Please keep sending your links to news coverage of political stories that are getting overlooked. They don’t have to be from this week! The submission link is right under this column. Make sure to say whether I can use your first name, last initial and location.
More cities partner up to wipe away medical debt
Remember back in November when we steered you toward what we called the “most fascinating” unorthodox politics piece we’d seen in a while? The one about Toledo’s city council and Lucas County teaming up with nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to wipe out, well, medical debt for their residents? And how we openly wondered whether other places would follow suit?
Apparently, the answer is yes. A reader from London (she asked to remain anonymous) flagged this piece from New Orleans’s Gambit, in which reporter Kaylee Poche describes the city council’s plans to use $1.3 million in federal money to cancel medical debt for low-income residents. And yes, they’re working with RIP Medical Debt.
The nonprofit estimates that $1 can wipe out $100 of medical debt (because the creditors don’t expect to ever see any of it paid back). So that could knock off $130 million.
Kaylee lays out in straightforward detail who will qualify, and how, in her very good piece. A quick search of the webternetz shows this could be the latest in a national trend.
The politics: This is elected officials giving some of their constituents a new lease on life. Note the donation from a Saints player!
The scarcity of actual crime data
You’d think after all of the attention on violent crime in the run up to last year’s midterm elections, we’d have reliable national data showing what’s going up, what’s going down and where. Not so fast!
Reader Patrick M. wrote in from Lakewood Ranch, Fla., to flag this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece from last month in which journalist Michael Korsh flagged problems with crime statistics reporting under the Uniform Crime Reporting system.
“Pittsburgh is among more than 40% of all police agencies nationally that did not turn over their crime numbers to the FBI, leading to gaps that have frustrated criminologists and making it virtually impossible to know the real picture of crime in America from the FBI,” Korsh reported.
“One of the states with the lowest rates is Pennsylvania — where just 2% of police agencies have sent their figures to the FBI, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette analysis shows, compared to states like Delaware and Vermont, where every department shared its data.”
The politics: How in the H, E, double hockey sticks are policymakers supposed to make sound public policy without accurate, comprehensive data?
Sports betting, college style?
One of the biggest developments at the intersection of sports and economics is the massive surge in legal sports gambling, especially the online variety. Any story about economics is also a story about politics.
Reader Richard B. in Washington, D.C., raised the concern that online betting platforms are advertising to college students. For the Wall Street Journal, reporter Katherine Sayre highlights unease from some quarters about marketing sports betting via college athletics (in stadiums and other facilities, notably).
“[G]ambling regulators have also considered stricter rules about advertising to people younger than 21. Some states with legal sports betting have attempted to build a barrier by banning wagers on in-state university teams. Some gambling executives have said sponsorship deals with universities should be off-limits,” Sayre reported.
The politics: Legal gambling on sports is a bit of a wild west right now, but it’s hard to imagine Congress watching this boom and not thinking it ought to get involved to set ground rules.
Mercedes says “charge!”
The Associated Press reports the luxury-car maker “says it will build its own worldwide electric vehicle charging network starting in North America in a bid to compete with EV sales leader Tesla.”
Total cost? Just over a billion bucks. “When completed in six or seven years, the network will have 400 charging stations with more than 2,500 high-power plugs, the company said.”
Mercedes owners will get priority, but the company says the network will be available to all electric-vehicle owners. Tesla, the AP says, mostly reserves its network of chargers for Tesla owners.
“The network gives Tesla a competitive advantage over other EV brands, which have to rely on a patchwork of privately owned charging stations.”
The politics: The federal government is incentivizing EV purchases, and EV manufacture. In the process, it’s inviting aggressive competition in that sector.
McCarthy vows ‘progress’ as speaker voting enters 4th day
“Today, Republican Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) vowed to show ‘progress’ toward achieving a majority vote as the fight over his potential speakership entered Day 4. McCarthy is trying to sell a package of concessions that he hopes will move at least some of the GOP holdouts in his direction as the House takes a 12th try at electing a speaker. McCarthy stopped short of saying he would win on Friday but told reporters they would be ‘shocked’ by the progress,” John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.
More, from last night: Signs of a possible deal emerge in House speaker fight
Economy adds 223,000 jobs in December, showing resilience and cooling
“The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in December, even as some industries are experiencing a slowdown, reflecting the unusual forces at work in the post-pandemic labor market that is both resilient and cooling,” Lauren Kaori Gurley and Abha Bhattarai report.
“The unemployment rate inched down to 3.5 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hovering near longtime lows.”
EPA seeks tighter limits on soot, one of deadliest air pollutants
“Refineries, power plants and other polluting facilities would have to cut their soot emissions under a proposed rule the Biden administration announced Friday that aims to reduce the deadly air pollution inhaled by Americans, particularly communities of color,” Anna Phillips reports.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
Social Security numbers of Trump officials, allies posted in Jan. 6 files
“When the House Jan. 6 committee wrapped up its work in recent weeks, it posted hundreds of records online, including interview transcripts, audio recordings and text messages,” Aaron Schaffer and Patrick Marley report.
“Also buried in the massive cache was a spreadsheet with nearly 2,000 Social Security numbers associated with visitors to the White House in December 2020, including at least three members of Trump’s Cabinet, a few Republican governors and numerous Trump allies.”
Supporters raise millions to rebrand Jan. 6 rioters as ‘patriots’
“Right-wing supporters of the ‘Jan. Sixers’ have formed prayer chains, instigated letter writing campaigns, organized vigils and raised millions for their legal defense — all with the aim of supporting the 932 federally charged defendants they see as valiant patriots, prisoners of conscience persecuted for engaging in their First Amendment rights,” Annie Gowen reports.
Two years after Jan. 6, an attempted bomber remains at large
“The most alarming person who remains at large two years later is the mystery man, or maybe woman, who planted fully functional pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees the night before. The explosives didn’t detonate but probably achieved their aim of drawing large numbers of officers away from the Capitol grounds as a mob incited by President Donald Trump was arriving to stop the counting of electoral votes,” The Post’s editorial board writes.
Meet Cheryl Johnson, the woman directing Congress through historic chaos
“House Clerk Cheryl Johnson has become an unlikely folk hero in Washington this week, running the lower chamber of Congress with a steady hand as Republicans struggle to elect a speaker amid historic chaos,” Bloomberg News’s Ryan Teague Beckwith and Zach C Cohen report.
“Deploying only her own custom gavel and gently chiding words, Johnson has guided the House through multiple rounds of voting on live TV, pushing back when members of both parties get off topic or step out of line.”
What we know about U.S.-backed zero units in Afghanistan
“In 2019, reporter Lynzy Billing returned to Afghanistan to research the murders of her mother and sister nearly 30 years earlier. Instead, in the country’s remote reaches, she stumbled upon the CIA-backed Zero Units, who conducted night raids — quick, brutal operations designed to have resounding psychological impacts while ostensibly removing high-priority enemy targets,” ProPublica reports.
“So, Billing attempted to catalog the scale of civilian deaths left behind by just one of four Zero Units, known as the 02, over a four year period. The resulting report represents an effort no one else has done or will ever be able to do again.”
Biden to award Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 people for Jan. 6
“Those receiving the medal include seven police officials — both from the Capitol Police and D.C. police — who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, three state and local officials who resisted pressure to overturn election results, and mother-and-daughter election workers in Georgia who faced threats and harassment,” Yasmeen Abutaleb reports.
Biden aides struggle to respond to Taliban’s latest curbs on women
“The Biden administration is grappling with how to respond to new Taliban restrictions on women’s rights in Afghanistan, knowing that punishing the ruling Islamists risks rupturing the limited relationship the United States has with them,” Politico’s Nahal Toosi reports.
Biden signs bill to ease costs for prisoner calls to family
“The legislation clarifies that the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates interstate and international communications through cable, radio, television, satellite and wire, can set limits for fees on audio and video calls inside corrections facilities,” the AP’s Colleen Long reports.
Capitol rioters’ punishments, visualized
“After two years, much work remains. Of more than 460 people charged with felonies, only 69 have been convicted and sentenced so far, mostly for assaulting police or obstructing Congress; all but four have received jail or prison time. The average prison sentence for a felony conviction so far is 33 months, according to a Washington Post database,” Tom Jackman and Spencer S. Hsu report.
Within hours of Debbie Stabenow announcing her retirement, Dems are scrambling to replace her
“At least two prominent Democrats — Reps. Elissa Slotkin and Debbie Dingell — are seriously considering a run, according to people familiar with their thinking. But several other House members could also take a look at it, including Rep. Haley Stevens, according to several Michigan Democrats,” Politico’s Elena Schneider, Adam Wren and Heidi Przybyla report.
Policy demands, personal animus and more: Meet the McCarthy resistance
“Ralph Norman says he will not support leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker without firm assurances that House Republicans will enact spending cuts and move to balance the federal budget. The Republican from South Carolina isn’t optimistic that he will get there, adding in an interview that McCarthy doesn’t have ‘a track record of being a fiscal conservative able to tackle the issues we have here,’” Colby Itkowitz and Dylan Wells report.
“Scott Perry is pushing for procedural changes and immediate votes on issues such as term limits that he says will help to fix a ‘completely broken’ Washington. This is not, the Republican from Pennsylvania has insisted, about ‘personalities. It’s about the policies that come out of here.’”
“But for lawmakers Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida, it’s personal. They said McCarthy (Calif.) is a product of the establishment Washington that needs to be excised. Boebert said she feels that McCarthy cannot be trusted and said that there is nothing McCarthy could do to win her over.”
At 12:45 p.m., Biden will have lunch with Vice President Harris.
Biden will mark the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack during a ceremony in the East Room at 2 p.m. Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend.
At 4:30 p.m., Biden will depart the White House for New Castle, Del.
With the House in chaos, C-SPAN shows footage Americans don’t usually see
“Loud booing. Animated conversations in the aisles of the House chamber. Sleeping children. Lawmakers scrolling on their phones. The typical live stream from the U.S. House is focused on the dais and the desks from which members of each party address the chamber. But this week brought an unusual amount of drama as the American public watched lawmakers struggle to select a new speaker.”
“And that’s largely thanks to C-SPAN.”
Thanks for reading. See you next week.
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