“WASHINGTON - The long march toward equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgender Americans - whose advocates have eyed major advances with complete Democratic control in Washington - has run into a wall of opposition in the U.S. Senate.
Floundering alongside other liberal priorities such as voting rights, gun control and police reform, legislation that would write protections for LGBTQ Americans into the nation's foundational civil rights law have stalled due to sharpening Republican rhetoric, one key Democrat's insistence on bipartisanship, and the Senate's 60-vote supermajority rule.
While Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hinted at a potential action this month - the annual LGBTQ Pride Month - Senate aides and advocates say there are no immediate plans to vote on the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected classes of the 1964 Civil Rights Act alongside race, color, religion and national origin….
The House passed the legislation in February, 224 to 206, with only three Republicans joining all 221 Democrats in support. The Senate companion bill is sponsored by 49 Democrats and no Republicans. Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., is the Democratic holdout, and the lone Republican who had sponsored a previous version of the bill, Susan Collins (Maine), is not yet doing so in this Congress.
The partisanship around the issue on Capitol Hill stands in contrast to the wide-ranging support for LGBTQ rights among the public at large, in corporate America, and even in the federal judiciary, which has delivered a string of rulings expanding those rights - including a landmark Supreme Court opinion last year written by conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch that effectively banned employment discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.” Read more at Boston Globe
“FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A member of a men’s chorus group unintentionally slammed into fellow chorists at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, killing one member of the group and seriously injuring another, the group’s director said Sunday, correcting initial speculation that it was a hate crime directed at the gay community.
Wilton Manors Vice Mayor Paul Rolli and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said the early investigation shows it was an accident. The 77-year-old driver was taken into custody, but police said no charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing.
The elderly driver had ailments that prevented him from walking, according to a statement Sunday from Fort Lauderdale Police, who said he was cooperating with the investigation and there was no evidence drugs or alcohol was involved.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Ten mass shootings happened across the nation this weekend, leaving at least seven people dead and more than 40 injured. It was the latest in a streak of violent weekends in America. The weekend before this, there were also 10 mass shootings that left 12 people dead across seven states. (CNN defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot, not including the shooter.) This weekend’s violence included shootings at several parties and celebrations, including in California, Indiana and Colorado. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 293 mass shootings in 2021 so far.” Read more at CNN
The Virus
“The U.S. is shipping 2.5 million vaccine shots to Taiwan. Taiwan has blamed ‘Chinese intervention’ for difficulties buying doses, which Beijing denies.” Read more at New York Times
“Singapore is allowing the Chinese-made Sinovac shot at private clinics, while casting doubt on its effectiveness.” Read more at New York Times
“The Tokyo Olympics will allow spectators (if they live in Japan, and with restrictions).” Read more at New York Times
“It’s been a little over 500 days since the first coronavirus death was recorded in the US. Though much of the country is heading back to normal, there are still signs of wariness: States with high rates of unvaccinated adults, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming, are at particular risk for the spreading Delta variant. The US also has extended restrictions on nonessential travel to Mexico and Canada. Meanwhile, China has administered more than 1 billion doses in its unparalleled vaccination drive. That accounts for almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots given globally. In Brazil, a more tragic milestone has emerged. The country surpassed 500,000 coronavirus deaths, and angry citizens are putting the blame squarely on President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic.”
“NBA season tickets. Scholarships. A chance at $5 million. The list of lotteries and raffles to drive up COVID-19 vaccination rates is growing, and some local officials are already reporting ‘encouraging’ results, Axios' Ivana Saric writes.
Nathan Novemsky, a professor of marketing and psychology at Yale University, says that people have a hard time conceiving the odds of winning lotteries — and many tend to overweight the ‘incredibly low’ chances.
Ohio, the first state to announce a ‘Vax-a-Million’ campaign, saw a 94% increase in vaccinations among 16- to 17-year-olds in the week after the initiative launched — the biggest surge for any age group.” Read more at Axios
“The Senate is set to vote soon on whether to advance the For The People Act, a sweeping elections overhaul that would, among other things, make Election Day a public holiday, expand early voting and ban partisan gerrymandering. The bill doesn’t have Republican support, but Democratic lawmakers are hoping to come to some sort of compromise. Democrats believe the bill would counteract efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict voting rights. As those efforts unfold, Georgia’s secretary of state announced last week the state is purging more than 100,000 names from voter registration rolls in an attempt to keep the state's voter files ‘up to date.’”
Jon Rahm reacts to his birdie putt on the 17th green during Sunday's final round of the U.S. Open. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
“Jon Rahm rallied to edge Louis Oosthuizen by one stroke and win the 121st U.S. Open, his first major golf title.” Read more at USA Today
“Amazon Prime Day starts today. The online retailer and rivals such as Walmart and Target are holding their summer deal-fest today and tomorrow. Here's what you need to know.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“$2 million — The minimum that a house in Napa Valley must be valued at before real-estate startup Pacaso will consider buying it. The company buys properties and then sells ownership shares. Pacaso changed some of its policies to address concerns raised by Napa Valley homeowners, such as imposing a minimum value so it doesn’t reduce the stock of relatively affordable housing.
90,000 — The approximate number of applications received for a program in Hawaii that offers free airfares to remote workers who commit to staying at least a month and participate in volunteer activities. The program had only 50 spots in the first round. Applications for the second round will open this month.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Claudette was regaining strength early Monday and expected to return to tropical storm status as it neared the coast of the Carolinas, after leaving at least 13 people dead. The depression was forecast to become a tropical storm sometime Monday morning over eastern North Carolina. Ten people, including nine children, were killed in a multi-vehicle collision on Saturday that was likely caused by storm-related hydroplaning, Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock said. Separately, a 24-year-old father and his 3-year-old son died in their home when a falling tree struck the residence in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, police said. A 23-year-old woman also died Saturday after her car ran off the road into a swollen creek, DeKalb County Deputy Coroner Chris Thacker told WHNT-TV.” Read more at USA Today
“The U.S. economy is emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with considerable speed but markedly transformed, as businesses and consumers struggle to adapt to a new landscape with higher prices, fewer workers, new innovations and a range of inconveniences.
In late February 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, inflation was tame, wages were rising and American companies were attempting to recover from a multiyear trade war.
The pandemic disrupted everything, damaging some parts of the economy much more than others. But a mass vaccination effort and the virus’s steady retreat this year has allowed many businesses and communities to reopen.
What Americans are encountering, though, is almost unrecognizable from just 16 months ago.Prices are up. Housing is scarce. It takes months longer than normal to get furniture, appliances and numerous parts delivered. And there is a great dislocation between millions of unemployed workers and millions of vacant jobs.
The post-covid luxury spending boom has begun. It’s already reshaping the economy.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell acknowledged all the uncertainty this week, saying that policymakers had misjudged parts of the recovery and that they aren’t certain what exactly will happen next.” Read more at Washington Post
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, the act of governing seemed to happen at the speed of presidential tweets. But now President Joe Biden is settling in for what appears will be a long, summer slog of legislating.
Congress is hunkered down, the House and Senate grinding through a monthslong stretch, lawmakers trying to draft Biden’s big infrastructure ideas into bills that could actually be signed into law. Perhaps not since the drafting of the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago has Washington tried a legislative lift as heavy.” Read more at AP News
“The Biden administration is preparing to impose more sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny. It’s only been a few days since President Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, when Biden made it clear the US is not happy with the situation regarding the Russian dissident. The Biden administration imposed a round of sanctions in March over Navalny’s poisoning and imprisonment. Those sanctions represented Biden’s first significant move against Moscow. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday the Biden administration is ‘not going to pull our punches’ with regard to chemical weapons or other issues, like cyberattacks.” Read more at CNN
“Ethiopians are heading to the polls today for the country’s first multiparty election in 16 years. The race to elect a new parliament has been postponed twice due to the pandemic and logistical constraints, and it now comes amid nationwide unrest, famine and a raging humanitarian crisis in the country's Tigray region. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a recipient of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, is expected to be reelected. But opposition party members have said Abiy’s government has jailed and silenced political rivals and thus eliminated the possibility of free and fair elections. The US State Department said last week it ‘is gravely concerned about the environment’ under which Ethiopia's elections will be held. Ethiopia is an influential powerhouse in East Africa, with a population of more than 100 million people.” Read more at CNN
“In the Covid-19 era, housing is becoming a political minefield.
Just ask Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who lost a confidence vote in parliament today. While there are several reasons behind the crisis in Stockholm, the trigger was the government’s proposed changes to the rental housing market.
Governments at local and national level the world over are struggling to respond to the challenge of the inexorable rise in the cost of renting or owning a home. And it’s getting worse, as pandemic stimulus drives property prices to fresh records worldwide.
Niraj Shah of Bloomberg Economics has crunched the numbers to come up with a table of countries at risk of real-estate bubbles. Sweden is No. 3, after New Zealand and Canada. The U.K. is No. 5 and the U.S. in seventh place.
Housing bubbles are indicators of trouble ahead. Sub-prime mortgages were at the root of the 2008 crisis that forced politicians to take extraordinary measures to shore up the global financial system.
This time, politics may be first to feel the blowback. Already, Berlin has witnessed rent protests, while Colombia (No. 16 on Shah’s list) has seen mass unrest over a cocktail of issues including inequality.
Particularly for millennials and the younger cohort of Gen Z, getting on the “property ladder” is increasingly out of reach. That reality makes access to housing a key dividing line in politics as traditional notions of left and right dissolve.
Certainly in Sweden, the housing crisis is likely to be top of the in-tray for whoever is the next premier.” — Alan Crawford Read more at Bloomberg
Evening sunlight illuminates residential apartment buildings in Stockholm.
“Lives Lived: In an only-in-America life, George Stranahan helped create the Aspen Center for Physics and founded a craft brewery with beer names that Colorado officials deemed obscene. Stranahan died at 89.” Read more at New York Times
“Robert Schuman, already considered a giant of recent history as co-founder of the European Union and NATO, is on track to receive an unlikely honor for a politician. On Saturday, Pope Francis put Schuman on the path to sainthood by granting him ‘venerable’ status—approving a decree that recognized the ‘heroic virtues’ of Schuman and his closeness to the Catholic church.
The church must now investigate Schuman’s life for evidence of a miracle attributable to the former French prime minister, foreign minister, and finance minister before he can proceed a step closer to sainthood. The announcement is a victory for the French Institut Saint Benoît, which has pushed for Schuman to receive the title since 1988.” Read more at Foreign Policy
Graphic: Axios Visuals
“Former President Trump has given at least 22 interviews for 17 different books since leaving office, with authors lining up at Mar-a-Lago as he labors to shape a coming tsunami of Trump tomes, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Trump advisers see the coming book glut as proof that interest in ‘POTUS 45,’ as they call him, has never been higher. These advisers know that most of the books will paint a mixed picture, at best. But Trump is working the refs with charm, spin and dish.
Offering Diet Cokes and dressed in suit and tie, Trump spent an average of about 90 minutes with each of the authors, some of whom were invited to stay and eat dinner at Mar-a-Lago (although not with him).
The interviews are mostly on the record, for use when the books publish. So Trump, who has rarely been heard on non-Fox outlets since leaving office, will see himself quoted constantly over the next year.
Between the lines: Sources tell me Trump makes each author feel they're getting something special. And some of them are: Many of the nuggets will definitely make news. But there appears to be quite a bit of overlap in the ‘scoops’ Trump is dishing out.
There's intense jockeying among the authors over several publishing-date logjams in the coming 18 months, with Michael Wolff's "Landslide" currently in pole position (July 27). The book many Trump insiders are awaiting most is Maggie Haberman's, due next year. Jonathan Karl of ABC News — whose first Trump book, "Front Row at the Trump Show," was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback — spent five hours at Mar-a-Lago, including about 90 minutes on the record with Trump. Karl, who has also interviewed numerous Trump Cabinet members, told me: ‘If you thought there was no more to know, it’s been mind-blowing.’
More interviews are likely (including one with Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg), and several authors who've had one interview may get a second dip. Trump personally made all these decisions on who to see.
Five authors have gotten two interviews: Michael Wolff ... Maggie Haberman ... former Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway ... Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender, whose book is scheduled for Aug. 10 ... and The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway, whose ‘Rigged’ is due Sept. 21.Trump has given one interview each to about a dozen other book projects (several with joint authors): WashPost's Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig ... Susan Glasser and Peter Baker ... Jon Karl ... Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns ... Ryan Lizza and Olivia Nuzzi ... Washington Examiner's David Drucker ... N.Y. Post's Miranda Devine — whose "Laptop from Hell," about Hunter Biden — is coming Sept. 7 ... N.Y. Times' Jeremy Peters ... Ari Fleischer — whose "Broken," about the press in the Trump era and beyond — will be out in 2022 ... Variety's Ramin Setoodeh, writing about "The Apprentice" ... and The Federalist's Ben Weingarten, writing on U.S.-China policy. Trump said ‘no’ to the book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
The bottom line: No slowdown in sight for Trump headlines.” Read more at Axios