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DOJ urges Supreme Court to deny workers’ bid for medical pot reimbursement

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday urged the Supreme Court to turn away a legal effort by two workers who are seeking reimbursement from their employers for the cost of medical marijuana needed to treat injuries they sustained on the job.

Lawyers for the DOJ told the justices they should steer clear of the dispute, which asks whether a state workers’ compensation law in Minnesota, where medical pot is permitted, is trumped by federal law prohibiting marijuana possession.

Developing…

Source: TEST FEED1

Kentucky middle school students asked to write letters to imaginary friend 'struggling with homosexuality'

Middle school students at a private Christian school in Kentucky last week were sent home with an assignment to write a letter to an imaginary friend “struggling with homosexuality.” Using teachings from the Bible, students were asked to “persuade” their friend in no less than eight sentences that they are not gay.

“The aim of your letter should be to lovingly and compassionately speak truth to the person you’re talking to in a way that does not approve of any sin,” reads a homework assignment to children at Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL) that was first flagged by a community member on Twitter.

“Modern day education assignment at Christian Academy of Louisville. Middle school. Write a letter to your homosexual friend explaining why it’s wrong. Shameful,” Louisville, Ky. business owner JP Davis captioned a post with two screenshots of the assignment, along with the hashtag “#stopthehate.”

Davis told the Louisville Courier Journal that a close friend whose child attends CAL had shown him the homework and was “visibly and understandably upset about the assignment.”

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“She doesn’t know how to handle it. … And her kid’s upset,” Davis said. In a series of follow-up tweets, Davis “completed” the homework assignment himself, writing a letter addressed to his seventh-grade self, who had been afraid to come out as gay.

“I’m sorry you can’t be yourself,” Davis wrote to his younger self. “I’m sorry adults teach something is wrong with you. Stay strong. You’ll find out by being yourself and staying strong…things really work out for you.”

CAL did not respond to Changing America’s request for comment, but Darin Long, the school system’s superintendent, in an email to the Courier Journal on Friday said the assignment had been given to students enrolled in a Bible elective class.

According to Long, the homework was part of a unit of study discussing humans and their identity and “in context, was how a person could discuss homosexuality with a friend from a biblical perspective with compassion and love.”

“This hypothetical friend conversation was for our students to review the class discussions and their perspectives on the subject,” Long said. “Moving forward, we will review this assignment to ensure there is clarity in its purpose and language.”

But Long added that the school teaches “with a Biblical worldview” and believes marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

“We believe that God created the marriage covenant to be between one man and one woman (Gen. 1:27, Gen. 2:24). We believe that sex is a good gift of God, to be celebrated within the confines of the marriage covenant, agreeing that all other sexual expressions go against God’s design. (1 Cor. 6:18, Gal. 5:19),” he said.

The homework assignment reflects a larger, nationwide debate over whether topics like sexual orientation and gender identity should be introduced in school. More than a dozen states this year have introduced legislation aiming to restrict classroom instruction or discussions related to either subject.

Source: TEST FEED1

CNN's Victor Blackwell breaks down covering Buffalo shooting: 'I've done 15 of these'

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell became emotional Monday while reporting outside Tops Friendly Market, the scene of a mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead over the weekend. 

“I’ve done 15 of these. At least the ones I can count,” Blackwell said on air. 

“And we keep having the conversation about Democrats will say guns. Republicans will say mental health, and nothing will change. And I’ll probably do another one this year,” he added, with his voice shaking.

“Is this the way we’re supposed to live?” Blackwell asked. “Are we destined to just keep doing this city after city?  Have we just resigned that this is what we are going to be?”

Blackwell’s remarks came after 13 people — 11 of whom were Black — were killed or injured in the mass shooting on Saturday afternoon.

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old suspect in the shooting, allegedly planned the attack in a location with a significant Black population, according to authorities. 

In a manifesto he published online, Gendron made reference to previous mass shooters who inspired his actions, including Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine Black church parishioners in Charleston, S.C, and Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslims during prayer services in New Zealand. 

Gendron specifically claimed that Tarrant “had radicalized him the most.”

He now faces first degree murder charges and has pleaded not guilty. 

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of one of the Buffalo shooting victims, called the shooting an “act of domestic terroris” on Monday.

“We can’t sugarcoat it. We can’t try to explain it away talking about mental illness. No, this was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by a young white supremacist. There is no question about his intentions,” Crump said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why vaccine diplomacy succeeded in the past and fails today

From the start of COVID-19, pandemic-related stories recounted experiences with past quarantines, Spanish Flu pandemic mortality and successful vaccine development and disease eradication campaigns.  

Although the advent of new vaccines was touted as an unprecedented scientific achievement, the international cooperation that was critical to previous public health successes did not repeat itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, people spoke of American, Russian or Chinese vaccines, ignoring the fact that we were fighting a common enemy and shared global health goals.

Why did the great powers unite against polio and smallpox during the Cold War but not act jointly on COVID-19, with the Cold War in the past and the world much more globalized? 

In the late 1950s/early1960s, the U.S.-developed Sabin polio vaccine went on large-scale trials in the USSR and Eastern Europe. These findings contributed to the official approval of the Sabin vaccine in the United States. The World Health Organization (WHO) smallpox eradication program was another empowering story of collaboration, where the USSR’s freeze-drying vaccine technology met U.S.-designed management in the global smallpox vaccination campaign. 

What often goes unnoticed is the type of life science cooperation conducted during the post-Cold war period changed to prevent the transfer of militarily critical technologies and resources to hostile countries or groups — especially to thwart the export of biological weapons-related materials and technology from former USSR scientific centers. The lack of cooperation on COVID-19 vaccine development can be partially explained by the reality that global health exists in the frame of security narratives. 

According to Henry Kissinger, in the post-Cold War world there is no longer a single threat, and “each country perceives its perils from its own national perspective,” compelling them “to assume greater responsibility for their own security.” Recently, global competition among states has been in the field of emerging technologies, including biotechnologies, driven by national security interests. 

COVID-19 vaccines are more sophisticated and technologically advanced than their Cold War counterparts. Moreover, COVID-19 vaccines are both a public health good and missiles against the biothreat to human and state security. States see vaccines as part of their national defense systems. Subsequently, vaccine cooperation and diplomacy narratives cannot be applied automatically to COVID-19. 

So-called ‘vaccine states’ like the U.S., China and Russia do not let other vaccines enter their markets. While the rest of the world recognizes the U.S. vaccines, Russia and China do not, and vice versa. Last week, theWHO granted emergency use listing for 10 vaccines — including the Chinese, United Kingdom and Indian COVID vaccines — yet these still do not have Russian authorization. The Russian Sputnik-V remains isolated; it lacks WHO authorization, not to mention Food and Drug Administration or European Medicines Agency authorization. The media supports the competition narrative by highlighting problems with logistics, transparency, vaccine efficacy, and states’ approaches to vaccine distribution, making the idea of competition more diffused. 

In general, high-income countries see pandemic victory in terms of using better vaccine technology to change pandemic strategy — not in creating diverse routes for access to vaccines and other pharmaceuticals or supporting different countries’ vaccine capacities. 

The situation is also far more complex because of the plurality of global health actors. The pharmaceutical industry we know today started evolving in the late 1990s from divestments of chemical and agrochemical holdings and mergers and acquisitions of businesses. During the Cold War, the main scientific and medical cooperation projects were state-driven as a part of their “soft power” strategies within a bipolar world with only two major powers. Now the world is multipolar and “soft power” diplomacy is not the same. 

Public-private relationships differ according to country. During COVID-19, many pharmaceutical companies were supported by states aiming to leverage and speed up national capacities in research and development, supplies and manufacturing of medications and vaccines for both domestic and international vaccine rollouts. To some extent, the interests of privately-owned pharmaceutical companies’ were married with vaccine competition and national security narratives during COVID-19.

The Russian case is a good illustration of the new framework of vaccine cooperation. In 2020, the Russian Health Ministry’s Gamaleya Institute created a COVID vaccine in a joint research project with the Russian Defense Ministry’s 48th Central Research Institute. That August, the U.S. Department of Commerce (and later Department of State) imposed sanctions on Russia. Washington accused the blacklisted institute of being associated with Russian chemical and biological weapons programs. This was the determining moment for further vaccine cooperation.

Last December, the United States added the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes to a federal trade restriction list, accusing it of using biotechnology to support activities like “brain control weaponry.” The academy partnered with CanSino Biologics to develop a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine. Like Sputnik-V, it has not been authorized by WHO yet. 

That imposed difficulties for both countries to export viral vector vaccines comparable to the WHO-authorized Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine. The long-term implications of sanctions aimed at denying cutting-edge technologies and isolating another country’s science include disrupting the work’s credibility globally. That can fuel the growing anti-science movement and its side effects of vaccine hesitancy and denial worldwide.

There may be even more lasting implications. Countries with vaccine development capacities remain critical parts of the global pandemic response effort, given the demand for vaccines in low-income countries. Between COVID vaccine rivalry and vaccine-related health inequities, those countries may abandon shared global health goals and follow the false narrative that great powers cannot lead the world out of this crisis.

 No global entity, state or vaccine technology can fight the pandemic without cooperation. It is vital to preventing the spread of disease, achieving the best health outcomes and preventing geopolitical rivalry-driven misuse of science and technology.  

It is time to adopt a new mindset on vaccine cooperation. Suicidal competition in a globalized world needs to be contained. Countries should step up wisely in the name of national interests and step back from rivalry in the face of a global health disaster. 

Vaccine cooperation may be feasible if states can prioritize strategic global health interests over temporary national and geopolitical gains. 

Nataliya Shok, Ph.D., is a Kennan Fellow at the Wilson Center. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Authors of bipartisan bill to increase police funding call on leadership to schedule vote

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is calling on House leadership to schedule a vote as soon as possible on their bill that would increase pay for law enforcement officers and assist police departments in expanding officer ranks.

The letter comes days after the U.S. saw a string of shootings over the weekend that claimed the lives of more than 10 people.

Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Tom Rice (R-S.C.) penned a letter to top House members on Monday asking that a vote be scheduled for their bill, called the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) on the Beat Grant Program Reauthorization and Parity Act.

The legislation would reauthorize the COPS on the Beat program for 10 years and expand eligibility to allow rural communities to receive grants.

The bill also calls for boosting the wages of career law enforcement officers if they meet specific qualifications and would help local police departments enlist more officers.

According to the sponsors, the legislation would increase federal funding for the program by more than double.

Spanberger and Rice in their letter asked for a vote to be held on the bill “as soon as possible to invest in local police departments to promote safe communities and strengthen relationships between our officers and the communities they serve.”

“Police departments cannot effectively answer the immense and diverse needs of their communities without sufficient funding. Therefore, we must urgently vote to increase funding for local departments and strengthen federal efforts on community-oriented policing,” they added.

The letter was addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Spanberger and Rice said the bill was written “in direct response to the needs of national, state, and local law enforcement stakeholders and labor unions” and has the backing of a number of groups.

The push comes as President Biden is set to travel to Buffalo, N.Y., where a gunman opened fire at a grocery store, killing 10. In Laguna Woods, Calif., one person died in a church shooting over the weekend.

Source: TEST FEED1

Congress must act to preserve the future of local journalism

In 2022, with news from around the world available at the touch of a button, how do we stay informed about the events that are shaping our communities? Who is shining a spotlight on city hall or informing our choices at the polls? Who helps consumers when they are wronged or exposed to unsafe conditions in our neighborhoods? Who has educated the public throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, cut through misinformation and helped us stay healthy? 

Broadcast TV and radio stations, and the thousands of journalists they employ, are providing timely, trustworthy reporting on the issues affecting the places in which we live, work, learn and raise our families.  

These journalists, take seriously their work and what it means to our country. Inadequate local news has been linked to more government corruption, less-competitive elections and weaker municipal finances. The lack of local news can place lives in danger, fray the bonds of unity in our communities and weaken our democracy. 

Unfortunately — and alarmingly — the economic foundation of local journalism is under assault.

Local broadcasters rely on advertising, particularly from small businesses, to finance incredibly expensive news gathering operations. However, today’s advertising marketplace is now dominated by a handful of behemoth tech platforms — some of the wealthiest companies in history with market caps that dwarf the entire news publishing industry. News outlets face stiff challenges to recoup this loss in advertising revenue. Local broadcasters in smaller and rural markets, with fewer new advertisers they can attract to make up this shortfall, have been particularly harmed. 

Local TV and radio stations have continually embraced new forms of content distribution — including online streaming — to engage with their viewers, readers and listeners. Yet, they must compete with the monopolistic power these tech giants wield over digital platforms as gatekeepers to content.  

Just how much power do these tech companies wield? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that last year, “when Facebook blocked news in Australia in response to potential legislation making platforms pay publishers for content, it also took down the pages of Australian hospitals, emergency services and charities. It publicly called the resulting chaos ‘inadvertent.’” Internal whistleblowers at the company paint a different picture however, alleging that the social media giant deliberately blocked the pages of these critically important sources of information to “exert maximum negotiating leverage over the Australian Parliament, which was voting on the first law in the world that would require platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for content.”] 

News outlets have almost no leverage when dealing with tech giants regarding the terms for how online content is compensated or displayed on these platforms. Tech platforms can favor some sources of news over others — such as national outlets over small publishers. They can place a fact-checked story from a reputable news outlet next to flashy clickbait, seemingly misleading users on the quality of the information they are consuming. They can set a minimum content length that exceeds a typical news segment before a video receives compensation. They can group local journalism into general “news” categories advertisers choose to avoid or they can exclude news publishers from more lucrative advertising options altogether. Digital platforms also singlehandedly control the revenue split for monetized content, dictating to broadcasters and other news publishers how much they will receive for their content. 

There is strong support among the American public for lawmakers to take action and preserve the future of local journalism. A recent national survey found three-fourths of Americans believe Big Tech companies are driving small and local news outlets out of business, and four out of five Americans support Congress taking steps to give small and local publishers more parity with Big Tech companies during negotiations over the use of their content.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) would do just that, allowing local news outlets to come together to negotiate the terms for how their content is accessed online.

This bill, which has support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, would help level the playing field for news outlets against these big tech companies. 

Thank you to Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) and Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) for leading the charge for the JCPA and working to ensure the viability of local news in our communities. 

News publishers from across the country have come together to implore Congress to pass this much-needed legislation that would provide meaningful guardrails for fair negotiations between news publishers and dominant digital platforms, create a fair deal that would benefit news consumers and allow local journalism to continue serving our communities. 

 Curtis LeGeyt is president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Source: TEST FEED1

Illinois to cover funeral expenses for children killed by gun violence

Parents and guardians who experience the death of a child by gun violence will be eligible for up to $10,000 to help pay for funeral expenses thanks to new legislation passed into law in Illinois. 

The Murdered Children Funeral and Burial Assistance Act was signed into law on May 10 by Governor JB Pritzker (D). The bill cites the painful process of bereavement for families, who also must bear the responsibilities of planning and paying for a funeral—usually through some form of debt.  

The burden is especially hard on low-income families, which is what inspired Illinois to create a fund to directly pay for funeral expenses. Previously families had to pay for such expenses upfront and apply for reimbursement. Now, funeral establishments can work directly with state agencies to foot the bill. 

Families that suffered the loss of a child under the age of 17 by a firearm as a result of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter and who have a household income of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level will qualify for the financial help. 

The new law will take effect beginning July 1, 2023.  

“Losing a young child to gun violence is among the most horrific tragedy a family could experience.  Nobody plans to bury their murdered child — it’s among the worst unplanned expenses for anyone.  Today the average cost of a funeral is $9,500 and many families are forced to rely on crowdsourcing or donations to pay for these costs,” said Dave Nayak, president and cofounder of the Strength to Love Foundation, in a joint statement from Pritzker’s office.  

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Nationally, for the first time in over a decade, guns were the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in 2020, after more than 4,300 children from ages 1 to 19 died from a range of firearm-related deaths.  

As recently as Saturday the city of Chicago experienced the death of a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed at the famed Millennium Park. The alleged shooter was identified as a 17-year-old boy who is being charged as an adult with second-degree murder. 

In response to the violent weekend, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a city-wide curfew for young people, banning unaccompanied minors at Millennium Park after 6 p.m. from Thursday until Sunday.  

Lightfoot also announced a 10 p.m. curfew for all minors across the city of Chicago on weekends, up from the city’s decades old 11 p.m. curfew.  

“You need to make sure that you understand what your young people are doing, who they are with and where they are going,” said Lightfoot.  

Chicago reported 797 homicides in 2021, the highest number since 1996 and more than any other city in the country. However, in January Chicago reported better figures, with shooting incidents down by 11 percent and murders down by 6 percent compared to the same time last year.  

Attorney General Merrick Garland, when visiting the city of Chicago in April, announced an indictment charging 12 individuals in a conspiracy to illegally traffic over 90 guns across state lines into the city of Chicago. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said many of those guns have been linked to shootings in the Chicago area in which multiple people have been injured and several killed. 

The federal government remains stalled in passing comprehensive gun control legislation, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying on Sunday it is a priority, “but the fact is the 60-vote majority in the Senate is an obstacle to doing any, many good things, unfortunately, and again we are not going away until the job is done.” 

However, in April President Biden leveraged his executive power to instate a rule through the DOJ that bans “ghost guns” — privately made firearms that are untraceable.  

Last year alone, there were approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Biden’s rule bans the manufacturing of most accessible ghost guns, like “buy build shoot” kits that are available online or at retail stores without a background check and can be readily assembled within 30 minutes.  

The number of gun owners has shot up in the U.S., with one study finding an estimated 2.9 percent of U.S. adults, about 7.5 million, became new gun owners from 2019 to 2021. They collectively exposed not only themselves but more than 11 million persons to household firearms, including more than 5 million children.  

Medical experts at Harvard University have noted that kids as young as 3-years-old may be strong enough to pull a handgun’s trigger. Three out of four children living in a house with a gun know where it is stored—even if their parents think they don’t.  

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Ben Crump calls Buffalo shooting 'domestic terrorism'

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump said on Monday that the shooting that left ten people dead in Buffalo over the weekend was an “act of domestic terrorism” 

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old shooting suspect, reportedly targeted the Tops grocery store because it was in a mostly Black neighborhood.

“What happened on Saturday was an act of domestic terrorism and we have to define it as such,” Crump said during a press conference. 

“We can’t sugarcoat it. We can’t try to explain it away talking about mental illness. No, this was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by a young white supremacist. There is no question about his intentions,” he added

Crump is representing the family of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old Black woman and one of the 13 victims of the shooting, eleven of whom were Black.

“These grieving families deserve to know how a white supremacist, so vocal about his hatred, was able to carry out a premeditated and targeted act of terrorism against Black people – all while armed with an assault rifle fitted with a high-capacity magazine,” Crump said in another statement. 

“It’s an all-too familiar scenario, with the same tragic, but preventable ending,” he added. 

In writings ahead of the shooting, Gendron touted the so-called “great replacement theory,” or the false belief that there is a politically motivated push to replace white Americans with people of color by encouraging immigration. 

The teenage suspect has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder.

“It’s important that we not only hold accountable this individual who committed this hateful act, but we hold accountable those who curate this hate, who radicalize these young white supremacists,” Crump added on CBS.

The shooting has cast a spotlight on racist conspiracy theories that critics say are spread on conservative platforms including Fox News and repeated by some GOP lawmakers.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday slammed House Republican leadership, accusing the top lawmakers of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-semitism” in relation to the shooting.

Source: TEST FEED1

Watch live: Buffalo mayor and police hold briefing on mass shooting

Buffalo, N.Y., Mayor Byron Brown (I) and the city’s police department will speak to the press Monday afternoon regarding recent developments in response to Saturday’s mass shooting.

The event is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

Source: TEST FEED1