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Florida health care providers challenge state's 15-week abortion ban

A group of Florida health care providers filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the state’s 15-week abortion law, which will go into effect next month.

The legislation, signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in April, will go into effect on July 1.

The law will ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy and doesn’t include exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking. However, the law does stipulate several exceptions, including cases in which a fatal abnormality is found on a fetus or an abortion is needed to save the life or prevent serious injury to the pregnant person.

The lawsuit alleges that the bill — H.B. 5 — “radically curtails the ability of Floridians to make decisions about whether or not to continue a pregnancy and have a child,” which the petitioners say is in violation of their rights under the Florida Constitution.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Florida, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the law firm Jenner & Block said they filed this lawsuit on behalf of a number of health care providers.

The plaintiffs added that without an injunction, the act will prevent Floridians from “exercising their fundamental constitutional right to decide whether to have an abortion prior to viability, causing irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law.”

The filing also highlights the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in the 1980s that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

The lawsuit added that the law will force people to remain pregnant and give birth “against their will.” In effect, these people will see “increased risks” to their health and their lives.

It added that the new law “threatens the stability and security of their existing families and children, and denies them the autonomy and dignity to direct the course of their own lives.”

In a press release, the Center for Reproductive Rights said that Florida’s 15-week ban would have “devastating” effects on abortion access not just in the state but the surrounding region as well.

“Floridians already face burdensome restrictions to getting an abortion — such as a ban on insurance plans on the state exchange covering abortion; a parental consent requirement that makes it harder for young people to get abortions; and a law that requires people to make an additional, unnecessary trip to an abortion provider before receiving care, which took effect in April,” it added.

Source: TEST FEED1

NYC council member enters crowded 10th district House primary

New York City Council member Carlina Rivera has joined the crowded field of Democrats vying to represent New York’s 10th congressional district, a seat left open by the state’s new controversial redistricting map.

A number of Democrats have since jumped into the race, including former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Mondaine Jones (D-N.Y.), New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who led House Democrats during then-President Trump’s first impeachment proceedings.

River’s announcement on Wednesday comes nearly two weeks after a New York Supreme Court justice approved a new congressional map for the Empire State. The primary is scheduled for Aug. 23.

“The issues New Yorkers face have only grown in their impact, but my record proves I’m well equipped to help deliver solutions as a Member of Congress, just like I have as a member of the City Council,” Rivera said in a statement.

She pointed to inequalities that have been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the government has to “adapt to a new generation.”

“After two years of a pandemic exacerbating inequities among so many of our communities, the need for our government to adapt to a new generation and the issues we face has never been clearer — and New Yorkers are hungry for leadership and vision that’s as bold as it is pragmatic in taking on those fights,” she wrote.

In announcing the bid, Rivera’s campaign highlighted achievements when it comes to reproductive rights, housing, jobs, climate change and public safety. According to the campaign, Rivera championed the establishment of a municipal program that funds abortion care for individuals who cannot fully afford the service, and she helped drive the creation of the first digital skills training center in New York City.

In a video rolling out her campaign, Rivera said “I’m running for Congress to continue delivering for the communities that raised me, to make ours a city that works for all of us.”

Rivera was born and raised in Manhattan and has served on the city council since 2018.

Source: TEST FEED1

Authorities seize domain names after probe into sales of stolen personal information

Federal authorities have seized the internet domain names of numerous websites amid an investigation into the sale of stolen personal information online and cyberattacks for hire.

In a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement on Wednesday, authorities said that the websites — including weleakinfo.to, ipstress.in and ovh-booter.com — were seized in a coordinated effort with the National Police Corps of the Netherlands and the Federal Police of Belgium

According to court documents, authorities said that weleakinfo.to had obtained more than 10,000 data breaches containing 7 billion indexed records, which included names, email addresses, usernames, phone numbers and passwords for various online accounts. 

Weleakinfo.to, whose domain was previously seized by the DOJ and federal authorities in January 2020, also sold subscription services for users to access the results of various data breaches.

The ipstress.in and ovh-booter.com websites also offered users distributed denial of service attacks, a cyberattack technique that uses multiple internet-enabled devices to overwhelm a server, making its target website inaccessible.

Authorities said users of the seized websites will now find a banner notifying them of the law enforcement action.

“Today, the FBI and the Department stopped two distressingly common threats: websites trafficking in stolen personal information and sites which attack and disrupt legitimate internet businesses,” Washington, D.C., District Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement. 

 “Cyber crime often crosses national borders. Using strong working relationships with our international law enforcement partners, we will address crimes like these that threaten privacy, security, and commerce around the globe,” Graves added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Internal campaign poll shows Godlewski leading in Wisconsin Democratic Senate primary

Wisconsin state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski (D) is leading in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, according to an internal campaign polling memo exclusively obtained by The Hill.

The poll, which was conducted by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling on behalf of Godlewski’s campaign, shows Godlewski leading the pack at 35 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters, while Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry follow at 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson was not tested in the poll.

Three percent of voters said they supported “someone else,” while 20 percent said they were “not sure.” 

Godlewski’s campaign wrote in the memo that the internal poll shows she is making gains ahead of the primary.

“Godlewski has made the most significant gains of any candidate in recent months following her communications on prescription drugs and, notably, choice,” the campaign wrote. “She has more than doubled her vote from the Marquette University Law School poll in April, continuing her upward trajectory as the campaign heads into the critical summer months.”

Additionally, the memo found that abortion rights are a major issue among Wisconsin Democratic primary voters. Eighty percent said the leak of the Supreme Court decision that showed the high court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade makes them more motivated to vote in the primary. Those findings include 67 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, who said it makes them “much more motivated.” Seventy-five percent of female likely Democratic primary voters said the issue made them “much more motivated” to vote, while 52 percent of men said the same.

Godlewski, who is the only woman running in the primary, has zeroed in on the issue of abortion rights, releasing an ad hitting incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) over the issue. She was the first candidate in the primary to release an ad on the issue.

The primary’s other Democratic candidates have also spoken out in favor of abortion rights following the leak. Lasry also released an ad last month vowing to be a “relentless supporter of a woman’s right to choose.” Barnes spoke at an abortion rights rally last month and called for Roe v. Wade to be codified.

Polls show a tightening race ahead of the Aug. 9 primary. An internal poll released by Lasry’s team last week showed Barnes at 31 percent support among likely Democratic voters, with Lasry close behind at 31 percent support. Godlewski came in at 18 percent support, while Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson received five percent support. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, a Marquette University Law School poll from April showed Barnes at 19 percent support and Lasry at 16 percent support. Godlewski and Nelson came in at 7 percent and five percent support, respectively. That poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percent.

The Public Policy Poll was conducted among 566 likely Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin from My 23-24. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Source: TEST FEED1

It’s time to close a gaping import loophole to improve US competitiveness against China

As Congress finalizes legislation to improve the nation’s competitiveness, it should address a glaring loophole that, left open, would undermine the stated purpose of the bill. Left untouched, certain importers will continue to exploit a legal provision of U.S. trade law that rewards China, letting millions of products into the U.S. market duty free that otherwise would be subject to tariffs, penalty tariffs, taxes and inspection.

This loophole allows a package of goods valued at $800 or less to come into the country per person every day without paying duties or customs inspections. And, while it’s called a “de minimis” mechanism, it’s no longer small or trivial, as the Latin phrase suggests. 

More than 2 million packages a day now flood into the United States using the de minimis mechanism. A wide range of consumer products, pharmaceutical and health care items make it to our doorsteps with such little scrutiny that we have no idea who is making these products, whether they are made with forced labor, or whether they are safe to use. By the click of the button, these items make it into our closets and medicine cabinets. In fact, they get rewarded by current U.S. trade policy.

This legal loophole allows these products to come in duty free and legally evade the penalty tariffs we have against China and others. What’s the purpose of a free trade agreement or trade enforcement mechanism if we simultaneously provide an easy way to work around them?

This puts American companies at a competitive disadvantage and makes U.S. manufacturing jobs disappear. With the explosion in e-commerce shipments, de minimis waivers have become a tool that certain importers exploit to allow them to import more cheap products into the U.S. market.

With the rapid rise of e-commerce, coupled with Congress raising the duty-free limit from $200 to $800 in 2016, foreign competitors were quick to act. Multibillion-dollar Chinese companies, U.S. e-commerce platforms and express shippers are capitalizing on it.

Further alarming is the way this mechanism helps facilitate the importation of products from the Xinjiang region of China. Virtually all Chinese cotton is grown and processed in Xinjiang using the forced labor of the Uyghur Muslim minority population, which has been subjected to countless atrocities that the U.S. government has deemed “genocide.” Undoubtedly, millions of products from Xinjiang now slip undetected into the United States.

The de minimis loophole is so large and wide that House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) recently noted “it is a loophole that you can drive an air cargo plane through.” Customs agents don’t have the tools to know where the goods originate or who is making them.

The Chinese government would never let American companies enjoy similar advantages to sell to their consumers. Its own de minimis threshold is a meager $7. The United States has one of the highest in the world at $800. While we hold our door wide open, the Chinese government wisely keeps its door virtually shut. An $800 versus $7 limit is hardly a reciprocal arrangement. Instead, we’re unilaterally giving China a massive tax and trade concession. The very least we should do is match China’s $7 threshold.

The American textile manufacturing sector, in particular, has paid a high price for China’s meteoric export growth. China’s dominance in global textile and apparel markets—which has led to shuttered U.S. plants and lost jobs—has been aided by substantial state ownership of manufacturing, export subsidies and rampant violations of intellectual property rights. Those abuses are egregious enough without adding in the exploitation of the de minimis procedure, too.

That’s why a broad array of American businesses, labor unions and consumer protection groups support closing the loophole.

It’s time to close this harmful loophole. The House-passed version of the competitiveness legislation, the America COMPETES Act, would do just that through a provision sponsored by Blumenauer that would end China’s ability to use the mechanism. The Senate version of the bill retains the status quo. The time to act is now, to ensure the Blumenauer provision remains in the final reconciled House and Senate China bill.

Congress is on the verge of taking long-overdue action to improve American competitiveness. But it will seriously undercut the legislation’s goal if it leaves wide open a back-door reward for China and certain importers. Let’s close the door so U.S. manufacturers can compete.

Kim Glas is the president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations and is an appointed commissioner to the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, and former Commerce deputy assistant secretary for textiles and apparel.

Source: TEST FEED1

Minimizing common air pollutant could lead to better crop yields: study

Eliminating one common air pollutant from the atmosphere could lead to considerable gains in agricultural production, a new study has found.

Nitrogen oxides — gases found in car exhaust and industrial emissions — pose a significant threat to global crop yields, according to a report in Science Advances, published on Wednesday.

These findings, uncovered through satellite imagery, could have significant implications for boosting agricultural output and determining climate change mitigation costs, the authors explained.

“Nitrogen oxides are invisible to humans, but new satellites have been able to map them with incredibly high precision,” study lead author David Lobell, of Stanford University’s Center on Food Security and the Environment, said in a statement.

“Since we can also measure crop production from space, this opened up the chance to rapidly improve our knowledge of how these gases affect agriculture in different regions,” Lobell added.

While scientists have long recognized the potential of nitrogen oxides to be damaging, little was understood about their actual effects on crop yields, the authors explained.

Nitrogen oxides can both directly damage crop cells and indirectly impact them through their role as precursors to the generation of ozone, according to the study. Ozone is an airborne toxin known to hamper crop success.  

Past research into the impact of nitrogen oxides on agricultural productivity has been limited by a lack of overlap between air monitoring stations and farmlands, as well as the confounding effect of other pollutants, the authors explained.

To minimize these obstacles, Lobell and his colleagues looked at both satellite measurements of crop greenness and levels of nitrogen dioxide — a good indicator for total nitrogen oxides — for 2018-2020.

Based on their observations, the researchers estimated that reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by about half would improve yields by about 25 percent for winter crops and 15 percent for summer crops in China.

Doing so would improve yields by 10 percent for both winter and summer crops in Western Europe, as well as 6 percent for winter crops and 8 percent for summer crops in India, according to the study.

North America generally demonstrated the lowest nitrogen oxide exposures, the authors found.

Actions that could help decrease nitrogen oxide emissions — like vehicle electrification — are in line with those “needed to slow climate change and improve local air quality for human health,” co-author Jennifer Burney, an associate professor of environmental science at the University of California, San Diego, said in a statement.

“The main take-home from this study is that the agricultural benefits of these actions could be really substantial, enough to help ease the challenge of feeding a growing population,” Burney added.

Source: TEST FEED1

FBI thwarted cyberattack against Boston Children's Hospital

FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency thwarted a cyberattack last summer that aimed to disrupt the network of the Boston Children’s Hospital.

Wray said hackers sponsored by the Iranian government were behind the attack, calling it “one of the most despicable cyberattacks” he’s ever seen. 

“We got a report from one of our intelligence partners indicating Boston Children’s was about to be targeted,” Wray said. “And, understanding the urgency of the situation, the cyber squad in our Boston field office raced to notify the hospital.”

He added that FBI agents were able to provide the hospital with the information it needed to identify and mitigate the threats. 

The director made the remarks on Wednesday at the annual Boston Conference on Cyber Security.

Wray warned that hospitals and other critical sectors should also be wary of ransomware, which is increasingly becoming a favorite tool for cybercriminals.

“If malicious cyber actors are going to purposefully cause destruction or are going to hold data and systems for ransom, they tend to hit us somewhere that’s going to hurt. That’s why we’ve increasingly seen cybercriminals using ransomware against U.S. critical infrastructure sectors,” Wray said. 

He added that in 2021, cybercriminals used ransomware against 14 of the 16 U.S. critical sectors, including health care.

“Ransomware gangs love to go after things we can’t do without,” Wray said.

The oil and gas industry has also been a target of ransomware criminals. Last year, Colonial Pipeline was hit by a disruptive ransomware attack, forcing it to shut down operations for nearly a week. The incident caused gas shortages in several states as fuel prices spiked.

In his speech, Wray also mentioned that his agency is countering Chinese and Russian cyber threats. 

While Russia seems to focus its efforts in launching destructive cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, Chinese-backed hackers are in it more for economic and national security purposes, he said.

“China is clearly a very different threat than Russia,” Wray said. “The Chinese government is methodical, hacking in support of long-term economic goals.”

He added that “China operates on a scale Russia doesn’t come close to. They’ve got a bigger hacking program than all other major nations combined.”

Source: TEST FEED1

3.7 million bottles of baby formula headed to US in Operation Fly Formula

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it had arranged two additional shipments of infant formula to come to the U.S. from overseas as part of its Operation Fly Formula.

According to the White House, United Airlines will transport the equivalent of 3.7 million 8-ounce bottles of Kendamil formula free of charge from Heathrow Airport in London to multiple airports across the country over a three-week period beginning June 9.

The formula will be distributed and available for purchase at select retailers nationwide as well as online. The first shipment will be available at Target stores across the country “in the coming weeks,” the White House said.

The administration also announced the Australian company Bubs will ship approximately 4.6 million 8-ounce bottles of formula to Pennsylvania and California on June 9 and 11, respectively. 

Last week, the White House said Bubs will be sending enough powdered formula to produce 27.5 million 8-ounce bottles of several varieties of its infant formulas, including “easy to digest” goat’s milk and specialty formulas.

The administration has been scrambling to respond to the shortage, which has frustrated parents across the country and seemed to catch officials by surprise. 

The delivery announcements come ahead of a White House roundtable meeting on Wednesday with several of the largest infant formula manufacturers, including three of the four biggest in the U.S. 

Notably absent from the list of participants is Abbott Nutrition. The formula shortage was exacerbated by the closure of an Abbott factory in Sturgis, Mich., back in February due to safety concerns.

During a congressional hearing last week, an Abbott executive said the company is ready to reopen the plant this week, but Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf indicated reopening may still be weeks away, and the shortage likely won’t be fully resolved until late July.

Four infants have been hospitalized after consuming formula that was manufactured at the Michigan plant, and two died after being infected with a strain of bacteria that can be deadly for infants. 

Still, the agency has been unable to conclusively link the bacteria found in Abbott’s plant to the strains found in the sick babies. 

The FDA has come under fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for its failure to act swiftly, despite knowing about sick children and the plant’s issues for months.

Source: TEST FEED1

How parents can best support LGBTQ+ kids this Pride Month

Supportive actions taken by the parents and caregivers of LGBTQ+ youth can have a massive impact on their children’s mental health, new research shows, dramatically lowering the risk of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people overall.

According to a research brief released this week by the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group The Trevor Project, most cisgender LGBQ+ young people (75 percent) feel accepted when their parents or caregivers welcome their partners or friends into their lives.

Close to 70 percent of cisgender LGBQ+ youth feel affirmed when their parents or guardians have respectful conversations with them about their identity, according to the report, and 52 percent feel supported when their caregivers are accepting of their gender expression by helping them buy new clothes or get a new hairstyle.

More than 40 percent of cisgender LGBQ+ youth say supportive actions taken by their parents have included educating themselves about LGBTQ+ people and culture and openly discussing LGBTQ+ issues with them.

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Like cisgender LGBQ+ youth, most transgender, nonbinary and gender-questioning young people (69 percent) also feel most supported when their parents or caregivers are kind to their partners or close friends. 

According to The Trevor Project, transgender, nonbinary and gender-questioning youth also feel affirmed when their parents or guardians respect their LGBTQ+ identity (57 percent), support their gender expression (51 percent), use their name and pronouns correctly (40 percent) and educate themselves about LGBTQ+ issues and figures (40 percent).

Across the gender spectrum, supportive actions taken by the parents of LGBTQ+ children are associated with a dramatic decline in the rate of attempted suicide among LGBTQ+ youth.

For instance, open conversations between children and their parents about their LGBTQ+ identity has been associated with more than 40 percent lower odds of a past-year suicide attempt among all LGBTQ+ youth, according to The Trevor Project.

“These findings underscore that relatively simple, supportive actions taken by parents and caregivers can contribute to lower suicide risk among LGBTQ young people,” Dr. Jonah DeChants, a research scientist at The Trevor Project, said in a statement.

“Especially as we see lawmakers in states across the country pass laws that target this group of young people that already faces disproportionate rates of depression, bullying, and suicide risk compared to their peers, the role that parents and caregivers play to support their children is as crucial as ever,” he said.

In this year alone, lawmakers across the country have introduced hundreds of bills that advocacy groups including The Trevor Project and the Human Rights Campaign say target LGBTQ+ people through their attempts to remove queer voices from schools, restrict access to gender-affirming care and bar transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity.

Several of those measures – including nine transgender athlete bans – have already become law. Most similar legislation has failed to advance, but previous research from The Trevor Project has found that the very introduction of bills that check the rights of LGBTQ+ people, particularly the rights of transgender and nonbinary youth, still have consequences.

A January report found that two-thirds of LGBTQ+ youth believe recent debates about proposed state laws to restrict the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health.

But support from parents and caregivers can help mitigate that. According to The Trevor Project’s 2022 national mental health survey, LGBTQ+ youth who felt “high social support” from family members reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate support.

Source: TEST FEED1