Volunteers Are Coming Out In Droves To Support Planned Parenthood After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death

Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights groups are mobilizing droves of new volunteers and running TV ads to elect Democrats after Ginsburg’s death.

Ema O'ConnorBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on September 22, 2020

Alex Edelman / Getty Images
A makeshift memorial for late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg near the steps of the Supreme Court on September 21.

On Friday evening, just after the news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death hit headlines, reproductive rights activists were already on Zoom calls and group chats across the country, springing into action.

"It was an all-hands-on-deck response within minutes of the news breaking,” a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes, Planned Parenthood’s super PAC, told BuzzFeed News Monday. “We took time to — and continue to — pay our respects to her legacy, but now we need to turn and fight any attempts by the Senate to fill the seat before the inauguration."

Ginsburg was a champion of reproductive and abortion rights during her time on the court, repeatedly ruling in support of expanding access to abortion and contraception and voicing opposition to efforts to curb that right.

Throughout President Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, he has vowed to appoint anti-abortion rights justices to the Supreme Court. When he filled two seats, creating a 5–4 conservative majority, many began to see Ginsburg as the last hope for the survival of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Even before Ginsburg's death, it was already crunch time for staff at Planned Parenthood Votes, UltraViolet, and Supermajority — three political organizations that fight for abortion rights and access through electoral politics; one of the most significant elections in the history of their movement is just six weeks away, on Nov. 3.

But Ginsburg’s death added fuel to the fire.

In the days following the news, Planned Parenthood Votes organized a new six-figure ad campaign, which launched Tuesday afternoon in Arizona, Florida, and Michigan, featuring a montage of black-and-white pictures of Ginsburg looking regal, contrasted against videos of Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh screaming angrily, telling viewers that Trump “wants to replace [Ginsburg] against her dying wish.” Supermajority started organizing a celebrity-studded “massive woman-to-woman voter mobilization event” focused on Ginsburg's legacy, featuring Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, writer Gloria Steinem, and actors Jane Fonda and Eva Longoria, among many others.

Planned Parenthood Votes and UltraViolet wrote new scripts for their phone and text banking (volunteer drives in which supporters call and text friends and strangers, encouraging them to vote or get involved in organizing efforts) centered around Ginsburg and the vacancy she left on the Supreme Court. Their volunteers are now prepared to tell their millions of supporters to “hold their senators’ feet to the fire” to make sure senators who are vulnerable this election know that their decision on whether to vote for a Supreme Court nominee before Nov. 3 could cost them their jobs.

Following Ginsburg’s death, Planned Parenthood saw a massive spike in donations and volunteers to help get out the vote across the country. “Planned Parenthood” and “Roe v Wade” began trending on Twitter, as people turned to social media to encourage others to do the same. The website for Planned Parenthood’s political arm saw a 500% increase in week-to-week traffic from the previous Saturday, the organization’s spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. Supermajority and Planned Parenthood Vote’s online supporter briefing in reaction to the news about Ginsburg saw 60,000 people tune in, a shockingly high turnout for a Sunday night.

“We've seen an incredible increase in enthusiasm from our organizers and through our outreach to voters,” the Planned Parenthood Votes spokesperson said. “We're seeing a dramatic increase in new volunteers, an increase in response rates to our phone banks, and just an overwhelming sense of people wanting to get involved."

Carina Coestad, a 20-year-old college student at Syracuse University in New York who regularly donates to Planned Parenthood, told BuzzFeed News Saturday that she started hearing from friends “immediately,” asking her how they could help. “I posted about RBG to my Instagram story, and I got like 20 messages immediately, some from friends who have never done anything political before, asking to phone bank and volunteer,” she said.

Coestad has been volunteering for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, and over the weekend participated in a phone bank in which she texted hundreds of people to discuss her support of Planned Parenthood and Biden’s campaign in the wake of Ginsburg’s death.

In Maine, where Republican Sen. Susan Collins faces a serious challenge from Democrat Sara Gideon this year, Planned Parenthood Votes has also seen a large increase in interest. Normally Maine’s volunteers are only signed up for one or two shifts a week for phone banking and other efforts, the spokesperson said. This week, every hour is booked.

“It makes sense. It’s natural that people would immediately be concerned about their access to basic health care like IUDs and birth control, and that would motivate them to act,” Sonja Spoo, director of reproductive rights campaigns at UltraViolet, told BuzzFeed News Sunday. “This is the fever dream of the anti-choice movement, to have the pick at the Supreme Court that Trump promised to deliver for them.”

Efforts to block a vote on a Supreme Court nomination before the election, however, are seeming more and more futile. In order to prevent a majority of the Senate voting on the nominee, four Republicans would have to join the Democrats in dissent. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine said that they would vote against the nomination, and advocates were hoping that Sen. Mitt Romney, who voted to impeach Trump on one count earlier this year, would join them.

On Tuesday morning, however, Romney released a statement saying he would support voting to replace Ginsburg on the court. Nearly every other Republican senator, including those who face difficult reelections this year, have agreed. Trump said Tuesday that he would announce his nominee as soon as Saturday.

Even if Planned Parenthood and the Democrats lose the battle to block the nomination, the spokesperson said, the fight won’t be over. The group signed up nearly a thousand people nationally to phone bank on Thursday, triple the amount of volunteers they normally recruit. And their focus, beyond Ginsburg’s seat, is making sure that Democrats win the Senate and the White House in November.

"Whatever happens with this appointment, it's critical that we flip the Senate majority and elect a president that isn't going to continue to appoint justices at the appellate level and district courts with justices who are against abortion access,” the spokesperson said. “No matter what happens, the fight remains."


Ema O'Connor is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

FINCEN FILES


The Banker Was A Spy

The Russian bank VEB has long operated in the United States — despite dozens of suspicious activity reports outlining concerns that it was a threat to national security. 

A FinCEN Files investigation.

Posted on September 22, 2020

Google Maps
The gate to "Rezidentura," the Russian Diplomatic Compound, in the Bronx.


In 2014, the FBI was in the late stages of an elaborate sting. An undercover agent posing as an energy analyst leaked binders with fake commercial secrets to two Russian spies operating in New York.

The spies took the binders back to the “Rezidentura,” the New York base of operations for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency.

Microphones hidden inside the leaked material relayed the spies’ every word back to American counterintelligence agents. The pair of SVR officers were caught gabbing about their secret roles, from the difficulties of recruiting prospective agents to the disappointment that their day-to-day work was not even close to “movies about James Bond.”

In their free-flowing conversations, they discussed an SVR agent working for them under deep cover in New York: Evgeny Buryakov.

Ostensibly, Buryakov was a representative of a Russian bank called VEB. But in reality he worked for the SVR, collecting economic intelligence.


FBI transcripts show the two spymasters discussed how Buryakov had traveled the world as a bank employee, spying while he went, and how they wanted him to take on an important task: find out how the US planned to bar Russian firms from its financial system.

They didn’t need to worry. American authorities allowed the Russian bank — whose board used to be chaired by Vladimir Putin — to operate in the US despite a paper trail that outlined concerns it was a threat to national security.

The FinCEN Files, a collaboration between BuzzFeed News and more than 100 newsrooms associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, shows that the US Treasury Department received at least 86 warnings from 2007 to 2016 discussing the bank, its clients, or Buryakov.

These warnings are known as suspicious activity reports, or SARs. By law, banks act as crucial sentinels for the US government, looking for signs of financial crimes. When they spot transactions that bear the hallmarks of money laundering or other financial misconduct, they must file SARs to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. Such reports are not by themselves evidence of a crime but can support investigations and intelligence gathering.

Banks are barred from discussing or even acknowledging the existence of SARs, but in a statement to BuzzFeed News, VEB said it has “never been involved in any illegal activities” or been approached by authorities in relation to the matters raised in this story.


The bank said that disclosure of SARs was illegal and that as it “cannot verify the authenticity” of the documents received by BuzzFeed News, it did not wish to comment further.

The SARs filed by other banks relating to VEB and its clients document suspected national security risks. One warned that Buryakov had sent cash to an address linked to a company providing gear that could be of great use to an intelligence agent: video surveillance tools. Others raised the possibility that a VEB subsidiary helped bankroll Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and facilitated an arms deal to a sanctioned country.

But the recurring warnings didn’t seem to hurt VEB. It still was allowed to process its dollars through the US, using some of the world’s most prestigious banks.

The Spy and His Supervisor

Eugene Odinokov / Sputnik via AP
The Vnesheconombank (VEB) logo.

Established as a not-for-profit, state-financed bank to boost the Russian economy, VEB is controlled by President Putin’s innermost circle. Igor Shuvalov, former Russian deputy prime minister, oversees the bank as its chair. Its former CEO was Sergey Gorkov, a graduate of Russia’s intelligence academy.

In 2014, responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US forbade companies to lend to VEB.

Still, that was the only major restriction that VEB faced. It was allowed to continue to bank in the United States and gain access to the dollar, the world’s most important currency.

In January 2015, Buryakov was arrested for espionage. The indictment rang alarm bells at the New York banking giant JPMorgan Chase, where VEB held cash accounts, controlled by Buryakov’s supervisor at VEB.

More from theFinCEN Files

Global Banks Facilitate A Vast Network Of Dirty Money While The US Government Watches.

Top Deutsche Bank Executives Missed Major Red Flags Pointing To A Massive Money Laundering Scandal.

The Untold Story Of What Really Happened After HSBC, El Chapo’s Bank, Promised To Get Clean.

A SAR from JPMorgan Chase noted a lawsuit filed by Buryakov’s landlord. That suit said that after Buryakov was indicted for spying by US authorities, his family left without paying rent for his apartment in Riverdale, New York. (Buryakov could not be reached for comment for this story.)

Afterward, the lawsuit alleges, Buryakov’s supervisor at VEB turned up at the property. He allegedly caused “structural damage” to the apartment, including breaking furniture, and cleared it out.

Chase’s compliance officers, employees whose job is to keep an eye out for any financial transactions that might be linked to criminal activity, examined the records of Buryakov’s supervisor. They found that he had been removing cash from VEB’s accounts in a highly unusual manner.

According to Chase’s SAR, in 2015 Buryakov’s supervisor visited Chase branches across New York and New Jersey, withdrawing $30,000 over three days. Each transaction was for $10,000.


Alex Fradkin for BuzzFeed News Chase bank in New York City.

The Chase compliance officials sounded the alarm. They warned the US government that the supervisor “worked in close proximity” to Buryakov, who they noted had been accused of “economic espionage.”

They said that the supervisor’s unusual cash withdrawals looked like “structuring of funds” designed to circumvent the automated alert that occurs when more than $10,000 in cash is withdrawn — in essence, that Buryakov’s supervisor might be trying to avoid government monitoring. The supervisor has since left VEB and runs his own company. He did not respond to requests for comment.


Despite one VEB employee being charged with espionage and another being involved in suspicious transactions, the government took no public action against the bank.

The Syrian Connection

Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty Images
A family walks through a street covered with rubble in Syria in 2018.

Chase was not the only major bank to worry about how VEB was moving cash around.

In 2012, the Federal Reserve of New York found “deficiencies” in the way that Commerzbank sold banknotes and ordered it to review all of its former sales. In the process of doing that, the bank’s compliance officers investigated its dealings with a VEB subsidiary bank. It seemed that between 2010 and 2013, the small bank, which has no offices outside of Russia, had been purchasing vast sums of US dollars — $497 million worth — from Commerzbank.

Over that time, the Syrian conflict had erupted from a small rebellion to a full-blown civil war pitting various factions against the Assad regime, which sparked international outrage for deploying chemical weapons on civilians but was supported by Russia.

In a SAR that Commerzbank later filed to the US government, it noted that VEB was “publicly tied to Syrian commercial and arms deals” and that Russia was supporting the Assad regime by “loans of foreign currencies.” Commerzbank was concerned that the VEB subsidiary was helping the Syrian regime fund its war.

Yet Commerzbank staff in Germany assured their New York counterparts that the sales were simply “ordinary competitive business practices.”

Members of the New York team disagreed. The Americans launched an investigation that showed “spikes in activity” in the dollar purchases that “appear to correspond” to sanctions being imposed on Syria, according to the bank’s SAR.

Commerzbank stopped providing it with banknotes in September 2013. It notified the US government of its suspicions in a SAR the following year.

Responding to questions from BuzzFeed News, Commerzbank said it was unable to comment on clients due to bank secrecy laws. A spokesperson said the bank has invested heavily in compliance since 2015 and successfully completed audits ordered by US regulators.

In 2013 a group of US senators wrote to then–Treasury secretary Jack Lew, warning that Russian banks, including VEB, acted as a “financial lifeline” to the Assad regime. The banks at the time denied helping Assad.


Declaring that there was “clear and compelling evidence” Assad had used chemical weapons against the Syrian population, the senators urged the government to sanction VEB. The Treasury didn’t act.

“The Payment Appeared Unusual”

Olga Maltseva / Getty Images
A Russian helicopter flies over the outskirts of St. Petersburg in July.

Another VEB subsidiary, Genetechma Finance Limited, came under scrutiny for its links to possible arms sales.

Genetechma had told Barclays Bank that it was buying $34.6 million worth of helicopters from a Russian state-owned defense contractor and intended to sell them to a leasing firm based in Moscow.

But in September 2013, it told Barclays that the deal had fallen through at the last minute and the helicopters would instead be sold to a UAE-based aviation company.

When Barclays compliance officers later investigated, they found that the UAE company was the “general agent” for an aviation manufacturing and repair complex in Sudan. That complex was a joint venture between the then-sanctioned North Sudanese government and Russian Helicopters, a defense firm that produces aircraft for both civilian and military use.

The Sudanese government was considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the US, and Russia was known to be supporting the Sudanese government in the bloody civil war in South Sudan.

In its SAR to the US government, compliance officers at Barclays noted that Genetechma “was identified to have sold four (4) dual purpose helicopters” that were “adaptable for the military” to a business with ties to a sanctioned country. Experts told BuzzFeed News that the model of helicopter identified in the SAR was a type used heavily in the South Sudanese War.

Barclays was also concerned about signs of money laundering that accompanied the deal. After the deal was done, Genetechma sent a payment of $10.2 million to a Cypriot shell company, telling Barclays that the payment was part of the helicopter leasing contract.

Soon after, the company in Cyprus paid the exact same amount, $10.2 million, to yet another shell company, saying that it was a payment for scrap metal. The compliance officers at Barclays believed that “the payment appeared unusual;” they couldn’t identify who owned the second shell company or even where it was based. They were concerned that the deal might be linked to North Sudan.

Louise Shelley, an academic who has studied money laundering, said deals this complex should raise red flags. Legitimate supply chains are “straight and direct for efficiency purposes,” she told BuzzFeed News. “Illicit supply chains have to be convoluted so they're not transparent.”

Barclays, responding to questions for this story, said that under law it could not comment about clients or transactions detailed in SARs, and that the bank believed it had complied with all of its legal and regulatory obligations.

Genetechma did not respond to requests for comment.

The Spy Pleads Guilty

Handout / Reuters
Buryakov on a commercial flight to Russia in April 2017. He was escorted by deportation officers and then turned over to Russian authorities.

Buryakov, the spy employed by VEB, found the US government less forgiving.

In 2016, he pleaded guilty to covertly working as a Russian agent and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was granted an early release after a year.

US immigration officers accompanied him to Moscow on a commercial flight. A picture from the plane shows the spy slumped back into his economy-class seat, gazing thoughtfully ahead with his chin in his hand.

It was the last known sighting of the spy. His former employer, VEB, continues to operate in the United States. ●





Scott Pham is a data reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Tom Warren is an investigations correspondent for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.

Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He is a 2018 Pulitzer finalist for international reporting, recipient of the IRE 2016 FOI award and a 2016 Newseum Institute National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame inductee.


Anthony Cormier is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. While working for the Tampa Bay Times, Cormier won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

John Templon is a data reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. His secure PGP fingerprint is 2FF6 89D6 9606 812D 5663 C7CE 2DFF BE75 55E5 DF99

Contact John Templon at john.templon@buzzfeed.com.

Jeremy Singer-Vine is the data editor for the BuzzFeed News investigative unit and is based in New York.


Richard Holmes is an investigations reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.


Tanya Kozyreva was an investigative correspondent for BuzzFeed News based in Kiev, Ukraine.



Emma Loop was a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

CRIMINAL CAPITALISM
A Powerful Lawmaker Is Asking The British Government Hard Questions About The FinCEN Files Revelations

The FinCEN Files investigation showed the US government describing Britain as a “higher-risk jurisdiction” for money laundering.

Richard Holmes Investigations Reporter
Posted on September 23, 2020


BuzzFeed News



Here is where you can find all of BuzzFeed News's FinCEN Files reporting in one place.


A powerful British lawmaker is demanding answers from the UK government about “deeply troubling” findings in the FinCEN Files, a global investigation based on a huge trove of documents BuzzFeed News shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The investigation revealed how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the actions of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins. The documents have spotlighted failings inside a number of Britain’s largest banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Barclays.


“Some of the information coming from the release of the FinCEN papers is deeply troubling,” Mel Stride, the conservative chair of Parliament’s Treasury Committee, said in a statement released Wednesday.

He said he had sent a series of formal questions to prime minister Boris Johnson’s administration asking whether the government is doing enough to stop money laundering and expressed particular concern about HM Revenue and Customs, the British government’s tax collection agency, and Financial Conduct Authority, its financial crime watchdog. “The Treasury Committee wants to know whether Ministers, HMRC and the FCA are on top of this,” he wrote.

Stride demanded to know whether HMRC is “an effective money laundering supervisor.” He also asked whether UK law enforcement agencies are “following up on the information in the FinCEN papers,” and whether the FCA will “take enforcement action.”

The heart of the FinCEN Files are more than 2,000 “suspicious activity reports,” which banks are required to file to the US Treasury when they spot transactions that bear the hallmarks of money laundering or other financial misconduct. While SARs are not by themselves evidence of a crime, they can but can support investigations and intelligence gathering.

Peter Summers / Getty Images Boris Johnson.


British companies were named in the suspicious activity reports more than 3,000 times — more than any other country. And a US Treasury report in the FinCEN Files described the UK as a “higher-risk jurisdiction” comparing it to notorious financial centres “such as Cyprus.” Stride demanded to know whether the government considered this “higher-risk jurisdiction” status “a cause for concern.”

In a letter to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the committee’s Chair asked what action was being taken by the UK’s financial regulator following the findings. He also asked for clarity on what more needs to be done to “further secure the financial system from Economic Crime, given the information in the FinCen files.”

In another letter, this time to the UK’s Home Office, Stride asked if UK law enforcement was “following up” on the information from the FinCEN Files to see if “more could be done to combat economic crime.” UK law also requires banks to file suspicious activity reports to the National Crime Agency, and he queried about the current implementation of an improved system to help UK law enforcement better deal with SARs.

“With various roles to play in combatting economic crime,” Stride said in his statement, “it’s vital that the appropriate parts of the system are ready to act, if required.”


MORE FINCEN FILES
Standard Chartered’s Problems With Suspicious Clients Didn’t Go Away. Just Like These Two Ex-Employees Had Been Saying.

Richard Holmes · Sept. 21, 2020

HSBC's Secret Files: The Inside Tale Of What Happened After It Apologized For Being Dirty

Anthony Cormier · Sept. 21, 2020

Deadly Terror Networks And Drug Cartels Use Huge Banks To Finance Their Crimes. These Secret Documents Show How The Banks Profit.

Jason Leopold · Sept. 20, 2020


Richard Holmes is an investigations reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.

DAVID LYNCH'S EVIL NORTH

A Canadian Woman Was Arrested For Allegedly Sending An Envelope With Ricin To President Trump

Authorities say she used a now-deleted Twitter account to also post tweets that were critical of the president, including one with the hashtag #KillTrump.

Ellie Hall BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on September 22, 2020

A Canadian woman accused of sending poison ricin in an envelope to the White House was charged in federal court Tuesday with threatening President Donald Trump.

Hidalgo County / Mission Police Department / Via pa.co.hidalgo.tx.us
Pascale Ferrier's booking photo from an arrest for carrying a weapon and tampering with government documents in Hidalgo County, Texas, on March 13, 2019.

Pascale Cécile Véronique Ferrier of Laval, Quebec, could face five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if found guilty.

According to the criminal complaint, Ferrier addressed the envelope to Trump, but it was intercepted Friday by Secret Service agents at an off-site facility that sorts and checks White House mail.

In the letter, the complaint states, Ferrier demanded that the president "remove [his] application for this election."

"I made a 'Special Gift' for you to make a decision," Ferrier allegedly wrote, apparently referring to the ricin. "This gift is in the letter. If it doesn't work, I'll find better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I'll be able to come. Enjoy!"

The complaint also identifies a now-deleted Twitter account that posted two anti-Trump tweets last month, including one that called for the president's assassination, as belonging to Ferrier.


An archived record shows that on Sept. 9, the account appears to have replied in agreement to an account asking someone to "shoot trump in the face" using the hashtag #killtrump.


This account has been deleted / Via archive.is

The complaint also alleges that Ferrier sent six similar letters containing ricin to Texas law enforcement officials "addressed to individuals affiliated with facilities at which [she] had been housed while incarcerated in Texas in 2019." All seven of the letters contained similar language and were signed by "FREE REBEL SPIRIT."

Court records indicate that Ferrier was arrested in Hidalgo County, Texas, in March 2019 and charged with weapons possession and tampering with government documents.

CBC News reported Tuesday that Ferrier spent 20 days in jail and was released into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a tweet Monday, Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra said he and three other law enforcement officers had received ricin-filled envelopes.


Sheriff Eddie Guerra@SheriffGuerra
MEDIA I can confirm that envelopes, containing the deadly toxin ricin, was mailed to me and three of my detention staff. At this time due to a active federal investigation I cannot make any further comments but a media release will be sent out tomorrow. No injuries were sustained06:57 PM - 21 Sep 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite

Ferrier was taken into custody while attempting to cross the border from Canada into the United States on Sunday.

According to the complaint, she referenced that she was wanted by the FBI in connection with "the ricin letters" and was in possession of a loaded firearm and a knife.

She was denied bail and will remain in federal custody in New York until she can be transported to Washington, DC, for her trial.

Ellie Hall is a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Quebec woman accused of sending ricin to Trump was RV-loving web developer

Stewart Bell
3 days ago

Mug shots of Quebec's Pascale Ferrier taken following her 2019 arrest in Texas.

Pascale Ferrier’s Facebook page shows photos of her kids, her RV and a strawberry pie she made for dessert. It is an online footprint that is difficult to reconcile with a would-be presidential assassin.

But on Tuesday, the FBI accused the Quebec woman of sending a letter laced with deadly ricin to U.S. President Donald Trump along with a letter warning him to withdraw his candidacy for re-election.

“I made a Special Gift for you to make a decision. The gift is in this letter,” the letter read. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll find better recipe for another poison, or I might use my gun when I’m able to come.”

“Enjoy!”

Six other letters containing the same toxin were sent to Texas, the FBI alleged in an affidavit. All were mailed from Canada, used the same language and were signed Free Rebel Spirit.

Read more: Quebec woman identified as suspect behind ricin-laced letters sent to White House

On Sunday afternoon, Ferrier allegedly turned up at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo and was arrested by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

"The individual, identified as Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, told officers she was wanted by the FBI for mailing envelopes with ricin to the White House and other locations," CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said Tuesday.

"Upon a subsequent search, officers discovered a gun, knife and ammunition."

What may have driven the 53-year-old to such an extreme remains unclear but most of the letters were sent to people linked to facilities where Ferrier was detained following her arrest in Texas last year.

The FBI affidavit also revealed that her name had come up during an investigation into "individuals with Canadian connections" who had been recently arrested and were detained in the San Antonio area of Texas.

She was to appear in U.S. court at 4 p.m. "We anticipate entering a not guilty plea on her behalf at that time," said Fonda Dawn Kubiak, the Assistant Federal Public Defender representing Ferrier.

On Facebook, Ferrier wrote diary-style entries documenting her life as what she called a “techno-creative nomad," a roving web developer who worked out of her RV.

Online posts indicate she became a Canadian citizen in 2015 after immigrating from France, where she had studied at Université Grenoble and worked in the software industry since 1994.

After a decade at a Montreal firm that designs software for the aeronautics, defence, space and automotive industries, she became a freelance web developer under the name La Techno-Créative Nomad.

But she was also restless, announcing that had decided to move into an RV and tour North American while running her business remotely.

“A whole challenge for a single woman at 50 years old!” she wrote.

“But in my head, I am still 20 years old and full of dreams that just ask to come true. And as long as health is there, I want to enjoy life and live like I want and not as others or society want.”

“We must remain free of our choices. And it's not easy when you make a good living to face the judgements of others who think you're crazy because you want to let go of a quiet and comfortable little life. But I don't want this life, I want something else!!!”

Her new home became a 30-foot Coachmen RV, which she parked at a campground in Russeltown, Que., that had Wi-Fi. The owner recalled she lived alone with her dog and worked on web development projects but never caused any problems.

Read more: Arrest made at U.S.-Canada border in White House ricin envelope investigation

As winter approached, she headed south to Texas.

In April 2019, she was arrested in Hidalgo County, Texas. Court records indicate she was charged with using a fake Texas driver’s licence. The FBI said she also faced weapons possession charges.

She was held for two months but released on May 17.

“I am back to Canada!” she wrote on Facebook on June 17, after crossing into Manitoba. “At the border, there was nobody and after few questions, the officer let me go...it seems that I have always a honest face!”

She intended to find a job in Winnipeg but ended up back in Quebec, trying to sell her RV and working at a grocery store.

After seeing an elderly man tumble on the sidewalk, she wrote about trying to find a second-hand walker for him on Kijiji. “Would any good souls join me in giving him this kind of gift?”

According to her online resumé, in December 2019, she started at a Montreal company that did contract work for Quebec-based aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Canada.

“One says that we learn from our mistakes! That's crazy how much I learned in my life up to now!” she wrote in January.

Two weeks ago, her social media took a sharp turn as she commented on Trump. A Sept. 9 post on Twitter ended with the hashtag: #killtrump. “I have a new name for Trump: the ugly tyrant clown,” a post on her account read.

A week later, the letter allegedly containing ricin and addressed to Trump was intercepted at an off-site White House mail processing facility. The letter also referred to Trump as “The Ugly Tyrant Clown.”

“You ruin USA and lead them to disaster,” the letter read, according to the FBI. "I have US cousins, then I don't want the next 4 years with you as president."

"Give up and remove your application for this election."

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

MAKE SCOTUS A COVEN

Progressive candidate Mondaire Jones wants Democrats to add four new justices to the Supreme Court. “This is a constitutional crisis that has existed for years now.”

Addy Baird BuzzFeed News Reporter
Reporting From
Washington, DC September 21, 2020, at 6:56 p.m. ET

Courtesy of Mondaire Jones for Congress Mondaire Jones

His Victory Was Major For Progressives. Now He Wants To Keep It Going By Expanding The Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON — At 33 and not yet a member of the House of Representatives, Mondaire Jones might not seem like the obvious choice to lead Congress in the fight to expand the Supreme Court — but come January, he hopes to do just that.

“There's not been a leader on this issue in the House of Representatives. I'm excited to be the point person in the House of Representatives on this subject area,” Jones said in an interview with BuzzFeed News on Monday. “I think that [reform like this is] the only way that we can have durable progressive legislation that will stand the test of time when faced with opposition from political hacks on the Supreme Court and in the lower courts.”

Jones won the primary to replace New York Rep. Nita Lowey earlier this year, garnering endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The district is heavily Democratic, so Jones is expected to win the seat in November. He and Ritchie Torres, another Democratic congressional nominee in New York, are likely to become the first two openly gay Black members of Congress.

And for months, he’s made expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court central to his progressive agenda. It’s an idea that has gained increasing traction among Democrats in Congress and liberal groups following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last Friday and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow to hold a vote on her replacement this year.

“It is time we do something about the Roberts court's assault on democracy. Expanding the Supreme Court is our only option,” Jones wrote in an opinion column published by Salon in April. “Court expansion would not cause a death spiral of democracy. That death spiral is already here. And it will only get worse if we do nothing.”

Now, in the wake of Ginsburg’s death, Jones is reiterating his call, pushing for 13 seats on the Supreme Court instead of the current nine — and calling on former vice president and current Democratic nominee Joe Biden to join him in that fight. Biden hasn’t spoken on the issue since Friday but has previously argued against court-packing, saying it would set a dangerous precedent and “come back and eat us alive.”

“It is the case, and has been for many years now, that there is a hyperpartisan conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States that is hostile to democracy itself and the will of Congress,” Jones told BuzzFeed News on Monday. “There has not been a democratic institution that Justice Roberts and his majority has not been hostile to, whether it's systems of public financing of elections, or efforts to make it easier for folks who are eligible to vote to have their voices heard.”

Even under a Biden presidency and with Democrats in the majority in both chambers, Jones worries that the Supreme Court could still be a major impediment to a progressive agenda.

“I know that in 2021, when Democrats have unified control of the federal government, that we will still have as a major obstacle having the progressive legislation that we enact upheld when it is challenged in the Supreme Court,” he said. “If democracy is to be preserved, we have to expand the size of the Supreme Court and restore balance. … Roe v. Wade, the civil rights of LGBTQ people like myself, [and] the civil rights of racial minorities like myself are all at risk of being abridged by what may end up being a 6–3 conservative bloc on the Supreme Court.”

The idea of expanding the court has attracted new disciples in recent years, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold hearings or a vote on then-president Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in the eight months leading up to the 2016 election. McConnell argued at the time the next president needed to be the one to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February that year.

Now, with just weeks to go before the election, McConnell has announced that President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Ginsburg will get a vote on the Senate floor. (McConnell argues that he blocked Garland not only because it was an election year but because the Senate and the White House were controlled by different parties.)

“Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year,” Sen. Ed Markey tweeted Friday night. “If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.”



Ed Markey@EdMarkey
Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.01:00 AM - 19 Sep 2020
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Several other congressional Democrats, including Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, echoed that call.

“If Sen. McConnell and @SenateGOP were to force through a nominee during the lame duck session—before a new Senate and President can take office—then the incoming Senate should immediately move to expand the Supreme Court,” Nadler tweeted Saturday.



Rep. Nadler@RepJerryNadler
If Sen. McConnell and @SenateGOP were to force through a nominee during the lame duck session—before a new Senate and President can take office—then the incoming Senate should immediately move to expand the Supreme Court. 1/2 https://t.co/BDYQ0KVmJe06:00 PM - 19 Sep 2020
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Jones’ own plan to expand the court would entail adding four additional justices to the court, bringing the total number to 13. “Just seven folks with good conscience,” he said of his proposed new bloc

“Unfortunately, the five people in the majority right now are not acting in good faith,” he added. “And I am under no illusion that someone nominated with two days of due diligence by Donald Trump and then rammed through in a month's time to be confirmed by the Senate to the Supreme Court is someone who would be materially different from the five people who already are acting in bad faith. This is a constitutional crisis that has existed for years now.”

While the House does not play a role in confirming justices, both chambers of Congress would need to pass legislation to expand the court. “This is squarely within what will be my jurisdiction as an incoming member of the House,” he said.

But Biden’s mind might be harder to change on the issue of court-packing than Jones hopes. On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the calls to expand the court, particularly Markey’s, have frustrated some of Biden’s campaign advisers.

Biden said last year that if Democrats move to expand the court, “We’ll live to rue that day.” But Jones says his party is already living that reality.

“Democrats are already ruing the day,” he said. “I think Democrats rue every day. … I disagree with those words by Vice President Biden over a year ago. And my expectation is that he will change his opinion now.”

MORE ON THIS
Trump’s Swift Push To Replace Justice Ginsburg Has Democrats Rallying Around Court-Packing

Zoe Tillman · Sept. 21, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Increases The Likelihood That Obamacare Is Repealed Next Year

Paul McLeod · Sept. 19, 2020

Addy Baird is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Julián Castro Now Says Democrats Should Consider Court-Packing

The former presidential candidate also told BuzzFeed News that he thinks Biden and his campaign “understand they have work to do” to build Latino support.

Posted on September 21, 2020

Scott Olson / Getty Images
Julián Castro speaks at the Liberty and Justice Celebration, Nov. 1, 2019, in Des Moines.

Former presidential candidate Julián Castro thinks Democrats should consider adding more justices to the Supreme Court if Senate Republicans rush to confirm a justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg this year, a reversal from his belief during his presidential campaign.

“For many of us, that wasn't our preference, but the fact is you have Mitch McConnell not abiding by, not working in good faith under the Constitution. … If you have that kind of abuse of the system, then I think that, yeah, Democrats should be open to different ways that we can stave off draconian changes to our fundamental rights,” he told BuzzFeed’s News O’Clock podcast on Monday.

Castro, who said in a Democratic primary debate last October that he “would not pack the court” as president, said on Monday that with reproductive rights, voting rights, and healthcare hanging in the balance, Democrats should consider structural reform to the court.

“When those are the stakes, and Mitch McConnell is the one who’s abused this system, then yeah, I think we need to be open to considering either adding more justices or other structural reforms that will prevent this kind of abuse in the future,” he said.

Listen to Castro's full comments in Monday's episode of News O'Clock.


Adding more justices to the Supreme Court, once a fringe idea, has become widely popular among progressives in the last year. Castro became a favorite among progressives late in his race and has recently been offering public advice to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In a separate interview late last week, Castro, the only Latino to run for this year’s Democratic presidential nomination, said he believed Biden has been making progress among Latino voters but knows he has more left to do.

“I believe the campaign gets it in that they understand they have work to do,” Castro said, adding that he thinks that Biden will pick up Latino support by Nov. 3 because the campaign is now investing in voter registration, bilingual messaging across platforms, and tailored outreach to different Latino communities, rather than treating them as one unified voting block.

He said the Biden campaign has “a nuanced approach.”

“Out there in Florida where you have a pan-Latino community that ranges from Cuban Americans to Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, it’s not a monolithic community, and I think the campaign gets that,” he said.

After endorsing Biden in June, Castro has been taking part in some Biden campaign events. He’s also been talking about what matters to Latino voters, including this week at a Telemundo town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Though Biden has been competitive or ahead of President Donald Trump in many swing states, his campaign has struggled to build momentum among Latino voters. A poll over the weekend showed Biden winning Latino voters over Trump 62% to 26%, similar to the Latino support that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Castro’s campaign focused on progressive policy and racial justice issues. The former Obama cabinet secretary was the first Democrat in the race to have a comprehensive police reform plan, a progressive immigration plan, and a specific plan to address disparities faced by Native Americans. This summer, he launched the People First Future political action committee to support progressive candidates, and last week released the first episode of a new podcast focusing on underserved communities.

He has been outspoken about the lack of diversity in both parties; he criticized the minimal inclusion of Latino speakers at the Democratic National Convention recently and was vocal throughout his campaign about the disadvantages faced by both candidates and communities of color.

In last week’s interview, Castro said he’s “hopeful” but “not naive” that the US is making progress toward addressing racial inequities. He said any progress, though, is hampered by “a president who’s the biggest race-baiter, the biggest racial grievance politician that we’ve had since George Wallace on the national stage.”

Castro called Trump’s racist threats about people of color, particularly those in low-income housing, endangering white suburban communities “shameful.”

“It’s a naked ploy to stoke white fear about Black Americans and other people of color. It’s a lie. He lied about what the policy is. The fair housing rule was simply meant to provide fair housing opportunity to everybody, no matter their background. He lied about who is in the suburbs today. The suburbs are more diverse than they are when we passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968,” Castro, who served as housing secretary during the Obama administration, said.

“I believe he’s misrepresenting what’s in the hearts of many white Americans. I don't believe the majority of white Americans are sitting at home trying to figure out how they can keep Black people out of their neighborhood. He’s selling them short,” he said.

Castro said that in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis, he’s been heartened by the “vast outpouring of support for making progress in our country towards racial justice that included many white people, people of all different backgrounds,” including “a greater commitment at least in words by corporate America, by public officials, police departments, sports, celebrities, and people marching in the streets to press for racial justice.”

The question now, he said, is whether people will carry that motivation through to voting and pushing for change in corporate and nonprofit organizations.

“I’m hopeful, you know. I’m not naive,” he said. “I don’t think it's comfortable for a lot of people to do so, and I don’t think it’s second nature for a lot of people to do so either. But I also believe that most people have a kind heart and that they want to do it, most people.”

The Castro campaign’s progressive policy agenda and focus on communities of color won praise among progressive activists. Now, with the nomination of one of the least progressive candidates of the dozens of Democrats who ran this cycle, some activists have wondered if they’re being asked to shelve the progressive reforms they’ve been pushing for to defeat Trump. Castro said he’s not concerned that progressives won’t turn out for Biden.

“I’m confident that the vast majority of people who recognize what a danger Donald Trump represents also recognize that Joe Biden would do a much better job than Donald Trump, and they will turn out to vote for Joe Biden,” he said.

“Is it the case that there’s a more progressive vision out there than the one that Joe Biden has? On some issues, sure. It’s also true that Joe Biden has the most progressive vision of any Democratic nominee that we’ve ever had on a whole number of issues,” he added. “So if Joe Biden is elected we have a wonderful opportunity to do great progressive work in the next administration.”

Nidhi Prakash is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Hayes Brown is a world news editor and reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

SEXIST NASA

Experience, charisma will steer NASA's choice for first woman moonwalker

NOBODY DEFINES MALES ASTRONAUTS AS HAVING CHARISMA AS A JOB QUALIFICATION


NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who in February completed the longest continuous spaceflight for a female astronaut, is one of those who could be the first woman to walk on the moon. File Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Experience, charisma -- and previous exposure to radiation in space -- will guide NASA's history-making decision to choose the first woman who walks on the moon, according to those familiar with space agency operations.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the woman selected will be experienced and will have flown on space missions. Ten current astronauts meet that criteria, and more could soon.

In addition to expertise, NASA will look at the ability to perform well on high-profile missions and to connect with the public, space exploration observers said.

And, some of the most experienced astronauts could be ruled out if they have too much radiation exposure, according to space medicine experts.

Among the potential moon mission candidates, astronauts Christina Koch, 41, and Jessica Meir, 43, raised their profiles earlier this year by carrying out the first-ever all-female spacewalk while stationed on the International Space Station. Koch also set a record for living in space longer than any other woman at 328 days.

Koch and Meir's stature most likely improved after completing their tandem spacewalk, said Nancy Vermeulen, an astrophysicist, pilot and founder of the Belgium-based Space Training Academy.

High pressure

They demonstrated that the two women could work together in a high-pressure situation under the media spotlight, Vermeulen said.

"NASA monitors the synergy among astronauts on a team, how people cooperate together," she said.

But those achievements will pale when compared to walking on the moon, said retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space in 1984.

NASA is keenly aware that a moon mission "will catapult this woman, whoever she is [and] make her an icon and role model in a different way than most astronauts," Sullivan said.

Despite creating that fame, NASA's first priority will be "to make sure this mission will succeed and the crew has the right capabilities and chemistry," she said.

Of NASA's 48 active astronauts, 16 are women. Bridenstine and Vice President Mike Pence have committed to sending one of them on the first moon landing in 2024. Four astronauts will make the journey, and two will land, including the woman.

At a 2019 event, Bridenstine went further, saying the 2024 mission could have more than one woman.

As for the actual selection, NASA first will identify an as-yet unknown number of Artemis astronauts to train others and help establish requirements for flights to and around the moon, Bridenstine said in August.

Elite group

"This elite group will include some of the men and women who will fly on early Artemis missions, and we will add more to the team in the future," Bridenstine said via email.

In terms of experience, and among those who could lead the way, three female astronauts have flown on more than one mission.

Sunita Williams, 54, spent 322 days in space over the course of two missions. She is scheduled for her third mission in early 2021 aboard Boeing's Starliner space capsule, should it pass its final uncrewed flight test planned for December.

In 2006, Williams served as a flight engineer on a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station. In 2012, she was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to the space station.

Williams carried out seven spacewalks, and she and retired astronaut Peggy Whitson broke records for most spacewalks by a woman. Whitson currently holds the mark with 10.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson, 51, flew on a space shuttle mission in August 2007, which added equipment and structural parts to the International Space Station. In 2010, she was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and spent 174 days living and working aboard the space station as a flight engineer.

Stephanie Wilson, 53, has flown three space shuttle missions -- all of which were about two weeks long -- in 2006, 2007 and 2010. All three missions delivered equipment and supplies to the space station. Wilson operated the station's robotic arm and served as flight engineer, assisting the commander and pilot.

Oldest person ever

If NASA choses one of these women for a lunar landing, she would be the oldest person ever walk on the moon.

Apollo moonwalkers' ages ranged from the youngest, Charlie Duke at 36, to Alan Shepherd at 47. Spaceflight experts said age no longer is the barrier it once was, but physical fitness and agility will be important to endure the mission and move about in cumbersome spacesuits.

In the next year, at least three more women are scheduled to fly on their second space mission -- Megan McArthur, 49, Kathleen Rubins, 41, and Shannon Walker, 55.

And three astronauts have been to space once -- Koch, Meir and Anne McClain, 41.

Two women astronauts, Jeannette Epps, 49, and Nicole Mann, 43, are scheduled for their first trip into space within the next 12 months.


Five women have yet to go into space and have no scheduled missions -- Zena Cardman and Kayla Barron, both 32; Jasmin Moghbeli, 37; Loral O'Hara, 37, and Jessica Watkins, 32.

High-profile mission

NASA chooses astronauts carefully for all missions, and especially so for historical milestones, retired astronaut Sullivan said.

That includes Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on Apollo 11 and John Young and Robert Crippen on the first space shuttle launch. Sending the first American woman, Sally Ride, into space also was a high-profile decision.

Armstrong was chosen for Apollo 11 because he was a test pilot and an engineer. NASA officials selected him over crewmate Buzz Aldrin to step on the moon first because they thought he didn't have as big an ego, according to a 2001 book by the late Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director.

NASA picked Young as the first space shuttle mission commander in 1981 because he was a seasoned space veteran with four missions and a walk on the moon.

Sullivan said that neither she nor Ride knew why they were chosen for their historic missions.

The role that astronauts assume on such missions as a standard-bearer for NASA and the nation weighs heavily on the choice. But subtle psychological issues come into play, as well, Sullivan said.

Need to be photogenic

"I wouldn't be shocked if the choice of a woman for the moon mission is sort of slanted toward someone photogenic," Sullivan said. "It's virtually never in play with men, but it's been a subconscious factor at NASA for women.


"There are archetypes that resonate more with society, and I think that's going to be a factor."

She wrote about NASA's view of women in her book, Handprints on Hubble, which also describes the triumphs and frustrations of her career and how she came to deploy the storied telescope in orbit.

While the space agency may value charisma, technical requirements for the first such deep-space mission in decades will be paramount, said Brian C. Odom, the acting NASA chief historian.

"NASA will take everything they've learned over the decades and apply those lessons to this decision" on crew members, Odom said.

"Historically, crew selection depends on the mission and what astronauts are expected to do, so the first mission of its kind often has had pilots and engineers prove the spacecraft capability," Odom said.

Connect with public

Even so, NASA may favor astronauts who have shown an ability to connect with the public such a historic mission, he said.

"Historically, the expectation is that they would be very adept at speaking to the public," Odom said. "NASA aims to inspire people to get involved and follow in the footsteps of astronauts."

While experience is crucial, a limiting factor could be radiation to which astronauts have been exposed.

"I doubt age will matter as much as previous radiation exposure, which NASA does consider when choosing astronauts for long-term missions," said Virginia Wotring, a scientist with the International Space University in France. Her career has focused on health impacts of extended duration space flights.

NASA will disqualify astronauts for having an elevated cancer risk, based on measurements kept by their personal radiation counters, or dosimeters. At the International Space Station, astronauts receive about 10 times the amount of radiation they do on Earth.

Because deep-space missions have a higher risk of radiation exposure, the most likely candidates are those with one successful mission, Wotring said. They would be Koch, Meir, McClain and possibly Mann and Epps after they return from space.

Most radiation

At the same time, Koch's record duration in space for a woman means she also has been exposed to more radiation than the other women. But because older astronauts are thought to have less time to develop cancer, they may not be disqualified based more radiation absorbed, Wotring said.

Mission requirements also may mandate that someone with geology expertise be on the first Artemis landing. That's because NASA confirmed this week it will investigate water ice on the first landing. Astronaut Watkins is a geologist.

The timing remains uncertain for naming the crew to make this first return to the moon flight. NASA doesn't have a timeline for specific flight assignment announcements, the space agency has said.

But NASA will approach that announcement with caution, said Amy Foster, associate professor at the University of Central Florida, who specializes in space history.

While women are a minority among the 48-member astronaut corps, the space agency also could make a statement by selecting a women who represents another minority, Foster said.

Three of the eligible women astronauts are African American -- Epps, Watkins and Wilson. Moghbeli is Iranian-American, while McClain is the only known gay or lesbian astronaut.
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However, it's quite likely NASA will pick a woman astronaut who otherwise is not a minority, Foster said. "Right now, I think checking the one box, in terms of historical minorities [among astronauts], is as risky as NASA will be," she said.

New generation

In making its decision, NASA also will seek to appeal to a new generation of Americans who weren't born when man first walked on the moon.

Sending the first woman there will be almost as important as repeating a landing for the first time since 1972, said astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, who has retired from spaceflight, but still helps to train other astronauts.

"My hope is that young women from all over the world will watch these tremendous events unfold and, without hesitation, begin to forge their own path in space exploration," Aunon-Chancellor said in a statement to UPI.

The first woman moonwalker will be an icon for girls, women and society for many years to come, the International Space University's Wotring said.

"I find myself in a strange position when I'm talking to young people who tell me that as a woman scientist, I am inspirational to them, and I'm just working in a lab here on campus," she said.

"So I think it's going to be incredibly powerful to see a woman walking on the moon -- and change the equation forever."

NASA's 16 women astronauts -- at least one likely to walk on moon


Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson pauses for a portrait in her spacesuit before going underwater in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on July 8, 2019. Photo by Bill Ingalls/UPI

MORE PHOTOS OF WOMEN ASTRONAUTS HERE 
upi.com/7040415

Trump threatens to withhold federal education dollars from states teaching with 1619 Project



   TRUMP GIVES WHITE POWER SIGN

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal education funding from schools if they use as curriculum a series of essays published to explain the history of slavery in the United States.

In response to an unverified claim that California schools were using The New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project in class, Trump on Sunday tweeted the U.S. Department of Education would investigate.

"Department of Education is looking at this," Trump wrote. If so, [California schools] will not be funded."
The 1619 Project is a series of articles marking the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving on the shores of Virginia, then an English colony.

Chicago Public Schools and other districts use the 1619 Project materials as part of a U.S. history curriculum.

RELATED Trump directs federal agencies to cease anti-racism training

THAT IS PRO WHITE TRAINING

The 1619 Project immediately drew criticism when it was published in 2019, but editors stood behind it, stating that the essays would "expand the reader's sense of the American past," Jack Silverstein, the Times editor in chief, wrote.

Trump's administration has attacked so-called racial justice movements across U.S. cities this summer after the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Trump referred to the Black Lives Matter mural on the street in front of his Manhattan skyscraper as a "symbol of hate."

On Friday, Trump directed a ban on federal agencies training on "racial sensitivity," including sessions that addressed the concept of "White privilege" and "critical race theory."

RELATED 'American way of life is under attack,' says Pompeo as he unveils rights report

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July cited the 1619 Project as an example of how the American way of life was "under attack." While unveiling a report by the Commission on Unalienable Rights, Pompeo said the series of essays was "a disturbed reading of history," that he rejected as "a slander of our great people."

Also in July, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, introduced proposed legislation to ban schools from using the project for a curriculum. Cotton's bill would have banned federal funds from being used in schools where the curriculum is taught.

On Sunday, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the project "revisionist history" and "filled with serious errors."

RELATED Trump praises U.S. democracy at 400th anniversary event in Virginia

But Bernice King, the daughter of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, called for parents to download the curriculum and teach it at home.

"We are on the brink of change, family. The highest office in the land is trying to stop teaching that will bring us closer to eradicating racism," King wrote.

"Millions have aligned themselves and are complicit," King added. "But it's been too long. Justice will win."

Trump extends ban on anti-racism training for federal contractors


President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning training for federal contractors including "divisive concepts" regarding discrimination based on race and sex. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 22 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended a ban on training involving race- and sex-based discrimination for federal contractors to include various "divisive concepts."

Concepts included in the executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday include the idea that one race or sex is superior, that the United States is fundamentally racist and that an individual should feel "discomfort, guilt, anguish" and other forms of physiological distress or be considered inherently racist, sexist or oppressive based on their race or sex.

"Training like that discussed above perpetuates racial stereotypes and division that can use subtle coercive pressure to ensure conformity of viewpoint," the executive order states.

The order applies to training provided at executive departments and agencies, the U.S. military, federal contractors and recipients of federal grants.

"Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don't there's nothing in it for you!" Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday evening.

Earlier this month, Trump directed federal agencies to stop anti-racism training including concepts such as "White privilege," and "critical race theory" as well as training that "suggests either (1) the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

Additionally, he announced plans for a new commission to promote "patriotic education" in U.S. schools last week.

Minorities hit hardest when COVID-19 spreads at nursing homes

Researchers say that minority residents of nursing homes and assisted living communities have been hit harder by COVID-19. Photo by zeevveez/Flickr

Minority residents of U.S. nursing homes and assisted living communities have been especially hard hit in the coronavirus pandemic, two University of Rochester studies show.

The first found that nursing homes with higher percentages of racial and ethnic minority residents reported two to four times more new COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to others for the week of May 25.

The number of confirmed new COVID-19 cases each week averaged 1.5 in facilities with the highest proportion of minority residents, compared with 0.4 cases per facility among those with a low proportion.

The findings are based on data reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by nearly 15,600 nursing homes. They suggest that persistent inequalities in facilities with limited resources and poor quality of care are being "exacerbated by the pandemic," study leader Yue Li, professor of public health sciences, said in a university news release.

RELATED Black, minority populations hit harder by COVID-19

As of July 30, 362,000 people in U.S. nursing homes were infected with the virus -- about 8% of all cases nationwide. At least 62,000 nursing home residents died of COVID-19, representing 41% of coronavirus deaths nationally.

The second study found that COVID-19 deaths in assisted living communities in seven states were four times higher than in the counties where they're located. The findings are based on data from Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, the Carolinas, New York and Ohio that publicly reported COVID-19 data from nursing homes and residential care settings through May 29.

In those states, the percentage of COVID-19 deaths ranged from 3.32% in North Carolina to 9.26% in Connecticut, while the percentage of COVID-19 deaths in assisted living communities in those states ranged from 12.89% to 31.59% -- although fewer than 10% of assisted living communities reported being affected by the pandemic.

RELATED COVID-19 hospitalization rate for minorities far beyond share of population

Assisted living communities with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic residents had more COVID-19 cases, but not more deaths.

"As in the nursing home study, we also see that assisted living communities with more minority residents have more cases, and we confirm that communities with a higher proportion of residents with dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obesity, experienced more COVID-19 cases," said study leader Helena Temkin-Greener, professor of public health sciences.

Unlike nursing homes, assisted living communities are regulated by states, not the federal government, and there are "varying degrees of rigor" in their oversight, she said in the release.

RELATED Study: 70% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Detroit are African American

The study noted several factors make assisted living communities "ill-prepared" to deal with a pandemic. They're often short of money, care for increasingly sicker residents, have limited oversight and have staff and personal protective equipment shortages.

The workers providing daily care are often personal care aides rather than certified nursing assistants or registered nurses, and they receive little if any training in the use of PPE, the researchers said.

The findings were published Sept. 21 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on nursing homes and COVID-19.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

IG: Census Bureau did not order to shorten 2020 census


Census Bureau did not order the census' schedule to collect data to be shortened, a new report from the Commerce Department's inspector general said. 

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The Commerce Department's internal watchdog said in a report that the decision to shorten the census' schedule for collecting data was made by officials outside of the Census Bureau, leading some officials to speculate that the decision was made by the White House.

In a report published Tuesday, the Inspector General of the Commerce Department said it found that officials outside of the Census Bureau made the decision for it end door-to-door counting of the decennial effort a month early and that no senior officials, including the director, knows who issued the order.

The report said the lack of information has some Census Bureau officials speculating the decision either came from the Commerce Department or from the White House.

"Some Bureau officials speculated the decision came from the Department, while others thought the decision likely came from the White House," the report said. "However, Bureau officials confirmed that the decision was not the Bureau's."

The report also found that the accelerated schedule increases the risks of obtaining a complete and accurate 2020 census, which will be used to allocate state seats in the House of Representatives and government funding.

The report was issued after the inspector general's office received several congressional inquiries expressing concern about the Aug. 3 announcement by Steven Dillingham, the director of the Census Bureau, that field data collection would end by Sept. 30 instead of Oct. 31.

The Census Bureau kicked off its door-knocking effort on Jan. 21, the same day the United States reported its first case of COVID-19, which would force the bureau in April to suspend field data collection and to push its deadline from the end of July to the end of October.

According to the Census Bureau's website, nearly 96% of housing units have been counted nationwide with 10 states reporting below 95%, including Alabama at 89%, with a week until the door efforts are to end.

Following reports over the summer that the Trump administration was seeking to fast-track the census' counting, the House committee on oversight and reform held an emergency hearing during which Dillingham refused to comment as to why Trump would want to compress the schedule.

On Sept. 10, a federal court blocked President Donald Trump's order preventing undocumented immigrants from being included in the census and last week, a federal judge blocked the government from slowing down the census' operations through to Thursday, continuing an injunction placed in early September.

On Tuesday, the National Urban League filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration's plan to shorten the census.

In the lawsuit, civil rights groups, civic organizations and local governments accused the administration of using the census to skew seats in the House of Representatives.

"Both the text of the Rush Plan announcement and the timing of the decision suggest that the federal government's motivation for the Rush Plan is to facilitate another illegal act: suppressing the political power of communities of color by excluding undocumented people from the final apportionment count," the lawsuits states. "To increase the chance that the President can fully effectuate the apportionment exclusion order, he must receive the population totals while he is still in office."