Politics

Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday introduced legislation that would prohibit the inclusion of medical debt—which impacts more than 100 million people across the U.S.—on credit or consumer reports.

"The use of credit reports—which frequently contain errors—is now more than ever a huge barrier to a thriving life for many of our residents," Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has argued that medical debt "should not exist," said in a statement Tuesday. "Americans should not be denied access to basic needs that improve their quality of life, like employment, housing, or transportation because of medical debt."

In addition to preventing companies from including medical debt on credit reports, Tlaib's Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit and Protecting Consumers Act would reduce the amount of time that adverse information remains on a credit report from seven years to four and require reporting agencies to wipe out negative information stemming from "predatory loans and fraudulent activity."

The bill also states that agencies "may not furnish a consumer report containing any adverse item of information about a consumer that resulted from financial abuse if the consumer has provided documentation of financial abuse to the consumer reporting agency."

"Our neighbors should not have to go without necessities because they fell victim to fraudulent activity or predatory lenders," said Tlaib, who has long pushed for the credit reporting changes. "Survivors of domestic and financial abuse do not deserve to have debt resulting from that abuse on their credit report. This bill is about fairness, opportunity, and justice, and I urge my colleagues in Congress to finally get this bill signed into law."

A 2019 study estimated that a staggering 66.5% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. between 2013 and 2016 were primarily caused by the costs associated with medical issues.

According to a joint investigation published last year by KFF Health News and NPR, 41% of U.S. adults are saddled with medical debt—a product of the nation's high-cost, for-profit healthcare system. The growing prevalence of medical credit cards with sky-high interest rates is contributing to the debt crisis, a group of progressive senators warned in January.

In recent months, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and credit reporting agencies have taken steps to lessen the impact of medical debt on Americans' credit scores.

The CFPB, which estimates that $88 billion in medical debt in the U.S. is currently in collections, has instructed credit reporting agencies not to include any invalid medical debts or other inaccurate information on credit reports.

"Many debt collectors furnish information about unpaid medical debts to credit bureaus," the consumer agency said last year. "Furnishers must have reasonable written policies and procedures regarding the accuracy and integrity of consumer information provided to credit bureaus."

Tlaib's office pointed out Tuesday that around 20% of people in the U.S. have an error on one of their credit reports.

The new legislation notes that "credit scores may underestimate a person's creditworthiness by up to 10 points for those who owe medical debt, and may underestimate a person's creditworthiness by up to 22 points after the medical debt has been paid."

Tlaib's bill specifically bars from credit reports "any information related to a debt arising from a medical procedure."

"This bill will prevent millions of Americans from experiencing economic ruin because of destructive credit reporting."

Starting earlier this year, the three major U.S. credit reporting giants—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion— began removing all medical collections under $500 from credit reports. The CFPB observed in a report last year that two-thirds of medical debts in the U.S. "are the result of a one-time or short-term medical expense arising from an acute medical need."

Candace Milner, racial equity policy associate with Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, applauded Tlaib's bill, saying in a statement that it would "help improve the credit ratings of those abused by financial scammers or beset with crushing medical debt and ideally restore their ability to access services impacted by credit and obtain affordable personal loans."

"The current credit reporting system creates unnecessary economic barriers that hinder millions of Americans from accessing basic needs," said Milner. "Rep. Tlaib's bill addresses the failure of credit agencies to ensure accuracy in their credit reporting while also providing tools for victims of predatory lending and financial abuse to repair their credit."

"If passed," Milner added, "this bill will prevent millions of Americans from experiencing economic ruin because of destructive credit reporting."

The former president baselessly accused Fani Willis, who is investigating his 2020 election meddling, of having an “affair” with a “gang member”

During a Tuesday campaign event in New Hampshire, Donald Trump leveled a bizarre accusation against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, suggesting she had had an “affair” with a “gang member” she was prosecuting.

“They say there’s a young woman — a young racist in Atlanta — they say she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or a gang member. And this is a person who wants to indict me […] wants to indict me for a perfect phone call,” Trump told supporters.

In May 2022, Willis empaneled a grand jury to investigate Trump and his allies’ efforts to interfere with Georgia’s 2020 election outcome, including the former president’s so-called “perfect” call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which he pressured him to “find” the votes necessary for him to win the election.

Trump has repeatedly attempted to discredit prosecutors investigating him, and while it’s unclear what Trump was talking about when he accused Willis of having an affair with “gang member,”, recent social media posts indicate that he is wildly misrepresenting a case she handled in 2019.

In January, Rolling Stone spoke to rapper YSL Mondo, who co-founded the Young Stoner Life (YSL) music label with Young Thug. Willis represented Mondo during a 2019 aggravated assault case, and would later go on to prosecute YSL’s Young Thug and 13 other defendants in a RICO case alleging that the music group had affiliations with gang violence in the Atlanta area.

According to Mondo, Willis’ prosecution of Young Thug ran contrary to the impression he’d developed of the prosecutor when she represented him. “This is not her character, this is not who she is,” he told Rolling Stone. “I done had auntie-to-nephew, mother-to-son type of talks with her. I know this not her character. This is what made me start looking at [the YSL case] like I know it’s bigger than just her. It’s politics behind this shit. It’s other people that’s behind her pulling strings.”

Mondo did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from Rolling Stone. Willis also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, Trump posted a video on Truth Social painting Willis as a member of a “fraud squad” of prosecutors unfairly targeting him under the command of President Joe Biden. The video featured the headline of Rolling Stone’s interview with Mondo, and claimed that Willis “got caught hiding a relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting.”

While there’s no indication that Willis hid her representation of Mondo — or that their relationship was romantic in nature — far-right commentator and Trump ally Laura Loomer seized on the claim in the video to suggest that Willis had a sexual affair with her client.

“Atlanta DA, Fani Willis, who is targeting Donald Trump in Georgia is a straight up THOT,” Loomer wrote along with the video in a Twitter post last week. “Turns out she failed to disclose a previous relationship she had with a gang banger she was supposed to be prosecuting. Baby girl belongs in a Trap House. Not a court house.”

It appears to have been enough for Trump to go ahead and accuse Willis of sleeping with a gang member.

Willis herself is expected to bring an indictment related to her own investigation into Trump later this month, one that could possibly include RICO charges, so it’s not surprising that the former president is cranking his smear machine into overdrive.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) — Bill Mehlem recalls a time when his politics generally aligned with conservatives, enthusiastically backing Republicans such as John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign.

But the stay-at-home dad has grown dismayed with the tempestuous GOP molded by former President Donald Trump, who is now seeking a return to the White House. And the threat of a Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s family finances and the churning U.S. House probes of his son, Hunter Biden, have left Mehlem indignant, angry and remembering why he’s a political independent.

“It’s all about revenge politics to keep Trump’s base” engaged for the 2024 elections, Mehlem said. “It’s all about nothing.”

The vote could play a big role in the future of abortion rights in Ohio. But it also raises questions about the power of ordinary citizens over elected politicians.

The white supremacist group Patriot Front is suing a left-wing activist for allegedly infiltrating the group and revealing the identities of members, USA Today reported. The lawsuit says the alleged "doxxings" cost the members their jobs and personal relationships. As USA Today points out, Patriot F...

Ex-president’s attorney says another indictment has ‘been highly spoken about’

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for a piece of financial reform that would unshackle small businesses and consumers alike from the maw of Visa and Mastercard’s credit card duopoly. Wall Street, in response, is spending millions to thwart the bill’s recent advances by fueling a conservative culture war over gay pride demonstrations and Chinese influence.

In coordination with big banks, Visa and Mastercard extract billions of dollars each year in “swipe fees” from retailers for the cost of accepting payments from cardholders. Though the fees hit all retailers, and a portion of them is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, low-margin businesses like independent corner stores or gas stations face a higher percentage of these costs relative to their revenue.

Since the start of the pandemic, the fees have increased by up to 40 percent, rivaling rent as the second-highest overhead cost for independent stores. Visa and Mastercard, which together control over 80 percent of the credit card market, effectively get to set the rates for fees by blocking competitive alternatives for the transaction routing at card terminals.

A bipartisan coalition led by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) is aiming to alleviate the burden on small businesses through the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). The legislation would force card issuers that host these transactions (Visa and Mastercard) to enable competitor networks to manage the processing and routing—the service for which swipe fees are levied. By providing businesses with competing options, they can choose the service with lower fees.

For Democrats and anti-monopoly advocates, it’s another manifestation of the Biden administration’s crackdown on “junk fees” across sectors of the U.S. economy. As swipe fees skyrocketed this past year, the legislation has also drawn more Republican support than ever before.

In the legislative scrum over the annual defense authorization bill this month, backers of the CCCA pushed for its inclusion, as they had the previous year under the catchall national-security designation. During negotiations, Sen. Marshall even threatened to hold up the defense bill if the CCCA didn’t at least receive a vote.

One major setback was that the bill’s longest-running champion, Sen. Durbin, was sidelined during the height of negotiations because he caught COVID. However, both Marshall and Durbin announced that party leadership guaranteed them a stand-alone vote on the bill this fall, ending the defense bill fight. Neither senator could be reached for comment on the bill’s future.

“We see it as a small victory as the chorus of voices calling for reform grows louder and Washington is hearing us,” said Doug Kantor, the general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a member of the Merchants Payment Coalition. MPC led the charge to get legislation passed in 2010 that allowed for similar competition in debit card transactions, known as the Durbin Amendment. If leadership follows through on its promise to bring the CCCA to a vote, the coalition is confident they’ll have enough support to apply the same standard to credit cards.

Since the start of the pandemic, the fees have increased by up to 40 percent, rivaling rent as the second-highest overhead cost for independent stores.

The bill’s recent advances are setting off alarm bells on Wall Street. The bank and credit card lobby is marching in lockstep with conservative dark-money groups to inflame culture-war issues on the right in the hopes of splintering the cross-partisan coalition that’s coalesced around the bill.

In a recent ad campaign, shadowy right-wing groups have been issuing mailers and other advertisements claiming the CCCA is a liberal handout for “woke” big-box retailers like Target. One set of mailers was bankrolled by the Conservative Accountability Foundation, a newly formed organization based in Sen. Marshall’s home state of Kansas but without a listed address or phone number.

The mailers draw upon a recent controversy from earlier this summer. In celebration of June’s Pride Month, Target issued a line of LGBTQ merchandise, which drew backlash from conservatives mostly online and then sparked a boycott campaign. Target ended up caving to pressure, and removed its pride merchandise from numerous stores and its website.

It’s always been more convenient for the banks and credit card companies to frame large retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart as their main opponents in the swipe fee battle. These corporate stores do form an uncommon alliance with small-business groups on swipe fees, though the latter are the main ones driving the issue. What’s new is for the financial lobby to attack the large retailers on the basis of participating in Pride Month.

Intended for a conservative audience, the attack ads are directed at Sen. Marshall and other Republicans for their support of the bill, which they call a “bailout” for Target. The text reads, “Target hates conservatives but Sen. Marshall’s bill gives them billions,” with the company’s logo emblazoned with rainbow colors.

In a statement to Punchbowl News, which first reported the mailer, Sen. Marshall’s chief of staff Brent Robertson said: “When low-rent DC grifters come out of the woodwork with a big bank funded (c)4 like this, we know we’re doing something right for the working family.”

An ad campaign on Facebook this past month by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)—Grover Norquist’s organization—pushes the same narrative, with the slogan “Side with consumers, not woke retailers.”

The mailer also taps into national-security fears about Chinese influence inside the U.S. The Chinese national flag flies in the background behind a cutout of Sen. Marshall next to a rainbow gay pride flag. It then says, “your financial data could be processed by partners of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Financial interests have long used this talking point, that competition in routing would make consumer financial data less secure. But they’re now attaching it to a broader hostility among conservatives toward China. The CCCA includes provisions blocking foreign-owned companies, and specifically China UnionPay, from participating in the transaction routing networks.

“There’s a certain desperation because it’s hard to make a legit conservative case against a bill that is designed to protect small businesses from what is, in effect, a monopoly tax on their revenue,” said Stacy Mitchell, the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Op-eds in local newspapers in red states are parroting the same line about foreign threats to Americans’ financial information. At the end of June, one piece in The Florida Standard equated competition in transaction routing to Chinese surveillance on social media platform TikTok. The author, Samantha Beeler, is the president of the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, which spent $20,000 on lobbying this past quarter to oppose the CCCA, according to disclosure forms. The credit card industry has relied on the nationwide network of credit unions as surrogates for years to do its bidding.

The ATR did not respond to a request for comment to clarify their opposition to the legislation.

Talking points about woke retailers and China have made their way into lobbying on the Hill, according to numerous groups involved in the legislative fight. In addition to ad campaigns, banks and credit cards are funneling millions to lobbying campaigns to beat back the push for swipe fee reform. The American Bankers Association spent close to $5 million this year on issues including the CCCA, while the Credit Union National Association laid out over $2 million in the past two quarters to lobby on swipe fees, according to lobbying disclosures. Mastercard supplemented these conjoined efforts with almost $200,000 of its own firepower last quarter to four different lobbying shops.

Wall Street’s efforts to stir up a culture-war battle over financial regulation clash with its recent posturing over the past several years, as the face of corporate initiatives to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The top banks and credit card companies routinely pledge support for LGBTQ inclusivity and diversity in hiring. Some firms held their own Pride Month celebrations this summer.

Both Wall Street and corporate America have in recent years used liberal social causes to stymie legislative reforms that threaten their interests. Most recently, Big Tech killed an antitrust bill last year in part by arguing that the bill would harm minority small businesses and by painting anti-monopoly groups as anti-trans.

“It’s increasingly becoming a Republican talking point to go after companies for supporting social inclusion … That should raise questions for Democrats about what is motivating these bills,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a tech trade group representing Amazon, Google, and Facebook, to Politico at the time.

The credit card lobby and their front groups are flipping the script by using conservative boycott campaigns to their advantage.

UPDATE: After publication, League of Southeastern Credit Unions President Samantha Beeler responded with the following statement: “Last year alone, more than 422M consumers were impacted by a data breach. At a time when fraud is running rampant due to the negligence of others to secure consumer data, Americans cannot afford a cheaper, less secure system.”

Former President Trump’s attorney John Lauro said he would not accept a plea deal in connection to the federal Jan. 6 case, in which the former president is charged with four federal counts related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

CBS host Major Garrett asked Lauro on “Face the Nation” if there was “any condition” under which Trump would accept a plea deal on the latest charges brought against him. Lauro told him there was no condition where Trump would.

When asked if he planned to file a motion to dismiss the case, Lauro said he “absolutely” will, but did not answer when he would file that.

“Hundred percent. Well, within the time permitted,” Lauro said. “This is what’s called a Swiss cheese indictment. It has so many holes that we’re going to be identifying and litigating a number of motions that we’re going to file on First Amendment grounds, on the fact that President Trump is immune as president from being prosecuted in this way.”

Lauro also said that cases similar to this case brought against Trump do not go to trial “before two or three years.” He also emphasized how he will be pushing to change the venue, saying West Virginia would be an “excellent venue to try this case.”

Lauro also noted that Trump’s comments, such as his stating that the judge overseeing his case was “unfair,” are made in the “context of a campaign.”

“Well, the problem with bringing a case like this in the middle of a campaign season is statements are going to be made in the context of a campaign,” he said. “We expect a fair and just trial in the District of Columbia. And — and my role — my role is simply to ensure that President Trump’s rights, just like every American’s rights, are protected every step of the way, and I’m going to do that.”

Trump pleaded not guilty to the latest charges in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Former vice-president Mike Pence on Sunday said he would answer “the call of law” and give evidence against Donald Trump if required as the rift between the pair widened.

Mr Pence could be a key witness in the latest case brought against the former president, who has pleaded not guilty to four counts relating to his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

“I have no plans to testify, but people can be confident we’ll obey the law,” Mr Pence said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “We’ll respond to the call of the law, if it comes, and we’ll just tell the truth.”

Pointedly, on the same programme Mr Pence refused to say whether he would vote for Mr Trump, should he be the Republican presidential nominee next year.

Last week’s indictment chronicled how Mr Trump and a number of co-conspirators repeatedly lied about the results of the 2020 vote after he lost the election and pressured Mr Pence and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.

Those efforts culminated on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Mr Pence, who is running against Mr Trump for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2024, insisted he had no alternative but to defy the pressure from his former boss.

“I had no right to overturn the election,” he told CNN.

His remarks came after Mr Trump used his Truth Social channel to unleash a vitriolic attack on his one-time deputy, describing him as “delusional”.

“WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” Mr Trump said.

“I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ‘too honest,” he added, citing the 45-page indictment brought forward by the Department of Justice.

The “contemporaneous notes” Pence took in the run up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, are frequently cited in the indictment.

“He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy,” Mr Trump said.

Meanwhile, John Lauro, a member of Mr Trump’s defence team, welcomed the prospect of Mr Pence testifying as he toured US television networks on behalf of the former president.

“The Vice President will be our best witness,” he said on CBS’ Face the Nation as he played down the rift between the former running mates.

“Now, of course, there was a constitutional disagreement between Vice President Pence and President Trump, but the bottom line is never, never in our country’s history have those kinds of disagreements been prosecuted criminally? It’s unheard of,” Mr Lauro added.

He also confirmed the Trump defence team was seeking to have the case thrown out, arguing any actions the former president took after the 2020 election were “aspirational asks,” protected by free speech.

“This is what’s called a Swiss cheese indictment and there’s so many holes that we’re going to be identifying and mitigating a number of motions that we’re going to file on First Amendment grounds, or the fact that President Trump is immune as president from being prosecuted in this way,” Mr Lauro said.

Should the trial on the charges filed by special prosecutor Jack Smith relating to the election go ahead, Mr Trump’s team will try to move a hearing away from Washington DC to West Virginia – a state he won by nearly 40 points.

“I think West Virginia would be an excellent venue to try this case,” Mr Lauro said.

Mr Trump added he was seeking Judge Tanya Chutkan’s recusal from the case over concerns he would not receive a “fair trial”.

Rival Republican candidate Chris Christie meanwhile dismissed the calls to shift any eventual hearing away from Washington DC.

“I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people. And I believe in the fact that jurors will listen fairly and impartially,” Mr Christie, a former prosecutor, told CNN.

Meanwhile, another of Mr Trump’s lawyers, Alina Habba, predicted he could face a further indictment, this time from Georgia, within weeks.

The former president was taped asking Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the 11,780 votes he needed to reverse his defeat there in 2020.

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, Ms Hubba said she expected an indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis,

“I think that it’s been highly spoken about. I think, if you look at the barricades, the fact that she’s got her PR team doing fresh pictures for her, it’s a good indicator that Fani wants her moment, and she will — she will get on the bandwagon with the rest of the corrupt DAs and AGs that we have seen out of this country,” she said.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said he is willing to testify against former President Trump at his Jan. 6 trial.

Barr, who was appointed by Trump, responded “of course” when asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” if he would be willing to appear as a witness in Trump’s trial over federal charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He declined to answer whether he was interviewed by the special counsel in connection to the federal investigation.

Barr has been a staunch critic of the former president since he resigned from his post shortly after the 2020 election. He noted that the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith was a “challenging” one, but that he does not think it “runs afoul of the First Amendment.”

When asked about his interactions with Trump and how he told the former president there was no evidence of election fraud, Barr said that his investigations into the fraud “satisfied” the conclusions.

“Well, I go through that in my book in painstaking detail, but on three occasions at least, I told him in no uncertain terms, that there was no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome,” he said.

Trump was indicted last week over his attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election to President Biden. In a 45-page indictment, the Justice Department alleges Trump engaged in a campaign of “dishonesty, fraud and conceit” to obstruct a “bedrock function” of a democracy. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday.

In 2016, when it became clear that Donald Trump would become president, media outlets across the U.S. were blindsided by the results. They pledged to do better representing the larger communities that make up America. That included conservatives, those in rural areas (a complex group on its own) and, yes, Latinos.

Four years later, though Trump did not win reelection, former Vice President Joe Biden’s narrower margin of victory in spite of polls predicting a landslide have media outlets asking similar questions all over again. The increased percentage of Latino voters for Trump in particular caught many off guard. How could pollsters get it wrong again? And is the media, and a lack of diversity in newsrooms, part of the problem?

Last time around, a national publication made a show of announcing it was expanding its coverage teams and hiring people that brought those unique perspectives. I applied for a spot to cover immigration even though I knew that coming from a smaller newspaper, it would be a long shot. Still, if it was serious about diversifying the newsroom, I thought, I had a chance.

I’m a first-generation immigrant, born in Ciudad Juárez and raised across the border in El Paso, in a middle-class family. While my dad had been an engineer in Mexico, he became a life insurance salesman when we emigrated, then a truck driver, something he is still doing in his mid-60s. There’s no 401(k) for him, there’s no deep savings account or a fully paid mortgage.

When I applied for the position, I had been an immigration reporter for about a decade; I had experience writing about immigrants and refugees from a dozen countries. Spoiler alert, I didn’t get the job, neither did another person of color.

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has handed over power of attorney to her daughter, even as she remains in the U.S. Senate.

Feinstein has prompted concern if not outright alarm in recent years amid numerous mental lapses in the public eye. Earlier this year, she missed more than two months due to shingles. When she returned, a reporter asked Feinstein about her absence, but the senator’s response suggested she was unaware she had been away from Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Feinstein, 90, gave power of attorney to her daughter Katherine Feinstein, 66. The Times said Katherine is currently engaged in a nasty legal dispute with the three daughters of her mother’s late husband Richard Blum, who died in 2022:

In one legal dispute, the family is fighting over what’s described as Senator Feinstein’s desire to sell a beach house in an exclusive neighborhood in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco. In another disagreement, the two factions are at odds over access to the proceeds of Mr. Blum’s life insurance, which Senator Feinstein says she needs to pay for her growing medical expenses.

[…]
Katherine Feinstein, 66, Senator Feinstein’s only child, who has power of attorney over her mother’s legal affairs, filed two lawsuits against Senator Feinstein’s co-trustees. The first lawsuit, over the beach house, says the property is in disrepair, that Senator Feinstein no longer wishes to use it, and that she wants to sell it this summer or fall.

Feinstein is not running for reelection in 2024, but she has rebuffed calls to resign from the Senate, which Democrats control 51 to 49. During her absence earlier this year, several of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees stalled in the Judiciary Committee, as Feinstein was not present to cast tie-breaking votes.

In an Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Feinstein began speaking about a defense spending bill at a time when she was simply supposed to cast a vote for or against the legislation. “Just say aye,” a fellow senator instructed her.

In May, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said Feinstein’s struggles are “painful to watch” and called on her to resign.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Kentucky can continue to enforce a gender-affirming care ban that also requires trans youth already receiving this care to detransition.

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the decision that “The people of Kentucky enacted the ban through their legislature” and “that body–not the officials who disagree with the ban–set the Commonwealth’s policies.”

The lawsuit, Doe v. Thornbury, challenged S.B. 150, a sweeping anti-trans bill that passed into law over the veto of Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in March. It is one of the most extreme among several laws enacted recently in Republican-dominated legislatures.

In addition to banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, the bill denies use of bathrooms aligning with gender identity in schools, conflates and excludes LGBTQ+-related topics and information on sexually transmitted diseases from sex education, and prohibits school staff and students from properly addressing trans minors. The lawsuit, however, focused solely on the provision banning gender-affirming care.

In a statement earlier this summer, the ACLU called the new law an egregious government overreach into families’ personal decision-making.

“These are merely political attacks from groups with a fundamental opposition to transgender people being able to live openly, freely, and affirmed as who they really are,” Shapiro said. “Banning medically necessary care for trans youth is not supported by science or reputable major medical organizations.”

But Judge Sutton disagreed. In a similar decision allowing a gender-affirming care ban in Tennessee to take effect, Sutton reportedly wrote that the support for gender-affirming care by major medical organizations was “surely relevant” but “not dispositive.”

In Gov. Beshear’s veto statement of the bill, he said it “strips freedom from parents to make personal family decisions” and that it would “cause an increase in suicide among Kentucky’s youth.” He also said that the bill would turn teachers into “investigators” who would pry into students’ lives.

After the legislature overrode the veto, ACLU-KY’s executive director Amber Duke blasted the body for rushing the law through “in a deliberately secretive process at the 11th hour.”

“Trans Kentuckians, medical and mental health professionals, and accredited professional associations pleaded with lawmakers to listen to the experts, not harmful rhetoric based in fear and hate. Their pleas fell on deaf ears as the general assembly passed the bill in a matter of hours.”

Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on charges he participated in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results — an effort that reached a bloody crescendo as his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Following an investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, a grand jury voted to charge Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.

Trump, who has been summoned to appear in court on Thursday, is still the leading candidate in the Republican primary race. If he pleads not guilty (as he has with the other indictments), we could be hearing about his trial as he makes his case for the White House.

Here are five key points to help get you up to speed.

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WASHINGTON — A campaign to televise former President Donald Trump’s federal criminal trials was launched late Thursday by congressional Democrats, led by California Rep. Adam Schiff.

“Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings,” wrote Schiff and 37 members of his caucus in a letter to Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, who leads the administrative office of U.S. Cours.

“If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was released within hours of Trump’s arraignment in Washington, D.C., where the former president pleaded not guilty to four charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Thursday’s court proceedings marked the third time this year that the former president has been hit with criminal charges, but his first time before a judge in the nation’s capital. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the two other criminal cases.

Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, told Reuters on Friday he will not donate more money unless the Florida governor attracts new major donors and adopts a more moderate approach.

The comments by Bigelow, who gave $20 million to the pro-DeSantis “Never Back Down” super PAC in March, underscore donor concerns about the Florida governor’s struggling campaign, which has been unable to make a dent in former President Donald Trump’s huge lead for the 2024 Republican nomination.

“He does need to shift to get to moderates. He’ll lose if he doesn’t ... Extremism isn’t going to get you elected,” Bigelow said in an interview, adding that he had communicated these concerns to DeSantis’ campaign.

When asked which specific policies Bigelow did not support, Bigelow cited only DeSantis signing in April a bill passed by the Florida legislature banning abortions after six weeks, a move that came after Bigelow had donated the $20 million.

Bigelow said he would not donate more money for now. “Not until I see that he’s able to generate more on his own. I’m already too big a percentage,” Bigelow said. “A lot of his donors are still on the fence.”

Bigelow, the founder of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, said he wasn’t waiting for an exact fundraising figure, but that “it’s going to be a lot.”

In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign, Bryan Griffin, said they were “grateful” to supporters and donors who gave them “the capacity to compete for the long haul,” without addressing Bigelow directly.

Bigelow’s comments will likely stoke perceptions that DeSantis, once a donor darling expected to put up a real fight against Trump, is in a downward spiral as his right-wing social policies and wooden personality fail to excite voters.

DeSantis has been running to the right of Trump despite many Republican strategists saying he should instead be trying to court moderates concerned about Trump’s policies and electability.

A source familiar with the governor’s strategy told Reuters that “donors don’t set policy for the governor, and they never will.”

Never Back Down did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Even though DeSantis has attracted big donors desperate for a Trump alternative, Bigelow stands out. After him, the second-biggest individual donor to Never Back Down is venture capitalist Douglas Leone, who gave $2 million, according to campaign filings - a tenth of what Bigelow contributed.

DeSantis’ campaign finances have come under scrutiny in recent weeks after his campaign said it had let go 38 employees, or over one-third of staff. The campaign had a high cash burn rate and most of the money raised came from donors who had contributed the maximum legal amount, suggesting more financial tensions ahead.

To be sure, DeSantis’ campaign and Never Back Down had a combined $109 million in the bank at the end of June, well above the combined $53 million of Trump’s campaign and his allied super PAC, known as MAGA Inc, according to financial disclosures to the Federal Elections Commission.

As DeSantis’ campaign struggles, however, he has been relying more on Never Back Down, which as a super PAC can raise and spend unlimited sums supporting him as long as it doesn’t coordinate spending with his campaign.

Bigelow said he remains behind DeSantis. “I think he’s the best guy for the country.”

But the hotelier was incensed by the bill banning abortions after six weeks, saying that was too early and that many women do not even know they are pregnant at that stage.

The abortion restrictions have rattled other donors. Metals magnate and Republican donor Andy Sabin, for example, soured on DeSantis and threw his support behind Senator Tim Scott in part due to the abortion issue.

Bigelow said he agreed with most of DeSantis’ policies, however, and that he was “spot on” in his war on “wokeism.” “Woke” is a term used in a derogatory way by conservatives to criticize progressive policies, often linked to issues of identity in education and the workplace.

After a glitch-filled launch on Twitter in May, DeSantis has struggled to catch fire with voters amid organizational problems, viral videos of awkward interactions with the public, and relentless attacks by Trump.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed he had slumped to 13% of support among Republicans against 47% for Trump.

Bigelow said he had told DeSantis’ campaign manager Generra Peck that DeSantis needed to be more moderate to have a chance.

Asked how Peck reacted, Bigelow said, laughing: “There was a long period of silence where I thought maybe she had passed out.”

“But I think she took it all in,” Bigelow added, describing Peck as a “very good campaign manager.”

DeSantis’ campaign did not respond to queries about Peck and Bigelow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that troop readiness and retention is at risk as the Army’s chief stepped down Friday, leaving the military’s two ground combat forces without Senate-confirmed leaders for the first time in history.

Speaking during a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Austin said the Senate’s failure to confirm the services’ new leaders is disruptive to the force and could impact relationships with allies and partners around the globe.

The university acknowledged mistakes were made after they reduced an offer with tenure for Kathleen McElroy, a veteran journalist and academic, after conservative backlash.

Trump lawyer John Lauro responded to the indictment news by admitting the crimes that Trump is charged with.

EDIT: Removed comment as requested.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12)introduced the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act to tax extreme wealth, reduce inequality, and combat the threat to democracy posed by aristocracy.

High levels of inequality plague the United States, with the richest 0.1% of US households holding 20% of the country’s wealth in 2018. This extreme wealth disparity causes inequality to grow, with the rich getting richer every day. During the pandemic, while most Americans suffered extreme financial and emotional losses, America’s roughly 700 billionaires added over $1 trillion to their collective net worth. The wealthy hold the most political power in the U.S. today.

The OLIGARCH Act is put forward to combat these extreme disparities and ensure true democracy. This legislation establishes a wealth tax with four brackets, designed to wax and wane with wealth concentration, intensifying during periods of rising inequality, but tapering off to near non-existence when median household wealth increases and inequality moderates to an acceptable level. While aiding in closing the wealth gap, the bill also outlines specific enforcement measures to combat tax evasion, including a requirement for at least a 30% audit rate on households covered by this tax, and establishes penalties for substantial valuation understatements. The bill ensures accountability and is an effort to restore democracy.

"Inequality in the United States is worse in 2023 than it was during the Gilded Age. It is unacceptable that millions of hardworking people remain impoverished, while the top 0.1% hold over 20% of the nation’s wealth,” said CongresswomanBarbaraLee. "The OLIGARCH Act is the solution we need to close the exorbitant wealth gap in America and create a tax system where everyone pays their fair share. This level of wealth is not just a source of economic injustice, but a major threat to democracy: the richest 400 people in the U.S. have 22,000 times the political power of the average American. At a time when the GOP is pushing for even deeper tax cuts, I am proud to introduce this vital bill with my progressive colleagues to hold billionaires accountable and make democracy work for the people, not the oligarchs.”

Congresswoman Summer Lee said,“Right now, the 400 richest Americans have 22,000 times the political influence of the bottom 90%. Our teachers, firefighters, and nurses are paying more in taxes than Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. We allow billionaires to buy elections and Supreme Court Justices in exchange for tax cuts favorable rulings–and corporate PACs are spending millions to keep working class Black women like me out of Congress. Oligarchy is blocking climate justice, racial justice, Medicare for All, Student Loan Forgiveness, worker power, fully funded public schools, fair pay for teachers, and reflective democracy. With a mandate from nearly ¾ of Americans - Democrats, Republicans and independents - who want the wealthiest to pay higher taxes, I couldn’t be prouder to co-lead the introduction of the OLIGARCH Act to tax the richest of the rich and give power back to the people where it’s always belonged.”

“Our residents are struggling while economic inequality is reaching record highs,” said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. “The richest 0.1% now have more than five times the combined wealth of 50% of Americans. This extreme concentration of wealth only makes it harder for our neighbors to thrive. The same billionaires are threatening our democracy with their political contributions that taint any opportunities to change the status quo. It’s time to tax the rich and get big money out of politics.”

“In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, no one should struggle to put food on the table and afford healthcare while billionaires fly around in their private jets and CEOs make hundreds of millions of dollars a year,” said Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D. (NY-16).“When the richest 0.1% of households hold 20% of the country’s wealth, there is undoubtedly a problem. The extreme wealth inequality we see today, which disproportionately impacts Black and brown families, is a result of centuries of discrimination towards working class, vulnerable communities while allowing tax breaks for the rich and wealthy. I’m proud to join my colleagues Reps. Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, and Rashida Tlaib to introduce the OLIGARCH Act and address this inequity. It’s time the billionaires and ultra-wealthy pay what they owe to the American people.”

“Extreme wealth inequality has become an existential threat to our country,” said Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc. “American oligarchs have used their wealth to accumulate an unprecedented level of political power, which they’ve then used to amass even greater wealth. Without decisive action, this vicious cycle of concentrated power and money will dismantle our system of democratic capitalism, and with it, our way of life. We must stop this cycle by passing the OLIGARCH Act as soon as possible.”

The OLIGRACH Act specifically establishes four tax brackets:

• 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median household wealth;
• 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median household wealth;
• 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median household wealth;
• 8% for all wealth over 1,000,000 times median household wealth

This wealth tax is largest when the gaps are extreme, and shrinks when the gaps are closing, allowing for it to adapt to a changing economy and maintain equality. Ultimately, the OLIGARCH Act benefits everyone in America.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

This bill is cosponsored by House Representatives Nadler (D-NY), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Grijalva (D-AZ), Omar (D-MN), Schakowsky (D-IL), and Huffman (D-CA).

The OLIGARCH Act has been endorsed by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), American Family Voices, Americans for Tax Fairness, Center for Popular Democracy, Coalition on Human Needs, Demand Progress, Economic Policy Institute, HedgeClippers, Institute for Policy Studies-Program on Inequality, Main Street Alliance, MoveOn, Our Revolution, Oxfam, People’s Action, Patriotic Millionaires, Progressive Democrats of America, Responsible Wealth Project of United for a Fair Economy, Social Security Works, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Take on Wall Street, Unrig Our Economy.

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“Dark money” and the never-ending election cycle kept a qualified consumer advocate out of the Federal Communications Commission.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday undermined a key pillar of his old boss’ defense in the special counsel’s probe into 2020 election interference, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.”

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a damning report confirming that party affiliation in Ohio and Florida was a risk for dying of Covid-19.

...in the summer of 2021, after vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate among Republican voters began to increase relative to the excess death rate among Democratic voters; in the fall of 2021, the gap widened further. Between March 2020 and December 2021, excess death rates were 2.8 percentage points (15%) higher for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters (95% PI, 1.6-3.7 percentage points).

After April 1, 2021, when all adults were eligible for vaccines in Florida and Ohio, this gap widened from −0.9 percentage point (95% PI, −2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) between March 2020 and March 2021, to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis, or a 43% difference.

I've posted on this topic previously, but this article goes into further detail, especially regarding the spike in GOP deaths relative to Dems after vaccination was available.

Direct link to the AMA study for reference