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Afghanistan’s women’s rights activists tested Taliban in Oslo, but expect few advancements

February 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — “Pick up the phone right now, call Kabul and ask the girls to be released immediately,” Hoda Khamosh, an Afghanistan woman’s rights activist shouted at the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Oslo, Norway, last week.

Khamosh demanded the release of Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel, two female activists who disappeared after their houses were raided on Jan. 20. They had attended a series of protests against the Taliban over the past few months.

Khamosh was one of six Afghan women who were invited to sit with Taliban officials as they made their first invited visit to a Western country since taking control of Afghanistan in August. The talks were to discuss the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan.

The invitation led to different reactions from Afghanistan’s various women’s rights activists, with some welcoming it as a chance for Afghan-to-Afghan negotiations. Others felt that Taliban rule should not be normalized by holding such meetings and casted doubts on the trustworthiness of their promises.

“It was important to us that Norway stressed the invitation did not mean recognition of the Taliban,” Khamosh told ABC News, explaining how the “horrible humanitarian situation” in Afghanistan compelled her to sit face-to-face with the Taliban, pushing for a way to get as many concessions from them as possible.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, around 10 million children across Afghanistan are in “urgent” need to humanitarian assistance to survive.

“Without urgent action, almost one million children could be severely malnourished in the coming weeks. That is half of all children under the age of 5,” UNICEF says.

“We were discussing how the money can come to Afghanistan and help with opening schools, opening offices, creating jobs and making the economy wheels turn,” Khamosh said.

However, the Taliban’s track record of female suppression has left many women’s rights activists with almost no reason to trust their promises.

“It is why my first request in the beginning of the meeting with the Taliban was to release our fellow activists they had arrested,” Khamosh said.

In the statement released by the governments of the U.S. and Norway about the Oslo meeting, the Taliban was “urged” to do more to stop the alarming increase of human rights violations, “including arbitrary detentions (to include recent detentions of women’s rights activists), forced disappearances, media crackdowns, extra-judicial killings, torture and prohibitions on women and girls’ education, employment and freedom to travel without a male escort.”

However, the acting foreign minister Muttaqi denied the arrests of the activists for whom Khamosh demanded freedom, saying that the Taliban had not arrested or tortured those women.

“I do not trust him,” Khamosh said, reacting to Mottaqi’s denial. She said she’d been handed documents by one of the women’s mothers that showed the women had been taken by the Taliban.

“This is why the west should not give all the money the Taliban wants in one go and not to give it directly to them,” she said. “We have to wait and see the Taliban’s next move and real intention to fulfil their promises first.”

Former Afghan parliamentarian Shinkai Karokhail, who shared the same concerns as Khamosh, said the Taliban must end its hostilities against women and take a moderate approach towards human rights, as many things have changed since the last time they had the control of the country.

Karokhail advocated for women’s rights during her term, but had to flee Afghanistan when the country fell into the Taliban’s hands.

“Two decades has passed and lots of changes happened in the life of Afghans,” she said, adding that the Taliban has no way but to end isolating women from their social an economic life of Afghanistan.

The Taliban did not respond to ABC News’ inquiry about the Oslo talks and the topics discussed.

Karokhail said she feels the West must ask the Taliban to prove themselves before entering into talks, telling ABC News: “We have to use this Oslo event like a ticket. A ticket that must not be used so much.”

ABC News’ Aleem Agha contributed to this report.

Michigan’s ‘fairer’ election maps challenged for ‘diluting’ Black vote

February 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Michigan, one of the nation’s hottest political battlegrounds, is being hailed for a citizen-led effort to transform its famously gerrymandered election maps into some of the fairest and most competitive ahead of the fall midterm elections.

“This is just one small step to start taking power back and even the playing field for voters to be able to actually control our elections and get the results we want,” said Katie Fahey, the 32-year-old independent from Grand Rapids who sparked the grassroots redistricting reform movement with a 2016 Facebook post.

The state’s closely watched experiment in redistricting by independent commission — rather than by partisan state legislators — could provide a model for other communities gripped by political polarization, experts say. Only eight other states limit direct participation of elected officials in the drawing of state and federal districts.

“People, when they go to the polls, they want to think that their vote matters. Whereas a lot of the time, when seats are gerrymandered to favor one party or the other, basically no matter what, those elections won’t be competitive,” said Nathaniel Rakich, a FiveThirtyEight senior elections analyst.

“The [new Michigan] map just does a really good job of making sure that neither Democrats’, nor Republicans’ votes are wasted,” Rakich said.

But six months before Michigan’s voters can put the new maps to the test, a barrage of partisan legal challenges threatens to blunt an achievement praised by the likes of former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Democratic President Barack Obama.

“Are these maps better for partisan fairness? Yes. Could they be better? Absolutely,” said state Sen. Adam Hollier, a Democrat who represents historically majority Black neighborhoods in metro Detroit.

Hollier is among a group of Detroit Democrats who allege in a state lawsuit that the maps “dilute” the power of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. African American voters are “almost completely politically silenced,” the complaint claims.

Republicans, who have controlled both chambers of the state legislature for years, allege in a separate federal lawsuit that the newly drawn political districts aren’t of equal population size as legally required and unlawfully split up several cities and counties.

“I think we did a very good job of sort of putting our individual feelings on the shelf and making sure we were doing what was best for the people of Michigan,” said Rebecca Szetela, a lawyer, mother of four and political independent who chairs the state’s first 13-member Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.

“I think that the maps should be fair and balanced moving forward, and I think that people will feel once again that their vote is their voice and that they have the ability to elect someone that represents them,” Szetela said.

Michigan’s old state and federal political districts — in place for the past decade — have been considered some of the most unfair and unbalanced in the country — drawn by Republicans, to favor Republicans. Just two of the state’s 14 congressional districts are rated as competitive by FiveThirtyEight.

“Michigan’s a super purple state. About 50% of us vote for Democrats; about 50% of us vote for Republicans,” said Fahey. “But depending on what party had gerrymandered, that party would have like a supermajority and be able to pass whatever kind of legislation they want, even though theoretically, we should have compromise on almost every single bill.”

The new maps are cleaner, fairer and more competitive for both parties, according to FiveThirtyEight’s nonpartisan Redistricting Tracker. It achieves this by unpacking the gerrymandered majority Black and heavily Democratic districts around Detroit, spreading those voters across new districts creating a blend of urban and suburban voters.

Yvette McElroy Anderson, a longtime community advocate and field director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee, said the disappearance of majority Black districts will make it harder for minority candidates to get on the ballot.

“It’s hurting the ability of Black candidates as well as hurting African Americans to have people that will represent the interests that needs to be represented on their behalf,” Anderson said. “Fifty-one percent or better is what the Voting Rights Act says. So if we don’t do that, then we are doing a disservice to the African American population.”

Hollier, who is challenging the commission to go back to the drawing board before the state’s August primary election, argued that it’s possible to achieve districts that are both majority Black and more competitive.

“Black candidates, particularly from urban communities, and from across our state, have typically raised less money because there’s less money in their districts,” Hollier said, “and we talk about how much money has impacted politics. It changes who can run for things, and where the elected officials come out of.”

Szetela argued that the new maps will enhance the power and influence of Black voters in more races and create more opportunities for representation. The two new congressional districts in metro Detroit would have roughly 44% African American voter representation.

“The data that we were looking at showed that even with lower percentages, that Black voters will be able to elect their candidates of choice,” she said. “And because we divided up some of those districts that were historically 80 to 90% African American into more districts, there should be better representation.”

Rakich said the debate doesn’t have an easy answer.

“On one hand, [the critics] do have a point because certainly a district that is 44% Black is less likely to elect a Black representative,” he said. “But at the same time, because of our system of elections, it’s also very likely that even a 44% Black district would elect a candidate preferred by Black voters.”

State and federal courts will likely decide the fate of Michigan’s new maps, and it’s the voters in November’s midterm elections who will put them to their first big test.

“As a lawyer, I’m never confident on what’s going to happen in a court because courts can rule any way that they want to,” said Szetela. “At the end of the day, we did our good faith effort to come up with very good maps for the people in the state of Michigan.”

Fahey, who is now counseling at least 13 other states on redistricting reform, said she’s confident that no matter where the lines are drawn, the commission’s impact will be a positive change over the old maps.

“It means that we’ll have more competitive elections; it means that we’ll probably have some more moderate candidates who are actually listening to both Democrats and Republicans,” she said.

5 persons of interest in HBCU bomb threat investigation: Source

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The persons of interest were connected to spoofed calls – emanating from a fake telephone number, the FBI official said, according to the source familiar with the contents of a call between FBI and DHS officials and state and local law enforcement on Tuesday.

No bombs have been found.

During the call, the federal officials went into more detail about the nature of the bomb threats, which started in early January, and the most recent, which occurred Monday against HBCUs and other universities, according to the source.

In the past few days, the FBI reported over 20 bomb threats to HBCU’s and other institutions — from Howard University in Washington, D.C. to Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.

Several of the schools canceled classes amid concerns about the threats.

The FBI on Wednesday said it is investigating the bomb threats to predominantly HBCUs as hate crimes, according to a statement released by the Bureau.

“Although at this time no explosive devices have been found at any of the locations, the FBI takes all threats with the utmost seriousness and we are committed to thoroughly and aggressively investigating these threats,” the statement says.

They FBI says investigation is being coordinated with 20 FBI field offices and is the “highest priority” for the Bureau.

The first threat against the HBCUs came against Xavier University of Louisiana on Jan. 4, and according to the FBI official briefing state and local law enforcement, it was racially motivated.

Following that threat in early January, two Black churches were also targeted with bomb threats – none came to fruition.

There were also three bomb threats against Jewish facilities on the last day in January, but officials aren’t clear if those are connected, according to a source briefed on the contents of the law enforcement call.

Suspect in deadly Bridgewater College shooting was former student: Court records

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — The suspect in a shooting on a Virginia college campus that left two officers dead was a former student at the institution, according to court documents.

Andrew Wyatt Campbell, 27, faces multiple felony charges, including two counts of capital murder, in connection with Tuesday’s shooting at Bridgewater College.

A campus police officer and a campus safety officer were fatally shot after responding to a call of a “suspicious male individual” on the grounds of the college’s Memorial Hall, Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller told reporters Tuesday.

Geller did not elaborate on any connections between the alleged shooter and the small, private liberal arts college. However, in court records obtained by Harrisonburg, Virginia, ABC affiliate WHSV, authorities noted that Campbell had dropped out of Bridgewater College.

Bridgewater College confirmed with WHSV that Campbell, of Ashland, Virginia, was once a member of the college’s track and field and cross country teams. He attended the school from 2013 to 2017, a school spokesperson told The Associated Press.

In 2017, Campbell was charged with trespassing for entering the campus’ Kline Campus Center, the school’s main dining hall, “after being banned,” an arrest warrant at the time stated.

Several college employees called 911 Tuesday after seeing the suspect in and around the college’s Memorial Hall. “He was not supposed to be in this particular location,” Geller told reporters.

Campbell was charged with two felony counts of capital murder, one felony count of first-degree murder, one felony count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and aggravated felony murder of more than one person within three years in connection with the shooting, court records show. He is being held without bond at the Rockingham County Jail.

The suspect made his first court appearance Wednesday via video conference for an arraignment in Harrisonburg/Rockingham General District Court. His attorney requested that Campbell undergo a mental health evaluation, WHSV reported. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 16 at 1 p.m.

Police are investigating a motive in the shooting, which killed Bridgewater College Campus Police Officer John Painter, 55, and Campus Safety Officer Vashon “JJ” Jefferson, 48.

Painter joined the department in May 2019 after retiring as chief of the Grottoes Police Department in Virginia, and Jefferson joined in August 2018.

The two were close friends and known to many as the “dynamic duo,” according to Bridgewater College President David Bushman.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered that flags in the state be flown at half-staff Wednesday “in respect and memory of the officers lost.”

In the wake of the tragedy, Bridgewater canceled classes for the remainder of the week and gathered to sing the school’s alma mater Wednesday.

Bushman told ABC News’ Pierre Thomas in an interview Wednesday that the tight-knit campus community is suffering an “unspeakable” loss.

“We’ve navigated a pandemic together and it’s almost like you’re getting back to normal. And then it’s just, it’s unimaginable,” Bushman said.

“In so many ways this hurts so deeply because we are a tight community, but that’s also our greatest strength,” he said. “And that’s why I know we know we will grieve together and will heal.”

The officers were “always together” and on a first-name basis with students, the president said.

Bridgewater College sophomore Jack Cataneo, 20, told ABC News the incident feels “like a bad dream.”

“It really makes you think because it could happen to anybody,” he said.

ABC News’ Quinn Owen, Sarah Shales and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

Texas hospital fighting COVID-19 surge in community with high comorbidity rates

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MCALLEN, Texas) — When 21-year-old, first-time mother Samantha Reyna arrived in labor at DHR Health Women’s Hospital in McAllen, Texas, she was stunned to learn that she was positive for COVID-19.

“I was actually completely shocked,” Reyna, who gave birth Sunday, told ABC News. “I didn’t think I was going to be positive while going into labor.”

Although Reyna has had minor symptoms, out of precaution, she and her husband made the difficult decision to keep her 1-day-old son, Santos, in the nursery, in an effort to keep him from catching COVID-19.

“It’s been a little sad, because I don’t have him here with me. I’m not able to be there for him in case he cries or anything,” Reyna said.

Although there are encouraging declines in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across much of the country, many U.S. hospitals, including DHR Health, continue to struggle with significant numbers of COVID-19 patients in need of care. Many of these patients suffer from obesity and other comorbidities, such as diabetes and hypertension, which put them at increased risk from severe disease due to COVID-19, according to health care workers.

“Our population is a sick population. We have one of the worst levels of diabetes and obesity in the nation,” Dr. Federico Vallejo, a pulmonary critical care physician at DHR Health, told ABC News. “And as you know this, this can be really difficult for any population. So that’s why we saw incredible cases of sick patients, because our population has increased risk because of these comorbidities.”

A number of pregnant people, who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 because of their pregnancy, are also coming in positive, hospital officials said, with between 10% to 15% of patients who are delivering testing positive.

Over the last two years, nearly 167,000 pregnant people tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 267 pregnant people died, according to federal data.

Throughout the pandemic, the emotional toll of testing positive has had a significant impact on expectant mothers.

“You could see the fear in their eyes, thinking they and their baby were going to die. Initially there was a lot of misinformation and fear from moms about ‘What do I do now that I am positive? Is my baby going to get it now that I’m positive, because I’m pregnant?'” Dr. Flor A. Limas, an obstetrician and gynecologist at DHR Health, told ABC News.

Available intensive care units in Texas are still running low, with 8% of beds currently available across the state.

“Omicron is supposed to be mild, but it’s not mild for the health care system,” Dr. Juan Sarmiento, a critical care intensivist at DHR Health, said.

Dr. Juan Marcos Chavez Paz, a critical care physician at DHR Health, added that though virus-related hospitalization numbers are slowly beginning to abate, his team is still not out of the woods yet.

“I think that we passed the tsunami, but we’re still having waves, some big ones coming, and I’m sure there will be more coming in the future,” he told ABC News.

According to Vallejo, a small fraction of the population in need of care are immunocompromised patients who have fallen ill despite being previously vaccinated.

“We’re seeing the poor souls that are collateral damage, those that did everything right, they got their vaccinations, but unfortunately they’re immunosuppressed because of different circumstances — organ transplants, cancer with chemotherapy — and those sadly get sick, despite the vaccine, but this is more of a fraction of them,” Vallejo said.

The physicians stressed that the vaccines have been a “game-changer,” explaining that the majority of their patients who are becoming severely ill are unvaccinated.

Reyna, who is unvaccinated, has now been reunited with her baby, and said she wants to get vaccinated, and is now considering the shot for her son, too.

“Without vaccines right now, we’d be in hell,” Sarmiento said.

Trump-endorsed challengers lag behind incumbent Republicans in fundraising

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Three of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump have tapped out early to announce they are not seeking reelection in 2022 — but the remaining seven appear to be running strong races, judging by fundraising numbers disclosed in the latest campaign finance filings.

As 2022 candidates were gearing up for the upcoming midterm election none of the Trump-endorsed challengers vying to unseat those seven House Republicans managed to outraise the sitting lawmakers in the last quarter of 2021, filings released this week show.

It’s not uncommon for incumbents to have a big cash advantage over their challengers, but the large fundraising gaps hint at the long way Trump-backed challengers have to go to — despite the former president’s support.

Most notably, Rep. Liz Cheney — with backing from both establishment Republicans and moderate Democrats — has broken her own fundraising records, despite being the most high-profile Republican on Trump’s 2022 hit list.

The Wyoming Republican reported raising more than $2 million in just the final three months of last year, bringing her 2021 fundraising total to $7.2 million. Her Trump-endorsed primary challenger, Harriet Hageman, raised less than half of Cheney’s fourth-quarter haul during the same period, reporting just over $745,000.

As the 2022 election year ramps up, Hageman’s cash on hand is just $381,000 compared to Cheney’s $4.7 million war chest, according to filings.

Cheney, one of two Republicans on the nine-member House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has also received support from some major liberal donors who typically give only to Democrats, including investor and billionaire John Pritzker of the Pritzker family, who maxed out on his contribution to Cheney by giving $10,800 to her joint fundraising committee earlier last year.

Also among those rallying behind Cheney are Trump critics within the Republican Party, including former Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., who is among several Republican lawmakers who announced their retirement after clashing with pro-Trump GOP forces.

“My wife and I maxed out for Liz and then we held a fundraiser for her because we wanted to speak up,” Rooney, who gave Cheney’s joint fundraising committee $10,800 back in May, told ABC News.

Rooney, who had previously given upwards of $1 million to various GOP candidates groups over the years, told ABC News that he’s no longer giving to the RNC and Republicans except for Cheney and a handful of others, because he’s tired of Trump-dominated narratives within the Republican Party.

Among Cheney’s other donors in the final months of last year was former President George W. Bush, who maxed out on his donation to her campaign by giving $5,800 in October.

Bush also gave $2,800 to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has been targeted by Trump for being one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him in his impeachment trial last year, and the only one of them up for reelection this year. Similar to Cheney, Murkowski outraised her Trump-endorsed challenger, Kelly Tshibaka, by more than double in the final three months of 2021, and entered the 2022 election year with $4.3 million on hand.

Reps. Fred Upton and Peter Meijer, both representing Michigan, also boasted major fundraising advantages over their respective Trump-endorsed challengers, Steve Carra and John Gibbs, both bringing in five times the amount their challengers took in last quarter.

In Washington’s 3rd District, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler held a narrower fundraising gap over Trump-backed challenger Joe Kent, but still entered 2022 with a much larger war chest than his rival.

South Carolina Republican Russell Fry, who Trump endorsed just this week, managed to raise close to the amount raised by incumbent Rep. Tom Rice, but still faces Rice’s big war chest of nearly $2 million.

Former Trump aide Max Miller, who’s running to fill retiring GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzalez’s seat in Ohio, continued to report the strongest fundraising figures among contenders vying for Gonzalez’s open seat. Although his fundraising showed signs of slowing down in the final quarter of 2021, with contributions of $181,000 compared to the nearly $700,000 he raised in the previous quarter, he nonetheless entered 2022 with nearly $1 million in cash on hand.

Miller was one of several big-name Trump-aligned GOP candidates who failed to maintain their massive fundraising momentum from the earlier part of 2021.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had boasted $3.5 million in donations in the first quarter of 2021, reported a relatively small $1.2 million haul in the final quarter, while Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert’s fundraising both gradually slowed down throughout the year.

In Senate races, Sen. Tim Scott, who is endorsed by Trump and is also considered a possible 2024 presidential election contender, continued to bring in large sums, raising $7 million in the fourth quarter.

Rep. Mo Brooks, who is running for a Senate seat, was significantly outraised in the fourth quarter by his GOP primary challenger Katie Britt, who raised $1.2 million compared to Brooks’ $385,000 — a huge drop from what he raised in the previous quarter.

In North Carolina, no GOP Senate candidate raised more than a million dollars in the final quarter amid a competitive primary. Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Ted Budd brought in $968,360 while former North Carolina Republican Gov. Patrick McCory raised $748,072 and Rep. Mark Walker brought in only $146,053. The split among Republican donors could make Trump’s endorsement all the more important for Budd, the current leading fundraiser.

In Pennsylvania, the Senate primary field was upended when the Trump-endorsed candidate dropped out in November, leading two relative newcomers to emerge on the campaign trail. TV doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick are reportedly dropping millions in advertising, but it remains to be seen whether they’re getting any return on their investment. Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the race.

The candidate who appears to have raised the most money of any GOP challenger is Georgia Senate candidate and former football star Herschel Walker, who raised $5.4 million in the fourth quarter to lift his fundraising total to $10 million since the start of his campaign — signaling what could be an expensive general election race between him and Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, who has nearly $23 million in cash on hand.

“This massive fundraising haul, likely the largest in the country for a non-incumbent, shows that Georgia Republicans are clearly united behind Herschel Walker and are ready to take on Senator Warnock,” Scott Paradise, campaign manager for Team Herschel, said in a press release last week.

On the Democratic side, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly joins Warnock as the party’s top two fundraisers, with Kelly holding $19 million in cash on hand as both men seek reelection.

In what could be a tight Senate primary race in Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman held a strong lead in fundraising over the course of last year, but fellow Western Pennsylvanian Rep. Conor Lamb appears to be gaining traction, bringing in $1.35 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

In North Carolina, leading Senate candidate Cheri Beasley took in $2.1 million in the final quarter of 2021, with 90% of her donations being $100 or less, according to her campaign. Beasley’s campaign manager, Travis Brimm, said in a press release that they are “committed to building a strong, grassroots campaign that touches every corner of the state and helps lead to victory in November.”

And nationally, the Democratic Party and Republican Party fared about even with their national party committees’ fundraising in 2021.

In total, the RNC outraised the DNC by $8 million, but the DNC entered the election year with a bigger war chest, reporting $67 million in cash on hand compared to $56 million for the RNC.

The Senate and House arms of the Republican Party also slightly outraised their Democratic counterparts, and entered the year with a slightly bigger war chest of $111 million compared to the Democratic committees’ $106 million.

Congressional bill seeks to end legacy admissions at colleges

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A bill introduced in Congress Wednesday by Democratic lawmakers seeks to end legacy admissions at many U.S. colleges and universities.

The so-called Fair College Admissions for Students Act would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to bar institutions of higher education that participate in federal student aid programs from giving admissions preference to applicants with legacy or donor status, a common practice at elite institutions.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) in an attempt to address what they said is an unfair and inequitable admissions process that disproportionately benefits wealthy, white and connected students.

“All students deserve an equitable opportunity to gain admission to institutions of higher education, but students whose parents didn’t attend or donate to a university are often overlooked in the admissions process due to the historically classist and racist legacy and donor admissions practices at many schools across the country,” Bowman said in a statement.

Merkley said the bill would seek to level the playing field for minority and first-generation students especially.

“Children of donors and alumni may be excellent students and well-qualified, but the last people who need extra help in the complicated and competitive college admissions process are those who start with the advantages of family education and money,” he said in a statement.

The bill would allow the education secretary to waive the legacy preference ban for institutions like historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and minority-serving institutions, which admit high levels of underrepresented students already.

Legacy preferences are common among selective colleges; according to the progressive think tank The Century Foundation, three-quarters of the nation’s top 100 national universities in U.S. News & World Report employ them, and nearly all the 100 liberal arts colleges do.

The legacy preference is worth an extra 160 points for children of alumni, researchers from Princeton University found.

Supporters of legacy preferences argue that legacies can help boost an institution’s ability to award financial assistance to low-income students.

Several institutions, including Johns Hopkins University and Amherst College, have ended their practice of legacy admissions in recent years.

Last year, Colorado became the first state to enact a law banning legacy admissions at public colleges and universities. In the wake of the “Varsity Blues” scandal, California didn’t ban legacy admissions but did require institutions whose students receive state financial aid to disclose how many applicants are accepted through the practice.

The Fair College Admissions for Students Act is introduced as the Supreme Court is poised to hear challenges to affirmative action, which also could have implications for many colleges and universities’ admissions policies.

Biden relaunches cancer ‘moonshot’ initiative to help cut death rate

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday relaunched the federal government’s cancer “moonshot” initiative, with the goal of cutting the death rate from cancer in half over the next quarter-century.

“We can end cancer as we know it,” Biden said during an event at the White House.

The initiative is personal for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and who first launched the initiative as vice president.

“I committed to this fight when I was vice president,” Biden said Wednesday. “It’s one of the reasons why quite frankly why I ran for president. Let there be no doubt, now that I am president, this is a presidential, White House priority. Period.”

After the Obama presidency, Biden and wife — and now first lady — Jill Biden founded a nonprofit foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.

In 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion in funding for the government’s moonshot initiative over seven years. There’s $410 million left for the next two fiscal years.

In addition to cutting today’s age-adjusted death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years — after it has fallen by about 25% over the past 20 years — the initiative will aim to “improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer,” the White House said.

“It’s bold,” Biden said. “It’s ambitious. But it’s completely doable. Just as we harnessed the size to develop cutting edge COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, we’ll bring a fierce sense of urgency to the fight against cancer.”

On Wednesday, Biden said he was “announcing a call to action for cancer screening and early detection.”

More than 9.5 million cancer screenings were missed in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.

“We have to get cancer screenings back on track,” Biden said. “And make sure they’re accessible to all Americans.”

But the pandemic has also led Biden to set “very ambitious goals,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters Tuesday.

“The scientific advances that we saw from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the response to it, also points to things that are possible today,” the official said.

One example, according to the White House, is that the relaunched initiative will aim to “study and evaluate multi-cancer detection tests, like we did for COVID-19.”

The cancer “moonshot” initiative will have a coordinator in the White House, and the White House will form a “cancer cabinet” of officials from across the federal government. The initiative will involve the private sector, foundations, academic institutions and others, too.

Other goals, according to the White House, include increasing equitable access to screening and prevention — with at-home screening, mobile screening, and community health networks, as well as “accelerating efforts to nearly eliminate cervical cancer through screening and HPV vaccination, with a particular focus on reaching people who are most at risk.”

There will be a White House cancer “moonshot” summit, as well as a White House roundtable conversation series, they said.

The president also called on Congress to approve funding for a research project he has proposed to be housed at the National Institutes of Health, called “Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H),” which would try to develop breakthroughs for several diseases.

Biden was joined Wednesday in the White House’s East Room by about 100 members of the cancer community, including patients, survivors, researchers, advocates, caregivers, members of Congress and others, according to senior Biden administration officials.

During his remarks, the president drew on his own family’s experience navigating a cancer diagnosis, articulating many of the challenges people around the country face after hearing they have cancer.

“Despite all the progress,” Biden said, “there’s still a sense of powerlessness, guilt that maybe you’re not doing enough because you don’t know enough.”

The first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris. whose mother was a breast cancer researcher, also spoke.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed reporting.

CNN president Jeff Zucker resigns, says he failed to disclose consensual relationship with colleague

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — CNN president Jeff Zucker announced Wednesday that he’s resigning for not disclosing a consensual relationship with a colleague.

Zucker said in a note to employees, “As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years. I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”

The colleague, who is not leaving the company, said in a statement, “Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years. Recently, our relationship changed during COVID. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time. I’m incredibly proud of my time at CNN and look forward to continuing the great work we do everyday.”

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in a companywide memo that he accepted Zucker’s resignation and that he’ll announce an interim leadership plan soon.

“We thank Jeff for his contributions over the past 9 years,” Kilar said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Biden orders US troop deployments to reassure NATO allies amid Russia standoff

February 2, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. troop deployments to reassure NATO allies amid the standoff with Russia over Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced the imminent arrival of several thousand U.S. troops — some already in Europe and some from the U.S. — to NATO allies in eastern Europe at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday — the first major movement of U.S. forces in response to concerns Russia will invade Ukraine.

“President Biden has been clear that the United States will respond to the growing threat to Europe’s security and stability. Our commitment to NATO Article 5 and collective defense remains ironclad. As part of this commitment and to be prepared for a range of contingencies, the United States will soon move additional forces to Romania, Poland, and Germany,” Kirby said.

All of the troops would be under U.S. command.

“I want to be very clear about something. These are not permanent moves. They are moved designed to respond to the current security environment. Moreover, these forces are not going to fight in Ukraine. They are going to ensure the robust defense of our NATO allies,” he added.

A senior defense official had earlier confirmed to ABC News that about 3,000 U.S. troops will be given orders to deploy to Europe or, if they’re already in Europe, to head to countries in eastern Europe.

One of the units moving into eastern Europe from Germany is an armored Stryker unit.

“It’s important that we send a strong signal to Mr. Putin and frankly, to the world that NATO matters to the United States. It matters to our allies, and we have ironclad Article 5 commitments attack on one is an attack on all,” Kirby said.

The troop movements are separate from the 8,500 U.S. troops put on “heightened alert” to reinforce NATO’s Response Force if needed — and none would go to Ukraine.

Pressed on what signal it sends that the U.S. is not waiting for a NATO vote to deploy an alliance force, Kirby said “the signal that sends — that we’re that we’re moving additional U.S. forces into allied territory, at the request and with the invitation of those countries — is that we take our NATO commitments very, very seriously.”

Kirby said 1,000 soldiers based in Germany will arrive in Romania in “the coming days” at the request of the country, augmenting the roughly 900 U.S. troops already in Romania. Another 2,000 troops from Fort Bragg in North Carolina will deploy to Poland and Germany, most to Poland.

“The 82nd Airborne Division is deploying components of an Infantry Brigade Combat Team and key enablers to Poland. And the 18th Airborne Corps is moving a joint task force capable headquarters to Germany. Both of them as you know are based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina,” Kirby said.

The announcement comes after Biden told reporters on Friday that he would be moving American forces “in the near term.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the escalating tensions on the U.S. and the West for having “ignored” Russia’s key demand that NATO bar Ukraine from joining the organization. The U.S. and NATO allies argue Russia is the aggressor, having already invaded Crimea and massing troops at the border.

This a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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