The Full Belmonte, 3/30/2023
Clawing back war powers
Data: Congressional Research Service/Axios research. Table: Will Chase/Axios Visuals
“One of the most controversial measures passed by Congress in recent history — the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq — is closer than ever to being stripped from the books.
The last time an AUMF was repealed was in 1974.
In a bipartisan vote of 66-30, the Senate moved to repeal the 2002 AUMF, as well as the 1991 AUMF used during the Gulf War, two decades after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
It's a significant step toward clawing back some congressional control over military action overseas.
Speaker McCarthy has said there's a ‘good chance’ the House will take up the vote, but the timeline is uncertain.
The White House has said President Biden supports repealing the Iraq authorizations.
The big picture: The 2002 vote came as the George W. Bush administration prepared for military action against Saddam Hussein, but it's been invoked by subsequent administrations under very different circumstances, Axios' Ivana Saric writes.
Some Republicans who opposed the measure argued that repealing it would send the wrong message to Iran, which controls militias inside Iraq.” [Axios]
Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia on suspicion of ‘espionage’
An undated ID photo of journalist Evan Gershkovich
AFP/Getty Images
LondonCNN —
“Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, according to Russia’s security service.
‘The illegal activities of the correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, suspected of espionage in the interests of the American government, have been suppressed,’ Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement published Thursday by state news agency RIA Novosti.
Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, state news agency TASS reported….” Read more at AP News
FDA approves Narcan, the overdose reversal medication, for over-the-counter use
Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
“Narcan, the medication used to reverse instances of opioid overdose, is now approved for over-the-counter use, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday. It will be the first opioid treatment drug accessible to consumers without a doctor’s prescription or pharmacist’s approval.” [Vox] [Associated Press / Geoff Mulvihill]
“The decision is meant to ease public access to the lifesaving drug — generically known as naloxone — allowing it to be sold in places like convenience stores and gas stations.” [Vox] [NBC News / Berkeley Lovelace Jr.]
“The announcement comes a month after the agency’s advisory committee voted unanimously to recommend that Narcan be sold without a prescription.” [Vox] [STAT News / Lev Facher]
“According to Narcan’s manufacturer, consumers can expect the drug to hit stores by late summer, but the company has yet to reveal any pricing.” [Vox] [CNN / Nadia Kounang, Jen Christensen, and Deidre McPhillips]
“Opioid overdose is a leading cause of accidental deaths for US adults. There were 101,751 reported fatal overdoses in the year ending in October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data shows.” [Vox] [NPR / Joe Hernandez]
GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky
By BRUCE SCHREINER
A woman holds up a sign in protest of Kentucky Senate bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill, during a rally on the lawn of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
“FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use.
The votes to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto were lopsided in both legislative chambers — where the GOP wields supermajorities — and came on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session. The Senate voted 29-8 to override Beshear’s veto. A short time later, the House completed the override on a vote of 76-23.
As emotions surged, some people protesting the bill from the House gallery were removed and arrested after their prolonged chanting rang out in the chamber. The protesters, their hands bound, chanted ‘there’s more of us not here’ as they waited to be taken away from the Capitol….” Read more at AP News
California reparations amount, if any, left to politicians
By JANIE HAR
FILE - Morris Griffin, of Los Angeles, speaks during the public comment portion of the Reparations Task Force meeting in Sacramento, Calif., on March 3, 2023. Economists for a California reparations task force estimate the state owes Black residents at least $800 billion for harms in policing, housing and health. The preliminary estimate will be discussed at the Wednesday, March 29, 2023, meeting of the state reparations task force. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The leader of California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force on Wednesday said it won’t take a stance on how much the state should compensate Black residents whom economists estimate may be owed more than $800 billion for decades of over-policing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination.
The $800 billion is more than 2.5 times California’s $300 billion annual budget and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span. Nor does the figure count compensating people for property unjustly taken by the government or devaluing Black businesses, two other harms the task force says the state perpetuated….
Black residents may not receive cash payments anytime soon, if ever, because the state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom will ultimately decide whether any reparations are to be paid. The task force faces a July 1 deadline to recommend the forms of compensation to be awarded and who should receive it, along with other remedies to repair the harm.
But the panel’s chair, Kamilah Moore, said Wednesday it’s up to the state Legislature to ascribe a restitution amount based on the methodology economists recommended, and which the task force approved on Wednesday….” Read more at AP News
Temple University President Resigns After Complaints He Wasn’t Addressing Crime on Campus
Jason Wingard resigned shortly before faculty were set to hold a no-confidence vote against him
Jason Wingard’s tenure was marred by campus crimes and a graduate-student strike. PHOTO: MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Temple University President Jason Wingard has resigned, the university said, following concerns that he wasn’t doing enough to address crime at the Philadelphia university.
The university’s board of trustees said Tuesday that it had accepted Dr. Wingard’s resignation. His last day is Friday. The board didn’t say why he was stepping down, but his tenure of less than two years had been marred by high-profile campus crimes, a graduate-student strike and faltering confidence among the faculty. He was Temple’s first Black president.
Dr. Wingard submitted his resignation shortly before some university staff were set to hold a no-confidence vote against him on Tuesday.
He had released a plan four days earlier to address campus safety, which he said was a crisis for the university. He said he planned to have the school place more gunshot detection devices and security cameras around campus, among other ideas.
‘While I am confident in my ability to pivot strategy and lead Temple through this crisis, I understand, and it has been made clear, unfortunately, that too much focus is on me rather than the challenges we seek to overcome,’ Dr. Wingard said in a statement Wednesday.
He said he had improved Temple’s reputation in academics, athletics and other areas, but violence on campus became an existential challenge. He said the school’s falling enrollment was another problem.
‘This perfect storm of societal crises has drastically and disproportionately impacted Temple,’ Dr. Wingard said.
At least two killings rattled the Temple community during Dr. Wingard’s tenure: the fatal shooting in February of a campus police sergeant while he was on duty, and the shooting death of a 21-year-old student off campus in November 2021.
A memorial for the slain campus police sergeant in Philadelphia. PHOTO: MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Philadelphia has contended with rising crime in recent years, including a surge in the number of homicide victims, according to data from the Philadelphia Police Department. There were 516 homicides in Philadelphia last year and 562 the year prior, the most in any year dating back to at least 2007, police said.
Temple is in north Philadelphia. The public university has more than 33,000 graduate and undergraduate students, according to its website. Urban universities like Temple not only have to deal with campus security but also with crime in surrounding neighborhoods.
Some Temple students and faculty were angry with Dr. Wingard because the university took away health insurance from some graduate students during their 42-day strike earlier this year. They were asking for better wages, which the university later agreed to after weeks of contention. Students and faculty criticized the administration’s response as heinous and cruel.
Temple graduate students at a strike in February. PHOTO: MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A union representing the staff and faculty, the Temple Association of University Professionals, had said it was concerned that longtime faculty members were being let go and that the university had increased tuition despite cutting parts of its education budget.
Dr. Wingard’s tenure of roughly one year and nine months was short for a university president. A 2017 study from the American Council on Education found that presidents often keep their positions for at least 6 years.
Temple selected Dr. Wingard as president in 2021 after a 10-month search for a new leader. The president before him, Richard Englert, was in charge for five years before he retired.” [Wall Street Journal]
Permit to buy handgun no longer required in North Carolina
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
FILE - North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore speaks in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Dec. 7, 2022. North Carolina legislators repealed on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the state’s requirement that someone obtain a permit from a local sheriff before buying a pistol, as the Republican-controlled legislature overrode successfully one of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes for the first time since 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
“RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina residents can now buy a handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff, after the Republican-controlled legislature on Wednesday overrode the Democratic governor’s veto — a first since 2018.
The House voted 71-46 to enact the bill, which eliminates the longstanding permit system requiring sheriffs to perform character evaluations and criminal history checks of pistol applicants. The Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in a party-line vote on Tuesday.
The permit repeal takes effect immediately. Cooper and Democratic lawmakers warned it allows a greater number of dangerous people to obtain weapons through private sales, which do not require a background check, and limits law enforcement’s ability to prevent them from committing violent crimes….” Read more at AP News
Mexico Investigates Migrant Deaths in Border City Fire as Homicide Case
The authorities identified eight suspects and said government workers and private security workers had done nothing to help migrants flee the blaze at a detention center in Ciudad Juárez.
“CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Mexican officials announced on Wednesday that they were investigating a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez as a homicide case, saying that government workers and private security employees had not allowed detainees to escape from the blaze that killed at least 39 people.
The authorities, in a news conference, said they had identified eight suspects, including federal and state agents, and would issue four arrest warrants on Wednesday.
‘None of the public servants, nor the private security guards, took any action to open the door for the migrants who were inside where the fire was,’ said Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, a top federal human rights prosecutor.
The announcement came after a video emerged appearing to show that the migrants had been trapped when the fire broke out on Monday. Uniformed figures at the center can be seen walking away from the blaze while people remain behind bars as the area fills with smoke….” Read more at New York Times
Pope Francis hospitalized with respiratory infection
Pope Francis went to a Rome hospital on Wednesday for some previously scheduled tests, slipping out of the Vatican after his general audience and before the busy start of Holy Week this Sunday. (March 29)
“VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis was hospitalized with a respiratory infection Wednesday after experiencing difficulty breathing in recent days and will remain in the Rome hospital for several days of treatment, the Vatican said.
The 86-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, doesn’t have COVID-19, spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement late Wednesday.
The hospitalization was the first since Francis spent 10 days at the Gemelli hospital in July 2021 to have 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed.
It immediately raised questions about Francis’ overall health, and his ability to celebrate the busy Holy Week events that are due to begin this weekend with Palm Sunday.
Bruni said Francis had had trouble breathing in recent days and went to the Gemelli hospital Wednesday for tests.
‘The tests showed a respiratory infection (COVID-19 infection excluded) that will require some days of medical treatment in the hospital,’ Bruni’s statement said….” Read more at AP News
Russia and US stop sharing nuclear arms data amid heightened tensions
“Tuesday, US officials revealed that the US and Russia have stopped sharing biannual nuclear weapons data with each other, a requirement under the last arms control pact between the two nations.” [Vox] [Associated Press / Matthew Lee]
“Russia has not formally pulled out of the treaty, but its suspension on nuclear data sharing with the US in February has led to the US now responding in kind, White House officials said.” [Vox] [Politico / Paul McLeary]
“The 2010 agreement to share information on nuclear arms between the countries, known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, established a cap on deployed nuclear warheads and yearly compliance inspections for both sides.” [Vox] [Al Jazeera]
“UN head Antonio Guterres asked both countries to return to the agreement last month as ‘a world without nuclear arms control is a far more dangerous and unstable one.’” [Vox] [ABC News]
“The breakdown of the US-Russia treaty adds to global tensions over President Vladimir Putin’s move this week to place Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus; it is the first time nuclear weapons will be stationed beyond its borders since the Soviet Union’s collapse.” [Vox] [South China Morning Post / Cyril Ip]
Musk, scientists call for halt to AI race sparked by ChatGPT
By MATT O'BRIEN
FILE - The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Boston. Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans? That is the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks. Their petition published Wednesday, March 29, 2023, is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI's recent release of GPT-4. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
‘Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans?’
That’s the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks.
Their petition published Wednesday is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications.
The letter warns that AI systems with ‘human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity’ — from flooding the internet with disinformation and automating away jobs to more catastrophic future risks out of the realms of science fiction.
It says ‘recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.’
“We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4,” the letter says. “This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”
A number of governments are already working to regulate high-risk AI tools. The United Kingdom released a paper Wednesday outlining its approach, which it said ‘will avoid heavy-handed legislation which could stifle innovation.’ Lawmakers in the 27-nation European Union have been negotiating passage of sweeping AI rules.
WHO SIGNED IT?
The petition was organized by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, which says confirmed signatories include the Turing Award-winning AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and other leading AI researchers such as Stuart Russell and Gary Marcus. Others who joined include Wozniak, former U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a science-oriented advocacy group known for its warnings against humanity-ending nuclear war….” Read more at AP News
How Iowa’s Caitlin Clark Became College Basketball’s Must-See Star
The long-shooting guard also excels at passing—and filling arenas
Caitlin Clark had 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in an Elite Eight win over Louisville. STEPH CHAMBERS/GETTY IMAGES
“As last Sunday’s NCAA Elite Eight game between the Iowa and Louisville women’s basketball teams unfolded, the court at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena seemed to become a Broadway stage with an invisible spotlight tracking one player: the Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark.
When the curtain fell, Clark not only finished with a jaw-dropping 41 points in Iowa’s 97-83 win, but she added 12 assists and 10 rebounds to produce the first official 40-point triple-double in an NCAA tournament game. (Assists didn’t become an official stat until 1984.)
‘She is spectacular,’ Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. ‘I don’t know how else to describe what she does on the basketball court.’
On Friday, Clark and No. 2 seed Iowa face defending champion South Carolina in the Women’s Final Four in Dallas. Clark’s long-range shooting makes for an intriguing matchup with the No. 1 seed Gamecocks, who have racked up a 42-game winning streak with a dominant inside game.
So far, opponents haven’t figured out how to stop Clark.
Clark’s ‘logo shot’ started young
Clark’s most striking skill is her ability to pull up from midcourt—which features a large team or tournament logo—and actually make shots that would be mere prayers from other players.
Caitlin Clark has made 80 of 190 shots from beyond 25 feet this season, a 42.1% success rate.PHOTO: STEPHEN BRASHEAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clark has made 80 of 190 shots from beyond 25 feet this season, a 42.1% success rate. A large majority of players shooting as close as 22 feet, 1¾ inches—the 3-point line—aren’t that accurate.
Clark’s long-range skill forces defenses to make a tough choice: Let her shoot and give up a likely 3-pointer, or guard her and stretch the defense, leaving potential scorers open elsewhere.
As Steph Curry, the NBA’s career leader in 3-pointers, told ESPN this season: ‘No shot is a bad shot when you can shoot it as well as she can. When you watch (Iowa) play, she just adds the element of surprise that you can’t really game-plan for. Because it’s so unseen in the sense of when she crosses half court, she’s in her range.’
Even growing up in West Des Moines, Iowa., where Clark toughened up by playing with her two older brothers, Clark worked on the thrilling shot that would become her trademark. She was comfortable from 5 to 7 feet beyond the high school 3-point line, recalled Kristin Meyer, Clark’s coach at Dowling Catholic High School.
‘She’d be shooting those deep ones at practice, or after practice or before practice,’ Meyer said. ‘Kind of the challenge of it, I think. She loves the ‘Wow’ factor. She loves the tough shots. She loves when the crowd goes wild and they can hardly believe it.’…
Clark can also score on the drive—as well as pass
Clark had one triple-double her freshman year, five last season and five so far in this one. Her 11 career triple-doubles is the second-most all-time in the women’s college game, behind Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, who finished her career with 26 three seasons ago and is now with the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
Clark has never ranked below third nationally in season scoring average—this year she’s third, although her 27.3-point average is her highest ever.
Meyer, Clark’s high school coach, said Clark also excels at completing shots even while being jostled by the heavy traffic of a game.
‘She just knows how to spin the ball and she knows angles really well,’ Meyer said. ‘So she was always really good about finishing, even when she was kind of pushed out of the lane or pushed out at a weird angle.’
Clark’s 8.6 assists per game leads the nation. Since her freshman year Clark has improved, ‘especially in being able to trust her teammates when she’s getting double-, triple-teamed, whatever it is,’ said Megan Gustafson, a Phoenix Mercury center who was the 2019 AP national player of the year at Iowa.
Caitlin Clark’s 8.6 assists per game leads the nation.PHOTO: STEVEN GARCIA/ZUMA PRESS
‘She can be at half-court, and she sees somebody, and she threads the needle all the way to the basket,’ Gustafson said. ‘And she has quite the arm. So her strength there, and combine that with her ability to see things nobody else sees, is really fun to watch.’
While Ionescu’s college career was cut short when the 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Clark, a junior, could play two more years. That’s because pandemic delays gave winter-sport athletes in 2020-21 an extra year of eligibility.
Weeks ago, Clark told The Dan Patrick Show that she wasn’t ruling out sticking around for an extra year, which would keep her at Iowa through spring 2025.
Clark calms herself, feeds off the crowd
Meyer, Clark’s high school coach, said she’s noticed that Clark is better at keeping her composure than she was a few years ago.
‘Yes, she still gets frustrated at times with officials’ calls, her play or things that happen on the court,’ Meyer said. ‘But she seems to refocus quicker and not allow it to negatively affect her play. Obviously her skills have continued to improve, but I’ve been really impressed with how her mentality has led to a higher level of play for her and her team.’
A five-star recruit out of high school, Clark delighted home state fans by choosing the Hawkeyes. Iowa has long had a strong, well-supported women’s team—Gustafson’s 2019 squad reached the Elite Eight—but there seems to be a Clark effect unfolding. Attendance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena has jumped 60% since the year before she got to Iowa City, to more than 11,000 a game. Nationally, that ranks only behind South Carolina’s 13,000 average.
Caitlin Clark shoots a 3-pointer against Ohio State during the Big Ten tournament. PHOTO: STEVEN GARCIA/ZUMA PRESS
In early March, Iowa fans packed the Target Center in Minneapolis, helping set a Big Ten women’s basketball tournament attendance record as the Hawkeyes stormed to the title. Clark had a triple-double in the final: 30 points, 17 assists, 10 rebounds.
It’s a longer drive to Dallas—about 12 ½ hours—but with Clark on the court and Iowa with a chance to win its first national title, there’s a good chance that many will make it.
‘I think that’s when I’m playing my best basketball, is when I’m having the most fun out of anybody on court,’ Clark said. ‘I love to play this game. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a little girl.’” [Wall Street Journal]
A different March Madness: Online hate for the athletes
yesterday
FILE - Michigan's Terrance Williams II reacts during an NCAA basketball game between Michigan Wolverines and Kentucky Wildcats at the O2 Arena, in London, Sunday, Dec.4, 2022. The toxic cauldron on social media is one of the minefields players in the NCAA Tournament must navigate. (AP Photo/Ian Walton, File)
“HOUSTON (AP) — It wasn’t so much that social media was criticizing his son. That happens sometimes — especially after a loss like THAT.
But when a post came up suggesting Terrance Williams II, a junior forward for Michigan, be left for dead in a ditch, his dad decided enough was enough. Terrance Williams Sr.’s profanity-laced response to all the haters was, in many ways, an expected byproduct of social media vitriol that bubbled up after the Wolverines blew an eight-point lead in a one-point loss to Vanderbilt earlier this month — not in the NCAA Tournament but in the NIT.
‘You actually root for them when they’re good,’ Williams Sr. said of the Michigan fans in an interview with The Associated Press two days after the season-ending loss. ‘But then they make a mistake, and a game doesn’t go your way and you turn to hate. That’s unacceptable.’
The episode was just one of countless examples of the toxic minefield that athletes, coaches, friends and family face all too often on social media, all of it amplified for college basketball players when the calendar flips to March and the madness begins.
College administrators and coaches alike have warned for several years that students and athletes are facing increasing mental-health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. And never have there been more outside voices that not only scrutinize every move players make on the court, but impact their emotional well-being away from it….” Read more at AP News