3/21-27/21

Good afternoon, I’m Dennis Futoryan, and this is the 25th hour, helping you remember everything that happened beyond the 24/7 news cycle. Now, in this week’s news for the week of April 11-17, 2021, the NYC mayoral race heats up, more students return for in-person learning, state pandemic restrictions slowly roll back as Cuomo keeps ducking his head from his scandals, the J&J vaccine was put on pause amongst rare blood clotting concerns, Republicans release their own infrastructure plans, and police shootings popped up as the Chauvin trial comes to a close. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

De Blasio

• COVID:
  • The City is overall seeing good numbers again after an uncomfortable status quo of infections, stubbornly not decreasing. The start of the week saw cases increasing due to the spread of mutated variants, with released sequenced sampling of 1500 cases showing the spread of the new strains of COVID.
  • City data shows that senior citizen COVID hospitalizations have been cut in half, with Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi saying there is also a 29% drop in younger New Yorkers’ hospitalizations as well.
  • April 2nd saw the return of live music in NYC, with small and medium sized venues letting in people at a third of the capacity they’re used to, or a max of 100 people. 
  • City jail staff are being vaccinated at less than half the rate of the general population, according to the Gothamist and WNYC, with only 19% of Dept of Corrections staff getting their shots versus 55% of the City’s nursing home population.
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• Mayoral race:
  • As the race continues before the June primary, consistent frontrunners have taken shape in the NYC Mayor’s race. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Brooklyn BP Eric Adams, former de Blasio counsel Maya Wiley, and Comptroller Scott Stringer are the top tier of the pack. A flood of TV ad spending money is set to drown NYC voters, with Ray McGuire and Shaun Donovan spending millions plastering themselves on TV screens, as well as an effort by former Pete Buttigieg adviser Lis Smith’s PAC supporting Yang with a $6m ad spend.
  • Yang had put his foot in his mouth a couple of times this week, first by saying that the City has to crack down on unlicensed street vendors, before apologizing for addressing the issue on Twitter and saying that he agrees with increasing the number of street vendor licenses, which is already in place. Then, Yang answered for past comments he made warning against “celebrating abortions,” saying that he’s a champion of womne’s reproductive rights and that they’re “sacrosanct.” Yang pissed off a lot of progressive Democrats and organizations with his comments. Yang also proposed an initiative rewarding New Yorkers that report parking placard abuses, referring to when City employees use their parking placards to park wherever and whenever they want, even if the parking isn’t tied to City business. Yang announced his placard proposal in Adams’ backyard, which prompted Adams to say placard abuse was a non-issue.
  • Meanwhile, Stringer was profiled in New York Magazine. In David Freedlander’s article, Stringer’s ambivalence towards the polls are explored, with Stringer saying he doesn’t give a damn what the polls are saying about Yang’s being at the top of the pack. Stringer is consistently either third or fourth place in surveys, with about half of NYC Democratic primary voters still open .
  • On the Republican side of things, Guardian Angels’ founder Curtis Sliwa continued to expand on how he wants to restore funding to the NYPD, which he blames for the “fall of NYC.” Sliwa said that he would take away the property tax breaks enjoyed by Madison Square Garden, private colleges, and hospitals to fund the NYPD.
  • Kathryn Garcia released a new plan this week aimed at removing implicit bias from the foster care system, which is a personal issue for Garcia as she was adopted herself. The plan would try to copy a similar policy in Nassau County in Long Island that would take race out of the decision about whether to remove a child from their family.
  • Wall St exec Ray   McGuire pitched a plan to have two mobile clinics in each borough to address health inequities laid bare by the pandemic. McGuire also received the endorsements of some prominent New York rappers, Jay-Z, Nas, and Diddy.
  • Maya Wiley is calling for in-person debates to start up, after a long campaign season seeing the candidates do numerous Zoom forums which aren’t favored anymore. 
  • Governor Cuomo said that he’s holding off on endorsing anyone for NYC Mayor, yet still underscoring his desire for someone with managerial experience. 
  • What didn’t hold off on an endorsement is the progressive Working Families Party, which gave it's top three spots to Stringer, Morales, and Wiley, in that order, for who the party thinks should become the next NYC mayor. The endorsement also provides a boost to Dianne Morales’ fragile campaign. 
  • Eric Adams hit his fellow mayoral candidates for their apparent silence about the rise in gun violence in NYC and how drug criminalization would affect the City, in a speech he gave following receiving the Uniformed Firefighters Association endorsement. Adams was a former police officer himself. At a recent mayoral forum, most of the candidates didn’t give a committal answer about decriminalizing small amounts of drugs like cocaine and mushrooms.
  • Responding to outcries about his father donating millions of dollars to an outside PAC, former HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said that his campaign is following the law, and it technically is. And for the time being, the City Campaign Finance Board has reportedly kept campaign funds from Donovan’s campaign, saying it has questions about the PAC Donovan’s father has been paying into.
  • The City Board of Elections held a lottery this week, setting up the order with which New Yorkers will see the names of the mayoral candidates on their ranked choice ballots. Yang ended up the last name on the ballot, with a relative unknown, Aaron Foldenaur, moving to the top.
• Other races:
  • Comptroller:
    • Councilman Brad Lander and Council Speaker Corey Johnson continue their high-stakes battle to replace Scott Stringer as Comptroller in that race. Lander enjoyed a positive week with the endorsement of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, as well as hitting Johnson for apparently to place Landers’ gig worker paid sick leave legislation on the floor of the Council. Councilman I. Daneek Miller came to Johnson’s defense, saying the bill isn’t all that effective, as it had been lambasted by some non-profits.
  • Brooklyn BP:
    • Councilman Robert Cornegy received the endorsement of the Transport Workers Union in his bid to become the next Brooklyn BP, replacing Eric Adams.
• Schools:
  • City Department of Education data shows that 50k students opted back in to in person learning this latest round, with more than half returning to pre-K-5th grade. 
  • The City is also going to allocate and spend $120m for a summer-school expansion program that would administer an in-person K-12 program trying to catch students up after they’ve been out of the classroom for a year.
  • Homeless students missed 1 out of every 3 days of remote learning in January alone, according to city school attendance data. Homeless students have faced enormous challenges trying to maintain internet connections throughout the pandemic, as shelters are not retrofitted with wireless connection, leaving kids in the dark. De Blasio announced a plan that would bring wireless internet to most city shelters.
  • Principals are struggling with what to tell parents as information isn’t forthcoming from the de Blasio administration about the full return to schools on April 26th.
  • Students who aged out of the public school system, turning 21, are allowed to stay another year in order to recover their grades, according to the City Education Department.
• Crime:
  • The Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s office is investigating the disappearance of a NY real estate attorney, Mitchell Kossoff, who allegedly ran off with millions of dollars of his clients’ money. 
  • A review of Department of Corrections disciplinary files show that 11 officers were punished at least three times over a year and a half, with few consequences over repeat violations. Out of 272 disciplined officers, between Jan 2019 and Aug 2020, 204 had been handed down at least one infraction. 
  • Following on the heels of a Buzzfeed report of a facial recognition software being used for the past two years by the NYPD despite their denials, the NY Post covered how the Deputy Commissioner of Internal Affairs, Joseph Reznick, ordered a Deputy Inspector to use the Clearview AI tech to take pictures of two cops drinking on the train before another officer’s funeral, for a pending investigation. The officers were suspended. An NYPD spokeswoman said that the force had a narrow use for the facial recognition software. 
  • The NYPD is apparently having a hard time collecting and communicating anti-Asian hate crimes, according to a Gothamist/WNYC investigation. While the police started tallying anti-Asian crimes this year in light of the media spotlight on the issue, but last year, anti-Asian crimes were tagged simply as anti-COVID, even though a majority of the victims in those 2020 cases were Asian.
  • The NYPD’s robotic dog caught some attention again this week after it was spotted inside a NYCHA building in Manhattan, stirring some concerns that this is our future.
  • The police have seized more guns this year since 1996, although it has not been stemming the increased gun violence seen in the City throughout the pandemic. 
  • A white family court clerk in Manhattan was overheard saying the N-word in reference to a teenager, sparking outrage and an investigation by the court system inspector general. The clerk was placed on suspended leave without pay.
  • A man from Ohio was apprehended at the Times Square subway station by police with an AK47 in his possession. Although the rifle wasn’t loaded, the police did a great job taking him in.
• MTA:
  • The MTA revealed recent survey results asking subway passengers what they’re worried about, showing that riders are actually worried about crime and harassment at higher levels than 6 months ago, owing in part to anti-Asian hate crimes and increased assaults on the subway generally. The survey showed that 1 in 6 riders expect to use the subway, a lower expectation as the pandemic subsides.
  • The Mayor didn’t take too kindly to the release of the survey, saying the Agency is discouraging increased ridership.
  • The Vice President of the TWU Local 100 public transit union JP Patafio said this week that the MTA has been canceling more and more buses in recent months in order to hire less workers and pay less overtime. An MTA spokesman, Tim Minton, maintained that the vacancy for bus operations is just 3% and that there has been no “material decrease” in wait times for buses.
• Transportation:
  • The City announced that the scooter companies Bird, Lime, and Veo are going to be part of a pilot program bringing 3000 electric scooters throughout Bronx neighborhoods this summer as a way to supplement bike shares and increase alternate forms of commuting.
• Development:
  • The Staten Island minor league ballpark finally got their home team after a year and a half of no games, with the eight-team Atlantic League taking over the lease of the park from the Staten Island Yankees, according to Staten Island Borough President James Oddo.
  • After de Blasio announced the City would cut its contract with the Trump Organization’s management of the City’s ice rinks after the January 6th Capitol Insurrection, the Central Park Conservancy stepped up and said it wants control over the Wollman Rink while the Parks Department continues to collect bids.

City Council

• 15th District:
  • Following a long protracted vote count that stuck to ranked choice voting rules, housing attorney Oswald Feliz declared victory in the 15th City Council District’s special election to replace current Congressman Ritchie Torres. Only 4% of eligible voters came out to vote in the election.
• 11th District:
  • Subsequently, Bronx teacher Eric Dinowitz also declared victory in the 11th Council District’s special election replacing Andrew Cohen, once he passed the 50% threshold needed to avoid a ranked choice voting elimination procedure. Unlike the 15th District, the 11th saw a high turnout, with 10k voters coming out. 
• 5th District:
  • 5th Council District candidate and former City COVID contact tracing czar, Julie Menin, enjoyed the endorsement of actor Robert De Niro in a recent video released by her campaign.

Cuomo

• COVID:
  • New York is following the federal government’s lead and is pausing the J&J vaccine from being administered to New Yorkers, including NYC. Those that had J&J as their vaccine of choice for their appointment will now be handed either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
  • The state will be sending vaccines exclusively to colleges and universities to help immunize students for a smoother return to classes in the falls. 
  • Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced this week that the Buffalo Bills’ stadium will be open to all 71,600 spectators that can fill up the seats, but the catch is that you can only get in if you’re vaccinated, becoming the first venue to do so.
  • The state’s 11pm restaurant curfew has been pushed back to midnight, Cuomo announced. The curfew has been criticized by many people throughout the state as an arbitrary measure, while the state maintains its important as a crowd control tactic to prevent the spread of COVID amongst the population.
  • NY state added more than 61k jobs as the economy recovers from the pandemic, but unemployment levels are still stubbornly high.
• Scandals:
  • The Daily News reported that the attorneys Attorney General Letitia James hired to investigate Cuomo’s sexual misconduct scandals have a lot of power and get paid a ton of money. In the agreement with Joon Kim and Anne Clark, the attorneys’ firms are “authorized to utilize any of its resources as it deems appropriate,” and are being paid hundreds of dollars an hour depending on the seniority of the attorney on the team. Senior partners are getting $750 an hour, while junior associates make $350 an hour.
  • Continuing this week’s episode of Cuomo avoiding his scandals, the Governor said in a conference call with reporters that he’s focusing on growing jobs in NY and continuing the state’s COVID response. Cuomo also continues to face questions about why his friends and family received priority COVID tests, with the Governor saying anyone that met him got a test beforehand. 
  • And continuing in the concerns that Cuomo mixed his political acts with his official government duties, his Secretary Melissa DeRosa apparently focused on polls in 2019 that examined Cuomo’s campaign, and pulled staffers to work on the survey as well.
  • There was a brief prank pulled on Cuomo when a building in Albany displayed a NY TOUCH sign instead of saying NY TOUGH. The prank was pulled a couple days after the Times Union published more details from Cuomo’s anonymous accuser about the Governor’s sexual assault on her. 
  • A hotline set up by the Assembly’s impeachment committee for people to be able to call in if they had more information about Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandals has logged more than 100 calls, although the content of those calls remains confidential.
  • Cuomo is refusing to divulge correspondence between his office and the Justice Department about the state’s nursing home death tally, as his administration obfuscated the official numbers, according to the Times Union. 
• Governor election:
  • As more Republicans flirt with the possibility of running against Cuomo next year for the Governor’s Mansion, former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra is trying to stake a moderate Republican lane if he enters the race, calling 5 other Republicans expressing interest in the race as extreme. Eyes are on upstate Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who has raised more than a $1m for her reelection, totaling more than $2.5m in the bank. 
• Schools:
  • The State formally put in place the three-foot social distancing rule for students across the state, freeing up local jurisdictions like NYC to operate their schools with fuller classrooms. Adults still have to distance by 6 feet. 
• Energy:
  • The end of the month will see the last reactor from the Indian Point nuclear power plant shutting down, but while that may calm activists who wanted to get rid of the plant for its proximity for NYC and a fear of a nuclear catastrophe that might happen, the slack had to be picked up by traditional gas plants, which force the state to make gas plants a bigger share of where the state gets its energy from, and a concern when it comes to fighting climate change. The state originally had a condition for the sale of Indian Point that the new owners would maintain $400m in a decommissioning trust fund for the nuclear site, but abandoned it.
  • Meanwhile, activists are calling for a moratorium on new natural gas plants, which might mitigate the effect the closure of the Indian Point plant could have. 
  • The former abandoned Greenidge power plant in Dresden, New York, is back up and running again, but not as a power plant this time, but as a Bitcoin mining operation, helping create new amounts of the cryptocurrency that has taken the world by storm the past couple of years. In order to increase the amount of Bitcoin, computers have to “mine” them, or solve complex equations, but it takes a lot of computing power and physical computers to do so, hence the use of the former power plant. Environmental advocates warn that such a high demand can cause increased air emissions and noise pollution.
• Internet:
  • The Governor signed a bill into law this week that would make internet companies offer a $15 monthly plan for low-income families, a first-in-the-nation initiative looking to make internet universal.
• Police:
  • The first female to head the Suffolk County, Long Island, Police Department, Commissioner Geraldine Hart, said she is stepping down from leading the 2400 strong force next month after three years of her leadership in order to become Hofstra University’s new director of public safety. Hart took control of the department following a rash of crimes from the MS-13 gang, an opioid epidemic, and corruption scandals within the department.
  • A grand jury in Rochester tasked with looking into the Daniel Prude case from last year decided not to indict the three police officers who were involved in the incident with criminally negligent homicide. Criticism came down on prosecutors, who apparently chose an expert witness who said the officers did nothing wrong.

State Legislature

• Co-ops:
  • State Senator Brian Kavanagh, who chairs the Senate Housing Committee, put forth a bill that would make City co-op boards say why they rejected someone looking to buy one of their co-ops. Co-ops currently don’t have to give any reason.
• Criminal justice:
  • After the budget’s passage, Democrats in the state legislature are beginning to take up other initiatives, with the next one possibly being a parole reform measure that, among other changes, would make it easier for older convicts to achieve parole.

State Judiciary

• Feuerstein:
  • US Eastern District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein was killed in a hit and run car accident in Florida last Friday. She was remembered this week by colleagues. 
• First Department oral arguments:
  • The First Department Appellate Division set April 21st as the resumption for in-person oral appellate arguments. Arguments are still taking place at a staggered rate, scheduled for Wednesdays only.
• Older judges:
  • The state court system is reversing its policy against reinstating older judges, who were the first to be let go when budget cuts went into effect at the outset of the pandemic. Chief Court of Appeals Judge Janet DiFiore urged older judges to recertify their judge applications so they can come back to their benches.
• State GOP sues over WFP petitions:
  • State Republican committees are suing in various jurisdictions, including Albany, Onondaga, Monroe, Niagara, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady, in attempts to kick Democrats off the progressive Working Families Party ballot lines. Specifically, the party committees are saying the Party didn’t properly authenticate Democratic petitions, and are trying to register their party members under the WFP lines to increase their voting totals.
• East Village residents’ opposition to flood plan:
  • The East River Park Action group, a group of residents in the neighborhood that oppose a City flood protection plan which includes rebuilding East River Park, are suing the City another time, saying that the City didn’t divulge enough information about how they made their plans. The City had already released more documentation with fewer redactions. The plan seeks to build higher walls at either end of the Park to avoid flooding like from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. 
• Paul vs. Montalbano: 
  • An electoral fight over who will become the next Kings County Surrogate Court judge between Judge Dweynie Esther Paul and Judge Rosemarie Montalbano heated up this week, as Judge Paul received the endorsement of labor union DC37. Judge Montalbano has received her own line of high-profile endorsements, such as from NY Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney and Nydia Velasquez, various Assembly Members and State Senators, Democratic clubs and unions.
• Officer misconduct evidence:
  • Federal Southern District Judge Colleen McMahon handed down a ruling this week saying that prosecutors have to give defense lawyers allegations of police misconduct when that officer is testifying in the case. The problem is that the ruling contradicts a state Court of Appeals ruling excluding police disciplinary records from so-called Brady discovery material, which generally states prosecutors have to turn over any exculpatory evidence to a criminal defendant’s counsel. Judge McMahon, meanwhile, is stepping down as Chief Judge of the Southern District and is assuming senior status, with Judge Laura Taylor Swain taking her place as Chief Judge of the Southern District, a trial court. 
  • Police unions separately decided to withdraw from a case that challenges the disclosure of police disciplinary records, shortly after the federal 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the City can release records following the repeal of the so-called 50-a law which originally shielded the records.
• Broker’s fees:
  • Albany County Judge Shannon Kushner ruled last week that broker’s fees can continue to be charged against hopeful renters, ordering that changes to the state’s rent laws in 2019 did not include letting the NY Department of State to forbid brokers from charging fees on renters, although the statute says brokers working for landlords can’t charge fees anymore “before or at the beginning of the tenancy.” Judge Kushner used the words of the sponsoring State Senator, Brain Kavanaugh, who said the law meant to go after fees on applications and background checks.
• Eviction moratorium:
  • Long Island federal judge Joanna Seybert dismissed a challenge filed by landlords seeking to attack New York’s COVID eviction moratorium, but not on the merits of the law, but because the landlords erroneously identified AG Letitia James as the defendant when she shouldn’t have been. The mistake in procedure wouldn’t prohibit the landlords from refiling their challenge.
• NYCHA:
  • Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley called parties to a seven year old agreement about NYCHA cleaning up mold in it's projects back because of what the court called a latent defect, specifically, that the agreement excluded projects that transferred to private ownership under the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. Judge Pauley oversees NYCHA’s efforts to clean up toxic mold, after tenants filed a class action suit in Dec 2013 against the public housing agency for not repairing lead and mold fast enough in light of health concerns of immunocompromised tenants. 
• Cariol Horne:
  • State Supreme Court Judge Dennis Ward made a ruling this week that reinstated former police officer Cariol Horne’s pension, back pay, and benefits, 15 years after she was terminated from the Buffalo police department for trying to stop a fellow officer from putting a suspect in a chokehold. Buffalo passed a local law in 2020 called “Cariol’s Law,” which prohibits a cop’s failure to intervene when another officer is using excessive force and it also established whistleblower protections.
• Asian-American parents:
  • Depositions are beginning in a case where 5 Asian-American parents sued the City Education Department because the City allegedly harassed them for protesting against changes to the Gifted and Talented Program and discriminated against them while treating other parents differently during a town hall. The parents are seeking a class certification, which groups numerous plaintiffs together as one. 

Biden

• Domestic
  • COVID:
    • The Johnson and Johnson vaccine was temporarily halted this week by the FDA and CDC due to concerns of a rare blood clotting condition that hit 6 women after their vaccinations, with 1 woman having died and the other in critical condition. The pause put in place is meant more for medical providers to survey their patients and find more cases, as well as be able to treat anyone that may be experiencing symptoms. Meanwhile, health officials are investigating why the blood clots only occurred in women, and emphasized to the public that the chances of getting the condition are lower than getting struck by lightning, as only 6 women were affected while almost 8m people were vaccinated with the JJ shot. It wasn’t clear how long the health officials were pausing the JJ vaccine. The White House, trying to head off vaccine hesitancy, said that the JJ pause won’t have a significant impact on its vaccination plan and will keep up its 3m a day vaccination target.
    • A WSJ report showed that J&J privately reached out to Pfizer and Moderna to jointly investigate blood clotting arising rarely in some patients, but the companies refused.
    • Things are getting so bad with the COVID numbers in Michigan, that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky called on Gov Gretchen Whitmer to take measures to shut things down because she says Whitmer can’t vaccinate herself out of the rising COVID hospitalizations.
    • The US is on track to have hundreds of millions of extra vaccines by July, according to Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center, as calls increase by international allies for wealthier countries to export their vaccines to poorer or developing countries so they can get their COVID outbreaks in order.
    • The White House released almost $40b passed in the recent COVID relief bill aimed at propping up an ailing childcare industry, which took a huge hit in the pandemic as more people stayed home with their kids. As parents are being called back to work due to the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, class divides are only underscored by which parents are able to go back to work and place their kids back into childcare.
    • The administration is also releasing about $2b from the COVID relief bill aimed at better tracking COVID variants throughout the country, creating 6 new disease study centers, as well as a central coordinating system for sequence data.
  • Immigration:
    • Internal emails and briefing papers from the White House show an attempt to pull federal workers temporarily to assist in managing the migrant surge at the Southern border, called Operation Artemis. Government projections predict 35k migrant children will be held at the border in June. Later in the week, government data indicated that the number of unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of CBP dropped by 45%, to 3130 this Sunday from 5767 from March 28th. You may recall that, legally, migrant children are only supposed to be in CBP custody for 72 hours, but the children were in custody for an average of 122 hours.
    • Although Biden promised to reverse Trump’s cap on how many refugees the US takes in to 15k, the administration has yet to formalize the paperwork that would reverse that low cap, rendering US policy to stick to the status quo, and leading to Biden taking on less refugees than even the Trump administration. Biden’s administration at first stuck to keeping the cap super low, but after outcries of opposition from Democrats and liberal allies, the White House announced that they were reversing course and lifting the 15k refugee cap to 60k.
    • The administration struck a deal with Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala that would see the three countries place more troops along their borders to prevent migrants from traveling on their way to the American border. Vice President Harris said that she is going to visit Guatemala and Mexico for talks with leaders to address the migrant surge crisis.
    • The White House is also angering lawmakers by refusing to release documents about the Trump zero tolerance policy which separated families in an effort to deter immigration. The documents are supposed to show who specifically voted to adopt the policy, but the Biden administration, which has released more unredacted documents in lawsuits, doesn’t want to release the specific paperwork, arguing the administration has to be able to keep some meetings confidential.
    • Biden made a series of nominations and appointments to lead immigration agencies, including police chief Chris Magnus for Customs and Border Protection, former Obama staffer Jonathan Meyer as CBP general counsel, former National Security Council director for Afghanistan and Pakistan John Tien for deputy Secretary, and former Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel Ur Jaddou to lead his former agency.
  • Infrastructure:
    • With the return of lawmakers from their recess, Biden met with a bipartisan group of Congress members to listen to their views on infrastructure. The members are either chairs or ranking members of various committees, and Republicans are feeling salty since the last time Biden met with GOP Senators about COVID relief, only to wave away their negotiating positions afterwards. The administration described their position as charting ahead in the race on non-serious Republican starting positions that are in bad faith. Republicans left the infrastructure meeting feeling like the administration is open for bipartisanship but are still apprehensive about raising corporate taxes to pay for the measures in the bill.
    • The administration is issuing a report on every state and territories’ infrastructure, giving them letter grades and describing roads as unsafe for drivers and vulnerable to national disasters. Puerto Rico got the worst letter grade and the highest grade went to Utah, although they received a C+. 
  • Police brutality:
    • In the midst of police brutality news stories, including the case of 2nd Lt. Nazario, the death of Daunte Wright, and the Derek Chauvin murder trial, Politico reports that the Biden administration is placing on hold campaign promises to launch a police oversight commission within Biden’s first 100 days, as the administration is focused on infrastructure and COVID.
  • State Department:
    • The State Department revoked the security clearance of Jennifer Davis, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s acting chief of staff, following a three year investigation stemming from a conversation David had with a reporter when she was Consul General in Turkey. Davis is appealing the investigation, saying the conversation with the reporter was about something that was declassified shortly afterward and that her supervisor approved the conversation.
    • But even as Republicans are hesitating to negotiate with Biden on his infrastructure bill that they’re publicly calling a Democratic slush fund, they definitely want to fight for potential funding for infrastructure projects in their districts. Even Mitch McConnell is looking to provide money to the Brent Spence Bridge in Kentucky.
  • Federal positions:
    • Officials and groups are expressing concern over the Biden administration’s lack of filling more than 400 vacancies in the federal government, including at the FDA, CBP, and OMB.
    • According to two sources familiar with the matter talking to Politico, the White House is vetting Cindy McCain, wife of late Senator John MCain to become the new US Ambassador to the UN World Food Program. 
    • Biden has also chosen former NJ AG Anne Milgram to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency, which hasn’t had a Senate-approved leader since the Obama administration. 
    • The President also nominated Christine Wormuth to become the Army’s first female Secretary. Wormuth may also be known as the person who led Biden’s transition team. 
    • Chris Inglis, known for spending almost three decades at the National Security Agency, was nominated this week by the administration to become the nation’s first cyber director.
  • Economy:
    • The Treasury Department revealed that the federal government spent $660b more than it took in in March alone, a result of the stimulus checks and other relief measures recently passed in the American Rescue Plan. 
    • Despite publicly saying inflation isn’t a big deal at this point, especially after passing the latest round of COVID relief, the NYT reports that the Biden administration is quietly tracking inflation, planning to gradually release money if Biden’s infrastructure plan passes so as not to inject too much money into the economy all at once. Inflation is when the purchasing power of the dollar doesn’t keep up with prices set in the market.
    • Jobless claims fell to a record low of 576k last week, the lowest since the start of the pandemic. Retail sales also jumped 9.8% last month, welcome signs of a recovery.
  • NASA:
    • NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company, to be the next company bringing Americans to the moon. NASA’s Artemis program seeks to bring the first female and person of color to the lunar surface, choosing SpaceX’s orbital vehicles to get there.
  • Japanese visit:
    • Biden welcomed the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to the White House in the administration’s first in-person foreign reception since Biden took office. The two leaders discussed China’s rise in the Asian region, announced a $2b pledge to support alternatives to Chinese 5G networks, and also talked about North Korea, Japan’s relationship with South Korea, climate change, and more. 
• Foreign:
  • China:
    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China at the staff of the week for dragging its feet and not being transparent at the start of the pandemic, which Blinken says helped speed the pandemic. 
    • The head of the Chinese CDC had admitted this week that it's own vaccines weren’t as effective as they’d like.
    • The US and the Philippines, meanwhile, are conducting joint military exercises for two weeks, in a show of force against Chinese strong-arming in the South China Sea, which other countries also lay claim to.
    • Biden also sent a US State delegation to Taiwan, which China maintains is part of its country while Taiwan wants to separate, despite warnings from China against the move. Chris Dodd, Richard Armitage, and James Steinberg are leading the delegation. China said it was going to hold live-fire military drills in the waters southwest of Taiwan.
    • Meanwhile, not to make things awkward, Biden’s climate envoy, former Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet his Chinese counterparts to discuss tackling climate change this week, becoming the first Biden official to visit China.
  • South Korea:
    • A dispute between South Korean battery manufacturers settled an intellectual property dispute with American electric vehicle companies that prevented the implementation of an import ban on South Korean batteries, which would have affected thousands of jobs and electric vehicle manufacturing.
    • Trying to tie the situation into passing his infrastructure plan, Biden told CEOs in a virtual meeting that passing his plan would actually help with the chip shortage being felt by manufacturers, with $50b being set aside for semiconductor manufacturing and research.
  • Iran:
    • A secret Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities caused a blackout this week, setting back Iran’s nuclear program by 9 months, complicating talks between the US, Iran, and signatories of the 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment that Trump backed out of during his Presidency. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, who doesn’t hold a secret in opposing the nuclear deal because Netanyahu says it’ll give Iran money to fund terrorists bent on Israel’s destruction. Despite the blackout that occurred after the Israeli attack, US and Iranian representatives signaled their indirect talks will remain ongoing. Iran only ended up announcing that it was going to enrich its uranium to 60%, the highest level yet, and then Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that nuclear talks weren’t worth looking at, putting the Iranian deal further into jeopardy. The talks at Vienna came to a close this week without a major announcement, but talks will continue, according to intermediaries hoping to bring the US and Iran back to the table.
  • Afghanistan:
    • President Biden announced that he is going to pull out American troops by 9/11, bucking the May 1st deadline imposed by Trump on his way out. American troops have been in Afghanistan for 20 years now. Biden also reportedly disagreed with his Defense advisors to leave some special forces in the country after the main troop withdrawal. 
    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise trip to Afghanistan to meet with leaders there and discuss what an American transition out of the country would look like, while also assuring allies that the US wouldn’t allow Taliban forces to attack on the way out. Blinken later traveled to Ukraine to discuss the Russian troop buildup on it's border.
    • Meanwhile, the Taliban are signaling that they’re not interested in making sure any transition is peaceful, as they just backed out of a peace conference with Afghan government officials in Turkey, saying they’re still discussing details with Blinken. 
  • Saudi Arabia, UAE arms deals:
    • The Biden administration is still planning to move forward with the selling of arms to the United Arab Emirates, as agreed to under Trump when he helped broker an international treaty between the UAE and Israel. Arms sales to Saudi Arabia will also continue, although on a limited scale as air-to-ground weapons will be taken off the list. All of that comes despite Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khassogi.
  • Russia:
    • The Biden administration formally sanctioned Russia and expelled 10 Russia diplomats for the country’s role in the SolarWind hack, which exposed a cyber vulnerability in a software program used by many federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies, and for continued aggression with troop formations near the Ukrainian border. You may recall that Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. It’s not known how this will affect plans for a proposed summit between Russia and the US that Biden pitched to Putin over the phone to settle the two countries’ differences. Although sanctions were thought to also be put in because of claims Russia paid terrorists bounties for US service members’ deaths, the Biden administration said the intelligence community has only low to moderate confidence about that claim.
    • Russia, in kind, has decided to kick out 10 American diplomats, and warned the US to keep warships away from Crimea as two US ships were set to go to the Black Sea.
    • The Biden administration has decided to keep Trump’s Russia ambassador, John Sullivan, who was seen as a steady hand in the midst of jostling between the US and Russia.
  • Troop placement:
    • After Trump decried the stationing of US troops in Germany as a waste of money, and that Germany should be paying more money to its own defense, he announced the withdrawal of 12k US troops. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who went to Germany, announced that actually, the troops are there to stay and in fact, 500 more troops are coming to add to the current 35k troop population. US troops are stationed in Germany to assist in NATO operations. 
• Trump:
  • As much as we’d like to shake Trump from the news cycle, the Republican Party is still under his thumb, with his own fundraising arm surpassing the RNC. Early this week, the RNC held their donor retreat at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort and home, where Trump had time to give a speech. He continued to complain about his loss, continued to lie that the 2020  election was rigged against him, including spreading conspiracy theories and brazenly knocked Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for not finding more votes for him, called Senate Minority Leader a dumb son of a bitch, and said Dr. Fauci is full of crap. There were also news reports regarding Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel being escorted out of an event he wasn’t on the invite list for despite one of his primary rivals being there.
  • In the meantime, the White House released intelligence pointing to new information showing there was more coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia then known before. Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business associate, Konstantin Kilimnick, was who given campaign internal polling data by Manafort, passed it off to Russian intelligence. A big hurdle early in the Trump administration was Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into how deeply Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and although there was no direct coordination between Trump and Russia, Trump’s campaign leadership was tacitly accepting assistance from Russian intelligence.
• Pompeo:
  • Former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the subject of a State Department Inspector General report that concluded Pompeo violated ethics rules on the use of State Department resources when he and his wife asked employees to take care of their errands more than 100 times, from booking salon appointments and dinner reservations, to walking their dog. Pompeo’s lawyer downplayed the examples as small favors for friends and said the report was politically biased and cherry-picked.
• Stone:
  • Another close Trump apply, political provocateur Roger Stone, is being sued by the IRS for not paying $2m in taxes over the years. Stone was pardoned by former President Trump against criminal charges that Stone lied to federal investigators about his role in spreading misinformation from Wikileaks at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Trump, and threatening witnesses for testifying against him.

Congress

• Capitol Insurrection:
  • More information came to light this week following court filings against rioters who broke into the Capitol building on January 6th, as well as the internal investigation looking into the reasons behind the security lapses that day.
  • Court filings by federal prosecutors continue to detail how the right-wing group the Oath Keepers stashed weapons at an Arlington, VA, Comfort Inn hotel that members were staying in before and after the riot, intending to have a “quick reaction force” if needed. The information came to light at a bail hearing for one of the Oath Keeper members, Kenneth Harrelson, who supposedly supplied the weapons. Harrelson was ruled too dangerous to be released from jail before trial. The first Capitol rioter to plead guilty to the insurrection is an Oath Keeper member Jon Schaffer, and is expected to cooperate with the federal government in prosecuting more rioters. Schaffer was seen spraying pepper spray at officers during the insurrection.
  • A tribute was held for late Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans, who was killed after a rogue driver crashed into a barricade set up around the Capitol following the January 6th riot. President Biden gave a speech, with viral photos and videos showing Evans’ widow crying and his daughter wiping away her tears.
  • A report released by Inspector General Michael Bolton showed that Capitol Police were instructed by their leadership to not employ aggressive tactics against Trump supporters even though there were early warning signs of violence planned by radical right-wing groups. The report also laid out a case for “culture change” in the Capitol Police.
  • Federal prosecutors announced that they’re not going to bring charges against the Capitol Police officer that shot and killed Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who stormed the Capitol along with other Trump supporters after the former President incited the insurrection to stop Biden’s Electoral College certification. Babbitt, who was one of the five people to die that day, was at the door to the House chamber, when the unidentified officer shot through the window, killing Babbitt. The Justice Department said the evidence points to the officer acting in self-defense of himself and the lawmakers under his charge.
• House
  • Biden address to Congress:
    • Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally invited President Biden to address Congress on April 28th. Usually the President addresses Congress after their inauguration in February, but COVID threw a wrench in things.
  • Slavery reparations:
    • The House Judiciary Committee voted to move a slavery reparations bill onto the floor for the first time in decades, which would create a commission studying how to pay back ancestors of slaves. The party line vote was 25-17, with every Republican voting against it because they say it’ll force people that had nothing to do with slavery have their tax dollars used to pay slavery’s descendants.
  • Puerto Rico:
    • The House Oversight and Reform Committee passed their own landmark legislation out to the floor, approving a bill that would make Puerto Rico the US’ 51st state, continuing a trend of the House passing liberal priorities that are dead in the water in the Senate because of the filibuster. Democrats have long advocated for Puerto Rico’s admission as a new state, while Republicans point to increased Democratic seats, as well as Puerto Rico’s debt, as arguments against admission. Puerto Rico, like other US territories and DC, currently have a non-voting delegate in Congress.
  • Court packing:
    • While Biden’s commission studies whether the Supreme Court should have more Justices on the bench, House Democrats went ahead anyway to propose their own bill to increase the number of Justices from 9 to 13, which would give Democrats a 4-Justice lead over Republicans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she doesn’t support the bill, and wouldn’t be putting it on the floor of the House because it’s not the chamber’s priority, although it’s also not out of the question, according to her. Consequently, House Republican Andy Biggs proposed his answer to court packing, by introducing a constitutional amendment that would maintain the 9-seat bench of the Supreme Court.
  • Crenshaw:
    • TX Rep. Dan Crenshaw, known for his notable eye patch stemming from an injury incurred during military service, is effectively going to be out of commission for a month after getting eye surgery, which would leave Crenshaw blind for that time. 
  • Insider trading:
    • Continuing the trend of Democrats and Republicans taking their sweet time with disclosing their stock trading, New York’s Sean Patrick Maloney only this week disclosed selling eight stocks he inherited due to his mother’s passing, totaling more than $11k.
  • Infrastructure:
    • A majority of the New York House Democratic conference said that they would oppose Biden’s infrastructure proposal if it didn’t include a measure repealing the salt and local tax deduction, most commonly known as SALT. The deduction gave high-earning New Yorkers the ability to deduct state and local taxes from their tax bill, but Trump’s tax bill placed a $10k limit on the deduction, with high-tax states like New York saying Trump and Republicans targeted their state. 
  • Gaetz:
    • The saga of Matt Gaetz continues, as news came to light that reportedly Gaetz’s companion, former Seminole County, Florida, tax assessor Joel Greenberg agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors looking into potential child sex trafficking charges against Greenberg, which implicate Gaetz. You may remember that recent reporting shed light on Gatez allegedly bringing a 17-year old girl across state lines and paying her to have sex with him. Gaetz also allegedly paid Greenberg money and mentioned the 17-year old and another girl by name on Venmo. Gaetz has so far refused to resign, has denied the charges, and claims the Justice Department is trying to set him up. 
    • Gaetz also thought it was a good idea to form an America First Caucus with embattled Congresswoman Marjorite Taylor Greene, among other Republican Congress members, which explicitly states following traditional Anglo-Saxan values as part of its core philosophy. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, although not mentioning the Caucus by name, decried the use of racial and xenophobic division for political gain.
  • Kevin Brady:
    • Texas Representative Kevin Brady announced he won’t be seeking another term in Congress. Brady, who has been in Congress since 1997, rising all the way to the influential Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee during Trump’s tenure, controlling tax policy, and was the architect of the 2017 tax decreases passed under Trump. Brady said he was proud of his law raising millions out of poverty, although the evidence for that claim is sorely lacking. Brady’s retirement opens up another Republican leader onto the committee at a time when Republicans expect to regain the House in next year’s midterm elections, as a President’s opposing party historically gains seats after the first year of their election.
  • Maloney:
    • A progressive challenger against New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, that got a boost from progressive organizations has prompted outcries by the chair of the New York Democratic Party. After the Justice Democrats and the DSA endorsed Rana Abdelhamid to replace Maloney, a long-standing New York Congresswoman, NYS Dem Chair Jay Jacobs blasted the challenge, pointing to Abdelhamid not living in the congressional district, although it’s not a requirement, and her age, as she’s 27 years old. Progressives balked at Jacobs’ statement.
• Senate
  • Filibuster:
    • Majority Leader Schumer is reportedly planning to test the Republicans’ use of the filibuster with Sen Mazie Hirono’s bill to combat anti-Asian hate crimes, which Republicans generally oppose, much like other hate crimes bills, due to skepticism about giving the federal government power to police speech. Reporting later in the week indicated that a bipartisan agreement would avoid the Republicans’ use of a filibuster by adding an amendment to the anti-Asian hate crime bill about improving how hate crimes stats are reported to the federal government. The bill was advanced in the Senate chamber to the debate stage, where Republicans seemingly might still end up using the filibuster.
  • Infrastructure:
    • Senate Republicans introduced their own infrastructure plan, which would cost between $600-800b, a fraction of Biden’s $1.5t price, seeking to strictly narrow the definition of infrastructure and limit which projects would be funded throughout the country, leaving out items such as broadband internet and corporate tax increases.
  • Colin Kahl:
    • 18 Republican Senators wrote a letter to FBI Dir Christopher Wray to initiate an investigation into allegations against Biden’s nominee for  Undersecretary of Defense Policy Colon Kahl, who apparently disclosed or solicited classified information on Twitter after he was done working for the Obama administration. Republicans were already against Kahl’s nomination for politically divisive tweets against Trump and the GOP.
  • MLB antitrust:
    • Following the MLBs moving of it's All-Star game out of Georgia because of that state’s passage of a vote reform bill most see as suppression, Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee are proposing a bill to take away the MLBs antitrust exemption, giving the baseball league monopolistic control over team ownership and relocation. 
  • Confirmations:
    • The Senate confirmed Gary Gensler, Biden’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, tasked with policing the stock market and trading industry. Gensler is a former MIT professor and partner at Goldman Sachs, as well as a regulator in the Obama administration who was known for coming down on banks held responsible for the 2008 financial crisis. Gensler wants to pass new regulations that disclose companies’ investments revolving around climate change, and increasing stock trading transparency.
    • For now, Biden’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is creating headaches, as Senate Republicans are vehemently opposed to the confirmation of Kristen Clarke, formally the president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil RIghts Under Law, as Republicans criticized her for her advocacy on police reform and voting rights.

Federal Judiciary

• SCOTUS
  • Oral arguments:
    • People who like to see the drawings of lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court for oral arguments are going to have wait a little longer for the new art. The Justices announced that telephonic arguments will continue for the remainder of the year.
• 2nd Circuit
  • Pre-Janus union fees:
    • Two teachers who tried to recover union fees they paid to the NYS United Teachers union won’t be allowed to do so under a 2nd Circuit ruling in New York this week, that said the teachers tried to recover their fees before the Supreme Court ruled on the Janus case, which made it illegal for unions to deduct fees from non-union members’ paychecks. The Circuit said that legal precedent prohibits the teachers from retroactively getting their money back.
• Misc
  • Abortion:
    • The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-7 this week to uphold a 2017 Ohio state ban on abortions against fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome, saying that the ban didn’t create an unconstitutional burden on women seeking an abortion, and reversing a 3-judge panel from the 6th Circuit. The ruling sets up a circuit split, as the 8th Circuit ruled a similar ban from Arkansas as being unconstitutional. Circuit splits are a good way to get the Supreme Court to take on a case, as there is a “case and controversy,” as required under the Constitution.

National

• COVID:
  • According to government data, blue states are vaccinating their citizens at higher rates than red states. “Right now, 46% of those 18 and older in the average state Biden won have had at least one dose of the vaccine. That drops to 41% in the average state Trump won.”
  • NPR reports that colleges and universities are increasingly mandating vaccination against COVID as a condition to attend classes, with more than a dozen colleges with dorms announcing new policies, including Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Cornell. Schools regularly require documentation of vaccinations to attend. 
  • Regeneron, the pharmaceutical company that provided former President Trump an experimental drug that helped him recover from COVID, released a study pointing to a 81% reduction in symptomatic development from COVID, which could provide people a treatment to keep COVID at bay while they wait for their vaccinations. Regeneron plans to ask the FDA to expand their emergency approval.
  • Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that booster shots are going to be likely needed a year after someone gets their second dose of the vaccine in order to maintain protection from COVID. Booster shots are normal, and are used in flu vaccinations all the time, but is sure to increase frustrations with Americans who just want to get out of the pandemic already.
  • The global death rate from COVID has surpassed 3m, according to a Johns Hopkins University tacker.
• Police brutality:
  • Nazario:
    • At the start of the week, body cam footage was released from a confrontation between two VA police officers who pulled over 2nd Lt. Caron Nozario for a missing license plate. Nazario, who drove until he could stop at a lit gas station in rural VA, just bought the car, so it had provisional plates taped on the rear window. Nazario, who is suing Officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker, said that as soon as he pulled over, the officers pulled their guns on him. The footage shows Gutierrez and Crocker yelling at Nazario, giving him contradictory commands, and said that Nazario “should be scared,” and that he was “aiming to ride the lightning,” a colloquial term for getting tased. Nazario was pepper sprayed. The incident happened four months ago, and Gutierrez was fired from the Windsor, VA, police department.
  • Wright:
    • On Sunday night, Minneapolis Police Officer Kim Potter pulled over 20-year old Daunte Wright for expired license plates and an air freshener hanging in the rear view window, which technically is a visual obstruction. When Potter looked Wright up, he had an arrest warrant out for aggravated robbery, and Potter tried taking Wright in. A scrap ensued, and according to bodycam footage released by the Brooklyn Circle Police Department, Potter pulled out her gun while screaming taser, shooting Wright, killing him. Potter apparently intended to pull out her taser, and not her gun, as evidenced in the bodycam footage. Wright had a girl in the car, and had his mom on the phone during the conflict with Potter . Potter later resigned from the Department, along with the Chief, Tom Gannon, who showed the bodycam footage and described the situation as an accident. Potter was also charged by Minnesota prosecutors with manslaughter for Wright’s death. Protests broke out in Brooklyn Circle, just as the state was already on edge with the Derek Chauvin George Floyd murder trial. President Biden called for peaceful protests after Wright’s shooting, and urged people to wait for the results of an impending investigation.
  • Toledo:
    • Chicago Police also released bodycam footage from a officer-involved shooting from a month ago showing the fatal shooting of 13-year old Adam Toledo, a Hispanic boy that was shot shortly after being told to put his hands up in the air. Toledo had a gun, which he dropped seconds before putting his hands in the air, but was shot anyway. 
  • Rice:
    • The family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year old boy shot by Cleveland police officers who thought he had a gun in 2014, asked the Justice Department to reopen the federal investigation into the incident after Trump and his AG Bill Barr declined to pursue criminal charges.
  • Maryland 
    • Maryland became the first state to take a radical step to combat police brutality and racism, by overriding Governor Larry Hogan’s veto to repeal the so-called Police Bill of Rights, which gave officers robust due process rights. The bill the legislature passed also gives civilians greater oversight over the police and places greater hurdles on no-knock warrant applications. 
  • Chauvin:
    • The Chauvin trial of the death of George Floyd came to an end this week, with the jury beginning it's deliberations and possibly announcing a verdict next week. The prosecution finished off it's case by putting Floyd’s brother on the stand for what’s called spark of life testimony, in order to get the jury to sympathize with the victim. The defense began their case by putting up a couple of witnesses that tried to refute the prosecution’s assertion that Chauvin’s knee was the reason why Floyd died, with a use of force expert saying Chauvin’s knee was justified and a forensic pathologist testifying that Floyd’s cause of death was undetermined due to Floyd’s own health issues, as well as the potential for carbon monoxide coming out of a police car’s exhaust potentially contributing to Floyd’s death, which was an argument torn apart by the prosecution on cross examination when it was revealed the pathologist didn’t even know if the car was on. The defense rested their case after Chauvin invoked his 5th amendment right against self-incriminating himself, which is a normal strategy by criminal defendants.
  • Jacob Blake:
    • The officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back, sparking renewed protests against police brutality, Rusten Sheskey, returned back to work at the Kenosha Police Department, and will not face any discipline for the episode. Sheskey said that Blake was reaching for a knife in the car, although Sheskey was relatively far away from Blake. 
• Mass shootings:
  • It seems that as the country starts steadily going back to normal, the amount of mass shootings has returned to a tragic normal in the US as well.
  • 8 people died at a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. The shooter was revealed to be a 19 year old employee, who took his own life after the shooting. Critics came down on FedEx for not allowing their employees to have their cellphones on their person, as victims couldn't reach out to police or loved ones immediately during the shooting, and the FBI reportedly interviewed the shooter before but dropped their investigation after insufficient evidence. 
• Voting rights:
  • Following the Georgia vote reform bill passing and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decrying corporate participation in politics, more than 100 corporate executives, from companies like Starbucks, LinkedIn, Levi Strauss, and more, discussed signing onto a plan to combat voter suppression by withholding political donations. On Wednesday, it was reported that companies, including Amazon, Google, Warren Buffett, and BlackRock, signed onto a statement opposing limits to voting.
• Ramsay Clark:
  • Former AG for LBJ, Ramsay Clark, died early this week at the age of 93. He was known for representing clients who had their civil rights violated and fought to desegregate schools and battling capital punishment, but then later in life representing historically villainous figures like Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milošević.
• Bernie Madoff:
  • Notorious Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff also passed away this week at the age of 82. Madoff was easily one of, if not the biggest con artist Wall St has ever seen, defrauding thousands of investors to the tune of billions of dollars over many years. Madoff would attract investors by feigning exclusivity, and would promise consistent 8-12% returns on investments, and was only caught in the 2008 financial crisis when he confessed to his sons, who in turn turned him in. Madoff, till his dying day, downplayed his crimes, and was sentenced to a 150 year stint in prison. Most of his victims have still never recovered.
• Weinstein:
  • After his lawyers just tried to appeal his rape conviction in New York, fallen media mogul Harvey Weinstein was indicted on 11 counts of sexual assaults in California, stemming from a series of alleged assaults against five Californian women between 2004 and 2013. Weinstein is current sitting in a New York prison. 
• Louisiana ship rescue:
  • The US Coast Guard rescued 6 people, and are searching for 9 more who were onboard a 129-ft commercial ship that sank off the Louisiana coast due to a so-called “wake low,” rough seas caused by 80mph winds. The Coast Guard recovered four bodies from the water as of Friday.
• Human monkey embryos:
  • A team of scientists led by Salk Institute Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte published a study in the science journal Cell which showed the creation of a first-time half human half money embryo, with the hopes that future transplant recipients have an easier time getting the organs they need. Other scientists questioned the need for the experiment, as well as calling out the potential ethical nightmare of creating mixed organisms.

And that’s it for this week’s show of THE 25TH HOUR, helping you stay on top of the 24/7 news cycle. Don’t forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts, share us with your friends, and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You can email your tips and suggestions at the25thhournews@gmail.com and become a Patron today for as low as $2 a month to support the show at patreon.com/the25thhournews! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.