The Full Belmonte, 3/26/2023
A view of the damage after powerful storms and tornadoes tore through Mississippi.
“As Mississippi picks up the pieces after deadly tornado-spawning storms, more than 20 million people are under the risk for severe storms across much of the South and parts of the Midwest today. The powerful storms and tornadoes that pummeled the region Friday night killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.” [CNN]
“At least three people are dead and four are unaccounted for following an explosion at a candy factory in eastern Pennsylvania, and hope of finding more survivors is waning, according to local officials. The explosion occurred at the R.M. Palmer Co. facility in West Reading.” [CNN]
“The Los Angeles Unified School District and Service Employees International Union Local 99 reached a deal following a three-day strike, officials said. The union represents about 30,000 custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers and was calling for increased wages and better working conditions.” [CNN]
“Donald Trump baselessly railed against what he called ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ at a campaign rally in Waco, Texas, denying any wrongdoing amid investigations in New York, Georgia and Washington. The probe into Trump’s role in an alleged hush money payment scheme to an adult film star is believed to be nearing its end.” [CNN]
As footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is displayed in the background, former President Donald Trump stands while a song, ‘Justice for All,’ is played during a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco,
“Gwyneth Paltrow, the award-winning actress facing a civil trial for a 2016 skiing crash at a Utah resort, testified that she ‘froze’ when a man allegedly skied directly into her back, causing them to collapse to the ground as their skis tangled together.” [CNN]
The US organ transplant system is outdated – and costing lives. An overhaul is underway.
The federal government is seeking to dismantle the network running the nation’s transplant system for the past four decades that experts say has failed people of color most.
“In the United States, about 20 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. Patients sometimes wait years for a match. Many others, disproportionately those of color, never even get placed on the waitlist.
And too often, organs go to waste.
This week, the Biden administration announced plans to overhaul the network that runs the U.S. organ transplant system, which experts say fails patients of color most.
The Health Resources and Services Administration said Wednesday the part of an effort to ‘modernize’ the network’s system — which experts have called a monopoly. The agency called on Congress to double funding for transplant oversight to total $67 million.
For nearly 40 years, the federal government has contracted the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing, UNOS, to run the massive national digital database that matches organs with patients. UNOS oversees organ retrieval and delivery and sets policies for how organs are distributed and which patients are prioritized.
HRSA, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, now wants to divide those duties among different entities and update the database system used.
At any given time, 100,000 patients are on the waiting list. And while 42,000 transplants were performed last year, organs are generally recovered from only about 1 in 4 potential donors. On average, 6,000 people die each year waiting for a transplant….” Read more at USA Today
Biden’s pick to lead FAA withdraws amid shaky Senate support
By DAVID KOENIG and SEUNG MIN KIM
FILE - Phillip Washington, the nominee to become administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Washington, President Joe Biden’s choice to run the FAA, has withdrawn his nomination, a setback for the administration that comes after the Denver International Airport CEO failed to gain enough support in the closely divided Senate. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
“WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s choice to run the Federal Aviation Administration has withdrawn his nomination, a setback for the administration that comes after Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington appeared to lack enough support in the closely divided Senate.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg confirmed Washington’s withdrawal in a tweet Saturday night, calling him ‘an excellent nominee’ and blaming undeserved and partisan attacks.
Republicans were united in opposition to Washington, calling him unqualified because of limited aviation experience. Democrats and allied independents still might have pushed the nomination through, but key senators on their side balked at supporting Biden’s pick.
Washington’s fate appeared settled when Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., abruptly called off a scheduled vote last Wednesday — a sign that she lacked enough votes to move the nomination out of committee. She said some senators wanted more information about Washington….” Read more at AP News
‘Toxic mix’: Miami Beach mayor mulls ending spring break after violence
“City leaders in Miami Beach are to rethink their approach to the annual student right of passage known as spring break after successive weekends of violence left two people dead, hundreds arrested and dozens of guns confiscated by law enforcement officers.
The mayor of Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, told the Guardian the mayhem was akin to a giant, unruly street party, with authorities struggling to control tens of thousands of unwanted guests and a business community blocking measures to try to control it.
‘I don’t feel like some of them are particularly good members of the community,’ he said after a coalition of bar and nightclub owners persuaded a majority of commissioners to block his proposal for another midnight curfew for this past weekend….” Read more at The Guardian
“South Korea has had the lowest fertility rate in the world for a decade. Although the government has poured billions into programs that aid new mothers, it hasn’t helped much. Things like a lack of affordable housing and long work weeks keep young Koreans from pursuing parenthood, and economists say changing overall attitudes about family and work life is crucial to fixing South Korea’s birth rate.” [NPR]
New Russian campaign tries to entice men to fight in Ukraine
By DASHA LITVINOVA
A billboard advertising ‘Contract military service’ is seen beside a highway outside Krasnodar, Russia, Thursday, March 23, 2023. A campaign to replenish Russian troops in Ukraine with more soldiers appears to be underway again, with makeshift recruitment centers popping up in cities and towns, and state institutions posting ads promising cash bonuses and benefits to entice men to sign contracts enabling them to be sent into the battlefield. (AP Photo)
“TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Advertisements promise cash bonuses and enticing benefits. Recruiters are making cold calls to eligible men. Enlistment offices are working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed.
A new campaign is underway this spring across Russia, seeking recruits to replenish its troops for the war in Ukraine.
As fighting grinds on in Ukrainian battlegrounds like Bakhmut and both sides prepare for counteroffensives that could cost even more lives, the Kremlin’s war machine badly needs new recruits.
A mobilization in September of 300,000 reservists — billed as a ‘partial’ call-up — sent panic throughout the country, since most men under 65 are formally part of the reserve. Tens of thousands fled Russia rather than report to recruiting stations.
The Kremlin denies that another call-up is planned for what it calls its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, now more than a year old….” Read more at AP News
The U.S. connection to Uganda’s ‘kill the gays’ bill
Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor
“The global backlash to Uganda’s new anti-LGBT law, approved by the East African nation’s parliament Tuesday, has been scathing. Widely seen as one of the most extreme forms of anti-homosexuality legislation in the world, a draft version of the bill expands existing restrictions and punishments for same-sex activity, criminalizes doing business with LGBT rights groups and calls for the application of the death penalty in certain cases for gay sex carried out by ‘serial offenders.’ The law is awaiting the assent of the country’s long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni, who only last week described homosexual people as ‘deviations from normal.’
Officials elsewhere are calling on Museveni to reconsider. ‘The passing of this discriminatory bill — probably among the worst of its kind in the world — is a deeply troubling development,’ Volker Turk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. He added: ‘If the bill is signed into law, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other.’
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has spoken this week to Museveni, expressing her ‘deep concern’ about the legislation, CNN reported. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the bill ‘undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS.’ At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said if the law was enacted, it would ‘have to take a look’ at imposing economic sanctions on Uganda, adding that would be ‘really unfortunate’ since the bulk of U.S. aid to the country of nearly 50 million people comes in the form of health assistance.
The irony, though, is that the United States has also played another role in the situation. While right-wing Republican lawmakers in various U.S. states are currently engineering a new wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation, a slate of proselytizing, activist U.S. religious groups have for years campaigned in parts of Africa, especially in countries like Uganda, and sown the seeds for even more hard-line measures there.
Uganda is one of at least 67 countries that criminalizes same-sex relations. Like other former British colonies in East Africa, it draws on colonial-era statutes that maintain that homosexuality is an offense ‘against the order of nature’ and punishable by life imprisonment. But the extremism and fervor behind the current legislation marks a discernible intensification of the region’s politics around LGBTQ rights, with analysts and rights group pointing to a concerted regional trend of discriminatory rhetoric and political action.
Earlier this month, Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye advised his compatriots to ‘curse those who indulge in homosexuality because God cannot bear it’ and said the LGBTQ community ‘must be banished, treated as pariahs in our country.’ His remarks came around the same time that 24 people were charged by local authorities with ‘homosexual practices’ for attending a seminar organized by an HIV/AIDS charity organization.
In Kenya, top politicians reacted in anger after the country’s Supreme Court recently ruled against a petition that sought to bar activists from registering an LGBTQ rights organizations. President William Ruto used the moment to reiterate that Kenya’s laws, where penal codes still criminalize same-sex relations and bar same-sex marriage, have not changed. ‘It is not possible for our country Kenya to allow same-sex marriages,’ he said. ‘It will happen in other countries but not in Kenya.’
According to the Agence France-Presse, governments in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have also all recently embarked on campaigns to suppress efforts to spread awareness about the LGBTQ community in their nations’ schools. Tanzanian activist Fatma Karume told the Agence France-Presse that authorities are searching for easy scapegoats at a time when the broader region is gripped by economic crises. ‘They want to use this minority group to distract people,’ she told the news agency.
Uganda’s drive toward punishing this minority has a long history. ‘This is not the first time the government in Uganda has pushed for extreme legislation against LGBTQ people,’ my colleagues Niha Masih and Rael Ombuor explained. 'Versions of the bill have been around since 2009, and in 2014, Museveni’s government passed a similar law, whose first iteration included the death penalty for HIV-positive people and for engaging in gay sex with a minor. It was ultimately struck down by the court for not following due parliamentary process.’
At the time of that earlier wave of legislation, rights advocates pointed to the direct hand of U.S. evangelical organizations, many of which tread a well-beaten path through parts of Africa. In Uganda, in particular, U.S. Christian groups have invested millions of dollars, building schools and orphanages. But they have also left behind a profound ideological imprint.
In 2020, London-based OpenDemocracy found that more than 20 American religious organizations advocating against LGBTQ rights, safe abortion, access to contraceptives and comprehensive sex education had spent at least $54 million furthering their agendas in Africa since 2007. Close to half that figure was spent in conservative, predominantly Christian Uganda alone, where religious advocates advocate for gay ‘conversion therapy’ and tout supposed success stories of ‘ex-gay’ people.
While anti-LBGTQ attitudes have long existed in countries around the world, we are seeing in countries like Uganda the sharp end of a broader right-wing culture war over gender rights and identities. Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a leading LGBTQ rights organization, made the argument in 2014 that political criticism of the “gay agenda, of recruiting people to homosexuality” was not prevalent before 2009, after U.S. evangelical pastor Scott Lively and a group of American colleagues delivered a series of lectures in the country. Lively is a notorious homophobe who advanced the theory in the 1990s that Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazi colleagues were gay, and that their sexual orientation somehow fed into the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Lively, in an address to Uganda’s parliament, suggested homosexuality was a Western-imported ‘disease’ that could be spread to the country’s children. ‘This recasting of homosexuality as akin to pedophilia, alongside the widespread use of similar language, is meant to legitimize the response and crackdown by governments and institutions,’ noted Caleb Okereke, a Nigerian journalist.
Similar tactics are on show in the United States, where, fueled in part by a mobilization of right-wing religious groups, Republican lawmakers are pushing through legislation targeting members of the transgender community, casting them as duplicitous ‘groomers’ and pedophilic threats.
The stakes in Uganda are, for now, even higher. No matter the international opposition, Museveni has tremendous popular backing for signing off on the new law. ‘Ugandans have been radicalized into hatred for LGBTQ persons,’ Mugisha told a British radio station Wednesday.” [Washington Post]
Florida Atlantic's historic run, Connecticut domination lead NCAA Tournament winners and losers
“No. 9 Florida Atlantic beat No. 3 Kansas State 79-76 in the East Regional finals to book one of the craziest and most unexpected Final Four berths in NCAA men's basketball tournament history.
Making just the program's second tournament appearance, the Owls now lead Division I with 35 wins and are the first Conference USA team to reach the national semifinals since Memphis in 2008.
Despite the loss, this has been a remarkable season for Kansas State. Picked last in the preseason Big 12 poll, the Wildcats laid the foundation for a long and successful run under first-year coach Jerome Tang.
In the second game Saturday, No. 4 Connecticut embarrassed Gonzaga 82-54 to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2014.
The Owls and Huskies lead the first round of winners and losers from Saturday's Elite Eight action:
Winners
Connecticut
The hottest team in the tournament has to be seen as the favorite to win it all regardless of which teams win Sunday to round out the Final Four. The 28-point win against Gonzaga marks a new high for the Huskies, who were very good during the regular season but have taken things to a different stratosphere the past two weeks. After dismantling the Bulldogs, Connecticut becomes the seventh team to win all four regional games before the Final Four by 15 or more points. Coincidentally, the last team to do that was Gonzaga in 2021.
Adam Sanogo
Even while struggling from the field, Sanogo continued to spark the Huskies' with his second double-double of the tournament. The junior forward scored 10 points on 3 of 11 shooting with 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists, taking advantage of Gonzaga's attention to find teammates Jordan Hawkins (20 points) and Alex Karaban (12 points). Stopping the Huskies entails stopping Sanogo — and the best of luck in that.
Florida Atlantic
Coach Dusty May has pushed back against the Cinderella label, but the slipper fits. FAU has been one of the worst programs in the country since joining Division I in 1993, posting just one season with more than 19 wins and ranking near the bottom of three successive conferences — the Atlantic Sun, Sun Belt and then Conference USA. May has steadily built a winner, however, posting half of the 10 winning seasons in program annals and compiling a deep but very young roster full of overlooked and under-recruited prospects. While the Owls looked the part of a Top 25 team throughout the regular season, this still ranks among the most impressive postseason runs in modern tournament history.
Markquis Nowell
Even in the loss, the Kansas State senior put on a show. With teammate Keyontae Johnson battling foul trouble — the All-America forward scored nine points in 18 minutes before fouling out with just over two minutes left — Nowell took on an even larger role as a scorer, putting up a season-high 21 attempts and finishing with 30 and 12 assists. The former Arkansas-Little Rock transfer averaged 23.5 points and 13.5 assists during these four games and is easily the tournament's breakout star.
Conference USA
Every win by the Owls means more money for Conference USA, which is set to earn at least five ‘units’ worth $337,000 each across the next five seasons, or more than $2 million overall. This is a very nice parting gift from Florida Atlantic, which will leave the league this summer for the American Athletic Conference.
Losers
Kansas State
This loss won't overwrite what has been an outstanding debut season for Tang or diminish what seems like an incredibly bright future for the program. But while Kansas State has reached the regional finals three times since 2010 under three different coaches, there is a bitter finality to coming this close to the Final Four but coming up a possession short — leaving Tang and his staff responsible for building off this disappointment as the Wildcats head into next season as an established contender.
Tang knows what it takes to rebound from this moment: With him as an assistant under Baylor coach Scott Drew, the Bears reached the Elite Eight in 2010 and 2012 but did reach the Final Four until winning the national championship in 2021.
Gonzaga
The Bulldogs were run off the court and into oblivion by the Huskies. What did Gonzaga do well? Try nothing. The Bulldogs shot 33.3% from the field, including just 2 of 20 from deep, and made 12 of 22 free throws. The game went south quickly after the Bulldogs lost forward Drew Timme to foul trouble minutes into the second half; what was then a 12-point lead ballooned to 23 points after a 14-3 Connecticut run. The first national title in program history will again have to wait.
Mark Few
Gonzaga's longtime coach has won nearly 84% of his games overall but is now 2-3 in Elite Eight games, with no single March moment worse than this shellacking at the hands of the Huskies. With Few in charge, the Bulldogs recruit at a high level, develop NBA talent and memorable college scorers — Timme is just the latest — and play a fast-paced offensive style that can overwhelm the many less-talented teams on a typical regular-season schedule. So what is preventing this program from finally cashing in and winning a championship? If not already, at some point Few will be defined by his inability to get Gonzaga over this last hurdle.” [USA Today]
UConn Women’s Streak of Final Fours Ends in Loss to Ohio State
The UConn men’s team had a very different night: They routed Gonzaga to reach the Final Four. Ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic also advanced.
“Third-seeded Ohio State romped past second-seeded Connecticut to advance to the round of 8, grabbing hold of the game early and unceremoniously ending UConn’s long streak of reaching the final weekend of the N.C.A.A. women’s tournament.
Ohio State won, 73-61, stopping the Huskies from reaching the round of 8 for the first time since 2005 and the Final Four for the first time since 2007, a streak that includes six national championships, including four straight from 2013 to 2016.
The Buckeyes took control in the second quarter with a game-defining run that started when they were 8 points down late in the first.
They found their flow with a swarming press defense that forced a flurry of turnovers, and they scored 17 straight points. Perhaps more jarring than Ohio State’s scoring in that stretch was its ability to hold the Huskies without even a field-goal attempt for nearly five minutes to start the second quarter….” Read more at New York Times
Florida Atlantic beats K-State, makes Final Four as 9 seed
By The Associated Press
Florida Atlantic players celebrate after defeating Kansas State 79-76 in an Elite 8 college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament's East Region final, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
“NEW YORK (AP) — Alijah Martin, Vladislav Goldin and ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic became the first and lowest-seeded team to reach this year’s Final Four as the Owls withstood another huge game by Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell to beat the Wildcats 79-76 on Saturday night.
FAU (35-3), making just its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, won the East Region at Madison Square Garden and will head to Houston to play the winner of Sunday’s South Region final between Creighton and San Diego State.
The Owls from Conference USA were the winningest team in Division I this season but had never won an NCAA Tournament game before ripping off four straight, all by single digits, to become the first No. 9 seed to reach the Final Four since Wichita State in 2013.
Martin scored 17 points, including a huge 3 down the stretch, the 7-foot-1 Goldin had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Michael Forrest made four clutch free throws in the final 20 seconds for the Owls…..” Read more at AP News
NPR Cuts 10% of Staff and Halts Production of 4 Podcasts
Production will stop on “Invisibilia,” “Louder Than a Riot,” “Rough Translation” and “Everyone & Their Mom.”
“NPR laid off 10 percent of its staff this week and announced that it would stop production of four podcasts — “Invisibilia,” “Louder Than a Riot,” “Rough Translation” and “Everyone & Their Mom” — to make up for a $30 million gap in its budget.
The layoffs were widespread across different departments and included producers, hosts, audience researchers and designers. NPR first announced the layoffs last month after eliminating open positions, restricting nonessential travel and suspending internship programs, moves that it said saved only $14 million….” Read more at New York Times
Jonathan Majors, Marvel and 'Creed' star, arrested for allegedly assaulting woman in NY
“Jonathan Majors has been arrested in New York after an alleged domestic violence altercation with a 30-year-old woman.
The NYPD confirmed to USA TODAY in a statement that the “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” star was taken into custody after officers received a 911 call from a woman who said she had been assaulted. The woman was taken to the hospital, and Majors, 33, was charged with strangulation, assault and harassment.
Majors’ representative denied the allegations and told USA TODAY in a statement that the actor ‘has done nothing wrong.’
‘We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up,’ the statement said.
Officers responded to a call within the 10 Precinct at approximately 11:14 a.m. ET Saturday….” [USA Today]