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COVID-19 Updates: Masks no longer required after March 11

COVID-19 Updates: Masks no longer required after March 11 CIosso Wed, 02/03/2021 10:52 With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting Bellevue for an extended time, local information about Bellevue’s response to the virus is posted on a dedicated COVID-19 page. For information about how to receive help or offer help during the pandemic, visit our Business Resources and Community Resources pages. We will continue to post summary updates on the thread below as meaningful changes to the situation arise. March 4 In response to the lifting of county and state mask mandates, the public will no longer be required to wear masks indoors at most city facilities starting Saturday, March 12. Feb. 28 With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the west, California, Oregon and Washington are moving up the date for indoor mask requirements to be lifted from March 21 to March 11. After 11:59 p.m. on March 11, Masks will no longer be required in restaurants, grocery stores, bars, gyms or schools. County mask requirements are lifting at the same time. Masks will continue to be required in health care and corrections facilities. State policies do not change federal requirements, which still include masks on public transit. Feb. 16 With new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations decreasing, and nearly 80 of all King County residents fully vaccinated, the county is ending its local health order requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test for entry into restaurants and bars, indoor recreational events and establishments or outdoor events. Starting on Tuesday, March 1, vaccine verification will no longer be required at Bellevue parks facilities, including community and recreation centers. 2021 Nov. 19 The Food and Drug Administration approved COVID-19 booster shots for all adults, and urged people 50 and older to get boosters. Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older can choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose. For anyone who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the wait already is just two months. People can mix-and-match boosters from any company. Nov. 3 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11, after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for this age group. Independent panels of vaccine experts found the vaccine to be highly effective at preventing COVID-19, and no serious safety concerns were identified. This week and next, vaccine will become available for children in this age group through pediatricians’ offices, school clinics, King County vaccination partnership sites, and some retail pharmacies. Please check Vaccine Locator or contact a clinic to make a vaccine appointment According to Public Health Seattle & KIng County, there have been over 25,000 reported COVID-19 cases among youth in King County, 200 hospitalizations, and five deaths since the pandemic began. About 20 of all reported COVID-19 cases in King County were among youth, and youth ages 5-11 currently have the highest rate of COVID-19 among all age groups. Oct. 25 Starting Oct. 25, 2021, King County requires those who dine or recreate indoors at restaurants, bars, gyms and other recreation facilities or attend outdoor events with more than 500 people in the county to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from within the last 72 hours to gain entry to the event or facility. This includes City of Bellevue Community Centers, environmental education visitor centers, and the Aaron Education Center at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. It takes just a minute to be ready, be kind and be safe in order to support our community through this requirement. This video shows you how. Oct. 20 Gov. Jay Inslee issued a large event vaccine verification emergency order, prohibiting organizers of outdoor events with 10,000 or more people or indoor events with 1,000 or more people from allowing anyone 12 years and older from attending the event unless the individual either shows proof of either full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test conducted within 72 hours of the event. The order is effective on Nov. 15. Sept. 24 Gov. Inslee announced another extension of the statewide moratorium on evictions. The moratorium, which was set to expire on Thursday, Sept. 30, will now expire Sunday, Oct. 31. To help tenants who have lost income due to pandemic shutdowns, the moratorium applies to evictions for non-payment. The state is still working to distribute rental relief funds to tenants in need. Sept. 16 To protect customers and workers, preserve hospital capacity and help prevent business closures, Public Health Seattle & King County has issued a health order requiring verification of full vaccination or a negative test to enter outdoor public events of 500 or more people and indoor entertainment and recreational establishments and events such as live music, performing arts, gyms, restaurants and bars. The order takes effect Oct. 25, though implementation will be delayed for smaller restaurants and bars until Dec. 6. Sept. 2 With the delta variant still surging in King County, straining the health care system, Public Health Seattle & King County issued a health officer order, requiring anyone five years of age and older to wear face masks at any outdoor event with 500 or more people in attendance. The order takes effect Tuesday, Sept. 7. Aug. 18 With the delta variant of COVID-19 surging across the state, particularly among unvaccinated people, Gov. Inslee issued a new statewide mask requirement and ordered all public, private and charter school employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Per the announcement, all individuals in indoor public spaces must wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status, starting Monday, Aug. 23. The mask mandate expansion comes after Washington recently broke the previous record for COVID hospitalizations set in December. Aug. 9 Gov. Inslee announces a requirement for most state workers, on-site contractors and volunteers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. The delta variant of COVID-19 was spreading rapidly among unvaccinated people around the state. June 29 Gov. Inslee confirmed that the state’s economy will reopen on Wednesday, June 30, as planned, with businesses returning to normal capacity and operations. Because folks listened to science and stayed home to stay healthy, wore masks and got vaccinated, we can now safely fully reopen our state’s economy and cultural centers after 15 long months,” the governor said in a statement. “It hasn’t been easy, but I’m proud of how Washingtonians came together, persevered and sacrificed to fight this virus, and now we’re finally in a place that is safe enough to end this chapter.” On Tuesday, June 29, King County formally lifted its mask mandate, which means fully vaccinated residents are free to go without face coverings outdoors and in most indoor spaces. The county repealed its mandate after at least 70 of local eligible residents became fully vaccinated. June 24 Seeking to ensure that renters and landlords receive support and resources that are available to them, Gov. Inslee announced a bridge between the eviction moratorium and the housing stability programs put in place by the Legislature. The bridge is effective July 1 through Sept. 30. Beginning Aug. 1, renters will be expected to pay full rent, pay reduced rent negotiated with their landlord or seek rental assistance funding. May 13 With COVID-19 infection rates declining as vaccination rates rise, Gov. Inslee announced that the state is moving toward a statewide June 30 reopening date. He also announced that all counties in Washington will move to Phase 3 of the Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan effective May 18. Effective immediately, additional activities will be allowed with fewer restrictions and increased capacity for groups of fully vaccinated people. May 4 Gov. Inslee announced a two-week pause on movement in the Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan. Under the pause, every county will remain in its current phase. King county remains in Phase 3. At the end of two weeks, each county will be re-evaluated. The governor noted recent data suggested Washington’s fourth wave has hit a plateau. This wave has been less severe than the three previous ones, with rising case counts not leading to a corresponding rise in deaths. Epidemiologists attribute the difference to vaccinations, especially among vulnerable populations. In addition to reducing the number of people who contract COVID-19, vaccinations lessen the severity of the disease for those who do get it, April 12 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the rollback of three counties not meeting the Phase 3 Healthy Washington metrics for reopening activities. The three counties returning to Phase 2 are: Cowlitz County, Pierce County and Whitman County. These metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down,” said Gov. Inslee. In order to move down one phase under the recently updated Healthy Washington criteria, a county must fail both metrics for case counts and hospitalizations. Under the previous plan, a county only needed to fail one metric to move back a phase. The next evaluation of counties will be in three weeks, on May 3. March 31 Gov. Inslee announced that effective April 15, all Washingtonians over the age of 16 will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. On March 31, vaccine eligibility opened to people in Phase 1B tiers 3 and 4. Details at Bellevue Vaccines. March 12 Gov. Inslee Friday announced he will issue an emergency proclamation early next week forcing all of Washington’s school districts to offer K-12 students the choice to return to their classrooms. By April 5, all students in kindergarten through the sixth grade must be given the choice to go back to classrooms, and by April 19, all other K-12 students must have the same option, according to the proclamation. Details The Bellevue School District began returning K-2 students to schools for at least some in-person learning starting in January. March 11 Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that the entire state will enter Phase 3 of the Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery. Effective Monday, March 22, in-person spectators will be allowed for professional and high school sports. Spectators will be allowed to attend outdoor venues with permanent seating with capacity capped at 25. Social distancing and facial covering are still required. Additionally, the governor announced that starting Wednesday, March 17, everyone in Tier 2 will be eligible for their COVID vaccine. This includes workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, public transit, firefighters and law enforcement, among others. Tier 2 also includes people over the age of 16 who are pregnant or have a disability that puts them at high-risk. Details March 9 Adopting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Health announced that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors unmasked with: 1) other fully vaccinated people in private residences; 2) unvaccinated people from one other household in private residences, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. March 2 Gov. Inslee visited Phantom Lake Elementary School and announced on the same day that educators and licensed childcare workers would be added to Washington’s current COVID-19 vaccine-eligible phase, 1B-1. To find out more about the state’s vaccine phases and process for getting a COVID-19 vaccine, visit the vaccine page from Seattle King County Public Health. Feb. 19 Gov. Inslee announced he signed House Bill 1368 today, which appropriates $2.2 billion in federal funding to respond to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation takes effect immediately and provides funding for: $714 million in assistance for K-12 schools $618 million for public health’s response to COVID, including testing, investigation and contact tracing; and funding for vaccination efforts $365 million for emergency eviction, rental and utility assistance $240 million for business assistance grants $50 million for child care $26 million for food banks and other food programs $91 million for income assistance, including $65 million for relief for the state’s immigrant population Jan. 28 Gov. Inslee announced several changes to the state’s Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery that will allow King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to move into Phase 2 of the plan on Feb. 1. Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pacific and Thurston counties are also being given the green light to move to Phase 2. Gov. Inslee adjusted the plan in both the evaluation criteria for regions to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and the timeframe in which regions can progress. The progression is contingent on whether their metrics continue their positive trends and regions now must meet three of four criteria related to COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations instead of needing to meet all four. Jan. 18 Gov. Jay Inslee announced an updated statewide vaccine distribution plan to increase the number of Washingtonians vaccinated and establish infrastructure capable of mass vaccinations in the coming months. With the expanded distribution system, the state set a goal of vaccinating 45,000 Washingtonians per day. Jan. 6 The state Department of Health introduced a COVID-19 vaccine timeline, with details about the first phase. Information on phases 2, 3 and 4 will follow. Jan. 5 Gov. Jay Inslee announced Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery, a new COVID-19 phased recovery plan beginning Jan. 11. The plan follows a regional recovery approach with every region beginning in Phase 1 and required to meet a combination of metrics before moving to Phase 2. There are only two phases in this plan and all regions will be in Phase 1 on Jan. 11. Phase 1, for the most part, aligns with restrictions currently in place for most counties, 2020 Dec. 30 Gov. Jay Inslee announced a one-week extension of the “Stay Safe Stay Healthy” proclamation, along with the statewide restrictions imposed. The extension of the statewide restrictions will now expire on January 11, 2021. No changes were made in the proclamation aside from the expiration date. An updated reopening plan will be released next week. Dec. 27 President Donald Trump signed a federal pandemic relief package late Sunday night, which includes extensions to unemployment benefits. Gov. Jay Inslee announced earlier that the state would provide funding for almost 100,000 Washingtonians who would have lost federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits if the president had not signed the bill. The federal government missed the deadline for the extension, so there could still be a delay in federal payments, meaning the “bridge” payments from the state level will still be meaningful for unemployed Washingtonians. Dec, 23 Gov. Jay Inslee today announced he will extend the eviction moratorium to March 31. The eviction moratorium was set to expire on Dec. 31. Dec. 13 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine by a multi-state workgroup of vaccine experts after the FDA and CDC granted their initial authorization to the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. I’m pleased that the Western States Workgroup gave their unanimous recommendation to the vaccine last night and encourages immediate use of the vaccine in our states, Inslee said during a press conference Sunday morning. It cannot come soon enough with Washington closing in on 200,000 total COVID cases and approaching 3,000 deaths this help is much needed to prevent further infection, hospitalization and loss of life. The Western States Workgroup, comprised of vaccine experts from Washington, California, Oregon and Nevada, have been meeting to review the data and analysis to ensure the safety and efficacy of all vaccines federally authorized. Dec. 8 With infection rates continuing to rise across the state, Gov. Inslee extends restrictions on indoor dining, gyms and private social gatherings to Jan. 4. The governor’s original emergency order, issued Nov. 15, called for a ban on indoor dining, Indoor gatherings with people outside of a person’s household and closure of gyms and museums through Dec. 14. Dec. 2 The state made available today a third round of COVID-19 business grants for Washington small businesses. The funding package uses $50 million in CARES Act funds to support business grants of up to $20,000. Businesses that apply by Dec. 11 will be given priority. In addition, another $20 million will be given to eligible businesses that have already applied for COVID-19 resiliency grants from the state but did not receive funding. Businesses can apply at the state’s Commerce Department website and email bizgrants@commerce.wa.gov or by calling the state’s hotline at 360-725-5003 with questions or assistance requests. In addition, Bellevue offers many support resources, including help through the application process in multiple languages through their technical assistance program. Nov. 15 In a Sunday press conference, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a tightening of COVID-19 health restrictions starting Monday for most rollbacks, including a ban on indoor social gatherings unless specific conditions are met, no indoor dining is allowed and outdoor dining or gatherings are limited to five people or less, grocery and retail stores are required to limit occupancy to 25 and religious gatherings are limited to 25 capacity or 200 people, whichever is less. All the new restrictions go into effect Monday, Nov. 16, with the exception of those for bars and restaurants, which go into effect no later than Wednesday, Nov. 18. “This is not forever, this is only for now,” said Gov. Inslee during the conference. “We need to hold this pandemic down until the cavalry arrives.inaction is not an option.” In reference to the “cavalry”, Gov. Inslee mentioned that work on making a vaccine available is seeing promising results. Infectious disease specialist Dr. George Diaz of Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett spoke during the conference about hoping that vaccine distribution can begin in the next month or two. The restrictions do not extend to schools, childcare or courts. They also prohibit receptions for weddings or funerals and ceremonies are limited to 30 people. Offices must allow employees to work from home if possible. Gov. Inslee also announced further relief for businesses in the form of an additional $50 million in business grants and loans to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions. In Washington, record positive case counts have occurred for numerous days in a row, with more than 2200 new cases reported Nov. 14 and that record was expected to be broken again on Nov. 15. The restrictions announced today are set to expire Dec. 14 unless extended or revoked earlier. Nov. 13 Gov. Jay Inslee issued a travel advisory for Washington today, recommending a 14-day quarantine for interstate and international travel, and asks residents to stay close to home. Inslee joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in urging visitors entering their states or returning home from travel outside these states to self-quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. Nov. 12 Gov. Jay Inslee held a live address where he implored Washingtonians to keep holiday gatherings this year to only people within your immediate household. He also said to expect further changes to our current health restrictions related to COVID-19 in the coming days. The latest information about COVID-19 can be found on coronavirus.wa.gov. Cases have doubled in last two weeks; we are in as dangerous a position as we were in March, said Gov. Inslee. We cannot wait until a hospital’s halls are filled with gurneys before we take decisive action. As of Nov. 12, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,359, with 153 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease In King County, there were 622 new cases as of yesterday with 19 more hospitalizations and 10 new deaths. Oct. 28 Today the Washington State Department of Health released the latest statewide situation report on COVID-19 transmission, which shows a general rise in the intensity of the epidemic in both western and eastern Washington. Gov. Jay Inslee issued a “Stay Safe Vote Safe” proclamation this week adjusting COVID-19 requirements for voters and for voting service operations. As of Oct. 28, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,136, with 142 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 22 The Washington Department of Health reported the 100,000th Washingtonian diagnosed with COVID-19, noting, “This a sad and sobering milestone.” Find a list of free testing sites here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19.aspx Meanwhile, this week Gov. Jay Inslee issued updated COVID-19 guidance for a number of populations. He first issued a proclamation establishing additional safety guidelines for higher education institutions and living facilities, including limitations on the number of residents who may share a sleeping area, limitations on the number of people in common areas, and requirements for all people in common areas to wear a mask and remain socially distanced. The governor also announced updated guidance for religious and faith based organizations including clarification that physical distancing between non-household members must be six feet in all directions. The updates also permit brief physical contact among up to five individuals, excluding religious leaders, if the brief contact is a critical component to the organization’s religious service. Gov. Inslee also announced the Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund is now open for applications. The relief fund will provide $40 million in federal funds allocated by the state to assist Washington workers who miss work due to COVID-19, but are unable to access federal stimulus programs and other social supports due to their immigration status. As of Oct. 22, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,112, with 137 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 14 Gov. Inslee announced the extensions of the eviction moratorium and public utility proclamations as COVID-19 continues to impact the finances of Washingtonians statewide. Both proclamations were extended to December 31. As of Oct. 14, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,060, with 135 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 6 Gov. Inslee announced several updates to Washington’s Safe Start reopening plan. The changes seek to align guidance and adjustments to regulations of several industries and activities including libraries, movie theaters, restaurants, real estate, retail, weddings, and many recreational activities. Two more new COVID-19 testing sites are opening in south King County, according to Seattle King County Public Health. As of Oct. 6, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,016, with 133 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Sept. 18 The rates of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been decreasing since early August in King County and Bellevue, as schools operate remotely and residents continue to limit exposure under Phase 2 of the state “Safe Start” plan. Bellevue City Hall, Mini City Hall and community centers remain closed. Virtual City Council meetings are held virtually. See COVID-19, COVID-19 Community Resources and COVID-19 Business/Nonprofit Resources for details on city services. There were 55 cases in the county per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days, continuing the six-week trend down from 116 cases on July 25. The target for moving to Phase 3 is less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. The number of tests and speed of testing remain below the targets, but the infection rate and decreasing hospitalizations and deaths all meet targets. As of Sept. 17, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 957, with 126 being hospitalized and 41 dying from the disease. The rates of infection, hospitalization and death were all below the county rates. Sept. 16 Gov. Jay Inslee announced updated guidance for weddings and funerals as part of Washington’s Safe Start phased reopening plan. The update allows wedding and funeral receptions to resume, as long as they meet specific requirements for occupancy limits, table sizes and social distancing and masks. Aug. 19 The City Council released a video public service announcement urging residents to “take the coronavirus to task by wearing a mask.” All seven council members made brief selfie videos, which Bellevue TV edited together into the PSA. Aug. 18 The City Council authorized the use of $185,000 in federal CARES Act funding for a new Small Business Relief Grant program. Allocated to Bellevue through the King County Relief Fund, the program provides $5,000 grants to small, Bellevue-owned businesses and arts organizations to help overcome COVID-19 business disruptions. Aug. 5 Gov. Inslee announced new recommendations from the state Department of Health regarding public and private schooling. If the total number of new cases over a 14-day period is 75 or more, state health officials strongly recommend distance learning for most students and cancellation or postponement of in-person extracurricular activities. In King County, there were 91 new cases in the 14 days preceding Aug. 5. The Bellevue School District already had a fall planning forum scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 6. Aug. 4 The reopening of the Bellevue Aquatic Center for visits by appointment on Wednesday, Aug. 5 is announced. July 30 The city expanded its website chatbot, so the AI assistant has answers in multiple languages. Located on the home page, the chatbot quickly directs users to COVID-19-related information and resources. It has seen significant use since it was launched in May. As of July 29, 682 Bellevue residents have tested positive for COVID-19 this year, with 40 deaths, according to Public Health Seattle & King County. The number of infections has continued to surge in Bellevue in July. July 23 Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced changes to the state’s guidance and regulations around restaurants, bars, and fitness centers, as well as weddings and funerals. The changes will also affect family entertainment centers, movie theaters and card rooms. The changes target activities that data have shown provide a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure and are in response to the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state. In addition to those changes, Wiesman announced an expansion of his face coverings order that will go into effect Saturday, July 25. The expansion will require face coverings in all common spaces, such as elevators, hallways and shared spaces in apartment buildings, university housing and hotels, as well as congregate setting such as nursing homes. July 22 As local businesses continue to adapt their operations as part of the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, the city is extending additional support to restaurants on and near Main Street, offering them to use street parking spots in some cases for extra seating. As of July 21, 604 Bellevue residents had tested positive for COVID-19, with 37 deaths, according to Public Health Seattle & King County. As elsewhere in the state, the number of cases in Bellevue has been rising in July. July 14 Gov. Jay Inslee today extended the pause on moving any county to the next phase in Washington’s Safe Start plan until at least July 28. July 2 Gov. Jay Inslee and Sec. of Health John Wiesman today announced a statewide requirement for businesses to require face coverings of all employees and customers. Under this proclamation, businesses may not serve any customer, services or goods, if they do not comply with the state-wide face covering order. The extension comes in response to growing case counts in counties across the state. June 27 Gov. Jay Inslee and Sec. John Wiesman announced the Washington State Department of Health is putting a pause on counties moving to Phase 4 though the Safe Start phased approach. Rising cases across the state and concerns about continued spread of the COVID virus have made Phase 4, which would essentially mean no restrictions, impossible at this time. Eight counties were eligible to move from Phase 3 to Phase 4 before the pause. June 26 After a week in Phase 2 of the Safe Start phased reopening plan for the state, Public Health Seattle & King County reported that cases in King County are increasing, but hospital capacity is still adequate. June 23 Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary of Health John Wiesman today announced a statewide mandatory face covering order that will take effect Friday, June 26. King County has had a mask order in effect since May 18, but after reports of cases increasing in additional counties, the governor and Wiesman extended the face covering requirement to include the entire state of Washington. Masks are to be worn in all indoor public spaces and outdoor public spaces where physical distancing of six feet is not possible. There are exceptions for young children and individuals with disabilities who have difficulty wearing masks or communicating with them on. June 19 King County announced it has been approved to move to Phase 2 of Washington’s Safe Start plan. Summary details of what is allowed in each phase is at the state’s coronavirus.wa.gov website. As local businesses begin to expand their operations within the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, Bellevue’s economic development team has adjusted its support for retailers and restaurants to help businesses adapt their operations through each phase of the reopening plan. Support includes clarifying regulations, providing step-by-step guides and speeding permit turnaround times. June 17 Public Health Seattle & King County, the City of Seattle and the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction are launching new efforts to connect families in need to food resources as the demand for food resources continues to increase as a result of COVID-19, including a map of free emergency food resources across King County. Public Health now has increased availability for free COVID-19 testing, offering access to testing information, FAQs and a map of testing locations. June 12 The Parks & Community Services Department announced that it won’t be presenting any major events such as the Family 4th or Movies in the Park through August, to comply with social distancing directives. June 8 Public Health Seattle & King County reported that as of June 8, there had been a total of 437 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue, 3 more than June 7, with 36 deaths. Bellevue Utilities reminds businesses resuming activities at their offices to flush the water system in the building. To make it easier for people to exercise safely, the Transportation Department expanded its Healthy Streets program on June 5. June 7 On June 5, King County moved to a modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start plan, which allows: Restaurants offering outdoor dining at 50 capacity and indoor dining at 25 capacity In-store retail at 15 capacity, with visits of no more than 30 minutes Fitness studios outdoors with no more than five clients or indoors with no more than one client Personal services at no more than 25 capacity Professional services at no more than 25 office capacity King County has more information on allowable business operations and relevant requirements. June 3 Gov. Jay Inslee extended the eviction moratorium in Wash. More state updates are available at coronavirus.wa.gov. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 425 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 35 deaths. May 31 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the Stay Home, Stay Healthy would expire, replacing it with the Safe Start Proclamation, guided by Washington’s phased approach to opening. May 25 Gov. Jay Inslee released a statement after the Washington State Department of Health announced additional counties are eligible to move to Phase 2 under the Safe Start plan. We are making good progress as we continue to open Washington in segments. Currently, one-third of our state is now eligible to move into Phase 2,” he said. Public Health Seattle & King County announced that more locations for COVID-19 testing are available at no cost throughout King County, and urged anyone experiencing even mild symptoms to be tested right away. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 405 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 34 deaths. May 20 Public Health Seattle & King County has created a new set of data tools that show some of the broader social, economic, and overall health and well-being impacts in King County during COVID-19. The new data dashboard has key topics including unemployment, housing and food needs, internet access, family violence, depression, and having health insurance. You can view the full range of data dashboards available here. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 396 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 32 deaths. May 18 The City of Bellevue has been made aware of identity theft and fraud related to Washington State unemployment benefits. Imposters use a victim’s personal information to file a fraudulent unemployment benefit claim and attempt to collect on that claim. Resources for reporting identity theft and, specifically, unemployment fraud, are available at: State Employment Security Department Fraud Reporting: Identity theft and fraud has been reported in Washington’s unemployment benefits system. Click this link if you think you may be a victim of unemployment benefit fraud. Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Reporting: Click this link for other resources on reporting identity theft. Gov. Jay Inslee announced the restart of all medical services in Washington, including dental services, elective procedures and preventive services. The Public Health Seattle & King County face covering directive went into effect today, May 18, and the agency released more information for the public. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 390 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 30 deaths. May 14 Public Health Seattle & King County on May 13 began recommending anyone with symptoms or who has been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 be tested right away. Anyone experiencing even mild COVID-like symptoms should isolate themselves from others and call their doctor or nurse line. More doctors have testing kits, and anyone with two or more of the following symptoms should be tested: cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell. People who don’t have a regular health care provider are encouraged to call the King County COVID-19 call center, which is open 7 days a week, 8 a.m. 7 p.m. Also, starting May 18, people are directed to wear a face covering when they are at any indoor or outdoor public space where they may be within 6 feet of other people. May 12 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the launch of a statewide contact tracing plan today that will allow more businesses to open and more people to be active in public while helping to slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The gov. also issued guidance for partially resuming limited in-store retail and manufacturing operations for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 Plan. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 373 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 10, with 29 deaths. May 11 The city and the Bellevue Downtown Association announced that this year’s Bellevue Family 4th celebration would be canceled due to COVID-19. Public Health Seattle & King County issued a new Health Officer Directive strongly urging face coverings in all indoor public places including grocery stores and other businesses, as well as outside settings where maintaining six feet of social distancing is difficult. Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance today for partially resuming the dine-in restaurant and tavern industry for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 recovery plan laid out last week. Some counties have been cleared to move through the recovery phases at an accelerated pace, but most counties will move from one phase to another after at least three weeks. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 372 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 10, with 29 deaths. May 8 With the first phase of the governor’s “Safe Start” relaxation of social distancing measures now in effect, the Bellevue Golf Course reopened on Tuesday, May 5. The Crossroads Par 3 course is set to open on Saturday, May 9. The Transportation Department on Thursday, May 7, launched a Healthy Streets pilot, closing portions of Southeast Fourth Street and 165/166th avenues Northeast to non-local vehicle traffic so neighborhood residents can walk and bike more. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 364 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 7, with 24 deaths. May 1 Gov. Inslee extended the Stay Home Stay Healthy Order until May 31, releasing details on a phased approach to gradually lifting certain aspects of the order in the coming weeks. Public Health Seattle & King County released data showing racial inequities among COVID-19 cases and now include a COVID-19 Race/Ethnicity Dashboard updated weekly to monitor this data. Public Health reported 6,407 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 449 deaths in King County. In Bellevue, Public Health reports 323 positive cases with 23 deaths. April 29 Gov. Inslee shared data being used to help determine when and how to best lift restrictions under the Stay Home Stay Healthy Order, details of which will be announced on May 1. He also clarified prior-announced lifting of certain restrictions around construction and elective surgeries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added six items to its list of symptoms for COVID-19. Read more from Public Health. Public Health Seattle & King County reported 6,308 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in King County with 446 deaths In Bellevue, Public Health reports 318 positive cases with 23 deaths. April 27 Gov. Inslee announced today a partial re-opening of some outdoor recreation activities, with appropriate safety precautions, starting May 5, 2020. In a press release, Public Health said the decline of new cases was slowing, raising concerns that relaxing social distancing measures too soon could cause an uptick in virus transmission. “We’ve done a very good job in King County suppressing transmission of COVID-19 and that’s largely due to the great work of our community in staying home and distancing to the extent possible,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health Seattle & King County. “However, we still have way too many cases occurring each day. That means we’re vulnerable to a rebound that could potentially overwhelm our healthcare system if we prematurely ease up on our distancing steps.” Public Health Seattle & King County reported 5,990 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in King County with 416 deaths In Bellevue, Public Health reports 301 positive cases with 22 deaths. April 24 Gov. Inslee announced that “low-risk” construction where strict social-distancing rules could be maintained on-site would be allowed. The state has details. Public Health Seattle & KIng County reported that as of April 23, there were 290 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Bellevue, with 21 deaths. April 22 The Bellevue City Council passed an ordinance during their virtual meeting on April 20 to extend the expiration dates of building permit applications and permits already issued for an additional 180 days. The ordinance is in response to the halt of most commercial and residential construction projects due to necessary COVID-19 precautions. More information can be found under Development Services. Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson released a joint statement today in response to some Washington state officials’ disregard for the governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order. Public Health reported 5,449 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 379 deaths. April 20 The cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond and Renton today launched STARTUP425, a collaborative effort to connect Eastside small business owners, nonprofit leaders and sole proprietors with available business support resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is available in multiple languages and provides one-on-one technical consultations on business financial assistance programs, a calendar of relevant webinars and other resources. Public Health Seattle & King County announced that COVID-19 cases within the county’s homeless residents and among homelessness services workers is rising. 112 people in these populations have tested positive and 70 people are currently staying in King County isolation and quarantine facilities. One person being treated at a King County isolation and quarantine site has died. Public Health reported 5,293 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 360 deaths. April 16 In a news conference, Gov. Jay Inslee said, “We have bent the curve down,” regarding the spread of the coronavirus in Washington. However, he said his “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order will remain in effect until the infection rate continues to decrease and the state’s testing and contact tracing capacity increases dramatically. Public Health reported 4,809 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 320 deaths. April 15 To protect the health of prisoners jeopardized by lack of social distancing in state prisons, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation and commutation order that allows the early release of certain vulnerable populations, including nonviolent individuals due to be released within the coming weeks and months. Public Health reported 4,697 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 312 deaths. April 14 The City of Bellevue has closed access to the parking lots in Downtown Park to discourage people from driving to a destination park outside of their local neighborhood. The park is still open for those who live or work nearby and can walk to the park. Accessible parking spaces are also still available in the south parking lot of the park. Gov. Jay Inslee issued three new proclamations related to criminal statutes, commercial driver’s licenses and garnishments in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. Public Health reported 4,620 positive cases of COVID-19 in King County and 303 deaths. April 13 Today, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced an agreement on a shared vision for reopening their economies and controlling COVID-19 into the future. The governor also released a proclamation giving high-risk workers protections from COVID-19 without jeopardizing th (https://bellevuewa.gov/city-news/covid-19-updates-masks-no-longer-required-after-march-11)

COVID-19 Updates: City facilities reopen fully April 4

COVID-19 Updates: City facilities reopen fully April 4 CIosso Wed, 02/03/2021 10:52 With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting Bellevue for an extended time, local information about Bellevue’s response to the virus is posted on a dedicated COVID-19 page. For information about how to receive help or offer help during the pandemic, visit our Business Resources and Community Resources pages. We will continue to post summary updates on the thread below as meaningful changes to the situation arise. April 4 The City of Bellevue returns to pre-pandemic operations at City Hall and other facilities. The transition comes after the modification of state and county health directives in March, high vaccination rates in the community and dropping COVID-19 infections. March 4 In response to the lifting of county and state mask mandates, the public will no longer be required to wear masks indoors at most city facilities starting Saturday, March 12. Feb. 28 With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the west, California, Oregon and Washington are moving up the date for indoor mask requirements to be lifted from March 21 to March 11. After 11:59 p.m. on March 11, Masks will no longer be required in restaurants, grocery stores, bars, gyms or schools. County mask requirements are lifting at the same time. Masks will continue to be required in health care and corrections facilities. State policies do not change federal requirements, which still include masks on public transit. Feb. 16 With new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations decreasing, and nearly 80 of all King County residents fully vaccinated, the county is ending its local health order requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test for entry into restaurants and bars, indoor recreational events and establishments or outdoor events. Starting on Tuesday, March 1, vaccine verification will no longer be required at Bellevue parks facilities, including community and recreation centers. 2021 Nov. 19 The Food and Drug Administration approved COVID-19 booster shots for all adults, and urged people 50 and older to get boosters. Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older can choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose. For anyone who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the wait already is just two months. People can mix-and-match boosters from any company. Nov. 3 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11, after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for this age group. Independent panels of vaccine experts found the vaccine to be highly effective at preventing COVID-19, and no serious safety concerns were identified. This week and next, vaccine will become available for children in this age group through pediatricians’ offices, school clinics, King County vaccination partnership sites, and some retail pharmacies. Please check Vaccine Locator or contact a clinic to make a vaccine appointment According to Public Health Seattle & KIng County, there have been over 25,000 reported COVID-19 cases among youth in King County, 200 hospitalizations, and five deaths since the pandemic began. About 20 of all reported COVID-19 cases in King County were among youth, and youth ages 5-11 currently have the highest rate of COVID-19 among all age groups. Oct. 25 Starting Oct. 25, 2021, King County requires those who dine or recreate indoors at restaurants, bars, gyms and other recreation facilities or attend outdoor events with more than 500 people in the county to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from within the last 72 hours to gain entry to the event or facility. This includes City of Bellevue Community Centers, environmental education visitor centers, and the Aaron Education Center at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. It takes just a minute to be ready, be kind and be safe in order to support our community through this requirement. This video shows you how. Oct. 20 Gov. Jay Inslee issued a large event vaccine verification emergency order, prohibiting organizers of outdoor events with 10,000 or more people or indoor events with 1,000 or more people from allowing anyone 12 years and older from attending the event unless the individual either shows proof of either full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test conducted within 72 hours of the event. The order is effective on Nov. 15. Sept. 24 Gov. Inslee announced another extension of the statewide moratorium on evictions. The moratorium, which was set to expire on Thursday, Sept. 30, will now expire Sunday, Oct. 31. To help tenants who have lost income due to pandemic shutdowns, the moratorium applies to evictions for non-payment. The state is still working to distribute rental relief funds to tenants in need. Sept. 16 To protect customers and workers, preserve hospital capacity and help prevent business closures, Public Health Seattle & King County has issued a health order requiring verification of full vaccination or a negative test to enter outdoor public events of 500 or more people and indoor entertainment and recreational establishments and events such as live music, performing arts, gyms, restaurants and bars. The order takes effect Oct. 25, though implementation will be delayed for smaller restaurants and bars until Dec. 6. Sept. 2 With the delta variant still surging in King County, straining the health care system, Public Health Seattle & King County issued a health officer order, requiring anyone five years of age and older to wear face masks at any outdoor event with 500 or more people in attendance. The order takes effect Tuesday, Sept. 7. Aug. 18 With the delta variant of COVID-19 surging across the state, particularly among unvaccinated people, Gov. Inslee issued a new statewide mask requirement and ordered all public, private and charter school employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Per the announcement, all individuals in indoor public spaces must wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status, starting Monday, Aug. 23. The mask mandate expansion comes after Washington recently broke the previous record for COVID hospitalizations set in December. Aug. 9 Gov. Inslee announces a requirement for most state workers, on-site contractors and volunteers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. The delta variant of COVID-19 was spreading rapidly among unvaccinated people around the state. June 29 Gov. Inslee confirmed that the state’s economy will reopen on Wednesday, June 30, as planned, with businesses returning to normal capacity and operations. Because folks listened to science and stayed home to stay healthy, wore masks and got vaccinated, we can now safely fully reopen our state’s economy and cultural centers after 15 long months,” the governor said in a statement. “It hasn’t been easy, but I’m proud of how Washingtonians came together, persevered and sacrificed to fight this virus, and now we’re finally in a place that is safe enough to end this chapter.” On Tuesday, June 29, King County formally lifted its mask mandate, which means fully vaccinated residents are free to go without face coverings outdoors and in most indoor spaces. The county repealed its mandate after at least 70 of local eligible residents became fully vaccinated. June 24 Seeking to ensure that renters and landlords receive support and resources that are available to them, Gov. Inslee announced a bridge between the eviction moratorium and the housing stability programs put in place by the Legislature. The bridge is effective July 1 through Sept. 30. Beginning Aug. 1, renters will be expected to pay full rent, pay reduced rent negotiated with their landlord or seek rental assistance funding. May 13 With COVID-19 infection rates declining as vaccination rates rise, Gov. Inslee announced that the state is moving toward a statewide June 30 reopening date. He also announced that all counties in Washington will move to Phase 3 of the Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan effective May 18. Effective immediately, additional activities will be allowed with fewer restrictions and increased capacity for groups of fully vaccinated people. May 4 Gov. Inslee announced a two-week pause on movement in the Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan. Under the pause, every county will remain in its current phase. King county remains in Phase 3. At the end of two weeks, each county will be re-evaluated. The governor noted recent data suggested Washington’s fourth wave has hit a plateau. This wave has been less severe than the three previous ones, with rising case counts not leading to a corresponding rise in deaths. Epidemiologists attribute the difference to vaccinations, especially among vulnerable populations. In addition to reducing the number of people who contract COVID-19, vaccinations lessen the severity of the disease for those who do get it, April 12 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the rollback of three counties not meeting the Phase 3 Healthy Washington metrics for reopening activities. The three counties returning to Phase 2 are: Cowlitz County, Pierce County and Whitman County. These metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down,” said Gov. Inslee. In order to move down one phase under the recently updated Healthy Washington criteria, a county must fail both metrics for case counts and hospitalizations. Under the previous plan, a county only needed to fail one metric to move back a phase. The next evaluation of counties will be in three weeks, on May 3. March 31 Gov. Inslee announced that effective April 15, all Washingtonians over the age of 16 will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. On March 31, vaccine eligibility opened to people in Phase 1B tiers 3 and 4. Details at Bellevue Vaccines. March 12 Gov. Inslee Friday announced he will issue an emergency proclamation early next week forcing all of Washington’s school districts to offer K-12 students the choice to return to their classrooms. By April 5, all students in kindergarten through the sixth grade must be given the choice to go back to classrooms, and by April 19, all other K-12 students must have the same option, according to the proclamation. Details The Bellevue School District began returning K-2 students to schools for at least some in-person learning starting in January. March 11 Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that the entire state will enter Phase 3 of the Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery. Effective Monday, March 22, in-person spectators will be allowed for professional and high school sports. Spectators will be allowed to attend outdoor venues with permanent seating with capacity capped at 25. Social distancing and facial covering are still required. Additionally, the governor announced that starting Wednesday, March 17, everyone in Tier 2 will be eligible for their COVID vaccine. This includes workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, public transit, firefighters and law enforcement, among others. Tier 2 also includes people over the age of 16 who are pregnant or have a disability that puts them at high-risk. Details March 9 Adopting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Health announced that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors unmasked with: 1) other fully vaccinated people in private residences; 2) unvaccinated people from one other household in private residences, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. March 2 Gov. Inslee visited Phantom Lake Elementary School and announced on the same day that educators and licensed childcare workers would be added to Washington’s current COVID-19 vaccine-eligible phase, 1B-1. To find out more about the state’s vaccine phases and process for getting a COVID-19 vaccine, visit the vaccine page from Seattle King County Public Health. Feb. 19 Gov. Inslee announced he signed House Bill 1368 today, which appropriates $2.2 billion in federal funding to respond to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation takes effect immediately and provides funding for: $714 million in assistance for K-12 schools $618 million for public health’s response to COVID, including testing, investigation and contact tracing; and funding for vaccination efforts $365 million for emergency eviction, rental and utility assistance $240 million for business assistance grants $50 million for child care $26 million for food banks and other food programs $91 million for income assistance, including $65 million for relief for the state’s immigrant population Jan. 28 Gov. Inslee announced several changes to the state’s Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery that will allow King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to move into Phase 2 of the plan on Feb. 1. Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pacific and Thurston counties are also being given the green light to move to Phase 2. Gov. Inslee adjusted the plan in both the evaluation criteria for regions to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and the timeframe in which regions can progress. The progression is contingent on whether their metrics continue their positive trends and regions now must meet three of four criteria related to COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations instead of needing to meet all four. Jan. 18 Gov. Jay Inslee announced an updated statewide vaccine distribution plan to increase the number of Washingtonians vaccinated and establish infrastructure capable of mass vaccinations in the coming months. With the expanded distribution system, the state set a goal of vaccinating 45,000 Washingtonians per day. Jan. 6 The state Department of Health introduced a COVID-19 vaccine timeline, with details about the first phase. Information on phases 2, 3 and 4 will follow. Jan. 5 Gov. Jay Inslee announced Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery, a new COVID-19 phased recovery plan beginning Jan. 11. The plan follows a regional recovery approach with every region beginning in Phase 1 and required to meet a combination of metrics before moving to Phase 2. There are only two phases in this plan and all regions will be in Phase 1 on Jan. 11. Phase 1, for the most part, aligns with restrictions currently in place for most counties, 2020 Dec. 30 Gov. Jay Inslee announced a one-week extension of the “Stay Safe Stay Healthy” proclamation, along with the statewide restrictions imposed. The extension of the statewide restrictions will now expire on January 11, 2021. No changes were made in the proclamation aside from the expiration date. An updated reopening plan will be released next week. Dec. 27 President Donald Trump signed a federal pandemic relief package late Sunday night, which includes extensions to unemployment benefits. Gov. Jay Inslee announced earlier that the state would provide funding for almost 100,000 Washingtonians who would have lost federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits if the president had not signed the bill. The federal government missed the deadline for the extension, so there could still be a delay in federal payments, meaning the “bridge” payments from the state level will still be meaningful for unemployed Washingtonians. Dec, 23 Gov. Jay Inslee today announced he will extend the eviction moratorium to March 31. The eviction moratorium was set to expire on Dec. 31. Dec. 13 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine by a multi-state workgroup of vaccine experts after the FDA and CDC granted their initial authorization to the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. I’m pleased that the Western States Workgroup gave their unanimous recommendation to the vaccine last night and encourages immediate use of the vaccine in our states, Inslee said during a press conference Sunday morning. It cannot come soon enough with Washington closing in on 200,000 total COVID cases and approaching 3,000 deaths this help is much needed to prevent further infection, hospitalization and loss of life. The Western States Workgroup, comprised of vaccine experts from Washington, California, Oregon and Nevada, have been meeting to review the data and analysis to ensure the safety and efficacy of all vaccines federally authorized. Dec. 8 With infection rates continuing to rise across the state, Gov. Inslee extends restrictions on indoor dining, gyms and private social gatherings to Jan. 4. The governor’s original emergency order, issued Nov. 15, called for a ban on indoor dining, Indoor gatherings with people outside of a person’s household and closure of gyms and museums through Dec. 14. Dec. 2 The state made available today a third round of COVID-19 business grants for Washington small businesses. The funding package uses $50 million in CARES Act funds to support business grants of up to $20,000. Businesses that apply by Dec. 11 will be given priority. In addition, another $20 million will be given to eligible businesses that have already applied for COVID-19 resiliency grants from the state but did not receive funding. Businesses can apply at the state’s Commerce Department website and email bizgrants@commerce.wa.gov or by calling the state’s hotline at 360-725-5003 with questions or assistance requests. In addition, Bellevue offers many support resources, including help through the application process in multiple languages through their technical assistance program. Nov. 15 In a Sunday press conference, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a tightening of COVID-19 health restrictions starting Monday for most rollbacks, including a ban on indoor social gatherings unless specific conditions are met, no indoor dining is allowed and outdoor dining or gatherings are limited to five people or less, grocery and retail stores are required to limit occupancy to 25 and religious gatherings are limited to 25 capacity or 200 people, whichever is less. All the new restrictions go into effect Monday, Nov. 16, with the exception of those for bars and restaurants, which go into effect no later than Wednesday, Nov. 18. “This is not forever, this is only for now,” said Gov. Inslee during the conference. “We need to hold this pandemic down until the cavalry arrives.inaction is not an option.” In reference to the “cavalry”, Gov. Inslee mentioned that work on making a vaccine available is seeing promising results. Infectious disease specialist Dr. George Diaz of Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett spoke during the conference about hoping that vaccine distribution can begin in the next month or two. The restrictions do not extend to schools, childcare or courts. They also prohibit receptions for weddings or funerals and ceremonies are limited to 30 people. Offices must allow employees to work from home if possible. Gov. Inslee also announced further relief for businesses in the form of an additional $50 million in business grants and loans to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions. In Washington, record positive case counts have occurred for numerous days in a row, with more than 2200 new cases reported Nov. 14 and that record was expected to be broken again on Nov. 15. The restrictions announced today are set to expire Dec. 14 unless extended or revoked earlier. Nov. 13 Gov. Jay Inslee issued a travel advisory for Washington today, recommending a 14-day quarantine for interstate and international travel, and asks residents to stay close to home. Inslee joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in urging visitors entering their states or returning home from travel outside these states to self-quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. Nov. 12 Gov. Jay Inslee held a live address where he implored Washingtonians to keep holiday gatherings this year to only people within your immediate household. He also said to expect further changes to our current health restrictions related to COVID-19 in the coming days. The latest information about COVID-19 can be found on coronavirus.wa.gov. Cases have doubled in last two weeks; we are in as dangerous a position as we were in March, said Gov. Inslee. We cannot wait until a hospital’s halls are filled with gurneys before we take decisive action. As of Nov. 12, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,359, with 153 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease In King County, there were 622 new cases as of yesterday with 19 more hospitalizations and 10 new deaths. Oct. 28 Today the Washington State Department of Health released the latest statewide situation report on COVID-19 transmission, which shows a general rise in the intensity of the epidemic in both western and eastern Washington. Gov. Jay Inslee issued a “Stay Safe Vote Safe” proclamation this week adjusting COVID-19 requirements for voters and for voting service operations. As of Oct. 28, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,136, with 142 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 22 The Washington Department of Health reported the 100,000th Washingtonian diagnosed with COVID-19, noting, “This a sad and sobering milestone.” Find a list of free testing sites here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19.aspx Meanwhile, this week Gov. Jay Inslee issued updated COVID-19 guidance for a number of populations. He first issued a proclamation establishing additional safety guidelines for higher education institutions and living facilities, including limitations on the number of residents who may share a sleeping area, limitations on the number of people in common areas, and requirements for all people in common areas to wear a mask and remain socially distanced. The governor also announced updated guidance for religious and faith based organizations including clarification that physical distancing between non-household members must be six feet in all directions. The updates also permit brief physical contact among up to five individuals, excluding religious leaders, if the brief contact is a critical component to the organization’s religious service. Gov. Inslee also announced the Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund is now open for applications. The relief fund will provide $40 million in federal funds allocated by the state to assist Washington workers who miss work due to COVID-19, but are unable to access federal stimulus programs and other social supports due to their immigration status. As of Oct. 22, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,112, with 137 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 14 Gov. Inslee announced the extensions of the eviction moratorium and public utility proclamations as COVID-19 continues to impact the finances of Washingtonians statewide. Both proclamations were extended to December 31. As of Oct. 14, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,060, with 135 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Oct. 6 Gov. Inslee announced several updates to Washington’s Safe Start reopening plan. The changes seek to align guidance and adjustments to regulations of several industries and activities including libraries, movie theaters, restaurants, real estate, retail, weddings, and many recreational activities. Two more new COVID-19 testing sites are opening in south King County, according to Seattle King County Public Health. As of Oct. 6, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 1,016, with 133 being hospitalized and 42 people dying from the disease Sept. 18 The rates of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been decreasing since early August in King County and Bellevue, as schools operate remotely and residents continue to limit exposure under Phase 2 of the state “Safe Start” plan. Bellevue City Hall, Mini City Hall and community centers remain closed. Virtual City Council meetings are held virtually. See COVID-19, COVID-19 Community Resources and COVID-19 Business/Nonprofit Resources for details on city services. There were 55 cases in the county per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days, continuing the six-week trend down from 116 cases on July 25. The target for moving to Phase 3 is less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. The number of tests and speed of testing remain below the targets, but the infection rate and decreasing hospitalizations and deaths all meet targets. As of Sept. 17, the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bellevue totaled 957, with 126 being hospitalized and 41 dying from the disease. The rates of infection, hospitalization and death were all below the county rates. Sept. 16 Gov. Jay Inslee announced updated guidance for weddings and funerals as part of Washington’s Safe Start phased reopening plan. The update allows wedding and funeral receptions to resume, as long as they meet specific requirements for occupancy limits, table sizes and social distancing and masks. Aug. 19 The City Council released a video public service announcement urging residents to “take the coronavirus to task by wearing a mask.” All seven council members made brief selfie videos, which Bellevue TV edited together into the PSA. Aug. 18 The City Council authorized the use of $185,000 in federal CARES Act funding for a new Small Business Relief Grant program. Allocated to Bellevue through the King County Relief Fund, the program provides $5,000 grants to small, Bellevue-owned businesses and arts organizations to help overcome COVID-19 business disruptions. Aug. 5 Gov. Inslee announced new recommendations from the state Department of Health regarding public and private schooling. If the total number of new cases over a 14-day period is 75 or more, state health officials strongly recommend distance learning for most students and cancellation or postponement of in-person extracurricular activities. In King County, there were 91 new cases in the 14 days preceding Aug. 5. The Bellevue School District already had a fall planning forum scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 6. Aug. 4 The reopening of the Bellevue Aquatic Center for visits by appointment on Wednesday, Aug. 5 is announced. July 30 The city expanded its website chatbot, so the AI assistant has answers in multiple languages. Located on the home page, the chatbot quickly directs users to COVID-19-related information and resources. It has seen significant use since it was launched in May. As of July 29, 682 Bellevue residents have tested positive for COVID-19 this year, with 40 deaths, according to Public Health Seattle & King County. The number of infections has continued to surge in Bellevue in July. July 23 Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced changes to the state’s guidance and regulations around restaurants, bars, and fitness centers, as well as weddings and funerals. The changes will also affect family entertainment centers, movie theaters and card rooms. The changes target activities that data have shown provide a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure and are in response to the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state. In addition to those changes, Wiesman announced an expansion of his face coverings order that will go into effect Saturday, July 25. The expansion will require face coverings in all common spaces, such as elevators, hallways and shared spaces in apartment buildings, university housing and hotels, as well as congregate setting such as nursing homes. July 22 As local businesses continue to adapt their operations as part of the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, the city is extending additional support to restaurants on and near Main Street, offering them to use street parking spots in some cases for extra seating. As of July 21, 604 Bellevue residents had tested positive for COVID-19, with 37 deaths, according to Public Health Seattle & King County. As elsewhere in the state, the number of cases in Bellevue has been rising in July. July 14 Gov. Jay Inslee today extended the pause on moving any county to the next phase in Washington’s Safe Start plan until at least July 28. July 2 Gov. Jay Inslee and Sec. of Health John Wiesman today announced a statewide requirement for businesses to require face coverings of all employees and customers. Under this proclamation, businesses may not serve any customer, services or goods, if they do not comply with the state-wide face covering order. The extension comes in response to growing case counts in counties across the state. June 27 Gov. Jay Inslee and Sec. John Wiesman announced the Washington State Department of Health is putting a pause on counties moving to Phase 4 though the Safe Start phased approach. Rising cases across the state and concerns about continued spread of the COVID virus have made Phase 4, which would essentially mean no restrictions, impossible at this time. Eight counties were eligible to move from Phase 3 to Phase 4 before the pause. June 26 After a week in Phase 2 of the Safe Start phased reopening plan for the state, Public Health Seattle & King County reported that cases in King County are increasing, but hospital capacity is still adequate. June 23 Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary of Health John Wiesman today announced a statewide mandatory face covering order that will take effect Friday, June 26. King County has had a mask order in effect since May 18, but after reports of cases increasing in additional counties, the governor and Wiesman extended the face covering requirement to include the entire state of Washington. Masks are to be worn in all indoor public spaces and outdoor public spaces where physical distancing of six feet is not possible. There are exceptions for young children and individuals with disabilities who have difficulty wearing masks or communicating with them on. June 19 King County announced it has been approved to move to Phase 2 of Washington’s Safe Start plan. Summary details of what is allowed in each phase is at the state’s coronavirus.wa.gov website. As local businesses begin to expand their operations within the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, Bellevue’s economic development team has adjusted its support for retailers and restaurants to help businesses adapt their operations through each phase of the reopening plan. Support includes clarifying regulations, providing step-by-step guides and speeding permit turnaround times. June 17 Public Health Seattle & King County, the City of Seattle and the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction are launching new efforts to connect families in need to food resources as the demand for food resources continues to increase as a result of COVID-19, including a map of free emergency food resources across King County. Public Health now has increased availability for free COVID-19 testing, offering access to testing information, FAQs and a map of testing locations. June 12 The Parks & Community Services Department announced that it won’t be presenting any major events such as the Family 4th or Movies in the Park through August, to comply with social distancing directives. June 8 Public Health Seattle & King County reported that as of June 8, there had been a total of 437 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue, 3 more than June 7, with 36 deaths. Bellevue Utilities reminds businesses resuming activities at their offices to flush the water system in the building. To make it easier for people to exercise safely, the Transportation Department expanded its Healthy Streets program on June 5. June 7 On June 5, King County moved to a modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start plan, which allows: Restaurants offering outdoor dining at 50 capacity and indoor dining at 25 capacity In-store retail at 15 capacity, with visits of no more than 30 minutes Fitness studios outdoors with no more than five clients or indoors with no more than one client Personal services at no more than 25 capacity Professional services at no more than 25 office capacity King County has more information on allowable business operations and relevant requirements. June 3 Gov. Jay Inslee extended the eviction moratorium in Wash. More state updates are available at coronavirus.wa.gov. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 425 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 35 deaths. May 31 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the Stay Home, Stay Healthy would expire, replacing it with the Safe Start Proclamation, guided by Washington’s phased approach to opening. May 25 Gov. Jay Inslee released a statement after the Washington State Department of Health announced additional counties are eligible to move to Phase 2 under the Safe Start plan. We are making good progress as we continue to open Washington in segments. Currently, one-third of our state is now eligible to move into Phase 2,” he said. Public Health Seattle & King County announced that more locations for COVID-19 testing are available at no cost throughout King County, and urged anyone experiencing even mild symptoms to be tested right away. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 405 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 34 deaths. May 20 Public Health Seattle & King County has created a new set of data tools that show some of the broader social, economic, and overall health and well-being impacts in King County during COVID-19. The new data dashboard has key topics including unemployment, housing and food needs, internet access, family violence, depression, and having health insurance. You can view the full range of data dashboards available here. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there are 396 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 32 deaths. May 18 The City of Bellevue has been made aware of identity theft and fraud related to Washington State unemployment benefits. Imposters use a victim’s personal information to file a fraudulent unemployment benefit claim and attempt to collect on that claim. Resources for reporting identity theft and, specifically, unemployment fraud, are available at: State Employment Security Department Fraud Reporting: Identity theft and fraud has been reported in Washington’s unemployment benefits system. Click this link if you think you may be a victim of unemployment benefit fraud. Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Reporting: Click this link for other resources on reporting identity theft. Gov. Jay Inslee announced the restart of all medical services in Washington, including dental services, elective procedures and preventive services. The Public Health Seattle & King County face covering directive went into effect today, May 18, and the agency released more information for the public. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 390 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue with 30 deaths. May 14 Public Health Seattle & King County on May 13 began recommending anyone with symptoms or who has been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 be tested right away. Anyone experiencing even mild COVID-like symptoms should isolate themselves from others and call their doctor or nurse line. More doctors have testing kits, and anyone with two or more of the following symptoms should be tested: cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell. People who don’t have a regular health care provider are encouraged to call the King County COVID-19 call center, which is open 7 days a week, 8 a.m. 7 p.m. Also, starting May 18, people are directed to wear a face covering when they are at any indoor or outdoor public space where they may be within 6 feet of other people. May 12 Gov. Jay Inslee announced the launch of a statewide contact tracing plan today that will allow more businesses to open and more people to be active in public while helping to slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The gov. also issued guidance for partially resuming limited in-store retail and manufacturing operations for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 Plan. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 373 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 10, with 29 deaths. May 11 The city and the Bellevue Downtown Association announced that this year’s Bellevue Family 4th celebration would be canceled due to COVID-19. Public Health Seattle & King County issued a new Health Officer Directive strongly urging face coverings in all indoor public places including grocery stores and other businesses, as well as outside settings where maintaining six feet of social distancing is difficult. Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance today for partially resuming the dine-in restaurant and tavern industry for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 recovery plan laid out last week. Some counties have been cleared to move through the recovery phases at an accelerated pace, but most counties will move from one phase to another after at least three weeks. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 372 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 10, with 29 deaths. May 8 With the first phase of the governor’s “Safe Start” relaxation of social distancing measures now in effect, the Bellevue Golf Course reopened on Tuesday, May 5. The Crossroads Par 3 course is set to open on Saturday, May 9. The Transportation Department on Thursday, May 7, launched a Healthy Streets pilot, closing portions of Southeast Fourth Street and 165/166th avenues Northeast to non-local vehicle traffic so neighborhood residents can walk and bike more. According to Public Health Seattle & King County, there were 364 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bellevue as of May 7, with 24 deaths. May 1 Gov. Inslee extended the Stay Home Stay Healthy Order until May 31, releasing details on a phased approach to gradually lifting certain aspects of the order in the coming weeks. Public Health Seattle & King County released data showing racial inequities among COVID-19 cases and now include a COVID-19 Race/Ethnicity Dashboard updated weekly to monitor this data. Public Health reported 6,407 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 449 deaths in King County. In Bellevue, Public Health reports 323 positive cases with 23 deaths. April 29 Gov. Inslee shared data being used to help determine when and how to best lift restrictions under the Stay Home Stay Healthy Order, details of which will be announced on May 1. He also clarified prior-announced lifting of certain restrictions around construction and elective surgeries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added six items to its list of symptoms for COVID-19. Read more from Public Health. Public Health Seattle & King County reported 6,308 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in King County with 446 deaths In Bellevue, Public Health reports 318 positive cases with 23 deaths. April 27 Gov. Inslee announced today a partial re-opening of some outdoor recreation activities, with appropriate safety precautions, starting May 5, 2020. In a press release, Public Health said the decline of new cases was slowing, raising concerns that relaxing social distancing measures too soon could cause an uptick in virus transmission. “We’ve done a very good job in King County suppressing transmission of COVID-19 and that’s largely due to the great work of our community in staying home and distancing to the extent possible,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health Seattle & King County. “However, we still have way too many cases occurring each day. That means we’re vulnerable to a rebound that could potentially overwhelm our healthcare system if we prematurely ease up on our distancing steps.” Public Health Seattle & King County reported 5,990 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in King County with 416 deaths In Bellevue, Public Health reports 301 positive cases with 22 deaths. April 24 Gov. Inslee announced that “low-risk” construction where strict social-distancing rules could be maintained on-site would be allowed. The state has details. Public Health Seattle & KIng County reported that as of April 23, there were 290 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Bellevue, with 21 deaths. April 22 The Bellevue City Council passed an ordinance during their virtual meeting on April 20 to extend the expiration dates of building permit applications and permits already issued for an additional 180 days. The ordinance is in response to the halt of most commercial and residential construction projects due to necessary COVID-19 precautions. More information can be found under Development Services. Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson released a joint statement today in response to some Washington state officials’ disregard for the governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order. Public Health reported 5,449 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 379 deaths. April 20 The cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond and Renton today launched STARTUP425, a collaborative effort to connect Eastside small business owners, nonprofit leaders and sole proprietors with available business support resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is available in multiple languages and provides one-on-one technical consultations on business financial assistance programs, a calendar of relevant webinars and other resources. Public Health Seattle & King County announced that COVID-19 cases within the county’s homeless residents and among homelessness services workers is rising. 112 people in these populations have tested positive and 70 people are currently staying in King County isolation and quarantine facilities. One person being treated at a King County isolation and quarantine site has died. Public Health reported 5,293 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 360 deaths. April 16 In a news conference, Gov. Jay Inslee said, “We have bent the curve down,” regarding the spread of the coronavirus in Washington. However, he said his “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order will remain in effect until the infection rate continues to decrease and the state’s testing and contact tracing capacity increases dramatically. Public Health reported 4,809 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 320 deaths. April 15 To protect the health of prisoners jeopardized by lack of social distancing in state prisons, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation and commutation order that allows the early release of certain vulnerable populations, including nonviolent individuals due to be released within the coming weeks and months. Public Health reported 4,697 cases of COVID-19 in King County and 312 deaths. April 14 The City of Bellevue has closed access to the parking lots in Downtown Park to discourage people from driving to a destination park outside of their local neighborhood. The park is still open for those who live or work nearby and can walk to the park. Accessible parking spaces are also still available in the south parking lot of the park. Gov. Jay Inslee issued three new proclamations related to criminal statutes, commercial driver’s licenses and garnishments in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. Public Health reported 4,620 positive cases of COVID-19 in King County and 303 deaths. April 13 Today, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced an agreement on a shared vision for reopening their economie (https://bellevuewa.gov/city-news/covid-19-updates-city-facilities-reopen-fully-april-4)

Prosecutors Detail Miami Proud Boys Leader’s Alleged Plan to’storm’ Capitol

A leader of the far-right Proud Boys had planned with other members to storm the Capitol in the days leading up to the violent Jan. 6 attack, according to new paperwork filed by prosecutors. Monday’s court filing comes as prosecutors were in Miami federal court Tuesday to argue that Henry Enrique Tarrio should remain behind bars while he awaits trial on a conspiracy charge for his suspected role in the coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Based on the compelling evidence of Tarrio’s leadership of this conspiracy, there are no conditions of release that can reasonably assure the safety of the community or the defendant’s appearance in court, prosecutors said in the 23-page filing. And based on Tarrio’s public comments aimed at chilling witnesses against his co-conspirators, as well as his own purported efforts to evade law enforcement, he poses a risk of obstructing justice should he be released. Pretrial detention is warranted and necessary. During Tuesday’s hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis agreed with prosecutors and denied bond for Tarrio. The judge said her decision would be explained in detail later in a written order. More Capitol Riot Coverage Capitol Riot Mar 9 NYC Man Accused of Shoving Officer Over Ledge, Other Charges in Capitol Riot Case Capitol Riot Mar 10 DC Police Officer Who Died by Suicide After Jan. 6 Riot Declared Line-of-Duty Death Donald Trump Mar 10 Jan. 6 Capitol Riot: FBI Asks Public to Help ID More Than 350 Violent Members of Trump Mob Still at Large Tarrio’s attorney Nayib Hassan said his client was not at risk of fleeing from authorities and doesn’t have a violent background. He argued the evidence against Tarrio was weak and relies mostly on text messages and social media. At no point in time did Mr. Tarrio instruct anybody to go into the building, Hassan told the judge. Hassan said other defendants charged in the same alleged conspiracy and who were present at the Capitol during the riot have been allowed pretrial release. Tarrio sat down in a brown jail uniform in handcuffs on another table because the judge denied him the right to be seated by his attorneys. He did not speak, but he often made gestures to his attorneys for them to approach him to speak in private. More than a dozen family members showed up at the courtroom, and some women were crying outside the courthouse after the ruling. They declined to comment on the decision. Tarrio waived extradition. His next hearing will be held in Washington, D.C. MEANWHILE, FORMER PROUD BOYS LEADER ENRIQUE TARRIO WILL LEADER ENRIQUE TARRIO WILL REMAIN BEHIND BARS AS HE AWAITS TRIAL ON FEDERAL CONSPIRACY CHARGES CONNECTED TO THE JANUARY CHARGES CONNECTED TO THE JANUARY 6th ATTACK ON THE U.S. CAPITAL. Reporter: NBC 6 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER HEATHER WALKER WAS AT TODAY u2019S HEARING. SHE JOINS US LIVE FROM MIAMI WITH WHAT HAPPENED IN COURT TODAY. HEATHER? Reporter: COURT WAS HELD IN PERSON TODAY. MORE THAN A DOZEN FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF TARRIO SHOWED UP TO SUPPORT HIM, HOPING THAT THE JUDGE WOULD GRANT HIS BOND, BUT JUDGE WOULD GRANT HIS BOND, BUT SHE DENIED IT, SAYING THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT HE POSES A DANGER NO DOUBT THAT HE POSES A DANGER TO THE COMMUNITY. WE RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE, BUT WE RESPECT THE COURT u2019S OPINION AND WE u2019LL ADDRESS IT ACCORDINGLY AND WE u2019LL ADDRESS IT ACCORDINGLY WITH THE COURTS UP IN D.C. Reporter: THAT WAS TARRIO u2019S LAWYER AFTER THE HEARING. HE TOLD US HE FEELS CONFIDENT IN THE DEFENSE u2019 ABILITY TO FIGHT THE CHARGES AGAINST TARRIO. BASICALLY WHAT WE HAVE AT THIS POINT IN TIME SHOWS THAT HE THIS POINT IN TIME SHOWS THAT HE LEFT THE AREA ON JANUARY 5th FROM D.C. THERE IS NOTHING SHOWING THAT HE MADE ANY INDICATION AS FAR AS MADE ANY INDICATION AS FAR AS ANYTHING IN THE CAPITOL ITSELF. SO IT u2019S OUR ESTIMATION AS FAR AS WHAT WE REVIEWED RIGHT NOW THAT THE EVIDENCE IS WEAK IN REGARDS TO MR. TARRIO. Reporter: THERE IS NO ARGUMENT BY THE PROSECUTION THAT TARRIO WAS AT THE CAPITOL THE DAY OF THE ATTACK. THEY AGREE HE WAS IN BALTIMORE. BUT A NEW FILING YESTERDAY SHEDS MORE LIGHT ON THE PROSECUTOR u2019S MORE LIGHT ON THE PROSECUTOR u2019S CLAIM THAT TARRIO WAS CONTROLLING THE ACTIONS OF PROUD BOYS MEMBERS FROM AFAR. BOYS MEMBERS FROM AFAR. BEGINNING IN LATE DECEMBER 2020, TARRIO CREATED A NEW CHAPTER OF THE PROUD BOYS REFERRED TO AS THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE. TARRIO DIRECTED AND ORCHESTRATED THEIR VIOLENT ACTS ENTIRELY REMOTELY USING ENCRYPTED MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA. AND SOCIAL MEDIA. THEY ALSO WROTE, TARRIO CLAIMED CREDIT FOR WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE CAPITOL, POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA, DON u2019T EFFING LEAVE, AND CELEBRATED THE SUCCESS IN AN ENCRYPTED CHAT FOR SOME PROUD BOYS LEADER, WRITING, MAKE NO MISTAKE, FOLLOWED BY, WE DID THIS. PERHAPS MOST ALARMING IN THE PERHAPS MOST ALARMING IN THE RECENT COURT FILING IS THE PROSECUTION SAYING, FOLLOWING THE JANUARY 6th ATTACK, TARRIO THE JANUARY 6th ATTACK, TARRIO POSTED A MESSAGE IN THAT SAME CHAT SAYING THEY u2019LL FEAR US DOING THIS AGAIN, TO WHICH A MEMBER ASKED, SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW? TARRIO RESPONDED, DO IT AGAIN. AND IN THAT INDICTMENT IT ALSO MENTIONS THAT TARRIO RECEIVED A MENTIONS THAT TARRIO RECEIVED A COPY OF A DOCUMENT TITLED “1776 RETURNS, ” WHICH SPOKE ABOUT RETURNS, ” WHICH SPOKE ABOUT OCCUPYING MULTIPLE CRUCIAL BUILDINGS IN D.C. HIS LAWYER DID NOT COMMENT ABOUT THAT. TARRIO WILL BE BACK IN COURT IN D.C. ON TUESDAY. WE u2019LL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THIS. FOR NOW REPORTING LIVE IN”,”video_id”:”2013129795969_137″,”video_length”:”169203″,”video_provider”:”mpx”,”short_video_excerpt”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_low”:”dI8ZH9izRVRs”,”pid_streaming_web_mobile_low”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_standard”:”u2JOnN85XicC”,”pid_streaming_mobile_standard”:”47SvFCY9wyDj”,”alleypack_schedule_unpublish”:””,”feed_remote_id”:”mpx_2013129795969″,”feed_thumbnail_url”:”” ” data-livestream=”false” data-title=”Ex-Proud Boys Leader Will Stay in Jail Pending Trial” data-vidcid=”1:10:2714362″ data-vidurl=”https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/ex-proud-boys-leader-will-stay-in-jail-pending-trial/2714362/” data-islead=”false” data-catnames=” “5856”:”On Air”,”5857″:”As Seen On”,”445300″:”News”,”248″:”Local”,”302″:”U.S. World” ” data-tagnames=” “533310”:”Capitol Riot”,”533032″:”enrique tarrio”,”580345″:”Jan 6 riot”,”50″:”Miami”,”520331″:”Proud Boys” ” data-customdata=” “ContentPartner”:”None”,”Source”:”WEBFM”,”SyndicationAllowed”:”true”,”mSNVideoCategories”:”MSN Video v4 Connector-most watched news”,”mSNVideoContentSupplierID”:”NBC_Local”,”mSNVideoCountry”:”us”,”subtitle”:”nosubtitle”,”uploadedByTeam”:”1″,”youtubeChannel”:”None” ” data-autoplay=”false” data-cplay=”true” Tarrio was arrested in an FBI raid in Miami on March 8. The 38-year-old wasn’t there when the riot erupted on Jan. 6, 2021. Police had arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. The day before the Capitol was attacked, a judge ordered Tarrio to stay out of Washington. But Tarrio didn’t leave town as he should have, the filing said. Instead, he met with Oath Keepers founder and leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes and others in an underground parking garage for approximately 30 minutes. A documentary film crew was present in the garage and, at one point, picked up audio of a person referencing the Capitol, the filing said. While in the parking garage, Tarrio told another individual that he had cleared all of the messages on his phone before he was arrested. Tarrio, who has since stepped down from his post as Proud Boys chairman, served five months for the unrelated BLM banner case. Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for Western chauvinists. Its members frequently have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group. THE SPOKESPERSON FOR SOUTH FLORIDA RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST GROUP THE PROUD BOYS IS OUT OF JAIL AND BACK HERE IN HIS HOMETOWN. IN HIS FIRST SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW SINCE BEING RELEASED, ENRIQUE TARRIO SPOKE EXCLUSIVELY TO NBC 6 INVESTIGATOR HEATHER WALKER. HE SAYS HE REGRETS HIS ACTIONS THAT LANDED HIM IN JAIL AND THE VIOLENCE ON JANUARY 6th. Reporter: THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PROUD BOYS ENRIQUE TARRIO SAYS IF HE WASN u2019T ARRESTED, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN AT THE CAPITOL THAT DAY AND SAYS HE WOULD HAVE DAY AND SAYS HE WOULD HAVE STOPPED THE PROUD BOYS FROM PARTICIPATING IN VIOLENCE. THIS IS BASICALLY MY THIS IS BASICALLY MY WAREHOUSE AND MY STUDIO. Reporter: ONE WEEK OUT OF A D.C. JAIL AND FRESH FROM SEEING HIS PROBATION OFFICER, WE MET UP HIS PROBATION OFFICER, WE MET UP WITH ENRIQUE TARRIO AT HIS WAREHOUSE IN SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE WHERE HE MAKES T-SHIRTS, HATS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE SOLD ON HIS WEBSITE. SO IS THIS YOUR FULL-TIME JOB NOW? UM, IT u2019S NEVER REALLY BEEN MY FULL-TIME JOB. FULL-TIME JOB. MY FULL-TIME JOB HAS BEEN MANAGING PR FOR A BUNCH OF DRUNKS KNOWN AS THE PROUD BOYS. DRUNKS KNOWN AS THE PROUD BOYS. Reporter: THE 37-YEAR-OLD CUBAN-AMERICAN SAYS HE u2019S STRUGGLING TO PAY BILLS AFTER CREDIT CARD COMPANIES STOPPED CREDIT CARD COMPANIES STOPPED WORKING WITH THE WEBSITE THREE YEARS AGO TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM A GROUP THAT THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER CLASSIFIES A HATE GROUP THAT SPOUTS WHITE NATIONALIST IMAGES AND MESSAGES ANTI-MUSLIM AND MISOGYNISTIC RHETORIC, AND ALSO VIOLENCE. HE WAS ARRESTED ON JANUARY 4th FOR BURNING A BLACK LIVES MATTER FOR BURNING A BLACK LIVES MATTER BANNER STOLEN FROM A D.C. CHURCH. HE SERVED NEARLY FIVE MONTHS IN JAIL. WE ARE BIG ON SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS, ON FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. BASICALLY EVERY ARTICLE IN THAT CONSTITUTION IS SOMETHING THAT WE SUPPORT. Reporter: SO YOU SUPPORT EVERYTHING IN THE CONSTITUTION? YES. YES. Reporter: SO FREEDOM OF SPEECH? FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Reporter: SO I HAVE TO BRING UP WHY YOU GOT LOCKED UP, WHICH UP WHY YOU GOT LOCKED UP, WHICH WAS BURNING A BLACK LIVES MATTER FLAG. THAT WAS NOT YOURS AND NOT DISPLAYED AT YOUR HOME. DISPLAYED AT YOUR HOME. THEY WERE DOING THEIR FREEDOM SPEECH. YES. Reporter: AND YET YOU WENT AGAINST THAT. I DID. AND I ADMITTED I MADE A MISTAKE. Reporter: TAR IO SAYS HE APOLOGIZED TO THE CHURCH, BUT SPENDING 23 HOURS A DAY IN HIS CELL DOESN u2019T SEEM TO HAVE CHANGED HIS VIEW ON MUCH ELSE. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS ON LEAVING THE PROUD BOYS? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I u2019M A PROUD BOY FOR LIFE. Reporter: HE u2019S A RARE HISPANIC MAN IN A WHITE NATIONALIST GROUP, A GROUP HE SAYS TOUTS FAMILY VALUES. SAYS TOUTS FAMILY VALUES. REINSTATING A SPIRIT OF WESTERN SHAUFB CHEUVANISM. I WOULD SAY ALL OF US ARE NOT THE MOST INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE MOST INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. Reporter: THE GROUP WAS MENTIONED AT THE TECHLTSEPTEMBER 2019 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. A SUPPORTER OF DONALD TRUMP, TARRIO SAYS HE DOES NOT SUPPORT TARRIO SAYS HE DOES NOT SUPPORT WHAT MEMBERS OF HIS GROUP ARE ACCUSED OF DOING ON JANUARY 6th. HE IS DEALING WITH HIS LEGAL HE IS DEALING WITH HIS LEGAL TROUBLES OVER THE BANNER BURNING WHEN THE RIOTS BROKE OUT. I DON u2019T AGREE WITH OR CONDONE WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CAPITOL WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CAPITOL WHEN IT COMES TO THE VIOLENCE. Reporter: WHAT ROLE DID THE PROUD BOYS PLAY ON JANUARY 6th? WE WENT TO WASHINGTON, D.C. WITH THE INTENT OF JUST, LIKE, SITTING THERE AND SUPPORTING PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THEN DRINK BEER AFTER. AND OBVIOUSLY I WASN u2019T THERE. I CAN u2019T TELL YOU EXACTLY WAS ON THE MINDS OF SOME OF THESE GUYS BECAUSE, AGAIN, I HAVE NO WAY OF BECAUSE, AGAIN, I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING. I THINK THE MOB MENTALITY TOOK EVERYBODY OVER. Reporter: HE SAYS THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL WAS A STEP BACK ON THE CAPITOL WAS A STEP BACK FOR THE MAGA MOVEMENT AND THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY. BUT HE PLANS TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE PROUD BOYS. LOVE THEM OR HATE THEM, THE PROUD BOYS AREN u2019T GOING ANYWHERE, WE u2019RE HERE TO STAY. Reporter: TARRIO FACED Reporter: TARRIO FACED CRIMINAL CHARGES PRIOR TO HIS ARREST. HE SERVED AS AN INFORMANT. HE WOULDN u2019T SHARE ANY SPECIFIC HE WOULDN u2019T SHARE ANY SPECIFIC FUTURE PLANS BUT SAYS HE IS CONSIDERING GETTING INVOLVED IN”,”video_id”:”1998585411881_727″,”video_length”:”224425″,”video_provider”:”mpx”,”short_video_excerpt”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_low”:”yCNcejuPyRSs”,”pid_streaming_web_mobile_low”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_standard”:”wxWyDxkhNuF9″,”pid_streaming_mobile_standard”:”DK_K9wivLbVf”,”alleypack_schedule_unpublish”:””,”feed_remote_id”:”mpx_1998585411881″,”feed_thumbnail_url”:”” ” data-livestream=”false” data-title=”Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio Speaks Out After Jail Stint” data-vidcid=”1:10:2678538″ data-vidurl=”https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-speaks-out-after-jail-stint/2678538/” data-islead=”false” data-catnames=” “5856”:”On Air”,”5857″:”As Seen On”,”445300″:”News”,”248″:”Local” ” data-tagnames=” “533310”:”Capitol Riot”,”533032″:”enrique tarrio”,”533285″:”Jan. 6 Protests”,”50″:”Miami”,”468762″:”only on 6″,”520331″:”Proud Boys” ” data-customdata=” “ContentPartner”:”None”,”Source”:”WEBFM”,”SyndicationAllowed”:”true”,”mSNVideoCategories”:”MSN Video v4 Connector-most watched news”,”mSNVideoContentSupplierID”:”NBC_Local”,”mSNVideoCountry”:”us”,”subtitle”:”nosubtitle”,”uploadedByTeam”:”1″,”youtubeChannel”:”None” ” data-autoplay=”false” data-cplay=”true” On the morning of Jan. 6, group members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters near the White House. Just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the presidential election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, an indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors. Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making them difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop. More than three dozen of the more than 750 people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates. According to Monday’s filing, Tarrio in December 2020 created a new chapter for the Proud Boys, referred to as the Ministry of Self Defense or MOSD. Tarrio described the MOSD as a national rally planning chapter that would include only hand selected members, the filing said. Tarrio created an encrypted messaging group for use by MOSD leaders, and members of that group discussed attacking the Capitol, the filing said. One of Tarrio’s hand-selected MOSD members posted a message that read, time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill, the filing said. Another member asked, so are the normies and other attendees going to push thru police lines and storm the capitol buildings? A few million vs A few hundred coptifa should be enough, the filing said. The next day, the same MOSD member raised the prospect again, asking, what would they do if 1 million patriots stormed and took the capital building. Shoot into the crowd? I think not, the filing said. Prosecutors said Tarrio encouraged these communications between MOSD members and leaders. On January 4, Tarrio posted a voice message to the MOSD Leaders Group, where he stated, I didn’t hear this voice note until now, you want to storm the Capitol, the filing said. On January 6, Tarrio’s men from the MOSD were at the front of the crowd that unlawfully breached the Capitol grounds and overran police lines meant to protect the Capitol and its occupants, the filing said. One of Tarrio’s other alleged co-conspirators charged in the riot, Dominic Pezzola, was the first person to physically breach the Capitol when he used a stolen Capitol Police riot shield to break a window adjacent to the Senate Wing Door, which allowed the first members of the mob to breach the interior of the Capitol, the filing said. Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. (https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/prosecutors-detail-miami-proud-boys-leaders-alleged-plan-to-storm-capitol/2714029/)

Disney Workers Plan Walkout to Protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

Disney workers are planning walkouts during their breaks every day this week to protest CEO Bob Chapek’s slow response in publicly criticizing Florida legislation that critics have dubbed the Don’t Say Gay bill. The act of protest will culminate next Tuesday with a general walkout by LGBTQ workers and their supporters at Disney worksites in California, Florida and elsewhere, the group of Disney employees said this week on their website. Organizers asked Disney workers to check in online with their plans to participate in the full-scale walkout for next week. We must make sure we have large enough numbers to be successful, they said. Statements by Disney leadership over the Florida legislation have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation, the group said. Florida Mar 8 ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Passes Florida Senate, Heads to Governor for Signature Business Mar 9 Disney CEO Says Company Opposes ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill in Florida, Seeks Meeting With DeSantis The bill bars instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3. Republican lawmakers pushing the legislation had argued that parents, not teachers, should be the ones talking to their children about gender issues during their early formative years. The legislation has attracted scrutiny from President Joe Biden, who called it hateful, as well as other Democrats who argue it demonizes LGBTQ people. The legislation has been sent to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it. As the state’s largest private-sector employer Walt Disney World outside Orlando had more than 75,000 workers before the coronavirus pandemic Disney has contributed huge amounts of money to Florida’s political parties and politicians and has wielded incredible influence on the state’s government. At the beginning of last week, Chapek sent a message to Disney workers affirming the company’s support for LGBTQ rights but also saying that corporate statements often don’t do much to change minds and can be weaponized by either side. Rather than make an early public statement against the legislation, company officials had been working behind the scenes with Florida lawmakers to achieve a better outcome, but they hadn’t been successful, despite our longstanding relationships with those lawmakers, Chapek told Disney shareholders a few days later. With his public responses being panned by some Disney workers and supporters, Chapek last Friday apologized and said the company was pausing all political donations in Florida. I truly believe we are an infinitely better and stronger company because of our LGBTQ+ community, Chapek said in a message to Disney workers. I missed the mark in this case but am an ally you can count on and I will be an outspoken champion for the protections, visibility, and opportunity you deserve. Disney on Wednesday didn’t respond to an email inquiry about whether the walkouts during breaks were having any impact on operations this week. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/disney-workers-plan-walkout-to-protest-dont-say-gay-bill/2850071/)

Inflation Is Hammering the Voters Who Will Soon Decide Some Key Midterm Races

Few areas of the country have seen inflation as bad as in the South, where prices have risen across the 16-state region by an average of 8.4 from a year ago. But prices aren’t the only thing heating up in the South and West, as Georgia and Arizona voters find themselves in a fierce 2022 midterm election cycle. Some residents say rising food, gasoline and housing costs are likely to play a factor in how they vote later this year. The Labor Department’s March 2022 CPI consumer price report is due out Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Matthew Rice doesn’t have to look hard for signs of inflation in Savannah, Georgia. A gallon of gas cost $2.79 a few months ago, he said. Now it runs him more than $4. And, of course, when the price of gas goes up, the price of products goes up, the 45-year-old added. So yeah. It’s played a role in our household. Rice, a longtime fan of MLB’s Atlanta Braves and a graduate of Armstrong State University, now known as Georgia Southern University, is one of the tens of thousands of Americans who say rising prices are straining their household budgets and shaping how they think about this year’s elections. Gradual but steady jumps in the costs of groceries, housing and gas have forced consumers like Rice, who manages reservations for an RV park on nearby Tybee Island, to change how they spend money. While his work has been busy as more Americans take long-delayed vacations following Covid pandemic-era shutdowns, Rice said inflation has made him choosier when he, his mother and 10-year-old daughter shop for groceries every other Friday. Spencer Platt Getty Images People shop in a store in Brooklyn on March 10, 2022 in New York City. The price of gas, food, cars and other items has hit a 40 year high as inflation continues to rise in America. We have, at times, made substitutions based off what’s available because of the supply chain, he said. And at times, due to the price, we maybe try other brands of products that we normally would not have tried before. Few areas of the country have seen inflation as bad as in the South, where prices have risen across the 16-state region by an average of 8.4 from a year ago. That compares with year-over-year inflation of 8 in the Midwest, 8.1 in the West and 6.6 in the Northeast, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inflation is particularly bad in Tampa, Florida, Miami and Atlanta where consumer prices have jumped by an average of 9.6, 9.8 and a whopping 10.6, respectively, over the last year. But prices aren’t the only thing heating up in the South and West, as Georgia again finds itself in the middle of a fierce election cycle. Inflation has vaulted to the top of the minds of both voters and candidates across the state. At the federal level, several Republicans hope to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a special election in 2020. Loeffler was appointed in 2019 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to finish the term of former GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson, who resigned for health reasons. Warnock is Georgia’s first Black senator, and his win gave Democrats a razor-thin majority in the Senate. Dustin Chambers Reuters Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler look on ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump hosting a campaign event with Perdue and Loeffler at Valdosta Regional Airport in Valdosta, Georgia, U.S., December 5, 2020. Meanwhile, the state’s gubernatorial race pits Kemp against fellow Republican and former Sen. David Perdue, who’s been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. In an already bitter primary competition, Perdue hopes to tap into Georgia Republicans’ frustrations with Kemp after the governor refused to overturn the 2020 election results that favored then-candidate Joe Biden. Trump falsely claimed widespread fraud led to Biden’s win, and asked the state’s top elections official to find enough votes for him to reverse his loss. The GOP winner is all but certain to face another tough challenger in the November general election from Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the 2018 governor’s race to Kemp. But as different as Georgia’s candidates and elections are, voters are unified by their shared fatigue over rising sticker prices for gasoline, groceries and housing. For the past several months, Labor Department data has shown that year-over-year price jumps have been hitting levels not seen since the Ronald Reagan administration. In its most recent update last month, the department said its benchmark consumer inflation index rose 7.9 over the last 12 months, the hottest reading since January 1982. The Labor Department’s March 2022 consumer price report is due out on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Those familiar with the White House’s thinking say the administration expects to see a hot headline March CPI figure given that the prior print failed to fully capture a dramatic uptick in petroleum prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in late February. The CPI, or consumer price index, is the department’s tool for measuring the price changes of a basket of goods and services that everyday Americans buy each month. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy prices, could be more modest by comparison in the March report. The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank tasked with keeping prices stable, considers inflation around 2 a healthy byproduct of economic growth. But too much can signal overheating and a disconnect between the economy’s broadest forces of supply and demand. For consumers, unruly inflation can erode what economists call purchasing power, or the total quantity of goods and services they can buy at their current income. But as fast as prices rise in Savannah, Rice said some grocery purchases aren’t up for debate. We try not to make too many adjustments because my daughter she likes certain brands, he laughed, saying they can’t substitute cheaper brands for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese or Quaker Oats’ Peaches & Cream flavored instant oatmeal among his daughter’s favorites. Kids usually have a certain taste. Inflation nation Economists say the country’s inflation woes began in the spring of 2021 as Covid vaccines arrived and then was exacerbated by a variety of seemingly unrelated factors. The inoculations stoked demand for all the things consumers gave up to stay safe during the worst of the pandemic travel and dining out. Demand also surged for new cars, paid for in part with all the money saved by staying in for months. Factory shutdowns during the pandemic left automakers like Ford and General Motors behind on production. The surge in demand, combined with a shortage of computer chips, further reduced vehicle inventory and sent prices soaring on cars and electronics. Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says tens of thousands killed in Mariupol; Austrian leader meets Putin. Follow our live updates Inflation is hammering the voters who will soon decide some key midterm races Desperate Ukraine tells U.S. ‘bureaucracy’ is no excuse for failing to provide critical weapons and ammunition Labor shortages due in part to people calling out sick with Covid or quarantining because of an exposure led to freight backlogs at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, and higher shipping costs that were passed on to consumers. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent oil prices spiking, and soaring real estate values have driven up the cost of housing. Caroline Fohlin, an economics professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said Arizona and Georgia are both seeing steep home price jumps as people leave the country’s largest cities for cheaper locales. The pandemic opened up the prospects of working from home from anywhere for city dwellers who could buy expansive homes with yards for the cost of a one-bedroom apartment in New York or San Francisco. Online listing website Apartment List shows that Atlanta rents climbed by about 18 over 2021, with the average per-month cost for a one-bedroom apartment at $1,831. They’re moving in droves to places like Savannah, Charleston you know, the coastal South, Fohlin said. Take a look at the real estate market in, say, Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina where shacks are selling for millions. That’s great news for the old-timers who are able to sell their previously $50,000 shacks for $3 million, she said. Joe Raedle Getty Images A for sale sign in front of a home that Zillow shows has a pending sale of 750,000 dollars on February 18, 2022 in Miami, Florida. Roger Ferguson, former vice chair of the Federal Reserve, attributed most of the rise in consumer prices in Georgia and Arizona to the increase in housing costs. There might be some differences in terms of your labor force, compensation composition, Ferguson, a CNBC contributor, said last month. But my hypothesis is that it’s primarily around housing. In New York City, where renters comprise about 67 of all households, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment fell from about $1,920 per month in February 2020 to $1,510 by January 2021 as residents fled congested cities, according to Apartment List. Rents have more than rebounded since then as bosses increasingly insist on workers returning to their offices. The monthly cost of a one-bedroom apartment in New York City is now around $2,068. Politics of prices The mismatch between supply and demand, and the resulting inflation, has blossomed into a critical issue for Biden and Democrats hoping to retain control of Congress this year. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans, 17, said in March that inflation is the most important problem facing the U.S., according to polling site Gallup. That figure represents a 7 percentage point climb from the 10 of Americans who in February said inflation was the country’s chief headache. Patrick T. Fallon AFP Getty Images Gasoline fuel prices above five dollars a gallon are displayed at a Shell gas station in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on February 17, 2022. As inflation has climbed, Biden’s polling has fallen: Just 36 of those surveyed by Gallup in a recent poll say they approve of his handling of the economy, down from 54 in February 2021. Republicans hoping to win back control of Congress have seized on rising prices as evidence of economic mismanagement and frivolous spending by Democrats, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress. They have focused on the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the Democratic coronavirus relief law passed in March 2021, as vaccines were starting to boost demand in the U.S. One such Republican is former pro football player Herschel Walker, who’s running against Warnock in Georgia’s Senate race. Dustin Chambers Reuters Former college football star and current senatorial candidate Herschel Walker speaks at a rally, as former U.S. President Donald Trump applauds, in Perry, Georgia, U.S. September 25, 2021. Walker, a longtime Trump ally, echoed the frustrations of many Georgia Republicans earlier this year when he shared on Twitter an image of a near-barren grocery store shelf and blamed Democrats’ economic agenda for the frothy inflation. Our shelves are empty, the supply chain is a mess, and inflation is at the HIGHEST in 40 years, Walker wrote in a Jan. 19 Twitter post. President Biden’s approval ratings continue to drop. Why is he focused on social spending? People just want affordable gas and groceries on the shelves. Democrats attribute the price spikes to a combination of overwhelmed supply chains, the war in Ukraine, labor shortages and unprecedented demand. Warnock specifically has met opponents’ inflation barbs by blaming corporate profiteering. While corporations are seeing record profits, Georgia consumers are seeing record prices, Warnock said in a Twitter post from February. Whether it’s working to ease supply chain issues, or capping out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, I’m fighting for hardworking Georgians every day. Heating up in Arizona Across the country in Arizona, prices have also affected consumer spending and the political landscape. Aaron Spector, a 28-year-old Tempe resident, said his landlord’s move to hike rent by nearly 20 led him to make some changes he bought his own home. Honestly, it just didn’t make sense to rent anymore with the increase that I was seeing, Spector, who works in sales for a logistics firm, told CNBC. I did want to buy a house it was on the timeline. But it was definitely expedited almost necessary when I saw what the rent was increasing to. In nearby Phoenix, Kevin McElwain said signs of housing cost hikes are everywhere. McElwain, who works sourcing labor and materials for homebuilders, said more expensive raw materials are fueling prices for new homes. Anything from framing, concrete, electrical you name it. Prices have risen probably by at least 50, he said. A lot of the problem, he explained, comes from shortages of supply for workers and raw commodities. You have people that will turn down bids for new projects because either they don’t have the necessary parts and materials, or they don’t have the crews, McElwain, 29, said. Scott Olson Getty Images Stacks of lumber are offered for sale at a home center on April 05, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Those shortages are likely a main culprit in Phoenix’s high prices, which have risen 10.9 over the last 12 months. Over the last year in the city, meat prices have jumped 16.2, clothing costs have climbed 15.5 and restaurant bills are up 5.9. Spector said that inflation, and the state of the economy more broadly, will influence him at the ballot box come Election Day. It will definitely impact how I vote, the graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo said. It will obviously have an impact. When people’s bank accounts are affected like this, it changes people’s minds. Phoenix resident McElwain, who said he’s not registered to vote with either party, said inflation is on his mind this election year. I’d like to see it be addressed by the candidates that are running, he continued. But I’m still going to take everything that they have to say with a grain of salt one way or the other. Tom Williams CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Getty Images Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., conducts a news conference outside the Capitol to discuss the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which would remove serious crime prosecution out of the chain of command, on Thursday, April 29, 2021. Votes from McElwain and Spector this fall will help determine whether Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly will hold on to the seat he won in Arizona’s 2020 special election against then-GOP incumbent Martha McSally to finish out the remainder of former Sen. John McCain’s term. Like Warnock, Kelly has tried to convince voters that he and his fellow Democrats are working to check unruly prices. The retired astronaut in March detailed 6 Things he is doing to try to cool inflation in Arizona. Those efforts include a bill to suspend the federal gas tax for the rest of 2022, his contributions to the CHIPS semiconductor bill and a deal to cap out-of-pocket prescription costs for seniors. We’re in the middle of a global microchip shortage that’s driving up prices on everything from cars to appliances, Kelly said in a Twitter post April 2. Our bill to boost U.S. microchip manufacturing will help end that shortage, create thousands of high-paying jobs for Arizonans, and grow our state’s economy. The strain soaring inflation has put on Americans and the anxiety it has caused incumbents running this fall has shown up repeatedly in the policy choices made by swing-state lawmakers this year. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., named both Kelly and Warnock to a conference committee that will hash out a final microchip bill with House members. Both senators have also tried to show voters they can address an issue that has vexed Rice in Georgia and people across the U.S.: high gas prices. Kelly and Warnock co-sponsored legislation that would suspend the U.S. gas tax for the rest of the year. The bill has not moved forward since senators unveiled it in February. This bill will lower gas prices by suspending the federal gas tax through the end of the year to help Arizona families struggling with high costs for everything from gas to groceries, Kelly said in a statement at the time. Warnock added in his own statement: Hardworking Georgians being squeezed at the pump understand that every penny counts. Correction: Quaker Oats has a Peaches & Cream flavored instant oatmeal. An earlier version misstated the name of the product. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/business/money-report/inflation-is-hammering-the-u-s-south-and-voters-who-will-soon-decide-some-key-midterm-races/2867188/)

Ex-Hedge Fund CEO Wants to Be Hometown Boy in Pa.’s Key Senate Race

As CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, David McCormick wore suits, lived on Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast, talked up bipartisanship and described China as America’s most important bilateral relationship. Now, as a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, McCormick wears jeans and casual dress shirts. He recounts the greatest hits of the right’s culture war attacks on Democrats paranoia about illegal immigration and the left using school curriculum to teach a history of America that’s not the America I know and he frames China as an existential threat. For McCormick, spinning the narrative of a hometown boy-done-good and hewing to the politics of Trumpism is central to his candidacy in a premier battleground Senate race. But he is facing skepticism and, as a leading candidate, attack ads that his international business past is counter to former President Donald Trump’s America First governing philosophy and that he’s a carpetbagging political opportunist trying to buy the seat. Now, instead of Wall Street name-dropping or telling anecdotes about meeting with a Chinese CEO, he’s name-dropping small towns and telling anecdotes about growing up in Pennsylvania. PENNSYLVANIA IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST POLITICAL BATTLE GROUNDS IN THE COUNTRY AND HAVE ALREADY IN THE COUNTRY AND HAVE ALREADY PROBABLY SEEN OUR AIRWAVES. THEY ARE FLOODING WITH ADS. BUT IT u2019S NOT JUST CANDIDATES WITH THE MONEY. NO, THEY u2019RE SPENDING MILLIONS IN OUR HOME TO SWAY YOUR VOTE. TONIGHT INVESTIGATORS ARE PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN ON THE CASH. NBC 10 u2019S DANNY FREEMAN FOLLOWS THE MONEY. THE MONEY. Reporter: LISTEN, WE KNOW IT FEELS LIKE THERE ARE A MILLION CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR U.S. SENATE AND GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA RIGHT NOW. PENNSYLVANIA RIGHT NOW. TONIGHT WE u2019RE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE CANDIDATES OR THE CAMPAIGNS, WE u2019RE TALKING ABOUT SUPERPACS, POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES THAT SOUND ALMOST LIKE THIS. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ADVERTISING. Reporter: THESE GROUPS CAN Reporter: THESE GROUPS CAN RAISE AND SPEND A VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY. IN PENNSYLVANIA $9 MILLION HAVE ALREADY BEEN SPENT BY SUPERPACS ALREADY BEEN SPENT BY SUPERPACS THIS YEAR ALONE. WE FOUND OUT THE BIGGEST SPENDERS AREN u2019T EVEN FROM PENNSYLVANIA. ACCORDING TO CAMPAIGN FINANCE RECORDS THAT HE WITH PULLED, THREE OF THE HIGHEST SPENDING SUPERPACS IN THIS CYCLE ARE FROM SUPERPACS IN THIS CYCLE ARE FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA AND BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS. I SHOULD SAY WE REACHED OUT TO ALL THREE FOR INTERVIEWS. ALL THREE FOR INTERVIEWS. TWO SAID NO, ONE NEVER GOT BACK TO US. BUT WHEN WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FILES, LET u2019S SAY, FOR AT THE FILES, LET u2019S SAY, FOR EXAMPLE, IN HONOR, PENNSYLVANIA BASED IN TEXAS, THEY ONLY HAVE SEVEN DONORS, NONE OF THEM FROM THE COMMONWEALTH. AND ONE OF THEM IS WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT, A VENTURE CAPITALIST FROM SAN FRANCISCO. SOMETIMES YOU CAN u2019T EVEN SEE A NAME. TAKE THIS DONOR RIGHT HERE. TAKE THIS DONOR RIGHT HERE. ON NEW YEAR u2019S EVE THIS NUMBERED NAMED DONOR GAVE $100,000 TO HONOR PENNSYLVANIA. HONOR PENNSYLVANIA. THE LLC IS BASED IF SANTA MONICA, BUT THE ADDRESS LIDED US TO A P.O. BOX. TO A P.O. BOX. THAT SAME P.O. BOX HAS BEEN USED BY ROBERT BOBBY CODIC. HE IS THE CEO OF ACTIVISION. SURE ENOUGH, IT WAS CONFIRMED THE NUMBER ONE DONOR BELONGED TO CODIC SAYING HE CONTRIBUTED TO CODIC SAYING HE CONTRIBUTED TO DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. ACCORDING TO THE AD TRACKING FIRM IMPACT, HONOR PENNSYLVANIA HAS RESERVED NEARLY $4 MILLION IN TV, DIGITAL AND RADIO ADS IN THE COMING WEEKS. MORALLY SHOULD THAT MUCH MONEY BE SPENT ON A RACE? THAT u2019S NOT MY QUESTION. THE QUESTION IS, DO YOU WANT TO WIN, YES OR NO? WIN, YES OR NO? Reporter: TO UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT THE MONEY BEHIND THE PACS, ABOUT THE MONEY BEHIND THE PACS, WE SPOKE TO PAUL MARTINO. HE PUT HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS INTO LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS. HE u2019S STILL RUNNING THAT PAC, BUT HE ALSO CUT A CHECK FOR $100,000 TO A SEPARATE PAC THAT u2019S FOCUSED TO A SEPARATE PAC THAT u2019S FOCUSED ON THE U.S. SENATE RACE. DOESN u2019T MONEY FLOWING IN FROM OTHER PLACES ONLY ENSURE THE WEALTHIEST HAVE INFLUENCE IN OTHER PEOPLE u2019S HOMES? OTHER PEOPLE u2019S HOMES? NOT NECESSARILY AT ALL. YOU SEE A LOT OF RACES THAT ARE OUT OF STATE THAT HAVE TREMENDOUS NUMBERS OF $20 DONORS, $10 DONORS. Reporter: MARTINO ARGUES Reporter: MARTINO ARGUES ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE COMPETITIVE RACES THAT HAVE NATIONAL STAKES, ALL DONORS, SMALL AND LARGE, SHOULD BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE. TO PARTICIPATE. EVEN THOUGH YOU u2019RE 3,000 MILES AWAY, WHY SHOULD YOU BE SHUT OUT OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO PROCESS BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO LIVE IN A ZIP CODE IN WHICH YOUR MONEY CAN u2019T POSSIBLY DO ANYTHING? Reporter: SO IF YOU HAVE MONEY, YOU u2019RE GOING TO SEND IT TO PENNSYLVANIA, BASICALLY? I DEFINITELY THINK SO. AND I THINK THAT u2019S ON THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT SIDE. REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT SIDE. Reporter: TOM PENSKE IS THE Reporter: TOM PENSKE IS THE DIRECTOR FOR NBC 10 NEWS. HE SAID THIS IS SPENDING FOR THE COMMONWEALTH. I WOULD SAY IN THE SENATE RACE ALONE, IT WILL SEE WELL OVER 100$100 MILLION. SO YOU CAN EXPECT MORE PACS AHEAD. AS THE CASH FLOWS IN, WE u2019LL BE WATCHING. YOU CAN GO DEEPER AND SEE A YOU CAN GO DEEPER AND SEE A LIST OF THE TOP SUPERPACS”,”video_id”:”2008442947830_465″,”video_length”:”252853″,”video_provider”:”mpx”,”short_video_excerpt”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_low”:”RGkgYFItg3iG”,”pid_streaming_web_mobile_low”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_standard”:”QzyqimSAiyWb”,”pid_streaming_mobile_standard”:”3Lm4g3zjmxPv”,”alleypack_schedule_unpublish”:””,”feed_remote_id”:”mpx_2008442947830″,”feed_thumbnail_url”:”” ” data-livestream=”false” data-title=”U.S. Senate Race in Pa. Already Attracting Big Bucks From Across the Country” data-vidcid=”1:12:3163290″ data-vidurl=”https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/investigators/u-s-senate-race-in-pa-already-attracting-big-bucks-from-across-the-country/3163290/” data-islead=”false” data-catnames=” “464210”:”Decision 2022″,”283390″:”Investigators” ” data-tagnames=” “48593”:”Conor Lamb”,”372323″:”danny freeman”,”477181″:”Dave McCormick”,”477182″:”David McCormick”,”375870″:”decision 2022″,”492755″:”honor pennsylvania”,”3128″:”John Fetterman”,”340353″:”malcolm kenyatta”,”285861″:”Mehmet Oz”,”309871″:”nbc10 investigators”,”1689″:”PAT TOOMEY”,”26″:”Pennsylvania”,”18″:”Rudy Chinchilla”,”307176″:”super PAC” ” data-customdata=” “ContentPartner”:”None”,”Source”:”WEBFM”,”SyndicationAllowed”:”true”,”mSNVideoCategories”:”MSN Video v4 Connector-most watched news”,”mSNVideoContentSupplierID”:”NBC_Local”,”mSNVideoCountry”:”us”,”subtitle”:”nosubtitle”,”uploadedByTeam”:”1″,”youtubeChannel”:”None” ” data-autoplay=”false” data-cplay=”true” I baled hay on my family farm. I trimmed Christmas trees, he recently told listeners seated on foldout chairs at foldout tables in a wood-paneled room in the rear of Heisey’s Diner about 75 miles west of Philadelphia. I was a busboy at the local hotel, played sports in little towns, football and wrestling, from Shikellamy to Shickshinny to Pottsville to Mount Carmel to Selinsgrove. It is places like these where McCormick is trying to convince conservative voters that he should be the Republican standard-bearer in a contest to replace the retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. In doing so, McCormick, 56, must navigate a deep primary field as he balances his establishment Republican credentials with the demands of a base loyal to Trump in a state won by President Joe Biden. The primary election is May 17. For Democrats, Pennsylvania may be their best chance of picking up a seat in the closely divided Senate. That party’s primary is shaping up as a contest among Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb. Decision 2022 decision 2022 Mar 15 Who Filed to Run for Office in Pa.’s May 17 Primary? The Full List nbc10 investigators Mar 2 U.S. Senate Race in Pa. Already Attracting Big Bucks from Across the Country For Republicans, perhaps the biggest primary prize a Trump endorsement appears unlikely after Trump’s first choice, Sean Parnell, bowed out of the race in November. Parnell’s exit threw open the doorsto McCormick and Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeonbest known as daytime TV’s host of The Dr. Oz Show, and accelerated spending in what could be this year’s most expensive Senate race. Money is a strong suit for McCormick. He is wealthy enough to pay for his own TV ads, plus he is backed by a super PAC spending millions of dollars largely from hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin on ads hammering Oz as too liberal and too Hollywood. Virtually unknown to voters before declaring his candidacy just weeks ago, McCormick topped a recent Fox News poll of Pennsylvania GOP primary voters with 24. Still, nearly a third of respondents are undecided. Meanwhile, McCormick is tapping not only deep connections across the world of finance, but politics and government, too. That’s in part through his high-level service in President George W. Bush’s administration. It’s also through his wife, Dina Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive, longtime Republican operative and veteran of both the Bush and Trump administrations. For the last 12 years, McCormick lived in Connecticut and was a top executive of Bridgewater, notable for its sizable portfolio that catered to Chinese investors investing in China. That has brought accusations that McCormick is a carpetbaggerand a sellout to China. To counter the carpetbagging angle, McCormick bought a house in Pittsburgh and stresses his upbringing in Pennsylvania. He also points to his military service: a West Point grad first from his town, he says and a Bronze Star-winning veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Gulf War. On China, McCormick insists his hedge fund experience he tells one diner audience it was a financial firm makes him uniquely qualified to go toe to toe with China, and turns the topic to Trump. He set us on the right direction with China, but then he owned his experience, McCormick told the crowd. He basically said: ‘I’m a global businessperson. And that experience is going to make me a better president.’ And for me, it’s going to be the same. That experience is going to make me a better senator. In Bush’s administration, McCormick dealt in trade issues. He likes to point out that his tough trade stances drew a complaint from the Chinese to Bush himself. Still, making McCormick into the candidate for Trump’s Republican Party is no small task. In 2015, McCormick held a fundraiser for Jeb Bush, once a contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination eventually won by Trump. Oz’s campaign pounced, saying in an ad, Wall Street insider David McCormick paid for attacks on Donald Trump. Last year, McCormick told a Bloomberg interviewer asking about Trumpism that it is important to recognize the frustrated masses that Trump tapped into. Then he brought up the divisiveness that’s characterized the last four years and the polarization, and I think the president has some responsibility, a lot of responsibility for that. Meanwhile, McCormick keeps getting plastered with the term globalist a derogatory slur with an antisemitic origin adopted by Trump and right-wing allies to conjure up an elite, international coterie that doesn’t serve America’s best interests. To shore up his pro-Trump credentials, McCormick has worked to land endorsements from GOP stalwarts, including Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. McCormick also professes America First allegiance, saying it has helped people in small-town Pennsylvania where he grew up. And despite his ties to the wealthy and well-connected, he calls himself an outsider. Trump aside, primary campaign issues might be turning McCormick’s way, with Russia’s attack on Ukraine spurring an interest anew in global affairs. McCormick who has a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University is most animated by talking about how to confront China and Russian President Vladimir Putin, boiling down his ideas into bullet points for audiences in diners and restaurants. One diner patron, 69-year-old Carol Forster, asked McCormick about an ad linking him to China and appeared satisfied with McCormick’s answer that he won’t need on the job training to take on China. She also likes McCormick’s military background her husband and son served in the U.S. Marine Corps and seemed inclined to trust McCormick on matters of the border, war and international relations. Knowing he was in the military, I know he has some heartfelt feelings about that, and what’s going on with Ukraine, Forster said. (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2022/dave-mccormick-ex-hedge-fund-ceo-wants-to-be-hometown-boy-in-pa-s-key-senate-race/3177716/)

Inside Truth Social: Hands on with Trump’s social media platform

Over Presidents’ Day weekend, I, like many others who had signed up for the Apple App Store pre-order of Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, received a notification to sign up for an account. And, like everyone but a few hundred lucky VIPs, I got put on a waitlist. However, weeks later, Truth Social decided to open the door and grant me access to its brand new “free speech” social media platform. The time has come. I’ve been invited to join Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot “Your wait is over.” read the notification that came in at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning. “Tap here to start using Truth Social.” So I did. This is Donald J. Trump’s long-awaited social network. I had to check it out. I can handle the Truth Upon tapping the iOS notification, I was directed straight to the app, shown a welcome screen that popped up and was only noticeable for under a second, and then whisked away to my Truth Social profile. Here’s what your profile looks like when you first enter Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot My profile was empty. I also saw there were “Truths,” “Truths & Replies,” and “Media” tabs right below where your follower counts are and profile bio goes. If you’ve ever used a little website known as Twitter which the founder of Truth Social was famously kicked off after the events of Jan. 6, 2021 this might all look familiar to you. Sure, the labels of things are changed and instead of the “light Twitter blue” UI color scheme you get a “light Truth Social purple,” but everything else is the same. I will say, when compared to other alternative “free speech” conservative social media platforms, like Parler and Gettr, Truth Social is easily the nicest looking of the bunch. It does feel much more like a modern day web platform, likely thanks to Mastodon, the open source software it’s built with. Here’s where you write your “Truth.” Credit: Mashable Screenshot There’s a little floating button much like how it is on Twitter that you tap to compose a “truth.” Upon pressing the button, it was deja vu once again as the Compose screen looks exactly like Twitter’s. One thing that did pop out to me though was that the character count limit is 500 characters, a full 220 more characters than is allowed per tweet on Twitter. Finally, something different. At the bottom of Truth Social app is a 4-tab menu: Feed, Alerts, Search, and Messages. This is what your feed looks like when you first join Truth Social. “No Truths to show”. Credit: Mashable Screenshot The top profiles listed on the default Truth Social search page. Credit: Mashable Screenshot Feed is like your Twitter newsfeed, populated with posts from all the users you follow. Search provides users a way to discover new profiles, truths, and popular “trending” hashtags. Alerts is the equivalent to Twitter notifications, showing all the “re-truths” basically retweets and mentions of your handle. Messages is where private messages from other users would live, if they worked. According to the Truth Social app, a “new” message experience is on the way, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to privately message other users at the moment. Mentions and re-truths will show up here. Credit: Mashable Screenshot Messages don’t appear to be working yet on Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot When a user goes to another user’s profile, they are able to follow that user as well as re-truth, like, and reply to their truths. Clicking on one of a user’s truth shows the comments on that post, but not all the time. More on that in a minute. The official Truth Social profile. Credit: Mashable Screenshot Users can mute and block others on the site, change some general appearance settings, and turn on 2-factor authentication from a sidebar within the app as well. You can block users on the free speech platform. Credit: Mashable Screenshot And that’s about it. That’s everything to Truth Social right now. The most talked about hashtags on Truth Social at the time of publishing. Credit: Mashable Screenshot Bugs and Glitches There are some pretty prominent bugs on Truth Social. It’s clear it’s still very much a beta app. Like I mentioned earlier, there doesn’t appear to be a working direct messages feature. The search function doesn’t appear to work particularly well either. For example, when I searched for the user “Trump,” I was inundated with profiles from fans of the former president. Yet, not a single profile belonging to the Trump family not even Donald Trump himself appeared in the results. Donald Trump doesn’t appear in the search results for “Trump.” Credit: Mashable Screenshot After publishing a “truth,” it took quite a few refreshes for my post to show up on my profile page. It took so long that I thought it got lost for a minute and doubted it would ever materialize, but then it finally did. Those comments that were previously mentioned that don’t always show? They do show if a post doesn’t have more than a hundred or so comments. If a user tries to view the comments on a post with hundreds or more comments, they just won’t load. It’s unclear if this is an issue where the server can’t handle the load or if this part of the app is just poorly coded. Truth Social was able to load these 160 replies to Dan Bonino’s post but it could not load the comments for a similar Bongino post with 500 replies. Credit: Mashable Screenshot Also, along with the iOS notification, users receive an email notification as well when their account is ready. However, if a user clicks through on their desktop, they’re met with a 404 page because there is no desktop version of Truth Social. Then there are the issues with content. Truth Social bills itself as a “free speech” platform, but, of course, it has policies and community guidelines like even the Big Tech social media platforms. For one, Truth Social has already banned a user for registering a username that its CEO Devin Nunes doesn’t like. Hard Truths Over the past few days, there have been a few articles about Trump ” whining ” and being ” furious ” over the “failure” of the Truth Social launch. As those reports mention and I can personally now attest, the former President of the United States has only posted a single “truth” since its launch more than two weeks ago. The social media app debuted at the top of the App Store charts, but has since fallen precipitously in the rankings. Trump has posted once on Truth Social in the weeks it has been live. Credit: Mashable Screenshot But, more revealing than Trump posting just a single time is just how many people follow Trump there. At the time this article was published, a little over 200,000 people were following the former president on Truth Social. Trump is ostensibly the reason why Truth Social exists a place where people can hear from its founder after he was banned everywhere else. If you’re planning to actually use Truth Social, one would assume he’d be the first person you’d follow. He’s also the first user who comes up as a suggestion when you open the search tab, before inputting any search query. Other journalists who’ve gained access to Truth Social in recent days, such as Ruby Cramer of Politico, have noted just how dead Truth Social appears to be. “There isn’t much happening on the site,” Cramer wrote. And that’s true. It is a brand new platform after all. The problem is where the engagement on the site what little there is, at least is happening. It’s the same issue that has plagued Truth Social competitors like Parler and Gettr. All the action occurs in the comments of its most popular users. People are just looped into conversations with others who happen to stumble upon their thread in a reply section full of thousands and thousands of comments. Truth Social’s top posts seem to mostly be from verified users. Credit: Mashable Screenshot If you’re not Trump or Dan Bongino or some other conservative influencer, you’re barely seeing any interaction on Truth Social. Even worse, these personalities are barely even acknowledging the people who are conversing in their replies. This all gives the average user very little reason to stick around on the platform. It’s sort of ironic because the average Truth Social user is often the type to mock the “blue tick” verified users on Twitter for their verification badge. Yet, here on Truth Social, the only users who seem to be generating any real engagement are the verified users with Truth Social’s own little “red tick.” The NFL isn’t actually on Truth Social. Credit: Mashable Screenshot In addition, looking at the top “suggested” profiles when going to the search tab, users will notice a number of accounts such as @NFL, @DailyMail, and @Military that are labeled “BOT.” According to Truth Social these are just automated feeds that aren’t even affiliated with the organization or outlet they’re representing. The @NFL “BOT” account, for example, appears to just post ESPN’s latest NFL-related articles. Just how many Truth Social “BOT” accounts have been set up in the name of a third-party without their consent? Alternative “free speech” platforms like Truth Social tend not to have advanced algorithms recommending users to follow or new posts to check out. Truth Social, for example, doesn’t even suggest users to follow when signing up. Everyone’s first Truth Social experience is just an empty feed without any content which seems like a good way to stop first-time users from returning. Whether you’re a Trump ” hater ” or are willing to storm the Capitol for him, there’s one thing we can likely all agree on: Trump is not boring. But his social media platform certainly is. That’s a bad deal for Truth Social users, and a very bad deal for The Donald himself. (https://mashable.com/article/inside-truth-social-trump-social-network-tour)

New Vehicles Must Average 40 Mpg by 2026, Up From 24 Mpg

New vehicles sold in the United States will have to travel an average of at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026 under new rules unveiled Friday by the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its fuel economy requirements will undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump. The new requirements increase gas mileage by 8 per year for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10 in the 2026 model year. For the current model year, standards enacted under Trump require the fleet of new vehicles to get just over 24 miles per gallon in real-world driving. Agency officials say the requirements are the maximum that the industry can achieve over the time period and will reduce gasoline consumption by more than 220 billion gallons over the life of vehicles, compared with the Trump standards. Trump’s administration rolled back fuel economy requirements so they rose 1.5 per year, which environmental groups said was inadequate to limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. But the new standards won’t immediately match those adopted through 2025 under President Barack Obama. NHTSA officials said they will equal the Obama standards by 2025 and slightly exceed them for the 2026 model year. The Obama-era standards automatically adjusted for changes in the type of vehicles people are buying. When they were enacted in 2012, 51 of new vehicle sales were cars and 49 SUVs and trucks. Last year, 77 of new vehicle sales were SUVs and trucks, which generally are less efficient than cars. Some environmental groups said the new requirements from NHTSA under President Joe Biden don’t go far enough to fight global warming. Climate change has gotten much worse, but these rules only require automakers to reduce gas-guzzling slightly more than they agreed to cut nine years ago, said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Center at the Center for Biological Diversity. He said the final rule is about 2 mpg short of the strongest alternative that NHTSA considered. Officials said that under the new standards, owners would save about $1,400 in gasoline costs during the lifetime of a 2029 model year vehicle. Carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 2.5 billion metric tons by 2050 under the standards, the NHTSA said. The agency did not give figures for how much the standards would increase the cost of vehicles. Auto dealers say more stringent requirements drive up prices and push people out of an already expensive new-car market. The NHTSA sets fuel economy requirements, while the Environmental Protection Agency develops limits on greenhouse gas emissions. NHTSA officials said their requirements nearly match rules adopted in December by the EPA, so automakers don’t have to comply with two rules. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/new-vehicles-must-average-40-mpg-by-2026-up-from-24-mpg/2860808/)

Zelenskyy Pleads With US to Close Ukraine’s Skies, Increase Sanctions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the U.S. Congress to close the sky to prevent the Russian airstrikes that are devastating his country as he appealed to lawmakers to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Russia has turned the Ukrainian skies into a source of death for thousands of people, Zelenskyy said. Invoking Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, Zelenskyy said, I have a dream these words are known to each of you. Today I can say, I have a need. I need to protect our sky. Zelenskyy said that if a no-fly zone isn’t possible, then Ukraine will need more advanced air-defense systems, such as military aircrafts and other weapons. He also said the U.S. must sanction Russian lawmakers and block imports, and he showed a packed auditorium of U.S. lawmakers an emotional video of the destruction and devastation in his country has suffered in the war. We need you right now, Zelenskyy said. He added, I call on you to do more. The actor-turned-wartime leader was greeted with a standing ovation before and after his short remarks, which Zelenskyy began in Ukrainian through an interpreter but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths, he told them. Nearing the three-week mark in an ever-escalating war, Zelenskyy is using the world’s leading legislative bodies as a stage to implore allied leaders to stop the Russian airstrikes that are devastating his country. It has also put Zelenskyy at odds with President Joe Biden, whose administration has stopped short of providing a no-fly zone or the transfer of military jets from neighboring Poland as the U.S. seeks to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia. Instead, Biden announced Wednesday an additional $800 million in security assistance, saying the U.S. is sending more anti-aircraft, anti-armor weapons and drones to Ukraine. That would bring the total announced in the last week alone to $1 billion. The White House has been weighing giving Ukraine access to U.S.-made Switchblade drones that can fly and strike Russian targets, according to a separate person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not immediately clear if the new drones that Biden said would be delivered to Ukraine include the Switchblades. Zelenskyy has emerged as a heroic figure at the center of what many view as the biggest security threat to Europe since World War II. Almost 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine, the fastest exodus in modern times. Wearing his now trademark army green T-shirt, Zelinskyy began the remarks to his American friends by invoking the destruction the U.S. suffered in 1941 when Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by militants who commandeered passenger airplanes to crash into the symbols of Western democracy and economy. Remember Pearl Harbor? Remember September 11? Zelenzkyy asked. Our countries experience the same every day right now. Sen. Angus King, the Maine independent. said there was a collective holding of the breath in the room during Zelenskyy’s address. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, If you did not look at that video and feel there is an obligation for not only the United States but but the free countries of the world to come together in support of Ukraine, you had your eyes closed. Majority Whip Dick Durbin called the address heartbreaking and said, I’m on board with a blank check on sanctions, just whatever we can do to stop this Russian advance. The Ukrainian president is no stranger to Congress, having played a central role in Donald Trump’s first impeachment. As president, Trump was accused of withholding security aid to Ukraine as he pressured Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on political rival Biden. Zelensky spoke on the giant screen to many of the same Republican lawmakers who declined to impeach or convict Trump, but are among the bipartisan groundswell in Congress now clamoring for military aid to Ukraine. He thanked the American people, saying Ukraine is grateful for the outpouring of support, even as he urged Biden to do more. You are the leader of the nation. I wish you be the leader of the world, he said Being the leader of the world means being the leader of peace. It was the latest visit as Zelenskky uses the West’s great legislative bodies in his appeals for help, invoking Shakespeare’s Hamlet last week at the British House of Commons asking whether Ukraine is to be or not to be and appealing Tuesday to Dear Justin as he addressed the Canadian Parliament and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He often pushes for more help to save his young democracy than world leaders have so far pledged to provide. Biden has insisted there will be no U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine and has resisted Zelenskyy’s relentless pleas for warplanes as too risky, potentially escalating into a direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. Direct conflict between NATO and Russia is World War III, Biden has said. More Russia-Ukraine Coverage Volodymyr Zelenskyy Mar 15 3 EU Prime Ministers Visit Kyiv as Russian Attacks Intensify Ukraine Mar 15 Zelenskyy Asks Europe for More Weapons U.S. defense officials, for their part, say they are puzzled by Zelenskyy’s demand for more warplanes. They say Ukraine isn’t often flying the planes it has now, while making good use of other weapons the West is providing, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft. Already the Biden administration has sent Ukraine more than 600 Stinger missiles, 2,600 Javelin anti-armor systems, unmanned aerial system tracking radars; grenade launchers, 200 shotguns, 200 machine guns and nearly 40 million rounds of small arms ammunition, along with helicopters, patrol boats, satellite imagery and body armor, helmets, and other tactical gear, the official said. Even though Zelenskyy and Biden speak almost daily by phone, the Ukrainian president has found a potentially more receptive audience in Congress. This won’t be the first time he has appealed directly to members of the House and Senate, who have remained remarkably unified in their support of Ukraine with some feeling they have made a commitment to do as much as they can in the fight against Russia. Nearly two weeks ago, Zelenskyy delivered a desperate plea to some 300 lawmakers and staff on a private call that if they could not enforce a no-fly zone, at least send more planes. Congress has already approved $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and the newly announced security aid will come from that allotment, which is part of a broader bill that Biden signed into law Tuesday. But lawmakers expect more aid will be needed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Zelenskyy asked for help in rebuilding his country when they spoke last week. It was in that call that Zelenskyy asked to address the U.S. Congress, something the Democratic leader readily agreed to. The Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine, said Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement Monday announcing the address. Zelenskyy’s next stop could be Spain. The speaker of Spain’s Congress of Deputies has invited the Ukrainian president to address Spanish lawmakers via videolink. In a letter to Zelenskyy, Speaker Meritxell Batet wrote that the address will be a magnificent opportunity for the chamber, all Spanish people and the thousands of Ukrainians living in Spain to listen to your message and express our firmest support. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Ellen Knickmeyer and Chris Megerian and Raf Casert in Brussels, Jill Lawless in London, Aritz Parra in Madrid and videojournalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/president-zelenskyy-faces-us-congress-plead-more-help-ukraine/2848878/)

‘The Batman’s politics are deliberately hollow

The Batman like an increasing number of aspirationally prestigious, pick-me superhero movies desperately wants to prove it’s not like all the other superhero movies. Sure, it’s yet another multi-million dollar blockbuster remake of a popular comic book IP already rebooted less than a decade ago, set in a universe “reinvented” nearly every other fiscal quarter. So, to justify its own existence, The Batman hopes to be an elevation of the genre into capital ‘C’ Cinema with Serious Themes that speak to Our Times. Yet in its cacophony of self-importance, The Batman only capitalizes on the unique power of superhero movies that can seem to stand for something, while actually standing for nothing. On-trend with 2019’s Joker, director/co-writer Matt Reeves’ Gotham aims to be the darkest and grittiest of them yet by drawing on the grim politics of today. But instead of saying anything of substance, both only exploit the painful social ills we’re living through for the sake of triggering set dressing. The Batman evokes this litany of very real-world suffering to conclude with a big shrug about it all. Themes around classism, dire wealth inequality, widespread police corruption, institutional government failures, and violence against sex workers are shoe-horned in throughout. Then toward the end, the Riddler summons now-familiar images of mass shootings, white male privilege, Qanon-style social media conspiracies, and white nationalist political terrorism. Closing with hauntingly memorable images of bombings around Madison Gotham Square Garden and even a catastrophically flooded American city that descends into so-called “looting,” there appears to be no source of collective trauma this movie is unwilling to mine. But just like Joker, The Batman evokes this litany of very real-world suffering to conclude with a big shrug about it all. Actually, if you try to follow the meaning behind any one of its IRL parallels, you just end up with a whole lotta yikes. SEE ALSO: ‘Joker’ is self-serious without much to say That’s not an accident, either. It’s by design. As of now, no tentpole DC movie appear willing to take a stance on any of the divisive issues they raise for this appearance of relevancy. Why would they, since that risks alienating a vocal subset of their fan base, which the studio must pander to or at least placate for maximum return on investment? Don’t get me wrong: There’s a lot of artistry worth praise in the new Robert Pattinson-led Batman. There’s even solid groundwork laid for a more radical rejection of the vigilante hero’s fascist underpinnings. But any hope for a transgressive Last Jedi -style interrogation of the underlying hypocrisy holding back this beloved IP is promptly abandoned in the final acts. The movie must, by necessity, return to a status quo of the same old Batman mythos we keep being force-fed again and again, even though it’s antithetical to the cultural shift needed to address the injustices raised by the movie. And, listen, no one was demanding Batman to suddenly become “woke.” Superhero movies are by no means obligated to serve as timely morality tales. But The Batman explicitly tries to cash in on the clout of a vague progressivism that it sorely misrepresents. Trauma porn doesn’t get a pass just because it’s wearing a cape. And frankly, in 2022, I just don’t need the help of a bat-suited blockbuster to be bombarded by endless images of human suffering I can neither do anything about nor make sense of. Trauma porn doesn’t get a pass just because it’s wearing a cape. Worst of all, there’s a real danger in co-opting the aesthetic of social justice as a smokescreen to bolster the heroics of a character who ostensibly embodies an oligarchical American police state. In conjunction with Joker ‘s vacuous depiction of violent white male rage, The Batman does show that a playbook is developing for Oscar Bait-y superhero movies desperate to be taken seriously: One merely needs to gesture at the existence of important social issues in order to receive heaps of critical praise declaring it a triumphantly ” different,” ” of the moment,” ” grounded,” and ” diverse ” pop-culture genre film. Nevermind that, for all of Batman’s tortured self-reflection, the movie ends with no change to his outdated worldviews whatsoever even after Selina stuns him with the revelation that impoverished people can be backed into criminality for survival. The extent of Bruce’s character development amounts to realizing that, sometimes, his fists should be used to hold the hands of innocent victims, whenever they’re not pummeling said criminals into submission with total impunity. To be clear, Reeves rebuffs any perceived parallels between the movie’s climax and real-world events like the January 6 insurrection. He maintains that the script was written pretty much as-is five years ago. That mostly tracks, since risk-averse big-budget Hollywood studios aren’t wont to purposefully wade into such recent, polarizing political crises. But that’s exactly the problem with giving too much credit to superhero movies made by corporate machines that only feign concern for the marginalized when it’s profitable. So Riddler is a Qanon conspiracy theorist who.was right all along? Credit: Warner Bros. It’s the reason why Joker could only end inconclusively, with a psychotic episode that calls the movie’s entire reality into question, conveniently absolving both its protagonist and creator from repercussions for the shocking acts depicted. The ending leaves the movie’s true opinions on the sensitive topics raised entirely up to audience interpretation. It allows Joker to circumvent the need to make any actual value statements about the disabused white men it purports to be about. Director Todd Phillips must say nothing meaningful about the controversial issues he alludes to, so the movie can simultaneously speak to a volatile male audience that feels unseen while also maintaining a “both sides” plausible deniability all while raking in unearned critical applause for seeming daring enough to break from genre conventions. But the only artistic risk Joker takes is inviting comparison to the laundry list of far better films it mishmashes together. Mixed political signals are not a bug, but a feature of today’s gritty superhero movie “realism.” Riddler’s Qanon parallels, for example, inadvertently send wildly irresponsible messages if you try to take them seriously. Unlike Joker, he’s at least the villain rather than the protagonist of The Batman. But the movie still pretty much validates his belief system. In contrast to the ludicrous Qanon conspiracy theories of our reality, the Riddler’s internet-orchestrated unmasking of Gotham’s Satanic cabal of coastal elites is vindicated as totally factually correct. That’s a level of intellectual bankruptcy that movies with 85 percent Rotten Tomato scores just shouldn’t be allowed to get away with. SEE ALSO: ‘The Batman’ Review: A crime-thriller suffocated by PG-13 demands Also, a huge part of what makes the cult of Qanon so seductive is that it preys on a very legitimate sense that the ultra-wealthy are corrupting our social structures. The system really is rigged to screw over underprivileged people like the Riddler in order to line the pockets of greedy politicians and billionaires. But you don’t need a Zodiac Killer anti-hero mastermind to piece together any elaborate secret puzzle to uncover some underground criminal collusion between the rich and powerful. They do it in broad daylight, right in front of our eyes, and legally. You can read about it in any reputable newspaper that covers corporate-backed political funding and lobbying. Unlike Qanon or Riddler’s thrilling online game, the real truth is a far more boring answer to this most mundane of conspiratorial riddles: How do wealthy elites plot against the lower classes while herding them into complacency like mindless sheep? Capitalism. It’s just Uncle Sam-approved late-stage capitalism, folks. Then there’s the blatant copaganda that’s completely incongruous with the real-world versions of Gotham’s mob-like police gang. Either Gordon is just that bad at his job, or he’s complicit. Credit: Warner Bros. Reeve’s Batman almost finds itself chanting “ACAB,” but then softens it with a “bad apples” strawman plotline that culminates in a heartfelt celebration of the many “good cops” who were apparently totally unaware and uninvolved in their department’s decades-long criminal operation. I also want to believe in the hopeful vision for Gotham proposed by new, progressive mayor Bella Reál, clearly coded as an AOC type who stands in opposition to the corrupt government systems that have failed to enact change. But her final mealy-mouthed plea to rebuild trust in our institutions sounds an awful lot like centrist urgings to get back to normal, and return to the status quo after a crisis clearly reveals how fundamentally broken those institutions are. Her words only seem more radical because they’re spoken by a woman of color, instead of the crooked white guy she ousted, who’s a clearer visual representation of the systemic problems that remain embedded in American politics regardless of who’s in charge. Similarly, Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman can shame Batman all she wants for being a white rich dude with zero concept of how systemic injustice and oppression works. But the movie still requires audiences believe that Bruce and Bruce alone holds the power to deliver justice to Gotham’s streets. SEE ALSO: ‘The Batman’ director on that surprising ending and where it might lead Selina’s words fall on deaf bat ears because the script still needs her to act the role of supportive love interest who bends to his worldview, which advocates for something akin to reform rather than an abolishment of the carceral criminal justice system. Batman must forget the lived experiences that Selina tries to impress upon him. The movie must also negate their salient criticism that the world only cares about the suffering of privileged white men since the studio needs us to keep buying into a franchise that only seems to care about the suffering of a privileged white man. Most disappointing of all, the thematic foundation for a Batman movie that argues for defunding the police or at least interrogating the values of the American criminal justice system are right there. It throws those fascinating threads out the window to instead celebrate Batman developing an even bigger white male savior complex. No one embodies the ineffectuality of carceral policing more than Batman. He’s a vigilante who must work outside the law to even deliver his “justice” of filling the city’s prisons with folks that society failed to help a super cop with endless funds who only inspires more bombastic super-villainy, neither lowering crime nor making Gotham any safer. The movie comes this close to pointing out those cyclical failures, and even de-mythologizing the lie of benevolent philanthropic billionaires like Thomas Wayne. Then it throws those fascinating threads out the window to instead celebrate Batman developing an even bigger white male savior complex. If you follow The Batman”s line of questioning too honestly, you’d have to admit that the only way Bruce could “speak to our times” is if he shut the fuck up and let someone else talk. The Catwoman would’ve been a movie much more capable of addressing the hot-button issues that The Batman fundamentally cannot. But if you admit all that, then you’d potentially have yet another toxic DC fanboy revolt on your hands. There are ways superhero movies and stories can be relevant to real-world issues and collective cultural traumas. Black Panther, for one, unequivocally demonstrates how impactful these foundational comic book heroes can be in furthering conversations around deep-seated social injustice. The difference, it seems, lies in a film that treats those wounds as a narrative foundation rather than trendy fodder for the #discourse. With each new release, it’s getting harder to give DC the benefit of the doubt that they don’t know whose worldview their “elevated” comic book movies speak to most and who they sideline in the process. (https://mashable.com/article/batman-2022-joker-dc-problematic-social-justice)

Biden Waiving Ethanol Rule in Bid to Lower Gasoline Prices

With inflation at a 40-year high, President Joe Biden journeyed to corn-rich Iowa on Tuesday to announce a modest step aimed at trimming gasoline prices by about a dime a gallon at a limited number of stations by waiving rules that restrict ethanol blending. His action reflects the ways Biden is deploying almost every weapon in his bureaucratic arsenal to ease price pressures, yet the impact appears to be small and uncertain. Inflation has only accelerated in recent months, instead of fading as Biden once promised it would after the recovery from the coronavirus recession following last year’s $1.9 trillion relief package. A government report Tuesday that consumer prices jumped 8.5 in March from a year ago the worst reading since December 1981 only deepened the political challenge for Biden and fellow Democrats ahead of this year’s midterm elections. More than half the increase came from higher gas prices, which spiked in part because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but costs also jumped for housing, food and other items. Biden called the inflation report Putin’s price hike. Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away, the U.S. president said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But in his remarks at the POET biofuels facility in Menlo, west of Des Moines, Biden acknowledged that the waiver on ethanol mixes was a small step. I’m doing everything within my power by executive orders to bring down the price, he said. It’s not going to solve all our problems, but it’s going to help some people. Most gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with 10 ethanol, a biofuel that is currently cheaper than gas. Biden was announcing that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of a 15 ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures. Senior Biden administration officials said the action will save drivers an average of 10 cents per gallon based on current prices, but at just 2,300 gas stations out of the nation’s more than 100,000. The affected stations are mostly in the Midwest and the South, including Texas, according to industry groups. Administration officials said the EPA has determined that the emergency step of allowing more E15 gasoline sales for the summer is not likely to have a significant air quality impact. That’s despite some environmentalists long arguing that more ethanol in gasoline increases pollution, especially during warmer summer months. More Gas Prices Coverage Business Apr 11 Gas Prices Can Vary a Lot Depending on Where You Live. Drivers in These 10 States Spend the Most Business Apr 1 How States Aim to Tackle High Gas Prices With Tax Holidays, Rebates for Residents The waiver is another effort to help ease global energy markets that have been rocked since Russia invaded Ukraine. Last month, the president announced the U.S. will release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve over the next six months. His administration said that has helped to slightly reduce gas prices lately, after they climbed to an average of about $4.23 a gallon by the end of March, compared with $2.87 at the same time a year ago, according to AAA. Not only is this decision a major win for American drivers and our nation’s energy security, it means cleaner options at the pump and a stronger rural economy, Emily Skor, CEO of the biofuel trade association group Growth Energy, said in a statement. Members of Congress from both parties also had urged Biden to grant the E15 waiver. Homegrown Iowa biofuels provide a quick and clean solution for lowering prices at the pump, and bolstering production would help us become energy independent once again, said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. He was among nine Republican and seven Democratic senators from Midwestern states who sent Biden a letter last month urging him to allow year-round E15 sales. The trip will be Biden’s first as president to Iowa, where his 2020 presidential campaign limped to a fourth-place finish in the state’s caucus. He will arrive saddled with sagging approval ratings and the high inflation while his party faces the prospect of big midterm election losses that could cost it control of Congress. The president also planned to promote his economic plans to help rural families and highlight the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law enacted last fall. That law includes money to improve internet access, as well as for modernizing wastewater systems, reducing flooding threats and improving roads and bridges, drinking water and electric grids in sparsely populated areas. Biden had hoped Democrats could run on the low 3.6 unemployment rate and an agenda geared toward lifting the middle class, but inflation has hijacked those ambitions and given Republicans a target for criticism. Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kauffman was unsparing in his criticism of Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation. But, he said, the temporary move on ethanol was the right one. First of all, let me say that that’s a good thing. Absolutely good thing. It would have been nice had he done it earlier, Kauffman said. Am I glad about this waiver? Yes I am. Is it enough? Nope. The high inflation also poses a threat to Biden’s broader domestic agenda that likely hinges on the vote of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Manchin released a statement saying that the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve failed to act fast enough, to curb costs for the American people and that the problem of high prices predates the invasion of Ukraine. Manchin, whose opposition doomed Biden’s 10-year, roughly $2 trillion measure in December, had recently returned to the negotiating table with the White House. It remains unclear what impact the new inflation data will have on those negotiations. After Iowa, Biden will visit Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday. The EPA has lifted seasonal restrictions on E15 in the past, including after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The Trump administration did so in the summer two years later but had that action struck down by a federal appeals court. A group representing petroleum refiners blasted Biden’s decision, saying the only emergency was his dropping poll numbers. We are right there with the administration on wanting to see relief for consumers at the pump, but an unlawful executive order is not how to solve the problem, said Chet Thompson, president & CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/biden-waiving-ethanol-rule-bid-lower-gasoline-prices/3022594/)

Pa. Primary 2022: Early Voter’s Guide to Casting a Ballot This Year

In Pennsylvania, two big races in 2022 are likely to determine the course of both local and national politics. Voters in the Keystone State will play a crucial role in which political party controls Congress, particularly with the open race to replace retiring Republican Pat Toomey in the U.S. Senate. All the while, both Democrats and Republicans see the governor’s office as all-important in which party controls state politics for the next four years. Current Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, cannot run for a third term. With the stakes so high, we’re answering some of the biggest questions about both races below: When are Pennsylvania 2022 primary and general elections? The primary election in Pennsylvania is May 17. The general election is Nov. 8. Polls for both elections will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. When is the deadline to register to vote? The last day to register to vote before the May 17 primary is May 2. NBC News has a very useful tool to determine what the rules and deadlines are for voters in the county where they live. Learn more about the tool here. Can I vote in the primary? Pennsylvania has closed primaries. This means that to vote for a member of a certain party, you have to be registered as a member of that party. In other words, if you are unaffiliated with a party, you can’t vote in the primary. However, unaffiliated voters are allowed to vote in the general election, and they can also have their say when it comes to ballot questions. Can I vote by mail? The short answer is yes for now. But it could get more complicated later this year. Pennsylvania expanded its mail voting law in 2019, and at the time, it had bipartisan support. The law was part of a deal in which Republican legislative leaders obtained an end to straight-ticket voting. However, the political landscape shifted after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed vote-by-mail fraud when he lost the 2020 presidential election. Since then, Republicans in Pennsylvania and around the country have challenged mail-in voting. In January, a lower court agreed with Republican challenges to Pennsylvania’s vote-by-mail law, ruling that it violated the state constitution. The three Republicans on the court agreed with the challenge, while the two Democrats dissented. However, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration appealed the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority. The administration asked the court to keep the law in place while it hears oral arguments in the case. At the beginning of March, the court overturned the lower court’s ruling while it hears arguments in the case. When is the deadline to request a mail ballot? As things currently stand, the last day to request a mail ballot for the upcoming elections is May 10. You can request one here. Who is running for Pennsylvania governor? The Democratic Party’s nominee, Josh Shapiro, filed to run for governor in the midst of serving his second term as Pennsylvania’s elected attorney general. He has a clear lane to the party’s nomination with no opposition. Ten candidates filed to run on the Republican side. They are: Lou Barletta, the GOP’s nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and a former congressman known for his crusade against illegal immigration; Jake Corman, the top-ranking state senator; Joe Gale, a Montgomery County commissioner; Charlie Gerow, a marketing consultant and longtime conservative activist; Melissa Hart, a lawyer and former congresswoman; state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a force in Pennsylvania’s right-wing politics who aligned himself with Trump and pushed to overturn 2020’s presidential election; Bill McSwain, a lawyer who was the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Philadelphia; Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer who specializes in commercial and contract litigation; Dave White, who runs a large plumbing and HVAC firm and is a former Delaware County councilman; and Nche Zama, a heart surgeon who has directed units at various hospitals in Pennsylvania. Decision 2022 decision 2022 Mar 15 Who Filed to Run for Office in Pa.’s May 17 Primary? The Full List Plan Your Vote Mar 15 Plan Your Vote in the Primary Elections in PA, NJ and Del. Who is running for the U.S. Senate? Both parties will have contested primaries. Five filed for the Democratic Party’s nomination. They are: emergency room physician Kevin Baumlin ; Lt. Gov. John Fetterman ; second-term state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia; liberal activist and Jenkintown borough councilor Alex Khalil ; and third-term U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb of suburban Pittsburgh. On the Republican side are seven candidates. They are: conservative activist Kathy Barnette, who has aligned herself with leading figures in the Trump-led push to overturn 2020’s presidential election; real estate investor Jeff Bartos, who was the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor in 2018; lawyer George Bochetto ; lawyer Sean Gale ; former hedge fund CEO David McCormick ; Mehmet Oz, the self-styled health and wellness guru and author best-known as host of daytime TV’s The Dr. Oz Show; and Carla Sands, Trump’s former ambassador to Denmark who ran her late husband’s commercial real estate empire in California. What are the other big races? In addition for the governor and U.S. senator races, voters will be able to elect a lieutenant governor, as well as representatives across Pennsylvania’s 17 U.S. House districts. In Southeastern Pennsylvania, every current congressional member representing the region’s seven U.S. House districts is running for re-election. Check out the candidates for those races by clicking here. (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2022/pa-primary-2022-early-voters-guide-to-casting-a-ballot-this-year/3158927/)

Zelensky’s show matters more than ever. Let’s see it all.

If Americans have learned anything about Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky in the weeks since Russia invaded his country, it’s that he’s a masterful media strategist. In trolling Russian president Vladimir Putin, as in mobilizing world opinion behind Ukraine, his prior experience as an actor and comedian has served him well. Which is why this is a perfect time for western audiences to familiarize themselves with Zelensky’s Servant of the People one of the most intriguing and historically important shows you could possibly watch right now. And you should watch, as much and as fast as you can despite a bizarre number of obstacles in accessing the whole thing. This is the TV show that ran in Ukraine for three seasons from 2015 to 2018. Zelensky’s character is a history teacher who is unexpectedly elected president in a landslide after his students post a viral video of him complaining about corruption and crowdfund his campaign online. Life imitated art when Zelensky started a Servant of the People Party, ran for president in a campaign run almost entirely on social media, and won in a landslide. It may not explain why Russia started this war as well as, say, The Death of Stalin. Still, for outsiders, Servant of the People is something of a lesson in Ukrainian politics and culture, and yet the 24-minute episodes are easy to binge. The humor, a handful of references aside, is universal. This is satire of the fast-moving, widely-accessible kind. The show consistently tells the terrible truth about real-life villains the billionaire oligarchs who stop any government working for the people in a way only the court jester of a hopeful democracy can. SEE ALSO: Ukraine’s everyday heroes are owning social media Zelensky emerges from the show less a buffoon, more a heartfelt true believer in democracy. The nearest American analogue might be Jimmy Stewart in the classic Frank Capra movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, another great advertisement for democratic principles in dark times. In both stories a somewhat naive history-lover is elevated to high office, refuses to bow to corruption, suffers outrageous smears from the corrupt, and holds the line of morality with from-the-hip speeches. Via Giphy Servant of the People gives Mr. Smith a humor upgrade by way of Veep, with a little Walter Mitty-style daydreaming. I also saw scenes and setups that reminded me of The Office, Parks and Rec, The Great, The Thick of It, Yes Prime Minister, Arrested Development, and if you’re chomping at the bit to watch it all after that name-checking, you’re my kind of people. How to watch: with difficulty But therein lies the trouble: Watching it all. After tracking down the world’s most wondered-about show, the best I can suggest is that you time-travel back a couple of years and convince yourself to watch it on Netflix in its entirety before it vanishes from the streaming service for still-unexplained reasons. Search for it on Netflix now and you’ll get redirected to Winter on Fire, the documentary on the 2014 protests that forced Ukraine’s pro-Putin, police-state-loving president Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country If you’re in the UK, Servant of the People is now screening on Channel 4 but at a painfully slow rate. Currently, just three episodes out of the 24 in season 1 are available on the UK-only All 4 streaming app. The company that owns TV rights has been doing brisk sales, according to multiple reports, but will not reveal if there’s a U.S. taker yet. Given the amount of disinformation about Zelensky rife in certain dark corners of American politics Rep. Madison Cawthorn was just caught on video calling Ukraine’s leader a ” thug ” the show that proves the Putin apologists wrong can’t come to U.S. screens soon enough. For now, would-be Servant of the People viewers are left with YouTube, where there is good and bad news. Good news: Zelensky’s own production company has uploaded every episode, so we’re talking high-quality transfers, not bad user rips. Bad news for English speakers: Most of the episodes offer only Russian subtitles. Some of the episodes with English subtitles are more comprehensible than others. If YouTube wanted to do some good in the world, and thank Zelensky for the millions of ad impressions he’s brought to the online video giant, it could sink some money into a full-on worldwide Servant of the People translation project. In the meantime, here’s a quick guide to the best Servant of the People viewing experience currently possible. Episodes 1 and 2 The double-length premiere is a great place to start. Servant of the People wisely skips over the whole election part, dropping us into the story the morning that history teacher Vasily Petrovich Goloborodko learns his campaign for the president was successful. He’s then ushered through a dizzying round of interviews and makeovers by the prime minister, Yuri Ivanovich Chuiko, whose silky smoothness you would be right to distrust. The story of the viral video and the crowdfunding that kickstarted his campaign is told in flashback. And the shadowy oligarchs we’ll come to know later in the show are anonymous, their faces always covered by items of furniture as they plot nefarious schemes. And here, in all its glory, is the joke that was cut when the show aired in Russia. Vasily is offered a range of expensive watches, and is told which one Putin favors. “Putin Hublot?” he says innocently a phrase that sounds a lot like “Putin khuilo,” a Ukrainian football chant that translates roughly to “Putin is a dickhead.” Episode 3 Episode 3 focuses on Vasily’s family; in an early sign of the corruption that will surround him everywhere he goes, his mother, father, niece and sister are seen promising government positions to their friends and receiving “100 percent discounts” at their favorite stores. The fourth wall shatters when a couple of policemen ask the family if they can “do something about” comedians who criticize the government. Episode 4 Episode 4 opens with what is hands-down my favorite scene of the show: Vasily being shown around his swanky new presidential residence. He finds a chandelier so expensive that it caused the country to default on its debt during the 2008 financial crisis, and a parrot that squawks “no, you’re the idiot.” when it hears the name of ousted pro-Putin president Viktor Yanukovych; the show was actually filmed on the massive estate Yanukovych had vacated in a hurry less than two years earlier. Unfortunately the episode is the first to lose its English subtitles before the end, so if you want to see Zelensky’s character chatting about his inauguration address with Abraham Lincoln, you’ll need to watch this version. Episode 5 Episode 5 may be my favorite episode overall and certainly the show’s best example of physical comedy. In the first half, Vasily spends much of his time running away from his ridiculously large security detail. In the second, we’re introduced to his presidential predecessor, who has barricaded himself into his office with a shotgun and a bar full of booze. Much of the show hits differently now Russia has invaded Ukraine, but this is the first scene that hits differently in the wake of Donald Trump’s disastrous bid to cling on to power. The quality of the English translation starts to go downhill with episode 6, in which Vasily falls out with his family, yells “Putin has been overthrown” to get the attention of squabbling deputies, and has a chat with Che Guevara. Subtitles then disappear early in episode 7. In episode 8, the show takes a turn towards screwball office comedy, as Vasily brings in a cabinet of outsiders like himself only they all happen to be his old school pals. The show presents them as a cadre of trusted allies who are less likely to take bribes, but it’s hard for a viewer not to notice that such nepotism is a form of corruption in itself. In episodes 9 and 10, the oligarchs take a number of steps to bribe or bring down the new cabinet, including dosing one member with psychedelics. As promising a plotline as that may be, we’re lost without English subtitles for the next 13 episodes. Which brings us to the last and most epic English language experience in the current canon: Servant of the People 2: The Movie After Season 1 was a huge hit, Zelensky and company repackaged a planned plotline from Season 2 as a 90-minute movie, Servant of the People 2. Here you’ll encounter mild spoilers; Yuri Ivanovich, the prime minister, is in jail, having been unmasked as a stooge of the oligarchs, and Vasily is dating an assistant who is also revealed to be one of their people. To break up an alliance of the three most powerful oligarchs, Vasily and Yuri take a train to the east of the country. Classic road movie farce ensues. Meanwhile Ukraine has applied for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which keeps piling on the onerous conditions even as Vasily’s hapless foreign minister tries to keep the IMF leadership drunk. Vasily’s speech at the end of the movie responding to the IMF loan offer is a thing of beauty, and in retrospect can be applied to any situation where Ukraine has been pushed too far. “We’re not a border region between orcs and elves,” Vasily says. “We are a nation of open, clever and talented people. When we understand this, when we understand that stealing is bad, that we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard. Then the whole world will say ‘glory to Ukraine.'” Slava Ukraini indeed. (https://mashable.com/article/zelensky-servant-people-how-to-watch)

GOP’s Energy Promises Face Limits in Pa. Governor’s Race

Republican Bill McSwain pledges to be a pro-energy governor by turning on the spigot of natural gas. Another hopeful, Dave White, says he wants Pennsylvania to be the energy capital of the world. A third candidate, Lou Barletta, says having a glut of natural gas in the ground without a pipeline is like being in college and having a keg of beer without a tap. In Pennsylvania, the No. 2 natural gas producer after Texas, the importance of the industry is emerging as a top issue among Republican contenders for governor before the state’s May 17 primary. The issue has taken on new urgency in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has revived the debate over how to enhance domestic energy production and spurred a pledge from President Joe Biden to increase liquefied natural gas exports to Europe to undercut Russia’s leverage there. Despite promises by the Republican candidates, however, there are constraints on what they could do in office. While governors have influence over state agencies and lawmaking, they have limited ability to grant what the industry really wants, like building interstate pipelines and big processing facilities. That’s because other states and federal policy are involved. decision 2022 Jan 19 Who Is Running for Pennsylvania Governor in 2022? decision 2022 Mar 16 Pa. Primary 2022: Early Voter’s Guide to Casting a Ballot This Year They don’t control those things, said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, a Philadelphia-based environmental group. Their power, if elected, stops at the border of Pennsylvania. And if other states have aggressive climate-change agendas, clean-energy agendas, the marketplace makes clean energy competitive, if not cheaper, than fossil fuels. Industry leaders describe drilling in Pennsylvania as strong and access to gas as plentiful, with established pipeline rights of way and thousands of wells waiting to be drilled into the nation’s most prolific gas reservoir, the Marcellus Shale. But for examples of Pennsylvania’s limits, look no farther than its borders. Democratic governors in neighboring New York and New Jersey have effectively blocked the construction of major interstate pipelines the Constitution and the PennEast pipelines carrying gas from Pennsylvania to big metropolitan areas and, possibly, yet-to-be-built facilities to liquefy and export liquefied natural gas, or LNG. The states seem unlikely to change that position anytime soon. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who won reelection last year, remains committed to his promise to reach 100 clean energy in the state and an 80 reduction in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, his office said. Interstate pipelines and LNG facilities also require federal approval and face opposition from environmental groups, which say natural gas mustn’t be a long-term energy solution because it emits the potent greenhouse gas methane. The industry and its Republican allies contend that natural gas can make the U.S. more energy independent and counter Russia’s influence, while being planet-friendlier than higher-carbon oil and coal. Toby Rice, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based gas exploration firm EQT Corp., projects that it would take 6,500 miles of pipeline and $250 billion in LNG infrastructure in the U.S. to serve the U.S. and Europe and substantially cut coal use worldwide by 2030. Still, scientists are increasingly alarmed at the growing amount of natural gas infrastructure and say it will threaten efforts to slash carbon emissions to necessary goals. The presumed Democratic nominee for governor, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, talks of balancing natural gas with expanding renewable energy. Shapiro ran for attorney general vowing to hold the gas industry accountable. He challenged the move by President Donald Trump’s administration to allow LNG to be shipped by rail, criminally charged several companies and issued a grand jury report on the need to toughen industry regulations. During his campaign for governor, he has taken a middle-of-the-road stance partly a nod to influential labor unions whose workers build power plants, pipelines and refineries. He says it’s a false choice to have to pick between environmental justice and the dignity of work and energy opportunity. The current governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, has what environmental activists and the industry see as a mixed bag. Wolf, who is constitutionally term-limited, is aiming to make Pennsylvania the first major fossil-fuel state to impose a carbon pricing plan, although his regulatory effort is currently held up in court. At the same time, he pursued higher taxes on natural gas production, but missed meaningful opportunities to combat greenhouse gases, environmental advocates say. He also stepped up for the industry: His administration issued permits for major gas-fired power plants, pipelines and refineries, and Wolf himself signed off on tax breaks to lure natural gas synthesis plants. Now, interest in building big, natural gas-fueled projects is surging, and a new governor could take office in 2023 with opportunities to land some. Fulfilling Biden’s promises to surge natural gas exports to Europe could mean expanding existing pipelines across Pennsylvania and building new LNG terminals, possibly along the Delaware River near Philadelphia. We think that there is an opportunity for Pennsylvania to become a major LNG exporter, Rice said. Beyond LNG, industry boosters are optimistic about landing a gas-fed hydrogen fuel plant funded by Biden’s infrastructure law in southwestern Pennsylvania, plus the construction of refineries across Pennsylvania’s rural gas fields to make fertilizer, chemical products and fuels. Meanwhile, a proposal for an LNG facility in northeastern Pennsylvania that had envisioned transporting its product by rail to a Philadelphia-area export terminal is on hold and Biden’s administration is moving to suspendthe Trump-era LNG-by-rail rule. While a governor might not single-handedly give the gas industry what it wants, he or she could be helpful, industry advocates say. Barletta, White, McSwain and others in the nine-person GOP primary field for governor talk about stripping down unnecessary regulations or speeding up permitting times. That might help lure a big project, as would slashing Pennsylvania’s corporate tax rate, said Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. Being a vocal advocate could help too, like lobbying a fellow governor in a neighboring state to permit a pipeline, Barr said. In recent days, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature took up a pro-industry package of measures, including a resolution urging the governors of New York and New Jersey to allow the construction of gas pipelines from Pennsylvania. During that debate, Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali said the idea that a legislative resolution would sway those governors is fanciful. They’re going to make their own decisions with regard to which pipelines they accept, Vitali said, and which pipelines they reject. Associated Press writer Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report. (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2022/gops-energy-promises-face-limits-in-pa-governors-race/3203241/)

Maryland Man Who Waved Confederate Flag in Capitol Riot Pleads Guilty

A Maryland man who waved a Confederate flag attached to a lacrosse stick during the siege at the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty on Tuesday to interfering with a police officer who was trying to disperse a crowd of rioters. David Blair, 27, faces a maximum prison sentence of five years after pleading guilty to a felony charge of obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder. Estimated sentencing guidelines in Blair’s case recommend a term of imprisonment ranging from eight to 14 months. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is scheduled to sentence Blair on July 13. politics Mar 28 Jan. 6 Riot Probe Expected to Seek Interview With Wife of Supreme Court Justice Over Texts to Trump Aide Donald Trump Mar 28 Federal Judge Says ‘More Likely Than Not’ Trump Committed Crimes in Election Overturn Attempt capitol riot Mar 22 Official Guilty of Illegally Entering Capitol Grounds Jan. 6 Blair was charged with assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department officer outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. Wearing a skull-themed face mask, Blair profanely taunted the officer and struck him with a wooden lacrosse stick adorned with a Confederate battle flag, prosecutors said. An officer’s body camera captured video of Blair waving the flag in front of a crowd that police were trying to disperse. A jury trial for Blair was scheduled to start on May 2 in Washington, D.C. Blair wasn’t the only riot defendant who brought a Confederate flag to the Capitol. A man who draped himself in a Confederate flag on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty to joining the mob that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. That man Matthew Ryan Miller, 23, of Cooksville, Maryland is scheduled to be sentenced on May 23. Police initially arrested Blair on the day of the riot and took him to a hospital to be treated for a cut on his head. The FBI arrested Blair in February 2021. A federal grand jury indicted him on charges including assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a dangerous weapon, a flagpole. Blair’s attorney disputed that the flagpole in question a lacrosse stick was a deadly or dangerous weapon. Defense attorney Terrell Roberts III had argued that Blair was lawfully exercising his First Amendment rights on public grounds west of the Capitol when police arrested him. An officer blindsided Blair and shoved him without warning or ordering him to leave the area, Roberts asserted. In response to this legally unjustified use of force, used his lacrosse stick to block or check the officer, who had his baton raised vertically in his right hand, Roberts wrote in a February 2022 court filing. The officer was not hurt or injured, and such resistance, which was lawful under the circumstances, did not furnish a basis to believe that probable cause existed to arrest the defendant. Roberts also argued that an officer illegally seized a knife from a backpack that Blair was wearing when police arrested him. Prosecutors said Blair refused to comply with police commands to move out of the West Lawn, a restricted area of Capitol grounds, before he assaulted the officer. The record confirms that Blair heard this order because he yelled to the assembled group, ‘Quit backing up.’ and ‘We’re Americans.’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Liebman wrote in a March 1 court filing. Prosecutors also maintained that police lawfully searched Blair’s backpack. FBI agents seized a notebook containing writing about the events of Jan. 6 when they searched the home in Clarksburg, Maryland, that Blair shared with his mother. The phrase Save USA was written on the top of a notebook page, the FBI said. More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 240 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment. Two others have been convicted of riot-related charges after a trial. (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-man-who-waved-confederate-flag-in-capitol-riot-pleads-guilty/3011436/)

Federal Judge Says ‘More Likely Than Not’ Trump Committed Crimes in Election Overturn Attempt

A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of more than 100 emails from Trump adviser John Eastman to the House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, asserting it is more likely than not that former President Donald Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David Carter marked a major legal win for the panel as it looks to correspondence from Eastman, the lawyer who was consulting with Trump as he attempted to overturn the presidential election. The ruling does not mean anyone involved has been found guilty of a crime. Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021, Carter wrote in the ruling submitted in the federal Central District of California. Eastman was trying to withhold documents from the committee on the basis of an attorney-client privilege claim between him and the former president. The committee responded earlier this month, arguing that there is a legal exception allowing the disclosure of communications regarding ongoing or future crimes. Capitol Riot Mar 28 Jan. 6 Committee Votes to Hold Scavino, Navarro in Contempt Donald Trump Mar 26 Trump and His Children Agree to Sit for Depositions in Civil Fraud Suit An attorney representing Eastman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The March 3 filing from the committee was their most formal effort to link the former president to a federal crime. Lawmakers do not have the power to bring criminal charges on their own and can only make a referral to the Justice Department. The department has been investigating last year’s riot, but it has not given any indication that it is considering seeking charges against Trump. The committee argued in the court documents that Trump and his associates engaged in a criminal conspiracy to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. Trump and those working with him then spread false information about the outcome of the presidential election and pressured state officials to overturn the results, potentially violating multiple federal laws, the panel said. (https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/federal-judge-says-more-likely-than-not-trump-committed-crimes-in-election-overturn-attempt/3619162/)

What Did Chris Rock Say? Comedian Responds to Slap During Boston Show

Fans seem to have enjoyed Chris Rock’s show at The Wilbur Theatre in Boston, his first public appearance since the incident at the Oscars. Rock made no great revelations on Wednesday, despite two sold out performances, days after he was slapped by Will Smith in a highly-publicized event stemming from a joke Rock had made about Smith’s wife. After arriving at the theater late in the afternoon, Rock said he wrote his whole show before the slap and didn’t have much to say about it right now. I don’t have a bunch of’s about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend, Rock said. Rock spent much of the night skewering celebrities and politicians. Among them were the Duchess of Sussex, the Kardashians, as well as President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and former President Donald Trump. Outside the venue, a fan showed off a T-shirt featuring the G.I. Jane logo and Pinkett Smith’s face. Another had a shirt he made that showed Smith’s face and displayed a crude joke about the couple’s relationship. At least one person yelled during the show that Rock should sue Smith. While fans appeared to have enjoyed Rock’s show on the whole, there were mixed reactions to him not further addressing the slap heard ’round the world, which he said he’s still processing. I was so glad he didn’t talk about the slap, he just went on with the show he prepared and it was fantastic, one fan said. I was expecting for Chris to say a lot more than he did, so a little disappointed, added another. There were no major issues at Wednesday’s show, but Boston police did say one man was arrested due to a disturbance and disagreement with theater staff over its mask policy. The man, identified by police as Kaleb Anthony Herd, of Quincy, is charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, assault and battery and assault and battery on a police officer. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday. Rock has three more shows scheduled for the Wilbur this week, on Thursday and Friday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. More on the Will Smith-Chris Rock Oscars slap Chris Rock Mar 30 Chris Rock at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre: I’m Still ‘Processing What Happened’ at Oscars Breaking News: Business 19 hours ago Will Smith Refused to Leave Oscars, Faces Disciplinary Action for Slapping Chris Rock Business 23 hours ago Chris Rock’s First Comedy Show Since Will Smith Slapped Him Is Sending Ticket Resell Prices Way Up (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/in-boston-chris-rock-takes-stage-for-first-time-since-oscars-incident/2682557/)

COVID-19 Asylum Limits at US-Mexico Border Will End May 23

The Centers for Disease Control announced Friday that it is ending a policy that limited asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The use of public health powers had been widely criticized by Democrats and immigration advocates as an excuse for the United States to shirk its obligations to provide a haven to people fleeing persecution. The policy went into effect under President Donald Trump in March 2020. Since then, migrants trying to enter the U.S. have been turned away more than 1.7 million times. Immigration Mar 12 US Ends Asylum Restrictions for Children Traveling Alone Russia-Ukraine War Mar 11 WATCH: Ukrainian Family at US-Mexico Border Allowed to Seek Asylum After US Reverses Course What is Title 42? The policy, known as the Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law to prevent communicable disease, will end on paper April 1, but it will not take effect until May 23, to allow border officials time to prepare. After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19, the CDC director has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary, the CDC said in a statement. The decision is expected to draw more migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said this week that about 7,100 migrants were coming daily, compared with an average of about 5,900 a day in February on pace to match or exceed highs from last year, 2019 and other peak periods. But border officials said they are planning for as many as 18,000 arrivals daily. (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/covid-19-asylum-limits-at-us-mexico-border-will-end-may-23/2683799/)

Call with Trump Leads Pa. GOP Candidate to Stay in Race for Governor

A Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania this year withdrew a request to the have his name removed from the May 17 primary after he said former President Donald Trump urged him to stay in the race. Jake Corman, a state senator from central Pennsylvania, was expected to drop out of the race after the request to be taken off the primary ballot. But he reversed course, according to a statement from his campaign and a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections. The main reason was a conversation with Trump, Corman said. Two developments today have led me to decide to remain in the race for governor: President Trump’s statement on the race and my conversation directly with the president, Corman said in an emailed statement. He encouraged me to keep fighting, and that’s what I’m going to do keep fighting for the people of Pennsylvania. The statement Corman alluded to was a scathing rebuke by Trump earlier on Tuesday of another Republican candidate for governor, Bill McSwain. McSwain, the former U.S. Attorney for eastern Pennsylvania who was appointed by Trump in 2016, had been currying favor with the former president for months in an effort to secure Trump’s coveted endorsement. Instead, McSwain will now have to overcome a vicious and surprising attack by his former boss. One person in Pennsylvania who I will not be endorsing is Bill McSwain for Governor. He was the U.S. Attorney who did absolutely nothing on the massive Election Fraud that took place in Philadelphia and throughout the commonwealth, Trump said in a statement. Do not vote for Bill McSwain, a coward, who let our Country down. He knew what was happening and let it go. In a response to the attack, McSwain said he is proud of my record as U.S. Attorney. I’ve prosecuted and put people behind bars who committed voter fraud, and put rioters and looters in jail. When I’m Governor, we’re going to get back to a voting system that everyone has confidence in, and that begins with repealing the unconstitutional mail-in balloting law, Act 77, that my opponent Doug Mastriano voted for, McSwain said. Decision 2022 decision 2022 Apr 12 Trump Intervenes in Pennsylvania GOP Gubernatorial Primary decision 2022 Jan 19 Who Is Running for Pennsylvania Governor in 2022? The Chester County resident may not be receiving Trump’s endorsement in the race, but it’s still unclear who actually will. Other Republicans running include another state senator from central Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, a former congressman and mayor of Hazleton, Lou Barletta, a former Delaware County councilman, Dave White, political consultant Charlie Gerow, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale, Lehigh Valley physician Nche Zama, and a former congresswoman from western Pennsylvania, Melissa Hart. The winner of the May 17 primary will take on state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. For all the candidates, issues and important dates that voters should know about in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, go to NBC10’s Decision 2022 page. You’ll find tools to help you navigate the midterm elections, including when to vote and who will be on your ballots in the primaries and November general elections. (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/decision-2020/call-with-trump-leads-pa-gop-candidate-to-stay-in-race-for-governor/3205603/)

Which dating app should you use? This guide can help you figure it out.

Here’s a hot take that’s actually ice cold: dating apps are not a lesser way to meet people. We do get that on some level, there is a certain appeal to the coffee shop meet-cute or fun situation-ship that gradually and naturally turns into something more. But frankly, we are tired of everyone ignoring the fact that dating apps give you the chance to meet a whole group of people you might not have otherwise. And once you find someone you click with, how your relationship develops in-person is pretty much indistinguishable from non-app origin stories. Sentiments aside, we have some hard data to back our reasoning for Why Online Dating Is Worthwhile™: Statista predicted that the online dating audience will grow to 53.3 million by 2025, compared to 44.2 million users in 2020. A study from Stanford released in 2019 asserted that online dating is officially the most common way for U.S. couples to meet, rounding out at nearly 40 percent of couples having first met online. This pre-pandemic prediction could be shown up if the surge of Covid-era dating app sign-ups stays afloat. Whether people decided they wanted a relationship during isolation or are just looking to get nasty again, dating apps are a great place to find a partner. And yes, though there are algorithms that dictate what profiles pop up on your screen, we firmly believe that some stars aligning still comes into play. After all, the person who signs up on the app and is looking for love at exactly the same time you are is up to fate and the universe, proving that online dating romance is very much alive and well. SEE ALSO: People are more sexually adventurous right now and more cautious Because it’s not 2007 anymore, the need for mobile-friendly online dating isn’t just a millennial thing people over 40 don’t have time to sit around at their home desktop, either. Dating sites that are older than most members of Gen-Z have been forced to give serious attention to their smartphone counterparts if they don’t want to be outgrown. However, that statistical promise still requires patience and a game plan, the game plan being choosing the dating app with features that best fit your lifestyle and the lifestyle of the type of person you’re looking for. Are you looking for a n app strictly for sex or an app more serious than Tinder but less serious than eharmony ? Or maybe, you’d just really love to find an app where queer women aren’t relentlessly sexualized by creeps and pestered by unicorn hunters. Feeling weird about dating post-Covid restrictions? Yeah, everyone is. Despite restaurant capacities returning to normal, the idea of swiping just for the hell of it isn’t feeling so normal. The expectation for a hot vaxxed summer was more realistically represented through a collective Fear of Dating Again. Seeing humans in real life isn’t something to take for granted. But this invisible hump may play to the advantage of people looking for a connection past a booty call. After a year of watching budding relationships stay stagnant in the “It’s a match.” phase, time feels more valuable. The pent-up energy it takes to go on a date feels like it’d be better spent on someone you actually see potential with. Even the horniest of them all may be more closely considering the authenticity and personality of prospects because as we all learned, seeing humans in real life isn’t something to take for granted. FWIW, communication skills may have gotten better during the pandemic. Hashing out Covid-related issues with strangers required getting comfortable with personal boundaries and learning how to discuss anxieties with someone new. Tinder thinks the honesty will carry over when things are back to normal, which means you can feel comfortable knowing more people are comfortable saying exactly what they want, even if they quite don’t know what that is. You can even tell if someone is vaccinated based on their profile on some dating apps, so that saves you from any awkward anti-vax conversations. Which dating apps are actually good? Remember that not all apps are good just because they’re, well, new. Every year, a slew of trendy apps try to set themselves apart from Tinder and Bumble : In 2017, apps like Hater, and The League were expected to be game-changers. Hater has since disappeared from the App Store while The League’s reviews have gotten increasingly questionable. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason as to why such promising ideas didn’t make the cut but whether they were too exclusive, too niche, or begging for catfish, it’s clear that there’s a very special ingredient that makes apps like Hinge pop off. Choosing the apps that are good for you One app’s secret ingredient might not be the one you necessarily want to include in your dating recipe. If you already live in a large metropolitan area, Tinder’s pull of its large user base is a little less strong, since likely, more niche apps will have a decent number of profiles near you. Some people are dedicated to keeping their search for love free of cost, so sites like Match or eharmony, where most if not all features live behind a paywall, will likely not be your first pick. For others, behind that paywall is where they find the reassurance that users are likely not dropping cash to mess around or not go on actual dates. Of course, knowing exactly what you want isn’t always easy to say, especially when pulling from the abstract. There’s nothing wrong with flying free from the Tinder nest and trying out a few apps or sites you wouldn’t usually. Overall, we say embrace the messy ride that is dating. To get you started, this handy guide breaks down the most popular dating apps and why people like them, plus some up-and-coming apps that offer a more tailored experience: (https://mashable.com/roundup/best-dating-apps)

‘Significant’ Evidence Suggests Trump Organization Misstated Asset Values for More Than a Decade, NY AG Says

The New York attorney general’s probe of the Trump Organization uncovered significant evidence suggesting the company’s financial statements for more than a decade relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets, a court filing said. Those potentially inaccurate valuations were used to secure economic benefits including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted, the office said in the court filing. The filing was made in response to the Trump Organization and former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a judge’s order that Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, had to submit to interviews under oath by investigators from James’ office. The New York attorney general’s office has uncovered significant evidence suggesting that financial statements by the Trump Organization relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets for more than a decade, the office said in a court filing Tuesday. Those potentially misleading valuations and other misrepresentations were used by the company owned by ex-President Donald Trump to secure economic benefits including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted, the filing alleged. The claims by Attorney General Letitia James were made in response to an appeal by the Trump Organization and Donald Trump of last month’s order by a Manhattan state court judge directing Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to submit to interviews by James’ investigators. James issued subpoenas to those three people to help reach a final determination about whether there has been civil fraud committed in connection with the asset valuations and who may be responsible for such fraud, the filing said. In one glaring example, the financial statements for the Trump Organization from 2010 to 2012 collectively valued rent-stabilized apartment units it owned at $49.59 million, which was over sixty-six times the $750,000 total value the outside appraiser had assigned to these units, the filing said in a footnote. The attorney general has said she is conducting both a civil investigation and a criminal probe related to the company. Mr. Trump personally certified the accuracy of the Statements for the years prior to 2016, at which point his assets were placed in a revocable trust, while Donald Jr. was responsible for the Statements for the years 2016 to 2020, James noted in the filing. That document said that from 2012 through 2016, the company’s financial statements said that Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan exceeded 30,000 square feet and valued the apartment at up to $327 million based on those dimensions, the filing noted. But in 2017, the company’s statement slashed the apartment’s value by two-thirds, sizing the residence at just under 11,000 square feet, which is the figure specified in the offering plan for the building, the filing said. 2017 was also Trump’s first year as president of the United States. Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and Controller Jeffrey McConney played a role in crafting the financial statements at the crux of this investigation, according to the filing by James. The attorney general said Weisselberg and McConney were among more than 40 witnesses interviewed in her office’s civil probe of the company. When questioned about the valuation of Trump’s personal residence, Weisselberg admitted that the apartment’s value had been overstated by ‘give or take’ $200 million, the filing said. So far, the investigation has uncovered significant evidence potentially indicating that, for more than a decade, these financial statements relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations, James said in the filing in the First Department Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court. Spokeswomen for Trump and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Timothy A. Clary AFP Getty Images Allen Weisselberg former US President Donald Trumps company chief financial officer arrives to attend the hearing for the criminal case at the criminal court in lower Manhattan in New York on July 1, 2021. James has been investigating Trump’s company for several years. The probe was sparked by sworn testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer. Cohen told Congress that the Trump Organization had given different valuations for the same properties in order to obtain more favorable terms on loans and insurance, and to lower their taxes. Donald Jr. runs the Trump Organization with his brother Eric Trump, who previously was questioned in the probe. The filing notes that when Eric Trump and Weisselberg were separately deposed in the investigation, they each repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, refusing to answer more than 500 questions apiece. Ivanka Trump previously served as a company executive. In Tuesday’s filing, James said that Ivanka from 2011 to 2013 held an option to buy the Trump Park Avenue penthouse where she lived for $8.5 million, even as the financial statements of the Trump Organization valued the same unit at nearly triple that price up to $25 million. And in 2014, after Ivanka acquired an option to buy an even bigger apartment for $14.3 million, the ensuing year’s Statement lowered the larger apartment’s value from $45 million, which was its previously assigned value, to the option price that she had actually paid, the filing said. James’ office in February revealed that the Trump Organization’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars, had fired the company as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of financial statements about Donald Trump’s financial condition should no longer be relied on. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization and a subsidiary of the company last summer were criminally charged in an indictment obtained by the Manhattan district attorney accusing them of a scheme that since 2005 had helped Weisselberg and other company executives avoid taxes on their compensation. The defendants have pleaded not guilty in that case. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/money-report/ny-attorney-general-probe-found-significant-evidence-suggesting-trump-business-misstated-asset-values-for-more-than-a-decade/2926746/)

Rep. Don Young, Longtime Alaska Congressman, Dies at 88

Alaska Rep. Don Young, who was the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. House, has died. He was 88. His office announced Young’s death in a statement Friday night. It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young, the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. His beloved wife Anne was by his side, said the statement from Young’s congressional office. A cause of death was not provided. Young’s office said details about plans for a celebration of Young’s life were expected in the coming days. Young, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1973, was known for his brusque style. In his later years in office, his off-color comments and gaffes sometimes overshadowed his work. During his 2014 reelection bid, he described himself as intense and less-than-perfect but said he wouldn’t stop fighting for Alaska. Alaska has just one House member. Born on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California, Young grew up on a family farm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching at Chico State College, now known as California State University, Chico, in 1958. He also served in the U.S. Army, according to his official biography. Young came to Alaska in 1959, the same year Alaska became a state, and credited Jack London’s Call of the Wild, which his father used to read to him, for drawing him north. I can’t stand heat, and I was working on a ranch and I used to dream of some place cold, and no snakes and no poison oak, Young told The Associated Press in 2016. After leaving the military and after his father’s death, he told his mother he was going to Alaska. She questioned his decision. I said, ‘I’m going up drive dogs, catch fur and I want to mine gold.’ And I did that, he said. In Alaska, he met his first wife, Lu, who convinced him to enter politics, which he said was unfortunate in one sense it sent him to Washington, D.C., a place that’s hotter than hell in the summer. And there’s lots of snakes here, two-legged snakes. In Alaska, Young settled in Fort Yukon, a small community accessible primarily by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh interior. He held jobs in areas like construction, trapping and commercial fishing. He was a tug and barge operator who delivered supplies to villages along the Yukon River, and he taught fifth grade at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school, according to his biography. With Lu, he had two daughters, Joni and Dawn. He was elected mayor of Fort Yukon in 1964 and elected to the state House two years later. He served two terms before winning election to the state Senate, where, he said, he was miserable. Lu said he needed to get out of the job, which he resisted, saying he doesn’t quit. He recalled that she encouraged him instead to run for U.S. House, saying he’d never win. In 1972, Young was the Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich. Three weeks before the election, Begich’s plane disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Alaskans reelected Begich anyway. Begich was declared dead in December 1972, and Young won a close special election in March 1973. Young held the seat until his death. He was running for reelection this year against a field that included one of Begich’s grandsons, Republican Nicholas Begich III. In 2013, Young became the longest-serving member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, surpassing the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who served for 40 years. In 2015, nearly six years after Lu Young’s death, and on his 82nd birthday, Young married Anne Garland Walton in a private ceremony in the U.S. Capitol chapel. Everybody knows Don Young, he told the AP in 2016. They may not like Don Young; they may love Don Young. But they all know Don Young. The often gruff Young had a sense of humor and a camaraderie with colleagues from both sides of the aisle. As the House member with the longest service, Young swore in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, when the 117th Congress convened on Jan. 3, 2021 three days before the attack on the Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. Before administering the oath of office, Young expressed dismay about the period’s intense partisanship. When you do have a problem or if there’s something so contentious, let’s sit down and have a drink, and solve those problems, he said, drawing laughter and applause. Pelosi, in a statement, said Young’s reverence and devotion to the House shone through in everything that he did. She called him an institution in the hallowed halls of Congress. She said photos of him with 10 presidents, Republicans and Democrats, signing his bills into law are a testament to his longevity and his legislative mastery. Young, known for decades of steering federal spending to his home state, won $23.7 million for Alaska for water, road and other projects in the government-wide $1.5 trillion spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law this week, according to an analysis of that bill by The Associated Press. It is one of the highest amounts for home-district projects that any House member had in the legislation. Young said he wanted his legacy to be one of working for the people. He counted among his career highlights passage of legislation his first year in office that allowed for construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which became the state’s economic lifeline. With that successful pipeline fight, I found a niche in my life where I enjoy working for the people of Alaska and this nation primarily the people of Alaska, Young said in 2016, adding later: I like the House. During his career, he unapologetically supported earmarks as a way to bring home projects and build up infrastructure in a geographically huge state where communities range from big cities to tiny villages; critics deemed earmarks as pork. Young branded himself a conservative and won support with voters for his stances on gun and hunting rights and a strong military. He made a career out of railing against extreme environmentalists and a federal bureaucracy that he saw as locking up Alaska’s mineral, timber and petroleum resources. He said his word was a gold bond. He said he was happy every time he could help a constituent. And I try to do that every day, and I’m very good at that, he told AP in 2016. His career was marred by investigations and criticism about his off-the-cuff and often abrasive style. In 2008, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate Young’s role in securing a $10 million earmark to widen a Florida highway; the matter was dropped in 2010, and Young denied any wrongdoing. In December 2011, the U.S. House Ethics Committee said it was revising its rules to impose new contribution limits on owners who run multiple companies following questions raised by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics about donations made to Young’s legal expense fund. In 2014, the ethics committee found that Young had violated House rules by using campaign funds for personal trips and accepting improper gifts. Young was told to repay the value of the trips and gifts, totaling about $59,000, and amend financial disclosure statements to include gifts he hadn’t reported. The committee also issued a letter of reproval, or rebuke. Young said he regretted the oversights and apologized for failing to exercise due care in complying with the House’s Code of Conduct. Fresh off a reelection win in 2020, Young announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, months after he had referred to the coronavirus as the beer virus before an audience that included older Alaskans and said the media had contributed to hysteria over COVID-19. He later called COVID-19, for which he had been hospitalized, serious and encouraged Alaskans to follow guidelines meant to guard against the illness. Voters kept sending Young back to Washington, something Young said he didn’t take for granted. Alaskans have been generous with their support for me because they know I get the job done, he said in 2016. I’ll defend my state to the dying breath, and I will always do that and they know that. ___ Associated Press journalist Alan Fram in Washington contributed. (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/us-rep-don-young-of-alaska-dies-at-88/2673277/)

In the Russia-Ukraine information war, encrypted messaging apps provide opportunity and risk

The Russian government is trying to control the narrative around its invasion of Ukraine. One place its messages can either take hold without fact-checking, or get thoroughly debunked and rebutted, is on messaging apps like Telegram and Meta-owned WhatsApp. Social media companies like Twitter and Meta have been putting extra measures in place to counter President Putin’s propaganda machine. Russia relies on state-affiliated agencies like RT, Sputnik, TASS, and others, to share the Russian government’s version of events. Recently, Twitter rolled out warning labels with tweets sharing links from these websites making their Russian state-affiliation known. Meta has blocked the links entirely in Europe. But these public channels are just one way that information spreads. In 2021, a New York University study found that Donald Trump tweets flagged by Twitter proliferated on other social networks. “Tweets spread on other platforms despite having labels on them,” Joshua Tucker, an NYU professor who is an expert in both Russian studies and social media and disinformation, said. Public-facing channels where it’s possible to moderate content aren’t, he said, “the only place people are going to be spreading information.” According to Statista, the most popular messaging app in Russia is WhatsApp. But Tucker, as well as Russian historian Ian Garner, who has been analyzing the spread of propaganda on Russian social media, say Telegram has been the dominant messaging platform amid the conflict. Telegram is a hybrid platform that has private one-on-one and group chats, as well as “channels” where the channel owner can broadcast, or that may function as more of a forum. Signal and WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted by default, meaning not even the platforms themselves can see what users are sending to each other. On Telegram, however, only chats that users proactively enable as “secret” carry end-to-end encryption. This is only available for one-to-one chats. Otherwise, Telegram uses a different type of encryption that the founder of Signal and others have called out for being less secure. Tweet may have been deleted Encryption is great for privacy. But in the past, these platforms have enabled the spread of misinformation. And because platforms are not able to moderate content, countering fake news has required platform functionality changes and dedicated campaigns. WhatsApp has rolled out one of these campaigns to counter propaganda or help with general confusion that may be spreading on its platform. The head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, tweeted Tuesday that Ukraine Emergency Services had launched a helpline meant to provide people with quality information about the situation. Tweet may have been deleted While these campaigns are important, it’s still hard to even understand let alone combat misinformation on encrypted messaging apps. “It’s really difficult to know what’s going on on those platforms,” Tucker said. In the past, misinformation has spread on WhatsApp through one-to-one messages and groups. WhatsApp’s “forwarding” functionality and large groups enabled fake news to spread quickly, untethered from an original source. WhatsApp limited the function after it led to real-world consequences in India and Brazil. But passing the harmful content didn’t happen by accident. Kiran Garimella, who studied WhatsApp’s role in spreading the misinformation in India that led to mob violence, said that sewing fake news typically requires “bad actors” to build up information networks. While Tucker noted that the West’s understanding of Russia prior to the conflict was that it had a “sophisticated propaganda machine,” it’s not actually known whether Russia has developed these sort of networks on WhatsApp. Even if that is the case, experts are finding that messaging apps which offer encryption have been serving an incredibly important purpose: Amplifying counter-propaganda, the voices of Russian protesters, and the experiences of Ukrainians. “Because the government can’t install its own moderators, and direct control over censorship of both platforms, we’re finding that it’s really free space for Russians to be able to discuss anything they’d like about the war,” Garner said. “The fact that these discussions are taking place, and taking place quite openly and yet anonymously for individual users, means the government has a problem on its hands.” Garner points to several Russian-language Telegram channels with over a million subscribers that are criticizing the government’s assurances that everything is fine in Russia. The Russian government does run Telegram channels for its state-affiliated media, like Sputnik. But of those channels’ hundreds of thousands of followers, it’s unclear how many are real people, and how many are bots. In the past, Tucker noted, Russia has heavily relied on bots to amplify its messages and increase the apparent popularity of its posts. The fact that it’s harder to monitor and moderate activity on these platforms doesn’t mean they should be ignored. In fact, understanding the flow of information is only going to become more crucial as the information war that accompanies the on-the-ground war ramps up. “We’re into the realm where I think the disinformation is going to be part and parcel with the military strategy,” Tucker said. Misinformation will be able to spread at lightning speed, but so, too, will the people on messaging platforms who can fight against it. “It’s going to cut both ways,” Tucker said. UPDATE: Mar. 4, 2022, 1:55 p.m. EST This article was updated to clarify the differences in encryption levels between Telegram and other messaging apps. (https://mashable.com/article/whatsapp-telegram-russia-ukraine-disinformation)

How’sNL’ Handled the Will Smith and Chris Rock Oscars Slap

Saturday Night Live returned after a short break with addressing the biggest news of the last week: Will Smith walking up on stage and slapping Chris Rock after he made a joke during the 94th Academy Awards. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I’m not going to talk about it, actor-comedian Jerrod Carmichael said up top, in his first opening monologue as host of Saturday Night Live. I want to be clear up top: I’ve talked about it enough, kept talking about it, kept thinking about it. I don’t want to talk about it, and you can’t make me talk about it, While Carmichael seemed at first to be referencing the fact that he’d recently come out as gay in his new HBO comedy special, Rothaniel, it turns out that he was, in fact, more than happy to address that particular situation. Carmichael said he hopes people will watch the special and referenced coming out, to cheers from the crowd, which he called an expected response in New York. It’s actually why I live here. If you say you’re gay in New York, you can ride the bus for free and people just give you pizza. Honestly, if you’re gay in New York, you get to host Saturday Night Live, he joked. This is the gayest thing you could possibly do. Like, I came out right onto the stage. We’re basically in an Andy Warhol fever dream right now. Carmichael continued back to the Oscars slap, saying that it feels like the incident happened somewhere between Jamiroquai and 9/11 somewhere a long, long time ago. It feels like we’ve been living in the wake of it our entire lives, he said. It happened on Sunday. On Sunday. Carmichael continues going through his thought process about the slap each day this week, and joked that by Wednesday, the host admitted, I wanted to kill myself. While he doesn’t really remember Thursday, by Friday, he made a vow to himself that he would never, ever speak about the slap again. Then, Lorne Michaels came into my dressing room. He was like, ‘I think you need to talk about it The nation needs to heal,’ deadpanned Carmichael. I said, ‘The nation needs to what? And you want me to do that? The nation don’t even know me. The nation has no clue who I am.’ After staking the claim that he is, in fact, the least famous host in the history of SNL, Carmichael decided to speak directly to former President Barack Obama about the Oscars. Hey B, what’s going on man? You don’t know me; I’m Jerrod. Nice to meet you, he said. You got us all hopped up on hope and change, and unfortunately, I have some news for you, Barack. You’re not going to like this. We need you back, because I think you’re going to have to talk about it. The nation needs to heal. Saturday Night Live had a cold open that was another go at Fox and Friends, featuring hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade. The hosts welcomed Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas whose support of the January 6 attempted coup has become quite the scandal. I take my duty as the Yoko Ono of the Supreme Court very seriously, McKinnon as Ginni Thomas said. All I want is a tidal wave of biblical vengeance to wash away the Biden crime family all the way to Gitmo and then we release the Kraken. Cecily Strong returned as host Jeanine Pirro for the spoof to bring up Disney. Disney has an exciting new project: turning your kindergartener gay. Strong as Pirro yelled to the audience. Governor DeSantis signed a bill protecting our precious Florida schools from America’s dangerous Ellens and Caitlyns. By the way, Caitlyn Jenner, welcome to the Fox News family. Now, ‘Woke Disney’ won’t stop until all of Disney World is packed with twinkerbelles, Cinderfellas and that gay Mr. Toad. When Donald Trump dialed into the show, he was asked about the Oscars slap as well. He answered by referring to Smith as his character in the film Hitch. I did see Slap, I enjoyed slap. I was I was very impressed with my Hitch. Quite an arm on Hitch. I always knew Hitch had an arm. Back in ‘Pursuit of Happyness,’ he’s slugging the machine on and off the subway. I thought it was great. You know, they slept in the bathroom in that movie. It’s so sad. it’s a sad night for Hitch too. Later, in another reference to the Oscars, Carmichael plays a seat-filler sitting next to Smith at the award show. I don’t want to sound corny but you’re my hero, man, Carmichael’s seat-filler said. This is the coolest night of my life. I’m talking to Will Smith, Chris Rock just got up on stage. Can I get a selfie real quick? From there, Smith got out of his seat, slapped Rock and then tried to play it cool with the fan between pausing to scream back to Rock on stage. After the outburst, Smith went right back to laughing at host Amy Schumer and workshopping lines for his acceptance speech. Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che spent several minutes of their weekly segment devoted to Smith slapping Rock, with Jost joking it set a precedent for having to defend your wife at awards shows. Che then took a jab at Smith’s acceptance speech for best actor, in which he said that love will make you do crazy things. Love will make you do crazy things, Che said. You know what also makes you do crazy things? Crazy. Will Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, but Jost says that if he had been expelled instead, he would have joined a small group of people kicked out of the Academy including Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, and Harvey Weinstein. Or as they are also known, ‘Bad Boys for Life.’ Jost jokes how even people attending the Oscars were googling Did Will Smith just hit Chris Rock? In a non-Oscar sketch, Pete Davidson returned to SNL with his rapping skills alongside Chris Redd and musical guest Gunna about their preference for short movies over long movies. Most notably blasting The Batman for its 3 hour run time. Simon Rex makes a surprise appearance, whose performance in the indie hit Red Rocket received many accolades and stellar reviews this past awards season. Next week, on April 9, Jake Gyllenhaal will host SNL for the second time. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. (https://www.nbcboston.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/how-snl-handled-the-will-smith-and-chris-rock-oscars-slap/2684568/)

Trump Suit Against Clinton Fits in His Longtime Legal Strategy

When a Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic panned his plans for a new Manhattan skyscraper, Donald Trump responded with a lawsuit. When the tenants of a building he was trying to clear sued to halt their evictions, Trump slapped back by filing suit against the law firm representing the tenants. And when an author said the former president was worth far less than he’d claimed, Trump again took legal action. So when Trump last week filed a sprawling suit accusing his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party of conspiring to sink his winning presidential campaign by alleging ties to Russia renewing one of his longest-standing perceived affronts it wasn’t a surprise. Trump has spent decades repurposing political and personal grievances into causes of legal action. Throughout his business and political career, he has used the courts as a venue to air his complaints and as a tool to intimidate adversaries, sully their reputations and try to garner media attention. It’s part of his pattern of using the law to punish his enemies, as a weapon, as something it was never intended to be, said James D. Zirin, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the author of the book Plaintiff in Chief, which details Trump’s legal history. For him, litigation was a way of life. Trump’s latest lawsuit revisits a familiar grievance: that Democrats in 2016 concocted fictitious claims that his campaign was colluding with Russia and that the FBI as a result pursued an unfounded investigation. The 108-page suit, as much a political screed as a legal document, names as defendants familiar targets of his ire from both the political realm Clinton and her aides and the law enforcement community. It also piggybacks off the work of special counsel John Durham, listing as defendants the three people a cybersecurity attorney, an ex-FBI lawyer and a Russia analyst who have been charged in that criminal probe. Trump, in the suit, paints himself as the victim of a vast, racketeering conspiracy in which FBI officials who led the investigation knew that it was based on a false and contrived premise. It’s well-established through a Justice Department inspector general investigation that the FBI made errors and missteps during the Russia probe that Trump could look to seize on if his lawsuit advances. But Russia did meddle in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russia mounted a far-ranging influence campaign aimed at helping Trump beat Clinton. And the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, after three years of investigation, affirmed those conclusions, saying intelligence officials had specific information that Russia preferred Trump and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved and directed aspects of the Kremlin’s influence campaign. It also found clear ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, concluding that Trump’s campaign chairman had had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and that other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid. Representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment. But Trump attorney Alina Habba defended his approach on Newsmax, telling the network more suits were coming soon. We have another suit being filed shortly, she said. And anybody that’s going to try and make up malicious stories about him while he was sitting as president, prior to his presidency or now is going to be sued. Trump, meanwhile, was already using the filing to rile up his crowds at a rally in Georgia Saturday night. To fight back against this corrupt establishment’s relentless hoaxes and lies, this week I filed a historic lawsuit to hold them accountable for the Russia, Russia Russia hoax, Trump said to cheers. His mention of Clinton prompted especially loud applause and a revival of the Lock her up. chant that was a defining feature of his 2016 campaign. In addition to serving as a useful political cudgel, Trump’s effort, which comes as he is mulling another run for the White House, could lend the imprimatur of credibility to campaign trail grievances, said Stephen Gillers, a New York University professor of legal ethics. To the unaware public, the fact that grievances are repackaged as legal claims adds credibility to the force of those grievances, Gillers said. Anyone who pays attention to what goes on in the courts will be able to see through these claims as claims of political victimization in another form. But the public by and large does not pay attention to the validity of the claims. Last year, Trump took similar action, filing suits against three of the country’s biggest tech companies, claiming he and other conservatives had been wrongfully censored after his accounts were suspended. It’s a tactic Trump has used again and again. In the real estate, casino and other industries where the former president made fortunes and lost them, Trump’s use of lawsuits as a business weapon was legendary. He sued or threatened to sue contractors, business partners, tax authorities and the media. Trump loved to sue, especially parties that could not afford a legal defense, said Barbara Res, a former longtime Trump Organization executive turned critic. She said one legal tactic he turned to often was the preventive strike suit to weaken rivals and create the impression he was the aggrieved party before they acted. Indeed, when Trump defaulted on a giant Deutsche Bank loan for his Chicago hotel and condo tower during the 2008 financial crisis, he didn’t wait to be sued. Instead, he filed a complaint accusing the lender of predatory lending practices that hurt his reputation and helped trigger the global depression. Instead of paying the bank, he argued, the bank should be paying him. It was a novel argument and one that ultimately succeeded. Deutsche Bank ended up forgiving some of his loan, then extending him hundreds of millions of dollars in new loans in the coming years. A 2016 USA Today investigation found Trump had been involved in at least 3,500 court cases over the course of three decades more than five other top U.S. real estate owners combined. In more than half of the cases, Trump was the one who had sued. The litigation continued while Trump was in the White House. In a desperate and futile attempt to remain in power, Trump and his allies filed dozens of baseless lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results. Again and again, judges said the plaintiffs had failed to prove fraud or misconduct. He’s exceptionally litigious, much of which is instituted not to win but rather to frustrate the opposing party by causing financial hardship, said Trump’s former fixer-turned adversary Michael Cohen, who went to jail for making hush money payments to a porn star who alleged an affair with Trump, as well as lying to Congress about a proposed Trump skyscraper in Moscow. The suits have proven beneficial in other ways. Trump spent more than a year and a half fighting efforts by then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. to obtain copies of his tax returns, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. While Trump ultimately failed, his stall tactics dragged the case out so long that Vance, who had appeared on the cusp of seeking an indictment, was replaced by a successor who has allegedly all but closed the case. Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michael Sisak contributed to this report. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/trump-suit-against-clinton-fits-in-his-longtime-legal-strategy/2926604/)

GOP Sen. Susan Collins Says She Will Vote for Biden Supreme Court Pick Ketanji Brown Jackson, Giving Her Likely Confirmation Bipartisan Support

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she will vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to join the U.S. Supreme Court. Collins’ vote provides bipartisan support for President Joe Biden’s first nominee, and all but guarantees Jackson will become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Vice President Kamala Harris likely won’t be needed to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Jackson. Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she will vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to join the U.S. Supreme Court, giving bipartisan support to President Joe Biden ‘s first nominee to the high court. Jackson is now all but guaranteed to become the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. After reviewing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s extensive record, watching much of her hearing testimony, and meeting with her twice in person, I have concluded that she possesses the experience, qualifications, and integrity to serve as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, Collins said in a statement Wednesday. I will, therefore, vote to confirm her to this position, the centrist senator from Maine said. After emerging from a grueling week of confirmation hearings, the 51-year-old federal judge was expected to be confirmed even if no Republicans in the evenly split Senate voted for her. But Collins’ announcement, coupled with the expected unanimous support from Senate Democrats, likely eliminates the need for Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Jackson. Two other moderate Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Utah’s Mitt Romney, have not yet revealed how they plan to vote on Jackson’s nomination. Collins first shared her decision in an interview with The New York Times that was conducted Tuesday evening after Jackson met the senator for a second one-on-one meeting on Capitol Hill. The senator’s statement Wednesday morning said that the two discussed in depth several issues that were raised in her hearing, and that they did not always agree. I have no doubt that, if Judge Jackson is confirmed, I will not agree with every vote that she casts as a Justice, Collins said. That alone, however, is not disqualifying. The confirmation process, as it has unfolded over the last few Supreme Court nominations, is broken, the senator’s statement said. Collins stressed her view that under the Constitution, the role of the Senate in Supreme Court confirmations is to examine the experience, qualifications, and integrity of the nominee. It is not to assess whether a nominee reflects the ideology of an individual Senator or would rule exactly as an individual Senator would want. This approach served the Senate, the Court, and the Country well. It instilled confidence in the independence and the integrity of the judiciary and helped keep the Court above the political fray, she said. And this is the approach that I plan to continue to use for Supreme Court nominations because it runs counter to the disturbing trend of politicizing the judicial nomination process. Collins broke with GOP leaders including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said last week he would vote against Jackson’s confirmation. Collins previously went against her party when she opposed then-President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett. The senator cited a rushed confirmation that came days before the 2020 presidential election. The Maine senator was also one of three Republicans, along with Murkowski and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to vote last year for Jackson to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As a Supreme Court candidate, however, Jackson appeared to lose Graham’s support. The Senate Judiciary Committee aims to vote on Jackson’s nomination on April 4. If it passes, the nomination will move to a final vote in the full chamber, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to schedule for no later than April 8. Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage: Russia-Ukraine talks resume in Istanbul; Moscow claims it will curb military activity around Kyiv Businesses oppose Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill banning discussion of LGTBQ issues in public schools ‘Significant’ evidence suggests Trump Organization misstated asset values for more than a decade, NY AG says VP Harris to tout corporate giants’ $4.7 billion pledge to minority-owned companies based near D.C. Biden says his ‘moral outrage’ at Putin does not signal a U.S. policy shift Judge says Trump likely broke the law by trying to obstruct Congress from confirming Biden win Last week, Jackson endured two exhausting days of questioning before the Judiciary Committee in public hearings that frequently grew tense and emotional. In just those two sessions, Jackson spent more than 20 hours fielding dozens of questions from Republicans, who grilled her on her judicial career and used the spotlight to air a laundry list of conservative social issues. The panel’s Democrats heaped praise on Jackson and often leaped to her defense against the Republicans’ criticism. (https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/business/money-report/gop-sen-susan-collins-says-she-will-vote-for-biden-supreme-court-pick-ketanji-brown-jackson-giving-her-likely-confirmation-bipartisan-support/2725081/)

Biden Lashes at Putin, Calls for Western Resolve for Freedom

President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday, summoning a call for liberal democracy and a durable resolve among Western nations in the face of a brutal autocrat. As he capped a four-day trip to Europe, a blend of emotive scenes with refugees and standing among other world leaders in grand settings, Biden said of Putin: For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power. It was a dramatic escalation in rhetoric Biden had earlier called Putin a butcher that the White House found itself quickly walking back. Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, aides were clarifying that he wasn’t calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying it’s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia. While Biden’s blunt language grabbed headlines, in other pieces of his roughly 30-minute speech before Warsaw’s iconic Royal Castle he urged Western allies to brace for what will be a turbulent road ahead in a new battle for freedom. He also pointedly warned Putin against invading even an inch of territory of a NATO nation. The address was a heavy bookend to a European visit in which Biden met with NATO and other Western leaders, visited the front lines of the growing refugee crisis and even held a young Ukrainian girl in his arms as he sought to spotlight some of the vast tentacles of the conflict that will likely define his presidency. We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy, Biden said as Russia continued to pound several Ukrainian cities. There will be costs, but the price we have to pay, because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere. Biden also made the case that multilateral institutions like NATO are more important than ever if the West and its allies are going to successfully push back against autocrats like Putin. During his campaign for president, Biden talked often about the battle for primacy between democracies and autocracies. In those moments, his words seemed like an abstraction. Now, they have an urgent resonance. Europe finds itself ensconced in a crisis that has virtually all of Europe revisiting defense spending, energy policy and more, and so does the U.S. Charles Kupchan, who served as senior director for European affairs on the White House National Security Council during the Obama administration, called the invasion a game-changer that left Atlantic democracies with no choice but to bolster their posture against Russia. But the path ahead for Biden and the West will only grow more complicated, Kupchan said. The challenges Biden’s presidency faces have just grown in magnitude, said Kupchan, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now needs to lead the West’s efforts to protect the West from the pressing external threat posed by Russia. And he needs to continue strengthening the West from within by countering the illiberal populism that still poses internal threats to democratic societies on both sides of the Atlantic. In one of the most poignant moments of his trip, Biden on Saturday bent down and picked up a young girl, a Ukrainian refugee in a pink winter coat, and spoke of how she reminded him of his own granddaughters. I don’t speak Ukrainian, but tell her I want to take her home, Biden asked a translator to tell the smiling child. Hours later, Biden was in front of a crowd of a 1,000 including recent Ukrainian refugees at the Royal Castle, a Warsaw landmark that dates back more than 400 years and was badly damaged in World War II. He made clear that the West would need to steel itself for what will be a long and difficult battle. We must commit now, to be this fight for the long haul, Biden said. The Biden administration, which has been selective about putting too great of importance on any single policy speech, sought to elevate what White House officials billed as a major address. Biden spoke with grand palace behind him to an invited audience one bigger than just about any he’s spoken to during his presidency. He singled out Lech Walesa, the Polish labor leader who led the push for freedom in his country and was eventually elected its president, and connected the moment to the former Soviet Union’s history of brutal oppression, including the post-World War II military operations to stamp out pro-democracy movements in Hungary, Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia. And he urged Europe to heed the words of Pope John Paul II, the first pontiff from Poland: Be not afraid. Biden’s trip has reaffirmed the importance of European alliances, which atrophied under former President Donald Trump. He’s worked with his counterparts to marshal an array of punishing sanctions on Russia, and placed the continent on a course that could eliminate its dependence on Russian energy over the next several years. The collective response to the invasion of Ukraine has little parallel in recent history, which has been more characterized by widening divisions than close coordination. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that dynamic, with European nations stepping up defense spending and imposing crushing sanctions against Moscow, and some taking initial steps to reorient their energy needs away from Russia. I’m confident that Vladimir Putin was counting on dividing NATO, Biden said during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday. But he hasn’t been able to do it. We’ve all stayed together. Maintaining such unity will likely prove difficult as the war grinds on, and the refugee situation could become one source of strain. Much like NATO is committed to the collective defense of each member, Biden said, other nations should share the burden of caring for Ukrainian refugees. To that end, the U.S. administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the United States this year. It should be all of NATO’s responsibility, he told Duda, whose country has accepted roughly 2.2 million of the 3.7 million who have fled Ukraine. It’s not clear how many of those displaced Ukrainians who have come through Poland have now moved on to other nations. There’s also no clear path to ending the conflict. Although Russian officials have suggested they will focus their invasion on the Donbas, a region in East Ukraine, Biden wasn’t so sure if there was a real shift underway. Asked on Saturday if the Russians have changed their strategy, he told reporters that I am not sure they have. Despite the hazards ahead, Biden insisted there is more reason to be hopeful that the West and Ukraine can eventually succeed. A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty, Biden said. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/biden-ending-europe-trip-with-unity-message-that-echoes-past/2856461/)

GOP Weighs Convention Choices of Nashville or Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, one of two cities vying to host the Republican presidential convention in 2024, Democrats were pilloried by the potential visitors after predawn election results delivered Wisconsin for Joe Biden in the 2020 White House race. Rival Nashville, Tennessee, is run by a mayor whose Democratic brother was effectively redistricted out of his congressional seat by Republicans. It’s safe to say those two Democratic strongholds have mixed feelings about landing the GOP convention. Hosting the once-every-four-year assembly is an immediate spending jolt, plus a few days of invaluable national exposure. But it also means rolling out a welcome mat for bitter political foes. Some people don’t want to see this happening, said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat. Some people are holding their nose about bringing this to Wisconsin. But when you set politics aside, this is how we’re going to jumpstart our economic activity in southeastern Wisconsin. The cities made their final pitches to the Republican National Committee in Washington last week and a final decision is expected soon. It may rest on whether Republicans see more value in the honky-tonk-infused branding that Nashville offers as a way to connect with the white working-class voters likely to be at the center of the 2024 general election or the chance to stake a claim to Wisconsin, a perennial presidential swing state that has its fair share of those voters in play. Wisconsin could determine who wins in 2024, while Tennessee has not backed a Democrat for president since 1996. In the convention contest, history would seem to favor Milwaukee. For two decades, Republicans have placed their nominating convention in swing states North Carolina, Ohio and Florida. Former President Donald Trump beat Biden by 23 percentage points in Tennessee, while Biden won Nashville by 32 points. But state GOP Chairman Scott Golden said choosing Nashville would let Republicans highlight a GOP state that has continued to grow even through the pandemic, while attributing successes to business-friendly state tax policies, including no personal income tax. Backers also argue that Music City is a more enticing getaway for attendees. The arena and convention center are a block away downtown. The Country Music Hall of Fame is across the street. The arena dumps attendees onto the famed neon-lit strip of bars, with live music at almost all hours. Hot chicken and biscuits are never far away. New hotels are changing the skyline in and around downtown. Golden said convention-goers could be more concentrated in the city core, minimizing the long bus rides and distant lodging of previous conventions and dialing up the branding opportunity. This is really a very good narrative of America, Golden said. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that the country music world is also centered there. Wisconsin counters that the 2024 gathering, just like the past three Republican conventions, should be in a crucial swing state. Boosters are playing up the opportunity, with Democrats like Crowley joining Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Reince Priebus a onetime Trump White House chief of staff and former RNC head making the pitch. Milwaukee is also pitching itself as turnkey-ready thanks to its work to land the Democrats’ 2020 convention, though that wound up mostly online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, Wisconsin’s polarized politics are evident even amid the bipartisan push. Trump fought unsuccessfully to disqualify thousands of voters in Milwaukee in 2020, falsely portraying late-arriving returns driven by heavy absentee turnout as fraud. The city’s top election official, Claire Woodall-Vogg, tweeted in mid-March that if Milwaukee gets the convention she would work remotely that week lest I be hung in the town square like some have threatened. Three days after she posted that message, she deleted her Twitter account. Woodall-Vogg told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that her tweet was an ill attempt at some dark humor given that I get death threats that are fueled by the 2020 presidential election. Like other conflicted Democrats, she said she would welcome the convention for its positive economic impact. It’s a polarizing convention, said Democratic state Sen. Tim Carpenter of Milwaukee. Any time Donald Trump is in the party, it will make it a very polarizing type convention. Peggy Williams-Smith, who as head of the city’s tourism bureau has helped lead the city’s bid, said the convention should be about the economic impact to the city, state and region. This to me is not red or blue, it’s green, Williams-Smith said. The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. has sounded the same note, saying its job is to book conventions without bias, and pointing out it has also bid for the Democratic convention, both at GOP Gov. Bill Lee’s request. Mayor John Cooper, a Democrat, watched this year as Republicans divided the city three ways during redistricting, a move aimed at improving their chances to flip a Democratic congressional seat and one that drove Cooper’s brother, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, not to seek reelection. John Cooper told The Associated Press that there is a whole lot of homework to be done about hotel rooms and security concerns. He said the RNC is probably getting a little bit of sticker shock on how much Nashville hotels cost. He promised that we are not going to expect our hospitality industry to take a loss in order to have this. Cooper said there’s a different burden with having all convention facilities downtown. He said Nashville police need to feel really good about this for the application to go any further. Tennessee’s governor and GOP lawmakers may use state money to help pay for convention, if Nashville is selected. Some Nashville Democrats say the event is not worth it, politically or practically. State Rep. John Ray Clemmons worries about the local government incurring costs and having to shut down sections of a city that will draw visitors regardless. The politics don’t make any sense, either, he said. This is a beautiful, growing and welcoming city, Clemmons said. And our city stands for everything that they oppose. As for whether the convention location will give Republicans a boost, political science professor David Schultz of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, isn’t convinced. He studied convention locations from World War II onward and found no evidence to support an effect on the outcome of races. There’s this political folk wisdom out there that placing a convention in a state will somehow either flip the state from being Democrat to Republican or vice versa, or somehow really energize the base in some way, Schultz said. Largely, it doesn’t work out. (https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/gop-weighs-convention-choices-of-nashville-or-milwaukee/2793140/)

Reddit has quarantined r/Russia due to misinformation

Reddit has quarantined subreddit r/Russia due to misinformation, as the internationally condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into its sixth day. r/RussiaPolitics has also been quarantined, just days after it was created in order to host invasion-related discussions. Quarantined subreddits don’t show up in searches, recommendations, or feeds in which a user hasn’t specifically included them. Further, anyone who finds their way to a quarantined community is shown a warning regarding the content, which they must acknowledge in order to access it. In the case of r/Russia, the message now warns that this subreddit contains “a high volume of information not supported by credible sources.” r/russia now bears a quarantine notice at the top of the subreddit. Credit: Mashable While many online communities have loudly decried Russia’s recent attack on Ukraine, it’s unsurprising that r/Russia has a significantly different perspective on the conflict. A subreddit dedicated to ” e verything related to the country of Russia,” r/Russia’s top posts over the past few days have overwhelmingly justified or defended the invasion. This included allegations that Ukraine is spreading propaganda and misinformation, claims Ukrainian soldiers are Nazis who are harming people, and calls for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be tried as a war criminal. Though there have certainly been elements of truth in some posts, such as disturbing reports of Ukrainian soldiers and officials discriminating against non-white refugees, a larger portion of the invasion-related content posted to r/Russia has been without basis, mischaracterised, or quickly debunked. Due to these dis and misinformation issues, Reddit has now added r/Russia to its list of quarantined communities, just like r/The_Donald before it. SEE ALSO: How to keep up with the news from Russia and Ukraine “We are clear in our policies that moderators and users may not attempt to manipulate and interfere with the conversations or communities on our platform,” a Reddit spokesperson told Mashable. “In line with these policies, we have quarantined r/Russia and r/RussiaPolitics and removed a moderator for acting in bad faith. We have connected directly with the remaining moderators to provide guidance and remind them of our policies. We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as needed.” Redditors now have to specifically opt in to see content from r/russia. Credit: Mashable Further restrictions such as the removal of custom styles can also be applied to quarantined subreddits. While r/Russia previously had a Russian flag header image as well as a photograph of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow as its background, both are now blank. As is often the case in issues of misinformation, r/Russia users are characterising Reddit’s quarantine as censorship and an attack on freedom of speech. Over 265,000 redditors were subscribed to r/Russia as of Feb. 28. Meanwhile, protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been held all over the globe including in Russia itself. Over 5,000 Russians have been arrested at these protests since the invasion began, making it clear that many don’t support their country’s actions. (https://mashable.com/article/reddit-russia-subreddit-quarantined-ukraine)

Palin Joins 50 Others in Running for Alaska US House Seat

Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, joining a field of 50 other candidates seeking to fill the seat held for decades by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a state Division of Elections office in Wasilla, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson. Palin, a former Alaska governor who was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has the biggest national political profile in the packed field that includes current and former state legislators and a North Pole city council member named Santa Claus. Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years, Palin said in a statement on social media. Young, a Republican, had held Alaska’s House seat since 1973 and was seeking reelection at the time of his death last month at age 88. Others in the flurry of filings before Friday’s deadline were state Sen. Josh Revak and Tara Sweeney, who are both Republicans and were the statewide co-chairs of Young’s reelection campaign. Palin resigned as governor in 2009, partway through her term, and said she could make a difference outside the governor’s office. She also had expressed outrage over ethics complaints she felt had frivolously targeted her. Palin has kept a low profile in Alaska politics since then but maintained a presence nationally, including through speaking engagements, appearances with conservative outlets and on reality TV. She also was an early supporter of now-former President Donald Trump. She has hinted at possible runs for office in the past but never took the plunge. In her statement Friday, she said America is at a tipping point and that she’s in the race to win it and join the fight for freedom alongside other patriots willing to sacrifice all to save our country. A special primary is set for June 11. The top four vote-getters will advance to an Aug. 16 special election in which ranked choice voting will be used, a process in line with a new elections system approved by voters in 2020. The winner, targeted to be certified by Sept. 2, will serve the remainder of Young’s term, which expires in January. The special election will coincide with the regular primary. The regular primary and November general election will determine who represents Alaska in the House for a two-year term starting in January. Others who filed Friday include Democratic state Rep. Adam Wool; independent Al Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2020; and Emil Notti, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 1973 election to Young. Former lawmakers Andrew Halcro and Mary Sattler Peltola are also running. They join a field that had already included Republican Nick Begich, who previously announced plans to run for U.S. House last fall; Democrat Christopher Constant, an Anchorage Assembly member; and John Coghill, a Republican former state lawmaker. Begich, an early challenger to Young, said he sees the Matanuska-Susitna region, a hotbed of conservatism that includes Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, as one of his strongest areas of the state. Begich said there are a lot of opportunistic candidates, in our view, that have chosen to get in. I think that the entry of Gov. Palin is completely consistent with that sort of spirit of opportunism that we’re seeing right now. Revak, who previously worked for Young’s office, said he felt a strong calling and a duty to step forward. He said he was heartbroken by the filing timeline, coinciding with a period he said should be focused on remembering Young. Young lied in state at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. A public memorial was held in the Washington, D.C.-area on Wednesday and a public memorial is planned in Anchorage on Saturday. Revak said he also plans to run in the regular primary for U.S. House. Palin, Begich, Constant, Gross and Peltola are also among those who have filed to run in both. Sweeney in a statement said she planned to run in both. Sweeney is a former assistant secretary of Indian Affairs with the U.S. Department of Interior. This weekend I will join my fellow Alaskans in honoring the life and legacy of Congressman Young, she said in a statement. For nearly 50 years he fought tirelessly for our state and he sets the bar for what it means to serve. She said she is excited to share her vision for the future in the coming weeks. Gross’ campaign has announced a leadership team that includes several Republicans and independents, as well as Democrats, including former Gov. Tony Knowles. We are building a campaign that embodies all of Alaska, Gross said in a statement. Wool said he has privately discussed a run for years. He said earlier in the day Friday that he looked at the candidates running in the special primary and wasn’t that impressed. Many of them have never won an election, don’t have any statewide recognition and politically aren’t aligned certainly not with me or what I would think the majority of Alaskans are looking for. Wool, from Fairbanks, said he considers himself moderate. He said he has yet to decide whether to run in the regular primary. Halcro, who has a podcast on which he talks politics, lost to Palin in the 2006 gubernatorial general election. He said during this campaign he plans to play up his intent to only run to fill the remainder of the term. He is running as an independent. He said if the person who wins the special election also is in the November general election, he expects they would spend a fair amount of time campaigning. He said if elected, he would be focused on congressional work. Peltola, a Democrat from Bethel, noted the long list of candidates and said there is obviously a lot of pent-up desire to serve our state. She said Alaska is diverse and that it’s important to me that the field of candidates also reflects Alaska’s diversity. Peltola is Yup’ik Eskimo. Meanwhile, a man who years ago legally changed his name to Santa Claus and serves on the North Pole city council also filed for the special primary. Claus, who said he has a strong affinity for Bernie Sanders, is running as an independent. He said he is not soliciting or raising money. He said the new elections process gives people like me an opportunity, without having to deal with parties, to throw our hat in the ring. I do have name recognition, he said with a laugh. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/palin-files-paperwork-to-run-in-alaska-us-house-race/2930403/)