February 26, 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

The final photos as the President left Ukraine.

Biden orders weekend door-to-door checks in East Palestine, Ohio after train derailment.

President Biden issued an order Friday directing federal agencies to check-in with residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailment earlier this month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency will go door-to-door, visiting homes to see how families are doing and connect them any resources they may need.

After hurricanes and other natural disasters, similar “walk teams” perform the same duties. Biden didn’t specifically say how many homes need to be visited, but he said he told employees to visit as many homes as possible by Monday. (The Hill).

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Another lawsuit about Mifepristone, the pill 💊 used for medication abortion. This one is to make the pill more accessible.

Democratic state attorneys general sue Biden administration over abortion pill rules.

A coalition of state attorneys general is suing the Food and Drug Administration, accusing the agency of excessively regulating the abortion pill mifepristone.

It accuses the FDA "singling out mifepristone...for a unique set of restrictions," and asks the court to declare the drug to be safe and effective, and invalidate the additional regulation, known as a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy or REMS. (NPR).

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The Republican Party Divide on Ukraine continues to grow.

Mitch McConnell tells U.S. to ‘wake up’ to threat of Russia on Ukraine war anniversary.

President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistömet with US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Senators John Barrasso, Susan Collins and John Cornyn on Monday, 16 May 2022 in Helsinki. The President and the Senators discussed Finland’s security solutions, US support for Finland’s NATO membership and Russia’s warfare in Ukraine.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday urged the United States and its allies to renew their resolve to help Ukraine as it stands up to Russian “thuggery,” tacitly pushing back against members of his own party who have become loudly skeptical of Ukraine’s fight as the conflict passes the one-year mark.


“America and our friends need to finish waking up from our holiday from history, welcome Finland and Sweden into NATO by this summer, and make significant investments in military modernization and our defense-industrial capacities that are commensurate with the major challenges we face,” McConnell said in a statement, shortly before appearing alongside President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki to support Finland’s bid to join NATO.


The message marked a stark contrast to the one pushed by former president Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans, who criticized President Biden’s trip to Kyiv earlier this week and have called for ending or slowing aid to Ukraine.

In a tweet, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), a hard-right ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and one of dozens of House Republicans to vote against Ukraine aid in May, called Biden’s trip “insulting” and proof that he “chose Ukraine over America.”



But nearly 50 U.S. lawmakers, including McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), traveled to the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week to reassure European allies that Congress, which is split between a GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, will continue to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with weapons and funds.


The longtime Republican leader argued forcefully Friday that giving money to Ukraine “is not an act of charity” on America’s part, while also urging European countries to spend more of their own funds toward the effort.


“If Putin were given a green light to destabilize Europe, invading and killing at will, the long-term cost to the United States in both dollars and security risks would be astronomically higher than the minuscule fraction of our GDP that we have invested in Ukraine’s defense thus far,” McConnell said in the statement. (Washington Post).

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More (and familiar) Republican Racism rears its ugly head.

Republican Congressman on Fox questions Rep. Chu's 'loyalty,' drawing criticism.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and other House Democrats have fired back after a Republican congressman questioned her loyalty to the U.S. using what they say is anti-Asian rhetoric.

On Wednesday, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) appeared on a Fox News show to discuss President Biden’s appointment of Dominic Ng to lead the country’s trade interest in Asia. House Republicans, including Gooden, have written to the FBI with claims that Ng should be investigated for potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Chu, along with other House Democrats, defended Ng’s appointment and expressed outrage at their colleagues’ attempts to undermine it based on the allegations of right-wing outlets “with extensive histories of spreading misinformation.” The conservative news outlet the Daily Caller published a story that alleged Ng had ties to Chinese intelligence groups and might have violated the Espionage Act. The outlet published similar claims about Chu. (Los Angeles Times).

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Congressional Insurrectionist loses court case.

Judge rejected Perry’s bid to shield thousands of emails from Jan. 6 investigators.

The chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., secretly rejected Rep. Scott Perry’s bid to shield more than 2,000 messages relevant to Justice Department investigators probing efforts by Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 election, according to newly unsealed court filings.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell unsealed her extraordinary Dec. 28 decision on Friday evening, determining that the “powerful public interest” in seeing the previously secret opinion outweighed the need for continued secrecy.

Perry, a Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, had urged Howell to block the Justice Department from accessing 2,219 documents stored on his phone, which was seized and imaged by the FBI last August as part of the 2020 election investigation. (Politico).

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It snowed in Minnesota but other things happened too.

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The Chicago Mayoralty Election is happening on Tuesday.

Incumbent Lori Lightfoot is running against 8 challengers.

Remind all Chicago friends and colleagues to vote.

Chicago mayor's race dominated by concerns about city crime.

CHICAGO (AP) — For years, Republicans have sought to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centers of violence that need tough-on-crime policies. In Chicago, some of the Democrats running for mayor are deploying the same strategy as they debate how to make the city safer.

Even incumbent Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as Chicago mayor, has used language right out of the GOP playbook, saying a top rival in her reelection bid wants to defund the police.

Chicago has a higher per-capita homicide rate than New York or Los Angeles, but it’s lower than other Midwestern cities, such as St. Louis and Detroit. Still, the number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021 with 797, according to the Chicago Police Department.

That number decreased last year but is still higher than when Lightfoot took office in 2019. Other crimes, such as carjackings and robberies, have increased in recent years.

Nine candidates are running in Tuesday’s officially nonpartisan mayoral election. With no candidate expected to get over 50% of the vote, an April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters is likely. (Associated Press).

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Russia has been stealing Ukrainian children.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine Sovereignty and Russian Accountability on Friday.

“Over the last year,” Blinken said, “Russia has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children; uprooted more than 13 million people from their homes; destroyed more than half of the country’s energy grid; bombed more than 700 hospitals, 2,600 schools; and abducted at least 6,000 Ukrainian children—some as young as four months old—and relocated them to Russia.” (Source. Heather Cox Richardson. Letters from an American.)

Click here for the Report from the Yale School of Public Health.

These 2 photos 👇 were posted on Twitter by Oleksandr Mykhead, Member Ukraine PEN.

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“Dilbert” cartoons by Trump supporter and cartoonist, Scott Adams, dropped from additional newspapers across America.

‘Dilbert’ dropped by The Post, other papers, after cartoonist’s racist rant.



Newspapers across the United States have pulled Scott Adams’s long-running “Dilbert” comic strip after the cartoonist called Black Americans a “hate group” and said White people should “get the hell away from” them.

The Washington Post, the USA Today network of hundreds of newspapers, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Los Angeles Times and other publications announced they would stop publishing “Dilbert” after Adams’s racist rant on YouTube on Wednesday. Asked on Saturday how many newspapers still carried the strip — a workplace satire he created in 1989 — Adams told The Post: “By Monday, around zero.”

“This is not a difficult decision,” wrote Chris Quinn [editor and publisher of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer]. “No, this is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve. We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support. Adams’ reprehensible statements come during Black History Month, when The Plain Dealer has been publishing stories about the work being performed by so many to overcome the damage done by racist decisions and policy.”

“Until we decide what to replace Dilbert with, you’ll likely see a gray box where it has been appearing,” wrote Quinn, noting that because comics are scheduled in advance, the strip may appear for a few more editions.

Adams, a former supporter of former President Donald Trump, has become notorious for pushing far-right conspiracy theories, including COVID medical misinformation and a proclamation that the Biden administration would hunt down and kill Republicans en masse.

He has already been dropped by 77 papers affiliated with Lee Enterprises, [last September ]noted Quinn, “after Adams introduced his first Black character, apparently to poke fun at “woke” culture and the LGBTQ community.” (Washington Post)..

Touch 👇 the tweet below to watch Scott Adams’ racist rant. Charming.

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The NAACP Image Awards happened last night.

The 54th NAACP Image Awards took place on Saturday night, with Queen Latifah hosting the telecast from Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Nominees throughout the categories include Angela Bassett, Will Smith, Jonathan Majors, Mary J. Blige, Quinta Brunson, Viola Davis, Zendaya, Danielle Deadwyler, Letitia Wright and Sterling K. Brown and many more.

Smith won outstanding actor in a motion picture for his performance in the slavery epic “Emancipation,” his first award since Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022. Smith did not attend the ceremony, so presenter Janelle Monáe accepted on his behalf.

Latifah opened the show with a robust tribute to Black women, shouting out several luminaries in the audience, including Serena Williams (who received the Jackie Robinson Sports Award), Bassett, and Davis — who Latifah celebrated for being a newly minted EGOT.

Later in the telecast, Latifah welcomed Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was detained for 294 days in Russia, to the stage for a brief appearance with her wife, Cherelle Griner.

“I want to thank everyone,” Griner said. “Let’s fight to bring home every American detained oversees.”

“Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson accepted the award for outstanding comedy series, one of six Image Awards earned by the ABC series. “We’re happy that we get to make this show that is accessible to everyone but for and by us,” Brunson said.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson received the Chairman’s Award for his work chairing the Jan. 6 Committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building in 2021, and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump accepted the Social Justice Impact Award. Crump received a roaring standing ovation during his acceptance speech when he delivered a passionate defense of the teaching of Black American history in public schools.

“Black history is American history and all of our children must know that their culture contributed to the progress and history of the United States of America,” Crump said. “We have to be prepared to fight for our children’s future until hell freezes over, and then we have to be ready to fight on the ice.”

Prior to the telecast, the organization held virtual ceremonies honoring music, podcasts, literary work, reality programming, television and motion pictures. NAACP virtual winners include “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” for outstanding ensemble cast in a motion picture; Quinta Brunson and “Abbott Elementary” for breakthrough creative (television); Viola Davis’ “Finding Me” for literary work (non-fiction); Stacey Abrams and Kitt Thomas’ “Stacey’s Remarkable Books” for literary work (children); Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” for album; Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” for music video; Jennifer Hudson’s “The Jennifer Hudson Show” for host in a talk or news/information, series or special (individual or ensemble) and “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” for variety or game show (series or special). (Variety).

See the full winners list here.

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Music to end the Roundup.

Nathalie Stutzmann, who conducted the New York Philharmonic on Wednesday night (shown in the photo), in the video below 👇conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The Atlanta Symphony and Chorus perform the Ukrainian national anthem- “Our prayer to end the conflict.” Touch 👇 to watch. Enjoy.