January 13, 2024

Saturday, January 13,2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

The President helps our young people have better futures.

Biden cancels student loans for more borrowers.

The Biden administration is making good on its promise to cancel more student loan debt.

Driving the news: Starting next month, borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan who took out less than $12,000 in loans and have been in repayment for 10 years will get their remaining student debt cancelled, the administration announced Friday.

• The SAVE plan provisions come nearly six months ahead of schedule, per the White House, and are intended to help community college and low-income borrowers.

• The Department of Education did not immediately respond to Axios about how many people will have their debt cancelled through the initiative or what the dollar amount of debt cancelled will be.

The big picture: Although the Supreme Court blocked President Biden's major student loan forgiveness plan last year, his administration found workarounds to cancel some $132 billion in loans for more than 3.6 million student borrowers.

What they're saying: The move is a "part of our ongoing efforts to act as quickly as possible to give more borrowers breathing room so they can get out from under the burden of student loan debt, move on with their lives and pursue their dreams," Biden said in a statement.

• He encouraged all borrowers who may be eligible for early debt cancellation to sign up for the SAVE plan at studentaid.gov.

By the numbers: 6.9 million people have already enrolled in the plan, and 3.9 million have a $0 monthly payment. (Axios)

Biden Administration to Fine Oil and Gas Companies for Excess Methane.

A plan to impose a fee of $900 to $1,500 on every excess ton of methane emissions would be the first federal price on greenhouse gas pollution.

The Biden administration announced new moves on Friday to curb the release from oil and gas facilities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is responsible for more than a quarter of the warming the planet is currently experiencing.

Under the new plan, oil and gas companies would be required for the first time to pay a fee for emitting methane. The resulting penalties could total millions of dollars for the companies.

Methane is the second-most-abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but is 80 times as powerful in the short run in terms of heating the atmosphere.

The proposed fees come as American gas and oil production have reached record levels.

Methane wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities. Some producers burn excess gas at the production site, a process known as flaring, which releases carbon dioxide and also, sometimes, methane.

The Biden administration announced new moves on Friday to curb the release from oil and gas facilities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is responsible for more than a quarter of the warming the planet is currently experiencing.

Under the new plan, oil and gas companies would be required for the first time to pay a fee for emitting methane. The resulting penalties could total millions of dollars for the companies.

Methane is the second-most-abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but is 80 times as powerful in the short run in terms of heating the atmosphere.

The proposed fees come as American gas and oil production have reached record levels.

Methane wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities. Some producers burn excess gas at the production site, a process known as flaring, which releases carbon dioxide and also, sometimes, methane.

To try to curb those emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to charge large energy producers $900 for every ton of methane emissions that exceed levels set by the federal government, beginning this year. The fee would increase to $1,200 in 2025 and plateau in 2026 at $1,500 per ton.

The fee is the second part of new methane restrictions the Biden administration is imposing on the oil and gas industry. Last month, the E.P.A. announced it would require companies for the first time to detect and fix leaks of methane from wells, pipelines and storage facilities and that it would mostly ban the practice of flaring, except in emergencies. Congress also has authorized more than $1 billion in grants and other spending to help companies and communities improve methane monitoring and data collection, and to find and repair leaks.

The proposed fee was approved by Congress as part of a landmark climate law President Biden signed in 2022. When finalized, it will be the first fee or tax on greenhouse gas emissions imposed by the federal government.

While fossil fuel groups have largely accepted requirements aimed at detecting and stopping methane leaks, they plan to fight the monetary penalties, saying that they would raise energy costs for consumers.

Dustin Meyer, senior vice president for policy at the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said in a statement on Friday that the group supported “smart” methane regulations but said the fee “creates an incoherent, confusing regulatory regime that will only stifle innovation and undermine our ability to meet rising energy demand.”

Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the E.P.A., called the fee part of a “comprehensive strategy to reduce wasteful methane emissions that endanger communities and fuel the climate crisis. In a statement, he noted that while the government was imposing a fee, it also was allocating “historic resources” from the climate law to help companies comply with new rules.

But the new proposal relies on large energy producers to self-report if their methane emissions exceeds levels set by Congress, with no provision for the government to verify that data. (New York Times).

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What the new Presidential polls show.

The polls are probably too early to take too seriously but the numbers are turning in Joe’s favor.

This makes the third swing state poll this week to show the President leading Trump:

MICHIGAN (Target Insyght)

Biden: 45%

Trump: 41%

PENNSYLVANIA (Quinnipiac)

Biden: 49%

Trump: 46%

NEW HAMPSHIRE (Suffolk)

Biden: 42%

Trump: 34%

One more thing.

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Fighting for women’s support for Biden.

Abortion rights are part of the story.

Democratic group plans $140 million voter testimonial onslaught against Donald Trump.

Democrats began the search last summer, fanning out through the northern swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to find the nurses, electricians, farmers and floor installers who could best testify to the danger of Donald Trump returning to power.

The previously unreported project by the outside group American Bridge 21st Century developed 732 leads, conducted 472 interviews and then filmed about 50 voters who will anchor a $140 million ad campaign starting this spring, aimed at reminding women and working-class voters why they voted against Trump in 2020, according to the group’s leaders.

“The hardest part about using the most powerful messengers in politics, which are real people from these communities, is finding them,” said Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge.

The planned ad campaign will expand upon a smaller effort American Bridge launched in 2020 to turn working-class voters in the same states against Trump. This time, with the tacit support of the White House and President Biden’s team, the focus will narrow somewhat to working-class female voters in those states, with the possibility of expanding into North Carolina later, Beychok said.

The ads will focus Trump’s role in curtailing abortion access, his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Republican plans for entitlement reform and Biden’s plans for the economy. Early spots include testimonials from a female union electrician in Wisconsin and a Pennsylvania woman who talks emotionally about what it meant to hang her U.S. flag outside her home on the day after the Jan. 6 attack.

“Our goal is to be the best in class at finding real people to say why they want to elect Joe Biden and why they want to prevent Trump from winning another term,” Beychok said. “The secret sauce is abortion and freedom plus democracy has been greater than all the Republican lunacy we have seen.”

American Bridge will coordinate its efforts with Future Forward USA Action, another super PAC blessed by Biden aides that plans to be the main pro-Biden advertising vehicle over the coming year. Future Forward has already spent $19.8 million on ads, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, in an effort to magnify the impact of about $29 million in ads that Biden and the Democratic National Committee have placed since the start of his campaign.

American Bridge, a group founded in 2010 as an offshoot of the watchdog effort Media Matters for America, has grown from its roots as an opposition research operation aimed at serving the entire Democratic universe. The group spent $48 million on tracked ads in the northern three presidential swing states during the 2020 cycle, mostly using testimonials from working-class voters, according to AdImpact. American Bridge officials said the total cost of that program was $65 million.

White House senior adviser Anita Dunn, acting in her personal capacity, attended a fundraising retreat for American Bridge after the 2022 midterms in a show of support for the group’s efforts.

“American Bridge was a great strategic partner in 2020, and I’m glad they are on board again in 2024,” said Dunn, who worked as a senior adviser to the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020.

The group learned during the 2020 effort that more time was needed to find the voters used in those ads, prompting the early start of the expanded effort this year.

With two staffers in each of the states, American Bridge started in the summer, searching social media and reaching out to partner organizations in local communities to find people who might have stories to tell about how Biden’s policies had helped them or how Trump’s actions had hurt them, said a person familiar with the operation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

American Bridge’s total budget is expected to reach $200 million this election cycle, according to people familiar with the plans. It includes a targeted research effort aimed at potential third-party challengers to Biden, like attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., academic Cornel West, Green Party contender Jill Stein and a candidate potentially backed by No Labels. All are in the process of seeking ballot access so they can mount a viable electoral college challenge to the Republican and Democratic nominees.

But the bulk of the effort will be spent on Great Lake states that Democrats have come to call their northern blue wall. Barring a change in political dynamics, Democrats believe they can secure an electoral college victory against Trump by winning those states, even if they lose the other swing states of Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

“We’re leaving no stone unturned and making sure that voters — especially women voters — in these key states know just how much is at stake in November,” American Bridge co-chair Cecile Richards in a statement. (Washington Post).

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Adam Kinzinger tells it as it should be.

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Another Trump legal loss as we wait more to come.

Trump ordered to pay New York Times $392,638 in legal fees for failed lawsuit.

New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay The New York Times $392,638 in legal fees Friday following the former president's failed lawsuit against the newspaper.

In 2021, Trump sued his niece Mary Trump, The New York Times and three of its reporters over an alleged breach of a confidentiality agreement related to his tax records. Trump alleged that the reporters were "motivated by a personal vendetta" when they engaged in a "insidious plot" to get his personal tax records.

New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed dismissed the case last year, clearing the way for the Times to recoup its fees.

"Courts have long recognized that reporters are entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear of tort liability -- as these actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity," Reed wrote.

Trump opposed the amount of money requested by the New York Times, arguing that the legal work included "unjustified or duplicative work and exorbitant hourly rates."

"Considering the complexity of the issues presented in this action, the number of causes of action, the experience, ability and reputation of defendants' attorneys, the considerable amount in dispute, and the attorneys' success in dismissing the complaint against their defendants … the court finds that $392,638.69 is a reasonable value for the legal services rendered," Reed said in a decision posted on the court's docket Friday. (ABC News).

This happened too.

Bally’s removed the Trump name from the New York Ferry Point Golf Course in a New York Minute.

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One photo (then another) to make our days a little brighter.

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Barbie continues to evolve.

Barbie Launches Women in Film Collection.

Barbie is set to direct her first feature film.

No doubt inspired by Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” blockbuster this past summer, Mattel has announced that their annual “Career of the Year” collection this year will feature a slate of film vocations such as a film director, studio executive, cinematographer and, of course, movie star.

Barbie’s newest “Career of the Year Women in Film” collection will become available on the Mattel Shop website, Target and Walmart starting Jan. 10, with each doll donning an outfit and accessories themed to their profession. The Studio Executive Barbie is equipped with yellow sunglasses and a smartphone, while Cinematographer Barbie sports a purple “Chase Dreams” t-shirt and carries a clipboard.

The four new Barbies join the more than 250 career dolls that have released since the brand’s “Career of the Year” franchise dropped in 2010. Since then, the historic dolls have gotten their feet wet in dozens of industries such as medicine, science, journalism and computer science.

In 2023, Barbie introduced the Women in Sports doll, featuring a General Manager, Coach, Referee, and Sports Reporter. In 2022, Barbie introduced the Eco-Leadership Team as the Career of The Year, including a Chief Sustainability Officer, Conservation Scientist, Renewable Energy Engineer and Environmental Advocate.

In addition to their “Career of the Year” dolls, Mattel has also released dozens of top-selling Barbies inspired by real-life icons. Most recently, the Stevie Nicks Barbie sold out within minutes, and is now reselling for hundreds of dollars on resale sites such as Ebay. (Variety).

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