September 27, 2023

Wednesday,September 27,2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Biden joins picket line in UAW strike, a likely historic first for a sitting president.

President Biden joined striking autoworkers in Detroit on Tuesday, marking what appeared to be the first time a sitting president has ever visited a picket line.

Why it matters: The pro-union Democrat's appearance showed solidarity with thousands of autoworkers who have been leading an unprecedented strike of the Detroit Three automakers.

Driving the news: Biden spoke briefly before picketing workers, flanked by UAW President Shawn Fain, who called it "a historic moment."

• "You guys, the UAW, you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before," Biden said on Tuesday. "Made a lot of sacrifices, gave up a lot."

• "And the companies were in trouble, but now they're doing incredibly well. And guess what, you should be doing incredibly well, too."

Biden told workers they deserve more pay than they are receiving, along with other benefits being advocated for by union negotiators.

• "Wall Street didn't build the country," Biden said. "The middle class built the country."

• Biden visited with workers for about 15 minutes after the speeches, the New York Times reported, until his motorcade returned to Air Force One.

Between the lines: Biden has expressed full support for the United Auto Workers, as he vies for political support from unionized labor.

• After landing in Detroit, the president was asked about the UAW's endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, according to a White House pool report. He said he wasn't worried.

• In May, the union's president said the organization was not endorsing Biden yet, citing the growth of electric vehicles as a risk for the industry.

Meanwhile, former President Trump plans to speak Wednesday in Michigan to current and former union members.

• However, Fain told CNN on Tuesday evening that he would not meet with Trump, whom he accused of serving "the billionaire class" and not caring about UAW workers.

Of note: Biden picketed with workers near General Motors' parts center on the Willow Run site — a property that's a shell of its former self, having previously housed a 5 million-square-foot plant that built transmissions for GM vehicles.

• The transmission factory was shuttered in 2010 in the wake of GM's bankruptcy and later razed, leaving the parts distribution facility as a much smaller surviving operation.

• The old Willow Run factory was widely considered the heartbeat of the Arsenal of Democracy — the manufacturing powerhouse that built planes and weapons for the Allies during World War II — after Henry Ford built it to make B-24 bombers.

• GM acquired the facility years later and had some 14,000 workers there at its height in the 1970s.

Catch up quick: Thousands of auto workers are striking at 38 plants and distribution centers across 20 states, under the leadership of UAW president Shawn Fain, who invited Biden to their picket line.

• The automakers must "come to their senses," Fain has said, and pay workers what they deserve, calling for a 36% wage increase, a return to traditional pensions, retiree health care and a 32-hour workweek.

• The Detroit Three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — have lost production of more than 16,000 vehicles, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis cited by the AP. (Axios).

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The nation is on the verge of a Childcare Cliff.

From Emma Hinchcliffe. Broadsheet. Forbes.

Off the cliff. On Saturday, the United States’ childcare system is set to fall off a cliff. Pandemic subsidies for child care providers expire on Sept. 30, threatening care for 3.2 million children nationwide.

The Child Care Stabilization Program was part of the American Rescue Act of 2021, providing $24 billion for child care providers to pay their rent, pay their workers, and offer higher wages and bonuses in a tight labor market. About 200,000 childcare providers have depended on those funds.

But 70,000 childcare centers are likely to close with the expiration of this funding, according to a report by the Century Foundation. It won’t be sudden, but instead will be a “slow-rolling crisis” as programs balance budgets and realize where this funding gap leaves them, says Whitney Pesek, director of federal child care policy for the National Women’s Law Center.

The economics of private-sector childcare have never fully made sense; care is unmanageably expensive for families, and yet childcare workers are paid low wages. “It hasn’t really rebounded in the way a lot of other low-wage sectors have,” explains Pesek. “It will only get worse with this funding going away.”

Child care providers that run on “razor-thin margins” will likely raise rates for families. For the workforce that provides care—mostly women and especially women of color—higher wages and bonuses will likely disappear. Families in rural areas and families of color will be the most impacted by closures and rate increases.

The narrative that “the pandemic is over” is contributing to this funding being allowed to expire, says Pesek—even though the affordable childcare crisis existed before the pandemic and is far from fixed today.

While the ultimate solution is universal childcare—a long-term political battle—there are some other options in the near term. Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would extend this funding, but it has yet to gain bipartisan support. Without such legislation on its own, activists and lobbyists are aiming to attach child care funding to an omnibus bill—like 2024’s appropriations bill—before the end of the year.
Emma Hinchliffe

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SmIyIVaqWOk&pp=ygUPQ2hpbGRjYXJlIGNsaWZ

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Democrats hold their own accountable.

Senate Democrats to Bob Menendez: Resign.

A growing number of Senate Democrats are calling for New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez to resign from Congress after he was federally indicted in a corruption scheme.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who serves alongside Menendez in representing New Jersey, joined the chorus of calls on Tuesday.

"The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core," Booker said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgement that holding public office demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost."

It is a major step for Booker, who works closely with Menendez, to call for his fellow senator to resign. His announcement is part of a flood of statements from Democrats.

"While he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, serving in public office is a privilege that demands a higher standard of conduct," said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., in a Tuesday statement calling for his resignation.

Other Senate Democrats isssuing calls for Menendez to resign include: Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Casey's fellow Pennsylvania senator, John Fetterman, was the first to call for Menendez to go following his indictment last week. So far, no Republican senator has called for his resignation.

Menendez and his wife Nadine were indicted last week in a federal court in New York on three charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion. The indictment alleges that Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. In return, Menendez allegedly used his position as a U.S. senator to help the businessmen by providing sensitive U.S. government information taking actions to aid the Egyptian government. (NPR).

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Judge holds Trump accountable.

Judge Finds Trump Inflated Property Values, a Victory for New York A.G.

The decision strips former President Donald J. Trump of control over signature properties, and simplifies the path for Attorney General Letitia James, whose lawsuit accused him of overvaluing his holdings by as much as $2.2 billion.

A New York judge ruled on Tuesday that Donald J. Trump persistently committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets, and stripped the former president of control over some of his signature New York properties.

The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron is a major victory for Attorney General Letitia James in her lawsuit against Mr. Trump, effectively deciding that no trial was needed to determine that he had fraudulently secured favorable terms on loans and insurance deals.

Ms. James has argued that Mr. Trump inflated the value of his properties by as much as $2.2 billion and is seeking a penalty of about $250 million in a trial scheduled to begin as early as Monday.

Justice Engoron wrote that the documents in the case “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business.”

While the trial will determine the size of the penalty, Justice Engoron’s ruling granted one of the biggest punishments Ms. James sought: the cancellation of business certificates that allow some of Mr. Trump’s New York properties to operate, a move that could have major repercussions for the Trump family business.

The decision will not dissolve Mr. Trump’s entire company, but it sought to terminate his control over a flagship commercial property at 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan and a family estate in Westchester County. Mr. Trump might also lose control over his other New York properties, including Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, though that will likely be fought over in coming months.

Justice Engoron’s decision narrows the issues that will be heard at trial, deciding that the core of Ms. James’s case was valid. It represents a major blow to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers had sought to persuade the judge to throw out many claims against the former president.

In his order, Justice Engoron wrote scathingly about Mr. Trump’s defenses, saying that the former president and the other defendants, including his two adult sons and his company, ignored reality when it suited their business needs. “In defendants’ world,” he wrote, “rent-regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air.”

“That is a fantasy world, not the real world,” he added.

The judge also levied sanctions on Mr. Trump’s lawyers for making arguments that he previously rejected. He ordered each to pay $7,500, noting that he had previously warned them that the arguments in question bordered on being frivolous.

Repeating them was “indefensible,” Justice Engoron wrote.

Mr. Trump still has an opportunity to delay the trial, or even gut the case. Mr. Trump has sued Justice Engoron himself, and an appeals court is expected to rule this week on his lawsuit. But if the appeals court rules against him, Mr. Trump will have to fight the remainder of the case at trial.

Ms. James started investigating Mr. Trump in March 2019 and filed a lawsuit against him last September, accusing him of “staggering” fraud in representing the value of his apartment buildings, hotels and golf clubs, among other assets. Her filings have accused Mr. Trump of using simple, duplicitous tricks to multiply the value of his signature properties, from Trump Tower to Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers had asked Justice Engoron for a so-called summary judgment — a ruling that they were entitled to a victory before trial based on undisputed facts — seeking to toss out many claims against him. They relied heavily on an appeals court ruling from June that raised the notion that some claims against Mr. Trump might be too old to proceed to trial.

Justice Engoron denied Mr. Trump’s request, interpreting the appeals court ruling the opposite way that they had argued, while granting Ms. James’s similar bid for partial summary judgment.

Mr. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has accused Ms. James, a Democrat, of political persecution. His lawyers have noted that the banks that lent Mr. Trump money were hardly victims: they turned profits. They also argued that valuing property can be subjective, more art than a strict science.

But Justice Engoron, with whom Mr. Trump’s lawyers have tangled at every turn, mocked those arguments.

“The documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as ‘objective’ value,” the judge wrote, summarizing his take on their arguments, and adding, “Essentially, the court should not believe its own eyes.”

In a footnote, he added a quote from the movie “Duck Soup” uttered by Chico Marx: “Well, who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” (New York Times).

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Will Trump administrators who separated children and parents be held accountable?

Trump administration officials ordered to testify about family separations.

From left, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in August 2018 in Washington.

A federal magistrate judge in California has ordered a pair of top Trump administration officials to testify in a 2021 lawsuit that migrant parents and children filed against the U.S. government for separating them at the southern border.

Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore on Monday told the Department of Justice and lawyers for migrant families to meet immediately to schedule the depositions of former homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Lawyers said the depositions would mark the first time the former officials have been ordered to testify in one of dozens of lawsuits filed against the federal government seeking millions of dollars in damages for allegedly intentionally inflicting emotional distress on migrant families.

The judge also criticized the Justice Department, which represents the government in court, for initially saying “dozens of people” were involved in creating the policy and signaling that Sessions and Nielsen’s testimony was unnecessary. Then in September, the judge said, the government reversed course to say that only Sessions and Nielsen could have known the policy’s goals.

Westmore wrote that she was “disappointed” by the reversal and the government’s opposition to the depositions.

“Such an injustice cannot stand,” she wrote.

The Trump administration separated more than 3,000 children from their parents along the Mexican border in May and June 2018, the official period of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. More than 5,500 children were separated from their parents during Donald Trump’s term as president.

In her decision, Westmore wrote that lawyers representing three families in the California case may depose the former officials because they allege that the agency acted in bad faith to separate undocumented immigrants from their minor children. Sessions and Nielsen also have “unique personal knowledge of their own intent” in making the zero-tolerance policy.

Sessions and Nielsen approved the policy documents that put the separations in motion, records show.

Trump administration officials said they implemented the policy to criminally prosecute parents who crossed the border illegally, typically a misdemeanor offense. But the administration did not have a plan to reunite the families and deported hundreds of parents without their children. Lawyers said many parents were never prosecuted, including two of the three parents in the California lawsuit.

Lawyers said the depositions would mark the first time the former officials have been ordered to testify in one of dozens of lawsuits filed against the federal government seeking millions of dollars in damages for allegedly intentionally inflicting emotional distress on migrant families.


In her decision, Westmore wrote that lawyers representing three families in the California case may depose the former officials because they allege that the agency acted in bad faith to separate undocumented immigrants from their minor children. Sessions and Nielsen also have “unique personal knowledge of their own intent” in making the zero-tolerance policy.


The judge also criticized the Justice Department, which represents the government in court, for initially saying “dozens of people” were involved in creating the policy and signaling that Sessions and Nielsen’s testimony was unnecessary. Then in September, the judge said, the government reversed course to say that only Sessions and Nielsen could have known the policy’s goals.


Westmore wrote that she was “disappointed” by the reversal and the government’s opposition to the depositions.


“Such an injustice cannot stand,” she wrote.
The Trump administration separated more than 3,000 children from their parents along the Mexican border in May and June 2018, the official period of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. More than 5,500 children were separated from their parents during Donald Trump’s term as president.
Sessions and Nielsen approved the policy documents that put the separations in motion, records show.


Trump administration officials said they implemented the policy to criminally prosecute parents who crossed the border illegally, typically a misdemeanor offense. But the administration did not have a plan to reunite the families and deported hundreds of parents without their children. Lawyers said many parents were never prosecuted, including two of the three parents in the California lawsuit.

The Justice Department declined to say Tuesday if the agency will appeal the decision.
“We remain committed to achieving a just resolution for the victims of this abhorrent policy,” Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a statement.


The department opposed deposing Sessions and Nielsen on principle, under the apex doctrine, which generally shields high-ranking officials from testifying in such cases, court records show. Depositions are sworn testimony taken during the fact-finding phase of a lawsuit before trial.


Nielsen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sessions, reached by phone, said he probably would issue a statement through the Justice Department.
“We’ve got to follow the rules one way or the other,” Sessions said, declining to comment further.


Lawyers for the families celebrated the judge’s decision.
“These officials set in motion a cruel program of ripping apart migrant families. It is only right that they provide testimony under oath in this case,” Victoria Petty, staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a statement. “Thousands of parents and children will endure the lasting harm of this barbaric treatment for the rest of their lives.

”
The migrant families’ lawsuits against the government have placed the Biden administration in the awkward position of defending officials involved in a policy that President Biden abhorred.
Biden blasted the Trump administration for separating families and has reunited many of those who were still apart when he took office.

Negotiations to settle the cases broke down in 2021 after Biden balked at a plan to pay migrant families hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Advocates for immigrants praised Westmore’s decision Tuesday.


“This is huge," Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Five years after thousands of migrant families were cruelly and deliberately separated with no plans for their reunification, this will be the first time officials responsible for this shameful policy might face some degree of accountability.” (The Washington Post).

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News from X formerly known as Twitter.

Cassidy Hutchinson repeated this warning during multiple television appearances this past week.

Touch to watch.👇

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Did you love Sally Jenkins’ Washington Post article on the friendship between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert? 👇

Tennis rivals Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova fought cancer together.

There will be a follow-up. A documentary.

Martina Navratilova-Chris Evert Documentary In Works From EverWonder – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: EverWonder Studio is teaming with John Skipper’s Meadowlark Media on its first project, a feature-length documentary examining the dynamic relationship between tennis legends Chris…

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New York Liberty Fans are Proud.

Breanna Stewart is WNBA Most Valuable Player 2023.

NEW YORK -- In her first season with the New York Liberty, Breanna Stewart has been named the 2023 WNBA MVP in the closest three-way race in league history, it was announced Tuesday.

Stewart and runner-up Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun were separated by seven points, the second-smallest margin between the winner and runner-up in the award's history. The 13 points separating Stewart and the Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson, who was third, mark the narrowest margin between the top three MVP vote-getters in league history.

"A tight MVP race is amazing for this league because that means multiple players are being talked about that can do a lot of different things," Stewart said.

It is the second MVP award for Stewart, who won her first in 2018 while playing for the Seattle Storm in just her third season in the pros. Fast-forward to 2023 and she can't help but reflect on how dramatically her life has changed as she etches her place in WNBA lore once more.

"That's something that is really special to me when I think about it," Stewart told ESPN on Tuesday. "My first one was in 2018. I was still under my rookie contract and now look to 2023, I'm married to a beautiful wife, have a baby [Ruby, born in 2021] and we're having another one."

Stewart's wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, is pregnant with the couple's second child and due in October, so Stewart said Xargay Casademont was "a little bit more emotional" when she heard the news. Ruby, their 2-year-old daughter, may not have completely understood what was going on, but she did start moving Stewart's 2018 MVP trophy around in their home, so maybe she had the sense something was up.

"Ruby is someone that's going to be able to see her mommy get MVP, and that's something that I definitely take a lot of pride in," Stewart said.

The announcement came hours before New York was to host the Sun in Game 2 of their best-of-five WNBA semifinal series (8 p.m., ESPN).

Seven months after signing with the Liberty in what arguably was the biggest free agency move in league history, Stewart sometimes still can't believe she plays for New York. Now, she is the franchise's first MVP and with six more wins could lead them to their first WNBA title.

The 2016 No. 1 overall pick is the eighth player in league history to win multiple MVP awards, the fourth player to win it in their first season with a franchise and the second player to win MVP with multiple franchises.

"It's definitely an honor to be able to say this is my second and to be able to do it in a Liberty jersey for the first time ever," said Stewart, who was a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP with the Storm. "I'm excited for what's going to come tonight, and hopefully the fans are going to go nuts."

Stewart also is the first Liberty player to be named MVP in the franchise's 27-year history.

"Stewie's first season with the New York Liberty has been nothing short of historic on every level," Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a statement. "The constant resiliency, belief, selflessness, toughness, and professionalism she has brought to the Liberty on a nightly basis is an incredibly rare combination -- culminating in such a special season, both personally and collectively."

Stewart earned 20 first-place votes, 23 second-place votes and 17 third-place votes for a total of 446 total points from a national panel of 60 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Thomas garnered 23 first-place votes, which is the second time in WNBA history that an MVP runner-up has received more first-place votes than the winner. Lauren Jackson came in second to Sheryl Swoopes in 2005 despite receiving 20 first-place vote to Swoopes' 16.

Wilson received 17 first-place votes. The 13-point margin between the top three vote-getters surpassed the 45-point difference in 2013 that separated Candace Parker, Maya Moore and Elena Delle Donne.

"It hurt like hell, it really did," Wilson said of not being named MVP. "But it's all part of the game.

"It hurts across the board, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to harp on it very long because we have a competitive team to play against in Dallas (10 p.m. Tuesday, ESPN), and that's my main focus. [Coach] Becky [Hammon] called me, and I was like, 'Give me 24 hours and I'm here.'"

After a year-plus of anticipation, Stewart left the only franchise she'd ever played for to sign with the Liberty this past offseason. She was attracted to the franchise's progressive viewpoints toward the WNBA's development (specifically their support for the league allowing widespread charter flights) and playing in the country's largest sports market, all in hopes that she could help, in her words, push the needle forward.

It also meant she could play in her home state of New York and relocate closer to family.

The "Stew York City" era kicked off on a high note when Stewart scored a career-high and franchise-record 45 points in 30 minutes in the Liberty's home opener at Barclays Center. She was their most consistent player early on in the season especially as all the Liberty's new pieces worked to jell on the court.

With Stewart as their centerpiece, the Liberty went 32-8 in the regular season, including finishing narrowly behind the first-place Aces. They caught fire after the All-Star break in particular, where their 81.8% win percentage was a league best and they won the Commissioner's Cup championship game over the Aces in August.

New York is currently playing in its first WNBA semifinals since 2015, and could appear in the Finals for the first time since 2002 should it overcome a 0-1 deficit versus the Sun.

"To be able to come to a franchise like the Liberty and make an impact this quickly, it's unbelievable. It's something that is really difficult to do," Stewart said. "In the beginning, there were bumps along the way, but we continued to trust the process and grind out wins and do whatever I had to do to help this team get the win."

Stewart's 23.0 points per game this season was the second-highest scoring average in a player's first season with a new team. As part of that effort, Stewart recorded four 40-point games, a WNBA single-season record, as well as three games with 40 points and 10 rebounds, the most in WNBA history.

Stewart set career highs in scoring (23.0 points, second-best in the league) and assists (3.8), nearly hit her career-best rebounding mark (9.3, third-best in the league), while also compiling a career-best 20 double-doubles, third-most in the league. Earlier this postseason, she was named to her fifth all-WNBA defensive team.

Stewart and the Liberty's other big offseason additions, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones, came to New York with a WNBA championship top of mind. But Stewart said she did feel relief when she learned she won MVP from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert last week.

"I want to be great every time I step on the floor, and that's something that I pride myself on in my career, is bringing greatness wherever I am, whether that's on and off the court," Stewart said. "I think sometimes it's a little bit taken for granted what I can do, the ability to play multiple positions, so for myself to have this year, but the team to have such a tremendous year and everybody else to see that, that's where the relief came from. I'm just proud of myself and really want to share this moment with everyone."

It's the latest accolade for Stewart, who was a three-time national player of the year in college at UConn, four-time NCAA champion and Most Outstanding Player, two-time EuroLeague champion and Final Four MVP, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Thomas was the first player in league history to record at least 600 points, 400 rebounds and 300 assists in a single season. She also set a league high with 27 double-doubles -- including six triple-doubles -- and set a league record with 316 assists -- 7.9 per game -- despite playing forward.

Wilson, who edged Stewart 478-446 last season in the MVP balloting, had another stellar season, averaging a career-best 22.8 points and 9.5 rebounds in leading the Aces to a record 34 wins. She had 29 games of 20 points or better this season. She's upped her game in the playoffs as Las Vegas looks to become the first repeat champion since Los Angeles did it back-to-back in 2001-02.

"I think the three of us continue to make one another better," Stewart told ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Tuesday. "Obviously A'ja and A.T. had tremendous seasons this year and continue to do so year in and year out. The most exciting part about this is the ability to have more conversations around multiple players and show how great we are at a lot of different things and continue to use that to amplify the message of the WNBA and where we're going." (ESPN).

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