Author: J.P. Knowles

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that the 117th Congress will be her last term in the position, leaving New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as the front-runner to replace her.

Pelosi reached a deal with a group of Democrats who were against her return to the speakership in 2019, where she agreed that she would serve a maximum of two more terms in the position. Although she has signaled a willingness to go back on the agreement, many Democrats believe that she will retire.

Jeffries has often been mentioned as the next head of the caucus. The number five Democrat in the House, Jeffries would make history as the first black leader of a party in the lower chamber. Majority Whip James Clyburn, who is also black, previously said that he would not run for the top position.

“I think it is very important and would have no problem saying that, if I had a crystal ball, I would want the leadership to be reflective of this wonderful democracy in America we live in,” Congressional Black Caucus chair and Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty said. “Certainly I would like to be able to say that I was part of the process that had the first Black American to be speaker of the U.S. Congress.”

Jeffries has defended members like Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters and Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib after the two seemed to condone violence and anti-Semitism. He also described then-President Donald Trump as the “Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Jeffries would likely secure the votes needed to lead House Democrats if they are in the minority. While the Speaker of the House is elected by the whole House, requiring a 218-vote majority, the majority and minority leaders only need the support of a majority of their party’s members.

The math is important due to Jeffries’ sometimes cold relationship with left-wing members of the House. Although he is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), Jeffries has been criticized for the support he gets from banks and charter schools. Justice Democrats, a group aligned with fellow New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, considered fielding a primary challenge against him in 2020, although the threat never came to pass.

Following a series of high-profile losses for left-wing candidates, and the victory of Eric Adams in a full Democratic primary for Mayor of New York, Jeffries slammed “extreme left [a]s obsessed with talking trash about mainstream Democrats on Twitter,” calling their lines of attack “lame.”

Jeffries’ comments could work against him. CPC chair and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal is also considering a run, and will “look at any opportunities that are there,” she said.

“We need to stop blaming progressives in the Squad for all of the problems of the Democratic Party, because that is not true,” New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, added.

Ninety percent of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members say they will strike if the Chicago Public School District returned teachers and students to in-person learning after winter break, according to polling data from the union.

Union members were asked to participate in a survey titled “Possible Actions for Safety January 2022” by Dec. 27 in the lead-up to a Dec. 28 Zoom meeting. The survey results found that 89% of union members said they would take part in a “remote-work action,” or a strike against in-person work, according to results obtained by a school choice advocate who attended the union’s Zoom meeting.

A separate members-only poll was also taken during the Zoom meeting and results found that 91% of members who attended the virtual meeting supported the “remote-work action.”

Members were also asked whether they felt their schools offered staff access to adequate testing during the online meeting. Fifty-nine percent of meeting participants responded “yes.”

The union cites the wave of positive cases of the Omicron variant as the reason for the need to shift to remote learning. The survey states that it is “imperative” that the union return with an action plan to ensure “school communities’ and our own safety.”

CTU member Phillip Cantor, who teaches science and advanced placement psychology at North-Grand High School, called on the district to supply students and teachers with KN-95 masks. Cantor also purports to be a “teacher for social justice.”

“If we want to open schools in 2022, [Chicago Public Schools] needs to supply students and teachers with kn95 masks as well as universal testing,” Cantor said. “Students and their families should also be able to get vaccinated and boosted at school sites.”

Chicago Public Schools and the city of Chicago have already spent more than $100 million on masks, ventilators, personal protective equipment, and other classroom safety measures.

Dozens of people, including 12 police officers, were killed, and one officer was beheaded, in one of the world’s largest countries Thursday during violent protests that saw government buildings set on fire.

Dozens of demonstrators were killed as they stormed Kazakhstan’s presidential palace and the mayor’s office in the nation’s largest city on Wednesday, and the group continued to try to invade administrative buildings overnight.

The protesters “have been eliminated and their identities are being established,” Saltanat Azirbek, a spokesperson for the city police department in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Approximately 1,000 were injured and 400 were hospitalized as a result of the protests that began Sunday in Kazakhstan’s western Mangistau region.

The protests came after the government lifted caps on the price of gasoline, causing prices to double.

A Russian-led intergovernmental military alliance called the Collective Security Treaty was dispatched to Kazakhstan on Wednesday “to stabilize and normalize the situation.”

The group was comprised of armed forces from Russian, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and the deployment would only be temporary. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Wednesday that he called for assistance to aid in what he believed to be a terrorist threat.

As the Biden administration marks National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, former Homeland Security officials say the crisis at the southern border is exacerbating criminal activity and the only answer is to secure the border.

In December the Biden administration released an updated national plan to fight human trafficking. Last week, President Biden issued a presidential proclamation for Human Trafficking Prevention Month, which is recognized in January.

“Human trafficking — whether in the form of forced labor, sex trafficking, or other offenses — is an abhorrent abuse of power and a profoundly immoral crime that strikes at the safety, health, and dignity of millions of people worldwide,” President Biden said in a presidential proclamation to mark National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“During National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we reaffirm our commitment to protect and empower survivors of all forms of human trafficking, to prosecute traffickers, and to bring an end to human trafficking in the United States and around the world,” he said.

But former DHS officials say the ongoing migrant crisis at the border should be the top priority if shutting down trafficking is the goal.

“When you don’t take immigration enforcement on the border seriously, and you don’t take immigration enforcement seriously in the interior, human trafficking is going to expand and a lot of people are going to get away with it because there isn’t a focus on it,” former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Thomas Homan said Tuesday.

“When you increase the number of people being smuggled, the increase in trafficking goes along with that, so if they’re really, really serious not just about addressing and reacting to trafficking if they’re really serious about trying to prevent it, they’d secure our borders,” former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan said Wednesday.

A former senior ICE official said there is a lack of coordination between agencies and the criminal enterprises are taking advantage of that.

“A trafficking victim can be smuggled and a smugglee can turn into a trafficking victim so we need to be more coordinated on how we do this,” they said.

“You have victims out there that are not being rescued because we’re not even focusing on immigration.”

The report also says that Mexico is the top origin country in human trafficking cases involving foreign national victims where the United States is the destination. It cites recent cases where young victims were trafficked by enterprises linked to a region in Central Mexico, and then smuggled into the U.S. and forced into sex acts in New York, Atlanta, and elsewhere in the U.S.

Under the Biden administration, the border has seen more than 100,000 migrant encounters, and sometimes more than double that, each month. The focus has been on quickly processing migrants into the interior rather than keeping them in border facilities.

The former DHS officials said the crisis is leading not only to more victims being trafficked, but also agents who are exhausted and overwhelmed and are less likely to spot someone being trafficked. They said that with agents having less time to speak to victims, it is more difficult to identify them, particularly children who at one time would have been DNA tested to see if they are related to those adults bringing them across as an alleged family unit.

“A lot of people being smuggled, they are being trafficked at the same time, they just don’t know it until it’s too late,” Morgan said.

“What I can tell you is the border being out of control like it is, we don’t know how many potential trafficking victims we have coming in,” the former ICE official said. “I can’t give you specifics, but I can tell you we’ve identified individuals who have come in, become victims of trafficking, or were victims of human trafficking when they crossed the southwest border. The fact that the administration has been doing catch and release like they have has increased the potential to get trafficking victims into the United States.”

“Human trafficking isn’t just about sex trafficking, it’s about forced labor and other things too and many times at ICE we would uncover forced labor trafficking situations by conducting worksite enforcement operations and worksite enforcement investigations, but [DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas] has pretty much told ICE ‘you will not conduct worksite enforcement investigations.’”

The White House plan is calling for immigration authorities to improve screening of all migrants who pass through immigration custody or detention for indicators of human trafficking. It also makes it a priority for immigration protections to be in place to make sure trafficking victims are not deported.

But Morgan, who accused the White House plan as being “all show” said it’s obvious what needs to be done if the administration is serious about ending human trafficking.

“When you increase the number of people being smuggled, the increase in trafficking goes along with that, so if they’re really, really serious not just about addressing and reacting to trafficking if they’re really serious about trying to prevent it, they’d secure our borders,” he said.

Many of those connected with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are keeping quiet in the face of questions following the trial of his one-time girlfriend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts in December, including a charge of conspiring to sex traffic minors. Epstein, who pled guilty to sex charges in 2008, was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges then committed suicide while awaiting trial.

The guards on duty at the time of his suicide were charged, however, those charges were dropped during Maxwell’s trial.

Epstein had close ties to celebrities, politicians, and executives, even after he had been convicted as a sex offender. Among those who were known to have been close were L Brands founder Lex Wexner, Director Woody Allen, and Prince Andrew.

Andrew is perhaps the most notable of Epstein’s friends, having first met him in 1999 according to a 2019 report by the New York Post. The Duke of York stepped back from royal duties in the wake of an interview concerning his ties with Epstein.

Epstein also had ties with Harvard University, where he donated over $9 million, according to an internal report issued by the university that showed Epstein made dozens of visits after his 2008 plea-bargain. The university took action against Martin Nowak, a professor who provided Epstein with the access, placing limits on his research and advisory activities.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also met with Epstein on a number of occasions, as did employees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates met with Epstein as recently as 2019 despite the concerns of his then-wife, Melinda.

“I had several dinners with him, you know, hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge,” Gates said during an interview. “When it looked like that wasn’t a real thing, that relationship ended.”

Prior to Epstein’s 2008 conviction on charges stemming from soliciting, his legal team included lawyers from Kirkland and Ellis, including former independent counsel Ken Starr and Jay Lefkowitz.

“My role, as Of Counsel to the law firm, was to seek to persuade the US Attorney’s Office that the matter in question was entirely a state criminal matter, not a federal matter,” Starr said in an email.

“My law firm handled the representation in an entirely professional manner. We sought to convince the US Attorney that the offenses, as charged at that time, were properly entrusted to the Palm Beach County State’s Attorney’s Office for prosecution. Notwithstanding our arguments, the US Attorney was not persuaded,” Starr said.

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received $1,400 in COVID-19 relief funds from the most recent round of federal stimulus, according to court documents.

Tsarnaev received the $1,400 stimulus payment in mid-June 2021, according to a Wednesday filing by federal prosecutors. The documents also show he had received roughly $20,000 from other sources. The money can be used by him to buy goods and products for use in prison, including clothing and food.

The convicted bomber has received over $11,00 from the Office of Federal DefendeYork, $2,500 from an individual in Indianapolis, over $1,400 from a person in Bloomfield, New Jersey, $950 from a person in Frederick, Maryland, and nearly $3,500 from dozens of other individuals, according to the filing.

Prosecutors argue that these donations to Tsarnaev should go towards the settlement owed his victims because he was ordered to pay $101,126,627 in restitution, alleging Tsarnaev had not been using the funds for appropriate purposes but had instead been sending the money to friends and relatives.

The prosecutors also argue that Tsarnaev did not notify authorities that he had received some of the donations.

“The Defendant cannot properly claim that the funds held in his inmate trust account are exempt from payment of his special assessment and obligation,” prosecutors wrote.

Tsarnaev was initially sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 attack on the Boston Marathon which he carried out with his older brother Tamerlan. Three people were killed in the bombing and more than 260 others were injured. Tamerlan was killed by authorities during the manhunt.

A federal appellate court vacated Tsarnaev’s death sentence in July 2020, arguing that the jury selection in Tsarnaev’s trial did not meet the proper standard of fairness.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the administration is doubling its order for Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral pill.
The administration previously ordered 10 million courses of treatment in 2021, with Biden’s latest announcement the U.S. government will have ordered 20 million treatments in total.

The Pfizer pill, Paxlovid, won’t be available immediately, with only 35,000 additional courses due to be delivered this month.

“The United States has more pills than any other country in the world and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months, as more of these pills are manufactured,” Biden said Tuesday. “Today I’m directing my team to work with Pfizer to double our order from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses to be delivered in the months ahead.”

Biden noted that the first batch of the antiviral pill was shipped out on Christmas Eve and promised more “this week,” though increasing production will still take months. Before the president’s comments, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tweeted that the 20 million treatment courses “will be delivered” by the “end of September.”

Bourla wrote that around 10 million pills have been “accelerated for delivery by the end of June.”

Biden also addressed the ongoing testing issue the U.S. is experiencing, calling it “frustrating” but promised that the government is “making improvements.” The Omicron variant, which is more contagious but has less serious symptoms, sparked long lines and testing shortages around the country ahead of the holidays.

In response to the shortage, the administration said it would be making 500 million tests available for free to Americans who request one.
There are many questions about the administration’s plan, such as how many tests will one household be allowed to order and what specific website the tests will be available through. The plan was not ready to be implemented before the holidays when the U.S. saw many Americans go for testing ahead of travel.

The president pushed vaccines and boosters, saying that vaccinated Americans “are highly protected” against Omicron. He issued a warning to unvaccinated Americans and said “this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

“You can still get COVID, but it’s highly unlikely that you’ll become seriously ill,’’ the president said. “If you’re vaccinated and boosted, you are highly protected. Be concerned about Omicron, but don’t be alarmed. And if you’re unvaccinated, you have some reasons to be alarmed. You’ll experience severe illness in many cases.’’

“There’s no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated,” Biden also declared.

The highly lethal synthetic drug fentanyl has seen an increase in trafficking into the U.S., and, in the fiscal year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a 134% increase in seizures of the illicit drug.

Fentanyl is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, with a lethal dose being about 2 milligrams, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has warned about the rise of fentanyl-laced pills that cartels in Mexico are manufacturing with chemicals provided by China.

The drug is feeling an overdose epidemic in the U.S. and is now the leading killer of 18-45-year-olds nationwide.

CBP confiscated 11,201 pounds of fentanyl between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. In the previous fiscal year, CBP seized 4,791 pounds of the drug.

CBP spokesperson Justin Long said that the seizures occurred at ports of entry, which have seen a 400% increase in fentanyl seizures since 2018. Long said that with the pandemic border restrictions, CBP officers are focused on commercial and passenger environments and that the seizures illustrate CBP’s success in intercepting illegal activity.

“Criminal organizations continue to evolve their smuggling operations, and these seizures are indicative of CBP’s efforts to disrupt cross-border criminal activity,” Long said, adding that CBP utilizes many resources and technological tools at its disposal.

“CBP continues to modernize its facilities to strengthen its border security mission with these and other security measures that aid the detection and seizure of illicit drugs,” he said.

Former DEA Special Agent in Charge for El Paso Kyle Williamson said that during the time he was working in the agency there had been tremendous increases in fentanyl seizures and that he predicts the trend to continue unless there is a cooperation between Mexico and the U.S.

“When I was Special Agent in Charge in El Paso, we saw fentanyl seizures double year over year in excess of 100%,” Williamson said. “This also coincided with increase seizures of methamphetamine. This deadly trend became very evident in 2021 when we went from one out of every four pills laced with fentanyl having a deadly dose (2mg) to two out of every five.”

“Based on current numbers I believe this deadly trend will continue in 2022,” he added. “It is imperative that the government of Mexico works with the United States to stop this deadly trend.”

President Joe Biden’s administration is allocating $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funding to expand independent meat and poultry processing capacity as consumer prices continue to skyrocket.

The White House announced the plan for a “Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain” on Monday. Biden also spoke with independent farmers and ranchers Monday afternoon about the new plan.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation. That’s what we’re seeing in the meat and poultry … industries now,” Biden said during the virtual meeting.

In a fact sheet detailing Biden’s four-step plan, The White House described the meat and poultry processing sector as “a textbook example” of an industry “dominated by a handful of large companies that control most of the business and most of the opportunities.”

The administration argued that this is “raising prices and decreasing options for American families” and said the “lack of competition [is] hurting consumers, producers, and our economy.”

The $1 billion comes from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress in 2021, and the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to allocate the money towards specific efforts. Specifically, the USDA is providing up to $375 million in grants to produce more independent processing plants, $275 million as a partnership with lenders who will give out loans and support businesses, and $100 million to improve the workforce, as well as other projects.

“Roundtable participants described how lack of competition in the meat and poultry supply chain impacts their businesses and their lives, and the challenges they face because a few large companies dominate the processing markets,” the White House said. “The farmers and ranchers explained that they are often at the mercy of just a few buyers who determine the price they receive and that even as these conglomerates raise prices at the grocery stores, they push down prices for farmers and ranchers, taking wealth out of rural communities and hurting consumers.”

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) data shows the price for beef in November had risen 20.9% from the previous year. In November, inflation hit its highest level in 39 years.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying that the Biden administration’s decision to allocate $1 billion in funding to try and solve meat prices, is “misguided.”

“Like so many other products, the factors driving meat prices higher include increased demand, COVID-related supply chain disruptions, and increased input costs, especially higher energy and labor costs,” Neil Bradley, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, said in a statement.

“One has to ask, if, as the administration asserts, consolidation in meat and other industries has been a problem for years and it is also driving the current surge in prices, then why didn’t it drive prices higher before? It is pretty clear that the administration is attempting to use higher prices to justify their preexisting agenda to overturn decades of bipartisan consensus around antitrust and competition policy in favor of a ‘government-knows-best’ regulatory approach,” Bradley added. “That isn’t economics, it is politics and sadly, such government intervention would likely further constrain supply and push prices even higher.”

Thousands of drivers were stranded on a Virginia highway for over 15 hours due to icy roads, heavy snowfall, and a tractor-trailer crash Monday.

North and southbound traffic on I-95 came to a standstill between Ruther Glen, Virginia, in Caroline County and exit 152, in Dumfries, Virginia, in Prince William County, after a massive winter storm caused poor driving conditions that led to a tractor-trailer accident, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“We know many travelers have been stuck on Interstate 95 in our region for extraordinary periods of time over the past 24 hours, in some cases since Monday morning,” Marcie Parker, the state transportation agency’s Fredericksburg District Engineer said in the press release.

“This is unprecedented, and we continue to steadily move stopped trucks to make progress toward restoring lanes. In addition to clearing the trucks, we are treating for snow and several inches of ice that has accumulated around them to ensure that when the lanes reopen, motorists can safely proceed to their destination,” Parker said.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said that his team had worked through the night with state police, transportation, and emergency officials.

“An emergency message is going to all stranded drivers connecting them to support, and the state is working with localities to open warming shelters as needed,” Northam tweeted. “While sunlight is expected to help the Virginia DOT clear the road, all Virginians should continue to avoid 1-95.”

Up to 11 inches of snow fell in the area Monday, causing many accidents and triggering some to leave cars abandoned on the interstate.

The accumulated snow along with the crash delays made it impossible for cars to move, leaving hundreds of travelers posting distressed messages on social media platforms.

Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine tweeted that he had been stuck on the road for 19 hours, and one reporter on NBC’s “Morning Joe” even joined the show while sitting in the traffic jam.