October 18, 2021

Ex-intel official who created controversial Trump Russia dossier speaks out

(CNN) Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the man behind the "Steele Dossier" that claimed Russian officials held compromising information on former President Donald Trump, defended the claims made in the dossier in his first on-camera interview since it was revealed in 2017.

In a clip from an upcoming ABC News documentary released Sunday, Steele said he decided to sit down for an interview now because he wanted to "set the record straight" about his role in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. ABC released a portion of the documentary featuring parts of Steele's interview on Sunday, with the full documentary slated to be released on Hulu early Monday morning.

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"I think the first and most important (reason) is that the problems we identified back in 2016 haven't gone away, and arguably have actually got worse, and I thought it was important to come and set the record straight," Steele said.

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"I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it," Steele said.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/10/17/politics/christopher-steele-dossier-trump/index.html

I’m glad he is standing by it. I never bought into the effort to discredit him.

October 8, 2021

Joe Biden restores sacred Bears Ears

“​​This may be the easiest thing I've ever done so far as President.”

That’s what President Joe Biden said Friday afternoon, speaking from outside the White House, to celebrate the presidential action that will expand two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Democratic lawmakers, tribal leaders and environmentalists attended the White House ceremony.

Biden's action reversed a decision by President Donald Trump that opened for mining and other development hundreds of thousands of acres of rugged lands sacred to Indigenous peoples and home to ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.

The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in southern Utah encompass more than 3.2 million acres — an area nearly the size of Connecticut — and were created by Democratic administrations under a century-old law that allows presidents to protect sites considered historic, geographically or culturally important.

https://indiancountrytoday.com/.amp/news/joe-biden-to-expand-2-utah-national-monuments?__twitter_impression=true

October 2, 2021

House passes 30-day surface transportation funding extension amid infrastructure stalemate

Source: The Hill

The House on Friday night passed legislation to reauthorize funding for highway and transit construction programs that lapsed the day before in an effort to avert thousands of worker furloughs and interrupted projects.

Lawmakers passed the 30-day stopgap measure on a bipartisan basis with a vote of 365-51.

The short-term extension now heads to the Senate, which is expected to clear it as soon as Saturday and send it to President Biden's desk.

The roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which the Senate previously passed in August, would renew the lapsed highway and transit programs through the rest of this month. But since the House has yet to take up that bill amid Democratic infighting over negotiations for the sweeping social benefits package, the transit programs expired with the end of the fiscal year on Thursday.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/574990-house-passes-30-day-surface-transportation-funding-extension-amid?amp&__twitter_impression=true

September 25, 2021

'How Many More Deaths Must It Take?' Barbados Leader Rips Rich Nations in Fierce UN Speech

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley delivered a scathing indictment of the rich and powerful during her address at the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, condemning the leaders of wealthy countries for refusing to take basic steps to end the coronavirus pandemic, tackle the climate emergency, and usher in a more just society.

"How much more global temperature rise must there be before we end the burning of fossil fuels?"

"If I used the speech prepared for me to deliver today, it would be a repetition, a repetition of what you have heard from others and also from me," Mottley said at the outset of her remarks, which came after the leaders of African and Latin American nations decried the massive, persistent inequities in coronavirus vaccine distribution that have left billions of people without access to lifesaving shots.

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"How many more variants of Covid-19 must arrive, how many more, before a worldwide action plan for vaccinations will be implemented?" Mottley said. "How many more deaths must it take before 1.7 billion excess vaccines in the possession of the advanced countries of the world will be shared with those who have simply no access?"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/25/how-many-more-deaths-must-it-take-barbados-leader-rips-rich-nations-fierce-un-speech?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1632592998

September 25, 2021

Cisneros Slams Cuellar for Being Only House Democrat to Vote Against Abortion Rights

Texas congressional candidate Jessica Cisneros on Friday slammed Rep. Henry Cuellar—the U.S. House member she is aiming to unseat—for being the lone Democrat to vote against legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law.

Shortly after the House passed the Women's Health Protection Act by a vote of 218-211 Friday afternoon, Cisneros released a video calling out Cuellar for "once again" refusing to "stand up for South Texans' reproductive freedom." Every House Republican who was present joined Cuellar in voting no.

"He's chosen to stand with his Republican allies and turn his back to South Texans' families and our healthcare," said Cisneros, who narrowly lost to Cuellar in the 2020 Democratic primary for Texas' 28th Congressional District. Cisneros announced in August that she would challenge Cuellar again, and she quickly won the support of NARAL Pro-Choice America and other reproductive rights groups.

"Even after our state's Republican leaders just passed the country's most restrictive abortion ban, almost ending all abortion access in Texas, our congressman refuses to defend our reproductive rights," Cisneros said in her video statement.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/24/cisneros-slams-cuellar-being-only-house-democrat-vote-against-abortion-rights?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1632511993

September 24, 2021

Ted Cruz Shut Down Over Question About 'Racist' Voter ID Laws

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1441468435725225985

September 24, 2021

'This is big': House passes amendment to cut US complicity in Saudi bombing of Yemen

Anti-war groups on Thursday welcomed the U.S. House's passage of an amendment to the annual defense bill that would cut off the flow to Saudi Arabia of U.S. logistical support and weapons "that are bombing civilians" in Yemen.

"This is BIG," tweeted the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) following the afternoon 219-207 vote, which fell largely along party lines, with just 11 Democrats voting "no."

https://twitter.com/FCNL/status/1441130441491234816

At issue was Rep. Ro Khanna's (D-Calif.) amendment to H.R. 4350, the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It's one of dozens of amendments to the NDAA under consideration by the House this week.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/ro-khanna-yemen-war/

September 21, 2021

Bay Area cities join lofty Biden plan to tackle homelessness

The Biden administration launched a new push Monday to house 100,000 Americans by the end of 2022 as the mayors of the Bay Area’s three biggest cities — all struggling with homelessness on a massive scale — jumped on board.

The House America initiative, which also aims to create at least 20,000 new affordable homes nationwide, asks city, county and state leaders to publicly commit to housing more people and building low-income units using new federal funds. In exchange, federal officials will offer support and guidance to help them meet their goals.

It’s a major signal from President Joe Biden’s administration that ending homelessness is a top priority despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and worries that expiring federal and state eviction protections soon will push more people onto the streets.

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“Oakland is in this 1,000%,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said, accepting the Biden administration’s challenge during a virtual event launching the program. Oakland has pledged to house 1,500 people and build 132 new units of housing by the end of next year, Schaaf said. More than 4,000 people are homeless in Oakland, according to the city’s most recent count.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/09/20/bay-area-cities-join-lofty-biden-plan-to-tackle-homelessness/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

September 21, 2021

Former Rand Paul aide, pardoned by Trump, charged with funneling Russian money into 2016 election

A former campaign staffer for US Sen. Rand Paul has been charged with channeling money from Russia into the 2016 presidential election, the US Department of Justice said Monday.

In an unsealed indictment, dated September 9, prosecutors allege Jesse Benton "conspired to illegally funnel thousands of dollars of foreign money from a Russian foreign national" into the campaign.

In October 2016, Benton received a $100,000 wire transfer from the unnamed Russian national, the indictment states, promising him that he would get to "meet a celebrity" at a fundraiser in Philadelphia on September 22, 2016.

Prosecutors do not name the candidate, but former President Donald Trump was hosting a fundraiser that night at the Ritz-Carlton in Center City, Philadelphia.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-rand-paul-aide-pardoned-by-trump-charged-with-funneling-russian-money-into-2016-election/ar-AAOEapd?ocid=st

September 20, 2021

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, other Democrats push new voting rights bill

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and other Senate Democrats are charging forward on a new voting bill, but there is no indication they will be able to win Republican support in the chamber, or change the filibuster, to pass the plan.

Yet Klobuchar said in an interview that she views the latest legislation as "a major breakthrough" following negotiations in July and August that resulted in West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a key Democratic swing vote, signing on to the new bill.

"It's the first agreement that we've had on the substance," Klobuchar said. "And you really have to start on an agreement on the substance before you get to the next step."

The downscaled proposal was rolled out last week after an effort to start debate on a more sweeping election overhaul failed on the Senate floor in June due to GOP opposition. The new version, dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act, comes in a year when some GOP-led states tightened voting laws in the wake of former President Donald Trump's widespread false attacks on the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.

https://m.startribune.com/klobuchar-pushes-new-voting-rights-bill/600098542/?clmob=y&c=n