(AUSTIN, Texas) — A Texas appeals court has again blocked the state from investigating gender-affirming care for their trans children as child abuse.
In its decision, the court stated that it would block such investigations to “prevent irreparable harm” to trans children and their families.
In February, Attorney General Ken Paxton published an opinion saying that “there is no doubt that [gender-affirming] procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted.”
He continued: “The [DFPS] has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was investigating at least nine families under Paxton’s directive, a DFPS spokesperson told ABC News.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed Paxton’s opinion with a letter ordering the DFPS to investigate such treatments as child abuse.
The letter also says Texas law requires that all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such “abuse,” are also reported
This would implement criminal penalties for doctors, nurses, teachers and others who fail to report the known “abuse,” according to Abbott’s directive.
On March 11, District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued the first temporary statewide injunction on such investigations after hearing from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Meachum also heard from attorneys from the state.
Several medical organizations, activist groups, and companies have denounced the Texas directive.
“As physicians, our job is to support the health and well-being of our patients,” read a letter signed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and more.
“Recent legal opinions and executive and legislative efforts targeting young people and aimed at curtailing the provision of appropriate medical care undermine our ability to do so,” it continued.
Gender affirmation is when transgender people make changes to their lives in accordance with their gender identity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That can be done through a change of clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, names and pronouns.
For LGBTQ youth going through puberty, gender affirmation can also come in the form of hormone therapy or puberty blockers.
“Texas parents who support their trans kids should be applauded, not prosecuted,” Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of LGBTQ suicide awareness organization The Trevor Project in a statement to ABC News.
He continued: “Our research found that gender-affirming hormone therapy has been linked to lower rates of depression and suicide risk among trans youth who wanted it. The government should not be involved in personal decisions that force doctors and families to act against the medical community’s standards of care for transgender young people.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — LGBTQ workers and employee allies at The Walt Disney Company staged a walkout in protest of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents.
Some employees have been walking out each day since March 15 from 3 to 3:15 p.m.
On Tuesday, more than 100 employees in different parts of the company joined a full-length walkout and protest.
“The Walt Disney Company’s (TWDC) LGBTQIA+ community and their allies are determined to take a stand against TWDC’s apathy in the face of the bigoted ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill put forth by the FL state legislature,” the protest’s website states.
“The recent statements and lack of action by TWDC leadership regarding the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation,” the website says.
Opponents of the bill say it would shame and silence LGBTQ youth and could have major negative consequences on their mental health.
The bill prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten to third grade and would limit or prohibit what classrooms can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity in other grades unless they are “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate,” a threshold criticized as vague by the bill’s opponents. It would also allow parents to sue schools that engage in these topics.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek has been criticized for his response to the bill, first for his silence on the legislation and later for not outright condemning the bill in his public statements.
Chapek has since said he would pledge $5 million to groups advocating for LGTBQ+ rights and protections and added that he has contacted Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office in opposition of the bill. He also said political donations in Florida will be paused pending review for any connection to the bill.
“We are hard at work creating a new framework for our political giving that will ensure our advocacy better reflects our values,” Chapek said in an email to Disney employees. “I am committed to this work and to you all, and will continue to engage with the LGBTQ+ community so that I can become a better ally.”
Several Disney companies have released statements of support on social media amid the March 22 walkout, including ABC News, Disney Plus, Walt Disney World, Pixar and more.
Some Disney figures, including ESPN sports anchor Elle Duncan, have shown support for the walkouts during televised broadcasts.
According to Duncan, ESPN employees have also been participating in the daily walkouts. Duncan herself took a moment of silence during her broadcast in protest.
“We understand the gravity of this legislation and also how it is affecting so many families across this country, and because of that our allyship is going to take a front seat, and with that, we’re going to pause in solidarity,” Duncan said.
ESPN’s Carolyn Peck and Courtney Lyle also remained silent for two minutes in solidarity with their coworkers during the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
“A threat to any human rights is a threat to all human rights,” Peck said during the March 18 broadcast.
In a list of demands on the protest website, organizers demand that Disney “immediately and indefinitely cease all campaign donations” to politicians linked to the bill and “commit to an actionable plan” that could protect employees from discriminatory legislation.
Organizers also ask that the company reaffirms its commitment to LGBTQ employees and communities, make contributions to human rights advocacy groups and allocate spending and resources to invest in LGBTQ representation.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The brand behind a buttermilk pancake and waffle mix sold at Walmart has recalled a single lot of the product, some of which it says may have possible foreign material contamination.
Continental Mills issued a recall Saturday on its Great Value Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix, according to a company recall announcement posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The announcement said that “fragments from a cable used to clear the processing line were discovered in a limited amount of product.”
There have been no reports from consumers of contaminated products or injuries related to contamination, the company said in the notice.
“Food Safety is the highest priority for Continental Mills and the company is acting swiftly for the safety of consumers. Continental Mills is working with the FDA and retailers to ensure any affected product is removed from the marketplace immediately,” the company said.
The product which was distributed nationwide through retail Walmart stores has the UPC code 078742370828, the lot code KX2063 and an expiration date of Sept. 1, 2023.
“If you have recently purchased any of the products noted above, please dispose of the product or please return the product to your store for a replacement or refund,” the notice said. “For more information or to receive a refund, please call the Recall Phone Hotline at 1-800-578-7832 Monday – Friday 7 am to 4 pm PT.”
(WASHINGTON) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, faces up to 11 hours of grilling Tuesday on Day 2 of her four-day confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jackson, 51, who currently sits on the nation’s second most powerful court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, will be questioned by each of the committee’s 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats over two days. On Thursday, senators can ask questions of the American Bar Association and other outside witnesses.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm President Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee on their own, and hope to by the middle of April, the hearings could prove critical to the White House goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.
Here is how the news is developing Tuesday. Check back for updates.
Mar 22, 1:37 pm
‘Calm, cool and collected’: Key takeaways from morning session
ABC News Senior Washington Reporter Devin Dwyer, reporting from inside the hearing room, said the big takeaway so far is that Jackson has stayed “calm, cool and collected.” With no major missteps or gaffes, he said, and a slim Democratic majority on her side, she appears on her way to Senate confirmation.
There was some tension in the morning session when Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Jackson a barrage of questions on her faith, to which she declined to go in-depth, saying she’s “mindful of the need for the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views.”
Graham, who let it be known his favored nominee was not selected, went on to say he wasn’t trying to attack Jackson but make a point about how “our people” — conservative judicial appointees — have been treated in the past.
In the afternoon session, Republicans are expected to continue pressing Jackson on court precedent, her record as a federal public defender and representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, and her sentences for child sex offenders, among other issues.
As senators try to probe her judicial philosophy, Jackson told the committee that she has developed a methodology that she uses when approaching any case to ensure impartially and stressed that she views her role as a judge as “limited.”
Mar 22, 12:58 pm
Confirmation hearings break for lunch
The Senate Judiciary Committee has gone into a break until approximately 1:30 p.m. after a marathon morning of questions from Democrats and Republicans on the committee considering Judge Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
After the break, 15 more senators will have 30 minutes each for one on one questions with Jackson, giving them the chance to probe her judicial philosophy, her record as a public defender and her legal opinions spanning nearly nine years on the bench.
The grilling is unlike any other for federal judges or political nominees in large part because of the nature of the high court and the justices’ lifetime tenure.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
Mar 22, 12:51 pm
Cornyn questions Jackson on same-sex marriage
In his questioning, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Judge Jackson about same-sex marriage and asserted that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which said same-sex marriage is a fundamental right, conflicts with the beliefs of some religions.
“When the Supreme Court decides that something that is not even in the Constitution is a fundamental right and no state can pass any law that conflicts with the Supreme Court’s edict, particularly in an area where people have sincerely held religious beliefs, doesn’t that necessarily create a conflict between what people may believe as a matter of their religious doctrine or faith and what the federal government says is the law of the land?” Cornyn asked.
“That is the nature of a right,” Jackson replied. “That when there is a right it means that there are limitations on regulation, even if people are regulating pursuant to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Pressed further on whether that is an act of judicial policymaking, Jackson said the Supreme Court considered that to be an “application of the substantive due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” which ensures equal protection under the law.
ABC News Political Director @RickKlein talks about what he thinks has been the most challenging moment for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson so far during confirmation hearing.
Cornyn continued to bash the court for what he called establishing a new “unenumerated right” and asked Jackson, what other unenumerated rights are “out there.”
“Senator, I can’t say. It’s a hypothetical that I’m not in a position to comment on. The rights that the Supreme Court has recognized as substantive due process rights are established in its case law,” she said.
Later on, Cornyn lamented that he thinks “nominees from both parties tend to be over-coached.”
-ABC News’ Trish Turner
Mar 22, 12:16 pm
Jackson’s family shows support inside hearing room
Judge Jackson’s family members showed their support again on the second day of her confirmation hearings with their steady presence inside the hearing room as she fielded, at times, contentious questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jackson’s husband, Patrick, a general surgeon, was again seated behind Jackson. Photographers snapped photos of him sporting Benjamin Franklin-themed socks and jotting down notes during the morning session.
Jackson’s parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, were also in the audience, near two seats reserved for Jackson’s daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17. Leila arrived in the room after the morning break.
In an emotional moment on Monday, Jackson’s daughters looked to their father as he wiped away tears while Jackson read her opening statement.
-ABC News’ Trish Turner
Mar 22, 12:03 pm
Jackson speaks to ‘meaningful’ representation on Supreme Court
Raising gender balance in the judiciary and the fact that, if confirmed, there would be four women on the Supreme Court, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., gave Judge Jackson an opportunity to speak to what it would mean to her personally to see more women represented on the nation’s highest court in its history.
“I think it’s extremely meaningful,” Jackson replied. “One of the things that having diverse members of the court does is it provides for the opportunity for role models.”
“Since I was nominated to this position, I have received so many notes and letters and photos from little girls around the country who tell me that they are so excited for this opportunity and that they have thought about the law in new ways because I am a woman — because I am a Black woman — all of those things people have said have been really meaningful to them,” Jackson added.
“And we want, I think, as a country, for everyone to believe they can do things like sit on the Supreme Court. So, having meaningful numbers of women and people of color, I think, matters,” she said. “I also think that it supports public confidence in the judiciary when you have different people, because we have such a diverse society.”
Mar 22, 11:41 am
Jackson on abortion cases: ‘Roe and Casey are the settled law’
As she’s asked previous Supreme Court nominees, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned Judge Jackson on her judicial views on abortion with the nation’s high court set to decide cases this term that could overturn decades of legal precedent.
“I do agree with both Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Barrett on this issue,” Jackson said, referring to their answers to Feinstein at their confirmation hearings. “Roe and Casey are the settled law of the Supreme Court concerning the right to terminate a woman’s pregnancy.”
Feinstein then asked, “Does Roe v. Wade have the status of being a case that is a super precedent, and what other Supreme Court cases do you believe have that status?”
“Well senator, all Supreme Court cases are precedential, they’re binding. And their principles and their rulings have to be followed,” she said.
“Roe and Casey, as you say, have been reaffirmed by the court, and have been relied upon, and reliance is one of the factors that the court considers when it seeks to revisit or is asked to revisit a precedent,” she continued. “In all cases, the precedent of the Supreme Court would have to be reviewed pursuant to those factors because stare decisis is very important.”
Mar 22, 11:30 am
Graham laments the fate of his preferred Supreme Court pick
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina brought up Judge J. Michelle Childs, a U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina and his preferred nominee for the Supreme Court seat, asking Jackson about progressive groups supporting her nomination over that of Childs.
His voiced tinged with anger, Graham said, “In your nomination, did you notice people from the left were pretty much cheering you on?”
“A lot of people were cheering me on,” Jackson replied.
Graham went on to allege there was a concerted effort to disqualify Childs because progressive groups painted her as a “union-busting unreliable Republican in disguise,” but Jackson reminded him that she is still a sitting judge and said she has been focused on her cases.
“Would it bother you if that happened?” Graham continued to press.
Jackson, who received Graham’s vote last year for the appellate court, answered that it would be “troublesome” if groups were doing anything to interfere with the nomination, but maintained that she wasn’t aware of the criticism.
Mar 22, 10:38 am
Jackson stresses her record as an ‘independent jurist’
As she reintroduces herself to the American public as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Jackson what aspect of her record as a judge does she believe has been the most important for the good of the country.
“Well, I think that all of my record is important to some degree because I think it clearly demonstrates that I’m an independent jurist, that I am ruling in every case consistent with the methodologies that I’ve described, that I’m impartial,” Jackson said.
“I don’t think anyone could look at my record and say that it is pointing in one direction or another or that it is supporting one viewpoint or another. I am doing the work and have done the work for the past 10 years that judges do to rule impartially and to stay within the boundaries of our proper judicial role,” she added.
Trying to hone in further on her judicial philosophy, Grassley asked, of the previous 115 justices, are there any of them now or in the past that has a judicial philosophy that most closely resembles her own. She said she hasn’t studied the philosophies of all of the prior justices but that her background as a trial judge resembles that of left-leaning Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“I will say that I come to this position, to this moment as a judge who comes from practice — that I was a trial judge and my methodology has developed in this context. I don’t know how many other justices other than Justice Sotomayor have that same background,” she said.
Jackson has also emphasized in previous confirmations hearings that she does not have a judicial philosophy per se, but she applies the same methodology to all the cases she approaches, regardless of its parties.
-ABC News’ Trish Turner
Mar 22, 10:14 am
Grassley grills Jackson on ‘court-packing’
Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tried to get more clarity on whether Judge Jackson would support the idea of expanding the Supreme Court beyond nine justices, but Jackson said that was a policy question she couldn’t answer.
The question comes after several Republicans said Monday they were disappointed that Jackson hasn’t clarified her position on court-packing after she received the support of the progressive group Demand Justice, which is pushing for the court’s expansion.
“Respectfully, senator, other nominees to the Supreme Court have responded as I will, which is that it is a policy question for Congress,” Jackson said. “I am particularly mindful of not speaking to policy issues because I am so committed to staying in my lane of the system. Because I’m just not willing to speak to issues that are properly in the province of this body.”
Presented with the fact that retiring Justice Stephen Breyer and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated their views on the position, Grassley then asked if the Supreme Court has been bought by dark money groups.
“Senator, I don’t have any reason to believe that that’s the case,” she replied. “I have only the highest esteem for the members of the Supreme Court whom I hope to be able to join, if I’m confirmed, and for all of the members of the judiciary.”
Mar 22, 9:58 am
Jackson discusses representing Gitmo detainees
Continuing to give Judge Jackson opportunities to respond to GOP attacks, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also asked her what impact representing Guantanamo Bay detainees had on her judicial career after Republicans made clear they will take aim at those cases she was assigned as a federal public defender.
“September 11th was a tragic attack on this country. We all lived through it,” she began. “We saw what happened, and there were many defenses, important defenses that Americans undertook. There were Americans whose service came in the form of military action. My brother was one of those Americans, those brave Americans who decided to join the military to defend our country.”
“After 9/11, there were also lawyers who recognized that our nation’s values were under attack, that we couldn’t let the terrorists win by changing who we were fundamentally,” she continued. “And what that meant was that the people who were being accused by our government of having engaged in actions related to this, under our Constitutional scheme, were entitled to representation — were entitled to be treated fairly. That’s what makes our system the best in the world. That’s what makes us exemplary.”
She reminded the committee that federal public defenders don’t get to pick their clients but said, “You are standing up for the constitutional value of representation — and so I represented, as an appellate defender, some of those detainees.”
Mar 22, 9:50 am
Addressing Hawley attacks, Jackson recalls story she tells child porn offenders
In his questioning, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill, criticized attacks from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who accused Jackson Monday of a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook” in sentencing. Noting that several independent fact-checkers, including ABC News, have found the claims misleading, Durbin gave Jackson a chance to respond by asking what was going through her mind when Hawley leveled that criticism Monday.
“As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” Jackson said, taking a tough tone. “These are some of the most difficult cases that a judge has to deal with because we’re talking about pictures of sex abuse of children. We’re talking about graphic descriptions that judges have to read and consider when they decide how to sentence in these cases, and there’s a statute that tells judges what they’re supposed to do.”
She noted that federal sentencing laws are set by Congress, and the statute says, “Calculate the guidelines, but also look at various aspects of this offense, and impose a sentence that is, quote, sufficient but not greater than necessary to promote the purposes of punishment,” she said.
Calling the crimes “sickening and egregious,” Jackson went on to recall a story she said she tells every child porn defendant “when I look in the eyes of a defendant who is weeping because I’m giving him a significant sentence.”
“What I say to him is, ‘Do you know that there is someone who has written to me and who has told me that she has developed agoraphobia? She can not leave her house because she thinks that everyone she meets will have seen her, will have seen her pictures on the internet. They’re out there forever. At the most vulnerable time of her life, and so she’s paralyzed,” she said.
“I tell that story to every child porn defendant, as a part of my sentencing, so that they understand what they have done. I say to them that there’s only a market for this kind of material because there are lookers. That you are contributing to child sex abuse. And then I impose a significant sentence, and all of the additional restraints that are available in the law,” she continued in an emotional riff. “I am imposing all of those constraints because I understand how significant, how damaging, how horrible this crime is.”
Jackson noted that in addition to prison terms of many years for the crimes, she also requires “20, 30, 40 years of supervision” and that the offenders “can’t use computers for decades.”
Mar 22, 9:33 am
Jackson addresses her judicial philosophy
Hoping to disarm GOP attacks, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., posed the first question to Judge Jackson and gave her the opportunity to address her judicial philosophy after Republicans on Monday swiped at her for claiming previously that she doesn’t have one.
“So would you like to comment at the outset, of those who are looking for a label, what your position is on judicial philosophy?” Durbin said.
Jackson replied that she has developed a methodology that she uses when approaching any case “to ensure that I am ruling impartially and that I am adhering to the limit on my judicial authority.”
“I am acutely aware that as a judge in our system, I have limited power, and I am trying, in every case, to stay in my lane,” she said.
Without importing her personal views or policy preferences, Jackson explained that she follows three steps when approaching a case: First, she enters each from a position of neutrality. Next, she intakes the parties’ arguments, and the last step, she said, is the interpretation and application of the law to the facts.
“The entire exercise is about trying to understand what those who created this policy or this law intended,” she said. “As a lower court judge, I’m bound by the precedent. Even in the Supreme Court, if I was fortunate enough to be confirmed, there’s stare decisis, a binding kind of principle that the justices look at when they’re considering precedent. So, all of these things come into play in terms of my judicial philosophy.”
Mar 22, 9:11 am
Confirmation hearings gavel back in
The second day of confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson — Biden’s first nominee to the Supreme Court and the first Black woman considered to the nation’s highest court in its 233-year history — are officially underway.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gaveled in the hearing room just after 9 a.m. In a show of support, Jackson’s husband, Patrick, was seated behind her in the room, as he was Monday.
Jackson faces a marathon day of questioning from the committee’s 22 members, with each senator receiving 30-minutes to question Jackson one on one for a total of 11 hours Tuesday. Senators, in order of seniority, will take turns probing her judicial philosophy, her record as a public defender and her legal opinions spanning nearly nine years on the bench.
In a sign of COVID restrictions easing across the country, almost no one in the hearing room was wearing a mask, and for the first time since the pandemic, for each half-hour of the proceedings, up to 60 members of the public invited by senators will also be allowed to attend.
Mar 22, 9:01 am
KBJ arrives on Capitol Hill
Judge Jackson arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to continue a marathon week of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will need to approve sending her nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate for a floor vote.
The hearings will gavel in at 9 a.m. and each of the committee’s 11 Republican and 11 Democratic members will have up to 30 minutes to question Jackson one on one.
Jackson, 51, was sworn in Monday and delivered an opening statement to reintroduce herself to the nation.
“I hope that you will see how much I love our country, and the Constitution and the rights that make us free,” she told the senators who will vote on her historic nomination.
She also hinted at how she might address GOP critiques on Tuesday, telling senators that she adopts a “neutral posture” and sees her judicial role as “a limited one.”
Mar 22, 8:59 am
Republicans preview how they’ll question KBJ
While Democrats have emphasized the historic nature of Judge Jackson’s nomination and her compelling personal story, Republicans have vowed “thorough and civil” scrutiny of her record in hundreds of cases, which several have alleged shows she is “soft on crime.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., leveled the most pointed critique of Jackson’s record so far in his opening statement Monday, accusing her of a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook” in sentencing. The White House, several independent fact-checkers, and conservative outlet The National Review have called the claims misleading and unfair.
Republicans including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., have also made clear they will also take aim at Jackson’s defense of an accused terrorist held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay — a case she was assigned to as a federal public defender. Jackson has previously explained her service as an example of belief in constitutional values.
Others indicated they planned to press Jackson to characterize her judicial philosophy, though she’s said outright she doesn’t have one, and to answer for progressive legal advocacy groups backing both her nomination and expanding the Supreme Court’s bench.
Mar 22, 8:25 am
Questioning could prove critical in securing GOP votes
Questioning over the next two days could prove critical to the White House goal of securing at least some Republican support for Judge Jackson’s confirmation.
Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham — voted in favor of Jackson’s confirmation to the D.C. Circuit last June, but after private meetings with Biden’s nominee this month, all three were noncommittal about supporting her again.
Jackson has been vetted twice previously by the Judiciary Committee and twice confirmed by the full Senate as a judge. She was also Senate confirmed in 2010 as vice-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
No Republican senator has publicly disputed Jackson’s qualification to be a justice, though several have raised concerns about her rulings and presumed judicial philosophy, which she has insisted she does not have.
Even without bipartisan support, Democrats have the votes on their own for Jackson’s confirmation, which party leaders have said they plan to complete before Easter.
Mar 22, 8:08 am
KBJ faces fourth Senate grilling Tuesday
Confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson — the first Black woman to be considered for the U.S. Supreme Court — continue on Tuesday at 9 a.m. when she’ll face up to 19 hours of questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members over two days.
Jackson will lean on her three prior experiences being questioned by the Judiciary Committee — more than any other nominee in 30 years — as its 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats take turns probing her judicial philosophy, her record as a public defender and her legal opinions spanning nearly nine years on the bench.
Jackson has spent the past few weeks practicing for the spotlight during mock sessions conducted with White House staff, sources familiar with the preparations told ABC News. She also met individually with each of the committee’s members and 23 other senators from both parties.
Each senator will get a 30-minute solo round of questioning on Tuesday, totaling more than 11 hours if each uses all of his or her allotted time, ahead of 20-minute rounds on Wednesday. The grilling is unlike any other for federal judges or political nominees in large part because of the lifetime tenure on the line.
(WASHINGTON) — A man submerged up to his chin in brown, murky floodwaters and a group of miners covered head to toe in black soot — these are a few of the images featured at a new climate-inspired photography exhibit at the Kennedy Center called Coal + Ice, which opened on March 15.
“I had young kids, and I was trying to think about the kind of world they’d be living in. I felt this increasing responsibility to try to address climate change,” said Gideon Mendel, a 63-year-old photographer based in London, whose work is featured in the exhibit.
The display, running through April 22, features a spread of photos and videos taken across the globe and documents the harmful effects of human activity on the planet. It showcases the work of more than 50 photographers and videographers from around the world and the varying ways climate change manifests.
Coal + Ice comes to Washington, D.C. as reliance on fossil fuels has taken center stage amid the war in Ukraine. As the global market faces more significant uncertainty due to the volatile geopolitical landscape and dragging impacts of COVID-19, climate change has been pushed to the back burner.
“We have to walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister and president of the Asia Society Policy Institute that helped organize the exhibition.
“Dealing with geopolitics, dealing with the challenge to the inviability of national borders to be fundamentally violated in the invasion of Ukraine, and at the same time, wrestle with this pan-civilization challenge for climate change,” Rudd said.
Here in the United States, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked a debate on the sources of energy production at home. Many Republicans have called for an increase in oil and gas production to offset reliance on other nations, specifically Russia. In contrast, Democrats have pointed to this as evidence for a complete move away from non-renewable energies.
“It’s not looking good. It’s getting worse, and you know, at a time when the world needs actually a concerted global governance, to work together, it’s actually more fractured than it’s been for a long time,” said Mendel.
The exhibit allows viewers to walk around freely and move between “pods,” where individual collections provide an artistic exploration of the climate crisis. The content varies from scenes of coal mining operations worldwide to the rapidly melting glaciers of the Himalayas and photographs that chart their decline over the last few decades.
The 30,000 square-foot tent on the Kennedy Center’s “Reach Plaza” features a continuous background audio track that pairs with the visual displays to create an immersive experience for visitors.
Though the latest installation is on the doorstep of the government in Washington, D.C., there is concern about the exhibit’s impact.
“The danger with climate change groups, it just preached to the converted. You know, so you know, that’s, and you often have these closed circles. I mean, it’s really complex questions of how you use your work to bring about change,” said Mendel.
The exhibit makes its first appearance on the East Coast after initially debuting in Beijing in 2011, followed by showings in Yixian, Shanghai, Paris and San Francisco — the only other U.S. display. Smaller versions of Coal + Ice were also set up in Copenhagen and New Delhi. After the exhibition wraps, the organizers hope to take it to New York City, but have no official plans to do so.
(CINCINNATI) — The company that makes Jergens lotion is recalling select bottles of moisturizers due to possible bacterial contamination.
Kao USA Inc., based in Cincinnati, issued a voluntary recall on March 11 and is urging consumers to stop using Jergens® Ultra Healing Moisturizers that were packaged in three-ounce and 10-ounce bottles.
The company’s announcement, which was shared with the Food and Drug Administration, said affected moisturizers could be contaminated with the bacterium Pluralibacter gergoviae, “a bacterium which typically poses little medical risk to healthy people.”
Kao USA said it was recalling the lotions “as a precautionary measure” and that “people who have certain health problems such as weakened immune systems may be more susceptible to infections” when exposed to the bacterium.
Jergens’ manufacturer said the investigation into the matter is still ongoing and that it is notifying warehouses and retailers and working to pull affected products.
“Kao USA cares about our consumers’ safety, and we’re committed to manufacturing products that not only meet, but exceed, the highest industry standards,” Kao USA President Karen Frank said in a statement to Good Morning America. “As such, we promptly issued a voluntary recall of the affected product, and are proactively notifying consumers, removing it from warehouses, and working with retailers to ensure it is removed from store shelves. We have informed regulatory authorities, and further investigation to determine the scope of the issue is still ongoing. This remains our top priority, and we will continue to work with our partners on improved cleaning and sanitization practices so that similar issues can be prevented in the future.”
The recalled moisturizers were produced between Oct. 1 and Oct. 18 of last year, according to Kao USA. The lot codes for the units that were recalled all begin with the letters “ZU” and were printed in black type on the back of the bottles.
Look for lot codes:
3-ounce bottles:
ZU712851
ZU712861
ZU712871
ZU712881
ZU712911
ZU722881
ZU722851
10-ounce bottles:
ZU722741
ZU722771
ZU722781
ZU732781
ZU732791
ZU732801
ZU732811
ZU732821
Customers who have recalled lotion bottles can call or email Kao USA’s Customer Care Center for a postage-paid label and plastic bag to return the product and/or request a free product coupon at 1-800-742-8798 or consumer@kao.com. The company’s care center is open between Monday-Friday between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET.
Anyone who has used any recalled Jergens moisturizers and experienced an adverse reaction can also file a report with Kao USA’s Customer Care Center and the FDA’s MedWatch program at 888-463-6332 or online on the MedWatch website.
(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she has tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, on the eve of President Joe Biden’s trip overseas.
Psaki said she was in meetings with Biden on Monday but that he tested negative Tuesday on a PCR test.
“I had two socially-distanced meetings with the President yesterday, and the President is not considered a close contact as defined by CDC guidance,” Psaki said in a statement.
Psaki said she has mild symptoms and she’ll “work from home and plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of a five-day isolation period and a negative test.”
Deputy press secretary Chris Meagher said no members of the press who attended Monday’s press briefing are considered to be close contacts. The White House is conducting contact tracing, he added.
This is the second time Psaki has tested positive for COVID-19. She first tested positive on Oct. 31, 2021.
Biden is traveling on Wednesday to Brussels to attend a NATO summit, meet with G-7 leaders and join a scheduled European Council Summit. Biden will then travel to Poland.
(WARSAW, Poland) — President Joe Biden’s high-stakes summit with other NATO leaders on Thursday will be one of the most scrutinized meetings on the world stage in decades, and could have enormous implications for both the war in Ukraine and the global balance of power.
Despite calls from Ukraine to do more to help stave off Russia’s ruthless invasion, Biden has erred on the side of caution — wary of escalating the conflict by drawing in U.S. forces as part of a more direct NATO response. But after nearly a month of fighting, some foreign policy and national security experts ABC News spoke to say it may be time for the alliance to take on a more direct role.
Preparing for ‘the worst case’
Since before the fighting broke out, Biden has insisted that American troops would not fight Russian forces inside Ukraine, warning that going head-to-head would lead to “a third world war.”
But Barry Pavel, a former National Security Council senior official during the Bush and Obama administration and the senior vice president and director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, says that’s far from inevitable.
“There have been other cases where U.S. and Russian forces have unfortunately come into friction and World War III didn’t start,” Pavel said, characterizing the strategy as simplistic. “There are hundreds of options that could be done between what NATO is doing now and risking World War III.”
The greater threat, warns Pavel, might be in leaving Putin unchecked.
“If he is emboldened by success in Ukraine, then he will be more aggressive in his efforts to nibble and to move into areas of perceived weakness in NATO members,” he said. “If he achieves his goal, you’ll have Russian forces on the borders of seven NATO members, including nuclear forces in Belarus, and so he’ll use that new posture to really heighten European insecurity to a great degree.”
And it isn’t Biden’s — or NATO’s — choice alone. Moscow could also escalate the conflict by striking a NATO member, either intentionally or accidentally, triggering a sweeping response.
“Article 5 — in the most basic sense — is NATO’s ‘Three Musketeers’ provision, which is to say, ‘all for one and one for all’ — an attack against any member is an attack against every member of NATO,” said Sean Monaghan, a former civil servant in the U.K. Ministry of Defence and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, calling it “the most important red line in international politics.”
“This is a contingency that NATO forces are already preparing for,” said Monaghan. “That’s what the military does — prepare for the worst case.”
While the response to a Russian strike wouldn’t necessarily need to be eye for an eye, Monaghan says in theory, the alliance would be obligated to provide “an overwhelming response” if any member state was hit.
“The practice, some would say that NATO being collective of 30 nations, that have to reach consensus for any actions to be to be taken, that might hinder a response. But I think in this conflict, NATO has shown itself to be quite a lot more resolute and speedier of action than many people would have predicted,” he added.
The next phase for NATO
While the Biden administration has underscored the power of NATO’s overwhelming unity in the face of Russian aggression, when it comes to charting a path forward to counter the Kremlin, cracks within the alliance are beginning to emerge. While the summit will be an opportunity for the powers to get on the same page, it may also cast a spotlight on areas of disagreement.
For instance, Poland plans to propose a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine — a move the U.S. has effectively ruled out. Article 5 lays plain that an attack on a member merits a response, but will the alliance retaliate if Russia resorts to chemical weapons in Ukraine? And while NATO may not be willing to establish a no-fly zone over the country, Pavel says that doesn’t mean there isn’t a debate to be had about what more can be done to help the country defend its own airspace.
“In terms of the weapons pipeline, we should be doing much more. We can’t let the Ukrainians fly aircraft in their own defense? Forget these ridiculous restrictions on what equipment we can provide a sovereign country who asks for it to defend themselves against an invading force” he said, referencing the U.S. and other allies’ hesitancy to hand over fighter jets to Ukraine for fear of Russian retaliation.
Pavel added that additional anti-aircraft and anti-ship weaponry, as well as enhanced intelligence support and humanitarian aid on the ground, could go a long way in resistance efforts.
Thomas Graham, a former NSC senior director for Russia and a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that beyond discussing support for Ukraine, NATO leaders should use the upcoming summit to make sharpen their signaling to the Kremlin.
“NATO leaders want to make sure that they’ve done everything that they can in order to deter the Russians,” he said. “Have we augmented the forces in Eastern Europe to the appropriate levels? And have we convinced the Russians that in fact we are determined to honor the Article Five guarantee and protect every inch of NATO territory?”
Monahan predicts this week’s gathering will result in a reversal to a mindset not seen since the days of the Soviet Union.
“We can foresee it as the beginning of a step change, almost a return to NATO’s Cold War posture of, if not territorial defense, then a much increased forward presence designed to deter a Russian regime that is clearly willing to resort to war” he said.
Battle lines of the future
Beyond addressing the immediate crisis, experts say NATO must ensure it is ready to respond to a more aggressive Russia and prepare for the new geopolitical frontier it is forging.
“The war in Ukraine will end at some point will end, but Russia will remain,” said Graham. “And what the conflict has demonstrated is that the hopes we had had for integrating Russia into the Euro-Atlantic community are dead.”
Pavel says plotting out a strategy not only for ending the conflict — but for managing exactly how the conflict ends — will be critical.
“When wars have ended in the past, the new boundaries have been drawn where the force set, through the middle of Germany, through the middle of Berlin,” Pavel said. “When the dust settles, where do we want Russian forces to be and where do we want Ukrainian and potentially NATO forces to be?”
Another repercussion may be an onslaught of arms races. Russia’s alleged deployment of hypersonic missiles — a technology the U.S. has not yet mastered — is an area of competition, but Pavel says it’s not the only one.
“Putin has spent 10, 15 years modernizing the Russian nuclear forces — a lot of new types of exotic Russian nuclear weapons, pretty significant,” he said. “Certainly, the U.S. and some NATO members have nuclear capabilities, but they are aging. They have not been modernized at the pace that we should be doing.”
“All of this means that we’ll have we’ll have a lot more to do, unfortunately, on the security agenda going forward,” Pavel added.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — The criminal fraud trial of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the ex-boyfriend of convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and a top executive at the blood-testing company, is expected to begin Tuesday in California after a series of COVID-19 related delays.
Balwani’s trial was first pushed back in January by the surge of omicron cases and then again last week when it was discovered someone who attended jury selection was exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
On Monday, juror No. 1 was excused after reporting a fever and a sore throat to the court and replaced by an alternate.
Federal prosecutors will take the floor first to give their opening statement, and then lawyers for Balwani will have a chance to unveil their defense.
Balwani’s trial is being held in the same San Jose courthouse where Holmes was convicted earlier this year. He’s also facing the same charges: two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and could face decades in prison if convicted.
The government alleges Holmes and Balwani perpetrated a yearslong scheme to defraud investors and patients by intentionally misleading people about the capabilities of their blood-testing technology.
A federal jury found Holmes guilty on four counts of fraud in January. The 38-year-old is scheduled to be sentenced in September after the expected conclusion of Balwani’s trial.
The pair was originally charged in the same case, but their trials were severed after Holmes revealed she planned to testify that Balwani subjected her to mental and physical abuse. She held back tears on the stand in December as she told the jury that Balwani forced her to have sex and “impacted everything about who I was.”
Balwani firmly denied the allegations in a filing.
A Holmes juror exclusively told ABC that the jury largely disregarded the emotional testimony in deliberations.
Holmes also testified to the Silicon Valley jury that Balwani ran the day-to-day lab operations and took care of company’s financials.
But juror No. 6 told ABC News that the jury convicted Holmes regardless because “everything went through her.”
Theranos was the brainchild of 19-year-old Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford to pour herself into building the blood-testing business. Her company later created a miniature device dubbed the “Edison,” which investor witnesses at her trial said they believed could run any blood test.
Holmes paraded the novel technology to the likes of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the DeVos family, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.
By 2013, the Silicon Valley startup began to roll out its testing to Walgreens stores, with plans to expand nationwide. Holmes also recruited several prominent people to sit on her board of directors including Gen. James Mattis and former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
But Theranos came under fire in October 2015 when a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed less than 10% of the company’s blood tests were ran on the Edison, according to the report.
Three years later, in March 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Holmes, Balwani and Theranos, claiming they had fraudulently raised more than $700 million from investors.
Federal prosecutors later filed criminal charges against the former couple.
(NEW YORK) — At least three southern states were under a tornado watch Tuesday following an outbreak of twisters Monday night in Texas and Oklahoma that cut a path of destruction, killed one person and injured at least 10 others.
Twenty tornadoes were reported Monday night, 19 of those in central and northern Texas, where multiple homes and businesses were damaged, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy damage occurred from funnel clouds touching down in Round Rock, Texas, where roofs were ripped off homes, according to the local fire and police departments.
At one point, police in Round Rock, about 20 miles north of Austin, Texas, urged residents to stay off the roads. A tornado also ripped through a strip mall in Round Rock, damaging a restaurant, a bank, and cars in a Home Depot parking lot, authorities said.
In Jacksboro, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, a high school and elementary school both sustained heavy damage, according to Jack County Rural Fire Chief Jason Jennings. Sixty to 80 homes were damaged in Jacksboro, Jennings said.
News helicopter footage Tuesday morning showed major damage to the Jacksboro High School, where the roof of a school’s gym either collapsed or was blown away.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that one person was killed in Northwest Grayson County, Texas.
Sarah Somers of the Grayson County Office of Emergency Management said at least 20 homes were damaged or destroyed in Grayson County, according to ABC affiliate station KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma.
Significant damage also occurred in the Kingston, Oklahoma, area, where officials said a likely tornado touched down. Multiple structures including a marina were damaged or destroyed, in the Kingston area, officials said.
During the tornado outbreak, wind gusts of up to 64 mph and hail the size of golf balls were also reported across central and northern Texas.
On Tuesday morning, tornado warnings were issued for parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, including the Houston area.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center forecast the tornado threat to parts of Mississippi and Alabama as well.
Severe weather is zeroing in on Alexandrian and Baton Rouge, Lousiana., to Hattiesburg, Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi, and into western Alabama, west of Tuscaloosa, according to NOAA.
ABC News’ Jim Scholz and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
