LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawyers for the 5-year-old son of a man who died after repeatedly being shocked by Los Angeles police with a stun gun following a traffic collision filed a $50 million claim Friday for damages against the city.
The legal claim is required before Keenan Anderson’s son and estate can sue LA police for wrongful death and civil rights violations for restraining him and shocking him six times with a Taser in less than a minute on Jan. 3.
“If you Taser someone with 50,000 watts of electrical energy six times … is there really any wonder that moments later his heart will begin to flutter?” attorney Carl Douglas said at a news conference. “Is there any wonder why four hours later his heart could no longer withstand the pressure from that Taser and gave up, leaving a 5-year-old boy in his wake?”
The claim was filed on behalf of Anderson’s son, Syncere Kai Anderson, who stood with his mother, Gabrielle Hansell, the administrator of his estate, alongside their attorneys.
Anderson, 31, a high school English teacher in Washington, D.C., and cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, was the suspect in a hit-and-run traffic collision when he was stopped by police in Venice. He later ran from officers and resisted arrest, police said.
Anderson screamed for help after he was pinned to the street by officers and repeatedly shocked, according to video released by the department.
“They’re trying to kill me,” Anderson yelled.
Footage showed an officer pressing his forearm on Anderson’s chest and an elbow in this neck.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson said in reference to the Black man killed by officers in Minnesota.
“We can only wonder what Keenan Anderson meant,” attorney Ben Crump said. “But if he meant that he would end up dead at the end of the encounter at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department then Keenan Anderson was correct. They George Floyd him.”
Chief Michel Moore said Anderson initially complied with officers as they investigated whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But he was subdued after struggling with officers who had chased him when he bolted.
Anderson ran in fear — as other Black men have — when additional officers responding to a call for backup rushed toward him, Douglas said.
The claim said officers used unreasonable deadly force, carelessly and mistakenly deployed the Taser, failed to follow training on the dangers of asphyxiation while handcuffing Anderson and conspired with each other to hide and distort information in false police reports.
An LAPD toxicology test found cocaine and cannabis in Anderson’s body, the chief said. The coroner’s office will also perform a toxicology report.
The officers haven’t been named yet but their union issued a statement saying the family and attorneys were “trying to shamelessly profit” from a “tragic incident.”
An LAPD spokesperson declined comment citing a policy not to comment on pending litigation.
After being subdued, Anderson went into cardiac arrest and died at a hospital about four hours later.
CHICAGO (AP) — Lori Lightfoot made history as the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as Chicago mayor, sailing to victory four years ago as an outsider who vowed to rid City Hall of corruption and deliver a safer, more equitable city.
But her bid for a second term is very much in question amid concerns about continuing high crime in the nation’s third-largest city and accusations that she is overly hostile and sometimes flat-out mean — criticism she has dismissed as sexist and racist smears against a tough leader who is passionate about Chicago.
Ahead of a crowded Feb. 28 election, Lightfoot has been forced to go on the defensive in a heated race that has turned into both a personality contest and a policy debate.
“We have started to change Chicago around for the better,” Lightfoot said during a recent debate. “I want to finish the job that we have started.”
With nine candidates in the race, it is unlikely that anyone will exceed the 50% threshold needed to win the officially nonpartisan election outright. That means the winner is likely to be decided in an April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters.
Were she to lose, Lightfoot would be the first Chicago mayor in decades to run for reelection and fail. And unlike her predecessors, Lightfoot doesn’t enjoy a fundraising advantage over her top rivals.
The election will be an early test this year of how crime factors into mayoral races in big-city Democratic strongholds. Other major cities electing mayors this year, including Philadelphia, are also grappling with how to balance progressive ideals with residents’ day-to-day concerns about keeping their families safe.
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who had never before run for political office, emerged from a crowded field in 2019 to defeat far better known candidates with support from voters weary of political corruption and coverups.
She says her administration has made concrete progress on critical issues, from putting money into neighborhoods that have seen decades of disinvestment to taking illegal guns off the streets. But she notes that the last four years haven’t been easy, with a global pandemic and protests over police violence that she said represented “some of the toughest times that we’ve ever faced” in Chicago.
Lightfoot’s handling of crises has sometimes drawn praise, such as when she ordered lockdowns early in the coronavirus pandemic and an image of the stern-faced mayor became a popular meme. But at other times, Lightfoot’s actions have been questioned.
After the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police prompted protests and civil unrest, including smashing of storefront windows and fires, Lightfoot ordered the city to raise drawbridges over the Chicago River in an attempt to block protesters from entering the downtown area. Some in the city saw it as elitist, a way of protecting upscale parts of the highly segregated city at the expense of neighborhoods with struggling business districts that also suffered serious damage.
But Lightfoot has taken the most heat for increased crime, with homicides hitting a 25-year high in 2021 with roughly 800. Lightfoot says she has a plan that is working, noting that homicides decreased last year. But they are still higher than when she took office, and concerns have grown about other violent crime in the city, including carjackings.
“We’ve made progress year-over-year,” Lightfoot said. “But I recognize that people in the city don’t feel safe.”
Lightfoot’s most formidable opponent may be two-term U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a former member of the Chicago City Council, state Senate and county board who lost a runoff eight years ago against then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Lightfoot has run TV ads accusing Garcia of corruption, noting his House campaign took money from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX accused of massive financial fraud. Garcia said he didn’t know Bankman-Fried, and his campaign returned direct contributions.
Garcia touts his record of working with communities across the city and playing well with others in a way that he says Lightfoot does not.
“She is combative, unnecessarily. She is over the top,” Garcia said.
Elected as a reform-minded outsider who would rid the city of pay-to-play politics, Lightfoot was criticized when a campaign staffer sent out an email to public school teachers seeking students to volunteer for the campaign in exchange for class credit. Lightfoot apologized, calling it a mistake. Inspectors general are reviewing for possible policy violations.
Some of Lightfoot’s biggest battles have been with the Chicago Teachers Union, which backed her opponent in Lightfoot’s first run for mayor. The two sides butted heads during an 11-day teachers strike in 2019 and bickered over returning to in-school instruction during the pandemic.
This year, the teachers union has endorsed Lightfoot rival Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and former Chicago teacher and union organizer. Johnson, who has criticized Lightfoot for running as a progressive and then breaking campaign promises, wants to shift money away from the police department and toward better mental health care and other services for long-neglected neighborhoods like the one where he lives on the city’s West Side.
Lightfoot has also clashed with the Chicago police union, the Fraternal Order of Police. At a City Council meeting, Lightfoot was caught on a microphone referring to a union leader as “this FOP clown.”
The police union has endorsed mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, a former city budget director and schools leader who served as an adviser to the police union during negotiations with City Hall. He’s repeatedly called for more police officers, saying, “Crime is out of control.”
Lightfoot has criticized Vallas as a Republican in disguise, noting he has received campaign contributions from GOP donors. Her campaign blasted him for being too cozy with the police union, calling its leader a “notorious bigot” and supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Lightfoot has increased her support in some areas of the city. Former Rep. Bobby Rush, a major critic during her first campaign turned prominent booster this year, joined Reps. Danny Davis and Robin Kelly — whose districts include predominantly Black neighborhoods — in praising her commitment to investing in the areas. Lightfoot maintained that commitment, Rush said, even “under the toughest of circumstances.”
The mayor points to a record of achievements that include pushing through a $15 minimum wage that labor unions had sought for years and approval of a long-sought casino that’s expected to bring millions in revenue and thousands of jobs. She also has budgeted over $3 million to protect access to abortion, including for people who travel to Chicago from states where the procedure is illegal.
In addition to Garcia, Vallas and Johnson, the other candidates running are wealthy businessman Willie Wilson, Chicago City Council members Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, activist Ja’Mal Green and state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner.
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This story has been corrected by deleting the reference to Atlanta as among the major cities electing a mayor in 2023 and to state that the Chicago Teachers Union backed Lightfoot’s opponent in 2019.
GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paid a solemn visit Saturday to the salmon-colored house on an island off Senegal that is one of the most recognized symbols of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade that trapped tens of millions of Africans in bondage for generations.
Yellen, in Senegal as part of a 10-day trip aimed at rebuilding economic relationships between the U.S. and Africa, stood in the Gorée Island building known as the House of Slaves and peered out of the “Door of No Return,” from which enslaved people were shipped across the Atlantic.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen delivers a speech on Goree Island, Senegal, Saturday Jan. 21, 2023. Yellen has paid a solemn visit to an island off Senegal that is one of the most recognized symbols of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade that trapped tens of millions of Africans in bondage. She is in Senegal as part of a 10-day trip aimed at rebuilding economic relationships between the U.S. and Africa. (AP Photo/Stefan Kleinowitz)
She was guided on a tour through various corridors and tight quarters in the house, shaking her head in disgust at what she was told about the economics of how slaves were valued.
“Gorée and the trans-Atlantic slave trade are not just a part of African history. They are a part of American history as well,” Yellen said later in brief remarks during her visit.
“We know that the tragedy did not stop with the generation of humans taken from here,” she added. “Even after slavery was abolished, Black Americans — many of whom can trace their descendance through ports like this across Africa — were denied the rights and freedoms promised to them under our Constitution.”
Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Yellen said that while promoting diversity and racial equality is a key goal, “the administration has not embraced reparations as part of the answer.”
The economic benefits that major slave-trading nations, including the United States, reaped for hundreds of years on the backs of unpaid labor could amount to tens of trillions of dollars, according to research on the commerce.
And in the U.S., African slaves and their children contributed to the building of the nation’s most storied institutions, including the White House and Capitol, according to the White House Historical Association.
Yellen acknowledged the ongoing ramifications of that brutal past in her public remarks.
“In both Africa and the United States, even as we have made tremendous strides, we are still living with the brutal consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” she said.
In a guest book at the house, she wrote that it served as “an important reminder that the histories of Africa and America are intimately connected. While I am pained by its past, I am also heartened by the vibrant community I have seen here. I take from this place the importance of redoubling our commitment to fight for our shared principles and values of freedom and human rights wherever they are threatened — in Africa, in the United States, and around the world.”
Yellen’s trip to the island is one that many dignitaries have made, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Today, Gorée Island is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Yellen’s stop there during a trip meant to revitalize U.S.-African economic relations is one that evoked the massive costs of the slave trade. There has been a resurgence in interest in determining the true cost of slavery on the generations impacted.
The House Financial Services Committee in recent years has studied how U.S. banks and insurance companies profited from the practice of slavery before it was outlawed in 1865. There have also been hearings on the study and development of reparations proposals in the United States.
In the AP interview, Yellen said the administration was “working in many ways in communities of color and low-income communities to try to bring more capital to advance lending and other things,” she said. “It’s a critically important goal.”
When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field in the middle of the “Monday Night Football” game in Cincinnati on Jan. 2, Carrie Hastings, half a continent away, understood what she needed to do — and right away.
“I had a few guys that I sort of immediately knew I should check in on,” said Hastings, the Los Angeles Rams’ sports psychologist and mental health clinician. “A couple of spouses and significant others, too.”
Hastings’ familiarity with the Rams’ personnel, and with which players might be emotionally traumatized after watching Hamlin’s shocking medical emergency, was the product of her having spent six seasons with the club — getting to know the athletes, meeting rookies when they first arrive, and making herself a regular presence at the Rams’ facility.
Across the NFL, no such continuity of care exists. The league is working its way toward the kind of mental health support for its players, coaches, and staff in which a range of counseling is standard and readily accessible.
It was just over three years ago, in 2019, that the NFL implemented a formal program to manage its employees’ mental health needs. That came as part of a new collective bargaining agreement, after the NFL Players Association pushed hard for its creation. Among other things, the agreement mandates that each team have a licensed behavioral health clinician on staff.
But individual franchises still have great latitude in implementing that directive. Some have full-time sports psychologists; others employ clinicians part time, while a few contract with outside providers and make them available to players, Hastings said. And clinicians aren’t required to have any sports background, which some sports psychologists see as a critical flaw.
It’s often the case that a player comes in for something performance-related, and that opens up the door for conversations in other areas of mental health.
CARRIE HASTINGS, LOS ANGELES RAMS’ SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST AND MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIAN
“This is a very specialized area,” said Sam Maniar, a psychologist who consults for the Cleveland Browns and formerly worked as the team’s full-time clinician. “The environment of athletics, and especially at the highest level, is something that does require specialization, and not every clinician being brought into the NFL has that.”
Hastings was a sprinter and hurdler in her undergraduate years at Notre Dame, has deep professional experience with athletes, and is listed in the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s registry for sports psychology and mental training. She keeps her private practice a short drive from the Rams’ training facility in Agoura Hills, northwest of Los Angeles, and though technically a part-time employee, Hastings said she is at the facility three or four times a week “and basically on call 24/7 during the season.”
In that capacity, Hastings has worked to forge a foundation of trust with elite athletes who often think of a sports psychologist only in terms of getting them primed to compete.
“It’s often the case that a player comes in for something performance-related, and that opens up the door for conversations in other areas of mental health,” she said. “The relationship deepens.”
That kind of ingrained presence with teams is crucial, clinicians say, particularly as some athletes have begun to speak more openly about the mental and emotional challenges they face and have indirectly encouraged their peers to be more open to getting help.
Tennis sensation Naomi Osaka, Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Michael Phelps, NBA stars Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan all have publicly discussed their mental health challenges over the past decade, and several have led campaigns to raise awareness. “I credit them for discussing their struggles and the great benefits they received by accessing some care that was available to them,” said Maniar, who runs an athletic performance center in Ohio and works with college and high school football teams beyond his relationship with the Browns.
The NFL is a difficult arena for such conversations. Players in the league are accustomed to working through all manner of pain and injury practically as a job condition, and for much of the league’s existence, its athletes essentially were trained to show no vulnerability.
It’s hard to describe how I felt and how my teammates felt in that moment. It’s something we’ll never forget.
JOSH ALLEN, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK
The implementation of a leaguewide program, though an important milestone, hasn’t radically accelerated the pace of change. “I think the NFL is still a dinosaur in that respect,” Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told The New York Times two seasons ago. “There’s a stigma around talking about feelings, struggles, and dealing with stress. There’s a lot of vernacular that seems to tag it as weakness.”
The players union has become more aggressive in addressing the issue. “NFL players are often seen as the pinnacle of masculinity, and because caring about our own mental well-being and seeking support has not historically been associated with masculinity, too many of us do not prioritize that aspect of our health,” union president JC Tretter, an eight-year NFL veteran, wrote in a 2021 blog post to players, urging them to make use of the resources available.
Hamlin’s highly unusual emergency, in which he required on-field CPR before being transported to a hospital from the Cincinnati stadium where the Bills and Bengals were playing, “really created anxiety in some players, and it triggered others,” Hastings said. In addition to contacting several players individually, she sent out a message across the Rams organization reminding the athletes, coaches, and staff she was available to talk.
“A lot of them were receptive,” Hastings said. “The elephant in the room is mortality. The players know they can be hurt, and they’ve all dealt with injuries, but this included an element over which they had no control.”
Players from the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals stood in stunned silence as Hamlin lay on the field. Days later, Buffalo players still struggled to articulate their feelings. “The scene replays over and over in your head,” quarterback Josh Allen said during a news conference, fighting back tears. “It’s hard to describe how I felt and how my teammates felt in that moment. It’s something we’ll never forget.”
Hamlin’s subsequent progress, including his release from hospital care to convalesce at home, “will help alleviate some of the trauma the players have been undergoing,” said Dr. Joshua Norman, an Ohio State University sports psychiatrist who often works with athletes on processing emotions. “But even though they try to compartmentalize things, these players have witnessed a serious injury. Some of them will have a strong reaction.”
Dr. Claudia Reardon, a University of Wisconsin psychiatrist, said the term “vicarious trauma” applies in this case. “The original traumatic event didn’t happen to you personally, but it is experienced as traumatic to have witnessed it or learned about it,” Reardon said. Reactions range from fear and helplessness to nightmares and flashbacks, she said, and some athletes will try to avoid “people, places, or things that remind them of the trauma they witnessed.”
Players are talking about these kinds of issues with each other more often, and they’re doing so very publicly.
CARRIE HASTINGS, LOS ANGELES RAMS’ SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST AND MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIAN
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few players retire early,” Maniar said. “And a big concern is a player going out there and playing hesitantly or in fear. That is a sure way to get hurt in a sport like football, and this is a league where the contracts are not guaranteed. You’ve heard the saying ‘NFL means not for long.’ The players feel that pressure.”
The NFL’s best chance to make big strides in its mental health coverage, clinicians say, may derive from the simple fact that it is continually drafting and developing new talent. “The younger generation is just more sophisticated about mental health, period,” said Norman. “They come to a college campus often already having established some connection with their mental health needs, through counseling or other means. They’re more open to the idea of dealing with their mental health.”
Within franchise complexes, the work goes on. Both Hastings and Maniar were hired by their NFL teams years before the league made a clinician mandatory, and both made sure they kept an office away from the practice facility for those players who weren’t comfortable seeing them at work. But lately, Hastings said, that, too, is changing.
“Players are talking about these kinds of issues with each other more often, and they’re doing so very publicly,” she said. “In many ways, we’ve been building out our mental health protocol since I was brought on in 2017.” In the NFL, it is proving a slow turn.
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This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s easy to forget how many hit songs Drake created in his nearly 15-year musical career. But he presented an emphatic reminder with an intimate concert at Harlem’s Apollo Theater on Saturday, his first-ever show at the legendary venue.
During the performance, the four-time Grammy winner teased that new music could be on the way, despite releasing two albums last year.
“I thought about a bunch of things in life, but at this moment in time, none of those things are stopping making music for you,” Drake told the doting crowd. “I hope I can strike up some more emotions for you, maybe this year — I might get bored and make another one.”
The first night of two Apollo weekend shows presented by SiriusXM, featured the 36-year-old ripping off songs at a frantic pace — most with just a verse and chorus — satisfying day-one fans with fan-favorite, deep non-radio cuts as well as those only familiar with his No. 1 hits. The recorded performances will air on Drake’s SiriusXM Sound 42 channel in the coming weeks.
Noting this was his first show in about five years and later stating “I’ll be out and about on the road a lot this year,” Spotify’s most-streamed artist in the U.S. last year told his captivated audience the show was about gratefulness.
“I wanted to make this a show about gratitude,” Drake said. “This is a little story we put together: my deep love for my family, for my dear friends and each and every one of you that have been supporting me for a long time.”
Donning cornrows while wearing baggy jeans and a blue and yellow Jimmy Brooks basketball jersey — a nod to his days as an actor on the teen drama series “Degrassi” — Drake opened the performance with “Over My Dead Body” as celebrity guests such as Justin and Hailey Bieber, former NBA MVP and current Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, NFL star Odell Beckham Jr., rappers A$AP Ferg and A Boogie wit da Hoodie watched.
Sitting on a bed positioned stage-right, modeled after his bedroom in his mom’s Toronto basement where he said he wrote songs, Drake belted out many of his down-tempo, B-side hits such as “Wu-Tang Forever,” “Trust Issues,” “Practice” and “Feel No Ways.”
He also sang his most popular deep cut, “Marvin’s Room,” as the standing-room only crowd joined him word-for-word before transitioning into his hook from Timbaland’s “Say Something” as the “Marvin’s Room” beat continued.
As the bedroom set dimmed and the light shifted to the left side of the stage, revealing a board room, Drake changed into a black leather hoodie with his OVO owl symbol. The rapper stood in front of a performer playing a record label exec who skeptically noted it was “interesting” he was a rapper from Canada, before saying, “Alright, let’s see what you got.” (Drake would later remind the crowd how every major record label in New York passed on him.)
Starting with “Best I Ever Had,” the R&B smash that jump-started his career, he continued his musical journey with early Young Money-era hits such as Headlines, “HYFR,” “Started From the Bottom” and “I’m on One.” The crowd also two-stepped to his more danceable records like “Massive” from last year’s “Honestly, Nevermind” project, as well as “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” “One Dance,” “Passionfruit” and “In My Feelings.”
The final leg of the 90-minute set opened with a surprise performance by the popular early 2000s Harlem rap collective, The Diplomats, which featured Drake wearing Cam’ron’s signature pink hoodie and headband. He was then joined by 21 Savage to perform songs such as “Rich Flex,” “Spin Bout You” and “Knife Talk” from their joint project, “Her Loss,” released in November.
The longtime tagline for the Apollo is “Where Stars are Born and Legends are Made!” So it was either strategic or serendipitous that he ended the show with “Legend.” While it might be too soon to drape him with the legend moniker in the manner that Apollo Walk of Fame icons such Michael Jackson, Prince, Aretha Franklin James Brown carry, he left no doubt that he is well on his way.
By CHRIS MEGERIAN and SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris railed against efforts in Washington and in Republican-led states to restrict abortion on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, invoking fundamental American values such as freedom to make the case for protecting abortion access despite the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate constitutional protections for it.
Leading the administration’s response on commemorating Roe on Sunday, Harris methodically detailed fights throughout history for certain liberties, such as civil rights and the right to vote for women, and tied that to access for abortion, which Harris called the “fundamental, constitutional, right of a woman to make decisions about her own body.”
“Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives?” Harris said in a fiery speech before a boisterous crowd of 1,500 people in Tallahassee, Florida. “And can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be quote, I quote, on the vanguard of freedom while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom?”
Women’s marches demanding the protection of abortion rights were set to draw thousands of people across the country on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established a federal right to an abortion.
Harris outlined the consequences of abortion restrictions: The 10-year-old girl in Ohio who became pregnant after a rape but had to travel out of state for an abortion. A 35-year-old Texas woman who was denied treatment three times for what turned out to be a miscarriage, and developed sepsis, nearly killing her. A 14-year-old in Arizona who initially could not obtain medication to control her chronic arthritis, because that medication also can cause pregnancy loss.
“The right of every woman, in every state in this country to make decisions about her own body is on the line,” Harris said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: How dare they. How dare they?”
The decision for Harris to speak in Tallahassee, the state capital, reflects how the battle lines have shifted since last summer. Now that there’s no more national right to abortion, battles over the issue w ill play out in individual statehouses rather than in the halls of Congress or before the Supreme Court. White House officials this past week convened top lawmakers from eight states to discuss pending legislation.
In addition, after performing better than expected in November’s elections, Democrats see abortion as a key issue for their party in 2024, when control of the White House and both chambers of Congress will be up for grabs at the same time. In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis may seek the Republican presidential nomination, the first step to challenging President Joe Biden, who has been preparing for a reelection campaign.
Ahead of her speech, Harris told abortion rights advocates on a conference call Sunday that they should keep up their energy as they push back against restrictions in Republican-led states and work on behalf of candidates in local races who support abortion access.
“We are fighting for something. History is going to show we are on the right side of this issue,” Harris said. “So let us not be deterred, let us not be overwhelmed. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Florida is critical because its rules for abortion are less restrictive than its neighbors, making it a relatively safe harbor for women in the region who are trying to end their pregnancies. But more restrictions could be considered by the Republican-controlled state government.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden, in a statement Sunday, said “women should be able to make these deeply personal decisions free from political interference. Yet, Republicans in Congress and across the country continue to push for a national abortion ban, to criminalize doctors and nurses, and to make contraception harder to access. It’s dangerous, extreme, and out of touch.”
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has worked with Biden, said the White House strategy on abortion had three goals.
“You can create an atmosphere and put pressure on these states to make it more difficult to pass draconian restrictions,” she said. In addition, Lake said, “you can set up the contrast for 2024″ and “you can use this as a major motivator for people to turn out to vote.”
Democrats have concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade reshaped the political landscape for last year’s elections, rejuvenating the party’s chances when analysts had expected a Republican wipeout.
Democrats still lost control of the House and expanded their Senate majority by only one vote, meaning legislation that would create a nationwide right to abortion remains out of reach.
There are concerns that Biden and his administration have exhausted their options for executive actions.
The Food and Drug Administration announced this month that abortion pills would become more widely available at pharmacies and through the mail. The pills can also be obtained through a virtual appointment, rather than by visiting a doctor’s office.
A legal battle is now playing out in federal court in Texas, where abortion opponents have sued to undo the decades-old approval of the drugs.
“The administration is really looking at existing federal law, and trying to leverage it,” said Lawrence Gostin, who runs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law.
Not all of the administration’s ideas have panned out. Biden announced last year that states could apply for waivers to use Medicaid dollars to pay for women to travel to get abortions. No waivers have been sought.
Across states, the fight to protect abortion access is playing out in courtrooms, with active litigation against abortion restrictions in 14 states, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The nonprofit health organization found that advocates have generally taken one of three approaches to mounting legal challenges against abortion laws by claiming the laws violate state constitutional protections, infringe on some states’ guaranteed rights to make health care choices, or block religious freedoms.
It’s unclear which legal arguments may be most successful, with the states’ highest courts ultimately deciding how accessible abortion will be. Meanwhile, abortion opponents are searching for ways to use the courts to further restrict abortion.
Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of the group We Testify, which advocates for women who have had abortions, said she is disappointed that Biden hasn’t done more.
“The fact that he is missing in action during this public health emergency is really embarrassing,” she said.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., had joined with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., last year to call on Biden to formally declare a public health emergency.
Biden never did, but Smith said she is satisfied with the steps he has taken.
“I’d be hard pressed to point to something that they haven’t done that they might have done with a public health emergency,” she said.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is the second Cabinet member heading to Africa as part of President Joe Biden’s big push to engage with the world’s second-largest continent.
The U.S. Mission to the U.N. said Sunday she will travel to Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya starting Jan. 25 “to affirm and strengthen our partnerships with key current and former U.N. Security Council members.”
Thomas-Greenfield’s visit follows last week’s start of a 10-day African visit by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. She arrived in Dakar, Senegal late Wednesday and will also visit Zambia and South Africa.
Biden announced at the end of a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December that he will visit sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, the first trip to the region by a U.S. leader in a decade.
The summit and trip are aimed at strengthening U.S. relations with Africa, where China has surpassed the U.S. in trade and is aiming to increase its military presence, and Russia has military ties with the authorities in Mali and Central African Republic.
Biden stressed at the summit that he is serious about increasing U.S. attention to the continent and told the 49 African leaders attending the meeting in Washington that “Africa belongs at the table” in every conversation of global consequences.
The first stop for Thomas-Greenfield, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, is Ghana, which is in the second year of a two-year term as an elected member of the Security Council. On Jan. 25 she will meet with women leaders and civil society representatives, the U.S. mission said.
Thomas-Greenfield then heads to Mozambique, which is just starting its first-ever two-year term on the council.
During her visit on Jan. 26-27, the U.S. mission said she will meet with U.N. officials, entrepreneurs, alumni of U.S. exchange programs, international relations students and civil society members engaged in work to adapt to climate change, the mission said.
The ambassador’s final stop on Jan. 28-29 is Kenya, whose two-year term on the council ended on Dec. 31.
The U.S. mission called Kenya “a key partner” and said Thomas-Greenfield’s visit will focus on humanitarian programs, including the regional response to drought and assistance to refugees, and on “the impact Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to have on global food security, which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The ambassador will also meet refugees pending resettlement in the United States and Kenya-based entrepreneurs “at the forefront of the country’s transition to a green economy,” the mission said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials want to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like the annual flu shot.
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus.
This means Americans would no longer have to keep track of how many shots they’ve received or how many months it’s been since their last booster.
The proposal comes as boosters have become a hard sell. While more than 80% of the U.S. population has had at least one vaccine dose, only 16% of those eligible have received the latest boosters authorized in August.
The FDA will ask its panel of outside vaccine experts to weigh in at a meeting Thursday. The agency is expected to take their advice into consideration while deciding future vaccine requirements for vaccine makers.
In documents posted online, FDA scientists say many Americans now have “sufficient preexisting immunity” against the coronavirus because of vaccination, infection or a combination of the two. That baseline of protection should be enough to move to an annual booster against the latest strains in circulation and make COVID-19 vaccinations more like the yearly flu shot, according to the agency.
For adults with weakened immune systems and very small children, a two-dose combination may be needed for protection. FDA scientists and vaccine companies would study vaccination, infection rates and other data to decide who should receive a single shot versus a two-dose series.
FDA will also seek input on switching all vaccines to target the same strains. That step would be needed to make the shots interchangeable, doing away with the current complicated system of primary vaccinations and boosters.
The initial shots from Pfizer and Moderna — called the primary series — target the strain of the virus that first emerged in 2020 and quickly swept across the world. The updated boosters launched last fall were also tweaked to target omicron relatives that had been dominant.
Under FDA’s proposal, the agency, independent experts and manufacturers would decide annually on which strains to target by the early summer, allowing several months to produce and launch updated shots before the fall. That’s roughly the same approach long used to select the strains for the annual flu shot.
Ultimately, FDA officials say moving to an annual schedule would make it easier to promote future vaccination campaigns, which could ultimately boost vaccination rates nationwide.
The original two-dose COVID shots have offered strong protection against severe disease and death no matter the variant, but protection against mild infection wanes. Experts continue to debate whether the latest round of boosters significantly enhanced protection, particularly for younger, healthy Americans.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
By TERRY SPENCER and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reiterated Monday the state’s rejection of a proposed nationwide advanced African American studies course, saying it pushes a political agenda — something three authors cited in the state’s criticism accused him of doing in return.
DeSantis said his administration rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course because “we want education, not indoctrination.” It was revealed last week that the Florida Department of Education recently told the College Board it would bar the course unless changes are made.
The state then issued a chart late Friday that says the course promotes the idea that modern American society oppresses Black people, other minorities and women, includes a chapter on “Black Queer Studies” that the administration finds inappropriate, and uses articles by critics of capitalism.
The governor said the course violates legislation dubbed the Stop WOKE Act he signed last year. It bars instruction that defines people as necessarily oppressed or privileged based on their race. At least some writers the course cites believe modern U.S. society endorses white supremacy while oppressing racial minorities, gays and women.
“This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda,” said DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell called the administration’s rejection of the course “cowardly” and said it “sends a clear message that Black Americans’ history does not count in Florida.”
“Imagine how boring and closed minded we’d all be if we only met ideas that we agreed with,” she said Monday.
The College Board, after a decade of development, is testing the African American Studies course at 60 high schools nationwide. No school or state would be required to offer it after its scheduled rollout.
The organization offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. Taught at a college level, students who score high enough on the course’s final exam usually earn course credit at their university.
The College Board hasn’t responded to emails and calls since Friday. It issued a statement last week saying it encourages feedback and will consider changes.
The state, in its Friday chart, criticized five living authors. The Associated Press emailed them and three responded.
— The section on “Black Queer Studies” includes readings by Roderick Ferguson, a Yale University professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies. The state says he “exclaims, ‘We have to encourage and develop practices whereby queerness isn’t a surrender to the status quo of race, class, gender and sexuality.’”
Ferguson said that quote comes from an interview he did about his book, “One-Dimensional Queer.” The book, he said, is a discussion of “employment discrimination, laws against LGBTQ+ people, the suppression of progressive movements in the U.S., police violence against minority communities, restrictions on immigration (and) anti-black racism.”
“These are real histories. The arguments about them are based on scholarly investigation and research — as are the arguments from the other scholars on this list,” Ferguson said. “Unfortunately, we are in a moment in which right-wing forces are mobilizing to suppress the free discussion of those realities. If we need an example of that mobilization, we could probably just turn to the forces that came together to reject this course.”
— The state calls out the course for including “Black Study, Black Struggle,” a 2016 piece by UCLA history professor Robin D.G. Kelley, saying he “argues that activism, rather than the university system, is the catalyst for social transformation.” Kelley called that description oversimplified.
His piece challenges student activists to move their efforts beyond campus and decries racism, inequality, capitalism, militarism and police brutality. But he also said activists must love everyone, “even those who may once have been our oppressors,” and read and understand Western literature if they are to criticize it.
He said one point is “that we should not pay so much emphasis on trauma and victimization, but instead understand how we have fought for justice not just for Black people but for the whole nation (yes including struggling white people), despite the violence and oppression we have experienced.”
The state also points out Kelley wrote the 1990 book “Hammer and Hoe,” a history of communism in Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“It won several awards and accolades, including from a few conservative anti-Communist historians, because it is based on thorough research — something DeSantis’s people are not familiar with,” Kelley said.
— The state criticized the inclusion of a section about “Movement for Black Lives,” a coalition of more than 50 groups including Black Lives Matter and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. It says the group wants to abolish prisons and that it alleges there is a “war” against gay and transsexual Black people.
The state criticizes the section’s inclusion of a reading by Leslie Kay Jones, an assistant sociology professor at Rutgers University. It cites her quote, “Black people produce an unquantifiable amount of content for the same social media corporations that reproduce the white supremacist superstructure that suppresses us.”
Jones said she found no indication that the Movement for Black Lives has ever advocated for prison abolition. She is surprised DeSantis’ staff attacked her for criticizing social media companies, as he does the same.
She said this is why students should have the ability “to come to their own conclusions through an evaluation of primary and secondary texts.”
“Is Ron DeSantis claiming that Florida students are unable to formulate their own opinions?” she said. ___
For some, it may be hard to imagine barely escaping alive from one of the biggest mass genocides in world history, or hearing stories about family members who were the victims of a catastrophe of that magnitude. But for Jewish Americans living in California that scenario is a painful and present truth that they live with, respectfully acknowledging and memorializing it every year.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), commemorated yearly on January 27, is a memorial day established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 to honor victims (and their families) who suffered from the German genocide that lasted more than a decade. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the day of commemoration was established for several purposes. Among them are serving as an official date to honor victims of the Nazi regime and promoting Holocaust education worldwide.
In Jewish communities, January 27 is known as Yom HaShoah. Families and communities will often light Yahrzeit candles — Yahrzeit means anniversary (specifically related to someone’s death) — to honor those who were murdered in the Holocaust. The candle burns for 24 hours, and it is custom to light it at sundown on the day before Yom HaShoah. Occasionally, electric Yahrzeit candles are used as a substitute and are plugged into a wall in places like hospitals, for safety reasons.
In Los Angeles, at the Holocaust Museum LA, visitors can see firsthand artifacts that were personal items from survivors and other memorabilia. This museum, founded in 1961, is the oldest survivor-founded Holocaust exhibit in the United States that is solely focused on the impact of the mass genocide. The experience is free for students, and the museum offers tours, educational programs, and conversations with survivors meant to inspire critical thinking and show the Holocaust’s current social relevance.
Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center, says that she is dedicated to raising social awareness about Jewish history and inspiring social responsibility.
“The JFCS Holocaust Center was founded by Holocaust survivors through perseverance and determination to fight antisemitism. We continue to share their testimony with thousands of students each year,” said Schneider. “This week, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and every week throughout the year, the JFCS Holocaust Center works in partnership with CA teachers to bring lessons of the Holocaust and genocide into classrooms throughout California to inspire social responsibility and moral courage in today’s youth.”
The JFCS Holocaust Center is a program of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. It holds more than 13,000 books and several thousand documents, photographs, and artifacts in the Tauber Holocaust Library and Archives.
For Brandon Brooks, director of California Black Media’s Stop the Hate Project, it is critical for Californians — and all Americans — to recognize and uplift the experiences and perspectives of their neighbors from other ethnic groups. Funded by the California State Library, the Stop the Hate project aims to eradicate hate crimes and hate incidents in the state and promote inter-cultural understanding and cooperation.
“For Black Americans, the way we identify with the horror stories of the Holocaust is immediate and deeply sympathetic. It is a recognition based, in part, on our own collective memory of slavery, exclusion and suffering because of who we are – not what we did – as a people,” he says. “The only way we, Americans from all backgrounds, can begin to do something about the division, misunderstanding and normalization of racial and ethnic hatred that we see trying to flourish in our society is to fight it by learning; push back on it by listening. Get to know about each other’s histories, celebrate each other’s traditions, embrace the things that unite us as Americans and take a hard, uncompromising stance against hatred in any form and the violence it triggers.”
Notably, the dedication to honoring IHRD extends incredibly far beyond California, where there are an estimated 1.19 million people of Jewish descent (about 3% of the state’s population), based on U.S. Census numbers compiled by World Population Review.
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, 39 countries participated in IHRD commemorating ceremonies in 2015. Many of those countries hosted lectures, showed films, or lit candles while reading names of the victims. Additionally, many participating countries established their own remembrance days that linked to events caused by the Holocaust.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) — established in 1945 to promote international cooperation through education, science, and culture — has also fought to counter antisemitism and other forms of group-targeted violence.
“The Holocaust profoundly affected countries in which Nazi crimes were perpetrated, with universal implications and consequences in many other parts of the world,” reads the UNESCO site. “As genocide and atrocity crimes keep occurring across several regions, and as we are witnessing a global rise of antisemitism and hate speech, [sharing a collective responsibility] has never been so relevant.”
This California Black Media feature was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
No Labels, a nonprofit think tank that describes itself as a national movement of Democrats, Republicans, and independents working to solve the country’s most complex problems, has named Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. as its national co-chair.
The formal announcement occurred during a Zoom news conference on January 22.
It included welcome messages from Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), and former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, among others.
Recording star Deborah Cox opened the introductory news conference by performing a spirited song about No Labels, who created the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus and an allied Senate group that led passage of some of the most important legislation of recent years, including the CHIPS Act, a gun safety bill, and a rewrite of the Electoral Count Act in 2022.
Voiceovers were woven in of former U.S. Presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
The organization then played a tribute video that included Dr. Chavis’ family and his legendary career as a civil rights leader.
“As the new co-chair of No Labels, I’m proud to continue to be the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association on the 196th anniversary of the Black Press of America,” Dr. Chavis stated. “Working with former Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former Gov. Larry Hogan as co-chairs, I believe this will lift up the Black Press of America and elevate its visibility in the American mainstream politics, business, economics, and public policy that will affect the quality of life in the communities in which we serve.”
Dr. Chavis continued.
“As a veteran of the civil rights movement, during the last six decades, I’ve learned a few things about the importance of people working together across lines of race, ethnicity, language, geography, and the things that divide us. I want to work on things that unite us as Americans. I believe No Labels offers that opportunity but also that responsibility to move forward.”
Lieberman, a former U.S. Senator from Connecticut, who changed parties in 2006 and is now an Independent, said No Labels is fortunate to have Dr. Chavis on board.
“Based on his history as a civil rights leader and the kind of person he is, I’m thrilled. Dr. Chavis has always been a bridge-builder and will bring civility, which is sorely needed in our government and our country,” Lieberman asserted.
Hogan, who served two terms as Maryland governor, also congratulated Dr. Chavis.
“I’m thrilled to congratulate Dr. Chavis and welcome him to No Labels. I know Dr. Chavis will be a great addition to the leadership team of No Labels,” Hogan stated.
“He shares our commitment to bringing people together to achieve common sense solutions for all Americans. Having worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Chavis knows what it means to fight for freedom and respect for all Americans, and that’s exactly what No Labels stand for,” Hogan concluded.
Manchin, the conservative-leaning Democrat, said he got involved with No Labels more than 12 years ago because the organization works to unite America.
“We’re still working to unite this country,” Manchin declared.
“What we’ve done in the last two years in a bipartisan way because of No Labels has been [major].
“So I’m thrilled to have the experience of Dr. Chavis and the wealth of knowledge he’s gained over the years that he’ll share with us to help make us a more perfect union.”
In welcoming Dr. Chavis, Collins, Maine’s longest-serving Senator, lent her voice.
“As a highly respected civil rights leader, his service alongside Sen. Lieberman and Gov. Hogan will help move our organization and nation forward,” Collins insisted.
“Dr. Chavis has dedicated his life to championing equality and encouraging our nation to live up to its ideals. He believes in American unity, democracy, and opportunity for all.”
Dr. Chavis said his life’s work had taught him that if everyone works together, divisions can be overcome.
“And when we overcome divisions, we make progress,” he insisted.
“I believe we need to restore bipartisanship in the American Congress. We need to restore bipartisanship at the state legislative level.
“We need to restore bipartisanship at the local and municipal level. Americans today are worn out with all the divisions and looking for a way forward. No Labels offer that way forward.”
The open enrollment period for Californians to secure health insurance plans ends this week on Jan. 31,
Depending on your situation, there are multiple options to explore when searching for a plan that is best for you through Covered California.
Covered California is the state’s health exchange marketplace created to get Californians quality health insurance through brand name plans like Kaiser Permanente, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna and many others.
One option is to buy a plan through Covered California. If you qualify for a tax credit to help offset your premiums, you may want to buy a plan through the marketplace. Qualifying usually depends on your income and household size. Your total household income must be between 128% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
Another option is to renew or change your current plan. During the open enrollment period, you can renew your existing plan. You won’t have to do anything if you want to keep what you have. But if your current plan is changing — for instance, your Primary Care Physician (PCP) is leaving the network, or your drugs aren’t in the list of covered medications — then you may want to switch to a plan that best suits your current needs. If you need to change policies, the open enrollment period is the best time.
You can also enroll in Medi-Cal. If your income is below 128% of the FPL, you qualify for Medi-Cal, which is Medicaid for Californians.
“The pandemic took a toll on us in so many ways, including our behavioral and mental health, which are critical to our ability to live happy, healthy and productive lives,” said Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California. “Getting the right behavioral health care starts with making sure people have health insurance with access to quality providers, and that can be done right now through Covered California’s open enrollment.”
Cameron Nelson is an artist and painter living in San Diego who plans to enroll with Covered California.
“As an independent artist I am the one responsible for finding healthcare since I don’t have a traditional job where it’s provided for me. Many of my friends who make a living off their art don’t have plans because they think it is too expensive to cover on their own. I’ve found the options the state provides to be helpful in my situation and I hope that my example can encourage other sole proprietors to do the same.”
The only other way to buy an insurance plan outside of open enrollment is to qualify for special enrollment. This timeframe is called the Special Enrollment Period (SEP). This exception allows you to apply for health insurance if you’ve had certain qualifying life events, such as losing your job, moving to a new state, getting married or divorced, becoming a widow or widower, aging off your parent’s plan or having a new baby.
You won’t be eligible for special enrollment if you lost your previous health plan because you failed to pay your monthly premiums or if you voluntarily cancelled the coverage.
Visit Health for California to get more information on plans that work best for you before the deadline arrives.
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