-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
politics.txt
1 lines (1 loc) · 31.1 KB
/
politics.txt
1
"the objective is to help them survive. they are literally in survival mode," said rep. van taylor, a republican from collin county. there is a growing crisis on the texas-mexico border. unlike former president donald trump, president joe biden is not sending migrant children back to mexico. he's allowing them to enter the united states. but where do they all go? there are already overflow centers in dallas and midland. on friday, another one opens in pecos out in west texas. rep. van taylor, a collin county republican, toured the dallas shelter at kay bailey hutchison convention center and talked with children there. "what i saw was heartbreaking," said taylor. "i saw thousands of children, 13-17 year old males coming in from south of our southern border in a facility where the lease was signed last week and it's full this week." he said the u.s. is doing the best it can in a "crisis level of care." taylor said one room holds 2,300 cots and children sleeping head to toe. "the objective is to help them survive. they are literally in survival mode," said taylor. many of the boys had traveled a month to reach the border, according to taylor. in midland, mayor patrick payton said the center in his city came as a surprise to him. he also said he's had a hard time getting information, including the number of children passing through the facility, covid-19 protocols, and more. one of payton's biggest concerns is around covid-19 spreading through the community. "these two communities have done a tremendous job to fight back covid," said payton. "we would hate to see covid spread in our communities now in spite of all of our efforts because of the federal government's actions." state rep. gene wu is one of just four asian americans in texas legislature state rep. gene wu, d-houston, joined inside texas politics for a frank conversation about violence against asian-americans. it's a community not as vocal as other minorities and not as well-represented either. wu said the state legislature needs to take the step of condemning the violence, hatred and language that's been used the past year. he is one of just four asian american members of the texas legislature. he said part of the reason there's not more representation is that asian americans, no matter how long they have lived in the u.s., are seen as other or foreign. but wu believes the recent incidents and conversations will encourage more asian americans to become involved in politics. this week the san diego and imperial counties labor council announced that brigette browning will run unopposed to become the new executive secretary-treasurer of the group, the union of labor unions for the region. browning has been the leader of unite here, the hotel and restaurant workers union. it�s the job from which now assemblywoman lorena gonzalez built power and influence, leading her to political success. it�s the post from which mickey kasparian ruled, sometimes ruthlessly. now browning will get the job. she declined an interview request but sent this written statement: �i will say this � fundamentally, i am an organizer � and expanding the organizing work of unions in san diego is critical. we need our members active and engaged in advocacy � and i will work with our leaders to expand the labor council�s organizing capabilities so we can build on the successes of the last few years. passing the pro-act in congress will change the game for the labor movement locally and nationally, and we�re pushing hard to make that happen.� the pro-act: it�s the protecting the right to organize act. the intercept calls it �the most comprehensive workers� rights bill to gain traction in congress in decades.� it would help unions override so-called right-to-work laws in certain states where workers can opt out of union membership in workplaces that have unions. and it would make it illegal for a company to organize events opposed to unionization of their employees. it passed the house but doesn�t have the votes to get over a republican filibuster in the u.s. senate unless that changes. her hotel worker brothers and sisters: the hotel and hospitality industry in san diego and elsewhere has been devastated over the last year. only 1,000 of the 6,000 unite here members in san diego are working right now. �we anticipate a good summer for leisure and hospitality as people start to travel more, but we really need big conventions and events to come back. 8,000-person dinners � that�s where the money is,� browning said in her statement. one take: browning has been one of the most vocal and energetic labor leaders in san diego for years. she�s the kind of person who says things that are interesting and controversial but then also she never feels bad about it. �she knows how to organize, she knows how to bargain, and she�s been doing it here long enough to really understand the players, the politics and all the unique quirks of san diego,� said lucas o�connor, executive director of the progressive labor alliance, in a written message. we asked o�connor about some of the divisions in labor. under kasparian�s term, for example, browning and unite here were not a part of the labor council. they rejoined the alliance after he was ousted. there are tensions between the laborers union and building trades council and more. �keeping the elected leaders of more than 130 unions organized is never easy, but she�s built trust by being in the trenches with these folks for a long time, and really helped establish a standard of solidarity between unions that�s rare in many parts of the country,� o�connor wrote. another take: browning�s nemesis is hotel owner bill evans, who tried to sue her and others in labor with a comprehensive claim that they were running an illegal system of leveraging their power with elected officials to squeeze him and other developers to give concessions. here�s how vosd�s jesse marx described that argument: �over a decade, he alleged, the labor groups have created a �playbook� that delays and threatens the financial viability of non-unionized hotel and development projects. they do so, evans argued, not just by leaning on their democratic allies in positions of power but by waging public campaigns and raising environmental concerns, sometimes in the form of a legal challenge � then dropping their opposition after getting what they want.� the judge didn�t agree anything was illegal. o�connor said browning has new challenges now, though. �anyone coming into this position now would have to deal with rebuilding a post-covid economy, addressing automation and the gig economy, navigating the ever-changing federal immigration stance, and forging a path on the worker impacts of our climate change response. it�s a tall task for anybody, but these are exactly the issues she�s been working on for years, so if anyone is ready, it�s her,� he wrote. if hotel money comes back, it�s going to roads whenever the pandemic ends or subsides or whatever it is that happens with pandemics, san diego is going to face a tricky situation with one of its major revenue sources. if the city does get more hotel-room taxes than the abysmal performance this past year, much of it will have to flow to infrastructure spending, thanks to a ballot measure approved by city voters in 2016. background: proposition h intended to address the city�s infrastructure shortfall. instead of raising taxes to pay for infrastructure repairs, though, the measure instead said that as existing revenues increased, half of that growth would go into a special pot of money just for roads and bridges and pipes and the rest. prop. h created three ways for money to flow from the city�s general fund into the new infrastructure fund. the first was growth in sales taxes; half of any increase from the amount collected in 2016, adjusted for inflation, would go to infrastructure. the second was savings in pension costs; if the city�s annual contribution to its pension fund decreases, the city devotes half of that savings to roads and stuff. both of those provisions last until 2043. neither of those is likely to matter much any time soon, said charles modica, fiscal and policy analyst for the office of the independent budget analyst. since 2016, growth in sales taxes hasn�t outpaced inflation, and isn�t expected to in the next few years. and our pension payments are increasing, not decreasing. and yes, astute reader: that means san diego actually hasn�t yet deposited any tax revenue in its infrastructure fund that came from sales taxes since prop. h was passed, because our annual sales tax receipts have yet to exceed the inflation-adjusted 2016 level. so much for that. what�s relevant now: but the third source could throw things off. that provision dedicated half of the growth in hotel taxes, franchise fees and property taxes to the infrastructure fund, up until 2023. and unlike sales taxes, this provision relies on the year-to-year revenue growth, rather than using 2016 as a baseline. that�s fine, in a world where every revenue source increases little-by-little every year. but if something massive happens � something like a global pandemic that makes leisure travel illegal, for instance � and one revenue source plummets in one year, it can be pretty disruptive when the revenue rebounds the following year. here, picture it: let�s take a look at some round numbers, just to make things easy. in recent typical years, san diego collected about $120 million a year from hotel taxes. imagine that number bottomed out during the pandemic, to something like $60 million. and then let�s assume it rebounds to $100 million in 2021. in that scenario, $20 million � half of the increase from the pandemic bottom � would have to go to infrastructure, rather than the city�s fund for general services. �if covid had happened a year later we wouldn�t be impacted as much, as much of prop. h drops off after (2022),� modica wrote in an email. �but as it is, a quirk of the way prop. h was structured allows the infrastructure fund to claim an outsized portion of bounce-backs in revenue.� this is all the case unless the city council decides to waive the prop. h requirements, as it�s entitled to do, during the budget adoption process. so, there�s a backdoor out of the problem, if the council wants to use it. but, yeah, it�s likely to need to use it. related: contributing writer ramin skibba explored the tight connection between the city of san diego and the hospitality industry. obviously, city politics will center, in part, on the hotel industry, as long as the city has a 10.5 percent (or more?) stake in the industry�s revenues. skibba talked to locals about whether other parts of the economy could ever be as important to city hall with that being the case. the political fallout of a sports arena hiccup san diego sports twitter did not appreciate the news thursday that an unforeseen interpretation of state law has disrupted the course of negotiations between mayor todd gloria and brookfield properties to redevelop the sports arena area into an urban entertainment district. stung by the departure of the chargers and the half-dozen failed stadium plans that proceeded it, and the failed soccercity plan that followed it, san diego�s most ardent sports fans experienced d�j� vu. �i hate this state,� wrote one fan. �of course � so san diego,� wrote another. �oh my god,� wrote one more, capturing the general sentiment. could be a sign: union-tribune reporter jenn van grove who has followed the project as closely as anyone, said friday that she had heard rumors that negotiations weren�t going well, and speculated that the state policy issue could be the cover story of a deal falling apart anyway. there�s no question that things were moving slow. when former mayor kevin faulconer rushed to choose a developer before he left office, he laid out a timeline for the deal that suggested the city council could be voting on a final agreement right about � now. instead, mayor todd gloria took over in december, and his first 100 days passed without a peep about the project. but on its face, it doesn�t seem that the state�s interpretation of recent changes to the surplus land act should shoulder the blame if things go sideways. a short delay: the upshot of the curveball the state has thrown is that when the city leases public land, like it�s trying to do with the sports arena, it needs to offer it to other public agencies and affordable housing developers before it can strike a deal with a private party, just like it would have to if it was selling the land. if that interpretation sticks, it means the city needs to make the 48 acres in midway available for 60 days before resuming negotiations with brookfield. maybe another public agency or affordable housing developer jumps on it, and if so that would be a deal killer, but that would be something of a surprise. and if no one does, then it�s just a two-month delay before everyone goes back to negotiating. as far as scapegoats go, it�s not an especially good one. the affordable housing picture: the state law in question requires that once other public agencies and affordable developers pass on the land, anyone who builds housing there would need to reserve at least 15 percent of it for low-income residents. think about it: on the campaign trail, gloria said securing ample affordable housing there would be his top priority. it could be that this whole thing makes his job a bit easier, establishing an affordable housing standard above the city�s existing inclusionary requirement. the city�s standard requirement is already 10 percent. three years ago, a similar project � soccercity � proposed meeting only the city�s minimum inclusionary requirement, and got beat up for it all the way through an unsuccessful campaign. affordable housing has only become a more salient political topic since then. what to look for: for one, sports fans don�t yet need to panic that san diego has once again blown its chance to improve its sports facilities. that time may come, but we�re not there yet. and if in the coming months anyone tries to point to this as the reason the deal died, we should greet that with healthy skepticism. notes teachers want to go back: members of the san diego education association, san diego unified�s teacher�s union, ratified the agreement with the district to bring students back to campuses april 12. the vote was 92 percent yes. but the union told its members to be vigilant about requirement that kids be separated by six feet despite the cdc�s updated guidance last week that three feet would be adequate in many circumstances. not budging on distance: �on the question of distance our agreement is crystal clear: �student chairs shall be positioned at least 6 feet away from one another. under no circumstance should the distance between student chairs be less than 5 feet,'� read the union�s note to members. the requirement means that some schools will only bring students back for two days per week but many parents reported hearing from principals their schools would do four days per week as staff scrambles to see how many students are returning and how much room they have. no guarantees: �as we head into spring break we hope the greater san diego community continues to do their part to keep the community covid-19 rates down. however, if rates do start to climb again, there is criteria in our agreements to keep our school communities safe,� the union wrote. marten faced questions: san diego unified superintendent cindy marten will likely get the senate�s nod to become deputy secretary of the u.s. department of education, based on the largely positive reception she got in a committee hearing wednesday. but it also the first time we�ve seen her face direction questions about reopening schools and other difficult subjects. we reviewed some of those moments on the podcast. and you can catch up with will huntsberry�s review of the five big exchanges he noticed. if you have any feedback for the politics report send it to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or andrew.keatts@voiceofsandiego.org. new york � mayor bill de blasio says he supports new legislation dramatically limiting police officers� use of what�s known as qualified immunity. but he focused friday on whether those officers will be on the hook financially. �it makes it easier if someone has a concern to bring a legal action, but it does not put the individual financial penalty on the officer,� de blasio told wnyc�s the brian lehrer show. �it puts it on the department and the city, and that's what i was comfortable with.� what you need to know city council passes bill to curb invoking of legal doctrine to avoid misconduct lawsuits de blasio notes bill makes it easier to sue police but he says nypd and city, not individual officer, would pay out any damages the city council on thursday approved a set of police reform measures that included a bill ending qualified immunity as a defense for police officers in cases of unreasonable searches and seizures and of excessive force. once signed into law, the legislation will make it far easier to sue the nypd for misconduct. it was hailed by some as a landmark. �the @nyccouncil just voted to end qualified immunity for police officers, making nyc the first city in the country to do so,� city council speaker corey johnson tweeted. johnson noted that qualified immunity was established during the civil rights movement to protect police. �it denied those freedom riders justice, and it has been used to deny justice to victims of police abuse for decades,� he said at thursday�s city council meeting. �it never should have been allowed. it should have been ended decades ago. and it must end now in new york city.� de blasio said he worries that making police officers financially responsible would hurt nypd recruiting efforts, particularly as the department works to hire more racial minorities. city councilman stephen levin is the sponsor of the bill to ban qualified immunity as a defense for police in many cases of misconduct. he told ny1 that offending officers would be liable whether they�re indemnified by the city or not. he notes they would still be named in the lawsuit. the clause to make officers personally financially responsible was removed between the bill�s initial draft and its final form. public defenders supported its scrapping, saying it would be harder for their clients to recoup damages if individual officers � and not the nypd or city � were financially liable. police unions roundly criticized the council-passed reforms as a whole. the police benevolent association posted: �yesterday, the @nyccouncil passed more anti-cop legislation, but not one bill aimed at curbing violence. the result? more criminals exploiting this environment and causing bloodshed.� ------ did you know you can now watch, read and stay informed with ny1 wherever and whenever you want? get the new spectrum news app here. ------ looking for an easy way to learn about the issues affecting new york city? listen to our "off topic/on politics" podcast: apple podcasts | google play | spotify | iheartradio | stitcher | rss editor's note: this is the final installment in a continuing series on women's history month for march, when the accomplishments of women and their contributions to history are celebrated in communities across the country and around the globe. hayden shamel, chair of the democratic party of garland county and a former candidate for arkansas' 4th congressional district, says being a woman in politics can be "lonely." "i think that's probably an accurate description for a lot of women who work in politics, simply because we have less representation when it comes to women, so for example, if you think in terms of the arkansas state legislature, we have currently seven females who are in the state senate, out of a total of 35. that's 20% representation in the state senate," shamel said. video not playing? click here https://www.youtube.com/embed/sccisfws9og "on the house side of things, we have 24 females who are representatives out of 100 representatives in the house. so that's 24%. if you think about arkansas's population, according to the last set of data, i believe i'm correct by this number; out of arkansas's population, 51.2% of our population is female," she said. "i think it's very important that we find ways to remove some of the barriers and some of the obstacles that i think a lot of women see who may want to get involved in the political process." shamel said she feels for many women in their 30s or 40s, noting it is tough to take on running for anything. "there's a lot of similarities in campaigns, no matter what you're running for, whether you're running for school board all the way up to the united states senate," shamel said. "there's a lot of similarities. one of the overarching components of a political campaign is having time. i think for a lot of women who are my age, or who are mothers that are raising children, you just don't have a whole lot of time," she said. there is an old saying that "a woman's work is never done" which is true for many women, shamel said, noting women wake up at dawn and rather they are a working mother or a stay-at-home mother, they work all day. "when you work full time, are also a mother, and have kids, you don't have a whole lot of time. it's after dark before you can even begin to pursue things," shamel said. "that's true not just in the political field, but for women who are going back to school or who may be taking night classes," she said. "they work during the day, they come home, they fulfill their duties and obligations with their family, and then it's often dark before they can even begin personal goals for (themselves), whether it's furthering their education or running for office. time is a big barrier," shamel said. shamel was lucky because when she ran for congress in 2018 she had two women who served as campaign moms to her daughter, she said, noting, "they took care of my daughter as i traveled because the political campaign takes so much." one of the biggest aspects of running for office is to listen to people, to hear their concerns, and to find out what they need, but to do so, candidates have to be present. "i did a whole lot of traveling to listen to people in all parts of the state to try and hear what the issues were that the community needed helped with essentially," shamel said. "i was incredibly fortunate to have those two women there who were able to kind of step in and serve as kind of a mom to my daughter when i wasn't there," she said. "we developed such a close relationship. they did with my daughter. i was very fortunate, but not all women have the same support structure in place." shamel said it is important that women who want to run for office, especially women with children, have avenues and resources available to have that time without sacrificing time with their families. "i think that's a pretty big obstacle; time is an obstacle," she said. shamel said it is important for people who run for office to run because they want to make positive change in their communities, not because they're looking for a position of prestige or power. "the sad thing is that's the way our political system is set up today," she said. "that takes having the gumption to get out there and ask people for money, which is not an easy thing to do." fundraising takes time, and it can be intimidating for first-time candidates, she said. "what i think one of the things that we need to do is do a better job of educating and providing support systems (to) women who (are) interested in running for office," she said. "so, that they can find unique ways to both fundraise and to be available to listen to the people that they want to represent." mike pence led the coronavirus task force only to be constantly overruled by the white house. al gore�s efforts to �reinvent government� were largely forgotten during the monica lewinsky scandal. dan quayle�s revamping of space policy never got much notice to begin with. for decades, the job of a vice president was to try to stay relevant, to avoid being viewed, in the words of one occupant of the post, as �standby equipment.� but in recent administrations, the seconds-in-command have increasingly been deputized with special policy assignments that add some weight � and political risk � to the job. that�s likely to be the case for vice president kamala harris, who this week was named the new point person on immigration. the job comes as president joe biden is rolling back four years of stringent policies enacted by his predecessor and contending with intensifying republican criticism over the increased flow of migrants to the u.s.-mexico border. �it�s usually a ceremonial role. this is definitely not a ceremonial task,� said nina rees, a former deputy assistant for domestic policy to vice president dick cheney. harris� team has clarified that the vice president does not own all of immigration policy. she will be focused on the diplomatic side, working with guatemala, el salvador and honduras to try to stop the flow of migrants from those countries, and not on the difficult task of deciding who is let into the u.s., where they are housed and what to do with the children who arrive without their parents. �the vice president is not doing the border,� harris spokeswoman symone sanders said. still, harris� project is central to biden�s argument that he�ll succeed in restoring american influence and credibility abroad and making the immigration process more humane. �it�s important for the administration to succeed in this,� said elaine kamarck, who helped gore lead the effort to overhaul and streamline government. �if you want to get to the source of the problem at the border, you�ve got to go into these countries and you�ve got to use american clout in any way you have it.� now a senior fellow in governance studies at the brookings institution, kamarck is author of the book �picking the vice president,� which argues that, starting with gore, vice presidents have effectively formed governing �partnerships� with the president. that continued with cheney � who had a hand in nearly everything george w. bush�s white house did � and biden, who brought a deep knowledge of capitol hill and foreign policy when he joined barack obama�s administration. kamarck�s argument bucks the traditional wisdom, which says if a vice president does well on thorny issues, more credit goes to the president and, if not, it gives the president some political cover. the matter of who gets praise, or blame, is even trickier when it�s clear the vice president has white house aspirations. that�s an especially strong dynamic in the biden white house. harris� presidential ambitious are clear � she already ran unsuccessfully against biden last year � and biden�s future is perhaps cloudier. the 78-year-old president said this week that �my plan is to run reelection� but later added, �i�ve never been able to plan four-and-a-half, three-and-a-half years ahead for certain.� �there�s very little that compares to the experience of being in a white house and heading a major issue, spending time getting to know the main players, getting media attention,� said julian zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at princeton university. �if she can figure out a way to do this � whether it�s 2024 or 2028 � it becomes part of her portfolio.� that, though, could also be a big �if.� democratic white houses have for decades been confounded by border policy, as encapsulated by obama. his administration deported a record number of people in the country illegally, but, late in his term, took unprecedented steps to provide legal protections for immigrants brought to the u.s. as children. �it is a huge problem on many different levels, both humanitarian and health and security,� said ray sullivan, a texas-based republican strategist. �i also think it cuts across political lines. folks from all political persuasions can look at the border crisis and think something�s not working right at all.� john adams once bemoaned the vice presidency as �the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.� gerald ford, who spent only eight months as vice president before succeeding richard nixon, was so miserable that he urged cheney not to take the job under bush. even biden � though he used his eight years as vice president to help the obama white house draw down u.s. troops in iraq and oversee implementation of federal stimulus in response to the great recession � once noted that �ben franklin, when the constitution was written, said �we should refer to the vice president as �his superfluous excellency.�� walter mondale served as vice president to jimmy carter and wrote a 1976 memo that is credited with helping to redefine the office. until then, he said, the vice president had largely been viewed as �standby equipment.� mondale also pushed for and became the first vice president to have an office in the west wing of the white house and a sizeable staff. his memo argued that the vice president should be a �general adviser� to the president rather than tackle specific tasks � advice biden isn�t following by turning to harris on such a singular and politically important problem. cheney, who famously headed bush�s vice presidential search team before recommending himself for the job, perhaps best embodied the role of chief adviser. he helped shape the administration�s decision to invade iraq and overhaul national security laws, while also promoting environmental regulations that were more favorable to energy and industry interests and dramatically expanding the powers of the presidency and the executive branch. vice presidents finding themselves in thankless positions still remains more common than not, though. confronting the outbreak of a virus he�d continue to insist would magically vanish, donald trump turned to pence. but trump repeatedly seized back the spotlight with nearly daily press briefings and eventually disbanded the task force altogether. after quayle worked on space issues, gore helped lead environmental and technology projects for bill clinton but is also remembered for heading a task force to overhaul government. that job took gore into the bureaucratic weeds. he delivered speeches on how agencies should write their rules, explaining that �means of egress� should be �exit routes.� �short is better than long. active is better than passive,� gore said in 1998 at the national small business week awards. but kamarck said the effort also allowed him to take a lead role in a vast array of issues � from procurement to immigration to housing policy to helping set airline safety standards after a major crash. gore�s work shrinking the federal government became a centerpiece of clinton�s successful 1996 reelection campaign, she said, though rifts that formed between the two after the lewinsky scandal troubled the 2000 race. �what if monica lewinsky had never happened, what if there hadn�t been an impeachment over this? my guess is that clinton would have been out there touting gore, touting reinventing government,� kamarck said. �it would have been a big deal.� ___ republished with permission from the associated press.