MAGICK NUMBER

Newsom signs 13 abortion protection and reproductive health bills

Melody Gutierrez
Tue, September 27, 2022

Gov. Gavin Newsom talks at a news conference with workers and volunteers at a Planned Parenthood office near downtown Los Angeles in May. (Michael R. Blood / Associated Press)

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 13 abortion protection and reproductive health bills Tuesday, codifying key parts of California's campaign to counter the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The newly signed laws also set the stage for a November vote to enshrine abortion rights directly into California's Constitution under Proposition 1.

Newsom's signatures were expected after the governor advocated for many of the measures and come after California launched a publicly funded website this month to make it easier for those seeking to end their pregnancy to find services and financial assistance. The state announced the website — at abortion.ca.gov — the same day that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pushed for a nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy with rare exceptions.

Newsom then began promoting the website on billboards in seven states with the most restrictive abortion bans, telling women living there that California "will defend your right to make decisions about your own health."

“An alarming number of states continue to outlaw abortion and criminalize women, and it’s more important than ever to fight like hell for those who need these essential services," Newsom said in a statement. "We’re doing everything we can to protect people from any retaliation for accessing abortion care while also making it more affordable to get contraceptives."

California officials began preparing a year ago for the potential effects of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, with Newsom asking Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and dozens of other supporters to develop a plan for the state to become a sanctuary for anyone denied abortion services in other parts of the country.

Lawmakers sent Newsom 15 bills this year to strengthen California’s already robust abortion protections — two of which were previously signed into law, while some signed Tuesday were already funded in the budget passed in June.

That budget included $200 million in new spending for reproductive health care services and outreach.

Among the bills signed Tuesday was SB 1142 by Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), which required the state to create the abortion services website launched earlier this month.

“This new website is a critical resource, providing essential information to patients in and out of California, and can hopefully serve as a model for the rest of the nation,” Jodi Hicks, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said in a statement. “No person should be forced to travel outside of their home state for essential health care, including abortion care, yet extreme politicians are making that a reality for millions across the country."

Newsom signed SB 1245, by Sen. Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles), which sets aside $20 million for the Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program, which would expand reproductive care programs in the county.

Senate Bill 1375 by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), also signed into law by the governor, will allow trained nurse practitioners to perform first trimester abortions without the supervision of a physician. Newsom gave final approval to AB 2205 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), which will create new transparency requirements for health plans participating in Covered California on how much insurers collect in abortion premiums and what portion is used for abortion services.

Carrillo said the bill will "ensure regulators and policymakers are aware of the amount of funds being collected as we consider options available for payment of abortion services."

AB 2223, which was particularly targeted by antiabortion groups, would prohibit a coroner from holding an inquest after a fetal death, including in cases in which drugs are suspected as causing a stillbirth. The bill's author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), said AB 2223 ensures pregnancy loss is not considered a crime, regardless of the circumstances. The bill has been targeted by antiabortion groups, which said the measure would make it difficult for law enforcement to investigate the death of a newborn.

“The reason we did this bill was because we wanted to ensure and enshrine that no person can be criminally prosecuted for something that happens in utero, which has happened in California,” Wicks said.

Newsom signed AB 1242, by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), which prohibits state law enforcement agencies from helping with out-of-state abortion investigations. The bill, which was sponsored by Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, also requires out-of-state law enforcement agencies seeking data from California corporations to attest that their investigation is not related to an abortion.

“This is an unprecedented step to protect abortion privacy across the country,” Bauer-Kahan said after the bill passed the Legislature. “We have no obligation to be complicit in enforcing laws that are antithetical to our own values and legal system in California."

In June, Newsom signed a bill that created immediate liability protections for California abortion providers when caring for patients traveling from areas where the procedure is now banned or access is narrowed. AB 1666, by Bauer-Kahan, ensures that providers and patients in California can’t be held civilly liable for judgments based on claims made in antiabortion states.

Newsom signed SB 245, by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), in March, effectively eliminating out-of-pocket costs for abortions, including co-pays that on average range from $300 for a medication abortion to nearly $900 for a procedural abortion, according to the California Health Benefits Review Program.

California law allows a person to have an abortion until the point that a physician determines “there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures” or if the procedure is necessary in order to “protect the life or health of the woman.” In most cases, doctors have considered a fetus viable at 24 weeks.

Nearly two-thirds of California voters said they support legislative fixes that help people from other states obtain an abortion in California, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released last month.

Voters will be able to weigh in on California’s abortion protections in November after lawmakers placed a measure on the ballot that would explicitly protect a person’s right to an abortion. The UC Berkeley IGS poll found 7 in 10 voters support that measure, Proposition 1.

“Abortion is healthcare — timely, essential healthcare that patients should not have to scramble to secure," Atkins said in a statement Tuesday.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

FETUS FETISHISTS

Alabama Officials Back Down on Jailing Pregnant Women to ‘Protect’ Fetuses

Decca Muldowney
Mon, September 26, 2022 

Etowah County Sheriff’s Office

Five pregnant and postpartum women being held on drug charges in an Alabama jail have been released after lawyers argued their bail conditions were “unconstitutional.”

One of the women, 23-year-old Ashley Banks, was arrested two days after she found out she was pregnant in May of this year and charged with possession of marijuana. She admitted to smoking weed two days earlier and was charged with “chemical endangerment of a child,” according to AL.com.

Under Alabama law, this meant she was held in Etowah County jail on a $10,000 cash bond in order to protect her fetus, and couldn’t leave unless she entered a drug rehab program.


Even when Banks’ family raised money for her cash bail, the payment was rejected because her bond conditions required her to have a place at a rehab facility. But specialists who evaluated her found twice that she couldn’t qualify for a place because she didn’t have a substance use disorder.

Burns was held in jail for three months, despite having a high-risk pregnancy and sleeping on the floor due to overcrowding, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), who represented Burns and the four other women.

Border Agency Denies Asking Detained Woman About Abortion

The women were arrested on charges of “chemical endangerment to a child,” a law originally passed in 2006 to protect children from the dangers of methamphetamine labs. But in 2013, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that law should also cover “unborn children,” and prosecutors across the state started filing more charges against pregnant women.

There have been more than 150 similar “chemical endangerment” cases in Etowah County since 2010, according to NAPW, more than in any other county in Alabama.

At least ten women have been held in the Etowah County jail on “chemical endangerment” charges in the last three months, according to a review of inmate rosters by The Daily Beast. Advocates say the number may be higher, according to conversations with their clients.

Another woman, Hali Burns, was arrested in July, six days after giving birth to her second child. After being drug tested at the hospital Burns tested positive for methamphetamine and Subutex, a drug used to help treat opioid addiction, according to a press release from the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office. Her lawyers say the test results were from legally prescribed and over-the-counter medications.

While she was held in jail for two months, Burns was not allowed to see her toddler or newborn, was denied postpartum care, and developed severe depression, according to NAPW.

“My little girl keeps asking what she did wrong and why she can’t come home,” Craig Battles, Bank’s boyfriend, told AL.com.

Lawyers working with NAPW filed habeas petitions arguing the bail conditions imposed on three of the women were unconstitutional and succeeded in getting the local policy changed. Etowah County reduced the bail bonds to $2,500 and released two additional women. However, they are still requiring the women to pay for pretrial monitoring and those who are pregnant have to submit to drug testing every 48 to 72 hours, according to Emma Roth, a staff attorney at NAPW.

Roth hopes this new policy will mean fewer pregnant and postpartum women are detained indefinitely.

“This is a really significant victory and a huge step forward,” Roth said, “But it is not until the statute is amended or repealed that we can say that pregnancy and substance abuse will not be criminalized, but treated as a public health issue.”

Prosecuting pregnancy loss: Why advocates fear a post-Roe surge of charges

DEVIN DWYER and PATTY SEE
Wed, September 28, 2022

For Chelsea Becker, a fourth pregnancy at 25 years old was complicated from the start, challenged by her homelessness and an addiction to methamphetamine.

It ended in a stillbirth, a murder charge and more than 16 months behind bars in California.

"I was not prepared for that," said Becker, describing a "very traumatic, nightmarish experience" after she was arrested in 2019 and accused of murdering her unborn son at 38 weeks of pregnancy.

"At the end of the day, I'm the one that lives with the loss," she said of the baby she'd named Zachariah. "And that can only motivate me to do better."

PHOTO: Chelsea Becker of Hanford, Calif., is speaking publicly for the first time about her experience being charged with murder for delivering a stillborn baby. (ABC News)

Becker, who was released last year from Kings County Jail after the case was dismissed for lack of evidence, is speaking out for the first time to ABC News about her prosecution, as advocates nationwide warn that criminal charges for women who miscarry or have a pregnancy loss are poised to become a more common phenomenon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Thousands of American women every year experience pregnancy loss, according to government data. Experts say most miscarriages or stillbirths are unintentional and of unknown cause; but criminal investigations of pregnant women have been on the rise in some states, advocates say.

"These are not charges that we see every single day, but we know that they are increasing," said Dana Sussman, acting executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), which supported Becker in her legal case.

PHOTO: Dana Sussman, acting executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, says the organization has tracked 1,700 cases of pregnant Americans since 1973 prosecuted for alleged crimes related to a failed pregnancy. (ABC News)

"We expect more of these cases in a post-Roe world," Sussman said of the high court's decision ending constitutional protection of a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. "We think that prosecutors will feel more emboldened than they have been to police pregnancy."

Since 1973, more than 1,700 American women have been criminally charged after a miscarriage or stillbirth, according to NAPW. Most of those cases have occurred in the last 15 years -- with the vast majority taking place in states in the South and Central Plains.

Becker's case, in California's conservative Central Valley, offers a window into the controversial prosecutions, their potential impact on women and the motivations of local district attorneys who pursue them.

PHOTO: Hanford is a rural, working-class community in California's central valley and home to the only two women prosecuted in the state over a failed pregnancy in the past three decades. (ABC News)

"The word 'fetus' is in our murder statute -- with the exception for abortion, but it had to be a therapeutic abortion under a doctor's care," said Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes, who approved the decision to charge Becker with murder in late 2019.

Section 187 of the California penal code defines murder as the "unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought," or premeditated intent, with exceptions only allowed for lawful abortions or when "the act was solicited, aided, abetted, or consented to by the mother of the fetus."

Fagundes is the only California district attorney in the last 30 years to bring charges for a stillbirth under Section 187 -- and he did so twice.

"If these women were to inject their 1-day-old baby with a needle with these drugs, everybody would be up in arms," he said. "Not one judge has said this is legally deficient. I'm not reading the law wrong."

PHOTO: Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes says he prosecuted Adora Perez and Chelsea Becker for murder in order to seek justice for late-term pregnancy loss while the women were allegedly consuming illicit drugs. (ABC News)

In 2018, Fagundes prosecuted Adora Perez, who is also from Becker's hometown and who was also addicted to meth during pregnancy. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter of a fetus and spent four years in prison before her 11-year sentence was later overturned.

"The goal was to get them clean," Fagundes said of the Perez and Becker cases. "We can't bring these dead babies back. We can't undo the harm they did to the other children that they've given birth to under drugs. But we can try to stop their conduct from moving forward."

The Kings County medical examiner said toxic levels of illicit drugs caused the death of the fetuses in both cases; but Becker's legal team argues that three unrelated infections were to blame and that there's no scientific evidence meth ends pregnancies.

PHOTO: Chelsea Becker spent more than a year behind bars in the Kings County Jail following the death of her son Zachariah at 38 weeks of pregnancy, facing a charge of murder of a fetus. (ABC News)

"Addiction is a medical condition," said Dr. Mishka Terplan, a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' working group on pregnancy and addiction medicine. "Using drugs in pregnancy is rarely associated with a pregnancy loss, much less causally associated with that loss. Yet it's those falsehoods upon which some of these legal decisions rest."

In response to widespread public outcry over Becker and Perez, California's Attorney General Rob Bonta in January issued a non-binding legal alert to all 58 state prosecutors advising them to refrain from charging women with murder over a miscarriage or stillbirth because it was never the legislature's intent.

State lawmakers are now urgently trying to amend Section 187 to make that clear.

MORE: Miscarriage and stillbirth: Everything you need to know but were too nervous to ask

"I kind of just, like, ignored that I had a [drug] problem, and I felt like I was in control," Becker told ABC News of her addiction. "Looking back, I know that I was not obviously in control."

"But at what point does a woman have a right to say, like, 'Hey, this happened to me and this may have been an act that I contributed to, but this does not mean I intended for my child to die'?"

PHOTO: Chelsea Becker was arrested and charged with murder in Kings County, Calif., after delivering a stillborn baby in 2019. She served more than a year in jail before the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. (ABC News)

The pregnancy loss prosecutions are a tapestry of American tragedy.

In Oklahoma, Brittney Poolaw, 22, is serving four years in a state prison for manslaughter after miscarrying her child at around 15-17 weeks and admitting to methamphetamine abuse while pregnant. The medical examiner did not assign a cause of fetal death, but prosecutors blamed her drug use and a jury agreed.

Christine Taylor of Iowa was 22 years old when she was charged in 2010 with attempted feticide after falling down the stairs of her home following a heated argument with her husband. First responders said they had reason to believe she didn't want her baby. The child survived, and the charges were later dropped.

In New York, Jennifer Jorgensen was eight-months pregnant when she crashed her car into another vehicle in 2008, killing two people and harming her own fetus. She had an emergency cesarean section but the baby died six days later. Jurors convicted her of second-degree manslaughter in the death of her baby after prosecutors said she drove under the influence of a prescription drug and alcohol and wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.

But an appeals court tossed out her prison sentence, saying state lawmakers never intended to hold a pregnant woman accountable for unintentional harmful conduct.

"There are prosecutors who've told me that they see by their criminal intervention in those pregnancies, from their point of view, they are saving babies," said Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of "Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood."

"Sadly, the canaries in the coal mine have basically been Black and brown women who've suffered," Goodwin said.

Marshae Jones was five months pregnant in 2018 when she was shot in the stomach during a fight in the parking lot of a store in Alabama. After she miscarried, a grand jury of her peers indicted her -- not the woman who fired the gunshot -- with manslaughter for allegedly putting her fetus in harm's way.

After an outpouring of national outrage, the local prosecutor reversed course and withdrew the charges.

"People who are at their very lowest point, especially women who have lost their children, feel that they're maybe at the point of no return. But, you know, I've been there and I returned," said Becker, who is now sober, holding a steady job and studying to obtain a degree in public health.

PHOTO: Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes argues that jailing pregnant women who are addicted to drugs is an 'effective' means of helping them get sober and protect their unborn child. (ABC News)

Advocates for pregnant women say heightening their concern about prosecutions is the proliferation of so-called fetal personhood legislation in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on abortion, an effort that would extend the same legal rights to an unborn child as a living person.

At least 11 states already have broad personhood language under existing law which could be interpreted to cover fetuses, according to NAPW.

"Those laws can transform entire criminal codes and civil codes to apply in the context of pregnancy," said Sussman, the group's acting executive director. "Medical providers in states that are prosecuting pregnancy have been outspoken and said they don't want their patients prosecuted. It makes their jobs to serve their patients much harder."

MORE: Doctors face unprecedented legal risks after Roe overturn

For his part, the district attorney who charged Becker and Perez in California is unconcerned.

"We have [medical personnel] investigate child abuse. We have them investigate spousal abuse. We have them investigate mental health circumstances. They already have responsibility as citizens in our communities," he said.

PHOTO: Sarah Hancock defeated Keith Fagundes in the June 2022 primary to be the next Kings County, Calif., district attorney. She will be the first woman to hold the job. (ABC News)

While Fagundes considers the Becker and Perez prosecutions success stories from his tenure as DA, voters in Kings County chose in June not to give him another term, opting instead for his primary challenger, Sarah Hacker, who will become the first woman to hold the job when she's sworn in next year.

"To have a DA abuse his power and overcharge a case illegally for the sake of forcing women into custody is disgusting," Hacker said. "The voters in general disagree with the way that their current administration is prosecuting cases."

MORE: What's the role of personhood in abortion debate?

Becker's supporters consider the election results a small victory in their campaign for more compassionate treatment of pregnant women who lose their unborn children.

"I think that it's crucial to provide women with a sense of empowerment, and that begins with getting clean and having those resources available to them," Becker said. "It doesn't necessarily happen on the level of prosecution."

Prosecuting pregnancy loss: Why advocates fear a post-Roe surge of charges originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Wrestler alleges Bryant threatened Tupelo nonprofit over ties to Democratic officials

Taylor Vance, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
Mon, September 26, 2022 at 7:18 PM·3 min read

Sep. 26—TUPELO — A former professional wrestler tied to Mississippi's welfare scandal claims he witnessed former Gov. Phil Bryant tell an agency leader to cut funding to the Tupelo-based Family Resource Center because of its connections to Democratic officials in the state.

According to a federal court filing unsealed on Friday, former WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. says that in 2019, Bryant, a Republican, directed former welfare agency leader John Davis to cut ties with FRC of North Mississippi because Christi Webb, the nonprofit's director, was "openly supporting" Jim Hood, the Democratic nominee for governor that year.

Bryant's attorney, William Quinn, called DiBiase's claim "ridiculous."

"Governor Bryant made no such threat," Quinn said, adding that funding decisions were left to Davis.

Casey Lott, an attorney for the FRC, said that he is not surprised by DiBiase's allegation because it's what the nonprofit leaders "suspected all along."

"We now have first-hand proof and confirmation that this actually occurred," Lott said.

Christi Webb, the director of the FRC, hired Debbie Hood, the wife of former Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, to run the organization's operations in Chickasaw County, where the Hood family currently lives.

Lott has also alleged that a north Mississippi lawmaker sent word on behalf of Bryant to the nonprofit's leaders that they should fire Debbie Hood or else they would lose public funding.

Lott has declined to reveal the identity of the lawmaker, but a person familiar with the organization identified the legislator as state Sen. Chad McMahan.

The leaders have also speculated that both Debbie Hood's name and the FRC were mentioned at a meeting between Bryant, Davis and McMahan to discuss funding for a separate Lee County nonprofit to receive welfare dollars.

McMahan, R-Guntown, has denied the allegations, but FBI agents have questioned the Lee County lawmaker about the meeting, as previously reported by the Daily Journal.

DiBiase's revelation in federal court marks a significant development in the massive welfare scandal because it directly alleges the former governor used welfare dollars to pressure the Northeast Mississippi nonprofit.

DiBiase's allegations first came to light in 2020 when federal prosecutors attempted to seize DiBiase's $1.5 million Madison home, which they alleged was purchased with federal welfare funds.

The complaint was filed under seal. News outlet Mississippi Today, which first reported DiBiase's allegations, asked the court to unseal the complaint. A judge agreed to its request on Sept. 23.

Davis pleaded guilty on Sept. 22 to federal and state charges related to funneling welfare payments to DiBiase. Two nonprofits — the FRC and the Mississippi Community Education Center — allegedly served as the conduits to supply the funds from the state agency to DiBiase.

Nancy New, the director of the FRC, has pleaded guilty to state bribery charges in connection to the welfare scandal.

State leaders in a civil suit have accused the FRC and its leaders of misspending millions of welfare dollars. The organization has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

taylor.vance@djournal.com

Watch Pete Buttigieg's Devastating Takedown of Fla.'s Ron DeSantis

Alex Cooper
Mon, September 26, 2022 

Ron DeSantis and Pete Buttigieg

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has taken Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to task over the anti-LGBTQ+ politician flying asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

"Obviously, there are issues with the border and with migration, but these are the kinds of stunts you see from people who don't have a solution,” Buttigieg said in an interview with journalist Evan Smith at the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival.

His comments drew applause from the audience.

“Governor DeSantis was in Congress. Where was he when they were debating immigration reform?” Buttigieg asks in the interview. “What have any of these people done to be part of the solution?

“So, you know, I get that if you’re after attention … it’s one thing to call attention to a problem when you have a course of action … it’s another thing to just call attention to a problem because the problem is actually more useful to you than the solution, and that helps you call attention to yourself. And that’s what’s going on,”

Buttigieg continued, “And the problem is, it’s one thing if it was just people being obnoxious, but human beings are being impacted by that. You flee a communist regime in Venezuela, you come here, and then somebody tricks you — somebody using Florida taxpayer money for some reason — tricks you in going from Texas to Massachusetts.

“It is not just ineffectual, it is hurting people in order to get attention.”



The clip posted online has been viewed by more than 2.1 million on Twitter and has been liked by more than 105,000.

One Twitter user responded to the clip, “Slayer Pete.” Others praised Buttigieg for his response to DeSantis’s actions.

About two weeks ago, asylum seekers, many of whom are believed to be from Venezuela, were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas due to arrangements made by DeSantis. Many said they did not understand where they were heading or why.

DeSantis said that he wanted to make a statement about President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

The move has been condemned by Biden administration officials and human rights advocates.

John Oliver claims Ron DeSantis flying migrants to Martha's Vineyard was inspired by Tucker Carlson

Stephen Proctor

Mon, September 26, 2022 at 1:15 AM·

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, the host called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for flying migrants to the affluent Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts without giving authorities prior notice. Oliver believes the stunt may have been inspired by Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson, who recently suggested doing such a thing.

“If this seems like a stunt made for Fox News, you are absolutely right,” Oliver said. “But it also may have been made by Fox News, because just two months ago Tucker Carlson did a segment pointing out the whiteness of Martha’s Vineyard, and he had this fun proposal.”

Carlson had suggested sending hundreds of thousands of migrants, which would have overwhelmed the small island.

The move by DeSantis followed a similar action by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has bused migrants to various Democrat-led cities. But the difference in this case is that the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard were reportedly misled about what would be awaiting them when they arrived. The migrants, who are in this country legally having requested asylum, have subsequently filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis.

“This stunt was both grim and deeply cynical,” Oliver said, “especially given that the migrants were reportedly lured there with empty promises of jobs and housing, and even handed brochures listing government assistance that they were not eligible for.”

DeSantis is currently being investigated by a sheriff in Texas because none of the migrants the governor had flown to Martha’s Vineyard were even in the state of Florida. All were flown there from the state of Texas, which Oliver pointed out.

“It seems this huge problem for his state, mass migration, is actually so little of a problem he had to borrow 50 migrants from a state halfway across the country,” Oliver said. “But still, you know what? Credit where it’s due. Nothing says I’m against illegal immigration and human trafficking quite like making fake documents to smuggle people across a border.”

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.

A man who helped get migrants on DeSantis' flights to Martha's Vineyard says he feels betrayed: 'I never, ever knew that it was a governor' behind the stunt

Natalie Musumeci
Tue, September 27, 2022 

Migrants stand outside St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, on September 15. A day earlier, two planes with migrants from Venezuela had arrived on the island unannounced.Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

A man who helped recruit migrants for flights bound for Martha's Vineyard says he feels betrayed.

The man told CNN he had "nothing to do with the deception." CNN didn't identify him.

Dozens of migrants were flown to Martha's Vineyard this month in a move planned by Ron DeSantis.

A man who helped recruit migrants to get on flights bound for Martha's Vineyard as part of a stunt by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida earlier this month told CNN he felt deceived and had no idea that the Republican politician was behind the operation.

"I have nothing to do with the deception," the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview with CNN published on Tuesday.

"I was always aware that it was a benefactor who was paying for things. I repeat: I never, ever knew that it was a governor or politician. So my only will has always been to help people," the man said, adding that "yes, of course" he felt betrayed.

The man, also a migrant, told CNN that he'd been living on the streets of San Antonio for about a month before he met a woman, identified as "Perla," who he said roped him into the scheme.

He said the woman promised him money, food, and clothes as long as he found other migrants willing to get on flights to Massachusetts from Texas.

He told CNN she also gave him $10 McDonald's gift certificates to give to those who agreed to get on the planes.

"She had told me that the people who were going to Massachusetts, before I sent them, she had told me that they were going to receive them," the man told CNN, adding: "They were going to be given shelter, a place to stay. They were going to help them with the language, and those who had children, they were going to study."

About 50 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, arrived unannounced on two chartered planes from Texas at the upscale liberal Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard on September 14.

The flights were organized by DeSantis, an outspoken critic of the Biden administration's immigration policies.

A Boston-based nonprofit has filed a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of a group of the migrants alleging that DeSantis and other Florida officials carried out a "scheme to defraud vulnerable immigrants to advance a political motive."

The suit says the migrants were persuaded with $10 McDonald's gift certificates and false promises of employment, housing, and other assistance to get them to board the planes out of San Antonio.

The lawsuit says a woman, identified as "Perla," and a man, identified as "Emanuel," waited outside shelters in Texas to offer migrants the gift certificates and tell them about the transport, "pretending to be good Samaritans offering humanitarian assistance."

The man who spoke with CNN said his "only intention was to help the people so they could get some stability."

"Everything was always voluntary," he added. "No one was ever forced to do anything."

The man said once the migrants touched down in Martha's Vineyard, he received a message from one of them saying they realized that no one had been expecting them. CNN quoted that person as saying: "There's nothing here. We're adrift here. These people didn't even know we would arrive."

The man told CNN that he contacted Perla, who texted him: "Tell them to call the numbers we gave them. The church. The state has to take care of them."

People in Martha's Vineyard came to the aid of the migrants, who were later relocated to a military base in Cape Cod designated as an emergency shelter.

An attorney representing a group of the migrants told Insider last week that they'd been "traumatized" by the stunt.

‘They were preyed upon’: immigration lawyers denounce transport of migrants

Erum Salam
Mon, September 26, 2022 

Photograph: Cristóbal Herrera/EPA

In the wake of the transport of nearly 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers and migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida’s rightwing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, immigration lawyers representing the group have labeled the move as an “appalling” political stunt that should never be allowed to happen again.

Related: Democrats call for justice department to investigate migrant flights

DeSantis – who is both an ally and a rival to Donald Trump – has claimed responsibility for the flight as an attempt to protest against Joe Biden’s immigration policy. But the move had been widely condemned as racist and abusive towards those dumped on the upmarket resort island in Massachusetts.

Mirian Albert, a lawyer for the group Lawyers for Civil rights, said: “Lawyers for Civil Rights was not looking for this fight. Neither were our clients. But we’re more than ready to take this on. And we’re not gonna let this happen again – not on our watch.”

The result of the efforts of Albert and her colleagues was a federal class-action lawsuit against DeSantis and others, which could see the extremist Republican governor face severe consequences for violating federal immigration law by engaging in acts some legal experts have deemed human trafficking or smuggling.

“What we hope to do with the class action that we filed is stop the shipment of immigrants across state lines by misrepresentation and fraudulent efforts, specifically from Ron DeSantis, and the state of Florida,” Albert said. “And we hope to seek a nationwide injunction to make that happen, and then also to make our clients whole again. They were stripped of their integrity throughout this whole process. And I think that making sure that they feel whole is also important here.”

DeSantis’s actions have only been the most extreme of a wave of efforts to transport migrants by Republican governors. Leaders in Texas and Arizona have bussed them to Chicago, New York and Washington DC, also sparking widespread condemnation for using a complex human situation for political theatre.

Target communities of the bussing and flights have reacted by welcoming the migrants, including in Martha’s Vineyard.

Sarang Sekhavat, political director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said he began the work of calling pro-bono attorneys for the arrivals as soon as the news broke.

“My initial reaction was just confusion. It didn’t make any sense. Even for the political point that Governor DeSantis is trying to make, complaining about what [he’s] seeing in [his] state, why are you going to another state to get people? Why pull people out of Texas, if your complaint is in your state?,” he said.

Sekhavat added: “Second off, these are asylum seekers – folks who are lawfully present in the country. The DeSantis administration keeps talking about illegal immigrants. That’s not what these are.”

Despite the overwhelming backlash, DeSantis doubled down on his actions and vowed to continue to transport more migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities, despite Martha’s Vineyard having no such designation.

DeSantis said: “The legislature gave me $12m [for migrant transport]. We’re going to spend every penny of that to make sure we’re protecting the people of the state of Florida.

In response to DeSantis, Sekhavat said: “Send them, that’s fine. What I think the state of Massachusetts showed last week is that we have a lot more compassion and humanity than he does.”

Albert traveled from Boston to catch the ferry to the Vineyard and described the scene she found as “extremely outrageous”.

“We were just trying to talk to families and individuals about how this event occurred and what led up to it. I was distressed. It’s so disorienting to put myself in their shoes and to imagine getting on a plane and then landing somewhere that’s completely unfamiliar to you. And then not having anyone to call or not being able to get any of your needs met.”

Multilingual brochures given to these individuals by their transporters, shared by Lawyers for Civil Rights, promise employment, food assistance, school registration for children and housing if they got on the plane to Massachusetts.

“I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been, especially for the mothers who weren’t in the group. It is appalling to think that politicians are using human beings as political pawns to just make a political statement,” Albert said.

“[They were] feeling frauded, feeling tricked, feelings of desperation. A mother mentioned that she started crying when she landed, because she just didn’t know what was going to happen. It was not OK.”

Island residents rallied to quickly gather food and supplies and set up shelter. There were reports of locals helping set up St Andrew’s Episcopal church to house the new visitors and high-school students in the area stepping in to provide Spanish translation services.

But, despite DeSantis’s political stunt, there could be more legal implications in store for him in the wake of the flight. Criminal investigations in both Texas and Massachusetts could result in state charges for DeSantis, as well.

Javier Salazar, sheriff of Bexar county in San Antonio, said: “I believe that they were preyed upon. Somebody came from out of state and preyed upon these people, lured them with promises of a better life which is what they were absolutely looking for, and hoodwinked into making this trip to Florida and then onward to Martha’s Vineyard for what I believe to be nothing more than political posturing.”

James K. A. Smith,  Canadian theologian

A Christian author says 'Christian nationalism' is out of step with the historic faith

Jon Ward
·Chief National Correspondent
Tue, September 27, 2022

Proponents of “Christian nationalism” claim that they represent the truest form of the faith and that they know God’s will in a way others do not and cannot, and so they often believe they are empowered to impose their vision of the common good on the rest of the country.

“We, the church, are God's governing body on the Earth,” chanted a group of religious conservatives recently in Atlanta. “We have been given legal power from heaven and now exercise our authority.”

This audience was led in reciting this “Watchman Decree” by four leaders, including Lance Wallnau, a business consultant turned self-anointed divine emissary who has campaigned with and for Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano.

Christian nationalism is growing on the political right. The movement views its quest for political power as part of a divinely inspired mission. Followers believe they are blessed and sanctioned by God to correct all that is wrong and bring it into order and righteousness.

Yet in reality, Christian nationalists are adrift from the Christian faith’s historic teachings and practice on several significant counts, argue many scholars and philosophers. These experts say many evangelical Christians are ignorant of history in general, and of the history of their faith in particular, which has led to significant consequences.

“A lot of contemporary Christianity suffers from … a failure to appreciate the nuances and dynamics of history,” James K.A. Smith writes in his new book, “How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now.”

Smith, a philosophy professor at Calvin University, an evangelical college in Michigan, argues that many religious conservatives mistakenly believe they are “wholly governed by eternal ideas untainted by history.”

Smith’s book is about much more than Christian nationalism, but it does diagnose some of the underlying causes of the political movement.

Yahoo News' podcast "The Long Game" and James K.A. Smith's book "How to Inhabit Time." (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: via Brazos Press)

Historical ignorance leads to a way of reading the Bible — a hyperliteral interpretation — that is out of step with historic Christianity. Hyperliteralist readings of the Bible tend, for example, to prioritize the specter of a looming apocalypse, and encourage the faithful to dominate others through politics.

And so Christian nationalists “have forgotten something very, very fundamental” about what the faith says about the end of the world, namely that the apocalypse “is not something that is engineered by us,” Smith said in an interview for “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast.

The “kingdom of God” is a central idea in the New Testament, mentioned often by Jesus and his followers. It is here, Smith argues, that confusion reigns about what that term means now.

“Every single day in the Lord's Prayer, Christians pray ‘Thy kingdom come,’” Smith said. “But as long as we are praying that, it's not here. So you are praying for it to come. You are laboring in line with it, you hope. But there's not the sense that we are bringing it about.”

In the Christian faith’s teachings about “awaiting the arrival of the kingdom, never is there any hint that we are supposed to sort of colonize Earth as if we knew exactly what the kingdom looked like.

“In fact, instead what you get a lot from prophetic and apocalyptic literature in the Scriptures is deep, deep cautions about not confusing our imagination with what is to come,” Smith said.

“I do think what is so … legitimately terrifying about the discourse of Christian nationalism in our country is it is able to sort of wear the cloak of a theological language but is completely unhinged from actual accountability to the theological guardrails of what Christian eschatology is.”

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In Christian theology, eschatology is the study of how human history will come to an end with the return of Christ to Earth. It is the main subject of the Book of Revelation, the last section of the Christian Bible.

Smith is just one of many scholars who believe that many Christians read Revelation incorrectly. He and others believe that many Christians’ beliefs about the “end times” have been shaped by fictional literature and movies more than by a rigorous analysis of the text in Revelation.

“The book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern reads and open to all kinds of misinterpretation,” wrote Richard Bauckham, professor of New Testament studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in his 1993 book “The Theology of the Book of Revelation.”

“The point is not to predict a sequence of events,” Bauckham wrote, countering the popularized reading of Revelation that views it as a literal road map. Instead, it “calls on Christians to confront the political idolatries of the time … of power and prosperity.”

In recent years, right-wing politicians have spoken more openly and frequently about an imminent religious apocalypse. "We know that we are in the last of the last days," Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who is often described as a Christian nationalist, said at an event earlier this month.

"But it's not a time to complain about it. It's not a time to get upset about it. It's a time to know that you were called to be a part of these last days. You get to have a role in ushering in the second coming of Jesus,” Boebert said.

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Smith’s argument is that a misreading of Revelation — which can lead Christians toward a vision of violent conflict — intersects with evangelicalism’s self-certainty to create Christian nationalism, which he describes as a misdirected political movement that is absolutely sure of itself and unaware of how much it does not understand.

Smith, however, does not argue that Christians should withdraw from politics. “There's no question that we are laboring to bend the arc of justice as much as we can,” he said. But, he added, “there has to be such a tempered expectation and a tempered epistemic humility.”

Arguments like Smith’s, which rest on a way of reading the Bible as a coherent and complex whole, often run up against arguments made by those who select individual biblical verses or texts to support their argument for “taking dominion,” a phrase with roots in the Book of Genesis, which deals with God’s creation of the world.

Smith wryly notes that the Bible itself contains examples of citing Scripture to justify nefarious ends. He referred to a story in the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus interacts with a character named “the Tempter,” who cites passages of the Old Testament to him.

“The Devil quotes the Bible all the time, man,” Smith said.

Progressive Democrats frustrated with 2022 primary losses




Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joins female House Democrats at an event ahead of a House vote on the Women's Health Protection Act and the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act at the Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2022. Four years after Ocasio-Cortez won a New York congressional primary that toppled a powerful incumbent and sent a jolt through the Democratic Party, the progressive left has had mixed success, with some questioning the limits of the movement’s power. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)


MICHELLE L. PRICE
Tue, September 27, 2022 


NEW YORK (AP) — With less than two months until the midterm elections, progressive Democrats are facing a test of their power.

Their party is heading into the final stretch of the campaign with a robust set of legislative accomplishments that include long-term progressive priorities on issues ranging from prescription drug prices to climate change. But the left has also faced a series of disappointments as Democratic voters from Ohio to Illinois to Texas rejected high-profile progressive challengers to moderates or incumbent members of Congress during the primary season.

The frustration is particularly acute in New York, where Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated one of the highest-ranking congressional Democrats four years ago, injecting fresh energy among the party's most liberal voters. This year, however, New York City Democrats chose Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who is more of a centrist, over several progressive rivals, including freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones. About 30 miles north in the Hudson River Valley, a powerful establishment candidate, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, defeated a state lawmaker running to his left and backed by Ocasio-Cortez.

Those setbacks have raised fresh questions about the progressive movement's standing among Democrats. Progressive leaders urge against reading too much into those losses, particularly in New York, where repeated elections this summer after a redistricting battle left some voters disoriented or disengaged.

“New York was just a mess,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “It was like the timing of the redistricting maps. I mean, that’s not a situation that’s going to get repeated a lot.”

Progressives have notched notable victories this year. In Oregon, Jamie McLeod-Skinner ousted moderate Rep. Kurt Schrader. Activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost topped a crowded field of Democrats in Florida and is poised to become the youngest member of Congress. And labor organizer Summer Lee edged out an establishment-backed candidate in Pennsylvania.

But those wins risk becoming the exception rather than the rule as moderates have repeatedly asserted their strength in recent years. President Joe Biden won his party's nomination in 2020 after overcoming challenges from more liberal contenders including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

In New York City, Eric Adams defeated several rivals from the left for the party's mayoral nomination last year with an explicit critique of progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez. And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul easily dispatched a more liberal rival during this summer's primary.

“Progressive” has long been a squishy label for Democrats. It generally refers to the party’s left flank but has been embraced by rank-and-file liberals as well as those much further left on the spectrum, including self-described democratic socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.

The term “progressive” was even the subject of the first 2016 Democratic presidential debate between Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Sanders suggesting Clinton was not sufficiently progressive and Clinton disputing that and calling him the “self-proclaimed gatekeeper for progressivism.”

Some candidates championed by progressives have grappled with the label this year.

“No, I’m just a Democrat,” left-leaning Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman said in a May interview with NBC when he was asked if he is a progressive. He said his positions were considered progressive six years ago but "now there isn’t a single Democrat in this race or any race that I’m aware of that’s running on anything different. So that’s not really progressive. That’s just where the party is.”

Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who won a Democratic congressional primary in May and was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Politico that she’d been labeled a progressive but knows most of the Democratic voters in the Dallas-area seat where she’s running identify as moderates or conservatives.

Crockett said that means she won’t align with members of the further-left subset of progressives in the House known as the “Squad,” which includes Ocasio-Cortez and has been known for challenging the party’s establishment.

“I’ve got to be very cognizant. Honestly, I love so many members of the ‘Squad’ and I think that they do right by their districts,” Crockett said. “I think in my district, while they don’t self-identify as progressive, they love a lot of the things that I stand for.”

New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the chair of the House Democratic caucus and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said “there’s a difference between the socialist machine and mainstream progressives.”

Jeffries, speaking to reporters in a roundtable interview a few days before New York’s August primaries, said Democrats whose legislative records are “deeply progressive” still face criticism from “online virtue signalers” because they are not further left.

“There are some forces on the left that want to define ‘progressive' as ‘You bend the knee and we tell you what to do, and if you fail to fall in line, you’re a machine Democrat or a corporate sellout.' That’s a joke,” he said.

Jeffries said the left had some success taking out more traditional Democrats in 2018 and 2020 as Democratic frustrations with President Donald Trump translated into energy for insurgent campaigns. But Jeffries said that once Biden won the White House and his Democratic-controlled Congress began passing legislation, Democratic voters were no longer looking for insurgency.

“At a certain point in time, voters want results, particularly when Democrats have been entrusted with majorities,” he said. “And that is what we have been delivering.”

Bill Neidhardt, a progressive Democratic strategist who worked for liberal former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said that while there have been noted losses in recent contests, the Democratic Party’s left flank has seen bright spots.

“It’s not a perfect record, but it never is in elections. I would challenge anyone to show me one of those,” Neidhardt said.

Neidhardt said progressives in Congress can point to growing political power, such as Biden’s recent student loan debt forgiveness plan or Democrats’ new law, the Inflation Reduction Act, tackling climate change and capping prescription drug costs.

“That’s got the progressives’ fingerprints all over it,” he said.

Though Fetterman has shrugged off the progressive label, Neidhardt said the Pennsylvanian opposing Republican Mehmet Oz might help progressives see one of their biggest coups yet. Fetterman and Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes are running in two hotly contested U.S. Senate seats that Democrats hope to flip while hanging onto their thin majority in that chamber.

“Who’s going to defeat Ron Johnson? Who’s going to defeat Dr. Oz? It’s going to be progressives,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

Biden's strategy to end hunger in US includes more benefits




President Joe Biden speaks during an event on health care costs, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)More


COLLEEN LONG and ASHRAF KHALIL
Tue, September 27, 2022 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is laying out its plan to meet an ambitious goal of ending hunger in the U.S. by 2030, including expanding monthly benefits that help low-income Americans buy food.

The administration, in a plan released Tuesday, is also seeking to increase healthy eating and physical activity so that fewer people are afflicted with diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other diet-related diseases. It said it would work to expand Medicaid and Medicare access to obesity counseling and nutrition.

“The consequences of food insecurity and diet-related diseases are significant, far reaching, and disproportionately impact historically underserved communities,” Biden wrote in a memo outlining the White House strategy. “Yet, food insecurity and diet-related diseases are largely preventable, if we prioritize the health of the nation.”

Biden is hosting a conference this week on hunger, nutrition and health, the first by the White House since 1969. That conference, under President Richard Nixon, was a pivotal moment that influenced the U.S. food policy agenda for 50 years. It led to a greatly expanded food stamps program and gave rise to the Women, Infants and Children program, which serves half the babies born in the U.S. by providing women with parenting advice, breastfeeding support and food assistance.

Noreen Springstead, executive director of the anti-hunger organization WhyHunger, said the whole-of-government nature of the summit will hopefully produce greater alignment across the multiple federal agencies that deal with hunger issues — from the USDA and Health and Human Services to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That, ideally, would help Biden “set the North Star that nutritious food is a human right for all people.”

Springstead noted that a truly comprehensive approach to hunger and nutrition would have to include a major commitment from charities and philanthropic foundations. It would also likely include raising baseline salaries and employers paying their workers "wages that are livable so that they’re not standing in a food line.”

Over the years, cuts to federal programs coupled with stigmas over welfare and big changes to how food and farming systems are run have prompted declines in access to food.

Biden, a Democrat, is hoping this week's conference is similarly transformative. But the goal of Nixon, a Republican, also was “to put an end to hunger in America for all time.”

And yet 10% of U.S. households in 2021 suffered food insecurity, meaning they were uncertain they could get enough food to feed themselves or their families because they lacked money or resources for food, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

To succeed, Biden needs buy-in from the private sector and an increasingly partisan Congress. Some of the goals sound reminiscent of former first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to tackle childhood obesity and promote healthy eating. The conference also will highlight the need for access to better, healthier food and exercise.

In response to the Biden plan's release, Partnership for a Healthy America hailed the emphasis on nutrition and health, saying that simply providing more food without prioritizing nutritional value would simply create different problems.

"We applaud the administration’s stated desire to shift from a mindset of treating diet-related diseases to preventing them from occurring in the first place," the organization said in a statement.

Biden said in his memo that over the past 50 years, “we have learned so much more about nutrition and the role that healthy eating plays in how our kids perform in the classroom and about nutrition and its linkages to disease prevention.”

Under the White House plan, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility would be expanded, children would get better access to free meals, and summer benefits would be extended to more schoolkids. Such changes would require congressional approval.

The other tenets of the strategy include the development of new food packaging to truth-check the “healthy” claims for some products, expanding SNAP incentives to select fruits and vegetables, providing more programs to encourage people to get outside and move, and boosting funding for research.

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Associated Press reporter Darlene Superville contributed to this report.