Tuesday, February 14,2023.💙 Annette’s News Roundup.
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First, a Valentine’s Day edition of the Roundup, kinda.
Candies, to sweeten your day.
How Chocolate and Valentine's Day Mated for Life.
Richard Cadbury began selling chocolates in heart-shaped boxes in 1861.
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There’s nothing chaste about chocolate. Movies, which capture our inner cravings in freeze-framed moments, have always understood this. From the earliest days of “talkies,” chocolate has been cast as the go-to symbol of seduction. Jean Harlow’s performance in the 1933 film Dinner at Eight forever linked chocolate to decadent indulgence. Draped in satin and sequins, she lounges in bed on a heart-shaped pillow, and—finishing touch—suggestively nibbles her way through a giant box of chocolates.
It turns out that chocolate really has a history as a love food. Passion for chocolate is rooted in Mesoamerican history. It was a highly-prized luxury item among Mayan and Aztec upper class elites, who were known to savor a drink that combined roasted cacao beans with cornmeal, vanilla, honey and chilies. Cacao beans were as valuable a commodity as gold, and were even used to pay taxes levied by Aztec rulers.
By the early 1600s, the vogue for chocolate had swept across Europe. In London, chocolate houses began to rival coffee houses as social gathering spots. One shop opened on Gracechurch Street in 1657 advertising chocolate as “a West Indian drink (which) cures and preserves the body of many diseases." In France, Madame de Sevigne wrote about enormous chocolate consumption throughout the court at Versailles in 1671; Louis IV drank it daily and Madame du Barry was said to use chocolate mixed with amber to stimulate her lovers. (Smithsonian Mag).
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What Do Candy Hearts Tell Us? Be Clever. Be Current. Be Mine.
Of the many siblings in the seasonal candy family, candy corn is the quirky breakout star. The jelly bean is the reliable one. The candy cane is perpetually cheerful.
But the conversation heart? It’s always been emotional and a bit needy.
The chalky little treats require annual tending. Months before each Valentine’s Day, candy companies begin pondering new messages and editing out the dated ones. (Looking at you, “On Fleek.”) The dozen or so fresh sayings must be both current and inoffensive, charming and clever. And they can’t overshadow classic expressions of romantic love, like “Kiss Me,” that were first inscribed in 1902 by the Boston company that had invented the Necco Wafer.
For 2023, the Spangler Candy Company — one of two manufacturers that dominate the conversation-heart market — has chosen an animal theme for its Sweethearts line. Phrases like “Big Dog,” “Love Birds” and “Purr Fect” are a nod to all the people who have acquired pets during the pandemic.
Last year, as the nation was still recovering, the company introduced 16 supportive slogans like “Youda Best,” “Fear Less” and “Good Job.” The idea, the company said, was to give people a lift.
Fans of more passionate slogans may not have been pleased, but Helen Fisher, a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute and the author of six books on love, sex and the brain, said the less amorous messages marked a cultural turning point.
The sayings on candy hearts are reviewed each year, with new ones added and dated ones removed. Bae is a nickname for a lover that some say stands for “before anyone else” and others say is an abbreviation for “baby.”
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“These candy hearts are yet another expression of this huge societal change since the pandemic,” she said. “It’s this theme of attachment. Much of the world is going to settle down, and along with that they’re looking not only for romantic love but also for deep, long-term attachment.” ( NY Times).
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Now back to the news, starting here. 👇
Joe is always busy.
Biden Removes the Top Capitol Facilities Official Amid Allegations of Wrongdoing.
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday fired J. Brett Blanton, the federal official responsible for the maintenance and operation of the Capitol complex, amid bipartisan calls for his resignation after an investigative report accusing him of misusing his position and revelations that he avoided the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Mr. Blanton, who was appointed in 2019 [by Donald Trump] as the architect of the Capitol, had been under scrutiny since last fall after a report by the inspector general of his office documented evidence supporting serious allegationsagainst him. Among the accusations were that he had misused government-issued vehicles, misled investigators and impersonated a police officer on multiple occasions.
But concerns among lawmakers in both parties intensified at a 90-minute hearing on Friday in which Mr. Blanton gave noncommittal and at times contradictory answers about his conduct, including his decision to stay away from the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. [Both Speaker McCarthy and Minority Leader McConnell.have indicated support for the President firing Mr. Blanton].
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On Saturday, 50,000 Israelis demonstrated against Netanyahu’s grab for power in Israel. President Biden sent 46 words in support of the protestors. Here is what happened. 👇
In 46 Words, Biden Sends a Clear Message to Israel.
I woke up on Saturday morning, read the news from Israel that at least 50,000 Israelis had just demonstrated once more against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its independence and put it instead under Netanyahu’s thumb — at a time when Netanyahu himself is facing corruption charges — and I asked myself a simple question: “What does President Biden think of this?”
Biden is as pro-Israel in his gut as any president I have ever covered. He has also had a long and mutually respectful relationship with Netanyahu. So I can tell you that whatever Biden has to say about Israel comes from a place of real concern. It’s a concern that the radical transformation of Israel’s judicial system that Netanyahu’s ultranationalist, ultrareligious coalition is trying to slam through the Knesset could seriously damage Israel’s democracy and therefore its close ties to America and democracies everywhere.
Here is the statement that Biden sent me on Saturday afternoon when I asked for comment:
“The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”
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What is going on in the skies?
Four flying objects in nine days: What’s going on? by Gabe Fleisher.
The U.S. has now shot four flying objects out of the sky in the past nine days, a mysterious pattern that remains largely unexplained. Here’s a quick primer on the four shootdowns:
Object No. 1 is the only one that U.S. officials have confidently identified, describing it as a Chinese spy balloon. China has confirmed its provenance but insists it was a civilian airship conducting meteorological research that blew off course. The balloon floated over Alaska and much of the continental U.S. before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. It was about the size of three school buses.
Object No. 2 was much smaller; officials say it was roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. It also flew much lower: at an altitude of about 40,000 feet, compared to the first balloon’s 60,000 feet. Few other details are known about this object, which was shot down Friday over the coast of northeastern Alaska. It was only disclosed by the White House in response to questions from reporters.
Object No. 3 was shot down on Saturday over Canada’s Yukon territory. The operation was completed by a U.S. aircraft, in coordination with the Canadian military. Again, no other details have been released about its origins, but officials have said it had a similar altitude and size as Object No. 2. Its shape was described by Canada as being “cylindrical in nature.”
Finally, Object No. 4 was first spotted on Saturday, leading to a brief closure of the airspace over Montana. The object — flying at about 20,000 feet — was then downed by the U.S. on Sunday while it floated over Lake Huron. A pair of Michigan lawmakers were the first to disclose the shootdown, which was then confirmed by the Defense Department.
The first three objects were shot down by F-22 Raptors; the most recent one was downed by an F-16. Majority Chuck Schumer has said that Objects No. 2 and 3 were also balloons, like the original, but the Pentagon has yet to go that far in describing them.
One explanation: It’s possible that the more recent shootdowns are happening simply because the U.S. is being more cautious. According to the New York Times, the first spy balloon led NORAD to adjust its radar system to increase its sensitivity.
“As a result, the number of objects it detected increased sharply,” the Times reported. One theory, then, is that the U.S. is simply seeing more unidentified objects because it’s started looking for them, and that the later objects weren’t as suspicious as the original Chinese spy balloon. “We basically opened the filters,” a U.S. official told the Washington Post.
One senior U.S. official told ABC News that Objects No. 2, 3, and 4 actually were meteorological balloons, not spy devices, but the government has not publicly said as much — and the “open filter” explanation remains just a theory. “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters Sunday when asked if the objects might have extraterrestrial origins, although officials have said the government does not believe that is the case.
China’s response: After U.S. officials said last week that the first object was part of a broader Chinese program that has sent spy balloons to 40+ countries, China claimed this morning that the U.S. does much the same thing.
“It is also common for U.S. balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters. “Since last year, U.S. high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities.”
Biden administration spokesperson John Kirby flatly denied China’s allegation in an interviewon MSNBC this morning. “Not true. Not doing it,” Kirby insisted. “Just absolutely not true.’
What’s next: The series of unidentified flying objects have sparked a furor on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers — many of whom have had constituents see the objects overhead — clamoring for more information.
Several members of Congress have criticized the Biden administration for its lack of transparency: the Chinese spy balloon was not acknowledged by the U.S. until it had already been seen by civilians, while the later objects were also reported by news outlets or lawmakers before being confirmed.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) told Fox News that Biden’s “lack of communication” has been “unacceptable,” calling on the president to offer an “immediate and full explanation.”
With many questions swirling around Washington — and the world — it’s possible that Biden or another high-level official will offer a more detailed explanation this week, filling in some of the holes. It’s also certain that there will be officials hauled before Congress for hearings, as lawmakers demand answers on the UFOs. (Wake up to Politics).
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On Thursday, a redacted Georgia Grand Jury Report will be released.
Releasing the introduction and conclusion of a special grand jury report could shed light on the extent to which Mr. Trump and others might face legal jeopardy in the case.
Georgia Judge Will Release Parts of Report on Trump Election Inquiry.
Fulton County, GA District Attorney Fani Willis will soon decide what, if any, charges she will bring to a regular grand jury.
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ATLANTA — A Georgia judge said on Monday that he would disclose parts of a grand jury report later this week that details an investigation into election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies, though he would keep the jury’s specific recommendations secret for now.
In making his ruling, the judge, Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, said the special grand jury raised concerns in its report “that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony.” But the eight-page ruling included few other revelations about the report, the contents of which have been carefully guarded, with the only physical copy in the possession of the district attorney’s office.
The ruling does, however, indicate that the special grand jury’s findings are serious. The report includes “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia,” Judge McBurney wrote.
For the last two years, prosecutors in Atlanta have been conducting a criminal investigation into whether Mr. Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which he narrowly lost to President Biden. Much of the inquiry — including interviewing dozens of witnesses — was conducted before the special grand jury, which under Georgia law had to issue a final report on its findings, which in this case includes charging recommendations. Special grand juries do not have the power to issue indictments.
It will be up to Fani T. Willis, the local district attorney, to decide what, if any, charges she will bring to a regular grand jury.
Judge McBurney said he would release portions of the report on Thursday. In addition to the part detailing the grand jury’s concerns about witnesses lying under oath, he will make public the report’s introduction and conclusion — sections that could give a general impression of the extent to which Mr. Trump and others might face legal jeopardy.
At a hearing last month, a coalition of news organizations asked the judge to make the report public, as the jurors had recommended. But Ms. Willis sought to keep the special grand jury’s findings secret, at least ahead of her charging decisions, saying during the hearing that she was “mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights.”
Judge McBurney said in his ruling that the nature of the special grand jury process allowed for only “very limited due process” for “those who might now be named as indictment-worthy in the final report.” Because of that, he said, the report’s charging recommendations “are for the District Attorney’s eyes only — for now.” (NY Times).
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Read this👇. It will make you sick. Sorry.
Why Florida’s Governor DeSantis is Not Wisconsin former Governor Scott Walker, according to the New York Times’ Nate Cohn.
Ron DeSantis Is Not Scott Walker.
What sets Mr. DeSantis apart from Mr. Walker? To be blunt: how many people already say they want him to be president.
Born of one mother? Walker is on the right.👆 DeSantis on the left.
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In this narrow but important respect, Mr. DeSantis has a lot more in common with Barack Obama or Ronald Reagan than Mr. Walker or the other promising first-time candidates who did not live up to high hopes in recent years, like Kamala Harris, Rick Perry or the retired general Wesley Clark.
Overall, Mr. DeSantis has 32 percent support in polls taken since the midterm elections. This is not a fleeting product of a wave of favorable media coverage. Instead, he has made steady gains in the polls over the last two years.
Mr. Walker, in contrast, had 7 percent in the early polls.
Looking back, it’s striking how rare it is for a first-time candidate to hold this level of support. Since 1976, only six candidates who hadn’t previously run for president or vice president have managed to consistently attract more than half of Mr. DeSantis’s support in the early polls: Mr. Obama, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 cycle; George W. Bush in 2000; Ted Kennedy in 1980; and Mr. Reagan in 1976.
Needless to say, this is an impressive group. It includes three future presidents, a Clinton who won the popular vote, a Kennedy who nearly defeated an incumbent president in the primary, and, well, a pro-choice Republican who nonetheless managed to hold an uninterrupted lead in the 2008 national polls until Iowa. (NY Times)
But hopefully things may not go right for Florida’s Governor.
1. The Gun Crazies may continue to embrace Trump.
DeSantis wanted to ban guns at event, but not to be blamed, emails show.
As Gov. Ron DeSantis prepared for an election night party in downtown Tampa last year, city officials received a surprising — and politically sensitive — request. The Republican governor’s campaign wanted weapons banned from his victory celebration at the city-run Tampa Convention Center, a city official said in emails obtained by The Washington Post. And the campaign suggested that the city take responsibility for the firearms ban, the official said — not the governor, who has been a vocal supporter of gun rights.
“DeSantis/his campaign will not tell their attendees they are not permitted to carry because of the political optics,” Chase Finch, the convention center’s safety and security manager, said in an Oct. 28 email to other city officials about the request, which was conveyed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), a state police agency led by a DeSantis appointee.
2. Parents and educators may fight back.
DeSantis hints at doing away with Advanced Placement courses in Florida.
Tens of thousands of Florida high school students take Advanced Placement courses every year to have a competitive edge heading into college.
Now, Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants to reevaluate the state’s relationship with the College Board, the private company that administers those courses and the SAT exam. And that has some high school students worried.
“I don’t see how I could have gotten ahead without them,” said Eli Rhoads, a senior at Pasco County’s Mitchell High School, who said AP courses helped him get a full scholarship to the University of Alabama. “You almost have to have these courses to stand out.”
DeSantis has not made clear exactly what he plans to change, but his remarks come after the College Board on Saturday accused his administration of playing politics when it rejected its new Advanced Placement African American studies course over allegations that it “lacks educational value.”
“This College Board, like, nobody elected them to anything,” DeSantis said at a news conference Monday in Naples. “They are just kind of there, and they provide a service, and so you can either utilize those services or not.”
RELATED: College Board accuses Florida of political motivations in AP course dispute
While DeSantis acknowledged the College Board’s long-standing presence in the state, he said “there are probably other vendors who may be able to do that job as good or maybe even a lot better.”
A College Board spokesperson said the organization had no comment on the governor’s statements.
The dispute between the College Board and DeSantis is indicative of the Republican governor’s take-no-prisoners brand of politics. The board joins Walt Disney World in the ranks of companies the governor has wrangled with for not adopting conservative stances on education matters.
“This is about the governor trying to cancel the companies he doesn’t like,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. “He’s screaming and complaining about ideology being pushed onto our schools, yet what he continues to do is push his ideology onto us.” (Tampa Bay Times).
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The move toward breaking the cycle of poverty or just lending a helping hand through guaranteed income advances, in Chicago.
$500 a Month, No Strings: Chicago Experiments With a Guaranteed Income.
CHICAGO — Christopher Ellington’s South Side photography studio crashed in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic. By March 2021, he was scraping by on a tax preparation and financial advice business when gunshots rang out one day as he was leaving work. Two bullets from a drive-by shooter pierced his head and left him permanently blind.
The creditors were closing in, the rent notices piling up. And then a helping hand came late last summer from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration: the first of a year’s worth of monthly $500 checks, with no strings attached and almost no questions asked.
“Talk about shock,” said Mr. Ellington, 32. “It was ‘Hey, the government is doing this? Wait a minute. I don’t have to, you know, report this and report that, and you don’t have to go through all of my business and I don’t have to watch what I say?’ I was like, ‘This is how it should be.’”
Chicago and the surrounding suburbs of Cook County are conducting the largest experiment of its kind in the nation, an effort to supply thousands of residents with a basic level of subsistence, not in the form of food, housing or child care — just cash. Ms. Lightfoot’s $31.5 million Resilient Communities Pilot selected 5,000 city residents in August to receive a guaranteed cash income for a year. The first $500 checks from a separate program, a $42 million county pilot, went out in December to 3,250 residents concentrated in the near-in Chicago suburbs.
Mr. Ellington remembered getting his application in at the last moment, as one of 176,000 Chicagoans who applied in just three weeks. He heard back that he had been accepted just days later. The first check arrived within weeks, and because the programs do not count against other relief efforts, like Social Security disability payments, that $500 a month is a true income boost.
“It completely transformed my view of the government, not only in Chicago but nationally,” he said. “It gave me an inkling of hope that things are happening.” (NY Times).
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Important Elections are coming up. Yes, all elections are important.
Remember, the next election in Wisconsin is is on Feb. 21. Let’s get out the vote. We can stop the bigots and the “ban the books” crowd.
GOP election tactics no surprise to Wisconsin's Black voters.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Recent revelations about Republican election strategies targeting minority communities in Wisconsin’s biggest city came as no surprise to many Black voters.
A Wisconsin election commissioner bragged about low turnout in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods during last year’s elections. Weeks later, an audio recording surfaced that showed then-President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin campaign team laughing behind closed doors about efforts to reach Black voters in 2020.
Many people who voted this past week in the state’s primary election said they had long felt targeted by Republicans. The difference now is the public display of strategies that at best ignore the priorities of Black voters and at worst actively look to keep them from voting.
“It’s a plan that they devised and carried out with quite a lot of precision,” said lifelong Milwaukee resident Dewayne Walls, 63. “It’s a repeatable pattern that’s going to continue to happen over and over as long as they have that plausible deniability and as long as they have the power in Madison” — the state capital.
Walls and other Black voters said they are tired of the countless hurdles that disproportionately try to keep them from being heard at the ballot box. Voters said their experiences with the GOP have been as voices to silence, not to win over.
Voting rights advocates for years have accused Wisconsin Republicans of pushing policies to suppress voters of color and lower-income voters. Many such policies centered on the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee, home to nearly 70% of Wisconsin’s Black population.
Those claims were reinforced by an email sent to about 1,700 people in December from Bob Spindell, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Election Commission. He said Republicans “can be especially proud” of depressed midterm voter turnout in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in Milwaukee, a heavily Democratic city.
The Associated Press then obtained an audio recording of a meeting in which the head of Trump’s 2020 Wisconsin campaign team talked with staff about their efforts to reach Black voters: “We ever talk to Black people before? I don’t think so,” the campaign official said to laughter. (Associated Press).
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Amid rising school censorship, school board elections’ stakes grow.
This year, 30,000 school board races will take place across the country, and while elections outside of midterms or general elections are seldom given attention, advocates say votes are more crucial than ever to protect student-centered policies.
First, Wisconsin’s spring primary elections will see two Milwaukee school board races on Feb. 21, with all three Elmbrook School Board candidates eager to ban books. Missouri and Pennsylvania will hold theirs in April and May, respectively.
In Arkansas, Republican lawmakers are attempting to make school board races explicitly partisan. SB 206, a new bill introduced this month and sponsored by state Sen. Clint Penzo (R-Springdale) and state Rep. Howard Beaty (R-Crossett) would require school board members to be elected through a “partisan election.” Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida by former school board members turned right-wing activists, supports conservative activists running for school board elections to battle mask mandates and ban books related to LGBTQIA+ and racial identity.
According to Ballotpedia, across 1,700 school board races in 2022, conservative candidates won 30% of the races. A New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll from last year also found that 70% of registered voters oppose instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary school.
While the state legislature and the board of education typically decide what’s included in the curriculum, school boards approve the budget and guide educators and their districts in how to implement education programs.
“If you have a school board that has culture warriors on it, it distracts from the business of learning,” said Guerra. “You’re bringing the culture wars that exist in Congress and in state legislatures across the country, and you’re bringing it down to the most grassroots local level, where the focus should be on education.” (PrismReports).
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When will this foolish and immoral gender discrimination stop?
Canadian women's national soccer team to resume training, play US as scheduled after strike over pay inequity.
The Canadian women's national soccer team went on a short-lived strike due to a lack of financial support just months before the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
On Friday, the players on the women's national team released a statement outlining their concerns. In their message, the players cite a major disparity between the resources the men received prior to the 2022 World Cup and what they have been given.
"We have been patiently negotiating with Canada Soccer for over a year," the players said in a statement. "Now that our World Cup is approaching, the Women's National Team players are being told to prepare at a world-class level without the same level of support that was received by the Men's National Team in 2022, and with significant cuts to our program - to simply make due with less.
"This is an unacceptable burden to put on the shoulders of our players, especially in the most crucial cycle for our team. We are left feeling frustrated and, once again, deeply disrespected by Canada Soccer." (CBSSports).
An update from the Canadian Soccer Players Association pic.twitter.com/hysGyanG5q
— CanadianSoccerPlayers (@PlayersCanadian) February 12, 2023
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Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin has cancer. Speaker McCarthy tried to remove him from the House Oversight Committee for wearing a bandana. McCarthy failed.
This happened. 👇 Doesn’t Raskin look happy? Hope it makes you smile.
Musician Steven Van Zandt gives bandana to Congressman Jamie Raskin.
When congressman Jamie Raskin began wearing bandanas while enduring cancer treatments, he credited E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, and his signature scarves, for his new look. Van Zandt has now taken Raskin's fashion options a step further and gifted the Maryland Democrat a bandana.
"You are about to see a step up in my chemo head-cover fashions for the next few months," Raskin tweeted, alongside a photo of him donning his new bandana. (NPR).
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Look what I received from one of the greatest musicians on earth, a gift I will treasure almost as much as his song “I am a patriot.” You are about to see a step up in my chemo head-cover fashions for the next few months. Rock on Stevie, keep spreading the light. pic.twitter.com/xnhFe8Gqk4
— Jamie Raskin (@jamie_raskin) February 11, 2023
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Looking for an uplifting activity? 6 pm Friday, Feb. 16… Jackie Kennedy’s Famous Tour of the White House. Shh. Whisper the news.
Below is the zoom link.👇
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_S6Nou4S7S5qHExZmYfahA
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