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Senate gun deal provides nationwide funding for mental health clinics

The bipartisan Senate deal aimed at preventing gun violence includes funding for a nationwide expansion of community mental health clinics, senators said Sunday.  

The proposal marks a significant move on mental health in addition to the measures aimed directly at guns.

The measure from Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) would provide funding nationwide for community mental health clinics that provide 24/7 mental health crisis response, substance abuse treatment, and other services.  

The clinics would be reimbursed through Medicaid, which the senators argue provides a more stable source of funding than one-time grants, which can run out.   

The package would expand the mental health clinic program nationwide, up from 10 states currently fully participating.  

“This bipartisan proposal builds on our work and will make sure health care above the neck is funded the same way as health care below the neck,” Stabenow said in a statement. “It’s time to get this across the finish line and expand these highly successful clinics to people in every corner of our country.” 

There are also other mental health measures included in the bipartisan package released Sunday, though the details have not been provided.  

The framework released by the bipartisan group of 20 senators calls for “major investments to increase access to mental health and suicide prevention programs” and funding for “school-based mental health and supportive services.” 

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the leaders of the overall effort, tweeted that there would be “billions in new funding for mental health and school safety, including money for the national build out of community mental health clinics,” though he did not provide an exact number.  

“For too long, emergency rooms and law enforcement have served as the de facto mental health care delivery system in our country,” Blunt said in a statement, also stressing the need to avoid stigmatizing all mental health issues as associated with violence, as advocates note as well.  

“It is important to remember that people who do have a mental health issue are more likely to be the victim of a crime than the perpetrator,” Blunt said.  

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New AFL-CIO leader eyeing tech sector for organizing

Liz Shuler, the new leader of the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, the AFL-CIO, said in an interview published Sunday that she is eyeing the tech sector for organizing efforts amid shifts in the U.S. workforce.

Shuler spoke to Axios along with Fred Redmond, AFL-CIO’s first Black secretary-treasurer, ahead of her confirmation as president at the group’s constitutional convention. She has been running the organization since longtime leader Richard Trumka’s death last summer.

The two mentioned the recent union votes at Amazon and Starbucks, but declined to say which tech companies were in their sights.

“It’s our moment to write the next chapter of the labor movement,” she added. “We are looking to seize on this moment to show that the labor movement is wide open — that we are open to transformational change.” 

Both leaders said targeting workers in the tech field was part of broader efforts to build more diversity within the labor movement.

“The emerging workforce is people of color, is young people, is women, particularly women of color,” Shuler told Axios. “This is not your granddaddy’s labor movement.”

The labor movement has seen a resurgence as the economy recovers from the pandemic, with workers emboldened by a tight labor market. President Biden has also promised to be “the most pro-union president in American history.”

Responding to polls last year showing that Americans’ opinion of labor unions is at a 60-year high, Schuler said the data “should send a clear message to Congress that union jobs are vital as we re-emerge from this pandemic with a stronger economy that is built upon the principles of fairness and equality.”

The AFL-CIO has been a leading voice in the push for the PRO Act, a pro-labor package that would strengthen the ability for unions to organize and collectively bargain.

However, despite support from Biden and many Democrats, the bill has made little progress in the Senate.

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Snoop Dogg gives full-time blunt roller a raise, cites inflation

(NEXSTAR) — Rapper Snoop Dogg says soaring prices are behind his recent decision to give one of his employees a raise.

The employee? His full-time personal blunt roller.

In a reply to UberFacts, which explained Snoop’s roller makes between $40,000 and $50,000 per year, the California rap legend wrote, “Inflation. Their salary went up!!”

Snoop first talked about this employee in a 2019 Howard Stern Show interview, Complex reports.

“That m———– is like Lurch from “The Addams Family.’ ‘You rang?’” said Snoop.

Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr., explained to Stern that rolling his blunts is the man’s “J-O-B, his occupation. On his resume, it says, ‘What do you do? I’m a blunt roller. P-B-R: Professional Blunt Roller.”

The 50 year-old “Drop It Like It’s Hot” rapper said the job comes with the added perk of free cannabis.

Actor Seth Rogen backed up Snoop’s claim, saying the employee can tell when someone “seems like they want a blunt.”

Snoop has been a vocal cannabis enthusiast and activist for decades.

In addition to an endless discography touting his love for smoking, Snoop founded Leafs by Snoop in 2015. Last year, Snoop told The Hollywood Reporter that while he appreciates increasing governmental and public support for legal cannabis sales, he hopes it’s not at the cost of people serving prison time for doing the same.

“I just feel like they’ve got to really go back and release everybody that’s in jail [for] marijuana if you’re going to make it legal. Imagine if drug dealers — I call them street vendors — were able to position themselves [in today’s industry],” Snoop told THR. “It’s so hard for Black men, it’s hard for people with criminal records, to get licensed, to get dispensaries. They put so many different hurdles in front of us to where it becomes like an industry that’s not for us, but we do all the promoting of it, buying it and making it what it is.”

Cannabis advocates have even taken to Snoop Dogg’s own concerts to get their own messages out.

In April, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws petitioned outside of the musician’s concert at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls. The organization said it collected hundreds of signatures to help get cannabis legalization on the state’s November 2022 ballot.

Campaign director Matthew Schweich told KELOLand: “It won’t surprise anyone that I didn’t encounter a single person who opposed cannabis legalization outside of a Snoop Dogg concert.”

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What’s at risk due to Russia's nuclear power dominance?

The impacts Western-allied countries are facing due to Moscow’s sway over global oil and natural gas markets are real and well understood by now, even if solutions remain difficult. But those nations also face another level of energy risk that has received less attention as the war in Ukraine drags on: Russia’s considerable share of the global nuclear power market.

Western leaders need to immediately consider their exposure to Russian nuclear exports and take steps to reduce it or face another energy shock at the hands of Putin.

There are several segments of the commercial nuclear value chain where a Russian supplier could impact the availability of a reactor in the West to provide power. For nuclear fuel, these include uranium mining and milling, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication. For existing Russian-designed reactors, they include providing unique original equipment manufacturer spare parts and services.

Russia has a significant market share in many of those pieces of the nuclear supply chain through its state-owned nuclear company Rosatom. For that reason, various countries around the world are caught in a challenging situation, including the U.S. They may want to extricate themselves from buying nuclear energy supplies from Rosatom to reduce supply chain risk and to stop sending money to Russia, but at the same time, they currently rely on Russian services and materials to run their reactors. 

As we laid out in a paper last month from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, various U.S. allied countries have Russian reactors in operation or under construction, including Finland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Ukraine. Those countries are at risk of their Russian-built reactors having operational difficulties or even outages without materials, equipment and services to maintain them. However, various Western manufacturing companies can over time start producing replacements to overcome that supply challenge.

The more critical issue is the uranium fuel supply chain. Since Russia only mines 6 percent of the world’s uranium, it is relatively easy for countries and nuclear power plant owners to secure other global sources of uranium ore. However, Russia controls 40 percent of the global uranium conversion market, where uranium oxide “yellow cake” is converted into uranium hexafluoride — a gaseous form needed for the enrichment process. Natural uranium has a Uranium-235 isotope content of 0.7 percent, and the enrichment process increases the U-235 content to the 3-5 percent needed to run nuclear reactors. And Russia holds 46 percent of uranium enrichment capacity. The vast majority of the 439 reactors around the world require enriched uranium fuel, including all reactors in the U.S. fleet. And while each reactor has varying levels of dependency on Russian enrichment services, in total it is a material exposure.

The stark reality is that if Russia stopped delivery of enriched uranium to U.S. power companies, the U.S. could see impacts on reactor operation possibly this year or next. That could lead to reactor outages, and given nuclear power is over 20 percent of the generation capacity in areas of the country, electricity prices would jump even further than today’s electricity price inflation. There may not be even enough power in those regions to cover demand. Furthermore, if there was any question that Russia might use its energy exports for political purposes, it was made clear this last month when it stopped natural gas deliveries to Poland, Bulgaria and Finland.

The U.S. needs some proactive policy and purchasing action to start to address this situation. For example, a U.S.-based conversion facility that has been idled for years now plans to restart in 2023 at half its nameplate capacity, but it could displace an even greater amount of Russian conversion services with support from U.S. government policy as well as purchases from private power companies. For enrichment, the U.S. government and private power companies could look at strategies to expand U.S. production and technology to replace the Russian supply as quickly as possible.

The three major companies that could expand production are the U.S. private company Centrus, the United Kingdom/Dutch/German-owned company Urenco, and French-owned company Orano. In addition, the U.S. needs a 100 percent U.S. technology uranium fuel chain for nuclear weapons and U.S. Navy reactor activities. The U.S. lost this capacity in 2013 when the last U.S. technology enrichment plant shut down, and the U.S. has been relying on old inventories for military purposes. This is another fragile part of the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain that should be reviewed for potential rebuilding. Russian leadership in important portions of the nuclear supply chain is another potential global energy sector risk. Policy and private sector investment will be needed to address this challenge, too. 

Russia’s war in Ukraine appears far from over. Moscow’s use of energy as a weapon to inflict pain on Ukraine’s allies may also be in the early stages. Western leaders need to take steps now to address their nations’ exposure to Russia’s hold over the nuclear power supply chain to save their economies from greater energy shocks later.

Matt Bowen Ph.D. is a research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University. The Honorable Paul Dabbar is a former Department of Energy undersecretary for Science and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy.

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March For Our Lives co-founder: Senate gun reform package should be beginning of Congress's work

David Hogg, a March For Our Lives co-founder and survivor of a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., is applauding a bipartisan group of senators for their framework on a gun reform package, saying it should not be the end of Congress’s work on the issue. 

“We’ve said this time is different, and it’s clear it is,” the 22-year-old said in a statement just after the senators announced the framework on Sunday. “Thousands of Americans this weekend, including Democrats, Republicans, and gun owners in 450 cities made clear that the Senate must bring this plan to a vote. We cannot wait any longer–lives literally hang in the balance.”

Hogg also said that he is “grateful” that the Senate bipartisan group worked to find “common ground” on this matter, saying that more work from Congress needs to be done to address this issue. 

“We need to be clear: there is more work to be done to save more lives, including requiring background checks for every single gun purchase nationwide. This bill, the first of its kind in 30 years, should be the beginning and not the end of Congress’ work,” Hogg said. “We must build upon the life-saving foundation it provides to go further and expand these laws until we bring an end to the epidemic of gun violence.”

Hogg added that March For Our Lives “will continue mobilizing our supporters nationwide to demand a vote on this bill and more federal legislation to end gun violence.”

Over the past week, the organization met with 70 lawmakers to demand gun reform legislation and held over 450 rallies across the country on Saturday. 

The senators’ framework includes funding for school safety resources, expanded background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21 and incentives for states to implement “red flag’ laws. 

The proposed legislation comes in response to the recent string of mass shootings in the U.S, which prompted more debate on gun control in the country. 

In a statement on Sunday, President Biden said he plans to sign the Senate’s gun reform package, adding “the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell touts support of 'bipartisan product' after Senate gun proposal announced

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday applauded a group of 20 senators who announced earlier in the day that they had reached a framework deal on potential gun legislation.

McConnell deputized Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to negotiate with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and other Democrats on gun-related measures following a string of high-profile mass shootings, including a massacre at an elementary school in Cornyn’s home state.

Cornyn and Murphy were part of the group of 20 senators who announced on Sunday a framework to provide incentives for states to implement “red flag” laws, increase funding for school security and mental health services.

“The principles they announced today show the value of dialogue and cooperation,” McConnell said in a statement.

Any bill would need 10 Republicans to sign on. That many GOP lawmakers signed the announcement released on Sunday.

McConnell said he hoped the lawmakers would come to a consensus on what he called a “bipartisan product”

“I continue to hope their discussions yield a bipartisan product that makes significant headway on key issues like mental health and school safety, respects the Second Amendment, earns broad support in the Senate and makes a difference for our country,” McConnell said on Sunday.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who has been involved in the negotiations, said last week he hoped half of his Senate Republican colleagues would vote for the potential bill.

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Biden chooses ‘lesser of two evils’ in navigating tough foreign policy

President Biden has pledged to have a foreign policy that advances the interests of the middle class. An example of this commitment is the administration’s support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s brutal invasion — a reflection of long-held American values. While Russian President Vladimir Putin was underestimating Biden’s ability to pull NATO and other allies together against Russia, Biden was busy working to isolate him. Putin miscalculated the resolve of democratic nations, led by the U.S., to respond to his egregious actions.

In analyzing Americans’ attitudes toward U.S. Ukrainian policy, Brookings Institution scholars Shibley Telhami and Stella Rouse found that “majorities of respondents approved of most aspects of policies related to the war in Ukraine. Majorities had favorable views of these policies, regardless of whether they were perceived to be initiated by the United States, in general, or ‘the Biden Administration,’ more specifically.”

Inflation is a domestic problem with global implications. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the circumstances that are causing inflation. It is a major concern for the middle class. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has said the administration is considering lifting tariffs on certain key products from China, which could help reduce inflation; economic analysis indicates there would be relief, albeit not profound, if some Chinese tariffs were lifted. Doing anything that even remotely looks like it benefits China is politically perilous, but the president may be willing to accept the consequences of controversy if it helps the middle class. It is worth noting that Secretary Raimondo also expressed strong support for legislation that would increase U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, which would negatively impact China. 

Perhaps the most controversial initiative the president is considering is his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia. The U.S.-Saudi relationship has become increasingly complicated since the October 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in which high-ranking Saudi leaders were implicated. The war in Yemen, which has caused a humanitarian crisis, and the United States’s backing away from Saudi strategy and tactics in that war are another example of how the U.S. is at odds with some Saudi policies. 

Saudi Arabia never has been a nation with democratic leanings. It is, as its name implies, a kingdom. The government has a close working relationship with its conservative Islamic clergy, which helps drive Saudi policy. At the same time, the U.S. historically has had a productive working relationship with the Saudi royal family, because it has been mutually beneficial.

The production and price of oil is central to U.S.-Saudi relations. The spiraling cost of gasoline, a key indicator of U.S. inflation problems and exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, must be managed. U.S. domestic oil production will increase, but there needs to be an immediate increase in global production if the cost of gas is to be controlled. Saudi Arabia is key to this effort. 

Nonetheless, it is important to point out that U.S.-Saudi relations are not based solely on oil production. For example, Saudi allies are normalizing relations with Israel and it would be beneficial to Israel and U.S. interests if the Saudis would follow suit. In addition, Saudi Arabia is a necessary hedge against Iran’s efforts to play a more assertive regional role. Finally, there needs to be pushback against the growing Saudi-Russia relationship.

Biden knows that a trip to Saudi Arabia and a meeting with its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), could send the wrong signal about the administration’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law. Biden undoubtedly will raise human rights concerns in his discussion with MBS. An argument can be made that a direct conversation with the crown prince is more effective than a cold shoulder. After all, engagement was part of the U.S.-Soviet relationship during the Cold War. The U.S. had to deal with the Soviets on important issues such as arms control, despite the Soviets’ abysmal human rights record. There was a measure of success in pursuing a human rights agenda with Soviet leadership, such as facilitating the emigration of members of the Soviet Jewish community.

Biden has been committed to promoting democracy and human rights throughout his career; the recent Summit for Democracy is an example. Building and preserving democracy is not an easy process. It often involves making tough choices, striking a balance between interests vs. values.

Cutting tariffs to China and reaching out to the Saudis are not without risks. There is no guarantee that a meeting will result in increased Saudi oil production, or that cutting tariffs on certain Chinese products will make a lasting difference in reducing inflation. But the president has shown a willingness to make tough choices. This is the right path to follow to ensure his foreign policy is favorable to the middle class. 

William Danvers is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School and worked on national security issues for the Clinton and Obama administrations.

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Kinzinger says Trump knew he lost the 2020 election

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), one of the two Republican members of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said on Sunday that he thinks former President Trump knew that he lost the 2020 presidential election ahead of the rioting. 

“I think if anybody truly believed after … what the attorney general says, for instance, after what every piece of information comes in, if you truly believe the election was stolen then, if the president truly believed that, for instance, he’s not mentally capable to be president. I think he didn’t believe it. I think the people around him didn’t believe it. This was all about keeping power against the will of the American people,” Kinzinger said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Kinzinger, who is not running for reelection, also said Trump “absolutely tried to overthrow the will of the people and he tried to do it initially through misinformation, through the Department of Justice, through pressuring the vice president, and then on Jan. 6.”

“And he was told repeatedly by people that he trusted, that he respected … folks around him, that the election wasn’t stolen, that there is no corroborating proof of any kind of a stealing or any kind of a corruption that would change the outcome,” he added.

“And so I think it’s pretty obvious he knew, but he didn’t want to lose.”

Kinzinger’s remarks come after the House panel’s first public hearing on Thursday night, which drew nearly 20 million viewers. The second hearing is scheduled for Monday morning.

Former Attorney General William Barr was shown during the first hearing in an interview with committee officials reiterating his belief that Trump’s allegations of election fraud in 2020 were “bullshit.” 

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With gravitas and grace, Liz Cheney ‘anchored’ Jan. 6 Committee hearing

Quick suggestion for any television organization looking for a new nightly news anchor: Hire Liz Cheney.

Like the opening episode of many highly anticipated TV programs, the first primetime installment this past week of the House Select Committee’s January 6 hearings was a bit of a jumble. There was a lot of exposition to set up the season-long story arc, and viewers were introduced to a crowded cast of characters — with plenty of hints of more plot twists and guest appearances yet to come.

Multiple story lines often lead to audience confusion — it can be hard to keep track of where things stand and where they’re going. In TV news, that’s where the anchor comes in.

Early on in the development of television, producers understood that viewers needed someone to guide them through what was a quick nightly summary of the day’s events. The front page of a newspaper was different: Readers could take their time scanning the top headlines, page through the first section and stop at reports that interested them. On TV, there was no time for any of that — viewers relied on a news anchor to take them through everything, to connect one story to the next, and make the broadcast feel like a unified whole rather than a random collection of fact, figures and film clips.

Rep. Cheney (R-Wyo.) did that Thursday night in a polished and sober manner that conjured up what the best television professionals do on cable and broadcast.

The committee has reportedly hired James Goldston, former president of ABC News, to help them put together presentations that would carry the primetime programming. Goldston very likely understood that the first hearing could easily dissolve into disorder, with important information and testimony lost on viewers just trying to keep up.

He needed an anchor. That was Cheney.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) also presented well, but Cheney had the tougher TV challenge.

She sought to lay out in clear terms a complex, multi-layered case stripped down to its essentials. Her 20-minute presentation was basically an evening newscast for a national audience focused on one important story.

She also brought what television producers like to call “gravitas” — a vital quality for any successful anchor. It’s that feeling of confidence viewers get watching a particular newscaster deliver the headlines: the sense that he or she knows each story in detail, understands the context, and can be trusted to get it right.

Gravitas can’t be taught, and it really can’t be faked — although you can probably find people trying to do just that on any given news channel most hours of the day. That impression of dignity and poise often comes from the anchor’s career history — for years, most network correspondents had to do tours of duty in war zones and at the White House before getting tapped for the big job. That background helped them develop trust with the audience.

For many watching last Thursday, Cheney’s experience since Jan. 6 conferred that elusive quality of gravitas. As she guided viewers through difficult video and detailed depositions, it was hard not to keep in mind the battles she’s fought within her own party’s hierarchy. That history gave her presentation an understated forcefulness: She didn’t have anything to prove. She wasn’t some ambitious reporter climbing the network ladder, trying too hard to please and impress. She was confident. The camera loves confidence.

There are other key committee members, of course, and they’ll get their turns in the spotlight over the next couple of weeks — as they should. But producers for the committee would be smart to lead each night with Cheney, have her deliver the top headlines and set the table for that night’s episode. She’s what show business calls a “cross-over” talent — appealing to wide segments of an otherwise fractured audience.

When the hearings are finished, Cheney will most likely turn her attention to her re-election campaign in Wyoming. But if, at some point, she considers a possible career change, there are a few high-profile anchor chairs she might find a lot more comfortable than a hot seat in Congress.

Joe Ferullo is an award-winning media executive, producer and journalist and former executive vice president of programming for CBS Television Distribution. He was a news executive for NBC, a writer-producer for “Dateline NBC” and worked for ABC News. Follow him on Twitter @ironworker1.

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