Biden Will Try to Pass ‘Build Back Better’ Elements Piecemeal

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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would need to shed some key elements of his signature $1.8 trillion Build Back Better legislation to get support from U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.  Biden made a big push in December to win passage in Congress of the spending bill. It would provide billions of dollars to tackle climate change along with money for universal preschool, paid family leave and other social safety nets.  However, Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, pulled his support after citing concerns about the deficit and inflation.  “I think we can break the package up,more

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US Democrats’ Push for Voting Law Changes Likely to Fail

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U.S. Democrats’ yearlong effort to overhaul the country’s voting rules comes to a head Wednesday night in the Senate, but indications are their quest likely will fail. As debate began in the politically divided 100-member chamber, there was no sign that any Republicans would support the plan, which would allow for national oversight of elections to override new voting rules enacted by 19 Republican-controlled state legislatures.  There also was no indication that two key centrist Democrats — Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin — would drop their opposition to altering the Senate legislative rules so the election law legislation could bemore

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Bills Target Insider Trading by Members of US Congress

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An effort to bar members of Congress from buying and selling stock in public companies is gaining momentum in Washington after a series of revelations that dozens of lawmakers violated financial disclosure requirements, often in ways that suggested they were profiting from advance knowledge of issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.   Last week, Georgia Senator John Ossoff and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, both Democrats, introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, a proposal that would require members of Congress and their immediate families to place any stock they own into a blind trust, making it impossible for them tomore

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US Senators to Discuss Russia-Ukraine Tensions

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A group of Republican U.S. senators is due to speak to reporters Wednesday in Washington about U.S. concerns of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The group includes Republicans from the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.  Three of those members — Senators Kevin Cramer, Roger Wicker and Rob Portman — were part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that met with Ukrainian officials this week to reinforce U.S. support for Ukraine and its defensive needs.  Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was also on the trip, told reporters Monday after the lawmakers met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that themore

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Harris Still Struggling to Define Herself 1 Year Into Vice President’s Job

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President Joe Biden put the full weight of his presidency behind voting rights action last week, heading to Capitol Hill to push Democrats to change Senate rules to pass legislation.  Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Biden tapped to take the lead on passing voting rights legislation in June — wasn’t there.  Both White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Harris aides had no clear answer when asked why the vice president hadn’t joined Biden in the meeting.  It was yet another example of the difficulty Harris has faced throughout her first year in office, as she’s struggled to definemore

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Rudy Giuliani Among Trump Allies Subpoenaed By Jan. 6 Panel

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The House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection issued subpoenas Tuesday to Rudy Giuliani and other members of Donald Trump’s post-election legal team who filed multiple lawsuits claiming election fraud that were roundly rejected by the courts but gave rise to the lie that Trump did not really lose the 2020 presidential contest.  The committee is continuing to widen its scope into Trump’s orbit, this time demanding information and testimony from Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn. All four publicly defended the president and his baseless voter fraud claims in the months after the election.   “The four individuals we’vemore

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Biden Faces Tepid Approval at Start of Year 2, Pandemic Year 3

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U.S. President Joe Biden began his term under the long shadow of the January 6 Capitol riot, a grinding pandemic and an increasingly divided America. As he now rounds the one-year mark, he faces many of those same challenges – all as he tries to push through a sweeping and expensive legislative agenda. The difficulty of governing through the triple threat of a seemingly never-ending pandemic, increasing consumer prices and political polarization from Congress to city halls across America is neatly reflected in Biden’s approval ratings, which hover around 45%. Since he took office on January 20, his approval ratingsmore

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Big Voting Bill Faces Defeat as 2 Democrats Won’t Stop Filibuster

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Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital for protecting democracy appeared headed for defeat as the Senate opened debate Tuesday, a devastating setback enabled by President Joe Biden’s own party as two holdout senators refuse to support rule changes to overcome a Republican filibuster.  The Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, faced strong criticism from Black leaders and civil rights organizations for failing to take on what critics call the ” Jim Crow filibuster.” The debate carries echoes of an earlier era when the Senate filibuster was deployed in lengthymore

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Republicans Mull Trump’s Continuing Grip on Their Party 

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump recently addressed 15,000 ardent supporters in Arizona, making his first major public appearance since the one-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that sought to keep him in office despite having lost the 2020 presidential election.    In 93 minutes of remarks late Saturday, Trump repeated the false claim that the election had been stolen from him and predicted a Republican victory in the 2024 presidential contest, hinting at what political observers already assume: that he is planning a bid to return to the White House.    Trump is expected tomore

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South African University Students Fight COVID Vaccine Mandates

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South African university students are fighting mandates that require they be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to the classroom on February 14. Even students who are vaccinated, and want others to get inoculated, are against the policy and the students’ union is threatening protests across the country. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg. Camera – Zaheer Cassim. Video editors – Zaheer Cassim and Marcus Harton. …

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US Civil Rights Leaders Push for Voting Rights Overhaul

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Descendants of slain U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and their supporters marched on Washington Monday to urge Senate Democrats to overcome Republican opposition and obstruction within their own ranks to push through a national overhaul of voting rights. They rallied on the national holiday honoring King on the 93rd anniversary of his birth. The march occurred just days after two centrist Senate Democrats, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, said they would oppose attempts to change legislative rules in the politically divided 100-member chamber to allow Democrats to set uniform national election rules over the objections of allmore

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Somber MLK Remembrances Expected as Voting Rights Effort Dies in US Senate

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As the U.S. approaches the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., modern-day civil rights advocates are facing the reality that despite years of increasing public focus on racial injustice, they appear likely to fall short of their goal of improving minorities’ access to the vote. Last week King’s family requested that celebrations of civil rights leader’s legacy be suspended this year, unless Congress passes legislation to expand voting rights in America. Democrats have championed legislation that would give Washington a stronger say in how federal elections are administered in each of the 50 U.S. states. While themore

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Ohio Supreme Court Rejects Second GOP-drawn Election Map

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Ohio’s Republican-drawn congressional map was rejected by the state’s high court Friday, giving hope to national Democrats who had argued it unfairly delivered several potentially competitive seats in this year’s critical midterm elections to Republicans.  In the 4-3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court returned the map to the Ohio General Assembly, where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, and then to the powerful Ohio Redistricting Commission. The two bodies have a combined 60 days to draw new lines that comply with a 2018 constitutional amendment against gerrymandering.  The commission was in the process of reconstituting so it can redraw GOP-drawnmore

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Dartmouth Offers ‘Need Blind’ Admissions to Foreign Students

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Dartmouth College, the Ivy League university in New Hampshire, has announced that it will admit international students through a “need blind” process, meaning that their ability to pay tuition will not dictate their admission. Dartmouth already had a policy of “need blind” admissions for U.S. applicants, but now foreign students will be considered for admission regardless of their or their families’ financial status. The decision represents an effort to increase the number of international students at the university. “Talent is spread all across the world. We want to remove any financial barriers,” Darthmouth President Philip Hanlon told the Financial Times.more

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US House Panel Subpoenas Social Media Firms in January 6 Attack Probe

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The U.S. House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed Meta, Alphabet, Twitter and Reddit on Thursday, seeking information about how their social media platforms were used to help fuel misinformation in a failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  “Two key questions for the Select Committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps – if any – social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds for radicalizing people to violence,” the House Select Committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson,more

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Biden Pushes for Voting Rights Measures, but Key Senator Blocks Path 

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U.S. President Joe Biden met Thursday with Senate Democrats in a last-ditch plea to overhaul the country’s election laws even as one fellow Democrat pointedly said she would not support changing the Senate’s legislative rules to circumvent uniform Republican opposition to establishing national voting rules.  Biden met with most of the Senate Democratic caucus over lunch to voice his support for two measures that would greatly increase federal oversight over congressional and presidential elections and establish uniform voting rules across the country. The bills would erase more restrictive regulations adopted by Republican-controlled legislatures in at least 19 states.  As hemore

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Navient Resolves US State Probes Into Its Student Loan Practices

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Navient Corp said Thursday it agreed to pay $145 million to settle multistate litigation into its student loan practices. The company also said it will cancel loan balances for about 66,000 borrowers with loans that were largely made between 2002 and 2010 and later went into default. Navient said that as part of the settlement, it denied violating any laws or causing borrower harm. …

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Dartmouth to Offer ‘Need Blind’ Admissions to Foreign Students

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In an attempt to attract more foreign students, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire says it will admit international students regardless of their ability to pay tuition. International students will be admitted through a “need blind” process used for U.S. students. The college charges about $80,000 per year for tuition and accommodation. “Talent is spread all across the world,” college president Philip Hanlon told the Financial Times. “We want to remove any financial barriers. This move benefits every student on campus, not just international ones. Tomorrow’s leaders have to be global citizens. By us bringing together students from all over themore

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Democrats Consider Changes to US Senate Filibuster Rule

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U.S. President Joe Biden was a longtime supporter of the Senate supermajority rule known as the filibuster, but with the chamber’s Republican minority blocking parts of his agenda, the former senator said this week he is open to altering the rule in order to try to enact voting rights legislation. The 100-member Senate is currently divided evenly between members who caucus with Biden’s Democratic Party and members of the Republican Party. Democrats can pass bills using the tiebreaker vote Vice President Kamala Harris can cast when necessary. But before a bill can be put to a simple majority vote, theremore

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January 6 Panel Requests Interview With Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy

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The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and records from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, shifting their investigation to a top ally of former President Donald Trump in Congress.  Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy provide information to the nine-member panel regarding the violence that took place last January and his communications with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days prior to the attack. “We also must learn about how the President’s plans for January 6th came together, and all the other ways he attemptedmore

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White House Urges Continued Mitigation Efforts Amid Omicron Surge

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The White House COVID-19 response team on Wednesday reminded Americans of the continued need to slow the omicron variant’s spread despite its decreased severity and announced new efforts to help keep schools open. As the omicron variant sweeps across the U.S., Dr. Rochelle Walensky emphasized that wearing masks, getting vaccinated and undergoing COVID-19 testing when necessary are the best strategies to help lower cases of the virus. Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the omicron variant accounted for 98% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Earlier this week, the U.S. set a recordmore

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Amid Partisan Rancor, US Looks to 2022 Midterm Elections

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As of Wednesday, there were 300 days until the next federal election in the U.S., when voters will cast ballots for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the members of the Senate, with enormous consequences for the second half of President Joe Biden’s four-year term in office.    While it may seem to people outside Washington that it’s too soon to begin thinking about an election that far away, there is little question that key figures in Washington are already weighing their every move with an eye on how it might affect voters’ feelingsmore

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Former Senate Leader Harry Reid to Lie in State at Capitol

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Former Sen. Harry Reid will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol as colleagues and friends pay tribute to a hardscrabble Democrat who rose from poverty in a dusty Nevada mining town to the most powerful position in the U.S. Senate.  Reid will be honored Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda during a ceremony closed to the public under COVID-19 protocols. He died last month at 82 after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.  The longest-serving Nevadan in Congress and the Senate majority leader alongside two presidents, Reid helmed the chamber during one of its more consequential legislative sessions — securing themore

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