Tag Archives : Build House

GOP super PAC canceling ads in Arizona, Alaska

A Republican super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is canceling advertisements in Arizona less than three months out from the midterm elections, a possible sign of problems for the Trump-backed GOP candidate challenging Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

The Senate Leadership Fund called off its advertisement reservations that were set to air in Arizona between Sept. 6 and Oct. 3, according to AdImpact.

The cancellation totaled about $8 million, according to Politico, which is roughly half of what the PAC had initially planned to run in the Grand Canyon State. Advertisements from the group are now set to begin in the beginning of October instead of early fall.

The decrease in advertising money comes as Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters continues to struggle in his bid against Kelly, who remains ahead in FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls, 50.3 percent to 42 percent.

Former President Trump and GOP megadonor Peter Thiel both support Masters’s candidacy, but other Republicans feared he would be a weaker opponent to Kelly.

Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law said the change was in part due to the $28 million ad buy the PAC made in Ohio last week to bolster Republican nominee J.D. Vance, who is running against Rep. Tim Ryan (D) for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R).

Ryan and Vance appear to be in a close race in Ohio, a state the GOP had hoped would be more safely in its grasp.

“We’re leaving the door wide open in Arizona, but we want to move additional resources to other offensive opportunities that have become increasingly competitive, as well as an unexpected expense in Ohio,” Law told Politico.

“We think the fundamentals of this election strongly favor Republicans, we see multiple paths to winning the majority, and we are going to invest heavily and strategically to achieve that goal,” he added.

The super PAC is also slashing advertising in Alaska, where Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is running for reelection, according to Politico. The incumbent advanced to the general election, along with Trump-backed candidate Kelly Tshibaka.

Murkowski secured roughly 44 percent of the vote, while Tshibaka won 39 percent support.

The advertising dollar decrease in Alaska — roughly $1.7 million, according to Politico — is a sign that the party is confident with the incumbent’s odds, Law said. The super PAC’s ads supporting the candidate are set to begin on Sept. 20.

“We are all-in for Senator Murkowski. Senator Murkowski is in a very strong position and based on that decided to push back our start date,” Law told Politico.

The shift in advertisement funding comes as odds of flipping the Senate red in November appear to be diminishing.

In Kentucky last week, McConnell told reporters Republicans had a better chance of winning control of the House than the Senate, pointing to “candidate quality” — a veiled reference to Masters, Vance and Trump-backed nominees in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” McConnell said when asked about his midterm expectations.

“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly,” he added.

The statement was a stark contrast to McConnell’s comments in November, when he said the midterm races would be “very good” for Republicans.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats are favored to win control of the upper chamber over Republicans, 65 percent to 35 percent.

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Equilibrium/Sustainability — Climate change could cause mass fish die-offs

Climate change is accelerating the occurrence of mass fish die-offs in U.S. lakes — posing a significant threat to global food supplies, a new study has found. 

So-called “fish kills” — in which large numbers of fish die suddenly — could become six times more common by the end of the century, according to the study, published this week in Limnology and Oceanography.  

After studying more than 500 past summer die-offs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, researchers from the University of Arkansas devised an air and water temperature-based model to forecast the frequency of future such kills.   

Their models — which looked at a severe climate change scenario — predicted an approximately sixfold increase in fish kills by 2100 based on water temperature projections, while showing a 34-fold surge in mortality rates based on air temperature projections.  

This means that if there were eight such incidents per year in the U.S. today, there would be 41 annually by the end of the century based on water temperature estimates, co-author Simon Tye said in a statement, describing projections as “more realistic” than the air-based estimates.

Climate change is a particular threat because it is likely to turn normal high summer temperatures into occasional dangerous spikes — raising the chance of a lethal heat event, Tye noted.  

Since fish are in many cases both predators and prey, the death of large numbers of fish can rapidly destabilize aquatic ecosystems, leading to sudden crises for species dependent on eating fish — including humans.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Colorado Democrats are calling on President Biden to protect public landscapes while the Environmental Protection Agency wants to list two types of “forever chemicals” as hazardous. We’ll also dive into new concerns around nuclear energy.

Western Dems to Biden: Shield public landscapes

Colorado Democrats urged President Biden in a letter on Friday to use his executive powers to preserve the historical legacy of key Rocky Mountain landscapes.

The politicians — Rep. Joe Neguse, Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Gov. Jared Polis — asked the president to protect public spaces included in the Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act, which has repeatedly passed in the House of Representatives but failed to move forward in the Senate.

Honoring history: Chief among their requests is the designation of Colorado’s Camp Hale and the Tenmile Range as the “Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument,” by means of the Antiquities Act.

• The Camp Hale region was instrumental “in preparing the 10th Mountain Division for some of the most difficult moments of World War II,” according to the letter.
• Many veterans returned to establish Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy.  

Ending oil and gas leases: The politicians also urged the president to protect Colorado’s Thompson Divide — a 221,000-acre parcel of public land — through a Federal Lands Policy and Management Act mineral withdrawal.

• Such a move would ban new oil and gas leasing, as well as mining, in the region.
• Farmers, ranchers and community members have all come together in support of this conservation measure, the politicians noted.  

“It is clear that Coloradans across the state support the conservation and preservation of these landscapes for future generations,” the letter stated.

Preserving lands for future Coloradans: In their letter to the president, the Colorado politicians called for new protections to the areas proposed for wilderness designation, mineral withdrawal and special management.  

“By taking these steps, you will be making sure that even more of Colorado’s open spaces will be preserved for future generations,” they wrote to Biden.   

Equilibrium has reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response before press time. 

To read the full story, please click here.

Hazard designation proposed for two types of PFAS

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to designate two types of “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances, our colleague Rachel Frazin reported for The Hill.  

What are forever chemicals again? There are thousands of types of these cancer-linked compounds, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

• Forever chemicals are notorious for their ability to linger in the human body and the environment.
• They’re present in a variety of products, including jet-fuel firefighting foam, nonstick pans and waterproof apparel. 

What’s in the EPA proposal? The proposal focuses on the two most widely detected types of PFAS, known as PFOA and PFOS. 

If finalized, the rule would declare these substances “hazardous” under the Superfund law.  

Cleaning up communities: Such a designation could help hold polluters responsible and accelerate cleanup processes in affected communities, Frazin reported.

• The designation would allow the EPA to require the military or private company that contaminated a given area to clean it up.
• If the polluter refused to do so, the agency would have the power to recoup the costs.  

Would the designation be effective? Betsy Southerland, a former official in the EPA’s Office of Water, told Frazin that the proposed designation would incentivize parties to quicken their cleanup efforts.

• “The whole idea behind a hazardous substance is that it can pose imminent and substantial endangerment so you really have to move out on it,” Southerland said.
• “And if you don’t, if you refuse to, EPA can do it and then sock you with a really big clean up bill,” she added.  

Industry does not agree: The American Chemistry Council — a chemical industry trade group — argued that the designation could result in significant costs for businesses.  

“A proposed [hazardous substance] designation would impose tremendous costs on these parties without defined cleanup standards, making it impossible for these entities to prepare for the impact of this rule,” the organization said. 

To read the full story, please click here. 

Amid Ukraine worries, Japan turns on nuke plants

Japan plans to restart its nuclear plants more than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a move that comes amid fresh concerns over a recent near-meltdown at Europe’s largest nuclear facility.

• Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced this week that his country would restart its idled nuclear plants and consider building new ones, The Guardian reported.
• That could help lower prices in natural gas markets, International Energy Agency official Keisuke Sadamori told CNBC.

The country had idled its nuclear program after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, and started “burning a lot of fossil fuels in order to fill the gap from the lack of nuclear power,” Sadamori said.

Japan’s announcement was “very good and encouraging news both in terms of energy supply security and climate change mitigation,” he said. 

Trading with Russia: Across the Sea of Japan, South Korea — one of the world’s biggest proponents of nuclear power — is partnering with a Russian company on a $2.25 billion plan to build Egypt’s first nuclear plant, The Associated Press reported.

• Egypt’s new plant will be built on the Mediterranean coast about 80 miles northwest of Cairo, according to the AP.
• This was a large win for the country’s nuclear industry — but cut against American attempts to isolate Russia economically over its invasion of Ukraine.

While Western countries have sanctioned much of Russian energy production since its invasion, that doesn’t extend to nuclear energy. 

HEIGHTENED CONCERNS

A recent near-meltdown on Thursday night at Europe’s largest nuclear facility is just one way that the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is leading to urgent questions around nuclear energy.

• Kyiv is calling on the international community to pressure Russian troops to abandon the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — Europe’s largest — after the fighting cut off electricity between the plant and the national grid for several hours, as Reuters reported Friday morning.
• That meant a loss of power to cooling systems that keep the reactor from overheating  — with a meltdown narrowly prevented by the operation of diesel generators, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

Zelensky blamed Russian shelling for the disconnection; a Russian official blamed Ukrainian artillery.

Back online: The Zaporizhzhia plant was reconnected to the Ukrainian electric grid on Friday, CNN reported. 

But the plant — which generates 20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity, isn’t out of the woods.

With the combination of “shelling around the station and the city, smoke from fires, dust from the ash dump of a thermal power plant,” the “situation sometimes looks like the end of the world.” 

Roulette wheel: “The Russians are spinning the chamber of the revolver, threatening to blow out the brains of the reactor all over Europe,” Yale national security expert Paul Bracken told Reuters. 

States split over California gas car ban

Massachusetts on Friday announced it would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 — making it the latest state to sign on to a goal set earlier this week by California and Washington state.  

• California’s plan would mandate more than two-thirds of new vehicle sales by 2030 be zero-emission.
• But federal rules only call for 50 percent of new vehicle sales to be electric by that time.

“California had to go first according to federal law, and now states can piggyback on to the California rule, which Governor [Charlie] Baker (R) has pledged to do,” Larry Chretien of Green Energy Consumers Alliance told NBC Boston. 

A conservative gauntlet: The move by liberal states to push state auto sellers toward zero-emission vehicles still has a major outstanding challenge — a lawsuit by 17 state attorneys general, as our colleague Zack Budryk reported in May. 

Republican leaders in states like Missouri argue that California is in effect setting transport policy for their own states, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 

“We will continue to fight California’s efforts to impose their radical policies on the rest of the country,” a spokesperson for Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) said this week.

Follow-up Friday

Pakistan floods have already killed almost a thousand, drought persists in the Horn of Africa and Beijing tells farmers to trade rice for sweet potatoes. 

Floods in Pakistan have killed hundreds this summer

• Pakistani officials said on Thursday that the country’s monsoons have impacted more than 30 million people in just a few weeks. On Friday, the country’s National Disaster Management Authority reported that more than 900 people had been killed by floods since June — including 34 individuals in the past 24 hours, the BBC reported.  

Greater Horn of Africa bracing for fifth failed rainy season

• UNICEF revealed this week how children enduring drought in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel region are “one disease away from catastrophe.” On Friday, the World Meteorological Organization said that the Greater Horn of Africa region is preparing for its fifth consecutive failed rainy season — amid the region’s longest drought in 40 years. 

China tells farmers to switch crops amid drought

• China’s record heat wave is drying up rivers and crippling hydropower systems. Now the Beijing is calling on farmers in the most drought-afflicted areas to give up on their rice in favor of autumn crops like sweet potatoes, Reuters reported. “We can’t switch to other crops because there’s no land,” one elderly farmer told Reuters.

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you next week.

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Sen. Johnson says parents should take 'primary' role in their kids' education

Parents should have a “primary” role in their children’s education, according to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin.  

Johnson made the comment during an interview with Fox News Digital at the Wisconsin State Fair earlier this month, the outlet reported.  

“Parents’ role in education should be primary,” Johnson told Fox New Digital. “They should have control over what is taught to their children.”  

Johnson’s comment is another example of the growing momentum by conservative lawmakers to push for “parental rights” in public schools. 

Over the last year, conservative lawmakers have launched a new campaign to remove things from the classroom deemed offensive, arguing that parents have the right to know what their children are being taught.  

Most of the materials targeted by “parental rights” or “curriculum transparency” bills require teachers to upload their reading lists or class materials online or otherwise available for public review, in most cases in order to scrutinize the use of materials that covers critical race theory and experiences of the LGBTQ+ community.  

Over the past year, curriculum transparency bills have been pre-filed or introduced in at least 35 states, according to The74.   

The conservative senator is no stranger to polarizing comments, like claiming it is not “society’s responsibility” to take care of “other people’s children” or that that pandemic overcrowding in Wisconsin hospitals was no worse than what would happen during a bad flu season.  

Johnson has also pushed false claims about the 2020 election.  

The senator most recently came under fire after it was revealed that a top aid tried to give fake, pro-Trump electors from Michigan and Wisconsin to former vice president Mike Pence shortly before he began to count electoral votes on Jan. 6 of last year.  

Johnson’s office has yet to respond to a request for clarification from Changing America.  

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Four more ways to have your student loans forgiven

Though the Biden administration’s historic student debt forgiveness plan stands to impact upwards of 15 million borrowers, there are still alternative ways borrowers can get their student loans forgiven through targeted programs. 

Eligible borrowers can get up to $10,000 of their federal student loans cancelled, or up to $20,000 for those who received federal Pell Grants during college and in total the balances for 20 million borrowers could be completely cleared.  

Yet millions, including borrowers who earn more than $125,000, would be left holding substantial balances and seeking other avenues toward further forgiveness. 

Prior to the announcement the administration had approved $32 billion in loan relief for around 16 million borrowers, including for students who were victims of for-profit institutions like DeVry University. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. 

Here are four more ways to seek federal loan forgiveness. 

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program 

The PSLF program is designed to encourage students to enter careers like firefighting, teaching, government, nursing and other public interest fields. Those who chose to pursue any of those careers and work for a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organizations are eligible to have certain federal student loans forgiven. 

However, borrowers must hold their public service jobs for ten years and make 120 payments to have the remainder of their balances forgiven. It includes those serving as full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteers. 

To qualify for PSLF, you must work full-time, have direct loans with the Education Department, be under an income-driven repayment plan and make 120 qualifying payments. The payments do not need to be consecutive. 

More than 175,000 borrowers have collectively received more than $10 billion through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. 

As part of Biden’s loan forgiveness announcement, borrowers may receive credit for payments that previously did not qualify for PSLF under a limited waiver program. 

Borrower Defense program 

Federal borrowers who believe their institution engaged in misconduct or misrepresented the value of their programs are eligible to apply to have their loans cleared through a Borrower Defense discharge. 

The Education Department announced earlier in August that it will discharge the remaining loan balances for students who attended the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute from Jan. 1, 2005, through its closure in September 2016. 

They found the school lied to students across the country about their ability to transfer credits to other institutions, and falsely guaranteed that students would be able to get jobs upon graduation. 

Other institutions the Education Department deemed guilty of defrauding their students include Devry University, Corinthian Colleges, and the Marinello School of Beauty. 

The administration so far has discharged $13 billion for around 1 million borrowers whose institutions defrauded them. 

Teacher Loan Forgiveness program 

Teachers that teach full time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income school or education service agency can be eligible for forgiveness of up to $17,500 on direct subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans.  

The loans also must have been made before the end of a teacher’s five academic years of qualifying teaching service.  

Total Permanent Disability Discharge 

Anyone with a disability recognized by the Social Security Administration (SSA) will have their federal student loans discharged through a data match. Those who have a disability not on file with SSA can still apply for a discharge of their student loans. 

This program is designed for those who are unable to work due to a physical or mental impairment, something a physician must sign off on to back up the claim that an impairment is expected to result in death, has lasted continuously for a period of 60 months or greater or is expected to last for a continuous period of 60 months or greater. 

Disabilities might also be certified by a licensed physician, or through records from the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

The administration has granted $9 billion in total and permanent disability discharges for more than 425,000 borrowers. 

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CDC director 'cautiously optimistic' as monkeypox cases appear to trend down

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Friday she was “cautiously optimistic” about the direction of the monkeypox outbreak amid early reports of cases trending down both in the U.S. and globally.

During a press briefing, Walensky noted that some jurisdictions including New York, Chicago and San Francisco have begun to report a downward trend in monkeypox cases.

The majority of vaccinations for monkeypox in the U.S. are reported to be first doses so it is unclear how much immunization efforts can be credited with pushing down cases.

However, the White House’s national monkeypox response deputy coordinator Demetre Daskalakis noted that recent data from the American Men’s Internet Survey (AMIS) found that men who have sex with men have reported changing their sexual habits in response to monkeypox, likely helping reduce transmission.

“I want to be cautiously optimistic about this, not only because of the downward trend but because of the AMIS data that Dr. Daskalakis just noted,” Walensky said.

Speaking on the AMIS data, Daskalakis said it indicated that “the LGBTQIA+ people are doing things that are actually reducing their risk and it’s working.”

“And it speaks to the resilience and commitment of this community to addressing the challenge of monkeypox using every tool in their toolkit,” Daskalakis added.

While cases appear to be trending down in some places, Walensky stressed that they are still on rise nationally. Nearly 17,000 cases have been confirmed by the CDC.

“The rate of rise is lower, but we are still seeing increases. And we are of course a very diverse country and things are not even across the country,” she said. “So we’re watching this with cautious optimism and really hopeful that many of our harm reduction messages and vaccines are getting out there and working.”

The World Health Organization said earlier this week that the number of weekly reported monkeypox cases have fallen by 20 percent. The organization attributed the downward trend in Europe to a combination of public health measures, vaccinations and behavioral changes.

According to the White House on Friday, roughly 1.1 million vials of vaccines to treat monkeypox have been made available to the public so far and the U.S. is nearing a point at which it will soon be able to provide two doses to everyone in the at-risk communities.

About 75 percent of jurisdictions are now administering shots intradermally and 20 percent are moving toward this strategy.

Source: TEST FEED1

Water crisis in the West has forced federal government intervention

Here we go — again. One year after first declaring a water shortage on the Colorado River, triggering cutbacks in water to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, the federal government recently announced additional cuts are necessary based on dangerously low water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The announcement’s timing coincides with the expiration of a deadline imposed by the Department of the Interior in June.

The Colorado River states were given 60 days to create an emergency plan to stop using 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water in the next year. The federal government warned that cuts would be made unilaterally if the deadline passed with no agreement in place. This is in addition to the federal government’s announcement of planned holdbacks from Lake Powell, fearing insufficient water to power the Glen Canyon Dam in May. These announcements form part of a broader trend of increasing federal government intervention in Western water management as collaboration efforts at the state and local levels have repeatedly failed.

Federalism and historical norms ceded substantial power to the states in the allocation and management of water rights; the federal government has the constitutional authority to play a more significant role. As discussions around water scarcity increasingly highlight the water, energy, and food nexus and the potential national security consequences, a more active role by the federal government is necessary.

The Colorado River has come to symbolize the struggle over water in the West. Supplying water to over 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland, it is a key water source for seven states, indigenous communities as well as Mexico, in addition to providing hydropower to the broader region. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 divided the water equitably among the states into an upper basin comprised of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, as well as a lower basin consisting of Arizona, Nevada and California. The natural tension between the upper and lower basin states with different needs, interests and stakeholders lies at the heart of the problem. Lower basin states are, in many respects, at the mercy of the upper basin states. Since the early 2000s, failing consensus by the states regarding voluntary reductions, the federal government has been forced to issue formal directives, usually with a threat of intervention or possible litigation, to secure agreement.

As climate change exacerbates water insecurity, failure is not an option. And yet, cooperation and collaboration remain increasingly elusive. Numerous theories have been proffered regarding the failure of collective action. Theorist Garrett Hardin’s, Tragedy of the Commons, long held as fundamental to understanding human action in relation to shared resources, argues that individual self-interest adversely impacts the pursuit of the common good, eventually leading to its destruction or ruin. The theory advocates coercive, top-down action as a way to ensure the sanctity of the commons, or in this case, the protection of the water supply.

In contrast, more contemporary theories of collective action have suggested that a collaborative or bottom-up approach is necessary to achieve sustainable solutions. In the domestic water supply context, however, these later theories fail to account for the renewed sense of individualism reflected in the current political and social discourse. Such individualism is antithetical to the principles of collective action, fundamental to solving our water crisis.

The federal government’s role has evolved from financing infrastructure and development to protecting the environment and indigenous water rights. Today, against a backdrop of growing water insecurity, the focus must be on protecting our national security interests. Greater attention must be paid to the cascading impact of resource depletion on other resource sectors. For example, the increasing importance of, and the significant security implications in the water, energy and food nexus, highlights the need for a more integrated, holistic approach to water management with greater involvement by the federal government.

However, any future role of the federal government must be considered from both a short and long-term perspective. In the short term, emergency measures will be necessary to manage crises, and without more coercive measures, voluntary action by the states is unlikely. Longer-term, the federal government must develop and implement a national water policy incorporating integrated water resource management principles covering water, land and energy, among others. As part of a broader policy, guidelines should be introduced requiring the implementation of demand-side measures in conjunction with monitoring by the states. In the meantime, as time is not on our side, ongoing federal government intervention will be the new reality in the West.

Carolyn Kissane is the assistant dean at the NYU Center for Global Affairs and director of the SPS Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab.

 Lisa Craig is an independent energy-climate consultant.

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Dengue vaccine candidate safe and effective

Dengue virus is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause severe illness and death. Mostly occurring in tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world, there’s also the concern of range expansion due to warming climates. Currently, there is a vaccine but access is limited. For example, in the U.S., Dengvaxia is approved only for children 9 to 16 years of age who have had previous exposure to dengue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new vaccine candidate from a team of international researchers looks very promising with a high efficacy rate and broad coverage. 

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited’s tetravalent dengue vaccine (TAK-003) is a live-attenuated dengue vaccine candidate that has been tested in various clinical trials since 2010. The researchers report in Clinical Infectious Diseases the most recent data from eight dengue-endemic trial locations over the course of three years. They tested this vaccine candidate in children aged 4 to 16. 

The difficulty with developing a vaccine for dengue virus is that it has four main strains, and if you’ve had one strain you can still get sick from another one. Similarly, a vaccine that only protects against one strain would not protect you from other strains.  

This vaccine is meant to protect against all strains. The initial phase 1 clinical trials were carried out for vaccines for dengue 1, 2 and 4 individually, says professor emeritus Sutee Yoksan, who is Advisor of the Center for Vaccine Development, Mahidol University, Thailand and worked on the vaccine candidate, in an interview with Asia Research News. Then they worked with the vaccine they had developed for dengue 2, but added certain key genes from the other three strains. 

“You can think of this as having the backbone of a dengue 2 virus with immunogenic elements of the others in the mix. In this way, the immune [system] mounts an antibody response against all four dengue variants,” says Yoksan. 

The overall three-year efficacy of the vaccine candidate was 62 percent against confirmed infection and more than 83 percent against hospitalization due to dengue virus disease. Efficacy was higher earlier in the clinical trials than at the end of the third year, although the authors note that they plan to evaluate whether to give a booster dose. 

TAK-003 has already been approved for use in Indonesia, according to the company’s website. The vaccine candidate trial is registered in the U.S., but is not expected to complete phase 3 clinical trials until March 2024, according to government’s clinical trials website. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Karl Rove: 'Beyond me' why Trump held on to docs 'when he had no legal authority'

Karl Rove, who served as a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, said on Friday that former President Trump did not have the authority to take presidential documents with him to his Mar-a-Lago residence when he ended his term.

“Why he was holding on to these materials when he had no legal authority to do so under the Presidential Records Act is beyond me,” Rove, a Fox News contributor, said during an appearance on the network.

Rove’s appearance came shortly after a federal magistrate judge approved the release of a redacted affidavit used to convince him to approve a search warrant for Trump’s Florida residence.

The document revealed that authorities found 184 classified documents in boxes recovered by the National Archives in January, and prosecutors argued there was probable cause to believe they would find additional illegally possessed items, including classified national defense information, at Mar-a-Lago.

The previously unsealed search warrant noted that the search came as part of a federal investigation into potential violations of the Espionage Act and two other statutes, which do not rely on documents being classified.

“The Presidential Records Act is clear,” Rove said on Fox News. 

“A president does not have the right to leave the White House and pick and choose what documents he wants to take with him,” he continued. “He can ask for copies, but those are the property of the American people, and since 1978 no president has left with sort of picking and choosing their own documents.”

The affidavit revealed that the National Archives first reached out about retrieving records from Mar-a-Lago in May 2021. Trump’s aides alerted the Archives that they had 12 boxes for pick up later that year, and the agency ultimately left with 15, according to the document.

Trump and many Republicans have denounced the search of Mar-a-Lago as being politically motivated, and the former president has described it as an unnecessary escalation.

“President Trump has said several times all they had to do was ask,” Rove said on Friday. “Well, my sense is they were asking for a year and a half.”

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RNC says national spokesman 'no longer works' for party

Paris Dennard, a conservative commentator and one-time surrogate for former President Trump, is out at the Republican National Committee (RNC). 

Dennard had been serving as a national spokesperson and director of Black media affairs for the RNC since March 2020. In a statement, RNC chief of staff Mike Reed confirmed that Dennard was no longer working for the party, but did not provide any details on the situation.

“Paris Dennard no longer works for the RNC,” Reed said. “We don’t comment on personnel matters.” 

Politico reported on Friday that Dennard had been fired from his role at the RNC, though the circumstances surrounding his exit from the committee are unclear.

Dennard worked at the White House under former President George W. Bush, but built a public profile as an on-air defender and ally of Trump. He was named to Trump’s commission on White House Fellowships in 2018 and eventually served on the advisory board for Black Voices for Trump during the former president’s 2020 reelection campaign. 

Dennard also worked for a time as an on-air political commentator for CNN, but was suspended from that role in 2018 after The Washington Post reported that he had been fired from a previous job at Arizona State University amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Dennard has denied the allegations against him, saying they were “politically motivated.” 

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Residents in these 13 states could pay taxes on their student loan relief

Residents of 13 states who receive debt forgiveness from the federal government for their student loans may need to pay some state taxes on their forgiven amount, according to an analysis by the think tank Tax Foundation. 

Jared Walczak, the vice president of state projects for the Center for State Tax Policy at the think tank, said in a blog post Thursday that loan forgiveness is generally considered to be equivalent to income and is therefore taxable. 

Walczak said that the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion package that President Biden signed into law in March 2021, exempts the forgiveness of student loan debt from 2021 to 2025 from federal income taxes. 

States that follow the federal government’s lead will also exclude debt forgiveness, but not all states do. 

Biden announced on Wednesday that the federal government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loans for individuals making less than $125,000 per year and up to $20,000 for those who received a Pell Grant, meant for students with the largest financial need. 

The states where residents may need to pay taxes on the forgiven debt are Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. 

Walczak calculated the highest rates that anyone could potentially pay in each of these states for having $10,000 forgiven. 

All of these states could require residents to pay several hundred dollars in state taxes on the up to $10,000 in forgiven debt, according to Walczak. Hawaii residents could potentially have the highest tax liability at $1,100. 

The taxes would be higher if a resident received $20,000 in forgiveness. 

Walczak said states will likely issue guidance in the coming weeks and months on how to treat the forgiven debt. 

He told Bloomberg that states will need to act with “some urgency” if they plan to make changes to their tax laws ahead of the debt forgiveness going into effect.

Source: TEST FEED1