Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli government officials vowed to continue their military attacks on Gaza as mob violence consumed the streets. As international leaders call for peace, the United States is sending a special envoy, for what it’s worth.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to flip the script on free trade deals. It’s invoked a special provision to protect worker rights at a General Motors factory in Mexico.

And lastly, Bernie Sanders is taking on the biggest wasters of taxpayer money in the country: US military contractors. And just to drive the message home, he’s quoting a Republican president while doing it.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Here’s an ominous phrase, if there ever was one. The Guardian reports that Israel will not stop its military operation in Gaza until it achieves what the country’s defense minister called, "complete quiet.". Airstrikes and rocket fire continued throughout the day yesterday. Sirens sounded every few minutes in communities close to the border. The Israeli military said it had killed four senior Hamas commanders and a dozen more Hamas operatives in a series of strikes. Hamas’s armed wing later confirmed the death of a senior commander and a number of fighters. After the Israeli military operation, Hamas fired fifty rockets towards Ashdod, a city close to the Gaza border. A spokesperson for the Israeli army said he expected the fighting to intensify. Gaza’s death toll has risen to fifty three, including fourteen children. More than three hundred people have been wounded. Six Israeli civilians, including two children, have been killed by rocket fire and dozens wounded.

According to Al-Jazeera, violence between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews has resumed. In Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, a group of black-clad Israelis smashed the windows of an Arab-owned ice cream shop. Israeli ultranationalists could be seen chanting Death to Arabs! on live television.

Speaking to reporters, President Joe Biden said he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. Biden said he hopes and expects the violence to end soon, but also said Israel has a right to defend itself. Which means the violence will continue, as promised.

US Acts On Worker Rights In Mexico

Can trade agreements be used for good instead of mere greed? The Washington Post reports that, in the first action of its kind, the Biden administration has formally asked the Mexican government to investigate reports of serious violations of worker rights at a General Motors plant in central Mexico. The move marks the first use of an innovative labor rights provision in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which took effect last year. It also represents the first time the US government has acted on its own to raise labor concerns under any trade agreement, though Washington has previously done so in response to complaints lodged by unions. Yesterday’s action showcased the administration’s aim to deliver a worker-centered trade policy, according to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. At the issue is whether workers at the GM facility, which exports pickup trucks to the United States, are being denied their right to organize and to bargain collectively.

The Post reports that under a 2019 Mexican labor law, workers must vote to reaffirm or reject existing contracts negotiated by company-controlled unions. Voting at the Silao plant began last month. But amid reports that the company-controlled union was tampering with ballots, the Mexican government intervened to halt the vote. The Labor Ministry now will organize a second vote without the union’s direct involvement. If the review finds that workers’ rights have been violated, Mexico and the US will discuss potential remedies. Here’s a suggestion: let the workers run the factory. Surely they know it best.

Sanders Lambastes Pentagon Contractors

This tale of a wholesome bipartisan effort to exercise fiscal responsibility comes from the Washington Post. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he will use his powerful new position atop the Senate Budget Committee to exercise tougher oversight over the United States’ national security establishment, including defense contracts. In an interview with the Post, Sanders criticized the Pentagon for failing to keep track of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Citing former president Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the military industrial

complex, he excoriated defense agencies over hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns on programs. And he said defense conglomerates, as taxpayer-funded entities, should face the same standard of accountability as their government counterparts. Sanders said, "We have a very powerful military industrial complex, and I don’t think they get the scrutiny that they deserve."

In letters signed jointly with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and obtained by the Post, Sanders asked executives from the top three defense contractors – Lockheed, Boeing and Raytheon – to attend a budget hearing yesterday focused on waste, fraud and abuse in the defense sector. All three companies declined to make their executives available. Lockheed Martin got $35.2 billion from taxpayers last year. That’s more than many federal agencies. Sanders has pointed to the soaring salaries of executives at defense firms and posited that spending far surpasses what the US needs to defend itself. Is it too much to ask these war profiteers to justify their existence before Congress? Apparently so!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

According to the Associated Press, US health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer’s Covid- 19 vaccine in kids as young as twelve yesterday. The American Academy of Pediatrics also urged that kids twelve and older get the Pfizer vaccine – and agreed with federal advisers that it’s fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time. Double ’em up, why not?

CBS News reports that a judge in the Derek Chauvin case has found aggravating factors exist that would allow for a longer sentence than Minnesota sentencing guidelines suggest. In this case, that means longer than ten years. The fired officer will face sentencing next month for the murder of George Floyd. One aggravating factor: Chauvin acted with particular cruelty. We know, we saw.

The New York Times reports that, in a display of loyalty to Donald Trump, Republicans moved to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from House leadership yesterday. The action came during a raucous closed-door meeting that lasted just fifteen minutes. Cheney made a defiant final speech, warning that Republicans would follow Trump to their destruction. She got booed.

The AP reports that Americans can now apply for $50 off their monthly internet bill as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected. The $3.2 billion program is part of the $900 billion December pandemic-relief package. See Get Emergency Broadband Dot Org to find out if you qualify. You can get the discount even if you owe your cable company money. Win!

AM QUICKIE - MAY 13, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli forces continue to escalate violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, destroying a 13-story residential building with airstrikes, prompting a fresh wave of rocket fire from Hamas.

Meanwhile, a federal judge dismissed the NRA’s bankruptcy plea in court, dealing another blow to the corrupt gun-rights lobbying group.

And lastly, prosecutors rule that the Atlanta spa shootings in March were hate crimes, and that they will seek the death penalty for the perpetrator.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The violence in Israel’s Gaza strip continued this week, as Israeli forces destroyed at least one 13-story residential apartment building in an airstrike. Widespread protests continued across the country, and Hamas launched a retaliatory wave of rocket attacks against the city of Tel Aviv.

The country appears to be on the brink of war.

With all the chaos, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the power dynamics between the two sides have not changed.

Hamas’s rocket attacks forced many Israeli residents into bomb shelters and killed at least three people.

But the Palestinian residents of Gaza and the West Bank, by and large, don’t have the luxury of bomb shelters. Instead, they’ve been subjected to airstrike after airstrike, on top of the heavy police persecution at protests elsewhere in the country.

The Palestinian Authority said Israel’s airstrikes had killed at least 30 people, including 10 children, and injured over 200 others.

What this shows us is that the violence is very clearly not the same on both sides. The conflict began over a legal effort by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinians from their homes, inspiring protests at a holy mosque during the end of Ramadan. In response, Israeli police attacked the mosque, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and worshipers alike.

But the status quo in Israel is backed by the most powerful government on Earth.

Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki noted her “serious concern” for the situation on Tuesday, but mentioned that the U.S. thought Hamas’s rocket attacks were “unacceptable.”

She didn’t have much to say about the airstrikes. And so it goes.

Judge Tosses NRA's Bankruptcy Filing

It’s always refreshing to hear bad news about the NRA, and the past few months have been bountiful on that front.

On Tuesday, a federal judge threw out the gun rights organization’s petition for bankruptcy, which it filed in January in an attempt to circumvent a massive corruption investigation.

New York AG Tish James is leading that investigation, which could essentially shut down the group due to a whole bunch of fishy spending and shadiness. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre is at the center of most of that mess, and clearly thought that declaring bankruptcy would help him skate away from some of the things James is going to try to nail him on, and protect his ass from the group’s board of directors.

In short, it didn’t work.

Dallas federal court judge Harlin D. Hale, in his decision, agreed with James’s office that this wasn’t how bankruptcy courts were meant to be used. It looks likely that the NRA’s board of directors won’t be pleased either, considering LaPierre has spent $5 million on bankruptcy-related expenses and a whopping $72.6 million in outside legal fees over the past three years.

But really, this all couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of bloodthirst amoral people. We wish LaPierre all the best in wriggling out of this jam.

GA Prosecutors Call Atlanta Shooting Hate Crime

Prosecutors will seek hate crime charges in the case against the Atlanta Spa shooter, who killed eight people, the majority of whom were Asian women. They will also seek the death penalty for the shooter’s crimes.

The death penalty doesn’t bring justice, only more death, but the shooter’s case will still be a test of how Georgia’s new hate crime legislation will be applied.

The Atlanta attacks came during a time of increased fear among the Asian-American community after many people of Asian descent were targeted with beatings and other violence across the country.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said that the shooter, Robert Aaron Long, chose his victims because of their quote “actual or perceived race, national origin, sex, and gender.” endquote. Hate crime penalties would add to Long’s sentence if the jury convicts him of murder.

At the time, there was fierce debate over the shooter’s motive, and his lawyers will surely try to argue that the crimes were not racially motivated.

Still, it’s hard to make that case when so many of his victims came from the same demographic: women who came to this country to make a better life, and died to a uniquely American form of violence.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Ghislane Maxwell, the former girlfriend of international pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, will go on trial on November 29. Maxwell is charged with sex trafficking a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.

A group of hackers who infiltrated the Washington D.C. police department last week released more internal personnel files, in a continuing ransomware attack. The group is threatening to reveal more confidential information if it doesn’t get paid.

Liz Cheney took to the House Floor to once again defiantly stand against Trumpism, ahead of her expected ouster from the GOP leadership tomorrow. Remember, Cheney really doesn’t like this new conservatism -- she only likes the old conservatism, which was basically the same thing but less rude.

Arizona’s GOP hopped on the voter suppression bandwagon, passing a law on Tuesday that will strike people from the automatic list to receive an early voting mail-in ballot if they don’t vote every two years.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 12, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli military and police forces continued their campaign of violence against Palestinians on Monday, killing somewhere around 20 people, including 9 children, after responding to sporadic rocket fire with several airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden announces some big changes to the country’s pandemic unemployment system, shifting the balance of power right back into the hands of the nation’s bosses.

And lastly, some good news: the Biden administration rolls back a Trump era policy and ensures that health care providers cannot discriminate against transgender patients.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Violence continues across Palestine and Israel as the Israeli military launched airstrikes on Monday, reportedly killing as many as 20 people, including nine children.

Israel launched devastating airstrikes on the Gaza strip in retailiation for a flurry of ineffective rocket fire by Hamas forces, following days of police violence against Palestinian protesters.

The airstrikes came after Hamas launched 7 rockets. They would eventually launch more than 150, lightly injuring one Israeli, according to government officials. In retaliation, Israel killed nine children and 11 other people, according to Palestinian officials.

This lopsided violence is nothing new, and it’s worth noting that Hamas’s rocket attacks came after days of police violence on protesters and peaceful worshipers alike at one of Islam’s most holy sites.

Israeli police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, injuring hundreds of people since they first began cracking down on protests on Friday night.

On Monday, right-wing Israelis contributed to the tensions by staging marches through Palestinian neighborhoods.

The current violence stems from a legal effort by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem’s Old city, but has ballooned into a country-wide campaign of violence. And as usual, only one side wields the vast majority of bombs, guns, and deadly force, while the other side is forced to mourn more deaths.

Biden Moves to Restrict Unemployment

On Monday, President Joe Biden directed the Department of labor to work with states to reinstate the work search requirements for unemployment benefits.

In case you’re not familiar with how things were, during the pandemic the government was guaranteeing that people would receive some base level of unemployment benefits whether or not they were actively looking for a job.

This was, of course, a massive boon to many families who simply couldn’t find work or couldn’t work, for all the reasons that should be evident in a massive global pandemic. It also gave lower-wage workers, particularly in service jobs, some leverage against employers who had underpaid and overworked them for years. Republicans hate this arrangement and blamed it for causing a so-called labor shortage, which of course could be solved simply by offering higher wages.

But on Monday, Biden announced that the era of kinder government benefits was ending. He said, “We’re going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.”

That sounds somewhat reasonable on paper, but what it also means is that people will basically be forced into the first job they get offered or else lose their way to pay rent. That’s a gift to employers who are looking to reinstate the status quo.

29 states have already gone back to the job search requirements that Biden was talking about, but now the final 21 will have to join them.

That means things are going to get that much harder for families who were depending on, or even, dare we say it, benefitting from the increased government assistance during the pandemic.

Trump-Era Trans Discrimination Lifted

However, things weren’t all bad on the Biden front today. Wherever you look, there’s always a barbaric Trump policy to overturn, and today was no different.

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that the Department of Health and Human Services will once again prohibit federally-funded health care organizations from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.

This reversed a Trump-era policy that, well, said the opposite, specifically saying that the 2010 affordable care act’s anti-discrimination policies didn’t protect trans people.

The Trump administration’s policies weren’t rooted in anything other than bigotry, so this is a pretty easy fix for the Biden administration -- it’s honestly surprising that it took this long.

Still, there’s some work to go to fully untangle them. The New York Times reported that the Biden Administration is still working to hash out formal provisions and new rules, such as whether the provisions apply to health insurers as well as health care providers.

This is all fine print, and of course that’s where a lot of people fall through the cracks. But with some luck and good legal work, the decision should improve some trans peoples’ access to healthcare.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The FDA officially authorized the Pfizer covid vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 15, which means another key demographic of school-age kids can get the jab. Schools have lagged behind in reopening plans, mainly due to the massive hurdles of making sure everyone is safe, and this will be a major help in getting middle and high schoolers back in the classroom.

NBC announced that it will not air the 2022 Golden Globes ceremony, after an L.A. Times investigation and other reports found that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had a systemic lack of diversity and other questionable labor practices.

The FBI blamed a new hacking group named DarkSide for the massive ransomware attack that took down the Colonial Pipeline on the East Coast this weekend, and vowed to quote “disrupt and prosecute” the group from making future attacks.

The Texas GOP is preparing for an all-out onslaught on voting rights, pushing through a bill that severely restricts access that could get signed into law as early as this week. Texas’s monstrous governor Greg Abbott has already said he’s excited to sign it, which should make it pretty clear what it would do.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 11, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli police brutally cracked down on protests over the weekend, further persecuting a Palestinian community already threatened by Israeli settlers trying to forcibly evict them from their homes.

Meanwhile, the GOP is once again in turmoil, as House leaders move to bench Liz Cheney for criticizing her own party’s entertainment of Donald Trump’s idiotic election conspiracies.

And lastly, a new report reveals that the Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records, and even sought to get their emails.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Israeli police have been running rampant throughout the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, savaging protesters and bystanders alike on Friday and Saturday nights.

The recent violence came in response to Palestinian protests over forced evictions sought by Israeli settlers. The first clash came on Friday, which Israeli police stormed a protest at the Al-Aqsa [AL-AKSA] Mosque, catching thousands of bystanders in the melee while they were at their evening prayers.

The mosque is a huge complex. It’s the third most holy site in the world for Muslims, and thousands of people were inside worshipping the final Friday of Ramadan when police stormed in. At least 205 people were injured.

On Saturday night, Police cracked down on protests across the city, injuring at least 90 protesters, including several children, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli police claim 17 of their officers have been injured.

Sunday night was more subdued, but tensions are expected to rise again on Monday, which is known as Jerusalem Day to Israelis to celebrate occupation and later annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Al Jazeera reports that right-wing Israelis are expected to march through Palestinian neighborhoods, which will surely do the opposite of calm things down.

GOP Moves to Oust Cheney

House Republicans are once again squabbling amongst themselves, this time over -- you guessed it -- loyalty to former President Donald Trump.

This time it’s Liz Cheney in the hot seat. Cheney has been openly critical of her party’s support of Trump’s stolen election theories, saying that they are quote “poisoning our democratic system.” endquote.

In response, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News on Sunday that he supports removing Cheney from her post. She’s currently the number 3 republican in the House and the party’s highest-ranking woman. McCarthy wants to replace her with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has been a staunch Trump loyalist.

Listen, we’re not going to waste any tears over Cheney, the daughter of the most famous Dick to ever hold office, but it is telling that the House GOP still isn’t humoring any critiques of Trump.

According to AP, McCarthy is generally betting that there’s no way the GOP can take back the house in 2022 without running on a strictly pro-Trump line. To be fair, he’s probably right: Trumpism is basically all the GOP has left, but it’s still a powerful ideology.

And because Trump himself is such a sensitive little baby, McCarthy knows he’s got to shut down any criticism well before those midterms hit. After all, we know that Trump’s down there in Mar a Lago glued to the TV, just waiting for people to say his name.

Trump DOJ Snagged Reporter's Cell Records

phone records of some of their journalists while they were reporting on Trump’s connections with Russia in early 2017.

According to the Post, the Justice department sent out letters to the reporters involved on May 3 of this year telling them that they’d had their phone records pulled. A Justice Department spokesperson, in some complicated legalese, effectively admitted that they were trying to figure out who had leaked to the Post during that reporting.

The Justice Department got their hands on some combination of home, cell, and work phone records from three reporters who were involved in Trump Russia reporting. They also got a court order for non-content email records, but never got the actual records themselves.

This isn’t a new thing for the Justice Department, but it is rare and troubling. According to the New York Times, the specific reporting the Justice Department was seeking had to deal with media leaks that infuriated Donald Trump.

Bill Barr was in charge of the DOJ at the time, so you can imagine how quickly he sprang to do Trump’s bidding.

Trump wasn’t the first president to aggressively pursue leakers, of course: Obama did it before him. It remains to be seen how hard Biden will crack down on reporters and their sources when these issues come before him.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The longest gas pipeline in the U.S. was forced to shut down on Friday after a cyberattack. In a vaguely worded statement, the company that owns the 5500 mile Colonial Pipeline said that it had to shut down to contain the breach, which sounds ominous. Newest reports say it may be shut for days, which could impact the fuel supply on the East Coast.

Afghanistan is still in mourning after a horrific triple bombing outside of a girls’ school in Kabul killed at least 50 people, painting an ominous picture of what the country’s future will look like after decades of U.S. occupation and a newly-resurgent Taliban.

Bo, the Portugese Water Dog adopted by the Obamas in 2009, died at the age of 12. Barack Obama said in a statement on Twitter that Bo “had a big bark but no bite,” which could be interpreted as a dig at Joe Biden’s bitey German Shepherd Major. Who knows!

New York Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang came out strongly against any notion of defunding the NYPD on Sunday, after a shooting in Times Square left three people, including a child, injured. The current number 2 in the polls, Eric Adams, is a former NYPD officer who also opposes that platform, so the nation’s biggest city probably won’t get much in the way of police reform anytime soon.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 10, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Florida has become the latest state to pass Republican legislation making it harder for people to vote. Voter advocacy groups are already challenging the new law in court.

Meanwhile, Brazilian police committed a massacre in one of Rio’s largest favelas. At least twenty five people were killed in what police described as a campaign to ensure public safety.

And lastly, the United States is reportedly turning a corner in the pandemic. Public health experts are expressing cautious optimism about declining infection numbers, but they also warn against letting our guard down too soon.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This dispatch from the Republican war on democracy comes from the Associated Press. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a major rewrite of Florida’s elections law yesterday, tightening rules around drop boxes and mail-in voting. Critics say the changes will make it harder for voters, particularly the elderly and people of color, to cast ballots. It’s the latest victory in the nationwide push by Republicans to restrict access to the polls. The campaign has been fueled by Donald Trump’s false claim that his reelection was stolen from him. Florida’s Republican legislators passed this law – without a single Democratic vote – even though they acknowledged there were no signs of fraud in the state.

The AP reports that DeSantis, widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate, clearly saw the political advantage in fighting for what his party describes as election integrity. In an extraordinary move, he staged his bill-signing live on Fox and Friends, with no other media outlets allowed. Elections supervisors did not ask for the changes, warning that some of the new rules may prove cumbersome. Voter advocates assailed the law as a blatant attempt to impede access to the polls so Republicans might retain an advantage. Patricia Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, called the law despicable, undemocratic, unconstitutional, and un-American. The league joined the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and others in assailing the new law in a federal lawsuit filed minutes after the signing. May the courts strike it down!

Rio Police Commit Massacre

The news from Brazil is ugly. The Guardian reports that at least twenty five people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers. Activists called it one of the deadliest raids in the city’s history. About two hundred members of Rio’s civil police launched their incursion into Jacarezinho (Haca-ray-zeenho) in the early hours yesterday, sprinting into the vast redbrick community as a bullet-proof helicopter circled overhead with snipers poised on each side. By lunchtime at least twenty five people were reported dead, including a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. Police and local media described the other victims as suspects but offered no immediate evidence for that claim.

Photographs and videos taken by residents and shared with the Guardian showed bloodied corpses splayed out in the favela’s narrow alleyways and beside the heavily polluted river from which Jacarezinho takes its name. Police officials and their cheerleaders in Rio’s tabloid press celebrated the mission as an essential attack on the drug gangs who have for decades used the favelas as their bases. But there was outrage from human rights activists and public security specialists as the scale of the carnage became clear. Pedro Paulo Santos Silva, a researcher from Rio’s Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship, said, " It’s extermination – there’s no other way to describe it. This was a massacre." The least we can do is bear witness.

US Pandemic Case Numbers Falling

Good news! The New York Times reports that after weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling. On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new deaths. And in New York and Chicago, officials have vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks. Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Local officials have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions. Public health experts remain cautious. But they said that while they still expect surges in the coming weeks, they do not think they will reach past peaks. The nation is recording about forty nine thousand new cases a day, the lowest number since October.

Hospitalizations have plateaued at around forty thousand, a similar level as the early fall. Nationwide, deaths are hovering around seven hundred a day, down from a peak of more than three thousand in January.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post says the pandemic could be at least temporarily throttled by July if the vast majority of people get vaccinated and continue with precautions. That’s according to a strikingly optimistic paper released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she expects the current infection numbers to continue their recent decline. She also warned against complacency. She said, "If we’re not humble at this point, we have a problem." And remember, it’s not over until it’s over everywhere.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Washington Post reports that months after the Trump administration weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, allowing industry and individuals to kill any number of birds, the Biden administration proposed a new rule that would revoke that change. The proposal announced by the Interior Department yesterday would restore protections that governed accidental killings of birds. Oil companies are mad, so you know it’s good.

According to CBS News, refusing to wear a mask or other unruly behavior on an airplane has gotten more than four thousand people banned by US airlines over the past year. Airlines have referred more than thirteen hundred passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration for unruly behavior since February, after the agency announced a zero- tolerance policy. Is it really that hard to keep your mask on?

The New York Times reports that New York City is launching a new program to provide funding to artists for public works. Officials said the city will spend $25 million on the program, called the City Artist Corps. It’s expected to create jobs for more than fifteen hundred artists. Color us excited.

Gizmodo reports that informants working for the FBI committed more than nine thousand six hundred crimes under the bureau’s supervision during Donald Trump’s first two years in office. That’s according to unclassified government reports known as Otherwise

Illegal Activity reports, which detail the number of crimes committed by what the bureau calls confidential human sources. Want to break the law? Get a cop’s permission first!

MAY 7, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

In a boost for global health equity, the US changes its position on coronavirus vaccine patents. If all goes well, corporate property rights may soon come second to boosting vaccine production.

Meanwhile, a federal judge strikes down a federal moratorium on evictions during the pandemic. That’s bad news, but, on the bright side, the Justice Department will appeal the ruling.

And lastly, some high-ranking Republicans are determined to force Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House of Representatives. The leading candidate for Cheney’s replacement is Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This encouraging news from the cutthroat global trade wars comes from the Associated Press. The Biden administration is throwing its support behind efforts to waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines in an effort to speed the end of the pandemic. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government’s position in a statement yesterday, amid World Trade Organization talks over easing global trade rules to enable more countries to produce more of the life-saving vaccines. Tai said, "This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures."

According to the AP, no consensus – which is required under WTO rules – was expected to emerge from the ambassadors’ meeting yesterday and today. But WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell pointed to a change in tone after months of wrangling. Authors of the proposal, which has faced resistance from countries with influential pharmaceutical industries, have been revising it in hopes of making it more palatable. The argument centers on lifting patents, copyrights and similar trade protections to help expand the production of vaccines during supply shortages. The issue has become more pressing with a surge in cases in India, the world’s second-most populous country and a key producer of vaccines. More than one hundred countries have come out in support of the proposal. And a group of one hundred and ten members of Congress – all Democrats – sent Biden a letter last month that called on him to support the waiver. I guess he listened.

DOJ Will Appeal Evictions Ruling

Consider it a temporary setback. Politico reports that the Justice Department will appeal a federal judge’s decision vacating a national eviction moratorium, and seek a stay of the ruling pending appeal. US District Judge for the District of Columbia Dabney Friedrich ruled yesterday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority when it imposed a nationwide ban on evictions for nonpayment of rent in September. The order cited a 1944 public health law giving the Department of Health and Human Services certain powers to prevent communicable diseases from crossing state lines. Congress and the Biden administration have since extended the ban, which is slated to expire June 30.

HHS Secretary Xavier (Ha-vee-err) Becerra said the administration would fight the ruling. He said, "I believe the president will want to try to correct this, or certainly continue to fight to make sure we don't see Americans dispossessed and out on the street." Landlords and real estate agents have challenged the ban in courts around the country, arguing that it is an unconstitutional power grab by the CDC. They say it has devastating consequences for landlords who now must subsidize struggling tenants’ housing under the threat of criminal penalties and hefty fines. Courts have issued conflicting rulings. The Alabama and Georgia chapters of the National Association of Realtors, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, brought the challenge decided yesterday. You may have won this round, landlords and lobbyists, but the fight’s not over yet.

Republicans Seek Cheney’s Ouster

This update on the Republican psyche comes from the New York Times. House Republicans moved decisively yesterday to expel Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from their leadership ranks for rejecting Donald Trump’s election lies. Meanwhile, top party leaders and the former president endorsed a replacement who has styled herself as a Trump loyalist. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the number two Republican in the chamber, became the highest-ranking figure to call for Cheney’s ouster and the elevation of

Representative Elise Stefanik of New York in her place as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, was also working the phones behind the scenes, urging colleagues to support Stefanik. Trump, who has seethed over Cheney’s criticism of him, piled on a short time later, deriding her as a "warmongering fool" and endorsing Stefanik.

The Times reports that Stefanik wasted no time after Trump’s endorsement in declaring her intentions. In a post on Twitter, she thanked him and said Republicans were unified and focused on winning Congressional seats in 2022. A spokesman for Cheney signaled yesterday that she was gearing up for a messy fight. The turmoil could come to a head as early as next week, when House Republicans may call a vote to replace Cheney. Speaking at the White House yesterday, President Joe Biden expressed bewilderment at the leadership fight, saying Republicans are further away from figuring out what they stand for than he thought. It seems it’s still Trump’s party.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

According to the latest enforcement data, obtained by the Washington Post, the number of deportations carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month fell to the lowest level on record. ICE deported two thousand nine hundred and sixty two immigrants in April. It’s the first time the monthly figure has dipped below three thousand. The less ICE does, the better, if you ask me.

The Guardian reports that environmental groups have accused a European prince of killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on trophy hunting large carnivores. NGOs allege that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel Von Und Zu Liechtenstein. Rest in peace Arthur, we hardly knew ye.

The AP reports that more than two hundred global organizations urged the UN Security Council yesterday to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar. The military there has killed at least seven hundred and sixty nine people since the February 1st coup, and detained several thousand activists, journalists, civil servants and politicians. Which is a good reason to stop selling them bullets.

According to the New York Times, a Facebook-appointed panel yesterday upheld the social network’s ban of Donald Trump after the insurrection in Washington in January. Facebook’s Oversight Board ruled the social network was right to bar Trump, saying he created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible. Not to mention his constant whining!

MAY 6, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

It’s an economic scourge that costs workers at least $15 billion a year. It’s called wage theft, and a new report explains why corporations keep getting away with it.

Meanwhile, did the US government kill a young Black Panther activist in 1969? A new bill by one of Fred Hampton’s former comrades, Congressman Bobby Rush, seeks to open up the FBI’s files on Hampton’s case and others.

And lastly, the new federal official in charge of student loans has a record of taking on shady lenders. Hear why consumer advocates are praising the Biden administration’s appointment of Richard Cordray this week.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This tale of everyday corporate crime from the Associated Press. Essential workers struggling through the pandemic are facing another hazard of hard times: employers who steal their wages. Companies that hire child care workers, gas station clerks, restaurant servers and security guards are among the businesses most likely to get caught cheating their employees. That’s according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of minimum wage and overtime violations from the US Department of Labor. In 2019 alone, the agency cited about eight thousand five hundred employers for taking about $287 million from workers. Some major US corporations were among the worst offenders. They include Halliburton, G4S Wackenhut and Circle-K stores.

According to the AP, victims of wage theft toil on the lower rungs of the workforce. Danielle Wynne, a $10-an-hour convenience store clerk in Florida, said her boss ordered her to work off the clock. Ruth Palacios, a janitor from Mexico, earned less than minimum wage to disinfect a New York City hospital at the height of the pandemic. Companies have little incentive to follow the law. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, which investigates federal wage-theft complaints, rarely penalizes repeat offenders. On top of that, the division often lets businesses avoid repaying employees all the money they’re owed. Jenn Round, a labor expert at Rutgers University, said some companies do a cost-benefit analysis and realize it’s cheaper to violate the law, even if they get caught. Sounds like a great reason to increase fines for wage theft!

Bill Would Open COINTELPRO Records

It’s time for some truth. The Washington Post reports that a Democratic lawmaker introduced new legislation yesterday that would force the government to reveal decades-old FBI files about domestic spying on civil rights and peace activists. Illinois Democratic Representative Bobby Rush is seeking answers about the killing of Fred Hampton, a Black Panther activist targeted by an FBI informant and shot by police in Chicago in 1969. The congressman, who helped found the Illinois Black Panther Party and blames the FBI for Hampton’s death, said the files should hold important details about the bureau’s activities. The FBI declined to comment.

The Post says the FBI’s investigation of Hampton was part of a larger domestic intelligence gathering effort by the FBI called COINTELPRO, short for Counterintelligence Program. It entailed infiltrating, harassing, and sowing division among groups involved in constitutionally protected political activism. The restrictions imposed on the FBI in the wake of COINTELPRO have come under renewed scrutiny in recent months. Some have argued the FBI has interpreted the rules too narrowly, allowing the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol to be planned in plain view. Rush said he would welcome any conservatives’ support if that helps provide answers about the domestic spying program. Rush’s bill would require all COINTELPRO files to be made public within six months of the law’s passage. It would also remove the J. Edgar Hoover name from the FBI headquarters building. Maybe they should call it the Fred Hampton Memorial FBI Building.

Consumer Advocate Takes Over Student Loans

Here’s some hopeful news on the personnel front. The Post reports that Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has been named to head the federal aid office that oversees the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. Cordray led the bureau’s crackdown on consumer abuses in debt collection, student loan servicing and for-profit colleges, garnering the respect of advocates and drawing the ire of those industries. His selection signals tougher oversight of the Education Department’s contractors and enforcement of the rules governing federal student aid.

According to the Post, Cordray will arrive at the department as the Biden administration grapples with its authority to cancel a portion of federal student loans, a policy championed by one of Cordray’s chief supporters, Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts praised his appointment Monday, saying she is, "very glad he will get to apply his fearlessness and expertise to protecting student loan borrowers." During his six-year tenure at the CFPB, Cordray frequently clashed with the financial industry and conservatives over his aggressive regulation. His efforts to weed out poor servicing of student loans and predatory career training schools at times put him at odds with the Education Department. The CFPB under Cordray’s direction also brought some of the most high-profile student lending cases in recent years. Among them: a lawsuit against the for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges for steering students into private loans that had interest rates as high as fifteen percent. Parasites! Your time is up.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Guardian reports that the United Nations has condemned the violent repression of protests in Colombia, after police attacks left at least eighteen dead and eighty seven people missing. Riot police have rampaged across the smoke-filled streets, shooting protesters at point-blank range and charging at crowds with their motorcycles. Protests began peacefully with a nationwide general strike last Wednesday. Solidarity to all facing state violence.

Officials told NBC News that the man who tried to drive into CIA headquarters in Virginia on Monday has died of his injuries after being shot by FBI agents who believed he had a bomb. The man, Roy Gordon Cole, was known to the CIA because he had tried to drive into its heavily guarded facility before. No explosives were found.

The AP reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday failed to meet a midnight deadline to put together a new governing coalition. The news raises the possibility that his Likud party could be pushed into the opposition for the first time in twelve years. Feels like forever, though.

According to the Washington Post, President Joe Biden yesterday set a goal of seventy percent of adult Americans having at least one coronavirus vaccine shot by the Fourth of July. The administration is also taking steps to make vaccine more accessible, including directing pharmacies to offer walk-in appointments, redirecting federal resources to support pop-up clinics and sending more doses to rural health clinics. Whatever it takes, we’re in!

MAY 5, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Biden Administration announced that it would increase the country’s refugee admissions cap after weeks of criticism for continuing Trump’s barbaric policies.

Meanwhile, experts believe that thanks to vaccine skeptics and dangerous variants of the disease, the U.S. is unlikely to ever reach herd immunity from COVID-19.

And lastly, the EPA makes a bold move to limit the use of toxic greenhouse gases in the Biden administrations first major step against climate change.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

After weeks of pressure, the Biden Administration is backing down from its horrible stance on immigration.

The White House announced on Monday that it would raise the national cap on refugee admissions from just 15,000 to 62,500.

For reference, 15,000 was the minuscule number of people the Trump administration allowed in. When Biden took office, he promised to change Trump’s brutal immigration policies, but for months still maintained the Trump quotas, despite widespread criticism.

Now, Biden says he’s raising the cap, and will set it at an even higher number of 125,000 next fiscal year. But his administration also noted that he doesn’t think they’ll actually reach even the 62,500 cap this year, which is all the more embarrassing considering how many refugees other countries have taken in.

What he didn’t mention, however, is that other key Trump policies are still in place, such as the freeze of the asylum system under a legally-shaky provision of U.S. law.

It’s pretty obvious we’ve got a long way to go to care for less fortunate people looking to make a better life in this country.

Scientists Say We Blew Our Shot at Herd Immunity

Our response to coronavirus has been building toward one thing: the point when enough people are vaccinated that the disease can’t reliably spread.

This is generally known as “herd immunity,” but unfortunately, scientists have bad news. With the way things are going, we may never get there.

The biggest issues facing us right now are the prevalence of coronavirus variants and slipping vaccine rates. In other words, the disease is mutating and people aren’t getting vaccinated fast enough to wipe it out.

Together, those are enough that scientists have a quote “widespread consensus” that we’re not going to make it to the herd immunity threshold, according to the New York Times.

That means the virus is going to continue to spread through the country in the future, albeit at levels the scientists are calling a manageable threat. The new goal isn’t to completely wipe out the disease, but just mitigate its spread and protect people from whatever variants may crop up.

The government has stayed away from herd immunity messaging for a while now because of these issues, and it didn’t help that the right wing anti-maskers coopted it into a theory that the disease would go away on its own.

But without widespread immunity to the disease through vaccinations, we simply aren’t going to get there. COVID will be around for a long time to come.

EPA Cracks Down on Gas

The Environmental Protection Agency moved on Monday to take one of its boldest actions against greenhouse gases.

The agency proposed strictly regulating hydrofluorocarbons [HYDRO FLURRO CARBONS], or HFCs as they’re called. HFCs are man made chemicals that are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming. They’re commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning.

The EPA’s new plan would begin to take effect in 2022, and would seek to reduce the production and importation of HFCs by 85 percent over the following 15 years. The agency estimates that by 2050, that change will eliminate the equivalent of about 3 years worth of emissions from America’s power sector.

Biden is clearly hoping that this aggressive policy will make a dent in his goal of cutting U.S. emissions in half by 2035. Of course, he won’t be president by then, and there’s no guarantee a more cut-throat capitalist won’t shove us right back into the arms of natural gas. And while a

crackdown on dangerous refrigeration gases is certainly important, it’s far from the biggest driver of climate change.

Still, if this is the kind of plan the EPA is going to lead with under Biden, it could be a sign of good things to come.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were getting divorced on Monday, in what would usually be a non-story but in this case could have profound repercussions for the future of scientific research and the entire nonprofit sector. Makes you think that maybe relying on the whims of billionaires to finance public goods isn’t the best system!

The FDA is expected to authorize children as young as 12 to receive the Pfizer vaccine by early next week, letting another block of school-age kids get protected over the summer holidays before returning to the classroom in the fall.

Facebook’s oversight board has finished deliberations as to what they’re going to do with Donald Trump’s account, which was banned four months ago. They’ll announce the decision at 9am on Wednesday.

A new study showed that patients who received a combination of the drug MDMA and talking therapy reported a dramatic improvement in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which could be a major boon as advocates seek widespread medical approval for the drug.

MAY 4 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Biden administration released the Trump administration’s secret set of rules for carrying out drone strikes, prompting new calls for him to end targeted killings once and for all.

Meanwhile, police departments across the country are struggling to get their cops to take the coronavirus vaccine, despite plentiful access.

And finally, Austin voters brought back the city’s controversial public tent law, which effectively criminalized homelessness and would further destabilize the lives of many unhoused people.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Biden administration released a set of confidential rules used by the Trump administration to authorize drone strikes, after the ACLU and New York Times filed suit to uncover the documents.

Biden suspended Trump’s rules when it came into power, and began a widespread review of the government’s use of force policies in March. But it has not, of course, ended the general U.S. policy of killing whoever it wants with drone strikes.

The documents show that under Trump, individual military commanders were given a broad latitude to authorize strikes, with plenty of wiggle room when it came to skirting guidelines meant to prevent civilians from being harmed.

The Biden white house’s review found that Trump’s rules were even more lenient when commanders were certain women and children wouldn’t be injured, even if adult male civilians were nearby.

Under Biden, strikes require direct White House approval. But approval or not, that still means that they happen.

Vaccine The Only Shot Cops Won't Take

America’s police officers were some of the very first people to become eligible for the Coronavirus vaccine, and yet guess what? They’re simply not getting it.

The Washington Post reports that in many police departments across the nation, the vaccination rate is on par or even lower than the general public, despite easy access to the jab.

For example, in Las Vegas, only 39 percent of cops are vaxxed. In Atlanta, it’s 36 percent. In Columbus, Ohio, it’s only 28. These are big departments!

Police unions, meanwhile, are strongly against making the vaccination mandatory for their cops, repeating the “personal decision” line that we’re hearing all over.

The Post reports that most cops are avoiding the vaccine for the same reasons the general public is struggling with: skepticism, paranoia, and the belief that since many of them had the disease already, they’re not going to catch it again.

As the Post points out, this is a massive risk not only to the health of the cops, but to the health of every community member they interact with. Since they’re refusing to get the jab, they’re putting every person they speak with at a traffic stop or routine interaction at even more risk than they were before.

Austin Criminalizes Homelessness

Austin voters approved restoring the city’s controversial public camping ban, a brutal law that effectively criminalized homelessness in the city.

The law specifically prohibits camping near downtown and UT Austin, areas where many unhoused people live. It also makes it a crime to ask for money or panhandle in certain areas.

Austin had similar bans in effect till 2019, when the City Council overturned them, correctly realizing that they were just contributing to overpolicing of already vulnerable groups of people. Forcing homeless people off the streets and into jail for the crime of trying to find a place to sleep isn’t going to end the problem, just make people in a desperate situation that much worse off.

Still, the public campaign to reinstate the bans was immensely successful, as the city passed the proposition by around 58 to 42 percent. They had pretty significant support from above, as Texas’s notorious GOP governor Gregg Abbott told the city that if it didn’t reinstate the bans, the state would do it for them. The PAC organized around the bill also raked in $1.2 million.

Activists at the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition and other groups fought the bill to the end, noting that it would disproportionately affect black and brown people and force even more of them into the jail and prison system.

The bans will go back in place on May 11, which will surely be a hard day for many people in the city.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Crowds of Trump supporters booed and heckled Mitt Romney during his speech at the Utah State Republican Convention on Saturday, which should dispel any notion that Romney will have much luck in any future national GOP primary.

Speaking of embarrassing public appearances, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn apparently forgot the words to the pledge of allegiance while at a Bikers for Trump rally organized by crook lawyer Lin Wood. Sad!

If there was any question as to where Mitch McConnell’s priorities are, Biden’s big infrastructure plan would almost certainly give the Republican Majority Leader the money to fix a massive, vitally important bridge in his home state. But despite trying to find a fix for it for years, McConnell’s partisanship will always come before his constituents, and he’s resolutely against the bill.

Will Biden close Guantanamo Bay? Boy. I dunno. In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said this noncommittal quote: We believe that it should be, that's certainly a goal, but it's something that we'll bring some focus to in the months ahead.” endquote. Whatever that means!

MAY 3, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

President Joe Biden’s Labor Secretary, Marty Walsh, has signaled his department may take a stand for gig workers’ rights. It would be long overdue and much welcomed by millions.

Meanwhile, a new study confirms what many social justice protesters observed last summer: tear gas really messes with people’s bodies. So how do we get police to stop using it?

And lastly, Democrats in Congress aren’t waiting around for the White House to act on one item on the progressive agenda. Bernie Sanders is among those leading the charge for a major Medicare expansion.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Big Tech has been systematically cheating people, and not only customers. A lot of gig workers in the United States should be classified as employees who deserve work benefits, President Biden’s labor secretary said yesterday, according to Reuters. The comments suggest a shift in policy that is likely to raise costs for companies that depend on contractors such as Uber and Lyft. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a son of Irish immigrants and a former union member, has been expected to boost the Biden Administration’s efforts to expand workers’ protections and deliver a win for the country’s organized labor movement.

Walsh told Reuters that in a lot of cases gig workers should be classified as employees, and in some cases they are not treated respectfully. As many as fifty five million people in the United States were gig workers – or thirty four percent of the workforce – in 2017, according to the International Labor Organization. The total was projected to rise to forty three percent in 2020. Walsh’s views on the issue could usher in new rulings from the Labor Department, which sets legal guidelines for how employers treat workers. Walsh said the Department will have conversations with companies that employ gig labor in the coming months to make sure workers have access to consistent wages, sick time, health care and "all of the things that an average employee in America can access."

Subsequently, Reuters reports, shares of Uber fell as much as eight percent while Lyft dived as much as twelve percent. Doordash fell nearly nine percent and Grubhub was down three percent. Boo-hoo. Treat your workers right or we’ll make you do it!

Study: Tear Gas Affects Menstruation

Expect lawsuits after this one, folks. The Guardian says that more than a thousand people reported lasting health effects after being exposed to teargas during protests in Portland, Oregon, last summer, according to a newly published scientific study. Nearly nine hundred people reported abnormal menstrual cycles, including intense cramping and increased bleeding, that began or persisted days after their initial exposure to the teargas. Hundreds of others complained of other negative health impacts, including severe headaches, nausea, diarrhea, and mental health concerns. The new research, based on an online survey of more than twenty two hundred people, challenges claims that the health consequences of being teargassed are minor and temporary.

According to the Guardian, it is also the first published, peer-reviewed study to confirm a link between teargas and abnormal menstruation. The connection was widely discussed by American protesters on social media and in news reports last year. Participants in racial justice protests against police violence last summer in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Rochester and other cities told media outlets that their exposure to teargas had been followed by unexpected bleeding, unusually painful cramps, and other disruptions of their typical menstrual cycles. Last July, Oregon Public Broadcast interviewed twenty six protesters, ages seventeen to forty three, who said that exposure to teargas had affected their periods. Some described large blood clots, others cramps that felt like sharp rocks. One twenty nine year old protester told OPB, "We’re not paranoid. This isn’t a coincidence. Something’s going on." It seems they were right.

Democrats Push Medicare Expansion

It’s not Medicare for All, but it’s Medicare for... More. The Washington Post reports that Congressional Democrats are planning to pursue a massive expansion of Medicare as part of President Biden’s new $1.8 trillion economic relief package, defying the White House after it opted against including a major health overhaul as part of its plan. The expansion push

comes as Biden stressed in his first address to Congress on Wednesday that he is still committed to making health care more affordable. They specifically aim to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to either fifty five or sixty, expand the range of health services the entitlement covers and grant the government new powers to negotiate prescription drug prices. Party lawmakers say their approach could offer new, improved or cheaper coverage to millions of older Americans nationwide.

The Post reports that roughly one hundred House and Senate Democrats, led by Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, encouraged Biden to include the overhaul as part of his latest package, known as the American Families Plan. Yet Biden opted only to propose additional subsidies for Americans who purchase their health insurance, disappointing many lawmakers. Sanders said Wednesday he would absolutely pursue a Medicare expansion as lawmakers begin to translate Biden’s economic vision into legislation.

But in an early sign of trouble, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia told the Post he opposes expanding Medicare eligibility. Manchin said, "No, I’m not for it, period." Rethinking Medicare also risks touching off a fierce lobbying barrage on the part of health insurers and pharmaceutical giants. The corporate opposition could add to the political obstacles facing Biden’s economic agenda. But ultimately, Democrats are in the majority, people need healthcare, and voters will remember what was done – even if it’s nothing.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly passed a $35 billion bill designed to bolster states’ water infrastructure, NBC News reports. Legislators pointed to the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, and water outages in Texas this past winter as evidence of the need for urgent action. So it boggles the mind why one of the two votes against the bill was from Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

The three Georgia men charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery are now facing federal hate crime charges as well, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday, according to BuzzFeed News. The federal charges came more than a year after the twenty five-year-old Black man was followed by the three white men while he was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, told to stop at gunpoint, and shot. You may remember that, at first, no charges were filed at all in this case.

Powered by consumers and fueled by government aid, the US economy is achieving a remarkably fast recovery from the recession that ripped through the nation last year, according to the Associated Press. The number of people seeking unemployment aid – a rough reflection of layoffs – last week reached its lowest point since the pandemic struck. The numbers may be encouraging, but they’re just numbers. Consider us cautiously optimistic.

US flights carrying urgent coronavirus aid for India were en route yesterday, the Washington Post reports. The US government will deliver more than $100 million worth of supplies for overstretched hospitals and front-line health-care workers in India, including oxygen support, personal protective equipment, therapeutics and rapid diagnostic tests. Here’s hoping it gets where it’s needed quickly, and saves some lives.

APRIL 30, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn