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Tag Archives: Hurdle
Same-sex marriage legislation clears key Senate hurdle
WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages crossed a major Senate hurdle Wednesday, putting Congress on track to take the historic step of ensuring that such unions are enshrined in federal law.
Twelve Republicans voted with all Democrats to move forward on the legislation, meaning a final vote could come as soon as this week, or later this month. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill ensuring the unions are legally recognized under the law is chance for the Senate to “live up to its highest ideals” and protect marriage equality for all people.
“It will make our country a better, fairer place to live,” Schumer said, noting that his own daughter and her wife are expecting a baby next year.
Senate Democrats are quickly moving to pass the bill while the party still controls the House. Republicans won the House majority Wednesday and are unlikely to take up the issue next year.
In a statement after the vote, President Joe Biden said that he sign the bill once it is passed.
“Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” Biden said.
The bill has gained steady momentum since the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion. An opinion at that time from Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that an earlier high court decision protecting same-sex marriage could also come under threat.
The legislation would repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act and require states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed. The new Respect for Marriage Act would also protect interracial marriages by requiring states to recognize legal marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
Congress has been moving to protect same-sex marriage as support from the general public — and from Republicans in particular — has sharply grown in recent years, as the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalized gay marriage nationwide. Recent polling has found more than two-thirds of the public supports same-sex unions.
Still, many Republicans in Congress have been reluctant to support the legislation, with many saying it was unnecessary while the marriages are still protected by the courts. Democrats delayed consideration until after the midterm elections, hoping that would relieve political pressure on some GOP senators who might be wavering.
A proposed amendment to the bill, negotiated by supporters to bring more Republicans on board, would clarify that it does not affect rights of private individuals or businesses that are already enshrined in law. Another tweak would make clear that a marriage is between two people, an effort to ward off some far-right criticism that the legislation could endorse polygamy.
Three Republicans said early on that they would support the legislation and have lobbied their GOP colleagues to support it: Maine Sen. Susan Collins, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. They argued that there was still value in enshrining the rights for such marriages even if the courts don’t invalidate them.
“Current federal law doesn’t reflect the will or beliefs of the American people,” Portman said ahead of the vote. “It’s time for the Senate to settle the issue.”
In the end, nine of their GOP colleagues joined them in voting for it, bringing the total to twelve and providing enough votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the 50-50 Senate. The other Republicans who voted for the legislation were Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Todd Young of Indiana, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Mitt Romney of Utah, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.
The growing GOP support for the issue is a sharp contrast from even a decade ago, when many Republicans vocally opposed same-sex marriages. The legislation passed the House in a July vote with the support of 47 Republicans — a larger-than-expected number that gave the measure a boost in the Senate.
On Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became the most recent conservative-leaning group to back the legislation. In a statement, the Utah-based faith said church doctrine would continue to consider same-sex relationships to be against God’s commandments, but it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who is the first openly gay senator and has been working on gay rights issues for almost four decades, said the newfound openness from many Republicans on the subject reminds her “of the arc of the LBGTQ movement to begin with, in the early days when people weren’t out and people knew gay people by myths and stereotypes.”
Baldwin said that as more individuals and families have become visible, hearts and minds have changed.
“And slowly laws have followed,” she said. “It is history.”
Schumer said the issue is personal to him, as well.
“Passing the Respect for Marriage Act is as personal as it gets for many senators and their staffs, myself included,” Schumer said. “My daughter and her wife are actually expecting a little baby in February. So it matters a lot to so many of us to get this done.”
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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
Surprising attractiveness of hurdle to developing safe, clean and carbon-free energy
Scientists have discovered the remarkable impact of reversing a standard method for combatting a key obstacle to producing fusion energy on Earth. Theorists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have proposed doing precisely the opposite of the prescribed procedure to sharply improve future results.
Tearing holes in plasma
The problem, called “locked tearing modes,” occurs in all today’s tokamaks, doughnut-shaped magnetic facilities designed to create and control the virtually unlimited fusion power that drives the sun and stars. The instability-caused modes rotate with the hot, charged plasma— the fourth state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei that fuels fusion reactions—and tear holes called islands in the magnetic field that confines the gas, allowing the leakage of key heat.
These islands grow larger when the modes stop rotating and lock into place, a growth rate that increases the heat loss, reduces the plasma performance and can cause disruptions that allow the energy stored in the plasma to strike and damage the tokamak’s inner walls. To avoid such risks, researchers now beam microwaves into the plasma to stabilize the modes before they can lock.
However, the PPPL findings strongly suggest that researchers stabilize the modes in large, next-generation tokamaks after they have locked. In today’s tokamaks, “these modes lock more quickly than people had thought and it becomes much harder to stabilize them while they’re still rotating,” said Richard Nies, a doctoral student in the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics and lead author of a Nuclear Fusion paper that lays out the surprising findings.
Another drawback, he added, is that “these microwaves increase their width by refracting off the plasma, making the stabilization of the mode while it’s rotating even less efficient today, and this problem has become more exacerbated in recent years.”
Accompanying these issues is the fact that in large future tokamaks like ITER, the international facility under construction in the south of France, “the plasma is so huge that the rotation is much slower and these modes lock pretty quickly when they’re still pretty small,” Nies said. “So it will be much more efficient to switch up the stabilization package in big future tokamaks and let them first lock and then stabilize them.”
That reversal could facilitate the fusion process, which scientists around the world are seeking to reproduce. The process combines light elements in the form of plasma to release vast amounts of energy. “This provides a different way of looking at things and could be a much more effective way to deal with the problem,” said Allan Reiman, a distinguished research fellow and co-author of the paper. “People should take more seriously the possibility of allowing the islands to lock,” Reiman said.
Close to disrupting
The recommended technique is unlikely to work in today’s tokamaks because tearing mode islands grow so fast and are so large when they lock in these facilities that the plasma is close to disrupting once it has locked. That’s why researchers must now use large amounts of power to stabilize the modes at the cost of limiting fusion output. By contrast, the slow growth of islands in next-generation tokamaks “leaves a long way to go before you have a disruption so there’s a lot of time to stabilize the mode,” Nies said.
Once the modes in future tokamaks are locked in place microwaves can target them directly instead of stabilizing them only when they rotate past the microwave beam in current facilities. “These theoretical calculations show the efficiency of what we are proposing,” Nies pointed out.
What now is needed are experiments to test the proposed course of action, he said. “We would not want to turn on ITER and only then find out which strategy works. There is real opportunity to explore the physics that we address in current devices.”
State-of-the-art computer code could advance efforts to harness fusion energy
More information:
Richard Nies et al, On the stabilisation of locked tearing modes in ITER and other large tokamaks, Nuclear Fusion (2022). DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/ac79bd
Richard Nies et al, On the stabilisation of locked tearing modes in ITER and other large tokamaks, Nuclear Fusion (2022). DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/ac79bd
Citation:
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Dems’ climate, energy, tax bill clears initial Senate hurdle
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats started pushing their election-year economic bill through the Senate on Saturday, starting the sprawling collection of President Joe Biden’s priorities on climate, energy, health and taxes on a pathway through Congress that the party hopes will end in victory by the end of this week.
In a preview of the sharply partisan votes that are expected on a mountain of amendments, the evenly divided Senate voted to begin debate on the legislation 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie and overcoming unanimous Republican opposition. The package, a dwindled version of earlier multitrillion-dollar measures that Democrats failed to advance, has become a partisan battleground over inflation, gasoline prices and other issues that polls show are driving voters.
The House, where Democrats have a slender majority, could give the legislation final approval next Friday when that chamber plans to briefly return to Washington from summer recess.
“The time is now to move forward with a big, bold package for the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “This historic bill will reduce inflation, lower costs, fight climate change. It’s time to move this nation forward.”
Republicans said the measure would damage the economy and make it harder for people to cope with sky-high inflation. They said the bill’s business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices upward and urged voters to remember that in November.
“The best way to stop this tax and spend inflationary madness is to fire some of the 50 so they can’t keep doing this to your family,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
Nonpartisan analysts have said the legislation, which Democrats have named the Inflation Reduction Act, would have a minor impact on the nation’s worst inflation bout in four decades. Even so, it would take aim at issues the party has longed to address for years including global warming, pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations.
Earlier Saturday, the Senate parliamentarian gave a thumbs-up to most of Democrats’ revised 755-page bill. But Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbiter, said Democrats had to drop a significant part of their plan for curbing drug prices.
MacDonough said Democrats violated Senate budget rules with language imposing hefty penalties on pharmaceutical companies that boost prices beyond inflation for drugs sold in the private insurance market. Those were the bill’s chief drug pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health coverage comes from private insurance, either through work or bought on their own.
Other pharmaceutical provisions were left intact, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, a longtime Democratic aspiration. Penalties on manufacturers for exceeding inflation would apply to drugs sold to Medicare, and there is a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs and free vaccines for Medicare beneficiaries.
Before approving the legislation, Democrats will have to fight off a “vote-a-rama” of nonstop amendments. Most will be designed by Republicans to upend the bill or at least force vulnerable Democrats facing reelection and party moderates into tough votes on issues like inflation, taxes and immigration.
Saturday’s vote capped a startling 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of Biden’s agenda that had seemed dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a package that would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.
The measure is a shadow of Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal, which funded a rainbow of progressive dreams including paid family leave, universal preschool, child care and bigger tax breaks for families with children. The current bill, barely over one-tenth that size, became much narrower as Democratic leaders sought to win the votes of the centrists Manchin and Sinema, yet it has unified a party eager to declare victory and show voters they are addressing their problems.
The bill offers spending and tax incentives favored by progressives for buying electric vehicles and making buildings more energy efficient. But in a bow to Manchin, whose state is a leading fossil fuel producer, there is also money to reduce coal plant carbon emissions and language requiring the government to open more federal land and waters to oil drilling.
Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought. A new provision would create a $35 monthly cap for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, for Medicare and private insurance patients starting next year. It seemed possible that language could be weakened or removed during debate.
Reflecting Democrats’ calls for tax equity, there would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations with annual profits exceeding $1 billion but that pay well below the 21% corporate tax. Companies buying back their own stock would be taxed 1% for those transactions, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.
While the bill’s final costs were still being determined, it would spend close to $400 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction over the coming decade — a blip compared to that period’s projected $16 trillion in budget shortfalls.
Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.
The parliamentarian decides whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
Ukrainians Face New Hurdle at U.S. Border: No Dogs
Natasha Hrytsenko, a lifelong resident of Ukraine, had always dreamed of having a fluffy white dog. When she started working, Ms. Hrytsenko, now 30, used her first two paychecks to buy a purebred mini Maltese puppy. She brought Eddie home to the Kyiv apartment that she shared with her older sister.
Eight years later, when war engulfed their country and they decided to flee, Ms. Hrytsenko recalls telling her sister: “I can leave behind my best clothes, my favorite bags and even my cellphone. But I will never leave Eddie behind.”
The pair made their way to Poland, then Germany, then Portugal, bound eventually for the United States, where they had friends in Virginia. The tiny dog journeyed with them, tucked under their arms or plopped on their laps.
The sisters made it as far as Tijuana, the Mexican city on California’s southern border, before they heard the news that stopped them short: Dogs from Ukraine were in most cases not being allowed into the United States. A number of people had already had to leave their pets behind in Mexico under federal health regulations.
“I would rather go back to Europe,” Ms. Hrytsenko told her sister.
Among the thousands of Ukrainians who have been lining up at the southern border since the Russian invasion, the past few weeks have been marked by a painful progression of loss: homes, loved ones, jobs, the quiet comfort of familiar neighborhoods. For those who had managed to carry a beloved pet along on their journey to an uncertain future, the barrier at the border has proved devastating.
“He is everything to us,” Ms. Hrytsenko’s sister, Ira, 31, said of the dog.
“The number of dogs here has been growing day by day,” said Victoria Pindrik, a volunteer with the Save Ukraine Relief Fund, which has been working with Ukrainian refugees who are attempting to enter the United States. “Dogs have been sent back to us.”
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prohibits except on an “extremely limited basis” any dogs from entering the United States if they have been in any one of roughly 50 countries, including Ukraine, that it classifies as “high risk” for rabies.
At the crowded border crossing in Tijuana, where a dedicated pedestrian lane has been opened to speedily process Ukrainian refugees, Customs and Border Protection agents initially allowed a number of pets into the country, volunteers working at the border said. But more recently, pets from Ukraine have not been allowed.
The Hrytsenko sisters had taken steps as soon as they left Ukraine to make sure their dog would be prepared for international travel.
Volunteer veterinarians gave Eddie his first rabies shot in Poland and his second in Germany, where veterinarians also inoculated him against parasites, implanted a microchip in his neck and provided him with paperwork and an international ID to ensure he could travel.
The sisters planned to travel to the United States through Mexico, a roundabout trip that thousands of refugees have attempted because of delays in setting up a legal pipeline for Ukrainians to enter the United States. Mexico does not require visas, so refugees have been able to fly to Mexico and apply for admission on humanitarian grounds at the U.S. land border.
The sisters boarded a flight from Lisbon to Mexico without a problem, their suitcases stuffed with cans of Newman’s Own organic chicken dog food. Eddie came along in a small portable carrier.
After they landed in Cancún last week, an animal inspector at the airport reviewed their paperwork and examined Eddie from head to toe. He handed over an official document with a stamp attesting to the dog’s good health. The sisters flew to Tijuana on Sunday.
There, they joined hundreds of Ukrainians waiting their turn to cross the border. In no time, Eddie was bounding gleefully across the mats that lined a large gym that had been transformed into a massive dormitory for refugees.
“We felt confident, trusting everything was fine,” Ira recalled. “Then, all of a sudden, we heard you can’t cross with your dog.”
After their trip of more than 6,000 miles, across four international borders, this barrier seemed the most formidable. They considered reversing their steps.
Ms. Pindrik, the American volunteer working with the refugees in Tijuana, said the process for gaining legal access to the United States under current procedures, which include a permit and possible quarantine, could take weeks.
“For many of these families that have been through trauma, it is important to keep their family together, including their pets that they spent so much energy, money and care to bring with them,” she said. “We understand the requirements the U.S. has in place and reasons for them, but it is impossible for the refugees to satisfy them.”
The C.D.C. said it had issued a number of permits for people arriving from Ukraine with their pets. “We are working with NGOs in Mexico and the U.S. along the border to ensure persons arriving from Ukraine with their dogs meet entry requirements before entering the U.S., or that they have a safe place to quarantine dogs if they arrive and do not meet C.D.C. entry requirements,” the agency said.
Among the Ukrainians who managed to cross the border with their pet before enforcement of the rabies ban appeared to have been stepped up was Anastasiia Derezenko, who crossed after spending a few nights in Tijuana with her husband and two children. They entered the United States with their mini Maltese, Luka, last week, she said, after visiting a Mexican veterinarian who gave them the necessary paperwork.
“When American immigration police took us, we had Luka in our arms. Everything was very, very OK,” Ms. Derezenko said from Portland, Ore., where her family is staying with friends. Luka, who is 6 months old, has become fast friends with their hosts’ pups.
“He came all the way from Brovary with us, and it was very difficult trip,” she said, referring to the Ukrainian city just east of Kyiv.
More recent arrivals, like the Hrytsenko sisters, have been warned to not even try to enter the United States with their pets.
For the sisters, it seemed an impossible barrier. Then they learned there was a temporary solution: Mexico is not on the C.D.C. rabies list, and Americans bringing dogs from that country are unlikely to face scrutiny at the U.S. border. In fact, Americans arriving with dogs from a low-risk or rabies-free country are not even required to present a rabies vaccination certificate or special permit.
Several days ago, American animal lovers began ferrying dogs belonging to Ukrainians across the border themselves. Several dozen Ukrainian pets, mainly dogs but also cats, have already made their way to California with American help. The Hrytsenko sisters began looking for someone who would agree to take Eddie.
Russia-Ukraine War: Key Developments
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A blow to Russian forces. The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet suffered catastrophic damage that forced the crew to abandon it. Russia said that a fire had caused the damage, though Ukraine claimed to have struck the vessel with missiles.
On Tuesday evening, they were informed that No. 3748, their designated number in line, should join a group at the border checkpoint, where the sisters would be escorted into California for processing by U.S. authorities.
At first, they were elated. Their monthslong odyssey was about to end.
Then they learned there was no American to take Eddie across until the following day.
“We broke into pieces,” Natasha said. “We did not want to leave Eddie overnight. We have never left him alone. He is really tied to us.”
They postponed their passage to the United States until the next morning after being assured that Eddie would be delivered to them shortly after.
On Wednesday, at about 10 a.m., they placed Eddie in his white-and-gray crate near the gym, where they were told he would be picked up.
The dog began gnawing on the slits and the door of the crate, recalled Natasha, who said that she was overcome with guilt. Both sisters began crying.
“You can’t explain to a dog that everything is going to be OK,” Natasha said.
After crossing into the United States, the pair joined another Kyiv native, Liuba Pavlenko, a fellow dog owner with whom the sisters had bonded in Tijuana. Ms. Pavlenko and her two children were waiting at a hotel in San Ysidro, near San Diego, for their Chihuahua, Maya, to be brought from Mexico.
“I’m sorry that Maya and Eddie had to be refugees and endure this journey,” Ira said when they met at the hotel.
The families grew anxious as the day wore on.
“I’m getting impatient,” Natasha said. It was after 3 p.m., more than five hours since they had left Eddie in the crate.
Then their phone rang with a live video from the border, showing Eddie being carried toward the port of entry into the United States. They peered at the screen, trying to determine how their dog was holding up.
“Oh my God, he has aged,” Natasha said.
“Look at him. He’s probably thirsty. He hasn’t eaten,” her sister said.
About 45 minutes later, both dogs were reunited with their owners, who smothered them with hugs and kisses.
Then it was bath time.
Natasha scrubbed Eddie clean in the tub with the special White on White shampoo that, along with the organic pet food, she had made sure to pack in her single suitcase.
Only then were they ready for the final leg of their journey — to Virginia, where their friends awaited.
What happens next for Ukrainian dog owners in Tijuana is unclear. Ms. Pindrik said a local shelter had agreed to start looking for a way to help pet owners. In the coming days, new immigration regulations are expected that will allow Ukrainians to fly directly to the United States, where they could face similar hurdles at airports until the C.D.C. updates its guidelines.
For the Hrytsenkos, the only thing that mattered was that Eddie had made it. They ordered an Uber and headed for the airport, five hours before their flight.
Ira said it was better to be early than run into problems they had no time to solve. “We don’t want to take any chances with Eddie not getting on the plane.”
Mark Abramson contributed reporting.
Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination clears last hurdle setting up final confirmation vote later Thursday
The nomination cleared a key hurdle earlier Thursday when the Senate took a procedural vote to limit debate and break a filibuster. Now, a final confirmation vote, which is expected to succeed, is set to take place as early as 1:45 p.m. ET and requires only a simple majority.
Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over the Senate during its historic vote to confirm Jackson, the vice president’s office said Thursday. Harris, who is the first Black woman to serve as vice president, will preside in her capacity as president of the Senate. Harris is not needed to cast a tie-breaking vote.
All 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus are unified behind the nomination and three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have announced support as well.
Jackson’s confirmation won’t change the ideological balance of the court. The court currently has six conservative justices and three liberal justices — and retiring Justice Stephen Breyer comes from the liberal camp. But the confirmation will still mark a significant historic milestone for the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
Ahead of the final vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the moment a “joyous, momentous, groundbreaking day.”
“The Senate will fulfill its constitutional duty to finally confirm this remarkable and groundbreaking jurist,” he said.
Schumer went on to say, “In the 233-year history of the Supreme Court, never, never has a Black woman held the title of Justice. Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first and I believe the first of more to come.”
The confirmation will represent a victory for Democrats, which they can tout as bipartisan, and a way for the President to deliver on a campaign promise at a time when the party is facing a number of challenges at home and abroad, including soaring inflation and the crisis in Ukraine.
Biden had said during his 2020 presidential campaign that he was committed to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court if elected.
“If I’m elected as President and have the opportunity to appoint someone to the courts, I’ll appoint the first Black woman to the court. It’s required that they have representation now — it’s long overdue,” Biden said in March 2020.
At one point during her Senate confirmation hearings, Jackson became visibly emotional and could be seen wiping away tears as Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is one of only three Black senators, talked about her path to the nomination and the obstacles she has had to overcome.
“My parents grew up in a time in this country in which Black children and white children were not allowed to go to school together,” Jackson told Booker after the senator asked what values her parents impressed upon her. “They taught me hard work. They taught me perseverance. They taught me that anything is possible in this great country.”
Confirmation process
Throughout the Senate vetting process, Senate Democrats have praised Jackson as an exceptionally qualified, trail-blazing nominee whose depth and breadth of experience, including as a federal public defender, would add a valuable and unique perspective to the bench.
Jackson was also a commissioner on the US Sentencing Commission and served on the federal district court in DC, as an appointee of former President Barack Obama, before Biden elevated her to the DC Circuit last year.
Confirmation hearings featured sharp and critical questioning from Republicans as many attempted to portray Jackson as weak on crime and, in a highly-charged line of attack, too lenient in sentencing child pornography cases. Jackson and Democrats forcefully pushed back on the accusations.
Jackson stressed her concern for public safety and the rule of law, as a judge and an American. And she argued that she approaches her work in an impartial way and that personal opinions do not play a role.
Republicans called for civility and respect during the confirmation hearings, arguing that Democrats did not extend that to Brett Kavanaugh during his vetting process before the Senate. Kavanaugh faced a sexual assault allegation, which he vehemently denied.
Democrats, however, argued that Republicans crossed a line by distorting Jackson’s record, particularly with respect to sentencing in child pornography-related cases.
A CNN review of the material in question shows that Jackson mostly followed common judicial sentencing practices in these kinds of cases.
Jackson wins GOP support
In announcing that they would support the nomination, Murkowski and Collins both expressed concern over what they described as the politicization of the Supreme Court confirmation process.
Murkowski said that she rejects “the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which, on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year” in her statement.
Collins said in her statement, “No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, anyone who has watched several of the last Supreme Court confirmation hearings would reach the conclusion that the process is broken.”
“It used to be common for Senators to give the President, regardless of political party, considerable deference in the choice of a nominee,” Collins said.
The Maine Republican said that approach “instilled confidence in the independence and the integrity of the judiciary and helped keep the Court above the political fray,” adding, “this is the approach that I plan to continue to use for Supreme Court nominations because it runs counter to the disturbing trend of politicizing the judicial nomination process.”
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Thursday.
CNN’s Maegan Vazquez and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
Oakland Ballpark Proposal Clears Key Hurdle
The A’s moved a step closer to securing a new ballpark in downtown Oakland on Wednesday when the six-member Oakland Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the certification of the Howard Terminal environmental impact review following conclusion of public comment (Casey Pratt of ABC7 reported the results of the vote). The decision, which could be put to a vote by the City Council as soon as next month, moves the $12 billion waterfront development project — which would include a roughly 34,000-seat ballpark on land currently owned by the Port of Oakland in the Jack London Square neighborhood — a step closer to fruition.
Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf celebrated the vote, calling the decision “a huge win for our entire region” that “puts Oakland one step closer to building a landmark waterfront ballpark district with the highest environmental standards.” Per reporting from Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle, opponents of the certification cited issues surrounding affordable housing (an increasingly prominent issue in a rapidly changing city), traffic congestion, air pollution, the project’s compatibility with seaport operations, and inadequate measures to deal with toxic substances known to be present on the site.
In addition to the new ballpark, the development plan for the 55-acre plot includes 3,000 housing units, a mid-sized performance venue, 270,000 square feet of retail space, 1.5 million square feet of office space, and up to 400 hotel rooms and 8,900 parking spaces. In accordance with city law, either 15% of the 3,000 housing units (450 in this case) must be designated as ’affordable’ (defined as housing that is “restricted to occupancy at an affordable rent or an affordable housing cost to moderate-income households, low- income households or very low-income households”) or the A’s will need to pay an impact fee to the city for the construction of affordable housing units elsewhere. Per a 2019 report from Sam Carp of SportsPro Media, stadium plans include a $123MM gondola system that would ferry fans between downtown Oakland and the waterfront.
Should the broader proposal move forward as planned, it would bring to an end one of the longest running stadium dramas in baseball history. The A’s have played in the multi-purpose Oakland Coliseum since moving to Oakland to from Kansas City in 1968, sharing the facilities with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders (who moved to Los Angeles in 1981, returned to Oakland in 1995, and left again for Las Vegas in 2020) for the majority of their tenure. Considered innovative and cost-efficient in the 1960s and ’70s, multi-sport ’cookie-cutter’ stadiums such as the Coliseum have fallen out of favor, and the A’s are the last major league team to play its home games in a facility designed for both baseball and football.
Though still sometimes celebrated for its relative affordability, a small but dedicated cadre of die-hard fans, and a baseball-first atmosphere that stands in stark contrast to the amusement-laden parks recently in vogue (season ticket-holder Jack Nicas memorably called it “baseball’s last dive bar” in a 2019 essay in the New York Times), the Coliseum has long been cited as one of baseball’s worst ballparks. In 1996, late Raiders’ owner Al Davis controversially secured $220MM in public funding from Oakland and Alameda County to build more than 10,000 additional seats in the upper deck. The structure — dubbed “Mount Davis” by A’s fans — blocked views of the nearby Oakland hills and made non-playoff sellouts all but impossible, detracting from the ballpark’s intimacy and leading to a 2006 decision to cover more than 20,000 seats in the upper deck with a tarpaulin.
In recent years, the stadium’s dilapidation has become more apparent. In June 2013, an overtaxed sewage system flooded both clubhouses with raw sewage, forcing the A’s and the visiting Mariners to share the Raiders’ locker room on a higher floor, and a September 2013 walk-off win against the Angels was marred by reports of an aberrant stench emanating from the clubhouse toilets into the dugouts as a result of overflowing toilets. In May 2019, a malfunctioning bank of lights led to a 98-minute delay in a game with the Reds, and two dead mice were reportedly found in stadium soda machine during a Raiders-Steelers game in December 2018. Former owner Lew Wolff also admitted that on at least one occasion, the Coliseum’s food service had to be halted as a result of sewage leaking into stadium kitchens.
Attempts by A’s ownership to secure a new ballpark date back to at least 2005, when Wolff made an initial proposal to build a new stadium on land near the Coliseum. Those plans fell through when the owners of the land chose not to sell, but new plans to build a park in nearby Fremont were announced in 2006. Following substantial opposition, Wolff changed tack in 2009, attempting to a secure a site in downtown San Jose. The Giants, the club’s Bay-area rivals, objected that San Jose fell within their exclusive territory, however, and in 2015 the Supreme Court declined to hear the A’s objection to Major League Baseball’s decision to honor the Giants’ objection. The A’s began (since aborted) talks to construct a new stadium at the Coliseum site in 2014 and briefly engaged in negotiations for a site near Oakland’s Laney College in 2017 before focusing its efforts on the Howard Terminal site in 2018.
Several obstacles remain to the waterfront project’s ultimate consummation, of course, but the commission’s vote does represent progress in one of two long-running stadium dramas (along with a similar situation in Tampa) cited by commissioner Rob Manfred as obstacles to potential expansion. Manfred had previously urged the A’s to explore relocation. Whether his public remarks on the matter were intended sincerely or as a means of exerting pressure on the city of Oakland, the A’s did explore the possibility of relocation to Las Vegas, even submitting a bid on the site of the Tropicana hotel and casino complex, per a report from CNBC’s Contessa Brewer. Should both cities’ issues be resolved, in addition to Las Vegas, frequently noted markets as possible expansion targets include Nashville, Montreal, Portland, Charlotte, and Vancouver, though the commissioner’s office won’t want to green-light any serious expansion talks until the league has confidence that owners won’t be better served by relocating a team unable to secure a new stadium.
Space telescope’s ‘golden eye’ opens, last major hurdle
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling.
The last portion of the 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror swung into place at flight controllers’ command, completing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope.
“I’m emotional about it. What an amazing milestone. We see that beautiful pattern out there in the sky now,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science missions chief.
More powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, the $10 billion Webb will scan the cosmos for light streaming from the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago. To accomplish this, NASA had to outfit Webb with the biggest and most sensitive mirror ever launched — its “golden eye,” as scientists call it.
Webb is so big that it had to be folded orgami-style to fit in the rocket that soared from South America two weeks ago. The riskiest operation occurred earlier in the week, when the tennis court-size sunshield unfurled, providing subzero shade for the mirror and infrared detectors.
Flight controllers in Baltimore began opening the primary mirror Friday, unfolding the left side like a drop-leaf table. The mood was even more upbeat Saturday, with peppy music filling the control room as the right side snapped into place. After applauding, the controllers immediately got back to work, latching everything down.
This mirror is made of beryllium, a lightweight yet sturdy and cold-resistant metal. Each of its 18 segments is coated with an ultra thin layer of gold, highly reflective of infrared light. The hexagonal, coffee table-size segments must be adjusted in the days and weeks ahead so they can focus as one on stars, galaxies and alien worlds that might hold atmospheric signs of life.
Webb should reach its destination 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away in another two weeks. If all continues to go well, science observations will begin this summer. Astronomers hope to peer back to within 100 million years of the universe-forming Big Bang, closer than Hubble has achieved.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Stephen Curry taking rightful spot as 3-point king; his next hurdle is joining LeBron among all-time greats
Tuesday night, or in the coming days, Stephen Curry will drain yet another 3-point shot in a career defined by them. This one — No. 2,974 — will make him statistically what he already is in fact: The greatest shooter in the game’s history.
There will be stories, highlights, praise, applause and the appropriate focus on this monumental accomplishment, and on Curry’s stunning, still-running career.
But in front of Steph and still within his grasp — stretching before him this season and likely in the seasons to come, past this singular achievement — is a chance to do more than passing Ray Allen for the NBA’s 3-point record. This opportunity is nothing less than a shot at solidifying himself as one of the five greatest players of all time.
Curry does not fit the mold of an all-timer, and that has always been both part of his appeal with fans and part of the at-times (if now mostly expired) soft criticism from his contemporaries. Five years ago, in the midst of his run of back-to-back MVPs, more than a few handlers of NBA stars would happily order another drink if you’d humor them on the supposed overrated-reality of Curry.
He’s smaller and less-explosive looking than Jordan, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, etc. But greatness isn’t measured in the skills that could make something so, or in pure athletic superiority.
Greatness is measured in what is so, and done, and won — and Curry, after this 3-point record falls, will lead the NBA’s best team. That rejuvenated Golden State Warriors squad, spurred on again by their star, could very well position Curry to tack on a third Most Valuable Player award and, more important in terms of legacy, a fourth NBA title.
Which, not for nothing, would give him just as many championships as LeBron James.
Sometimes one star’s greatness can be unfairly dimmed in the light of another all-time great. Think Tim Duncan aside Kobe Bryant for most of their careers. Think Isiah Thomas sandwiched between Larry Bird-Magic Johnson on one side and Michael Jordan on the other.
Steph is in a similar boat. He does not match LeBron James for sheer physicality, or a host of other on-court measurements of greatness. LeBron is, put simply, shockingly talented and accomplished in almost every way a basketball player can be. He could end his career as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader and as the game’s third- or fourth-best ever on the all-time assist list, to name a few.
But Steph has his own unique Mount Rushmore resume, one currently incomplete for a top five all-time player but certainly within reach. He’s the greatest shooter of all time, a fact soon to be burnished by the record he will almost certainly set Tuesday against the New York Knicks at the Garden. He, like Jordan, has defined a generation of the sport and called forth a next generation crafted in his image — imitators of not his skill but of how he’s changed the game. Steph’s greatness, while not as overpowering as LeBron’s or deep in its breadth, nonetheless synthesizes rare talent into championships while defining a long span of the game.
Steph, unlike LeBron, never left to find rings. There is no Miami Heat stop to learn to be a champion. There is no Los Angeles Lakers defection. There is just the Warriors. Even his recruitment of a star — Kevin Durant — was more about Steph’s ability to attract greatness and enhance it than, say, bolt for greener pastures or pull strings behind the scenes to bring in a player still under contract elsewhere.
That’s not a knock at LeBron. But it is a notch for Steph.
The Lakers seem much less likely this year, and in the years ahead, to win titles than the Warriors. The idea of Steph claiming a fourth title, and LeBron not winning another one, is certainly plausible.
And there’s this: How many players, exactly, has LeBron James turned into a Hall of Famer? Steph’s done it for two.
I’m not arguing Steph can pass LeBron on the all-time list. LeBron’s going to end his career no lower than No. 2, and much more likely as the sole GOAT. But it is to say Steph can cut down the distance between them in a way not enough see, nor acknowledge.
Today’s a pretty good day to take notice.
LeBron’s been on a quest for No. 1 all-time status since he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as “The Chosen One.” Steph’s own pursuit — as a possible top five all-time player — has not gotten the same attention, respect or acknowledgment.
All-time greats at the close of their careers can burnish — or make — their legacies. John Elway won two Super Bowls in his last two NFL seasons, saving the Broncos legend from being a lesser version of Dan Marino.
Peyton Manning’s second and final ring also came with the Broncos, a last run to glory more about defense than Manning’s actual play that year — but no less impactful for his all-time status.
Duncan’s 2015 title tied him with Kobe with five, linking them, for me, in a way we can’t yet rule out for Steph and LeBron. Phil Mickelson won the PGA at age 50 last year. Tiger Woods took the Masters in 2019 after more than a decade-long drought. Clayton Kershaw’s win with the Dodgers in last year’s World Series is similarly legacy changing, and comes nearer the end of his career than the beginning.
Point is: The measurements of greatness and the impact of a career can’t be properly understood until that career is truly over. Steph’s isn’t. LeBron was just named Western Conference Player Of The Week, but it’s his quiet rival who has the larger chance at more titles and MVPs.
And to do it post-Durant, in his 30s, after so many dismissed the once-dominant Warriors as a thing of the past? That’s its own incredible accomplishment, if Steph can indeed carry his team to that place again.
“We’re all witnesses to what Steph Curry has done in his career and the way that he’s changed the game,” LeBron told reporters last week. “He’s a once-in-a-lifetime basketball player.”
Yes, he is. And in the end, Curry’s career, while not exceeding the King’s, may come closer than few thought possible.
Magic-Bird.
Kobe-Duncan.
And maybe, when we look back years later, we’ll assign this time its own unexpected name: The LeBron-Curry era.
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Shiba Inu price eyes 30% upswing as SHIB bulls tackle one last hurdle
- Shiba Inu price appears to be preparing for a 30% ascent as it nears a crucial line of resistance.
- Slicing above $0.00003520 could see a compelling upside release for SHIB.
- However, Shiba Inu may be required to tackle multiple obstacles before the bullish target is reached.
Shiba Inu price has shown few clues as to directional intentions as it continues to be sealed within a downtrend within a descending parallel channel on a higher timeframe. However, SHIB could be preparing for a 30% ascent if the bulls manage to escape above a critical line of resistance above $0.00003520.
Shiba Inu price to overcome critical resistance
Shiba Inu price has formed a symmetrical triangle chart pattern on the 4-hour chart, suggesting that SHIB lacks decisiveness.
If the bulls manage to slice above the upper boundary of the governing technical pattern, which intersects with the 21 four-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) and 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level, Shiba Inu price could expect a big move to the upside.
The prevailing chart pattern suggests a 30% ascent for Shiba Inu price, targeting the upper boundary of the parallel channel. However, SHIB may meet another obstacle at the 50 four-hour SMA at $0.00003592, coinciding with the middle boundary of the parallel channel.
An additional headwind may emerge at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.00003878, which sits near the 100 four-hour SMA and the resistance line given by the Momentum Reversal Indicator (MRI).
SHIB/USDT 4-hour chart
Before Shiba Inu price could tag the bullish target, SHIB will face obstacles at the 50% retracement level at $0.00004166, then at the 200 four-hour SMA at $0.00004372, then at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.00004455.
However, if selling pressure increases, Shiba Inu price may resort to the lower boundary of the triangle as immediate support at $0.00003358. Additional lines of defense may appear at the December 6 low at $0.00003269, then at the December 4 low at $0.00002952.
