This woman was told her mortgage was paid off: 10 years later, she received a foreclosure notice in the mail. She decided to fight.
Aarthi Swaminathan – May 2, 2023
Mortgages originated in the early 2000’s and largely forgotten are now being pursued by debt collectors. Government officials are concerned.
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stands beside homeowner Rose Prophete during a field hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y. PHOTO: LEGAL SERVICES NYC
Rose Prophete bought her home in Canarsie, Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2005. She thought she had paid off her loans until recently, when a company approached her about a debt she thought she had settled a long time ago.
The company expected Prophete to pay up over $130,000, or face foreclosure.
When refinancing her mortgage on the home, Prophete had split her mortgage into two. Prophete said she had been erroneously told that her second mortgage was paid off. That debt, having laid dormant for years, was now being pursued by a debt-collection firm.
Prophete is one of 13 plaintiffs in a 2021 federal lawsuit against the firm, and she recently testified at a field hearing into “zombie debts” held by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial-services sector.
The CFPB last week announced that it was issuing legal guidance for debt collectors trying to collect on mortgages that were long considered forgiven by borrowers, who in particular had no notices or statements sent over a decade about outstanding debt.
‘This is really frustrating — I don’t want to lose my home.’— Rose Prophete, who bought her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2005
The federal agency said that a debt collector “who brings or threatens to bring a state-court foreclosure action to collect a time-barred mortgage debt may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.” Time-barred refers to debt whose statute of limitations has run out.
“Debt collectors do not get to claim ignorance of the law or ignorance of the debt’s age,” Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, said during the hearing. “If the statute of limitations has expired, taking legal action threatening to bring a suit of foreclosure may be illegal no matter what the debt collector claims to have known. This is the law.”
Prophete, a Haitian immigrant and a hospital technician, said during the CFPB hearing that she had worked three jobs to afford the two-family Brooklyn home, on top of taking care of small children.
According to the lawsuit, a little more than a year after they completed the purchase, the broker who arranged the financing suggested she refinance the mortgage to lower her monthly payments. She agreed to refinance her mortgage into two, as the broker told her that this “financing structure would be the most financially advantageous to her,” per the filing. The first loan was for $504,000 and the second for $63,000 with an interest rate of 9%.
‘Debt collectors do not get to claim ignorance of the law or ignorance of the debt’s age.’— Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, speaking about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
After a couple of years, she received a note from her first lender that the second loan was fulfilled — that she didn’t need to pay for it. She said she didn’t receive any statements for the second mortgage, so she focused on paying off her first one, the lawsuit said.
She said she never heard back from the mortgage servicer, until over a decade later, in March 2021, when she received a foreclosure notice in the mail. The creditor was attempting to collect on payments due from Jan. 1, 2009 to the date of filing in 2021. The payments had ballooned from $63,000 to over $130,000, according to the lawsuit.
“This is really frustrating — I don’t want to lose my home,” Prophete said during the field hearing.
New York Attorney General Leticia James, who also spoke during the hearing, said that debt-collection firms were engaged in “predatory practices” to “rob individuals of the equity in their home.”
Debt buyers were acquiring these mortgages “often for pennies on the dollar,” James said, and they were now suing homeowners and “seeking to exploit rising housing values by reviving the long-dormant zombie debt.”
“I find this practice predatory and abusive and an affront to the American dream of sustainable home ownership,” she added. “I will fight this despicable practice.”
Cancer-causing toxins are in shampoos, body lotions, and cleaning products. Here’s what experts want you to know
Robin Dodson, Ruthann Rudel, Megan R. Schwarzman, The Conversation – May 2, 2023
Getty Images
The big idea
Consumer products released more than 5,000 tons of chemicals in 2020 inside California homes and workplaces that are known to cause cancer, adversely affect sexual function and fertility in adults or harm developing fetuses, according to our newly published study.
We found that many household products like shampoos, body lotions, cleaners and mothballs release toxic volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, into indoor air. In addition, we identified toxic VOCs that are prevalent in products heavily used by workers on the job, such as cleaning fluids, adhesives, paint removers and nail polish. However, gaps in laws that govern ingredient disclosure mean that neither consumers nor workers generally know what is in the products they use.
For this study we analyzed data from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which tracks VOCs released from consumer products in an effort to reduce smog. The agency periodically surveys companies that sell products in California, collecting information on concentrations of VOCs used in everything from hair spray to windshield wiper fluid.
We cross-referenced the most recent data with a list of chemicals identified as carcinogens or reproductive/developmental toxicants under California’s right-to-know law, Proposition 65. This measure, enacted in 1986, requires businesses to notify Californians about significant exposure to chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harms.
We found 33 toxic VOCs present in consumer products. Over 100 consumer products covered by the CARB contain VOCs listed under Prop 65.
Of these, we identified 30 product types and 11 chemicals that we see as high priorities for either reformulation with safer alternatives or regulatory action because of the chemicals’ high toxicity and widespread use.
Why it matters
Our study identifies consumer products containing carcinogens and reproductive and developmental toxicants that are widely used at home and in the workplace. Consumers have limited information about these products’ ingredients.
We also found that people are likely co-exposed to many hazardous chemicals together as mixtures through use of many different products, which often contain many chemicals of health concern. For example, janitors might use a combination of general cleaners, degreasers, detergents and other maintenance products. This could expose them to more than 20 different Prop 65-listed VOCs.
Similarly, people experience aggregate exposures to the same chemical from multiple sources. Methanol, which is listed under Prop 65 for developmental toxicity, was found in 58 product categories. Diethanolamine, a chemical frequently used in products like shampoos that are creamy or foamy, appeared in 40 different product categories. Canada and the European Union prohibit its use in cosmetics because it can react with other ingredients to form chemicals that may cause cancer.
Some chemicals, such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and ethylene gylcol, are listed under Prop 65 because they are reproductive or developmental toxicants. Yet they appeared widely in goods such as personal care products, cleansers and art supplies that are routinely used by children or people who are pregnant.
Our findings could help state and federal agencies strengthen chemical regulations. We identified five chemicals – cumene, 1,3-dichloropropene, diethanolamine, ethylene oxide and styrene – as high-priority targets for risk evaluation and management under the Toxic Substances Control Act by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
What still isn’t known
Our analysis of the CARB data on volatile toxicants does not paint a complete picture. Many toxic chemicals, such as lead, PFAS and bisphenol A (BPA), don’t have to be reported to the Air Resources Board because they are not volatile, meaning that they don’t readily turn from liquid to gas at room temperature.
In addition, we were not able to identify specific products of concern because the agency aggregates data over whole categories of products.
What other research is being done
Studies have shown that women generally use more cosmetic, personal care and cleaning products than men, so they are likely to be more highly exposed to harmful chemicals in these categories. Further, women working in settings like nail salons may be exposed from products used both personally and professionally.
Ultimately, a right-to-know law like Prop 65 can only go so far in addressing toxics in products. We’ve found in other research that some manufacturers do choose to reformulate their products to avoid Prop 65 chemicals, rather than having to warn customers about toxic ingredients.
But Prop 65 does not ban or restrict any chemicals, and there is no requirement for manufacturers to choose safer substitutes. We believe our new analysis points to the need for national action that ensures consumers and workers alike have safer products.
Florida’s insurance crisis: 2 special sessions, little help | Commentary
Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel – May 2, 2023
For years, Florida lawmakers ignored a looming insurance crisis.
Then, with rates skyrocketing and companies fleeing the state, they scrambled to call not one, but two special sessions, vowing to help.
Well, my wife and I saw what the Legislature’s version of help looks like a few months ago when our insurance bill jumped from $4,000 to $7,000.
Any more “help “like that and we’ll be eating cat food.
In reality, we’ll be just fine. But a growing number of Floridians are facing bills they can barely afford as prices skyrocket throughout the state.
The Insurance Information Institute predicted increases of 40% throughout Florida this year. Some companies have requested 60% hikes. And scores of Floridians are still being dropped by their carriers while the state-run Citizens Property Insurance keeps bloating.
This is an undeniable, mounting mess.
So once again, GOP legislators – who have spent the better part of the past two years waging culture wars – have cobbled together another insurance bill.
But if you’re counting on this lowering your rates, bad news: It will not.
That’s not my take. It’s the take of former GOP Sen. Jeff Brandes – one of the few lawmakers who repeatedly warned his colleagues to take action years ago and was largely ignored.
“Nothing in this bill lowers rates,” Brandes, who now runs the Florida Policy Project, said this week. “Nothing in this bill encourages more companies to come.”
Brandes and I have differing views on some aspects of reform – particularly as it relates to the transparency measures and regulations that subsidized insurance companies should face.
But we agree on three key things:
1. Despite years of yapping about fraud claims driving up costs and rates, Florida lawmakers have never cracked down on bad actors in any meaningful fashion.
2. The solutions they’re talking about now aren’t going to do much, if anything, to bring down rates.
3. Any meaningful solution – in a state like ours that’s basically a bullseye for hurricanes and increasingly at risk of flooding – is going to involve a boatload of public money.
Brandes and I may have varied thoughts on how that money should be spent. But the reality is that this problem – where the state-run insurance company is now covering millions of Floridians at increasingly high rates – requires a major investment and serious policy reform.
And that’s not good news for a Legislature that specializes in divisive bumper-sticker priorities – dragging Disney, fuming about drag queens and decrying wokeism.
When it comes to hard, serious policy work, they are either unwilling or incapable of getting the job done. At least when it comes to insurance.
A clear example of that is fraud. For years, lawmakers have blamed fraudulent claims for driving up insurance costs and driving companies out of the state. But they haven’t done squat from an enforcement standpoint.
“If you want talent in the Office of Insurance Regulation – which should be one of the most talented in the state – you have to pay for it,” Brandes said.
That seems obvious. If your city had a rash of burglaries, you’d beef up your burglary patrol. But Florida politicians have whined about fraud without ever dedicating serious resources to exposing, punishing and stopping it.
If they can set up a statewide election-crime police force to deal with fever-dream problems, you’d think they’d beef up their insurance team to deal with an actual financial nightmare.
But to really bring down prices, we need more competition among providers. Or we need to invest more in Citizens – and basically accept that a giant, costly state-run insurance company is the only way we’re going to be able to cover everyone in a state that’s both storm-ravaged and low-wage.
Few people really want that second option. Certainly not Brandes. But many of us aren’t super keen either on just handing over tax dollars to an industry with a track record of hosing its policy holders.
Just a few weeks ago, the Washington Post published a maddening investigative report that found Florida insurance companies were financially victimizing hurricane survivors by gutting their claims and payments – sometimes by as much as 90% of what the companies’ own adjusters said the homeowners were due. The piece featured an adjuster who said one insurance company took his report – which estimated $200,000 in valid claims for one home – and whittled it down to just $27,000 without his knowledge or consent.
Brandes prefers offering companies incentives to write Florida policies. That may be worth exploring – with a lot of checks and balances added in.
But here’s the bottom line: Either scenario – majorly subsidizing private industries or growing/transforming Citizens into something like a Florida version of Medicare for homeowners – is painful. They’re both costly, politically unpopular and involve a lot of hard work.
Unfortunately, most Florida politicians don’t want to do hard work or make unpopular moves. So they just keep screaming about critical race theory and transgender athletes. And while they scream, your rates keep rising.
I think we’re heading toward a pain point – where even the Floridians who used to laugh at the culture wars are going to stop laughing once they realize they can barely afford to stay in their homes. That may be when they start finally putting people in office who are more interested in solving problems than creating them.
Manchin’s ‘playing with fire’ — and some Democrats are tired of the drama
Josh Siegel – May 1, 2023
Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP Photo
Sen. Joe Manchin is losing patience with his fellow Democrats over their signature climate law — and the feeling is mutual.
The West Virginia Democrat has spent weeks escalating his attacks on President Joe Biden’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping bill that Manchin helped write in a deal that stunned Washington last summer. Last week, he threatened to join Republicans in voting to repeal the law, as the House GOP is demanding in its legislation for raising the nation’s debt limit.
Manchin’s comment caught his caucus colleagues off guard, even if such a repeal would be a long shot in Congress. It came just as Biden was launching a reelection campaign that rests heavily on that legislation’s climate and health care provisions.
“That surprises me that he wants to repeal it. I think it’s one of his greatest accomplishments,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a close colleague of Manchin’s on the Energy Committee, in an interview.
The IRA is far less of a political bright spot for Manchin, whose potential reelection hopes are clouded by growing disapproval ratings in his home state, partly driven by his support for the law. Manchin has yet to announce whether he’s running, but a formidable challenger entered the West Virginia Senate race last week — GOP Gov. Jim Justice.
Manchin’s fellow Democrats understand that his reelection could determine whether they retain their slim 51-seat Senate majority in 2024. But they are also growing weary of his attacks against their marquee climate law — even if they’ve come to expect it and know there’s little they can do to change his mind. And his votes against Democratic policies and Biden nominees have already complicated his party’s agenda in the 51-49 Senate.
Some Democrats fear that Manchin’s criticisms will do real damage by confusing the public about one of the law’s most debated-provisions: its $7,500 tax credits for electric vehicles. He has accused the Treasury Department of violating the law by flouting strict provisions he wrote designed to force electric vehicles to be made in the U.S. with American-made parts.
“When you’re Joe Manchin it never hurts to be seen butting heads with the administration, but I think this is genuine umbrage over the fact Congressional intent seems pretty clear, even if the statutory construction left room for Treasury to maneuver,” said Liam Donovan, a lobbyist with the firm Bracewell who previously worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “And given that he would not have been on board for the bill at all had this been the understanding, it reads as a personal betrayal.”
Democrats counter that the administration has been doing its best to balance the IRA’s competing goals of lowering the cost of electric vehicles while promoting U.S. manufacturing and jobs.
“Fifty of us agree that [boosting electric vehicle deployment] is a priority,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in an interview. “The law is what it is. If he doesn’t like implementation he can run for president.”
Manchin in recent weeks has also joined Republicans in supporting resolutions they’ve brought up for a vote disapproving of the administration’s energy and environmental policies, most recently on Wednesday when he was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans in overturning an EPA regulation on emissions from heavy-duty trucks.
And Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, has also expressed his ire with the administration by torpedoing a series of Biden’s nominees, including Richard Glick to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Laura Daniel-Davis, Biden’s pick for assistant Interior secretary for land and minerals management, and Gigi Sohn as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
The White House has supported fossil fuel projects that Manchin has backed — angering environmentalists — including the Willow oil and Alaska LNG projects, as well as the Mountain Valley Pipeline that would deliver natural gas produced in West Virginia.
Manchin did not comment for this article, but his spokesperson Sam Runyon said his objections were because the administration had strayed from the intent of the bill.
“President Biden, then-Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer were in full agreement with Sen. Manchin that the IRA was an energy security bill and the legislative language is crystal clear,” she said. “The Administration continues to blatantly violate the law in an effort to replace Congressional intent with their own radical climate agenda that simply didn’t, and wouldn’t have, passed.”
Some Republicans have expressed sympathy for Manchin’s position.
“Is it playing with fire? Sure. Does Joe care? I don’t think so,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Manchin’s frequent legislative partner when she chaired the Energy Committee. “Good for him for calling the administration out.”
Murkowski noted that the climate law had been seemingly dead for most of last year until Manchin’s support allowed Democrats to pass it on a party-line vote. The law includes $369 billion in incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, as well as health measures such as a cap on insulin costs for Medicare recipients.
“They made a deal with him,” Murkowski said. “And it was a hard deal and they wanted his vote, and they got it — at some political cost to him and he would admit that. And now [the Biden administration is] trying to rewrite the bill, or interpret in the way they wished they had been able to get it passed. That’s their problem.”
Manchin has repeatedly denounced Biden’s electric vehicle policies in recent weeks, including by announcing he would support Republican efforts in Congress to overturn EPA auto pollution rules designed to speed up EV adoption. He accused the administration of “lying to Americans with false claims about how their manipulation of the market to boost EVs will help American energy security.”
“Y’all broke the law,” Manchin later told Biden’s Energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, at a hearing April 20, accusing the administration of “liberalizing” its rollout of the tax subsidy to stimulate sales of electric vehicles — and warning that that approach could send money and jobs to China.
Republicans are eager to pounce on Democratic dissension over how the administration is executing the climate law. GOP lawmakers, who unanimously opposed the law, argue that it spends too much money and say its twin goals — quickly weaning the U.S. economy off fossil fuels while reducing reliance on China for clean energy technologies — are incoherent.
“Maybe he’s looked at it [the IRA] more deeply and realized it’s not what he thought it was,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Manchin’s GOP counterpart from West Virginia, said in an interview. “I can’t believe he would be that naïve. But who knows?”
But other Democrats say the administration is carrying out the law that Congress passed.
“Almost all of us who voted for this legislation and contributed to it wanted to supercharge EV sales,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) in an interview. “Clearly Sen. Manchin did not. He thought he was maybe sabotaging the EV industry. And it’s driving him nuts that it’s not working out that way.”
Negotiations over the EV tax credit were fraught from the start.
After Manchin rejected Democrats’ climate and social spending agenda last July when it was packaged as Build Back Better — Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer quietly resumed negotiations. The electric vehicle tax credits were among the last items they haggled over.
During the preceding months, Manchin repeatedly criticized Democrats’ interest in subsidizing electric vehicle sales, calling the idea “ludicrous.”
Manchin, whose state is home to a non-unionized Toyota manufacturing facility, also derided Democrats’ original proposal to offer an extra incentive for electric vehicles made by union workers. He called the proposal “not American.” The version that became law dropped it.
Manchin, Schumer and their staffs finally forged a compromise on electric vehicles in secret talks, unveiling the renamed Inflation Reduction Act on July 27. It offered a credit of up to $7,500 for electric vehicles, but only for those meeting a thicket of stringent requirements on what countries their battery minerals and components come from. Those requirements have since sparked a major trade feud with European governments whose companies are blocked from the incentives.
“He [Manchin] does not support the credit at all. And really when he wrote it, he hoped nobody could use it. And so he’s disappointed there are a few vehicles that can use it,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from auto-industry-heavy Michigan.
Heinrich said a clash with Manchin over implementation was “inevitable” given the different ways Manchin and the White House characterized the end product, which Manchin sees as an energy security measure designed to shore up energy production of all types. Biden is using the law to push a rapid transition away from fossil fuels in the name of combating climate change.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the House Progressive Caucus, downplayed the idea of a rift within the Democratic Party.
“The majority of [the IRA] we are all together on,” Jayapal said. “I do think he [Manchin] believes we should have a renewable energy transition. We probably have different ideas for what the transition looks like and how we get there. “
But the law didn’t leave the Biden administration much wiggle room in developing regulations to fit its complex domestic content restrictions, energy experts say. Manchin contends the administration is abusing the leeway it got. He’s especially taken umbrage at the Treasury’s initial three-month delay in issuing rules, which until mid-April allowed electric vehicles to qualify for the tax credit without meeting any domestic sourcing requirements.
When Treasury finally announced the guidance in March, it offered some olive branches to automakers worried about the rules being overly restrictive, but still left the majority of EVs on the market ineligible for the credit.
Even so, Manchin cried foul, calling the Treasury rules too loose in allowing foreign suppliers to share in the tax credit bounty.
He took particular aim at the Biden administration’s classification of certain foils, powders and other components used in the batteries. By classifying the powders as “critical minerals,” rather than “battery components,” Treasury avoided placing even more severe restrictions on vehicles eligible for the tax credit.
Manchin has also criticized Treasury for allowing leased vehicles to qualify for full tax breaks as “commercial” vehicles, a workaround that skirts some restrictions in the law.
And a crucial piece of guidance is still missing: clarity on which companies’ vehicles could be barred from receiving the credit because of their connections to China. The Treasury Department says it expects to release that provision later this year.
“Manchin very clearly wanted to put deglobalization ahead of decarbonization,” said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, a research group. “He wants this stuff made here and if it slows down the transition so be it. Treasury is leaning toward trying to transition faster.”
Most Democrats, though, disagree that Biden has ignored congressional intent. They point to projections showing the IRA has already been a boon to the country’s clean energy jobs: It has prompted at least $243 billion in investments in battery plants, electric vehicles factories and other green energy projects since Biden signed the law in August.
Since Biden became president, there have been at least $95 billion in private-sector investments announced across the U.S. clean vehicle and battery supply chain, according to the Department of Energy, including $45 billion since the IRA passed.
Heinrich said he knows it may be “politically expedient” for Manchin to argue the IRA is not taking shape as he intended.
“But the reality is this legislation is working, and this administration is trying to manage both what we need to do long term, which is make all of this stuff here, but also build the runway to get there,” Heinrich said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly quoted Kevin Book.
The uptick on excoriating “woke ” ideology has increased in recent years among politicians, including former President Donald Trump, as Americans across the nation battle over diversity, inclusion and equity efforts in the workforce, public schools and in legislation.
But what is “woke”? And what do the GOP attacks mean for 2024?
Among conservative lawmakers and activists “woke” tends to be an across-the-board denunciation of progressive values and liberal initiatives.
Some have used it to attack trans and gay rights while others apply it to critical race theory – a legal theory that examines systemic racism as a part of American institutions – and the teachings of the New York Times’ 1619 project in public schools.
“If you ask people what woke is, I think what they mean is they want to stand against people who are engaging in some type of advocacy for marginalized people,” said Andra Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University.
“It’s kind of this lumping together of anybody whose views could be construed as being progressive on issues related to identity and civil rights.”
As the Black Lives Matter movement began after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, “woke” expanded outside of Black communities into the larger public lexicon.
What about ‘stay woke’?
Black artists and entertainers continued to insert the phrase in their music, including Grammy-award-winning artists Erykah Badu and Childish Gambino — a.k.a. Donald Glover—for political causes.
Yet “woke” has now been hijacked by the political right to mean something far from its original definition.
“The reason we have to ‘stay woke’ is because of exactly what these people are doing right now, which is finding very insidious ways to undercut our rights,” said Terri Givens, a political science professor at McGill University.
Givens called the attacks on the term “a full-on dog whistle” and pointed to attempts to limit the right to vote, curtail reproductive and abortion rights and ban inclusive education in schools as examples of the backlash against Black and brown civil rights.
“Learning history is not about woke-ism,” Given said.
Conservatives now use the term as a political retort to combat what they perceive as political correctness gone haywire.
But progressive commentators note that the response also comes in the context of a changing America, which is becoming more diverse racially and ethically and along sexual orientation and gender identity lines.
“What they’re trying to do is make the term a pejorative,” said Kendra Cotton, chief operating officer of New Georgia Project, a progressive-leaning voting rights group.
As more marginalized groups are elected into office and exercising their voting power during elections, it can make some Americans afraid, said Cotton.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible GOP presidential candidate, has built a persona crusading against ideas and policies conservatives deem as “woke.”
Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, a political scientist at George Mason University and co-author of the book “Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter,” said the legislation is “perhaps the most explicit way we see the co-optation of the term ‘woke’ today.”
“Right now, we’re seeing racially conservative pundits and politicians positioning themselves as adversaries of the multiracial Black Lives Matter movement,” said Lopez Bunyasi. “One of the rhetorical tools they are using is the maligning of a term that has been in use by Black people and in Black politics for well over a hundred years.”
Have the anti-woke attacks been successful?
Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin cruised to victory in 2021 riding a wave of parental anger over teaching inclusive history in public schools.
Keneshia Grant, a political scientist at Howard University, said Youngkin’s success was part of an intentional pushback against marginalized communities, which includes misunderstanding terms like woke, critical race theory, and LGBTQ rights.
“He ends up successfully using the fear that people have about teaching students Black history or American history through the guise of CRT and successfully uses that to motivate a base,” Grant said. “They are doing this because they think it will help them win. And we have evidence that sometimes it actually does help them win.”
Americans divided on what ‘woke’ means
What’s telling is that despite the conservative backlash most Americans don’t view “woke” negatively heading into the 2024 presidential contest.
A March 2023 USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll found that 56% of Americans said it means “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.”
But the efforts to re-define “woke” have worked with a significant portion of the country. Roughly 39% of those surveyed agree with the Republican definition,”to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.”
“Racial resentment and grievance are certainly one of those things that have been very effectively used to mobilize a certain segment of the Republican population for a long time,” said Gillespie.
Reporter Phillip M. Bailey contributed to this story.
Billions of gallons of water from Lake Powell are being dumped into the Grand Canyon
Julia Jacobo – April 27, 2023
Billions of gallons of water are being taken from Lake Powell and dumped into waterways along the Grand Canyon, according to federal environmental agencies.
For 72 hours, water will be released from the Glen Canyon Dam at a rate of 39,500 cubic feet per second, which the National Park Service characterized as a “much larger than normal.”
PHOTO: Glen Canyon Dam holds back Colorado River water to create Lake Powell on April 15, 2023 in Lake Page, Arizona. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The release aims to restore sandbars, beaches and campsites used by visitors to the Grand Canyon, according to the NPS. The water will enter the Paria River and move sediment onto beaches and sandbars in Marble Canton and eastern Grand Canyon to restore the Colorado River corridor in eastern Grand Canyon National Park.
In addition to serving as recreational areas for tourists, the sandbars also supply sand needed to protect archaeological sites.
Releases from Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell to supply water to Lake Mead typically happen in the fall.
Current sediment loads, as well as “favorable hydrology conditions” resulting from a wet winter with ample rainfall and snowpack, are conducive to the high-flow experiment, which is being conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The release will mimic the natural flow pattern of the Colorado River, which would typically occur each spring during the runoff of snowmelt.
PHOTO: Glen Canyon Dam holds back Colorado River water to create Lake Powell on April 15, 2023 in Lake Page, Ariz. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The experiment will not affect the total annual amount of water released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead for the 2023 water allotment, officials said.
The high flows that follow the initial release could affect the difficulty of some of the rapids within the canyons, according to the NPS.
River users are advised to exercise caution along the Colorado River through Glen and Grand Canyons through Sunday.
“There are inherent risks associated with recreational activities along the Colorado River corridor through Grand Canyon at all times,” the NPS statement said.
PHOTO: A group of rafters push off from the banks at Lees Ferry for a 25-day rafting trip down the Grand Canyon on January 1, 2023 in Marble Canyon, Arizona. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images, FILE)
The water releases will eventually snake through the canyons to Lake Mead.
NEW – ABC News Explains How 'Cloud Seeding' is Being Used to Modify Weather Across the U.S.
"There are currently 42 cloud seeding projects across the American West…They fly right into the storm and send microscopic [silver iodide] particles into the clouds…The federal… pic.twitter.com/pL37nzcGkI
Rick Steves Is Making One Major Change to His European Guidebooks This Year — for an Important Reason
Kelsey Fowler – April 27, 2023
The newest edition of Rick Steves Eastern Europe is getting a new name.
Courtesy of Rick Steves’ Europe
The guidebook formerly known as “Rick Steves Eastern Europe” will have a new title when the next edition is published later this year.
Rick Steves’ Europe is changing “Eastern Europe” across the brand to “Central Europe,” to better reflect a more geographically accurate name for the region.
When the 11th edition is published, the guidebook will switch over to “Central Europe” as the identifier for the area that includes countries like the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. The change was announced in February and will roll out across the company’s guidebooks, website, and tour itineraries.
In a recent interview with Travel + Leisure, founder Rick Steves explained why he thought the switch was long overdue.
Courtesy of Rick Steves’ Europe
“From a marketing, publishing, and tourism point of view, we call Central Europe ‘Eastern Europe’ and that’s a hangover from the Cold War,” he said. “That was a 50-year anomaly. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic got filed away in our minds as Eastern Europe, but that’s really Central Europe.”
In a post announcing the change, guidebook co-author Cameron Hewitt wrote that “Eastern” Europe should really be considered countries like Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia. Prague, often the showcase city of “Eastern” European tours, is actually located to the west of cities like Vienna, Stockholm, and even parts of Italy.
“The political divide of Europe has changed, of course, and it’s high time guidebooks and tour itineraries do, too,” Hewitt wrote.
The zone is also down in tourism this year, Steves said, because people are worried about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Rick Steves’ Europe is continuing to operate tours in the region as long as it remains safe to do so, and Steves said he plans to film with his TV crew in Poland later this year.
Courtesy of Rick Steves’ Europe
“It’s unfortunate that people are penalizing the countries that are farther east,” Steves said. “Their economy is hurting because people are staying away.”
While the change might result in some confusion for travelers looking to visit Poland but still searching for “Eastern” Europe trips and tips, Hewitt and those at Rick Steves’ Europe believe the change is worth the risk that come with rebranding.
Hewitt wrote: “We’ve learned that Rick Steves travelers are savvy, open-minded, and curious enough about our world to hop on board when we lead them toward new places and new ideas.”
Disney sues Florida’s DeSantis for ‘weaponizing’ government
Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine – April 26, 2023
FILE PHOTO: Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando
(Reuters) -Walt Disney Co sued Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, asking a court to overturn state efforts to control Disney World and intensifying a battle between a global entertainment giant and a likely White House contender.
In its lawsuit, Disney accused DeSantis and his supporters of illegally using the state government to punish a company for voicing an opinion that should be protected by free-speech rights.
The skirmish began last year after Disney criticized a Florida measure banning classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger children. DeSantis repeatedly attacked “woke Disney” in public remarks.
Florida lawmakers passed legislation that ended Disney’s virtual autonomy in central Florida where the Disney World theme parks attract millions of visitors each year.
In the action filed in federal court in Tallahassee, Disney said it aimed to protect Disney World’s employees, guests and developers from “retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
“Disney now is forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment,” the company said.
Last year, Disney’s then-chief executive, Bob Chapek, said the company opposed a bill formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act. Critics called it the “Don’t say gay” law.
Disney’s lawsuit alleges that a newly formed DeSantis-appointed tourist board violated the company’s contract rights, and did so without just compensation or due process. The company is asking the court to declare Florida’s legislative action unlawful.
DeSantis has argued that Disney, which employs roughly 75,000 people in Florida, had been enjoying unfair advantages for decades.
“We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said Wednesday on Twitter.
The governor is currently traveling in Asia on a four-country trade mission.
Disney shares fell 1.4% to close at $96.61 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
POLITICAL RISK
DeSantis’ clash with Disney has been a centerpiece of his speeches as he toured the United States ahead of his expected presidential bid. But as the battle has intensified, it has brought mounting political risk.
Former President Donald Trump, the favorite for the Republican nomination, has slammed DeSantis’ stance, saying on social media that the governor “is being destroyed by Disney” and warning that the company would reduce its investments in Florida.
Carlos Curbelo, a former U.S. Republican congressman from Miami, said DeSantis’ attacks on Disney “made sense for a time.”
“Now it’s coming across as petty and personal,” Curbelo said. “Disney clearly detects that the governor is in a weaker position today and is going on offense for the first time in this conflict.”
Before DeSantis appointees took over a state board that oversees Disney World, the company pushed through changes to the special tax district agreement that limit the board’s action for decades.
Florida’s new oversight body on Wednesday said Disney’s plans for potential expansion of Disney World did not comply with state law, and declared that agreement void.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board unanimously supported an attorney’s findings of legal flaws in the developers’ agreement Disney reached in February with a previous board, including a lack of proper public notice.
“What they created is an absolute legal mess,” said board Chairman Martin Garcia. “It will not work.”
Disney announced its lawsuit minutes later.
The tussle could boost DeSantis’ support among U.S. Republican voters, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found, but also hurt him among the wider electorate.
Seventy-three percent of respondents – including 82% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans – said they were less likely to support a political candidate who backs laws designed to punish a company for its political or cultural stances.
The judge that will oversee Disney’s case against DeSantis, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, has struck down several laws that defined the governor’s conservative political agenda, including statutes that sought to limit the speech of college professors, curtailed protests and restricted voting access.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by James Oliphant in Washington; Editing by Sonali Paul, David Gaffen and Matthew Lewis)
Disney v. DeSantis judge called Florida governor’s law ‘dystopian’
Tom Hals – April 26, 2023
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -When attorneys for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appear in court to defend against Walt Disney Co’s lawsuit that accuses the Republican official of weaponizing state government, they will see a familiar face, if not always a welcome one.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee has struck down several laws that defined DeSantis’ conservative political agenda, including statutes that sought to limit the speech of college professors, curtailed protests and restricted voting access.
Walker was nominated to the federal court by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
Disney sued DeSantis on Wednesday to block a state law that created an oversight board that Disney said will interfere with billions of dollars of planned development.
The feud between the global entertainment giant and a likely candidate for the 2024 presidential election started last year, when Disney criticized a law signed by DeSantis that banned classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for younger children.
Disney alleges a law that imposed an oversight board was punishment for voicing opposition to DeSantis’ classroom instruction law known as the Parental Rights in Education Act.
The company called the state’s actions “particularly offensive here due to the clear retaliatory and punitive intent.”
The gender-education statute, derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, survived challenges in federal court before a different judge.
Free speech has been central to several rulings by Walker against DeSantis, although the judge has also at times sided with the governor.
Walker blocked the Individual Freedom Act or Stop Woke Act, which limited the speech of college professors, calling it “positively dystopian” in an opinion that began with a quote from George Orwell’s anti-totalitarian novel “1984.”
In 2021, Walker blocked the Combating Public Disorder Act, which DeSantis signed into law after the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of police.
Walker ruled the law’s expansion of the definition of “riot” infringed on protesters’ right to free speech.
The judge last year enjoined a law signed by DeSantis that banned ballot drop boxes and prevented groups from offering food and water to voters waiting in long lines, causes championed by Democrats as a way to support voter turnout.
The judge also sided with plaintiffs in a second lawsuit challenging a different aspect of the Stop Woke Act, which defined as “unlawful employment practices” workplace training around issues of race and sex.
Walker said Florida had become a place where the First Amendment allowed, rather than prevented, the state to limit speech. Or as he put it, “in the popular television series Stranger Things, the ‘upside down’ describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world. Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down.”
The judge has also ruled with DeSantis and declined to block the execution of a death row inmate and dismissed some claims against the governor over the Individual Freedom Act.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, DelawareAdditional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los AngelesEditing by Amy Stevens and Matthew Lewis)
The drama unfolded in the Senate as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, moved a request to allow the promotions and Tuberville blocked the action.
“I warned Secretary Austin that if he did this and changed this, I would put a hold on his highest-level nominees. Secretary Austin went through with the policy anyway in February of this year, so I am keeping my word,” Tuberville said on the Senate floor.
He has been blocking military promotions in objection to the Department of Defense providing leave and covering expenses for service members who travel to have abortions. Tuberville claims the policy is a violation of federal law.
Tuberville was head coach at the University of Cincinnati for four seasons before he resigned in December 2016, a short time after telling a heckling fan to “go to hell” and “get a job.”
Tommy Tuberville is in his second year as a U.S. senator from Alabama.
Warren and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin say the promotions are critical to military readiness, and Tuberville is blocking pay raises and preventing key leaders from taking their posts.
“One senator is jeopardizing America’s national security,” Warren said on the Senate floor.
The promotion of Shoshana Chatfield to vice admiral and as the U.S. representative to the NATO military committee is especially urgent, Warren said.
“At this critical juncture of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we need her leadership in NATO now more than ever,” she said.
Blocking military promotions leaves America more vulnerable, Austin said last month during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
“There are a number of things happening globally that indicate that we could be in a contest on any one given day,” he said. “Not approving the recommendations for promotions actually creates a ripple effect through the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.”
