Biden backs changes in military sexual assault prosecution

By AAMER MADHANI and LOLITA C. BALDOR

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FILE - This March 27, 2008, file photo, shows the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday put his stamp of approval on a long-debated change to the military justice system that would remove decisions on prosecuting sexual assault cases from military commanders.

Biden, however, stopped short of backing a congressional effort to strip commanders of oversight of all major crimes.

The president formally approved more than two dozen recommendations made by an independent review commission on sexual assault in the military. The changes include shifting decisions on prosecuting sexual assault cases to special victims prosecutors outside the chain of command to remove any appearance of conflicts of interest.

The military’s sexual assault response coordinators and victims advocates also would be removed from the command structure system.

Reports of sexual assaults in the military have steadily gone up since 2006, according to Defense Department reports, including a 13% jump in 2018 and a 3% increase in 2019.

“I look forward to working with Congress to implement these necessary reforms and promote a work environment that is free from sexual assault and harassment for every one of our brave service members,” Biden said in a statement endorsing the recommendations.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has the support of 66 senators for a bill that would have independent prosecutors handle all felony cases that call for more than a year in prison. But other key lawmakers and leaders of the military services have balked at including all major crimes. There are concerns that stripping control of all crimes from commanders could hurt military readiness, erode command authority and require far more time and resources.

Biden hailed Gillibrand’s work on the issue. But he asked the commission to focus only on addressing the problems of sexual assault and harassment in the military, said a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Asked about the Gillibrand legislation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “looks forward to working with Congress to implement these necessary reforms,” but she sidestepped whether he would be supportive of the proposed legislation.

Gillibrand in her own statement said the commission’s recommendations — and the administration’s embrace of them — would add momentum to efforts to reform the military justice system. Still, she urged a broader overhaul.

“We must resist the urge to create a separate but unequal system of justice within the military and must guarantee a professional, unbiased system for all service members,” said Gillibrand, adding she would push for debate and a vote on a broader military justice reform bill when Congress returns.

Last month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, for the first time, voiced support for taking sexual assault and related crimes away from the chain of command and letting independent military lawyers handle them.

He issued a memo to Pentagon leadership Friday directing that they immediately move on the commission recommendation including adding sexual harassment as an offense under military law.

Austin’s support came even as military service secretaries and chiefs, in memos to Austin and letters to Capitol Hill, said they were wary about the sexual assault change, and laid out greater reservations on more broadly revamping the military justice system.

Gillibrand has argued against limiting the change to sexual assault, saying it would be discriminatory and set up what some call a “pink” court to deal with crimes usually involving female victims.

“I’m deeply concerned that if they limit it to just sexual assault, it will really harm female service members. It will further marginalize them, further undermine them, and they’ll be seen as getting special treatment,” she previously told the AP.

The Army’s handling of sexual assaults and other violence has come under significant scrutiny in the aftermath of a series of crimes, including murders and suicides last year at Fort Hood, Texas. A review panel found that military leaders at the post were not adequately dealing with high rates of sexual assault and harassment and were utterly neglecting the sexual assault prevention program.

“These special victims require and deserve all critical decisions about their case to be made by a highly trained special victim prosecutor who is independent from the chain of command,” the report says. “A commander’s position within the unit leads to an inherent appearance of a conflict of interest.”

Biden said during an International Women’s Day speech in March that there would be “an all-hands-on-deck effort under my administration to end the scourge of sexual assault in the military.” He underscored on Friday that reform was essential for the health of the military.

“This will be among the most significant reforms to our military undertaken in recent history, and I’m committed to delivering results,”″ Biden said.

The commission made 28 recommendations and 54 sub-recommendations in its report to Biden, including specific changes to improve accountability of leadership, climate and culture and victim care and support.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Biden and Austin’s embrace of the commission’s recommendations demonstrated the administration is “treating this issue with the urgency it deserves.”

“As I have said, the scourge of sexual assault in our military must come to an end, and after years of trying and failing to address the problem the time has come to remove the prosecution of sexual assault crimes from the chain of command,” Smith said.

NATO SNEAKS AWAY IN THE NIGHT
Most European troops exit Afghanistan quietly after 20 years

By GEIR MOULSON and KATHY GANNON

June 30, 2021

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Soldiers of the German Armed Forces have lined up in front of the Airbus A400M transport aircraft of the German Air Force for the final roll call in Wunstorf, Germany, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. The last soldiers of the German Afghanistan mission have arrived at the air base in Lower Saxony. The mission had ended the previous evening after almost 20 years. The soldiers had been flown out with four military planes from the field camp in Masar-i-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan. (Hauke-Christian Dittrich/Pool via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the U.S.-led mission was officially expected to end — part of an anticlimactic close to the “forever war” that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Poland’s last troops returned home, bringing their deployments to a low-key end nearly 20 years after the first Western soldiers were deployed there.

Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony — a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the U.S. invasion to rid the country of al-Qaida after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the ensuing decades, the war went from one mission to another. Former U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration shied away from nation-building and the United Nations advocated a light footprint. But with the passing years, NATO and U.S. troops took on greater roles developing Afghanistan’s National Security and Defense Forces and training police. At the war’s peak, the U.S. and NATO military numbers surpassed 150,000.

NATO agreed in April to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan to match U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull all American troops from the country, starting May 1.

Biden set a Sept. 11 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But more recently, American officials have said that pullout would most likely be completed by July 4 — and many allies have moved to wrap up their own presence by then as well.

NATO declined to give an update Wednesday on how many nations still have troops in its Resolute Support mission. But an analysis of 19 governments’ announcements shows that more than 4,800 of the non-American forces have left.

The U.S. has refused to give troop figures, but when Biden announced the final pullout, between 2,500 and 3,500 troops were deployed. As of February, a total of some 832,000 American troops had served in Afghanistan, while about 25,100 Defense Department civilians had also served there.

The U.S. has also refused to give a clear date for a final withdrawal.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday only that the U.S. withdrawal remains “on the timeline that the president announced ... which is to get our troops out of Afghanistan, while having a remaining diplomatic presence on the ground, by September.”

Germany announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister late Tuesday, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.

Three transport aircraft landed at the Wunstorf air base in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon. The troops, wearing masks, lined up on the tarmac for a brief ceremony, but the military dispensed with a bigger reception because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have worked long and hard to stand here today,” said Brig. Gen. Ansgar Meyer, the last commander of the German contingent. “As your commander, I can say for you: ‘Mission accomplished.’ You have fulfilled your task.”

But the top American general in Afghanistan gave a sobering assessment Tuesday, warning about the recent rapid loss of districts to the Taliban and cautioning the country could descend into civil war.

The German pullout came amid a spate of withdrawals by European nations. Poland’s last departing troops were greeted Wednesday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Some 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The last Italian troops from Italy’s base in Herat arrived at the military airport in Pisa late Tuesday. Italy officially declared its mission in Afghanistan over in a statement Wednesday, with Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini paying tribute to the 53 Italians who died and 723 who were injured over the past two decades.

Going forward, Guerini said Italy’s commitment to Afghanistan would remain, “beginning with the strengthening of development cooperation and support for Afghan institutions.”

Georgia’s last troops returned home Monday, while Romania brought home its remaining 140 troops Saturday, when Norway also pulled out. Troops from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands also returned home last week. Spain withdrew its last troops on May 13, Sweden on May 25, and Belgium on June 14. The small contingents deployed by Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Albania, North Macedonia and Luxembourg have left as well.

The pullout is nearing its end as security in Afghanistan worsens. Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have overrun district after district, including along major transportation routes. Many have fallen after Afghan soldiers surrendered, often convinced to leave their posts by elders. But elsewhere there have been bitter military battles, with Afghan troops sometimes losing when their positions could not be resupplied.

The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austen S. Miller, meanwhile, expressed concern about the resurrection of militias, which were deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces but have a brutal reputation for widespread killing.

“A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory it’s on right now, that should be of concern to the world,” he said.

At a ceremony last week to mark the official end of the Dutch deployment, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten underscored the uncertain outlook.

“We see reports of the rise of the Taliban, growing violence, also in areas where we were stationed,” she said. “A lot has been achieved but we must be realistic: The results are not irreversible.”




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Italian Army soldiers carry the flag of the Folgore Brigade as the last Italian troops withdraw from Afghanistan, in Herat, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. The last German and Italian troops returned home from Afghanistan to low-key receptions on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30, 2021, nearly 20 years after the first soldiers were deployed. Their withdrawal came after many other European allies pulled out their troops without much ceremony in recent days and weeks, bringing the Western mission in Afghanistan close to an end as the United States' own withdrawal looms. (Italian Defense Ministry via AP)


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This story has been updated to correct that Italian troops arrived home late Tuesday, not Wednesday.

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Gannon reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Robert Burns in Washington and reporters from around Europe contributed to this report.

New US LGBTQ-rights envoy sees reasons for hope and worry


In this Dec. 7, 2019 photo provided by Brad Hamilton, Jessica Stern, head of Outright International, speaks during the OutSummit in New York. Stern, to become the U.S. State Department's special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights in September 2021, sees a mix of promising news and worrisome news almost everywhere she looks as she assesses the challenges that lie ahead. (Brad Hamilton/OutRight Action International via AP)


NEW YORK (AP) — Jessica Stern, soon to become the State Department’s special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, sees a mix of promising news and worrisome developments almost everywhere she looks, both at home and abroad.

In the United States, Stern’s admiration for President Joe Biden’s moves supporting LGBTQ rights is offset by her dismay at other developments. These include persisting violence against transgender women of color and a wave of legislation in Republican-governed states seeking to limit sports participation and medical options for trans youth.

“I don’t think there’s a country or region that’s all good or all bad,” she told The Associated Press on Friday. “When you look around the world, you see progress and danger simultaneously.”

Stern, whose new post was announced by Biden last week, has served since 2012 as executive director of New York-based OutRight Action International, which works globally to prevent abuses of LGBTQ people and strengthen their civil rights. She expects to start the State Department job in September.

From her vantage point at OutRight, she’s been monitoring far-flung threats to LGBTQ people: recent mass arrests in African countries such as Ghana and Uganda, three killings within a week in Guatemala, and legislation in Hungary that has been assailed by many European leaders and human rights activists as denigrating LGBTQ people.

Stern is also worried that LGBTQ people in Myanmar are suffering disproportionately amid the military’s violent suppression of demonstrators and opposition groups.

Regarding the United States, she said, LGBTQ developments this year have reflected deep-seated contradictions.

She hailed Biden for moving to bolster transgender rights, including lifting a Trump administration ban that blocked trans people from joining the military. And she welcomed the ground-breaking appointments of LGBTQ people to important administration posts –- including Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, as transportation secretary, and Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender, as assistant secretary of health.

“At the same time, the work in the U.S. for the safety and security of transgender Americans is far from complete,” said Stern. She urged Congress to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. The bill is stalled in the Senate for lack of Republican support.

“There’s no country that has gotten this right,” she said. “We all have work to do to ensure we are free from discrimination and violence. ... We’re all in this together.”

She does see reasons for optimism, even in Africa, where South Africa is the only one of 54 nations to have legalized same-sex marriage.

In Nigeria, for example, she said a recent poll showed 25% of the public opposes discrimination against LGBTQ people -- a substantial increase from a few years ago,

“There’s no doubt it’s a slower journey for LGBTQI rights in any place where conservative religions play a dominant role, but progress is happening,” she said.

“Every day I get an email from a new organization -- maybe starting a film festival or an arts festival,” she said. “As long as LGBTQI civil society is strong, it’s only a matter of time before we see a change in attitudes and even in law and policy.”

Hungary PM calls EU leaders ‘colonialists’ in LGBT law feud

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday accused European leaders of acting like “colonialists” in their criticism of a controversial law that’s seen as limiting the rights of LGBT people in that country.

European Union leaders challenged Orban on the law at a summit in Brussels last week, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte suggesting that the Hungarian leader should either uphold EU values or pull out of the 27-member bloc.

Speaking on public radio, Orban defied calls to repeal the law which prohibits the “display or promotion” of homosexuality or gender reassignment in television shows, films and sexual education programs to kids in schools.

“They behave like colonialists,” Orban said of his EU critics. “They want to dictate what laws should take effect in another country, they want to tell us how to live our lives and how to behave.” He added that the criticism was a result of “bad reflexes caused by their European colonialist past.”

Hungary’s right-wing government - which faces elections next year - insists the law is necessary to ensure that the sexual education of children under 18 is the sole domain of parents.

But LGBT advocacy groups and high-ranking politicians in Europe have slammed the legislation, arguing it stigmatizes sexual minorities and seeks to stifle discourse on sexual orientation.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week called the law “a shame,” and sent a letter to Hungary demanding a clarification of its impact on fundamental rights.

The heads of 17 EU countries signed a joint letter condemning the legislation, and urged the European Commission to take Hungary before the European Court of Justice over the matter.

#ENDTHEDEATHPENALTY

US Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed

By MICHAEL BALSAMO, COLLEEN LONG and MICHAEL TARM

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference on voting rights at the Department of Justice in Washington, Friday, June 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement Thursday night, saying he was imposing a moratorium on federal executions while the Justice Department conducts a review of its policies and procedures. He gave no timetable.

“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”

Garland said the department would review the protocols put in place by former Attorney General William Barr. A federal lawsuit has been filed over the protocols — including the risk of pain and suffering associated with the use of pentobarbital, the drug used for lethal injection.

The decision puts executions on hold for now, but it doesn’t end their use and keeps the door open for another administration to simply restart them. It also doesn’t stop federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty; the Biden administration recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the Boston Marathon bomber’s original death sentence.

President Joe Biden has said he opposes the death penalty and his team vowed that he would take action to stop its use while in office. But the issue is uncomfortable one for Biden. As a then-proponent of the death penalty, Biden helped craft 1994 laws that added 60 federal crimes for which someone could be put to death, including several that did not cause death. He later conceded the laws disproportionately impacted Black people. Black people are also overrepresented on death rows across the United States.

Anti-death penalty advocates had hoped for a more definitive answer from the Biden administration. Sup​port for the death penalty among Americans is at near-historic lows after peaking in the mid-1990s and steadily declining since, with most recent polls indicating support now hovers around 55%, according to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Ruth Friedman, Director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project, which represented some of the prisoners on death row, said Garland’s action was a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. She called on Biden to commute the sentences.

“We know the federal death penalty system is marred by racial bias, arbitrariness, over-reaching, and grievous mistakes by defense lawyers and prosecutors that make it broken beyond repair,” she said. There are 46 people still on federal death row.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden was “pleased the Attorney General is taking these steps” and emphasized that the president has “significant concerns about the death penalty and how it is implemented.”

The review is strikingly similar to one to one imposed during the Obama administration. In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.

Barr announced the restarting of executions in 2019, saying the Obama-era review had been completed and clearing the way for executions to resume. He approved the new procedure for lethal injections that replaced the three-drug combination previously used in federal executions with one drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, but not all.

Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions in July, following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions. The last inmate to be executed, Dustin Higgs, was put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, less than a week before Trump left office.

They were carried out during a worsening coronavirus pandemic. Toward the end of the string of executions, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19, guards were ill and traveling prisons staff on the execution team had the virus. It’s impossible to know precisely who introduced the infections and how they started to spread, in part because prisons officials didn’t consistently do contact tracing and haven’t been fully transparent about the number of cases. But an Associated Press analysis found the executions were likely a superspreader event.

There were major discrepancies in the way executioners who put the 13 inmates to death described the process of dying by lethal injection. They likened the process in official court papers to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.”

But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media witnesses of how prisoners’ stomachs rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect inside the U.S. penitentiary death chamber in Terre Haute. The AP witnessed every execution.

Secrecy surrounded all aspects of the executions. Courts relied on those carrying them out to volunteer information about glitches. None of the executioners mentioned any.

Lawyers argued that one of the men put to death last year, Wesley Purkey, suffered “extreme pain” as he received a dose of pentobarbital. The court papers were filed by another inmate, Keith Nelson, in an effort to halt or delay his execution. But it went forward.

The federal Bureau of Prisons has declined to explain how it obtained pentobarbital for the lethal injections under Trump. But states have resorted to other means as the drugs used in lethal injections have become increasingly hard to procure. Pharmaceutical companies in the 2000s began banning the use of their products for executions, saying they were meant to save lives, not take them.

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Tarm reported from Chicago.

Medicaid expansion takes effect in 

deep-red Oklahoma

By SEAN MURPHY and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, center, shakes hands with Oklahoma Medicaid advocates following a news conference Thursday, July 1, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla., as Oklahoma expands its Medicaid program. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A voter-approved expansion of Medicaid took effect Thursday in Oklahoma after a decade of Republican resistance in a state that has become emblematic of the political struggle to extend the federal health insurance program in conservative strongholds.

Oklahoma moved ahead with its expansion at a time when Democrats in Washington and across the states are pressing to complete the work of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, recently upheld by the Supreme Court for the third time in a decade. So far, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have expanded Medicaid, and expansion in a dozen mostly Southern states may be the biggest piece of unfinished business.

“Anyone banking on the idea that Obamacare was just going to be struck down — the Supreme Court has moved past that,” said Cindy Mann, who served as federal Medicaid chief during the Barack Obama administration.

“All of the states that are still debating the issue are constantly looking at other states’ experience to get a sense of what they can expect,” added Mann, now with the Manatt Health consultancy. “Having Oklahoma — a very red state — moving forward judiciously and with very strong enrollment is showing that this is a sensible path to go.”

More than 123,000 low-income people already have been approved for Medicaid coverage in Oklahoma, a state where nearly 15% of the population has been uninsured — the highest rate in the nation behind Texas, according to the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. State Medicaid officials say they expect that number to increase to more than 200,000 as more people get approved.

Danielle Gaddis of Oklahoma City is 26 and preparing to begin medical school. She has been without private health insurance since her mother, whose health plan she was on, retired two years ago.

When Gaddis began running a fever over the winter, she couldn’t afford to see a doctor and instead spent two weeks trying to recover on her own. That will change since she’s been approved for Medicaid thanks to the expansion.

“Just the financial worry is gone,” Gaddis said. “It’s nice to know that’s something I don’t have to worry about.”

Oklahoma voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment last year to expand eligibility for benefits. Now, an individual who earns up to $17,796 annually, or $36,588 for a family of four, qualifies for Medicaid health care coverage. By contrast, the median income limit for parents in states that didn’t expand their program is about $8,905 for a family of three, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2019 file photo, supporters of Yes on 802 Oklahomans Decide Healthcare, calling for Medicaid expansion to be put on the ballot, carry boxes of petitions into the office of the Oklahoma Secretary of State, in Oklahoma City. Tens of thousands of Oklahoma residents are now covered by health insurance as a result of Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma. The voter-backed expansion took effect on Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki File)

“I want to congratulate Oklahoma on joining the ranks of states that are bringing quality health coverage to our neighbors and families,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who visited Oklahoma Thursday to discuss the significance of Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid started out in the 1960s as a federal-state health insurance program for severely disabled people and low-income families on welfare, but it now covers nearly 74 million people, or more than one in five Americans. The program expansion under Obama brought in some 12 million low-income people, mostly low-wage workers.

The states most closely watching Oklahoma are Missouri – where voters approved an expansion but GOP legislators balked at funding it – as well as Kansas, where Medicaid expansion has been actively debated. In Missouri, a judge recently ruled that the ballot question there was unconstitutional.

In South Dakota, several major health care systems last month announced plans to begin gathering signatures for a ballot measure to expand Medicaid there.

Opponents of expansion argue that the costs to the states are excessive. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has described the expansion as “a massive tax increase that Missourians cannot afford.” Oklahoma helped offset the costs by increasing a fee that hospitals must pay.

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief law dangles a significant financial bonus in front of states that expand their programs now. Oklahoma is the first to qualify.

Under the Biden legislation, states newly expanding will receive a two-year, 5-percentage-point bump up in federal matching funds for their regular Medicaid programs. That’s on top of a 90% federal match for the costs of covering the newly insured through the expansion. Manatt estimates the bonus alone would work out to $786 million for Oklahoma, but bigger states like Texas and Florida would reap much more.

More than 2 million low-income uninsured people remain in a coverage gap as long as Medicaid expansion is unfinished. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid under their individual state’s rules, but not enough to qualify for “Obamacare’s” subsidized private insurance.

“Right now, millions of Americans do not have health care coverage through no fault of their own because their states haven’t expanded their Medicaid programs,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chair of the U.S. House committee that oversees Medicaid.

In Washington, there’s a growing demand among Democrats for the federal government to step in and take direct action if states continue to hold out. It’s seen as a health equity issue, since many of the uninsured people in the coverage gap are racial and ethnic minorities.

“Having Oklahoma and Missouri going in two different directions really illustrates the need for the federal government to do something,” said Jesse Cross-Call, a health policy expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, which advocates for low-income people. “There continue to be states that are going to throw up roadblocks and resist this no matter what you put in front of them.”

James Capretta, a health policy expert with the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said there’s also been a reluctance among Democrats to compromise, since they reject ideas that would alter the basic terms of the Obama health law.

Nonetheless, “there ought to be a bipartisan consensus here, since there really is no alternative to Medicaid as the safety net health insurance program,” Capretta added. “We already have a program. And there is still a gap population. The logical thing to do is find some way to make sure these people are at least being helped.”

USA
Overhaul makes it easier for aspiring teachers to get grants

By COLLIN BINKLEY

July 1, 2021

FILE - In this March 17, 2021, file photo, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington. The U.S. Education Department on Wednesday, June 16, expanded its interpretation of federal sex protections to include transgender and gay students, a move that reverses Trump-era policy and stands against proposals in many states to bar transgender girls from school sports. In announcing the shift, Cardona said gay, lesbian and transgender students “have the same rights and deserve the same protections” as workers. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The U.S. Education Department on Thursday loosened the rules around a grant program that’s intended to help aspiring teachers pay for college but has actually left thousands stuck with student debt.

The update is part of a federal rules overhaul that was finalized under the Trump administration but is just now taking effect. Unlike other Trump-era rules that the Biden administration is working to reverse, however, this rule was heralded as a victory for the nation’s teachers.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the changes deliver much-needed improvements to help teachers get grants “without having to jump through unnecessary hoops.” He said the White House now hopes to take it a step further by expanding funding for the program and adopting other policies to address teacher shortages.

The TEACH Grants — short for Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education — were created in 2007 to expand the nation’s teaching force and steer more teachers to schools in low-income areas.

Under the program, students can get up to $4,000 a year if they plan to teach high-demand subjects in schools that serve low-income students. They must teach for at least four years within eight years of graduating. If they fall short of that goal or fail to submit regular paperwork, the grants become federal loans that must be repaid in full and with interest.

Since its creation, more than 200,000 students have received grants through the program.

Lawmakers in both parties began calling for improvements after a federal watchdog agency found in 2015 that thousands of the grants had been converted to loans. As of 2019, almost half of grants awarded through the program had become loans, according to an Education Department report, in many cases only because recipients failed to turn in annual forms proving their teaching status.

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved to ease some of the requirements last year amid a flurry of policy changes. Her updated rule adds flexibility and reduces the paperwork that has posed problems for recipients. The rule was scheduled to take effect July 1.

With the new policy in place, recent college graduates will no longer have to submit a form indicating they have started teaching or plan to within 120 days. Once they begin teaching, they still have to file annual forms proving their teaching status, but failing to do so will not automatically get their grants turned into loans.

On Thursday, Education Department officials emphasized that the only way a grant can now be turned into a loan is if students request it or if they run out of time to complete four years of teaching within the eight-year deadline.

An expanded appeals process will also allow students to request reconsideration if their grant is turned into a loan for any reason. And the Education Department will accept a wider range of reasons that would allow students to get credit for a full year of teaching even if they work just part of the year.

President Joe Biden is proposing to expand the program through his American Families Plan. His proposal would double the grant size, to $8,000, for college juniors and seniors and all graduate students. It would also eliminate the interest when grants are converted to loans, and it would expand the program to include early childhood teachers.

The White House says the proposal would increase the number of grant recipients by more than 50%, to nearly 40,000 in 2022.

White House reports 56% of hires are women, pay gap narrowed
By AAMER MADHANI

July 1, 2021

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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 1, 2021, to board Marine One on their way for a brief stop to switch on Air Force One at nearby Andrews Air Force Base, Md., that will take them to Florida. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has filled about 56% of his senior White House staff positions with women, including about 36% who come from racially and-or ethnically diverse backgrounds, according the White House.

The Biden administration published the gender and pay analysis of its staff on Thursday as it delivered a required annual report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House office employee.

The administration said the data shows it is “the most diverse administration in history” and also has only a narrow pay gap between men and women on staff.

The average salary for women in the administration is $93,752, while men average $94,639, representing about a 1% pay gap.

That compares with a 37% gender pay gap in President Donald Trump’s administration during his first year in office, while President Barack Obama’s pay gap was 16% at the same point in his presidency, according to an American Enterprise Institute analysis of staff salaries.

“In alignment with the president’s commitment to diversity and pay equity, the White House has taken significant steps to ensure the White House staff reflects the diversity of the country and the highest standards of economic and social justice for all,” the White House said in a statement accompanying its report to Congress.

Overall, about 60% of Biden’s White House staff is female. Women make up about 50.8% of the American population, according the 2019 U.S. Census, and they make up a 47.0% share within the labor force as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Biden, 78, during the campaign sought to fend off suggestions that an older white man wasn’t the right person for the presidency at a moment when the nation is grappling with issues like racial injustice and huge pay gaps between men and women.

He sought to frame himself as a transitional candidate who would bake equity into his personnel and policy decisions as president. He picked Kamala Harris for vice president and has pledged to name the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court if given the opportunity.

Biden last week signed an executive order to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility and hired the White House’s first chief diversity and inclusion director.

The most powerful members of Biden’s inner circle — chief of staff Ron Klain, counselor Steve Ricchetti, senior adviser Mike Donilon, senior adviser Anita Dunn and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell — are all white. Senior adviser Cedric Richmond, who is Black, has also emerged as an influential voice inside the administration.

US hiring accelerated in June as workers earned higher pay


A shopper enters a retail store as a hiring sign shows in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Thursday, June 24, 2021. America’s employers added 850,000 jobs in June, well above the average of the previous three months and a sign that companies may be having an easier time finding enough workers to fill open jobs. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)


WASHINGTON (AP) — In an encouraging burst of hiring, America’s employers added 850,000 jobs in June, well above the average of the previous three months and a sign that companies may be having an easier time finding enough workers to fill open jobs.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department was the latest evidence that the reopening of the economy is propelling a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession. Restaurant traffic across the country is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, and more people are shopping, traveling and attending sports and entertainment events. The number of people flying each day has regained about 80% of its pre-COVID-19 levels. And Americans’ confidence in the economic outlook has nearly fully recovered.

The report also suggested that American workers are enjoying an upper hand in the job market as companies, desperate to staff up in a surging economy, dangle higher wages. In June, average hourly pay rose a solid 3.6% compared with a year ago — faster than the pre-pandemic annual pace. In addition, a rising proportion of newly hired workers are gaining full-time work, as the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs tumbled — a healthy sign.

“That underscores the growing bargaining power of labor,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax advisory firm. “There’s increasing confidence that they’re going to get better jobs at better wages as the U.S. economy expands.”

Speaking at the White House, President Joe Biden touted the job gains and suggested that his economic policies, including a $1.9 trillion economic relief plan that was enacted in March, were intended to make it easier for workers to find higher-paying jobs.

“The strength of our recovery is helping us flip the script,” Biden said. “Instead of workers competing with each other for jobs that are scarce, employers are competing with each other to attract workers.”

The Republican National Committee responded by noting that job gains have been stronger in Republican-run states, where governors have moved to cut off a $300-a-week federal unemployment payment to try to prod more people to seek jobs.

Friday’s report showed that the unemployment rate rose from 5.8% in May to 5.9% in June. Despite the job market’s steady gains, unemployment remains well above the 3.5% rate that prevailed before the pandemic struck, and the economy remains 6.8 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.

With competition for workers intensifying, especially at restaurants and tourist and entertainment venues, some employers are also offering signing and retention bonuses and more flexible hours. The proportion of job advertisements that promise a bonus has more than doubled in the past year, the employment website Indeed has found.

Those inducements are gradually drawing more workers off the sidelines and making a modest dent in the labor shortage. The proportion of Americans in their prime working years — ages 25 to 54 — who are either working or looking for work rose at a solid pace, though it remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Karen Fichuk, chief executive of Randstad North America, a recruiting and staffing firm, said that companies that offer higher wages are generally finding the workers they need. Offering $15 an hour, she said, has been particularly effective in persuading people to take jobs.

“Clients who are increasing their pay rates are filling their jobs,” Fichuk said, referring to companies that Randstad recruits for. “It seems like $15 an hour is kind of this threshold. It kind of tips the scale.”

Travis Crabtree, chief executive of Houston-based Swyft Filings, which processes government forms for people who are establishing small businesses, said his 85-person company is enjoying fast growth as more Americans start businesses. He has 19 job openings.

For entry-level customer service workers, Swyft already pays $15 an hour and offers stable work schedules and an office environment. So it hasn’t had any trouble finding new employees, Crabtree said.

But he has had to offer more perks to fill higher-paying jobs — digital marketers, for example, and data analysts — as many high-tech firms move to Texas from California. Staffers will be able to work part of the time from home after the pandemic.

“We definitely felt the need to step up our game on those types of things,” Crabtree said. “It’s a different ballgame for us. Two years ago, we weren’t competing against the Facebooks, LinkedIns and Teslas of the world.”

Hiring in June was particularly strong in restaurants, bars and hotels, which collectively absorbed the brunt of the layoffs from the recession. Those businesses added 343,000 jobs. Governments added 188,000 positions, mostly in education. And hiring by retailers picked up, with 67,000 jobs added.

Yet there are still factors holding back many people from taking jobs. About 1.6 million people said they didn’t look for work in June for fear of contracting the virus, though that figure dropped from 2.5 million in the previous month. And 2.6 million people who were working before the pandemic have retired.

The extra jobless aid may be enabling some people to be more selective in looking for and taking jobs. Roughly half the states plan to stop paying the supplement by the end of July in what proponents say is an effort to nudge more of the unemployed to seek work.

Electa Moss, who lives near Atlanta, has suffered a drop in her weekly unemployment benefit from $416 to $116 now that Georgia has stopped paying the $300-a-week federal supplemental benefit. Still, Moss is reluctant to take the low-paying jobs she sees advertised, with hourly wages as low as $10 or less. She earned $13 an hour at a nonprofit until she had to leave that job in September when she lost her child care.

“After taxes, I may have enough to pay the rent, but that would definitely be it,” she said, regarding a job she saw that offered $9.75 an hour. “People are really having a problem” going back to low-paid work.

There are also signs that people are re-evaluating their work and personal lives and aren’t necessarily interested in returning to their old jobs, particularly those that offer low wages. The proportion of Americans who quit their jobs in April reached its highest level in more than 20 years.

“People now realize that they have so many more options,” said Lisa Hufford, the founder of Simplicity Consulting, a firm that places professionals on contract jobs. “The talent market is so hot right now. Everyone I know is evaluating their options right now.”

Nearly 6% of workers who are in an industry category that includes restaurants, hotels, casinos, and amusement parks quit their jobs in April — twice the proportion of workers in all sectors who did so.

Rising numbers of quits means that even employers that have been hiring may be struggling to maintain sufficient staffing levels.

A survey of manufacturers in June found widespread complaints among factory executives about labor shortages. Many said they were experiencing heavy turnover because of what they called “wage dynamics”: Other companies are luring their workers away with higher pay.

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Associated Press Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

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EXPLAINER: Deterring tax avoidance by global companies

By DAVID McHUGH

FILE - In this June 7, 2017 file photo, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters is pictured in Paris, France. A broad swathe of the world's countries have agreed on a major overhaul of how to tax the world's biggest companies when they do business across borders. While the tax deal is complex in its details, the idea behind the minimum tax is simple: if a multinational company escapes taxation abroad, it would have to pay the minimum at home. A look at why it was proposed and how it would work. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

Negotiators from 130 countries have agreed on a major overhaul of how the world’s biggest companies are taxed in an effort to deter international avoidance schemes that have cost governments billions in revenue.

It’s an attempt to better cope with a world where globalization and an increasingly digital economy mean that profits can move easily from one jurisdiction to another. The agreement was sealed Thursday in talks overseen by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though there are still details to work out and hurdles to clear before it can take effect in 2023.

The key feature is a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15%, endorsing the broad outlines of a proposal from U.S. President Joe Biden.

While the tax deal is complex in its details, the idea behind the minimum tax is simple: if a multinational company escapes taxation abroad, it would have to pay the minimum at home.

Here’s why it was proposed and how it would work.

THE PROBLEM: TAX HAVENS AND THE ‘RACE TO THE BOTTOM’

Most countries only tax domestic business income of their multinational companies, on the assumption that the profits of their foreign subsidiaries will be taxed where they are earned.

But in today’s economy, profits can easily slide across borders. Earnings often come from intangibles, such as brands, copyrights and patents. Those are easy to move to where taxes are lowest — and some jurisdictions have been only too willing to offer reduced or zero taxation to attract foreign investment and revenue, even if companies do no real business there.

As a result, corporate tax rates have fallen in recent years, a phenomenon dubbed a “race to the bottom” by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

From 1985 to 2018, the worldwide average corporate statutory tax rate fell from 49% to 24%. From 2000-2018, U.S. companies booked half of all foreign profits in just seven low-tax jurisdictions: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland. The OECD estimates tax avoidance costs anywhere from $100 billion to $240 billion, or from 4% to 10% of global corporate income tax revenues.

That’s money governments could use as they see deficits rise from spending on pandemic relief.

THE SOLUTION: THE GLOBAL MINIMUM TAX

The talks seek to put a floor under corporate tax rates by having countries legislate a minimum that they would levy on untaxed foreign income. In other words, if Company X headquartered in Country Y paid no or little tax on profits in Country Z, Country Y would tax those profits at home up to the minimum rate.

That would remove the reason for using a tax haven, or for setting one up. Biden has proposed a 15% floor for the global talks, though it could be higher.

ANOTHER PROBLEM: TAXING ‘DIGITAL’ COMPANIES

Another focus is what to do about companies that make profits in countries where they have no physical presence. That could be through digital advertising or online retail. Countries led by France have started imposing unilateral “digital” taxes that hit the biggest U.S. tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. The U.S. calls those unfair trade practices, and has threatened retaliation through import taxes.

THE SOLUTION: ALLOCATING TAXING RIGHTS

Biden’s proposal focuses on the 100 biggest and most profitable multinationals no matter what kind of business they are in, digital or not. Countries could claim the right to tax part of their profits — under a proposal backed by the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, up to 20% of the profits of companies above a profit margin of 10%. Governments would have to roll back their unilateral taxes, defusing the trade disputes with the U.S.

BIDEN’S PLANS

The OECD talks play a role in Biden’s push for changes that would, in his view, make the tax system fairer and raise revenue for investments in infrastructure and clean energy. The U.S. already passed a tax on foreign earnings under the Trump administration. But Biden wants to roughly double the Trump era rate to 21%, and also to charge that rate on a country-by-country basis so that tax havens can be targeted. The president also seeks to make it more difficult for U.S. companies to merge with foreign firms and avoid U.S. taxes, a process known as inversion.

All those changes must be approved by the U.S. Congress, where the Democratic president has only a thin majority. Biden wanted a diplomatic win at the OECD talks so that other countries impose a form of a minimum tax to prevent companies from avoiding their potential tax obligations.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The agreement reached at the OECD will be taken up by the Group of 20 countries representing 80 percent of the global economy. However, all 20 G-20 countries joined in signing the OECD deal, indicating broad agreement, at least with the outlines. The G-20 could give its final blessing at a summit Oct. 30-31 in Rome.

The global minimum tax would be voluntary. So countries would have to enact it into their own national tax codes on their own initiative. The proposal to tax companies on earnings where they have no physical presence, such as through online businesses, would require countries to sign up to a written international agreement.

Some countries that took part in the OECD talks did not sign the agreement. They include Ireland and Hungary, both of which have corporate tax rates below the 15% minimum. Ireland’s finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, has said Ireland’s 12.5% rate is “a fair rate.” Donohoe said Thursday after the deal was announced that despite reservations about the rate, he remains “committed to the process” and aims “to find an outcome that Ireland can yet support.”

According to Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has written extensively on tax havens, the minimum tax will still work even if some countries don’t sign up. He said in a tweet that “the fact remains: If some countries refuse to apply a minimum tax, then other countries will collect the taxes they refuse to collect.”

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AP Business Writer Josh Boak contributed from Washington, DC.

‘Nobody’s winning’: Drought upends life in US West basin

By GILLIAN FLACCUS


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Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. "When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation," she said of the salmon. "If we have another year like we're seeing now, extinction is what we're talking about." (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

TULE LAKE, Calif. (AP) — Ben DuVal knelt in a barren field near the California-Oregon border and scooped up a handful of parched soil as dust devils whirled around him and birds flitted between empty irrigation pipes.

DuVal’s family has farmed this land for three generations, and this summer, for the first time, he and hundreds of others who rely on a federally managed lake to quench their fields aren’t getting any water from it at all.

As the farmland goes fallow, Native American tribes along the 257-mile-long (407-kilometer) river that flows from the lake to the Pacific watch helplessly as fish that are inextricable from their culture hover closer to extinction.

This summer, a historic drought and its consequences are tearing communities apart and attracting outside attention to a water crisis years in the making. Competition over Klamath River water has always been intense, but now there is simply not enough, and all the stakeholders are suffering.

“Everybody depends on the water in the Klamath River for their livelihood. That’s the blood that ties us all together,” DuVal said of the competing interests. “Nobody’s coming out ahead this year. Nobody’s winning.”

Those living the nightmare worry the extreme drought is a harbinger of global warming.

“The system is crashing ... for people up and down the Klamath Basin,” said Frankie Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe, which is monitoring a massive fish kill on the river. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Twenty years ago, when water feeding the irrigation system was drastically reduced amid another drought, the crisis became a national rallying cry for the political right, and some protesters opened the main irrigation canal in violation of federal orders.

This time, many irrigators reject the presence of anti-government activists. Farmers who need federal assistance to stay afloat fear ties to the far right could hurt them.

Meanwhile, toxic algae is blooming in the basin’s main lake, and two national wildlife refuges critical to migratory birds are drying out.

The conditions have exacerbated a water conflict that traces its roots back more than a century.




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A dead chinook salmon floats in a fish trap on the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels on the Klamath River are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)




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Gilbert Myers takes a water temperature reading at a chinook salmon trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. Native American tribes along the 257-mile-long river are watching helplessly as fish species hover closer to extinction because of lower water levels caused by historic drought. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

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Danny Nielsen walks through a tent on property he purchased next to the head gates of the Klamath River, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Klamath Falls, Ore. Nielsen, who owns 43 acres in the Klamath Project, is among those who have threatened to forcibly open the head gates of the Upper Klamath Lake if the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation does not release water for downstream users. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Beginning in 1906, the federal government reengineered a complex system of lakes, wetlands and rivers in the 10 million-acre (4 million-hectare) Klamath River Basin to create tens of thousands of acres of irrigated farmland.

The Klamath Reclamation Project draws its water from the 96-square-mile (248-square-kilometer) Upper Klamath Lake. But the lake is also home to suckerfish central to the Klamath Tribes’ culture and creation stories.

In 1988, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed two species of sucker fish as endangered. The federal government must keep the lake at a minimum depth to support the fish — but this year, amid exceptional drought, there was not enough water to do that and supply irrigators.

“Agriculture should be based on what’s sustainable. There’s too many people after too little water,” said Don Gentry, the Klamath Tribes chairman.

With the Klamath Tribes enforcing their senior water rights to help suckerfish, there is also no extra water for downriver salmon.

The Karuk Tribe last month declared a state of emergency, citing climate change and the worst hydrologic conditions in the Klamath River Basin in modern history. Karuk tribal citizen Aaron Troy Hockaday Sr. is a fourth-generation fisherman but says he hasn’t caught a fish in the river since the mid-1990s.

“I got two grandsons that are 3 and 1 years old. I’ve got a baby grandson coming this fall,” he said. “How can I teach them how to be fishermen if there’s no fish?”

The downstream tribes’ problems are compounded by hydroelectric dams that block the path of migrating salmon.

In most years, the tribes 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the southwest of the farmers, where the river reaches the ocean, ask the Bureau of Reclamation to release pulses of extra water from Upper Klamath Lake. The extra water mitigates outbreaks of a parasitic disease that proliferates when the river is low.

This year, the federal agency refused those requests.

Now, the parasite is killing thousands of juvenile salmon in the lower Klamath River, where the Karuk and Yurok tribes have coexisted with them for millennia. An average of 63% of fish caught last month in research traps near the river’s mouth were dead.

“This is all unprecedented,” said Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe. “Where do you go from here? When do you start having the larger conversation of complete unsustainability?”

Near the river’s source, some of the farmers who are seeing their lives upended by the same drought say a guarantee of less water — but some water — each year would be better than the parched fields they have now. Some worry problems in the basin are being blamed on a way of life they also inherited.

“I know turning off the project is easy,” said Tricia Hill, a fourth-generation farmer. “But sometimes the story that gets told ... doesn’t represent how progressive we are here and how we do want to make things better for all species. This single-species management is not working for the fish — and it’s destroying our community and hurting our wildlife.”

DuVal’s daughter dreams of taking over the family farm someday. But DuVal isn’t sure he and his wife, Erika, can hang onto the land if things don’t change.

“We had a plan on how we’re going to grow our farm and to be able to send my daughters to a good college,” said DuVal, president of the Klamath Water Users Association. “And that plan just unravels further and further with every bad water year.”