Sunday, January 12, 2020

Canada PM Trudeau: Iran plane families will get answers
Associated Press•January 12, 2020
Iran must be held accountable for shooting down plane -Canada's Trudeau
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday it's been gut-wrenching to listen to stories from relatives of 57 Canadians who perished in the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner in Iran last week as he attended one of several memorials across the country.

Speaking at a memorial with a capacity crowd of 2,300 in Edmonton, Alberta, Trudeau said he has learned many of the victims came to Canada in search of new opportunities for their families, but those families are now consumed by grief and outrage.

The plane was shot down by an Iranian missile moments after taking off from Tehran on Wednesday. All 176 on board were killed, including 138 who were headed for Canada.

Iran has admitted the plane was mistaken for a hostile target amid soaring tensions with the United States.

Trudeau called it a Canadian tragedy.

“This tragedy should never have occurred," he said. “We will not rest until there are answers. We will not rest until there is justice and accountability.”

Other memorials were held Sunday across the country.

At the Vancouver Art Gallery, National Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan also called the crash a national tragedy. At the University of Toronto, many cried throughout the ceremony as speakers listed victims, including a one-year-old. People broke out in raucous applause several times when various speakers and politicians said Iran would be held accountable.

Fati Mortazavi, whose best friend died in the crash, said having a community come together helped her cope with the tragedy.

"It's so comforting for us," said Mortazavi. "As long as we know that someone cares for these people, that's so important for us."

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland attended the vigil in Toronto and said the loss goes well beyond the university.

"This is Toronto's loss, this is Ontario's loss and this is Canada's loss," an emotional Freeland told the vigil. “Nothing will ever replace these brilliant lives that have been cut short. We will always ... bear these scars.”

Three members of Canada's standing rapid deployment team arrived Saturday in Iran to establish a base of operations for the Canadian government in the wake of the crash.

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Sunday that Iran has approved visas for six more members of the team, who are currently in Ankara, Turkey, as well as for two experts from the Transportation Safety Board.

The eight are to travel to Iran on Monday, Champagne said in a series of tweets.

A spokesman for Champagne said the officials "will be there to provide consular assistance to the families of the victims, including supporting repatriation of remains, to help identify victims and to assist in the investigation."

Canada's Transportation Board said Sunday it also plans to deploy a second team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis.

Maple Leafs Foods chief executive Michael McCain, meanwhile, blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for the death of an employee's wife and family. McCain called Trump that “narcissist in Washington" and said the dead Canadians are collateral damage in a rare instance of a Canadian corporate leader making a strong political statement. He said he's still grappling with the death of his colleague's wife and 11-year-old son.

``We are mourning and I am livid,'' he wrote in tweets that were sent from the official Maple Leaf Foods account.


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Elizabeth Warren: We can clean up corruption in Washington. We just have to fight to do it.

Elizabeth Warren, Opinion contributor,
USA TODAY Opinion•January 12, 2020

 

People in Iowa and across America feel it in their bones: Our democracy has been hijacked by the rich and powerful.

You can see it in these past three years of cruelty and criminality under Donald Trump — and in the preceding four decades of stagnant wages, rising costs and diminishing opportunity. The most powerful people in our society have used money and influence to make Washington work for them — and leave everyone else behind.

It’s corruption, pure and simple. I’m running for president to do something about it.

And here’s the good news: Around Iowa and around this country, Democrats, independents and Republicans are united in their desire to clean up corruption in Washington and build an economy with more growth, more opportunity and more freedom.
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That’s our path to beat Donald Trump in 2020. We will beat the most corrupt president in American history by campaigning on the most aggressive anti-corruption platform since Watergate. We will beat a president who has enriched himself and his rich buddies by campaigning on big, structural changes that ensure the economy works for everyone.
Rebuilding the American middle class

For me, this is personal. I grew up in Oklahoma on the ragged edge of the middle class, and I devoted my career to figuring out why hard-working people go broke in the richest country in the world. I never in a million years thought I’d end up in politics, but when I saw how the system was rigged against working families, I got into the fight to help families like the one I grew up in.

Over the last year, I’ve held over 100 events in Iowa — from Orange City to Keokuk and Decorah to Pacific Junction. At every stop along the way, I’ve been talking about my plans: universal child care and high-quality early education; universal free college and student loan debt cancellation; expanded Social Security benefits; and Medicare for All so everyone gets the care they need and no one goes broke paying for it.

Each of these plans would be life-changing for millions of Iowans and Americans. Taken together, they represent the big, structural change we need to rebuild the middle class, help close the racial wealth gap, and ensure that no matter where you live or who you are, you have the opportunity to follow your dreams and fulfill your potential.

I believe in change and I know we can get it done. Why? Because we’ve done it before.

Even before 2008, when an out-of-control Wall Street crashed our economy and wrecked the lives of millions of Americans, I had an idea. We needed a consumer agency that would protect people when they got mortgages, credit cards or payday loans — just like existing federal watchdogs protect people when they buy toys or toasters.

After the crash, I went to Washington and talked to everybody I could about this idea. They all said the same two things: First, it’s a great idea; second, it’ll never happen and you shouldn’t even try. The big money and the big banks will fight you, they said. The Republicans will fight you — heck, even a bunch of the Democrats will fight you. You’ll never get this done.

Joe Biden: Worse than even his policies, Donald Trump is destroying America's soul

I didn’t like that answer, so I fought anyway. And you know what? We got it done. President Obama supported my idea, signed it into law, and asked me to get it off the ground.

And less than a decade later, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has forced financial institutions to return $12 billion to 29 million people they cheated.

Here’s what I learned from that experience: You don’t get what you don’t fight for — and you have to be willing to stand up to the powerful interests that will do anything to block reform.

We’ll win this election by showing the American people that we can clean out Donald Trump’s corrupt Washington and deliver the big changes that actually affect our lives. That’s what I’m running on and that’s what I’ll do as president.

Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, is a Democratic candidate for president. Follow her on Twitter: @ewarren. This column originally appeared in the Des Moines Register.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Elizabeth Warren: Let's fight against corruption, build middle class


Iraq PM tells Kurdish leaders he does not seek 'hostility' with US

AFP•January 11, 2020


Kurdish powerbroker Masoud Barzani (R) welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on January 11, 2020 (AFP Photo/SAFIN HAMED)More

Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraq's caretaker premier told Kurdish leaders on Saturday he did not seek a hostile relationship with the United States, in his first visit to the autonomous region since coming to power in 2018.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi travelled to Arbil with a delegation of top ministers and his intelligence chief.

The trip came at a time of political turmoil for Iraq, after months of anti-government rallies that saw Abdel Mahdi resign and worsening ties with the US as Iraqi lawmakers push for a withdrawal of foreign troops.

Abdel Mahdi met the region's Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, President Nechirvan Barzani and influential powerbroker Masoud Barzani, who heads the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

A statement from Abdel Mahdi's office said he and the Barzanis discussed the ongoing anti-government protests, the presence of foreign troops in Iraq and broader regional tensions.

"We do not want hostility with anyone, including the United States," Abdel Mahdi said.

He then travelled to the Kurdistan region's second city, Sulaymaniyah, to meet leaders of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) sees Abdel Mahdi as a reliable ally and had hoped he would help rebuild ties between Baghdad and Arbil, which frayed following the KRG's controversial independence referendum in 2017.

The KRG continued to back him as protests erupted across Baghdad and Iraq's Shiite-majority south in October, which eventually prompted Abdel Mahdi to step down.

Days before his resignation, the KRG had agreed "in principle" with Baghdad on a revenue-sharing deal that granted it a share of the 2020 federal budget in exchange for exporting its oil through the national seller.

The KRG saw the terms of the agreement as favourable and feared that Abdel Mahdi's replacement would not stick to it, but political factions have not agreed on a candidate.

Kurdish authorities have also been worried by Baghdad's insistence that foreign troops leave Iraq, following a vote in the federal parliament last week.

No Kurdish parliamentarians attended the vote and many see the US-led coalition's presence as a counterweight to Iran.

Some 5,200 US troops are stationed across Iraq to back local forces preventing an Islamic State group resurgence.

They make up the bulk of the broader coalition including troops from dozens of countries, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help combat IS.

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Tennis star Nick Kyrgios criticizes Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for 'slow' wildfires response

By Aimee Lewis January 9, 2020

(CNN)Tennis star Nick Kyrgios has said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was "far too slow" reacting to the wildfires devastating large parts of the country and has described addressing the climate crisis as an "urgent" matter.
A leading voice in his sport's drive to help raise money for relief efforts, Kyrgios last week pledged to donate $140 ($200 AUSD) for every ace he hits at upcoming tournaments -- a deed which has sparked similar gestures from fellow players and tournament organizers in the country.
Writing in AthletesVoice, the world No. 29 said: "As the leader of our country, I don't think Scott Morrison has done enough to be honest.

Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal commit to Australian bushfires charity match
"At the very least, he was far too slow to act, while people were losing their lives and families were losing their homes. There is nothing worse than that.
"Right now, nothing is more important than helping these people and putting the fires out. So, if I could say anything to our politicians it's imagine you're in the same position as these people who have been impacted."
At least 27 people have died nationwide during this fire season. Nearly 18 million acres of land has been burned -- most of it bushland, forests and national parks, which are home to the country's native wildlife.
Kyrgios, 24, hails from the nation's capital Canberra, a city where the air quality was among the worst in the world earlier this week. While the fires have touched every state in Australia, New South Wales has been the hardest hit.


The Australian flag flies above Parliament House as smoke shrouds the Australian capital of Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020.
"For now, politics shouldn't matter. We are where we are, and we've just got to get in and help. But for the future, after this emergency situation eases a little, I think we need to make some changes," Kyrgios continued.
"I think a lot about climate change and the impact that it's having on the environment. The time will come when our leaders will need to sit down and figure out what we can do to protect our environment. It's urgent that we find a solution."
Morrison has faced heavy criticism for his climate policies and response to the wildfires as well growing anger and frustration from the public as the fires continue to spiral out of control.
The media team of the Australian PM and Cabinet didn't immediately respond to CNN's request for comment regarding Kyrgios' comments.


Australia's Alex de Minaur and Nick Kyrgios celebrate beating Britain in the quarterfinals of the ATP Cup.

'Putting it all on the line'
Better known by some for his on-court misdemeanors than title wins, Kyrgios is currently competing in the ATP Cup and has helped Australia reach the semifinals of the inaugural tournament. He had to fight back the tears earlier on in the event when asked during an on-court interview about the bushfires.
Kyrgios will join Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in Melbourne next week for the fundraising exhibition match, Australian Open Rally for Relief.

Emotional Nick Kyrgios leads bushfire support as Tennis Australia pledges $700,000
Though regretting not "doing something sooner," Kyrgios said he was now intent on using his platform to make a difference.
"These fires have been burning since September and I was seeing people being affected by this disaster every day, feeling helpless," he said.
"I realize now that I'm blessed to have the platform that I do, so I can help make a difference because there are many things that are more important than sport. That's what I choose to focus on.
"My biggest inspiration this summer is our firefighters. They're the most important people we have on our side right now. They put my job as a tennis player into perspective, that's for sure.
"Seeing what they have to deal with out there, I don't think our firefighters will ever receive enough praise. They're putting it all on the line for every Australian, for our country and for our animals. There's no greater example of selflessness than that."

CNN's Jessie Yeung contributed to this report.




'Bigger than tennis': Nick Kyrgios' tears over bushfire disaster

 3 Jan 2020

An emotional Nick Kyrgios has paid tribute to firefighters and families battling Australia’s bushfire disaster after winning Australia’s opening ATP Cup match on Friday night.

Kyrgios was clinical as he defeated Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 7-6, but it was in his post-match interview on the court that the Canberra-born star’s emotions bubbled to the surface.

Asked about his pledge to donate $200 for every ace he hits this summer to firefighting and bushfire recovery efforts, Kyrgios said the ups and downs of tennis paled in comparison to what other parts of the country were enduring.

“I don't really care about the praise too much,” Kyrgios said, briefly apologising as he teared up.

"It's pretty sad, it's tough." 💔

🇦🇺 @NickKyrgios speaks about the bushfires in Australia after his win over Struff in #Brisbane.

🇦🇺 #TeamAustralia | #ATPCup pic.twitter.com/gBW1y5pBP1— ATPCup (@ATPCup) January 3, 2020

“We've got the ability and the platform to do something.

“My home town is Canberra and we've got the most toxic air in the world at the moment, that's pretty sad. It's tough.

“It's all going to all the families, firefighters, animals, everyone who is losing homes, losing families… it's a real thing.

After winning Australia's first ATP Cup match, Nick Kyrgios teared up when he was asked about the impact of the ongoing bushfire disaster. Picture: ATP Cup/TwitterMore

“It's bigger than tennis."

Tennis fans were similarly moved by Kyrgios’ show of emotion.

Many took to social media to praise the Australian firebrand’s efforts to support the firefighters and families affected by the crisis.

Has actually changed my opinion of him with this hope it continues— Rick (@Swanniedog) January 3, 2020

Tough for some to love who he is on the court, but off the court it is undeniable how sincere and good-hearted he is.— RF(19)97 (@RF19975) January 3, 2020

👍👍👏👏Hats off the Nick for all he is doing to support the fire fighters, people and animals suffering through these devastating and heartbreaking fires!😪 Top guy ❤— Monica Macdonald (@monicamacdonald) January 3, 2020
Kyrgios kicks off flood of athlete donations

Kyrgios called on Tennis Australia to dig deep in the nations’s time of need, as bushfires devastate livelihoods and communities around the country.

On Friday, the governing body of Australian Tennis answered the call.

Krygios' plans for a massive fundraising effort for bushfire victims has resulted in a tennis exhibition match set to feature some of the world's top players.

The 24-year-old kicked off a flood of donations to the fundraising campaign from sporting names around Australia, including American NBL star LaMelo Ball.

Kyrgios floated the idea of a charity tennis match and Tennis Australia on Friday responded by announcing a "Rally for Relief" exhibition match on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday Jan 15.


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Gold bar found in Mexico was Aztec treasure: study

AFP•January 10, 2020


Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology (INAH) says it has now confirmed that a 1.93-kilogram gold bar was part of looted Aztec treasure (AFP Photo/Jesus VALDOVINOS)More

THIS MEANS THAT AZTEC CULTURE HAD SMELTING TECHNOLOGY AND LARGE SCALE GOLD PRODUCTION 

Mexico City (AFP) - A gold bar found in a Mexico City park in 1981 was part of the Aztec treasure looted by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, a new study says.

The 1.93-kilogram bar was found by a construction worker during excavations for a new building along the Alameda, a picturesque park in the heart of the Mexican capital.

For 39 years, its origins remained a mystery.

But thanks to specialized X-rays, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says it has now confirmed where the bar came from: the Spaniards' hasty, though temporary, retreat during the so-called "Noche Triste," or "Sad Night."

That night -- June 30, 1520 -- the Aztecs, furious over the slaughter of their nobles and priests, drove the Spanish invaders from their capital, Tenochtitlan.

The conquistadors escaped with as much looted Aztec treasure as they could carry, including, apparently, the gold bar in question.

"The so-called 'Noche Triste' is among the episodes of the conquest that will be remembered this year, and there is only one piece of material evidence from it: a gold bar that sank 500 years ago in the canals of Tenochtitlan, and which recent analysis confirms came from the (Spaniards') flight," INAH said in a statement.

Cortes and his men received a wary welcome from Aztec emperor Moctezuma when they arrived in 1519, but soon became unwanted guests at the palace as they appropriated his treasure and turned him into a virtual hostage.

In June 1520, Cortes -- who had launched his expedition in Mexico without official authorization -- learned that the Spanish governor in Cuba had sent a party of soldiers to arrest him.

He left his lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado in charge at Tenochtitlan and went with part of his army to fight the arriving soldiers, ultimately defeating them.

While he was gone, however, Alvarado began to fear the Aztecs would attack him, and had their nobles and priests killed.

The Aztecs revolted, and the Spaniards retreated -- apparently losing the gold bar along the way.

The study found the bar's composition matched that of other Aztec pieces from the period.

"This bar is a key piece in the puzzle of this historical event," INAH said.
French transport strike drags on despite govt compromise on pensions
A PROPOSAL IS JUST THAT UNTIL AGREED ON
AND SIGNED 
Marie-Pierre FEREY, AFP•January 12, 2020



1 / 3
Demonstrators took to the streets in their thousands again on Saturday to protest against the French government's pension reform plans (AFP Photo/Loic VENANCE)

Paris (AFP) - A crippling French transport strike dragged into its 39th day on Sunday despite the government's offer to withdraw the most contested measure of the pension reform plans that sparked the protest.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Saturday he would drop plans to increase the official age for a full pension to 64 from 62 in an effort to end a strike which has paralysed Paris and its suburbs, with bus, train and metro services all badly disrupted.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the change "a constructive and responsible compromise".

Philippe late Sunday called on the unions to take "responsibility".

"Those who incite (the strikers) to continue the strike are leading them perhaps into a dead end... I think that they need to assume their responsibilities," Philippe said in a television interview.

The more reformist trade unions -- the FDT, Unsa and FRC -- welcomed the compromise announcement and said they were now ready to work with employers on the sustainable financing of the state pension system.

The Unsa union for national railway workers maintained its strike call on Sunday while recognising the government's reconciliatory move.

The union "remains on strike " but will return to the negotiating table, secretary general Didier Mathis told AFP.

However, the more hardline CGT, FO and Solidaires unions were standing firm, calling for the strike and protests to continue, including a major demonstration on January 16.

- 'Some want to return to work' -

French rail operator the SNCF said it expected services to improve on Monday.

Nine of 10 high-speed TGV trains would run on French and international routes, it said -- and commuters in and around Paris could expect seven out of 10 trains to operate.

CGT head Philippe Martinez played down the impact of the CFDT and Unsa's readiness to resume negotiations, and spoke of internal splits within these groups.

"We will see" what these unions' workers have to say on the issue, he said, reiterating his call for the government to withdraw the pension reforms completely which he described as "the major requirement of a majority of unions representing a majority of employees".

However the financial hit is weakening the resolve of some strikers.

"It is clear that some colleagues want to go back to work," said one disillusioned Paris Metro worker during demonstrations on Saturday.

"It's going to get tricky financially," he added.

Private sector workers have not followed the unions' lead on the stoppage to turn the campaign into a true national strike.

The government was adamant that the strikers should now go back to work.

"There is no longer any reason for this strike movement to continue," said Elisabeth Borne, minister in charge of transport.

- 'We're still here' -

The government's compromise move came a day after meetings with unions in a bid to end a strike that has frustrated Paris commuters, ruined December holiday travel plans, and hurt business.

Demonstrators in the capital on Saturday, some masked and hooded, broke shop windows along their protest route, set fires and threw projectiles at police in riot gear who responded with tear gas.

Several stores were ransacked as marchers brandished union flags and chanted defiantly: "We are still here!" and "Macron resign!"

Protests were also held in Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Nantes and several other cities.

The interior ministry said 149,000 people had turned out throughout France.

The CGT put the figure at half a million, saying the 150,000 marched in Paris alone.

- 'Pivot age' -

In one of Macron's signature reforms, the government is seeking to rationalise 42 existing pension schemes into a single, points-based system it says will be fairer and more transparent. Unions fear it will force millions to work longer for a smaller retirement payout.

Particularly controversial was the proposal to impose the 64 "pivot age" that people would have to work to in order to qualify for a full pension.

Union meetings Monday will decide on the future of the strikes on France's local and national rail services.

The government, employers and unions are also keeping their eyes on the opinion polls.

"Public opinion supports the strikers," Martinez insisted late Saturday.

The government has ruled out cutting pensions but insists that something must be done to boost funding as workers are living longer post-retirement.

---30---
FORD NATION
Canada province says sorry after training mistake sparks false nuclear alert
NUCLEAR OPPS AND SOME FOLKS COULD CARE LESS  


By David Ljunggren, Reuters•January 12, 2020



1 / 7

Canada province says sorry after training mistake sparks false nuclear alert
The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is seen in an undated aerial photo near Toronto

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Ontario on Sunday apologized for wrongly raising the alarm about an incident at a massive nuclear power station near Toronto and blamed a training exercise mistake.

Angry local mayors demanded an inquiry, saying the emergency message about the ageing Pickering plant had caused unnecessary distress.

At around 7:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT) cell phone users across Ontario - the most populous of Canada's 10 provinces - received an alert about the supposed incident. Less than an hour later the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) authority said the message had been a mistake.

"The alert was issued in error to the public during a routine training exercise," Ontario's Solicitor-General Sylvia Jones said in a statement.

"The government of Ontario sincerely apologizes for raising public concern and has begun a full investigation to determine how this error happened."

The initial message said there had been no abnormal leak of activity from the plant, which is located on the shores of Lake Ontario some 50 km (30 miles) east of downtown Toronto.

Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan said on Twitter that locals had been very troubled and added: "I have spoken to the province, and am demanding that a full investigation take place".

Toronto Mayor John Tory complained that many of the city's 3 million residents had been unnecessarily alarmed and also pushed for a probe, citing what he said were "far too many unanswered questions".

Human error during a training exercise was also blamed for an incident in Hawaii in January 2018 when authorities issued a false alert about an impending ballistic missile attack.

OPG was not immediately available for comment.

The plant came online in 1971 and has a power-generating capacity of 3,100 megawatts when fully active. It is scheduled to be shut down in 2024.

"OPG has reminded everyone that they're running an unneeded and aging nuclear station next to Toronto," said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a program director at Greenpeace Canada.

Some social media users posted images from the hit cartoon series the Simpsons, which features a nuclear power plant plagued by safety violations.

Cam Guthrie, the mayor of Guelph, a city west of Toronto, said "sending out a 'hey there was an issue at a nuclear plant but we're not going to tell you about it specifically and it's not a big deal' emergency text, is terrible".

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)



What Ontario can learn from Hawaii's false report of an imminent catastrophe

Ryan Flanagan CTVNews.ca 
Published Sunday, January 12, 2020 

TORONTO -- Ontarians' reactions to an emergency alert stating there had been an incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station ran the gamut from fear to confusion to – eventually – outrage.

Ted Gruetzner's first instinct was a little different. He was puzzled, yes, but he also had a strong suspicion that there was no cause for alarm.

"I have the luxury of knowing how these things work, and it struck me as something that [was] a little bit off," Gruetzner said Sunday on CTV News Channel.

Related Stories
Emergency alert about Ont. nuclear plant was sent by mistake
Nuclear power plant alert: People miffed about mistaken notification

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Study: Anxiety on Twitter following the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert

As a former vice-president of Ontario Power Generation – which operates the power plant in Pickering, Ont. – and someone still heavily focused on the energy sector through his work with the Global Public Affairs consulting firm, Gruetzner felt that the message didn't ring true.

Few of those who received the alert have Gruetzner's background and expertise, though. And for that group, Gruetzner says, it's not at all surprising that the message caused panic.

"You're going to want to make sure that you're getting your message very clear, giving clear direction on what people should worry about and what they should do – and I think that message wasn't very clear this morning," he said.

"It created a lot of uncertainty and unease."

Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan also spoke of the mental health impacts of the false alarm Sunday morning.

"This has a huge impact on our community as a whole – the obvious anxiety that is uncalled for," he said in an interview with CP24.

Anxiety, sometimes rising to the level of post-traumatic stress disorder, has been shown to increase following false alarms of imminent danger. One of the most notable such mishaps occurred almost exactly two years before Sunday's alert.

On Jan. 13, 2018, an emergency alert was automatically transmitted over every radio and TV signal in Hawaii, and sent to every phone in the state. The alert advised recipients to seek shelter and included an all-caps message declaring "NOT A DRILL."

It took 38 minutes for authorities to send a follow-up message stating that the initial alert was a false alarm.

That 38-minute gap was more than enough for Hawaiians' panic levels to shoot through the roof, according to a 2019 paper in the American Psychologist journal.

Researchers from the University of California scraped data from Twitter, examining more than 1.2 million tweets from 14,830 accounts believed to be based in Hawaii over a two-month span including the day of the false alarm.

By searching for keywords such as "worried" and "afraid," they found "a marked increase in anxiety among likely Hawaii residents that lingered well after the missile threat was dispelled," as Nickolas M. Jones and Roxane Cohen Silver wrote.

The anxiety levels climbed from the moment the alert was issued until Hawaiians received the follow-up false alarm message – even though the state's emergency management office and local politicians tweeted during that period that there was no real emergency. As one Twitter user put it, "who knows who's right?"

Days after it became clear there never had been a threat, the Twitter users who had been expressing the least anxiety before the alert continued to show a big increase in their anxiety levels. Those who had already displayed signs of anxiety, conversely, had stopped doing so – which Jones and Silver say could be a sign of "near-miss relief" or may mean that they had re-evaluated the things which caused them anxiety before the alert.

"Users in the high prealert anxiety group may have recognized how much worse things could have been had the missile threat been real," they wrote.

The researchers note that there are limitations to their findings: Twitter skews younger and more urban than the general population, word use is a very generalized way to track anxiety, and there is no guarantee every tweet they logged came from Hawaii.

Still, much of their study reads as if it could be a warning for the Ontario government in the wake of Sunday's erroneous alert, which the Ontario government has blamed on an accident during a "routine training exercise." Researchers warn that false alarms can erode the credibility of an organization and make people less inclined to believe future warnings. For example, a 2009 study found that residents of American areas with significant histories of false tornado alarms are less likely to trust the U.S. National Weather Service – and more likely to die when tornadoes do strike.

"When officials charged with disseminating information about impending threats falter, this might lead to a disaster … and there may be a number of unintended consequences," they wrote.

Jones and Silver did find some reasons for hope. They note that after a public trauma, anxiety levels tend to decrease as authorities and media explain exactly what has happened and what is being done to stop it from happening again.

"When emergency systems falter, research shows that credibility loss can be mitigated by a clear explanation of why the false alarm occurred in the first place," they wrote.

In Hawaii, that took the form of the state creating new safeguards to prevent one person from sending an emergency alert without approval. Media reports about past issues involving the employee who sent the alert "may have assured the public that the entire affair was a fluke," Jones and Silver wrote.

Gruetzner said he hoped to see similar public communications efforts in Ontario as the investigation into Sunday's false alarm unfolds.

"You don't want to create more questions than you answer with your communications," he said.

"People have to have faith in the system, and I think they're going to do what they can to address the problem."


CTV National News: False alarm causes panic


NOW PLAYING
Millions of people were startled awake due to an emergency alert warning of an incident at a nuclear power plant. John Vennavally-Rao report
Alert about nuclear plant incident sent in error



NOW PLAYING
The Ontario government admitted to erroneously sending out a mass alert telling of an “incident” at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
Province apologizes for false nuclear alarm



NOW PLAYING
An investigation is underway into a false nuclear alarm sent out Sunday morning that caused some panic. CTV’s Christina Succi reports.
Dan Riskin on false nuclear plant alert



NOW PLAYING
CTV News' Science & Technology specialist Dan Riskin on the Pickering false nuclear plant alert.
'Uncalled for': Pickering Mayor on nuclear alert



NOW PLAYING
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan comments the false nuclear warning sent out to the public.
Pickering nuclear incident alert sent in error



NOW PLAYING
Investigation underway into why the Pickering plant bulletin was sent. Ted Gruetzner gives his insight





Here's how Ontario would respond to a real nuclear emergency
Public alerts, evacuations and iodide pills are included in the plans

CBC Explains · Posted: Jan 12, 2020 
An alert warning Ontario residents of an unspecified incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station early Sunday morning was sent in error, Ontario Power Generation said. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Early Sunday morning, an emergency message was sent across Ontario alerting residents about an incident at the Pickering nuclear generating station east of Toronto.

The alert turned out to be an error but it raises questions about how prepared the province is in case of a nuclear incident.
Does Ontario have a plan for a nuclear emergency?

Yes. The Provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan, a 200-page document, dictates instructions to every municipality that has a nuclear facility within their jurisdiction.

It was last revised in 2017. Each of the five nuclear facilities located in and around Ontario also have their own plans.

What happens immediately following an incident?

If there's an incident at a nuclear facility, Ontario Power Generation would notify local and provincial governments within 15 minutes.

Ontario government apologizes for alert about Pickering nuclear plant incident sent 'in error'
False alert about Pickering nuclear plant caused widespread alarm, but some residents 'not worried'

The provincial government's Emergency Management Ontario, which falls under the Ministry of the Solicitor General, is then responsible for public safety during nuclear emergencies and would determine the appropriate level of public action.

It will administer the Provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan and has overall responsibility for managing the off-site response to nuclear emergencies.

Local emergency responders: police, fire and ambulance crews, make sure emergency plans are implemented properly.
What kind of alerts are issued?

Guidelines and plans need to be in place to alert people within three kilometres of each reactor, said James Kilgour, director of Durham Emergency Management.

For example, in the immediate areas around Bruce Power, Pickering and Darlington, air sirens are utilized, he said.

Within 10 kilometres, residents receive indoor alerts — calls to their homes.

Kilgour said his region utilizes an auto-dialling system that calls everybody on landlines within 10 kilometres of the plant.

A jogger runs along the beach past the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, in Pickering, Ont., on Sunday. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

The province controls the alert ready system, or amber alert, to contact mobile phone users.

Toronto also would use an indoor alert system — the city doesn't need sirens because it is not within three kilometres of the nearest plant.

Also, emergency bulletins would be issued regularly to provide updated information through radio, television and social media.
What about evacuations?

Those would likely occur in areas immediately surrounding a reactor facility, but additional evacuations of an expanded area could also be necessary as circumstances change, particularly if there are shifts in the wind.

"If we need to evacuate, the province makes the decision ... and then multiple agencies come together to start to operationalize the traffic movement," Kilgour said.

However, some people may be directed to remain indoors for a relatively short period of time if it's deemed that evacuating is too dangerous due to circumstances such as severe weather.

Are there any preparations for food contamination?

In case of a risk of contamination of food, water, milk, or commodities, the province may advise the public to take a number of measures. Those include protecting drinking water supplies that directly use rainwater, and restricting consumption and distribution of non-essential local produce, milk from grazing animals, rainwater and animal feed.
Can anything be used to help prevent radiation poisoning?

According to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, potassium iodide can be used to protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine that may be released into the air in the event of a radiological emergency.

In 2015, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Ontario government agreed that every house, resident and business within 10 kilometres of all nuclear plants in Ontario would receive a free stock or inventory of potassium iodide. Kilgour said new packages are mailed out to residents every six months.

Potassium iodide can be used to protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine that may be released into the air in the event of a radiological emergency, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. ( Irene Thomaidis/CBC)

People who live between 10 and 50 kilometres from a plant who want potassium idodide, can order it online.

Residents can type in their postal code, and they will be informed as to whether they live within an area eligible for a free package. If so, it will be mailed out.
Who determines whether people should ingest the potassium iodide?

The chief medical officer of the province of Ontario, in consultation with other officials, decides whether or not people need to ingest potassium iodide.

According to the provincial plan, pills should be ingested two to six hours prior to or just after exposure to radiation. A single dose lasts approximately 24 hours.
Do municipalities run drills?

Yes. In Durham, for example, the region runs two drills a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, which include blaring sirens and indoor alerting, Kilgour said.

"That is accompanied by heavy public education and awareness, contacting the media, contacting the public to let them know that we're conducting these [tests]," he said.
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Ontario government apologizes for alert about Pickering nuclear plant incident sent 'in error'

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'Our Work Is Helping People Find Happiness.' Meet the Leftist Nuns Helping Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Lily Moore-Eissenberg, Time•January 7, 2020

On a sweltering morning in August, Sister Maria Antonia Aranda, a 60-year-old nun from Mexico, navigated her silver Ford Escape into a border checkpoint in Ciudad Juárez. She was dropping off two asylum-seekers who had hearings across the border that day, at the federal immigration court in El Paso. Fatima Rodriguez, a 19-year-old from Nicaragua who had been separated from her 5-year-old daughter by American authorities, anxiously texted her lawyer from the passenger seat. Her companion, a Salvadoran woman in her early 20s, sat in the back seat, adjusting and re-adjusting her waist-length hair. Her eyelids shone with silver glitter, a special touch for the occasion.

After Aranda parked, they all paused for a moment, as if to draw a collective breath. Then, at Aranda’s signal, they got out, walked to the entrance of the Lerdo International Bridge, and kissed each other’s cheeks. Aranda watched as the two young women each fed ten pesos—fifty American cents, the toll to cross by foot—into a turnstile. Within seconds, they disappeared into the crush of pedestrians bound for the U.S. Aranda hoped to God she would never see them again.

Over the past three years, priests, bishops, and Pope Francis have condemned U.S. immigration policy under the Trump Administration and entreated Catholics around the world to stand up for the rights of migrants. But along the U.S.-Mexico border, it’s women like Aranda—leftist Catholic nuns, most of them middle-aged or elderly and many of them first- or second-generation Americans—who have actually built a mass movement.

It began in the summer and fall of 2018, when the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an association of American nuns, publicized requests for volunteers and financial support—a “call to the border,” as many sisters describe it. Since then, more than 700 nuns from the organization’s 300 member congregations have volunteered their services, some traveling hundreds of miles to join sisters who already lived in border towns. Most of this new influx of nuns began work on the U.S. side of the border—in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California—but others, like Aranda, are scattered from Mexico to Honduras. And that’s only counting nuns whose congregations are American and LCWR members.

Nuns now occupy major leadership positions on the border: Sister Norma Pimentel, who has gained national recognition for her immigration advocacy, directs Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, and an Irish nun named Beatrice Donnellan runs a shelter for migrant women in El Paso. Some of the sisters have arrived at the border with no previous experience in immigration work, while others have already devoted their lives to it. Sister Gloria Rivera, a Detroit-based nun from Mexico, served as a translator in immigration court and directed a migrant shelter in Michigan before traveling to El Paso to volunteer in January 2019. The nuns’ congregations fund their travels largely on donations. Since the summer of 2018, congregations have given more than 1.5 million dollars to immigration-related nonprofits, according to the LCWR.

“The fact that these sisters are joining other members of their order, or other people with whom they’re networked, means they’re more able to avoid the pitfalls of the ignorant do-gooder,” said Eileen Markey, author of A Radical Faith, a biography on the political transformation of nuns in Latin America. “They’re connected to people who are embedded and who have a long-term perspective. In many cases, they have backgrounds in Central America or on the border.” She added, “In some ways, it’s like a return.”

Many of the nuns working at the border today are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. They bring a work ethic and philosophy shaped by their own experiences living under Central American dictatorships in the 1980s, when more than a million Central Americans fleeing civil wars in the Northern Triangle sought refuge in the U.S. At the time, hundreds of nuns were living in the conflict zones and sheltering refugees who had been denied asylum by the Reagan administration. The so-called sanctuary movement of the 1980s and today’s religious movement to support migrant rights at the U.S. border are similar, says Amanda Izzo, a professor at Saint Louis University who studies religious feminism and liberal Christianity. “Both come out of the same impulse: people groping towards critiques of structural forms of power,” she says. “It’s small groups of people in impoverished places thinking about what the stories of the Gospel can mean in the context of their lives.”

In 2018 and 2019, waves of Catholic sisters showed up in Juárez and El Paso, bringing laundry detergent, baby wipes, duffel bags of second-hand clothes, and a powerful concept of what it means to serve God: Catholic liberation theology. The leftist strand of Catholicism first bloomed in Latin America under the dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s and has enjoyed a resurgence since Pope Francis, a follower of liberation theology, became the first Latino pope in 2013. The philosophy, which encourages a broad-based, deeply historical understanding of modern problems, advocates for radical egalitarianism and the liberation of the poor from oppressive political and economic systems.

Nuns have traditionally enjoyed very little formal power in the Catholic Church—they are not allowed to become priests and are excluded from most leadership roles. But they have became some of Catholicism’s most vigorous, progressive, and accessible representatives on the ground. “Women religious do not have the authority that men do in the church,” said Izzo, the Saint Louis University professor, but “they’ve carved out these places of autonomy.” For nuns who follow liberation theology, economic and social equality have become priorities on par with religious conversion and worship.

“They are radicalized because of their experiences,” said Margaret McGuinness, a professor at La Salle University who studies the history of American nuns. “They’re not just saying ‘Let’s help the poor,’ but ‘Why are these people poor?’”

For many leftist nuns, the most important answer to that question is neither Central American gang violence nor the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Their answer, derived from decades of experience, tends to be more historical: people are poor because of systemic inequalities between groups, states, and hemispheres. Sister Beatrice Donnellan argues that American economic interests and military interventions in Latin America in the 1980s are chiefly responsible for the economic and political instability driving migration to the U.S. today. Aranda often cites the Bible: “Starting from Genesis, we’re talking about migration, no? The people of Israel, the Hebrews, they walked through the desert,” she said. “We can talk about Leviticus, who invites us not to oppress foreigners. Matthew speaks of love for the needy. ‘I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you stayed with me.’”

A former engineer, Aranda decided to become a nun in her 40s. She took her final religious vows at age 50 and expected to spend the rest of her life tending to the needs of her local community—working with couples on their marriages, teaching children to read biblical stories into their own experiences, leading a humble and just life in accordance with the egalitarian values of liberation theology. But then, last January, Aranda heard that a local priest named Francisco García had begun taking in migrants under the newly-implemented Migrant Protection Protocols, also called the “Remain in Mexico” policy. She drove to the church to offer help.

Even at that point, the church’s capacity to house migrants was stretched, and García was beginning to feel overwhelmed. While the local community supported the migrants, they also needed the church to perform baptisms, communions, weddings, funerals, and weekly services. The congregation needed its priest, so García asked Aranda to help care for the couple dozen migrants already living in his church, particularly the women, who feared for their safety on the streets. Aranda accepted, not yet fully grasping what that meant. Between January and August, the migrant population in Juárez swelled from a couple hundred people to more than ten thousand, and Aranda was swamped. She began spending her days shuttling migrants to and from medical appointments, law offices, and border checkpoints, eventually earning the nickname Hermana Uber.

“It’s distressing to not have the human and material resources to assist them all,” Aranda says, speaking in Spanish. “More than tiredness, though, is a feeling of despair, anguish, helplessness because of the failure of governments to negotiate better immigration policies.” Recently, she has observed an increase in migrants from southern Mexico as well as from Central America, putting additional strain on the city’s shelters. “But knowing that the migrants are joining their families is always a great joy and satisfaction,” she added. “Knowing that, in some way, our work is helping other people find happiness.”

Many of the women that Aranda works with have faced gender-based violence in their home countries. Since 2018, when the Justice Department eliminated domestic and gang violence as grounds for asylum—a decision that disproportionately affected women—the rate of asylum approvals for Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala plummeted by nearly ten percentage points, according to the advocacy organization Human Rights First. When migrant women arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, many are then forced to remain in Juárez, a city known for femicide. In 2015, at the peak of the violence, an average of six women were killed each day in Juárez, and the United Nations called the femicide a “pandemic.”

The day before she dropped off Fatima Rodriguez at the border, Aranda found her in a small meeting house beside the church, sitting with a friend on benches painted the color of robin eggs. “Hola, Madre,” Rodriguez said, addressing the nun with a traditional term of respect—“Mother”—that the equality-minded Aranda has never gotten used to.

Rodriguez, an activist, fled political violence in Nicaragua after the government started arresting and killing college students like herself for protesting. American authorities separated Rodriguez from her daughter in May because Rodriguez’s parents’ names, not her own, were listed on her daughter’s birth certificate, she explains. (When Rodriguez was a teenager, the family made this arrangement for her protection, after she became pregnant as a result of a rape, she says.) When she arrived at the border, U.S. officials sent her daughter to a shelter and then a foster family in New York City, and returned Rodriguez to Mexico, she says.

Rodriguez was one of the earliest arrivals at the church, which regularly houses people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Cuba. She quickly learned how to navigate the politics of floor space and food. In group therapy sessions, led by a psychologist Aranda recruited, she held ice in her hands until it melted in order to build psychological endurance and practice calming her mind. She narrated her traumas often, for American journalists Aranda brought to the shelter and for an American judge in El Paso. She drank cheap soda and texted her family from the blue benches.

Rodriguez’s story ends more happily than most of the stories Aranda steps into. With the help of a lawyer that Aranda knew, Rodriguez proved that she was her daughter’s mother, and a U.S. immigration court judge decided to allow her to wait in the U.S. with her daughter for her asylum hearing.

A few days after Aranda dropped Rodriguez at the border, over a breakfast of salted avocados and hard-boiled eggs, Aranda played a song on the guitar called El Puente, or The Bridge. “Never mind that the pain of a thousand footsteps leaves bloody footprints on it…Lord, make that bridge not break,” she sang, in Spanish. She told me, “Any people can be like the people of Israel. Any person, too, who walks through the desert looking for a better life.”

A week later, Aranda heard the news from one of the secretaries at the shelter: Rodriguez had made it to New York City.

“I only ask God to continue helping her,” Aranda told me. As for the thousands of others still waiting to cross the border: “They speak of leaving a place where they were stripped of their homes and where their relatives were killed,” Aranda said. “They no longer speak of the American dream.”

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Sister Maria Antonia Aranda in the Juárez church where she works with migrants. | Courtesy of Lily Moore-Eissenberg
Sister Beatrice Donnellan talks with a pair of visitors dropping off donations at Casa Vides in El Paso, Texas in August 2019. | Courtesy of Lily Moore-Eissenberg
 
Sister Caroline Sweeney, a volunteer, makes calls to the families of recent arrivals in Casa Vides in El Paso, Texas in August 2019. | Courtesy of Lily Moore-Eissenberg
 
San Juan Apostol Evangelista church, where Sister Maria Antonia Aranda works, doubles as a migrant shelter in Juárez, see here in August 2019. | Courtesy of Lily Moore-Eissenberg
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New PAC Is Already Raising Big Money

Daniel MaransHuffPost•January 12, 2020

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s new political action committee raised over $69,000 on Saturday, its first day of public fundraising, showcasing her influence amid a feud with senior House Democrats.

Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, which shared in the proceeds from email and Twitter fundraising appeals for the PAC, also raked in about $100,000 on Saturday according to official data that Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign shared with HuffPost.

On its own, the PAC, Courage to Change, received over 4,600 donations, as of late Saturday night, in amounts that averaged under $15.

“It’s a very exciting launch,” Ocasio-Cortez campaign spokesman Corbin Trent said. “When I see so many people stand up and say they are ready to change not just D.C., but the country, it fills me with hope.”

Ocasio-Cortez launched Courage to Change to support both progressive incumbent Democrats and primary challengers whose positions are close to her own. (She has thus far endorsed progressives taking on conservative Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Dan Lipinski of Illinois.)
                                                                                                                                                      
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is building an independent political operation capable of competing with the Democratic Party establishment. (Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)

In two fundraising emails and a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez and her campaign framed the PAC explicitly as an alternative to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is House Democrats’ official campaign fundraising arm.

“We’re paving a different path,” her campaign wrote in the first fundraising email. “The DCCC has been an entrenched tool in a system that blocks working-class candidates from running for office, and protects out of touch incumbents.”

Although she is a fundraising powerhouse, Ocasio-Cortez has refused to pay $250,000 in dues that the DCCC asks of members of the House Democratic Caucus over a two-year period. In the 2020 election, the DCCC plans to use those funds to protect the Democratic majority in the House and pick up Republican-held seats.

And on Friday, several of her Democratic colleagues, including Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, ripped her abstention from the process in a story on Fox News’ website. (Meeks succeeded former Rep. Joe Crowley, whom Ocasio-Cortez ousted, as head of the Queens County Democratic Party and supported a candidate running against the one Ocasio-Cortez backed for Queens district attorney.)

Ocasio-Cortez defended the decision ― as she has done in the past ― on the grounds that she has raised $300,000 for incumbent members directly, half of them in swing seats, and that she takes issue with the DCCC’s policy of blacklisting consultants and other groups that work with primary challengers. 

For Ocasio-Cortez, who got to the House through a successful primary run against an incumbent, the fight has a personal quality.

“I don’t see the sense in giving a quarter-million dollars to an organization that has clearly told people like me that we’re not welcome,” she told Fox News.

Ocasio-Cortez is taking steps to mount an independent political operation capable of rivaling the establishment party organs with which she has jousted. The mere creation of a PAC to support other candidates ― an entity commonly known as a “leadership PAC” ― is typically the type of endeavor limited to members of party leadership or other seasoned members of Congress. 

The PAC expands her reach in more tangible ways as well. A PAC allows her to contribute a larger figure to candidates than she otherwise would be able to give. Candidates can give only up to $2,000 a year from their own campaign to another candidate per election cycle, but PACs can contribute up to $5,000 per election cycle. Since the primary and the general elections are considered separate cycles, she can transfer $10,000 to a candidate from the start of a primary to the close of a general election. 

The legal structure of a PAC also allows her political operation to coordinate directly with a campaign for whatever purposes it wishes.

Ocasio Cortez: I don’t think the blacklisting of progressive organizations is fair 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends decision not to pay House Democratic campaign 'dues'

Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY,
USA TODAY•January 10, 2020

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended her decision not to donate money to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in protest of a policy to "blacklist" organizations that back Democratic candidates running against incumbents.

"I give quite a bit to fellow Dems - we’ve fundraised over $300,000 for others (more than my 'dues'), w/ over 50% going to swing seats," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Friday.

"DCCC made clear that they will blacklist any org that helps progressive candidates like me," she said. "I can choose not to fund that kind of exclusion."

The New York congresswoman was reacting to an article by Fox News, which reported that some fellow House Democrats were upset with her decision not to pay the $250,000 dues. It also noted that there were 97 Democrats who hadn't paid as of records from October, but that more may have paid up before the end of the year.


The DCCC is the campaign arm of House Democrats. It made its policy official last year that it would not do business with vendors that work with Democratic caucus members' opponents. Ocasio-Cortez won her race in an upset over longtime incumbent former Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018.

How dues work: 'Extortion' or team effort? Lawmaker perspectives from 2016

The DCCC website says its mission is to "support Democratic House candidates every step of the way to fortify and expand our new Democratic Majority." The DCCC assigns fundraising amounts to congress members based on their levels of leadership and committee assignments, and money is used to boost Democratic members in contested races.

Lawmakers can meet these quotas by either fundraising for the DCC or donating from their own campaign, though meeting the quotas isn't mandatory.

“Sometimes the question comes: 'Do you want to be in a majority or do you want to be in the minority?'” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said of Ocasio-Cortez, according to Fox News. “And do you want to be part of a team?"

Ocasio-Cortez says that she's not the only one who doesn't pay the dues. She said she wants to raise money for progressive candidates by "putting it straight into their pocket," according to Fox News. She raised more than any other House Democrat in the third quarter of 2019, according to reports.

“I’m happy to support some incumbents, but it’s not just a blanket rule," she added.

I give quite a bit to fellow Dems - we’ve fundraised over $300,000 for others (more than my “dues”), w/ over 50% going to swing seats.

DCCC made clear that they will blacklist any org that helps progressive candidates like me. I can choose not to fund that kind of exclusion. https://t.co/qqwdwPAqek
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 10, 2020

"Expanding a House majority is critical, which is why I regularly (and happily) fundraise sizeable amounts for fellow members. I also believe that a Dem majority should be transformative, which is why I give strategically. Seems fair, no?" Ocasio-Cortez said.

This isn't the first time she's been critical of the DCCC. Last year, Ocasio-Cortez called on her supporters to "pause" donations to the DCCC in response to the policy.

"The @DCCC’s new rule to blacklist+boycott anyone who does business w/ primary challengers is extremely divisive & harmful to the party," Ocasio-Cotez tweeted in March. "My recommendation, if you’re a small-dollar donor: pause your donations to DCCC & give directly to swing candidates instead."

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, another freshman Democrat part of the progressive group of congresswomen of color dubbed "the Squad," also criticized the DCCC at the time.

"The fact that I challenged an incumbent meant a lot of folks were told not to come anywhere near my campaign. But I was lucky to build a dynamic, innovative team of staff & consultants who understood the challenges our campaign faced, and who were willing to take a risk," Pressley said.

The policy risked "undermining an entire universe of potential candidates and vendors - especially women and people of color - whose ideas, energy, and innovation need a place in our party," Pressley said.

AOC: 'In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party'

For its part, the DCCC has raised $125 million in 2019, surpassing its record for a non-election year, according to CNN. Its chairwoman, Cheri Bustos, told Fox News that paying the dues is "always up to individual members."

"We’re raising record amounts of money from our members," Bustos said.

Ocasio-Cortez has criticized the Democratic Party as being "too big of a tent," and set herself apart ideologically from more moderate members, saying that they would not be part of the same political party were it not for the United States' two-party system.

She has endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends her decision not to pay DCCC 'dues'

Ocasio Cortez: I don’t think the blacklisting of progressive organizations is fair 
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