U.N. confirms report on Saudi threat against Khashoggi investigator

Callamard, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hold a news conference in Brussels

By Stephanie Nebehay
3/24/2021

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday it confirmed the accuracy of published remarks by the independent expert who led an investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi alleging that a senior Saudi official had made a threat against her.

The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday quoted Agnes Callamard, U.N. expert on summary killings, as saying a Saudi official had threatened she would be "taken care of" if she was not reined in following her investigation into the journalist's murder.

Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment. Callamard did not respond when contacted by Reuters.

"We confirm that the details in the Guardian story about the threat aimed at Agnes Callamard are accurate," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in an email reply to Reuters.

The U.N. human rights office had informed Callamard about the threat as well as U.N. security and authorities, he added.

Callamard told the Guardian the threat was conveyed in a January 2020 meeting between Saudi and U.N. officials in Geneva. She said she was told of the incident by a U.N. colleague, the newspaper reported.

Callamard led a U.N. investigation into the October 2018 killing of Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. She issued a report in 2019 concluding there was "credible evidence" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and senior Saudi officials were responsible for killing the Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident.

She subsequently called for sanctions against Prince Mohammed’s assets and international engagements.

The prince denies any involvement in the killing but has said he bears ultimate responsibility because it happened under his watch.

The alleged threat was made during a meeting between Geneva-based Saudi diplomats, a visiting Saudi delegation and U.N. officials, the Guardian reported. After the Saudi side criticised Callamard's work in the case, the newspaper reported, one senior Saudi official said he had spoken to people prepared to "take care of her."

"A death threat. That was how it was understood," Callamard was cited as saying. "People that were present, and also subsequently, made it clear to the Saudi delegation that this was absolutely inappropriate."

Callamard has criticised a Saudi court's ruling in September to jail eight people for up to 20 years for the murder, accusing the kingdom of making a "mockery of justice" by not punishing more senior officials.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, which has taken a tougher stance on Saudi's human rights record, last month released an intelligence report that said Prince Mohammed approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi.

The Saudi government rejected the findings and reiterated that the murder was a heinous crime by a rogue group.

Callamard, whose replacement was announced on Wednesday, is taking up a new post as secretary general of Amnesty International.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Raya Jalabi and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

SASKATCHEWAN PARTY

Lack of government guidance for schools causing chaos: STF president

JUST ANOTHER RIGHT WING NEOLIBERAL AUSTERITY STATE

 Wed., March 24, 2021

Regina high-school students are moving to remote learning Thursday. Elementary students start learning online Monday. (Sofia Rodriguez/CBC - image credit)

The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) is warning of confusion as some school divisions in the province have been left scrambling to decide how best to protect their staff and students from COVID-19.

"It's really kind of a chaotic time and there really doesn't seem to be a firm plan," said Patrick Maze, president of the STF.

Maze said the provincial government has delegated the responsibility related to pandemic planning onto individual school divisions and he said that's resulted in confusion and a mix of responses — even within the same city.

In Regina, the public school division moved its high school students to remote learning Wednesday, March 24 and intends to move their elementary school students on March 29.

The Regina Catholic School Division (RCSD) had initially planned on moving all students to remote learning starting March 29. However, high-school students attending Miller Comprehensive High School, Dr. Martin Leboldus High School, Archbishop M.C. O'Neill Catholic High School and Michael A. Riffel High School are moving to Level-4 remote learning effective Thursday, March 25.

STF President Patrick Maze says the lack of guidance is resulting in confusion. (Bryan Eneas/CBC)

"Saskatchewan seems to want to keep schools open at all costs with the exception of when it gets really bad. The problem is it's really bad in Regina right now. It's too late for [those] school divisions," Maze said.

Twyla West, a spokesperson for the RCSD, said board trustees felt a sense of urgency to move up the date for remote learning after the province announced new public health measures to curb the spread of coronavirus variants of concern in the city. She said the day for elementary students hasn't changed to give families time to line-up child care.

As of March 24, Regina currently has 844 of the province's 1565 active COVID-19 cases. It also has 824 of the 954 variants of concern identified through screening in the province and 313 of the 360 variants of concern that have completed genome sequencing.

Earlier this week, the province announced new regulations for Regina and surrounding communities to slow the spread of COVID in the city, including: closing restaurants and event centres as of March 28 and issueing an immediate travel advisory asking people to not travel to and from Regina for non-essential reasons.

There's lots of teachers and other people in the city who work in neighbouring communities and they haven't been given firm directions on whether they should continue or not. - Patrick Maze

Maze said the lack of a cohesive response across all school divisions has left some teachers wondering if they are able to continue working under the new Public Health orders.

"There's lots of teachers and other people in the city who work in neighbouring communities and they haven't been given firm directions on whether they should continue or not," Maze said.

Some parents worried about in-person learning after variants rise

After watching Regina's coronavirus variants of concern increase, Marc Spooner and his partner Karen decided to switch their two children, in Grade 2 and in pre-kindergarten at École Monseigneur de Laval, to remote learning.

"We decided to keep them home to protect them, but also to protect the other kids and the teachers and all the educational staff that are working there," Spooner said.

Spooner is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. He said the government needs to provide a consistent plan for schools across the province.

"We'd like to see maybe a little bit more leadership from the provincial government and some more uniform guidelines that perhaps all the schools should be switching to remote learning to provide some kind of circuit breaker."

Marc Spooner said he pulled his children out of in-person learning due to concerns about the coronavirus variants. He said schools should consider a short term shut down. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Regina Public Schools (RPS) said it is giving its teachers the option to work from home during the move to remote learning, though other essential staff need to stay in-person.

"School administrators, facilities staff and some division office staff will continue to report to their workplaces," an RPS spokesperson said in a statement.

Students in both of Regina's school divisions are scheduled to return to in-person learning April 12.

Vast Brazil lawsuit in UK against BHP over 2015 dam failure hits buffers


FILE PHOTO: Men take out a bag from a house flooded with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, in Barra Longa


By Kirstin Ridley
Wed., March 24, 2021

LONDON (Reuters) -A 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group said on Wednesday it had failed to resurrect a 5.0 billion pound ($6.9 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP over a devastating 2015 dam failure.

The Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court that the vast group action was an abuse of process, that claimants were already able to seek redress in Brazil and that the case would be "irredeemably unmanageable" if allowed to proceed.

Tom Goodhead, the PGMBM lawyer representing the claimants, said it was "a sad day for the English justice system" after senior judges agreed that the claim, relating to Brazil's worst environmental disaster, should be struck out.

The collapse of the Fundao dam, owned by the Samarco venture between BHP and Brazilian iron ore mining giant Vale, killed 19 and sent a flood of mining waste into communities, the Doce river and the Atlantic Ocean, 650 km (400 miles) away.

The landmark case was the latest battle to establish whether multinationals can be held liable for the conduct of subsidiaries abroad.

The UK Supreme Court in 2019 allowed Zambian villagers to sue miner Vedanta in England for alleged pollution in Africa and in February permitted Nigerian farmers and fishermen to pursue Royal Dutch Shell over oil spills in the Niger Delta.

But the English claim against BHP was first struck out in November after a High Court judge ruled that allowing it to proceed here would be like "trying to build a house of cards in a wind tunnel".

Goodhead said he was surprised and disappointed by the Court of Appeal decision, which sent "a poor message about corporate responsibility and legal consequences for wrongdoing".

"We are committed to supporting the victims of this tragedy. We will now take stock and assess our options as to how justice can best be achieved," he said.

BHP welcomed the decision, which it said reinforced its view that the proceedings duplicated existing and ongoing remediation efforts and legal proceedings in Brazil. It said it remained fully committed to doing "the right thing" for victims.

BHP says it and Vale each poured about $1.7 billion into the Renova Foundation, set up in 2016 by BHP's Brazilian division, Samarco and Vale to manage 42 reparation projects, including providing financial aid to indigenous families, rebuilding villages and establishing new water supply systems.

BHP said Renova has spent nearly 12 billion reais ($2.17 billion) across the projects to date.

A United Nations expert report, published in September, said the disaster decimated the livelihoods of more than three million people, leaving locals exposed to dust and heavy metals in mud, that information about toxicity was inadequate and that all reparation projects were behind schedule.

In October, Brazilian federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit against BHP and Vale, alleging compensation packages were too low and forced victims to waive rights in other legal proceedings.

Renova has insisted that projects such as water quality monitoring and environmental repairs are on track, while the miners reject allegations they are not complying with obligations and of wrongdoing.

($1 = 0.7284 pounds)

($1 = 5.5210 reais)

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Edmund Blair)

DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND
Scandal-scarred Lethbridge, Alta., police force told to fix problems or shut down

Wed., March 24, 2021, 

JUSTICE MINISTER KAYCEE MADU WITH PREMIER KENNEY

EDMONTON — Alberta’s justice minister has given the scandal-scarred Lethbridge Police Service until April 16 to serve up an action plan to fix its problems or face being disbanded.

Kaycee Madu acknowledged Wednesday that it’s a tight timeline, but said change needs to happen immediately.

"We cannot wait," Madu told reporters at the legislature, two days after sending the letter to the police service demanding the action plan.

"When there are serious problems that are right there before us, we don’t need to take months and years to deal with those issues."

Lethbridge is Alberta’s third largest city, with a population of more than 100,000.

Madu said the plan must address everything from recruiting to oversight, must have benchmarks and timelines, and be communicated to the public.

If not, Madu said he has advised the force he will take action that could include disbanding it.

Madu said disbanding it is an extreme measure, but added that police powers must be balanced by responsibility and have the confidence of the public.

"If I need to intervene to set aside the entire police service, I will," Madu said.

The Lethbridge police said in a news release it is on board with Madu’s plan and has already been working on reforms. The police service said it will likely have a plan to him sooner than the April 16 deadline.

"We have been developing an action plan over the past several months to address the problems raised by these troubling past cases," said the release.

"We are confident that the service is on the right path to correcting past behaviours and restoring public trust."

The Lethbridge Police Service has been the focus of numerous controversies, both past and ongoing in recent years.

Last year, two officers were temporarily demoted after a review determined NDP provincial legislature member Shannon Phillips, while environment minister in 2017, was surveilled and photographed at a diner. The officers involved were concerned about changes Phillips was making regarding off-highway vehicle use at a nearby wilderness areas.

Phillips has called the punishment too lenient and has won the right to appeal that decision.

Separately, five officers and one civilian are now being investigated for allegations of conducting improper database searches on Phillips while she was in cabinet in 2018.

Phillips said she has also found documents showing she might have been the target of a drugged drink at a bar in 2016, but that police never told her.

Phillips, now the NDP Opposition finance critic and legislature member for Lethbridge West, declined to comment Wednesday.

Last week, five Lethbridge police employees were suspended with pay as part of an investigation into the circulation of inappropriate images, reportedly including pictures of senior police staff pasted onto the bodies of characters from the animated “Toy Story” movies.

Last year, the force was criticized for the violent takedown of a citizen wearing a Star Wars stormtrooper costume and brandishing a toy laser blaster.

The year before that, images went viral of a Lethbridge officer euthanizing

TORTURING AND MURDERING a deer by running over the wailing animal numerous times with a police truck.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

ANOTHER TRUMP APPOINTEE

Former Operation Warp Speed scientist apologizes after being fired over sexual harassment claim

BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 03/24/21 

© Getty Images


Moncef Slaoui, former chief scientist for the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, apologized Wednesday after being fired from a medical device startup's board over sexual harassment allegations.

Slaoui served on the board of directors for Galvani Bioelectronics, a partnership between the Google spinoff Verily and the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

GSK said Slaoui was fired over allegations of sexual harassment. In a statement emailed to The Hill, Slaoui acknowledged GSK's statement and action, and apologized.


"I have the utmost respect for my colleagues and feel terrible that my actions have put a former colleague in an uncomfortable situation," he wrote. "I would like to apologise unreservedly to the employee concerned and I am deeply sorry for any distress caused."

Slaoui also apologized to his wife and family "for the pain this is causing," and said he was taking a leave of absence from his current "professional responsibilities."

He said that he would "work hard to redeem myself with all those that this situation has impacted."

GSK fired Slaoui on Wednesday after the company said it received a letter containing "allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct towards an employee of GSK by Dr. Slaoui, which occurred several years ago when he was an employee of GSK."

The pharmaceutical company said an investigation is ongoing, but the allegations were "substantiated."

Ex-Warp Speed chief exits two more drug companies

Slaoui departed GSK in 2017 after 30 years at the company. He was the head of GSK’s global vaccines business and before that, he was in charge of global research and development.

He was hired for Operation Warp Speed in May 2020, before resigning in January at the start of the Biden administration.

Slaoui recently announced the launch of a new company called Centessa Pharmaceuticals.

New study finds birds give people as much happiness as money

It’s the little things — or animals, in this case.

By Anagha Srikanth | March 24, 2021

Story at a glance

Researchers have found that higher incomes may improve people’s day-to-day well-being.

A new study suggests that biological diversity, especially of birds, can increase life satisfaction just as much as income.

During the coronavirus pandemic, nature has emerged as an escape from quarantine and social isolation.

In our pursuit of that elusive thing called happiness, scientists can offer few findings. One is that, contrary to popular belief, money can actually buy happiness. Another, more recent, is that so can birds.

"Europeans are particularly satisfied with their lives if their immediate surroundings host a high species diversity," said the lead author of a recent study published in Science Daily. Joel Methorst, a doctoral researcher at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, the iDiv, and the Goethe University in Frankfurt, explained that, "according to our findings, the happiest Europeans are those who can experience numerous different bird species in their daily life, or who live in near-natural surroundings that are home to many species."

The social isolation necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has pushed many people to escape into the outdoors and reconnect with nature. Research suggests that spending more time in nature and with animals can help people relax and even lessen physical and mental stress.

And the more birds, the better, according to the study, which analyzed data from the "2012 European quality of Life Survey" on life satisfaction in more than 26,000 adults from 26 European countries. A 10 percent increase in the number of bird species in peoples' surroundings increased their life satisfaction as much as an extra 10 percent in the bank, the study found.

"We also examined the socio-economic data of the people that were surveyed, and, much to our surprise, we found that avian diversity is as important for their life satisfaction as is their income," Katrin Böhning-Gaese, director of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, and member of the iDiv, said in the article.

Climate change, however, is threatening many species’ habitats and the authors pointed to studies of avian species in agricultural landscapes in Europe that show declining biological diversity.

"This poses the risk that human well-being will also suffer from an impoverished nature. Nature conservation therefore not only ensures our material basis of life, but it also constitutes an investment in the well-being of us all," said Methorst.

Published on Mar 24, 2021

Asian Americans faced biggest rise in online hate in 2020, survey finds

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 03/24/21 /THE HILL

© Getty Images

Asian Americans experienced the biggest rise in severe online hate and harassment in the past year in comparison to other groups, a new survey released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found.

According to the survey, which was released on Wednesday, 17 percent of Asian Americans polled said they experienced sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats, swatting, doxing or sustained harassment over the past year — a 6 percent from those who said the same the prior year.

Half of Asian American respondents who said they were harassed also said they were harassed due to their race or ethnicity.


The new data comes despite recent efforts made by social media companies to combat hate speech, and as the nation has seen a surge in anti-Asian attacks reported since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States a year ago.

Last week, lawmakers raised alarm over the spike in such attacks in the wake of a shooting spree in Atlanta that left eight people dead, including six Asian women.

In the aftermath of the shooting, a few Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), called out former President Trump in particular for using terms like “Chinese virus” and “Kung flu” to refer to the coronavirus, saying the charged rhetoric helped contribute to a rise in anti-Asian attacks.

In its recent report, the ADL said that the rise in physical violence against Asian-Americans in the nation was “whipped up in large part by bigotry and conspiracy theories that grew online, fanned by national leaders,” including what it referred to as Trump’s “incendiary rhetoric blaming China for the pandemic” and his use of the controversial terms for the coronavirus.

The ADL also said the survey found “a sharp rise in online harassment of African-Americans based on their race, from 42 percent attributing their harassment to their race last year to 59 percent in this year’s survey.”


On Facebook alone, the organization said “derogatory posts against African-Americans quadrupled” in the wake of the fatal police killing of George Floyd in May, which sparked months of continued protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

“They stayed elevated until September, when the pace of protests slowed,” the organization said of the posts.

The survey included troubling findings for other groups as well.

The survey showed that 64 percent of LGBTQ-identifying respondents reported overall harassment this past year, making it the third in the row the bloc has reported higher rates of overall harassment than any other demographic, the organization said.

Thirty-six percent of Jewish respondents reported experiencing online harassment in the survey, compared to 20 percent from the previous year. Thirty-six percent of Muslim respondents also reported experiencing severe harassment online this past year.


Forty-one percent of Americans overall reported experiencing some form of online hate and harassment in the new survey. More than a quarter of respondents that reported experiencing harassment said they were targeted due to their race or ethnicity.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the organization, said in a statement that the survey “shows that even as technology companies insist that they are taking unprecedented steps to moderate hateful content on their social media platforms, the user experience hasn’t changed all that much.”

“Americans of many different backgrounds continue to experience online hate and harassment at levels that are totally unacceptable,” Greenbaldt said. “And not surprisingly, after a year where national figures including the president himself routinely scapegoated China and Chinese people for spreading the coronavirus, Asian-Americans experienced heightened levels of harassment online, just as they did offline.”

An overwhelming majority of respondents said they think social media platforms need to step up their actions to combat online hate.

In conjunction with the survey’s release, the ADL said it is also announcing an effort, dubbed the REPAIR Plan, to “hold platforms and individual perpetrators accountable for enabling online hate and extremism.”

The ADL said the survey was conducted by YouGov online between Jan. 7-15, 2021, and polled 2,251 individuals. The organization said the results were weighted and “are representative of all Americans 18 and older.” It said the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The organization added that it also “included oversamples of respondents who identified as Jewish, Muslim, African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Latino, and LGBTQ+” in the survey in “an effort to understand the experiences of individuals who may be especially targeted because of their group identity.”id it is also announcing an effort, dubbed the REPAIR Plan, to “hold platforms and individual perpetrators accountable for enabling online hate and extremism.”

The ADL said the survey was conducted by YouGov online between Jan. 7-15, 2021, and polled 2,251 individuals. The organization said the results were weighted and “are representative of all Americans 18 and older.” It said the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The organization added that it also “included oversamples of respondents who identified as Jewish, Muslim, African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic or Latino, and LGBTQ+” in the survey in “an effort to understand the experiences of individuals who may be especially targeted because of their group identity.”

Warren presses Yellen to ramp up BlackRock oversight

BY SYLVAN LANE / THE HILL / - 03/24/21 

© Greg Nash


Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pushed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday to force investment firm BlackRock into tougher federal oversight under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Warren urged Yellen — the former chair of the Federal Reserve — to put the massive asset manager under strict supervision before the next time financial markets buckle.

“I understand that when the stock market is going up, it is easy to ignore risks that can be building up in the system. That was the mindset of the regulators that led up to the 2008 crash, and that is how taxpayers ended up on the hook for a $700 billion bailout of the giant banks,” Warren said.


“When the party is going strong, it's the job of the regulators to take away the punch bowl,” she added.

Under Dodd-Frank, an interagency group of financial regulators chaired by Yellen called the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) can designate firms as “systemically important financial institutions” (SIFIs) if it determines that the company’s collapse could trigger a broader financial crisis.

Put simply, SIFIs are banks and financial firms that the U.S. government considers “too big to fail.” SIFIs are subject to Fed stress tests and must develop plans for how they could be disassembled without causing a crisis if the firm is on the verge of collapse.

While U.S banks with more than $250 billion in assets are automatically considered SIFIs, Warren is among many Democrats and Wall Street skeptics in favor of applying the designation to BlackRock and other major financial firms.

BlackRock is the world’s largest nonbank investment company and manages nearly $9 trillion in assets — more than the individual gross domestic product of every single country except the U.S. and China.


“Does, potentially, a $9 trillion investment company pose some risk to the American economy if it should fail?” Warren asked Yellen, arguing in favor of BlackRock’s systemic importance.

Yellen, however, said that FSOC would be more likely to focus on specific activities instead of the size of firms.

She said that while asset managers face risks if sharp withdrawals from mutual funds cause fire sales across financial markets, “it’s not obvious to me that designation is the correct tool” to address those risks.

Warren countered that the point of SIFI designation was to give regulators the ability to crack down on certain activities with greater authority over and visibility into large firms.

“Designation is what is what gives the Fed its increased oversight power,” Warren said.


In a statement, BlackRock said that while it supports "financial regulatory reform that increases transparency, protects investors and facilitates responsible growth," the firm did not require special supervision.

"The past two administrations in the US, and numerous global regulators, have studied our industry for a decade and concluded that asset managers should be regulated differently from banks, with the primary focus being on the industry’s products and services," said BlackRock.

The debate between Warren and Yellen — both ardent Dodd-Frank supporters — is one of the earliest instances of Democratic lawmakers pushing the Biden administration to be more aggressive on financial regulation.

Progressives have largely been pleased with Biden’s picks for key financial posts, including several that were aides to Warren. Deputy Treasury Secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director nominee Rohit Chopra were both early officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Warren, and National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti was a senior policy advisor for Warren in the Senate.

Even so, Warren and other progressive leaders have pledged to push the Biden administration to crack down on misconduct in the financial sector, tighten protections for consumers and push firms toward stronger climate change and diversity positions.

Updated at 3:06 p.m.

USA

Students of color more likely to be learning virtually during pandemic: survey

BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO - 03/24/21 

© Getty Images

Students of color are more likely to be engaged in virtual learning this year as more schools reopen for in-person classes, according to data released Wednesday by the Department of Education.

The survey, the first in the department's series of national studies on learning during the coronavirus pandemic, measured attendance and method of instruction among fourth and eighth graders nationwide as of January into early February.

At the time, about 68 percent of Asian students were only learning remotely, as well as 58 percent of Black students and 56 percent of Hispanic students.


Comparatively, just 27 percent of white students were receiving all-virtual instruction.

The data, collected by Education Department’s research and evaluation arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, indicated that about 23 percent of white students were learning in some sort of “hybrid” setting in which they were attending at least a portion of classes in person, with just 10 percent of Hispanic students, 14 percent of Black students and 16 percent of Asian students doing the same.

While the survey released Wednesday did not specify whether enrollment in virtual versus in-person learning was due to available offerings or personal decisions by parents, the Education Department reported that among the schools surveyed, 77 percent were offering hybrid or full-time in-person learning as of January.

The report is the first major attempt at data collection since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools across the country to close amid lockdown orders and safety restrictions.

The Education Department created the survey in response to one of President Biden’s first-day executive actions, with monthly findings expected through at least July. The reports are expected to determine the long-term impacts of the pandemic on learning, including identifying inequalities.


The first report came the same day Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told NBC’s “Today” that he anticipates all U.S. schools will be able open for in-person learning by the fall.

He added that he will first focus “on getting as many now in the spring.”

"I think if we continue with mitigation strategies that we know work and we utilize the American Rescue Plan funding to put in those safeguards that are needed to provide safe environments for our students, we can really continue to make the progress that we're making to get students [back in school] in the spring,” he said.

However, the push to reopen schools has prompted concerns from teachers unions and minority groups.

On Tuesday, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, questioned the Biden administration’s decision to reduce the recommended distance between students in a classroom from 6 feet to 3 feet, saying that they were “not convinced that the evidence supports changing physical distancing requirements at this time.”

Additionally, a Census Bureau report released Monday found that homeschooling, separate from virtual learning, doubled during the pandemic, with a significant increase measured among the Black community from 3.3 percent choosing homeschooling to 16.1 percent.

Newsom picks Filipino American assemblyman for California attorney general

BY REID WILSON - 03/24/21 - THE HILL

© Facebook: Rob Bonta

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will tap a longtime assemblyman from Oakland to replace Xavier Becerra as the state's next attorney general, he said Wednesday, days after Becerra resigned to become President Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D), long seen as a front-runner for the post, has held a seat in the Assembly since 2012. He is the first Filipino American to serve in California’s legislature, and he would become the first Filipino American attorney general in the state's history.

Bonta will need to be confirmed by the Assembly and the state Senate, though with overwhelming Democratic majorities in both chambers, those votes are likely to be all but ceremonial.

In a tweet announcing his decision, Newsom highlighted Bonta’s heritage at a moment when Asian American representation in politics has been forced into the spotlight amid a rising tide of anti-Asian hate that has emerged since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, eight people were murdered in Atlanta-area spas in an assault that apparently targeted Asian women.

“In this moment of sickening attacks on AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] Californians, there’s no one better to defend CA values,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.

Bonta, 48, was born in Quezon City, Philippines. He has spent his time in Sacramento backing criminal justice reform bills. He co-authored a bill to eliminate cash bail for suspects awaiting trial. In 2019, Newsom signed Bonta’s bill to eliminate private prisons and detention centers.

“I became a lawyer because I saw the law as the best way to make a positive difference for the most people, and it would be an honor of a lifetime to serve as the attorney for the people of this great state,” Bonta said in a statement.