(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are demanding answers after the FBI revealed just recently that it received more than 4,500 tips about Brett Kavanaugh when he was a Supreme Court nominee in 2018 and that only ones the agency deemed most “relevant” were referred to then-President Donald Trump’s White House.
The Democrats want to know how the information from the supplemental background check was handled and whether any of it was investigated, details they say were never passed on to the senators considering Kavanaugh’s nomination.
They asked the FBI to hand over by Aug. 31 “all records and communications” related to the first-of-its kind tip line the FBI set up that produced both “telephone calls and electronic submissions” and to explain how the tips were evaluated and categorized as “relevant.”
“If the FBI was not authorized to or did not follow up on any of the tips that it received from the tip line, it is difficult to understand the point of having a tip line at all,” they said in a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray.
It’s been nearly three years since Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation onto the nation’s highest court following allegations by California professor Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her at a party in Maryland when they were both in high school in the early 1980s. Local police did not investigate in 2018 and weren’t asked to look into her allegations around the time she says the incident happened.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse released a letter from the FBI Thursday, dated June 30, that was written in response to a two-year-old request from Sens. Whitehouse and Chris Coons asking about how an expanded FBI review of Kavanaugh — done in response to Ford’s allegation — was pursued and how involved the Trump White House was in the probe.
In the letter, Jill C. Tyson, an FBI assistant director said the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips received in the probe were passed to the Office of White House Counsel under Trump, but no further, as a 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the Justice Department and White House requires. The fate and subsequent actions based off those tips remain a mystery.
The letter stated that the agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation. “The authorities, policies and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” Tyson said.
In light of Ford’s accusations, other allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh ensued, all of which he denied. Don McGahn was White House counsel at the time.
The allegations led to bitter divide among lawmakers over Trump’s nomination of the judge and saw Ford and Kavanaugh endure a heated daylong hearing in September 2018 where they were grilled by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh was eventually sworn into the Supreme Court in October that year.
The FBI response has only sparked outrage among Democrats. Whitehouse along with six other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Coons — replied to the FBI’s letter Wednesday asking for additional details on the agreement with the White House over the inquiry and the handling of the incoming tips.
“The admissions in your letter corroborate and explain numerous credible accounts by individuals and firms that they had contacted the FBI with information ‘highly relevant to . . . allegations’ of sexual misconduct by Justice Kavanaugh, only to be ignored,” the senators wrote in response.
ABC News has reached out to the FBI for comment.
In the probe into Kavanaugh’s past, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the FBI, according to the letter, but Ford and Kavanaugh were not. It’s unclear whether those 10 were discovered through the tip line.
Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, the lawyers who represented Ford, said in a statement that the FBI’s investigations into her allegations about Kavanaugh’s alleged misconduct “was a sham and a major institutional failure.”
The lawyers said the FBI “handed the information over to the White House, allowing those who supported Kavanaugh to falsely claim that the FBI found no wrongdoing,” adding, “our nation deserved better.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., was among 10 demonstrators arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday in an orchestrated act of civil disobedience outside the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Johnson and voting rights advocates participating in Black Voters Matter Fund’s “Brothers Day of Action,” a protest led by Black men to advocate for voting rights, called on Congress to end the filibuster and pass the For the People Act.
The demonstration was a follow-up to the Black women-led protest on July 15, which ended in nine arrests, including the arrest of Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty.
While the voting rights debate remains largely partisan in Congress, the majority of Americans believe that people who are legally qualified to vote should be able to, according to a survey from Pew Research Center. Data released on Thursday revealed that 57% of Americans view voting more as “a fundamental right” for all eligible U.S. citizens and “should not be restricted in any way.” Less than 42% believe “voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited if adult U.S. citizens don’t meet some requirements,” according to the survey.
The push from Democrats to pass federal voting rights legislation continues to grow as at least 16 Republican-led states have passed laws that restrict voting rights, including measures that tighten rules for absentee and mail-in voting, and impose new voter ID and signature requirements.
Experts say the GOP measures, which have been pushed in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, disproportionately impact voter access among minorities groups.
Although Republican state and federal lawmakers maintain that voting restrictions were imposed to make elections secure, President Joe Biden blasted the efforts in a speech on July 13, calling GOP attempts to limit ballot access a “21st century Jim Crow assault.”
While Biden has used his presidential influence to embolden Democrats’ push to pass federal voting rights legislation, he has yet to endorse ending the filibuster. The president has openly supported reforming the rule.
Progressive House Democrats, including Johnson and Reps. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Al Green, D-Texas, who stood with demonstrators during Thursday’s rally, said that Biden’s speech was not enough.
Bowman urged Biden to take further action to help end the filibuster rule in the Senate, a change he said is needed to pass progressive bills on the Democratic agenda. Ending the filibuster would effectively allow bills to be passed with a simple majority, instead of the 60 needed with it in place.
“These bills, they sit in the Senate, not moving at all. Why? Because of the racist Jim Crow relic called the filibuster,” Bowman said.
“It’s not just about the president giving a speech on racial equity, or writing a press release saying he’s for racial equity. It’s about your policies, it’s about your advocacy, it’s about your budget. So we are calling on the president to be a leader for racial justice and equity — so that the S. 1 bill passes in the Senate, so that the S. 4 bill passes the Senate, so that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passes the Senate, and so that we can really evolve into the multiracial democracy that we are,” Bowman continued.
Jackson Lee praised voting rights protesters and vowed that she and other Congressional Black Caucus members will continue demonstrating until federal voting rights legislation passes in Congress.
“We committed that the agitation is not going to stop. We will show up, day after day after day, because we embody the Constitution,” Jackson Lee said.
“Whatever it takes, we’ll be there as nonviolent perpetrators,” she continued. “Civil disobedient persons we are. I leave you in the name of the late John Lewis who said, ‘Carry on.'”
(NEW YORK) — Chef Mario Batali and his former partner Joe Bastianich violated state and city human rights laws with a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination at restaurants they owned, the New York attorney general said Friday announcing a settlement.
The company, formerly known as the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, agreed to pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees who were sexually harassed while they worked at the famed restaurants Babbo, Lupa or Del Posto.
“Celebrity and fame does not absolve someone from following the law. Sexual harassment is unacceptable for anyone, anywhere — no matter how powerful the perpetrator,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement. “Batali and Bastianich permitted an intolerable work environment and allowed shameful behavior that is inappropriate in any setting.”
This agreement comes after a four-year investigation, the attorney general’s office said, looking at allegations between 2016 and 2019 that included unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching and sexually explicit comments from managers and coworkers, in addition to forcible groping, hugging and kissing by male colleagues.
The investigation also included accusations of sexual harassment by Batali of servers.
The investigation also looked into instances of discrimination, as female employees said chefs and managers supported male employees and made misogynistic comments, including commenting on women employees’ appearances.
The agreement includes $600,000 going to at least 20 former employees. It also includes revising training at B&B restaurants to be more comprehensive and encourage “a safe, healthy work environment,” the attorney general’s office said.
Batali has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. In 2019, he “fully divested” from the restaurants that made him famous. Before that, he had apologized and stepped away from day-to-day business responsibilities.
In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from an alleged 2017 incident with a woman in a Boston restaurant.
(NEW YORK) — Chef Mario Batali and his former partner Joe Bastianich violated state and city human rights laws with a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination at restaurants they owned, the New York attorney general said Friday announcing a settlement.
The company, formerly known as the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, agreed to pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees who were sexually harassed while they worked at the famed restaurants Babbo, Lupa or Del Posto.
“Celebrity and fame does not absolve someone from following the law. Sexual harassment is unacceptable for anyone, anywhere — no matter how powerful the perpetrator,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement. “Batali and Bastianich permitted an intolerable work environment and allowed shameful behavior that is inappropriate in any setting.”
This agreement comes after a four-year investigation, the attorney general’s office said, looking at allegations between 2016 and 2019 that included unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching and sexually explicit comments from managers and coworkers, in addition to forcible groping, hugging and kissing by male colleagues.
The investigation also included accusations of sexual harassment by Batali of servers.
The investigation also looked into instances of discrimination, as female employees said chefs and managers supported male employees and made misogynistic comments, including commenting on women employees’ appearances.
The agreement includes $600,000 going to at least 20 former employees. It also includes revising training at B&B restaurants to be more comprehensive and encourage “a safe, healthy work environment,” the attorney general’s office said.
Batali has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. In 2019, he “fully divested” from the restaurants that made him famous. Before that, he had apologized and stepped away from day-to-day business responsibilities.
In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from an alleged 2017 incident with a woman in a Boston restaurant.
(NEW YORK) — With landfills receiving millions of tons of textile waste each year — and growing — the environmental impact of clothing has become the fashion industry’s dirty little secret.
Today, more people are paying attention to this worsening issue and have zeroed in on the impact of rental clothing subscription services. These companies, such as Rent the Runway, Nuuly and Le Tote, give people the option to keep their clothes in an ongoing rotation, so they can swap their sweatpants for a pair of borrowed designer trousers. All they have to do is subscribe, select a few of their favorite looks, wear them and then return them later — some brands even offer an option to buy the pieces.
But while many of these companies have been marketed as a greener way to dress by contributing to a more circular, recycled economy, a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters questions how sustainable the logistical processes behind rental clothing subscription services actually are.
The study found that renting clothes could potentially cause the highest impact to global warming when compared to keeping a piece of clothing for an extended period of time or reselling it, which the study suggested impact the environment the least. The study said that rental services can impact the environment via increased transportation needs, such as shipping and packaging, as well as through the constant cleaning needed to maintain the clothes between each renter.
How does transportation play a part?
The transportation sector — including cars, trucks, boats, railroad and commercial aircraft — is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which said it contributed to 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.
Most of the items used through rental companies are delivered through these transportation modes, but as the study suggests, delivery via a bike or another lower carbon-emitting vehicle could help to reduce emissions into the environment.
Some top rental clothing services, such as Rent the Runway, have implemented alternative methods for passing off the clothes, including a network of physical drop-off locations to consolidate inbound shipments from customers while also trying to mitigate the use of high carbon-emitting vehicles.
The company has also partnered with traditional carriers and implemented other non-traditional return methods such as a network of swap stops to consolidate inbound shipments from customers.
Cleaner, greener cleaning methods and practices
When it comes to keeping the clothing fresh, some apparel companies have relied heavily on dry cleaning, while others have found environmentally friendlier practices.
Women’s monthly clothing rental subscription company Nuuly says it uses a custom-built cleaning facility along with dry and wet cleaning methods. The company told ABC News that more than 60% of its products are cleaned with non-alkaline and phosphate-free cleaning solutions, which are gentler on the environment when compared to traditional household detergents.
Rent the Runway says it uses similar methods, along with biodegradable detergents that are free from added fragrances and zeolites. The company said it does not use any halogenated cleaning solvents such as perchloroethylene. After cleaning, most pieces pass through a steam tunnel with temperatures between 248 and 302 degrees and are immediately sealed in plastic to protect them from subsequent handling.
Rent the Runway said it encourages customers to keep the plastic out of landfills by sending it back along with their garments. From there, the company said the plastic is recycled through a third-party partner, which in turn uses the plastic for wood-alternative building and decking materials.
Both Nuuly and Rent the Runway also say they make use of recyclable garment bags as opposed to big boxes and packing materials.
“Our goal is to power a new future for fashion, one in which women buy less and wear more, disrupting a centuries-old industry and contributing to a more sustainable future for the industry,” Anushka Salinas, president and chief operating officer of Rent the Runway, told GMA. “We are focused on shifting customer behavior, improving our operations and transforming the dynamics of the industry to drive positive change.”
The company also said it’s making progress in these areas by inspiring a customer base that buys less clothing and keeps clothing in rotation for as long as possible, thereby shifting the focus on the industry from high volumes and low price points — which are generally found through fast fashion brands — to quality, durability and utilization.
While these sustainability efforts from rental clothing companies have to be considered in the grander scheme, some experts agree that the bigger issue has to do with overall mass textile production.
The study only looked at cotton-based jeans and not other textiles
While the study examined how extended use, reselling, recycling the textile materials and renting them could potentially be harmful to the environment, it also highlighted limitations in the research and areas of future exploration. Specifically, it noted that the study was only conducted on cotton-based products and that research into clothing made from synthetic fibers might have resulted in different findings.
Some experts also agree that jeans, which were primarily used for this study, are one article of clothing that’s rarely rented.
“They’re the kind of thing you buy and wear a couple of times a week for at least a year, if not five,” Alden Wicker, a journalist and founder of sustainable fashion website EcoCult, told GMA. “Renting is great for items that you would only wear a few times or even just once, like cocktail dresses and evening gowns.”
Mass textile production and manufacturing likely hurts the environment more than rental clothing
In 2018, landfills received 11.3 million tons of municipal solid waste textiles, which equates to 7.7% of all municipal solid waste that was landfilled, according to the EPA.
The study published in Environmental Research Letters says that developing “more efficient recycling options” for textiles will not be able to reduce this amount of waste on their own.
“Currently, reduction of the total amount of products in the circuit is the most efficient way to steer the sector toward more sustainable practices,” the study said. “Reduce and Reuse strategies are the most practical for achieving such goals.”
Timo Rissanen, an associate professor in fashion and textiles at the University of Technology Sydney, told GMA that people urgently need to reduce total fashion production and consumption.
“We are in the early stages of a human-induced planetary catastrophe, and our collective cognitive dissonance in the face of that is alarming,” he said. “Rental clothing should not be employed purely to satiate a hunger for novelty and to prop up the current, inherently unsustainable worldview and levels of consumption.”
Whether you’re looking to try rental clothing services or not, there are eco-concious fashion advocates such as Clare Press, a sustainable fashion influencer and host of the “Wardrobe Crisis podcast,” who serve as guides for people looking to dress more sustainably.
“I think rental has an important role to play in making fashion circular by keeping clothes in use for longer while satisfying consumer desire for novelty,” Press told GMA. “Do I prefer renting fashion over buying a $10 dress from Shein? Absolutely.”
“Resist being told what to do by pop culture, big media and fast fashion,” she added. “It’s much more interesting and inspiring to make your own style decisions and wear what makes you happy.”
Press said that even though she loves new clothes, that doesn’t mean she should be buying new pieces every week.
“Maybe what makes you feel best will be re-wearing much-loved clothes you already own,” she said. “Quality over quantity, and styling what you already have in new ways.”
(NEW YORK) — Adding to the many challenges parents faced during the COVD-19 pandemic, vaccines remain unavailable for young children leading to questions about the need for kids to wear masks.
The issue has come to a head as kids start to return to school and even different schools within the same school district may have different mask policies.
On the national level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said immunized adults and teens can go without a mask, including inside schools.
The public health agency has also said that schools can still embrace universal masking if they can’t verify vaccinations or have large numbers of students too young to qualify. Children under the age of 12 are currently not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
At least eight states, including Arizona, Georgia and Texas, have banned mask mandates in schools.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of nearly 70,000 pediatricians, this week called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates.
“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement. “Many schools will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.”
Good Morning America spoke with two pediatricians from Columbia University to help clarify for parents all the advice coming in on face masks and kids.
Here are their takeaways for parents.
1. All kids above age 2 should wear face masks at schools:
Both pediatricians, Dr. David Buchholz and Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, agreed with the AAP’s recommendation that all people above age 2 should wear masks inside schools, regardless of vaccination status.
“It makes it simple and it makes it flawless and protects everybody,” Buchholz said of a universal policy. “Wearing a mask protects yourself and it also protects others. It’s a great benefit.”
Both Buchholz and Bracho-Sanchez pointed out that the AAP’s and CDC’s seemingly different policies can be explained by the focus of their work.
“The CDC is in general making recommendations for the whole country,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “The APA, they’re pediatricians and their first thought is what makes sense for children? They’re looking granularly at kids and what makes sense for them.”
2. Masks matter because kids are at risk for COVID-19:
“Our understanding of COVID-19 in children has changed dramatically [since the start of the pandemic] and it absolutely can be a very serious illness in children,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “Since the start of the pandemic, there have been over 4 million children who have contracted COVID-19 and hundreds who have unfortunately passed away from it and another large amount of children who are suffering long-term COVID-19 symptoms after having had the initial illness.”
COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled in the United States over two weeks, according to The Associated Press. The virus is also on the rise among children, with more than 23,000 new pediatric cases diagnosed in the U.S. last week, twice as many as the end of June, according to the AAP.
The CDC reports that among recent cases of COVID-19, 99.5% of hospitalizations are people who weren’t immunized.
In addition to protecting children from COVID-19, face masks also help prevent the spread of other viruses like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza, noted Buchholz.
3. Masks allow children to learn in person:
After more than one year of learning entirely online for many students, wearing face masks is an easy measure that will allow kids to learn in person, according to Bracho-Sanchez.
“Children have absolutely suffered from being isolated from their peers, from their friends, from other people,” she said. “But that is because they have been away from other people, not because they have been wearing masks.”
“You can be around other people and socializing and wear masks, or not wear masks and potentially get very sick and have to go back to learning online,” added Bracho-Sanchez. “It’s in my mind a no-brainer. I would mask my own child. I would ask the adults around my child to wear masks.”
4. Masks should be used along with other safety practices:
In addition to supporting their kids in wearing face masks, parents should pay attention also to the other safety recommendations that have been in place throughout the pandemic, including hand washing and social distancing, according to both doctors.
They also urge parents to continue to screen themselves and their children for symptoms each morning and to stay home from school and-or work if they are sick.
5. Kids may have bigger feelings around returning to school:
Bracho-Sanchez said that parents will want to listen to their kids in case their possible resistance to or anger over having to wear a mask is about something deeper, like anxiety over returning to school.
“We are very focused on COVID and masking but this back-to-school season is going to be about so much more than COVID-19,” she said. “Some kids are really nervous. Some kids have truly fallen behind. Some kids have not been around people, so at the same time we’re having these conversations, we also have to remember that we have to protect children in so many ways.”
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Some lessons on the civil rights movement, white supremacy, the women’s suffrage movement and Martin Luther King Jr. may soon be cut from Texas’ public education requirements, according to legislation being considered in the state — one of several bills targeting critical race theory around the country.
The Texas Senate has passed Senate Bill 3 in a continued effort to proscribe education on racial inequality in K-12 education. It removes several Texas Education Code lesson requirements that were proposed by Democrats in prior education legislation to be implemented in the upcoming school year. It also stipulates that lessons cannot teach that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” or make students “feel discomfort, guilt, [or] anguish” about privilege or systemic racism.
The concept critical race theory, an academic discipline that analyzes how racism is perpetuated in U.S. laws and policies, has become a lightning rod for conservatives around the country amid the racial reckoning spurred by George Floyd’s death.
At least 26 other states have introduced or implemented similar legislation on race education by Republican lawmakers, echoing concerns about racial division.
Opponents say that children should not be made to feel responsible for past injustices based solely on the color of their skin or be forced to accept the idea that the United States and its institutions are not only structured racially but perpetuate that racism.
Some teachers interviewed by ABC News have said critical race theory isn’t being taught in grades K-12 and instead is reserved for academic institutions. Some Texas educators told ABC they believe the fight against “critical race theory” is a veiled attempt to turn back the clock on racial equality.
What’s in the bill
The new legislation, SB3, would remove several staples of U.S. history education from state requirements, according to Ovidia Molina, the president of the Texas State Teachers Association.
The state currently requires teaching “the history of white supremacy,” “the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong; the Chicano movement; women’s suffrage and equal rights; the civil rights movement” and more.
However, SB3 would cut those requirements — a move that some teachers say signals a growing effort to remove specific lessons from classrooms.
“Specifically editing out that you can’t teach that white supremacy is morally wrong — that is deeply concerning,” said Jennifer Lee, a teacher in Killeen, Texas. “I think the angle here is just … preserving the ideals behind white supremacy.”
Though the new legislation doesn’t necessarily ban these lessons from being taught, removing them from the list of requirements means they may come under scrutiny due to the vague, anti-critical race theory language of this bill.
Gov. Greg Abbott already signed anti-critical race theory into law in June with HB3979 — stating that teachers are banned from linking systemic racism to the “authentic founding principles of the United States.” But teachers and advocates say it is so vague that it could infringe on their ability to have truthful dialogue about history and racism with their students.
SB3 was added to the state legislature’s special session after Abbott signed HB3979 into law, saying “more must be done” on critical race theory in schools.
And SB3 has been called troubling by education groups including the National Education Association for its potential to censor teachers and students in the classroom.
‘Provide guardrails’ against ‘animosity’
Defenders of the bill, including Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes who sponsored the bill, say that some lessons on racial inequality blame white students for systemic racism and creates tension between students of different backgrounds.
“This bill is meant only to provide guardrails against imposing division and animosity on our students,” Hughes said before the July 16 Senate vote. “Since [critical race theory] is so prevalent in higher education and since we see it popping up in public schools, that’s why it needs to be addressed.”
Other proponents of anti-critical race theory bills, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have said that some lessons on race could lead to the “indoctrination” of public school students toward progressive political leanings.
Ovidia Molina, the president of the Texas State Teachers Association, said that students have so much to gain from education about America’s racial history, including those that would be erased by this new legislation.
“We want to keep honesty in education,” Molina said. “We want to make sure that we teach our students the truth, the whole truth, the good, the bad, the failures, the successes.”
Molina said teachers have spoken up at hearings and called their local legislators to denounce the new legislation — but said lawmakers are not listening.
“They don’t know what’s happening in our public schools,” Molina said. “We still want to celebrate women’s suffrage, we still want to celebrate the Chicano movement, we still want to celebrate people of color, so that our students see themselves in the history and so they see themselves in the future.”
The Texas Education Agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Molina said that Texas districts have yet to announce what punishment for teaching these subjects might look like for teachers.
Concerning shift toward ‘patriotic’ education
Some teachers told ABC they are worried about retaliation, termination, or other forms of punishment. But others are more concerned about what this shift toward more “patriotic” education means for their students.
“One of the first things Hitler did was start to reform education and impact the way that history is taught. One of the first things Mussolini did was go through and incorporate patriotic education,” Lee said. “Education has always been that first line of defense in preserving a certain way of thinking.”
Former President Donald Trump, among several other conservatives, have become proponents of “patriotic” education in response to critical race theory and The New York Times’ 1619 project — which dissects the founding of the United States of America and its legacy of slavery. Trump’s proposed “1776 commission” aims to envision U.S. history in a positive light, instead of through a condemnatory, racial lens.
San Antonio teacher Christopher Green said he believes that lessons on race, inequality and oppression are vital to helping children navigate the world and understand our society.
“Rather than adding a more diverse perspective to the teaching of history, it’s eliminating things that really need to be in there to understand the full picture of the American story,” Green said.
The bill will now be headed to the state House, but it will likely be stalled due to protests from Texas Democratic representatives. They have fled the state in protest of new voting restrictions, meaning there won’t be enough members to conduct business according to House rules.
(STANFORD, Calif.) — Stanford University reported at least seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated students this week.
All seven students were symptomatic, according to the school.
“As you have seen in the national news, cases of COVID-19 have been ticking upward,” Stanford University officials said in a letter to students on Thursday. “We are seeing some of this in our own community, where we are experiencing an increase in the number of student COVID cases, including among fully vaccinated individuals.”
Although the chances of contracting the novel coronavirus after being fully vaccinated are very rare, so-called breakthrough cases are still possible. Although COVID-19 vaccines have shown to be highly effective, they do not block the virus 100% of the time, meaning that some breakthrough infections occur after vaccination. This is normal and expected, and it’s not proof that the vaccines aren’t working, experts said.
However, health officials and experts alike have warned that new, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus may be more effective at evading vaccines.
Stanford University officials said “vaccination continues to be our best defense against severe COVID-19 infection.” Face masks, physical distancing and regular hand washing “remain powerful ways to prevent the transmission of COVID-19,” officials added.
All students, faculty, staff, contractors and visitors are required to wear face coverings in spaces that are open to the public on the Ivy League school’s 8,180-acre campus in Stanford, California, about 20 miles northwest of San Jose. Face coverings in crowded indoor spaces on campus are recommended.
Stanford University recently loosened its COVID-19 testing requirements for fully vaccinated students who are living on campus or are coming to campus frequently this summer. Those individuals are no longer required to test weekly for COVID-19 or complete daily submissions on the school’s “Health Check” tool if they are verified as being fully vaccinated against the disease.
Overall, Stanford University has reported at least 257 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Some 8,300 students are fully vaccinated against the disease, while 330 are partially vaccinated, according to data posted on the school’s website.
Stanford University’s Vaden Health Services is connecting with each student who tests positive for COVID-19 to identify and notify their close contacts, who will be encouraged to get tested as soon as possible. Students who test positive will be provided with medical care and isolation space, according to the school.
“Again, vaccinations are effective at preventing severe illness. However, we need everyone to be vigilant,” Stanford University officials warned in the letter Thursday. “The variants remain of concern.”
(NEW YORK) — In Wyoming’s Teton County, nearly 60% of residents are fully vaccinated — almost double the statewide vaccination rate.
It’s an effort that has been noticed in the state, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country and where several counties have fewer than 30% of their population inoculated, state data shows.
“We have spoken to some of our other counties in Wyoming because they wanted to know what we were doing,” Rachael Wheeler, the public health response coordinator at the Teton County Health Department, told ABC News.
As the highly transmissible delta variant has quickly spreads throughout the United States — now making up over 80% of new cases — regions with high vaccination rates are expected to fare better, medical experts say.
ABC News spoke to Wheeler and officials in two other counties leading their states in COVID-19 vaccinations about their campaigns, what they’ve done and where they go from here.
McKinley County, New Mexico
McKinley County, which includes part of the Navajo Nation reservation, was one of the hardest-hit regions in New Mexico early in the pandemic.
For Adam Berry, emergency manager for the county, that may have helped drive vaccinations to where, as of Monday, over 94% of residents ages 18 and up have received at least one dose, according to the latest state health department data. Statewide, that number is 72.2%.
“The spring of 2020 was our first wave; we had a pretty good surge,” Berry said. “We had the highest case number in the state, especially per capita, for several weeks and months, before things tapered off late summer.”
There was a longer, second surge in the winter that filled Gallup hospitals and mortuaries to capacity, he said.
“There’s very few people in the county that don’t know at least one person that was sick, if they weren’t sick themselves,” he said. “Many people know one or more people that unfortunately died due to COVID-19. So I think it’s very personal for a lot of people.”
Berry said there was a little hesitancy in the beginning, but that “it didn’t take very long at all for a lot of people to start lining up to get the vaccine.” Being able to protect themselves and their family, as well as safely see people they had not seen in a while, were big motivators, he said.
The vaccination effort has involved coordination among the county’s emergency management and public health offices, state health department, health care providers, community partners and federal agencies, including the Indian Health Service.
“It was definitely a big community effort. Everybody does their part to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible,” said Berry, a volunteer paramedic who also helped administer vaccines when clinics were short-staffed.
One thing that worked to the county’s advantage in administering the vaccine is having a significant percentage of the county served by the Indian Health Service, he said. Nearly 80% of the county’s residents are Native American, according to the U.S. Census.
“A lot of other counties in New Mexico are dependent on local health care systems and private physicians to vaccinate the bulk of their populations,” he said. “We were fortunate in that aspect that we have a large presence of Indian Health Service facilities to help take care of that population, which allowed for vaccines to come in directly from the federal government to that site.”
The Indian Health Service held drive-thru events at the Fire Rock Casino in Church Rock and did outreach to the Navajo Nation “to make it more convenient” to get the vaccine, Berry said.
The county has lately been focused on bringing people back for their second dose if needed, as well as vaccination efforts in those ages 12 to 16.
Since May 24, the county has reported only three COVID-19 deaths, and the seven-day average of new cases is three, down from a peak of 109 in mid-November, state data shows.
There’s still a lot of mask-wearing, though life has started to “look a little more normal,” Berry said. “We’ve come a long way in the last year.”
Lamoille County, Vermont
There’s stiff competition to be the top county for vaccinations in Vermont, which has the highest vaccination rate in the country.
At the moment, Lamoille County holds that distinction, with over 85% of residents ages 12 and up having received at least one dose, according to state data.
“When we saw those numbers we were very happy about it,” Aaron French, director of the Morrisville Office of Local Health in Lamoille County, told ABC News. “Every county’s working really hard.”
Part of that effort has included reaching Lamoille County’s more rural residents, who may be less inclined to drive to a vaccination clinic out of town.
“I grew up in one of those small towns, and I said, ‘Why don’t we talk to the town … and set something up, and if we only get five people, we’ll get five people,'” French said.
On a recent weekend, the office brought nurses to two towns and was able to vaccinate around 10 people.
“We were happy with that,” French said. “And we’ll continue to do that.”
Health officials have also connected with local churches, schools, manufacturers and ski resorts as part of the vaccination efforts to reach the community and workforce.
As COVID-19 cases rise throughout the United States, Vermont officials said this week they have seen a small increase in the state, likely due to the delta variant, but community spread remains low due to the high vaccination rates.
Lamoille County has had two COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, state data shows.
French said people in the county have trusted the local department of health and state department of health throughout the pandemic, which has also been a major factor in their vaccination success.
“They needed to hear from people that they could trust, and I think those local people were their local doctors and their commissioner of public health, who’s a physician, and their governor,” he said. “We have a number of federally qualified health care centers around here, and those physicians and nurse practitioners are very well-trusted, so their messaging out to the community and their patients were really important and helpful.”
Lamoille County’s lowest vaccination rates are among those ages 18 to 29, with over 58% of that population vaccinated, state data shows. That is one area the county is focusing on, French said.
The local health office has held clinics at skate parks, fairs and race tracks in the state, and health officials look to continue to do efforts like that to continue to bring numbers up.
“There’s plenty of opportunity and we’re just going to keep plugging away at it,” French said. “I do think we can get higher than that.”
Teton County, Wyoming
There has been a partisan divide in COVID-19 vaccinations, with Democrats more likely to report getting the vaccine than Republicans. Teton County is an outlier in Wyoming as a “blue dot in a red state,” though Wheeler doesn’t think that “can account for everything.”
One major factor that helped Teton County achieve its vaccination rate — which is the highest in the state, and higher than the national average — started with the logistics of the rollout itself.
“We were very easily able to ramp up and hire a lot of additional vaccine staff when our demand was high,” Wheeler said.
That meant hiring anyone from nurses to administer the vaccines to staff to help manage the different schedules. The county also had a lot of volunteer help at vaccine clinics, from checking people in to observing for emergency response, she said.
Teton County was also one of a handful of counties in Wyoming that had an ultra-cold freezer needed at first to store the Pfizer vaccine, the first to be issued an emergency use authorization.
“That was really helpful early on to be able to accept all different types of vaccines that were approved under the EUA at that time,” Wheeler said.
When the county expanded its eligibility to schools and child care providers, the health department held special clinics on the weekends to accommodate them. “That seemed very successful, and they were very appreciative of that,” Wheeler said.
Once students were eligible, the health department held an in-school vaccine clinic before the school year let out that reached over 500 students, Wheeler said.
To reach the broader community, the health department repurposed a public transit system bus into a mobile vaccine clinic, which has been used to bring doses to worksites, like the county’s trash transfer station, and, lately, parks.
“Our goal is to reduce any barriers that there might be for people to get the vaccine,” Wheeler said.
Beyond vaccine access, the county hired an agency to help with its messaging around the COVID-19 vaccine. “They helped us have a more focused campaign that was consistent and looked really professional,” Wheeler said.
Currently, the health department is holding a “Shots for Swag” campaign, in which residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine can win prizes.
Through the ad agency, the health department also filmed a video featuring local doctors answering common questions about the vaccine, such as around variants, fertility and pregnancy, that “put a more local perspective to it,” Wheeler said.
The health department also partnered with several community nonprofits, including Voices JH, which helped reach immigrants in the Latino and Eastern European communities in the county with resources on vaccination.
Local health officials are anticipating renewed demand for the vaccine as new age ranges become eligible, and possibly when a vaccine has full FDA approval.
For now, they’re planning to bring the mobile vaccine clinic to events throughout the summer and remind employers about the service. From July 1 to July 15, the county reported 31 new COVID-19 cases, 26 of which were in unvaccinated people and included workplace “clusters,” the health department said this week.
“We’re still messaging to everyone that the best defense is getting vaccinated,” Wheeler said. “It’s how you’re going to protect not only yourself, but your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, community members.”
(ATLANTA) — During the last year and a half, immunocompromised people have been at extremely high risk for the virus. And for many, the COVID vaccine didn’t change that.
That’s why a group of independent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts at a Thursday meeting largely voiced support for allowing immunocompromised people to talk to their doctors about getting a third shot, a booster, that could increase their antibody response to vaccines.
But the advisory committee didn’t make a formal recommendation, saying more data was needed and, ultimately, regulatory allowance from the Food and Drug Administration.
About 2.7% of U.S. adults are considered immunocompromised, an umbrella category that includes cancer patients, transplant recipients, people with HIV and patients on high-dose steroids.
“We long for a fuller life,” said Phil Canudo, a kidney transplant recipient from Akron, Ohio, who told the CDC advisory committee on Thursday that he had no antibody response after two Pfizer shots.
“I can’t wait to see my stepdaughter’s new Colorado home,” he said, choking up. “I want to eat a medium rare steak at the Diamond Grill.”
Canudo, who spoke before the CDC advisory panel during the public comment period, said he’d been told he still must behave as if he’s not vaccinated.
“I urge you, beg you even, to recommend that we be able to receive a third vaccine dose,” he said. “The benefit could open up the world to us again.”
At the same time, pressure is mounting as other countries, including France and Israel, already have approved boosters for those who are immunosuppressed. In the U.S., debate over booster shots for the general public has ratcheted up as the delta variant wreaks havoc.
Data presented at the meeting said a booster shot could increase antibodies in an immunocompromised person by up to 50%.
Dr. Sara Oliver, an epidemiologist with the CDC who presented the findings, also explained how immunocompromised people are a priority group for booster research because they’re at greater risk of serious COVID-related consequences.
For example, in one U.S. study, 44% of hospitalized breakthrough cases were immunocompromised people. An Israeli study found it was around 40%. Breakthrough cases, which are expected, refer to people who test positive for COVID-19 while fully vaccinated. The vaccines are highly effective against severe disease and hospitalization, but it’s possible for people to develop mild or asymptomatic illness even when vaccinated.
“We want to vaccinate. During this entire conference, we’ve been saying, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” said Dr. Pablo Sanchez, a member of the panel. “These people want to be vaccinated, they’re not vaccine hesitant. And it seems to me that we should promote that.”
He argued that the FDA should “at least allow it while we obtain more data” because “we really need to help this population out more.” Patients, Sanchez argued, could end up taking matters into their own hands.
Phil, of Akron, said he planned to do just that.
“Hundreds of us lie to pharmacies and immunization sites about our previous vaccinations, trying to get an extra unauthorized dose,” he told the committee. “I know that’s what I’ll be doing if additional doses are not sanctioned.”
Another ACIP member, Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, a liaison of the American Medical Association, pointed out that there are millions of excess vaccine doses right now that aren’t being taken advantage of in the U.S.
At the same time, there are immunocompromised patients doing “all they can” and still not getting protection.
“I really do share the concerns that have been expressed by our ACIP members about, you know, our patients, right now, they’re immunocompromised, that are doing all they can do by getting vaccinated, by having their close contacts vaccinated, and it’s not enough that they’re still not protected,” Fryhofer said.
The work to assess additional studies is ongoing, and the next step would be for the FDA to issue regulatory guidance.
