEED1

Former Trump campaign manager to testify before Jan. 6 committee on Monday

Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien will testify Monday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Stepien will be joined by other witnesses for the week’s first hearing that include former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia BJay Pak, conservative election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg and Al Schmidt, the former city commissioner of Philadelphia, according to an announcement by the committee.

The Jan. 6 committee, which held its first public hearing on the Capitol attack in primetime on Thursday, is gearing up for daytime hearings this week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Lawmakers say they will tell a comprehensive narrative that places Trump at the center of the attack and show he is culpable for the rioting.

Stepien was first subpoenaed by the committee last November.

He is a longtime GOP operative who replaced Brad Parscale as Trump’s campaign manager in the months leading up to the 2020 election. Stepien was involved in the Trump campaign’s efforts to mount legal challenges to vote totals in several states he lost that year.

Stepien worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and later served as White House political director.

The committee’s focus on Stepien includes his participation in the “Stop the Steal” effort, including fundraising and messaging that “included the promotion of certain false claims related to voting machines despite an internal campaign memo in which campaign staff determined that such claims were false.” 

Stepien is now helping the campaign of Harriet Hageman, according to Politico. She is challenging Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair and one of two Republicans who sit on the Jan. 6 committee.

Stirewalt is a former top editor at Fox News who made the decision to call Arizona in favor of Biden on election night. 

In an interview on Friday, Stirewalt said he hopes the hearings will allow people to be “clear eyed and sturdy footed knowing that we can keep our constitutional system in place.”

“This is the first time in the history of the country that we really threatened the peaceful transfer of power,” he said. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen in 2024.” 

The committee will also be hearing from Schmidt, a Republican election official in Philadelphia who drew Trump’s ire after he refused to say the 2020 election was rigged or rife with fraud. He stepped down from his post as city commissioner last year after receiving death threats.

Pak, the first Korean American to become a U.S. attorney, resigned from his Atlanta, Ga., post just days before the Jan. 6 rioting. Georgia became a focus of Trump’s efforts and the former president is alleged to have pressured election leaders there to overturn the election results in his favor.

Ginsberg is a conservative election lawyer and political law expert with over 38 years of experience in the field. He is also a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University’s center in Washington, D.C.

Ginsberg was previously a co-chair of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration, a bipartisan group that works to improve election administration. He’s also written op-eds in newspapers criticizing claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, including in the New York Times.

Updated 5:03 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Bernanke sees decent chance for Fed to pull off a 'soft-ish landing'

Former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke said in an interview on Sunday that he thought the Fed could address inflation with a “soft-ish landing,” to avoid a recession. 

When asked by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria if he agreed with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers’s assessment that the Fed could induce a recession to tackle inflation, Bernanke disagreed.

“I think a recession is possible. Economists are very bad at predicting recessions, but I think the Fed has a decent chance, a reasonable chance at achieving what [Jerome] Powell calls a soft-ish landing, either no recession or a very mild recession to bring inflation down” he said, referring to the current Fed chair.

Bernanke was also asked if he thought the current state of the economy was similar to stagflation seen in the 1970s and if it felt like the U.S. was out of economic tools to solve problems. 

“Do you feel like we are in a situation like that today?” Zakaria asked.

“No, I don’t,” Bernanke said.  

“A very basic difference is that the inflation of the 70s lasted for 13 or 14 years and not six months, so people became very, very used to inflation and a huge inflation psychology developed,” he continued. 

“I think it’s a very different situation. Today, we have a Federal Reserve that knows it’s responsible for inflation. It’s going to take the lead. It’s got a lot of credibility. We’ve had low inflation now for 40 years. It’s got political support,” he added. 

Bernanke’s remarks come as inflation has soared in the past few months. In May, the annual inflation rate was the fastest yearly growth in prices since inflation reached 8.9 percent annually in December 1981. 

“Inflation is hitting not only the volatile food and energy categories, which themselves look to persist at high levels, especially food, but has moved deeply into services and shelter costs, while remaining high in goods categories we thought were cooling off,” Robert Frick, chief corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in an analysis last week. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Brookings president resigns amid investigation into foreign lobbying

Retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen resigned as president of the Brookings Institution on Sunday as federal authorities investigate his lobbying on behalf of Qatar.

Glenn Hutchins and Suzanne Nora Johnson, the co-chairs of the think tank’s board, announced Allen’s departure in an email to Brookings staff after he submitted a resignation letter dated Sunday.

“We want to thank John for his contributions to Brookings, including his leadership in successfully guiding the institution during the pandemic, as well as his many years of service and sacrifice for our country,” Hutchins and Johnson wrote in the email.

Brookings had placed Allen on administrative leave on Wednesday, one day after the Associated Press reported that the FBI seized Allen’s electronic data in connection with the investigation. 

Authorities allege Allen made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in the lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation. Allen has not been charged with any crimes and has previously denied any wrongdoing.

In his resignation letter, Allen said he was “honored” to lead the think tank through the COVID-19 pandemic, also touting its recent focus on social justice and emerging technologies.

“While I leave the institution with a heavy heart, I know it is best for all concerned in this moment,” he wrote.

Before becoming president of Brookings in 2017, Allen served as the special presidential envoy for the global coalition against ISIL in the Obama administration and a variety of other military roles.

“I spent forty-five years in dedicated service to the American people and United States, serving our country and our precious citizens in peace, crisis and war,” Allen wrote in his resignation letter. “I did so with the greatest sense of humility and pride in having been part of something greater than myself.”

The co-chairs of Brookings’ board said Ted Gayer will serve as acting president until his previously announced departure later this summer, adding that arrangements for an ongoing interim leader and the search for a permanent president will be announced later.

“The integrity and objectivity of Brookings’s scholarship constitute the institution’s principal assets, and Brookings seeks to maintain high ethical standards in all its operations,” the co-chairs wrote. “Our policies on research independence and integrity reflect these values.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 committee promises to zero in on Trump's 'dereliction of duty'

Lawmakers serving on the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol riot promised on Sunday that upcoming hearings would continue to examine former President Trump’s culpability in the attack plus reveal further details about GOP lawmakers who sought pardons for their role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the panel has assembled a “comprehensive tick-tock timeline” of Trump’s role that day as well as his inaction in calling off the rioters sooner.

“[Y]ou know, this man had the microphone; he could speak to the whole country. His duty was to stand up and say something and try to stop this. So, we’ll talk about that and what I see to be his dereliction of duty, and he had a duty to act,” Luria said.

At last Thursday’s primetime hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of two Republicans on the panel, suggested for the first time that GOP House lawmakers had sought pardons from the Trump White House for their role in overturning the election.

Details about that have been scant since, but Luria said more information about those efforts would be revealed in upcoming hearings. When asked if lawmakers had “hard evidence” of the requests, Luria said: “We do.”

It’s unclear how many lawmakers sought the pardons, but Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is also on the panel, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” it was more than one.

“It is multiple members of Congress, as the vice chair said, at our opening hearing,” Raskin said. “And, all in due course, the details will surface.”

When co-host Dana Bash asked if investigators had evidence, Raskin replied: “everything we’re doing is documented by evidence.”

On Wednesday, the committee is expected to focus on the Justice Department and Trump’s attempt to influence it to help him overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“[W]hat I think is going to become clear across the compilation of these hearings is that, you know, this seven-part plan we’re going to lay out was every lever of government.” Luria said. “They were attempting to use those and, you know, whichever one they could pull and would have some influence, they moved forward with it.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” the panel had “very powerful” evidence that Trump’s lies about the election inspired the Jan. 6 mob. He also said they will show a “connection” between white nationalist groups and members of Trump’s orbit.

“What’s important, again, is the broad context of all of this, the knowledge prior to Jan. 6, that there were going to be violent white nationalist groups, assembling along with others on that mall,” Schiff said. “And the decision by the president nonetheless to incite that mob and do nothing while that attack was taking place.”

Last Thursday’s hearing prompted some Republicans to speak out against Trump on Sunday, despite the always looming threat that the former president may retaliate against them. 

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) slammed Trump for not stopping the rioting during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) told “Fox News Sunday” guest host Bret Baier that Trump was personally responsible for the rioting on Jan. 6, even if he has not been held criminally liable.

“Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that,” Hutchinson said, adding that Jan. 6 was a “costly error” for democracy. “Republicans need to do a lot of soul searching as to what is the right thing here and what is the right thing for our democracy in the future and not simply adhere to the basic instincts of some of our base.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told “Fox News Sunday” the U.S. was “at risk of a season of political violence” if Americans do not “reduce the temper and level of our rhetoric.”

In the first hearing, the panel showed members of Trump’s inner-circle, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr, agreeing that no election fraud had occurred.

They also shared disturbing videos of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, which pitted rioters against police officers, and presented testimony from Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was knocked unconscious during the attack, which she described as “carnage.”

Nick Quested, a documentarian who filmed the rioting and members of the far-right group the Proud Boys, also testified before the panel. He explained what he and his crew captured on video, including a secret meeting between Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes in a parking garage.

Quested on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that he was aware he and his crew filmed “multiple crimes” on Jan. 6. 

“I’m used to covering conflicts abroad and I can process that and I can separate that from my life. But to see it from the country I live in was particularly problematic,” he said on NBC. “I think America has become so divided, I don’t know if there is commonality anymore.”

Both Rhodes and Tarrio have been charged with seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge that accuses the militia leaders of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government.

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the other Republican serving on the committee, agreed with the notion that the panel’s work extended far beyond just the day of the riot that included building a bigger argument centered on Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

But Kinzinger, who is not running for re-election, said he did not believe the committee’s public-facing work would change much if Trump were to run again and be re-elected

“The thing that is most concerning to me is nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed since January 6, if they want to run that play again, they will put more loyal people into the administration earlier on. It is important for the American people to see this, to take ownership over this, and make a decision what kind of country we want to live in.”

Source: TEST FEED1