Harmeet Dhillon’s allegiance to Donald Trump earned her a brief appearance at the 2016 Republican National Convention. It also helped improve the GOP’s image in California. (J Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Anyone with a beating heart and a shred of humanity reacted to the October attack on Paul Pelosi in a similar fashion, with a combination of shock and horror that transcended politics.

Not Mother Dhillon.

The California Republican National Committee wife jumped on Twitter to spread conspiratorial speculation about the late-night invasion of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and the attack on her husband by a hammer-wielding lunatic.

Dhillon’s imprudent guess was then picked up and reinforced by the flamboyantly malicious Tucker Carlson, who even checked the names of the San Francisco attorney and the MAGA cheerleader in his Fox News propaganda hour. Dhillon is a regular on Fox and other right-wing media outlets, sowing unfounded doubts about the integrity of the elections, among other flimsy claims.

So it was notable when Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel recently appointed Dhillon to co-chair a committee analyzing the disappointing results of last month’s midterm elections.

It’s like asking an alcoholic in the middle of a drunken attack for tips on living sober.

Republicans had an excellent opportunity in November to take control of the Senate, win a large majority in the House of Representatives and increase the party’s governor ranks. They became very shy and barely managed to gain control of the house, in large part due to former President Trump’s malicious touch.

His meddling in the Republican primary helped raise a bunch of fourth-rate, losing candidates. His campaign-style rallies, his involvement in countless investigations, and his incessant lies about the 2020 election helped make Trump and his followers a focal point of the campaign, turning the midpoint from a typical referendum on the party in power into one Choosing between President Biden and the US pathetic ex-president.

The attack on Paul Pelosi just over a week before Election Day helped underscore the danger of right-wing inflammatory rhetoric and Trump’s role in inciting political violence.

In California, the result was another dismal performance for beleaguered Republicans.

The story goes on

One of the best and brightest candidates the party has fielded in a while, Lanhee Chen, failed to overcome the Trump stain and scarlet “R” associated with the Republican Party and lost his race for state controller. That makes it 16 years since the GOP elected their own to statewide office.

The Democrats easily retained their supermajorities in the Senate and the state assembly, and possibly expanded their ranks. And while California Republicans claimed a dozen seats in the House of Representatives, the GOP is still little more than a limited faction in the country’s most populous and influential state.

For that they can thank leaders like Dhillon, one of the most prominent faces of the Republican Party in California, who wants to fight an uphill battle to replace McDaniel as national party leader, according to a Politico report Sunday.

The 54-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants grew up in rural North Carolina and has been a Republican since registering to vote. Her sensitivity and political acuity were shown during college; As editor of the Dartmouth Review, Dhillon gained national attention for defending a satirical column comparing the college’s Jewish president to Adolf Hitler and its campus politics to the Holocaust.

Dhillon was a critic of Trump before winning the 2016 nomination. Recalling her posts mocking Trump during peak season, a GOP adviser and Facebook friend described Dhillon’s conversion as purely opportunistic.

Like many converts, she became a zealot.

After Trump lost re-election — undeniably and undeniably — Dhillon was among those who backed his rampant litigation and promoted unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Researchers analyzing nearly 50 million tweets over a 3½-month period surrounding the 2020 election named Dhillon one of the nation’s top 20 spreaders of misinformation.

Since then, she’s become something of an inside advocate for the MAGA movement, taking on a sordid collection of electoral deniers and political scamps. Her firm represented Trump before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt, and Dhillon was also on the legal team for Kari Lake, the losing candidate for Arizona governor, who made false fraud allegations by refusing to give his to admit defeat.

Getting involved with Trump and other political villains has apparently been good for Dhillon’s livelihood. (She also pursued a series of lawsuits against California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his pandemic-related policies.) It certainly raised her profile.

Whether it benefits the Republican Party is another question.

In 2012, after losing the White House, Republicans mandated a similar by-election scrutiny.

The autopsy report made a number of recommendations, including a call for a more inclusive and welcoming tone and a less harsh, more welcoming stance on immigration.

“Public perception of our party is at an all-time low,” said Sally Bradshaw, a Florida GOP strategist and one of the project’s co-chairs, at the time. “Unless changes are made, it will become increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future.”

Of course, four years later, Trump took over the White House after doing exactly the opposite of what the autopsy suggested. So there is every reason to believe that the findings of the current task force will be taken to the same dark and dusty place where most white papers and blue ribbon commissions die.

With that in mind, Dhillon probably shouldn’t bother putting too much time or effort into her investigation. On the other hand, she doesn’t have to work hard to find out what’s ailing the Republican Party.

All Dhillon has to do is look in a mirror.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

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Chimney sweep Grant Darrow was a major supporter of the Greater Idaho movement.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

When people describe the differences between eastern and western Oregon, they often speak in colors.

The rainy green of the coast contrasts sharply with the dunes of an arid interior and its expanses of sun-bleached wheat. Then there are the political shades: the blue to the west that has kept the Democrats in office for nearly 40 years, while east of the Cascade Mountains the Republican red runs so deep that in some counties four out of five voters backed Donald Trump a year 2020

Such geographic and political divisions are rife in the US, generating a resentment and disenchantment that have fueled frustrated undercurrents from the Tea Party to Trumpism.

In eastern Oregon, a group says they have a solution: Join Idaho, one of the US’s most dependable red states, by pushing the state line far west — a sort of extreme maneuver that would redraw the national map to include the Separate citizens by their political beliefs. The Greater Idaho Movement, as it is known, proposes taking over nearly two-thirds of Oregon’s land and bringing it under Boise’s rule.

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

Breakaway Counties in Oregon

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to commit to joining Idaho

counties that voted

for joining Idaho

Counties voting next

about joining Idaho

The Globe and Mail, source: majoridaho.org

The concept, seductive to conservatives, is among the most palpable expressions of the ill will that permeates modern US politics, even if critics dismiss it as absurd. “I’m 76 years old and if I don’t die by the time I’m 111, it won’t be done,” said Susan Roberts, a Wallowa County councilwoman who has been in politics for 40 years. “If you want to move to Idaho or Kentucky or anywhere, you can do that.”

Some in eastern Oregon counter: Why uproot yourself when you can bring Idaho to you?

The idea caught on. Eleven rural Oregon counties have already voted to begin discussions about joining Idaho. Politicians in Oregon and Idaho have prepared legislation to kick-start negotiations. Polls in both states show high levels of public support for the idea, and money is being raised to hire lobbyists.

“Time to split or succumb,” as Grant Darrow put it in a 2015 letter to the editor that helped spark the current movement. Mr. Darrow is a chimney sweep from eastern Oregon whose job once took him into homes in an area the size of New Jersey. Conversations in those living rooms, he says, prompted him to propose a change.

Matt McCaw, spokesman for the Greater Idaho movement, outside his home in Powell Butte.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

“Everyone was upset about what was going on in Salem,” he said in the Oregon capital. “People were just angry.” The split from the Coastal Liberals just seemed to make sense.

“They don’t want us. We don’t want to be here,” he said. “And the people of Idaho agree with our cause.”

Idaho Republicans see the prospect of additional resources and a voting bloc that would cement their grip on an already conservative stronghold.

“We’re looking at this huge landmass over there in Oregon. Check out their resources, from water to wood to minerals. Why wouldn’t we at least have a chat?” said Barbara Ehardt, an Idaho representative who intends to draft a bill proposing a discussion about moving the state line.

In eastern Oregon, 11 counties have already voted to support a move to Idaho, pledging local commissioners to meet regularly to discuss the idea. These meetings are typically sparsely attended, and a recent drive through the region – with its wind-sculpted landscapes, mountain ranges and narrow river gorges – showed few signs of roadside support.

But complaints are widespread. People have resented elements of the state’s progressive policies, including minimum wage increases, climate-related measures, decriminalizing drug possession and more recently Measure 114, which will require new permits to buy a gun and ban the possession of magazines containing more than 10 rounds. (The measure is challenged by a lawsuit filed by Harney County, one of the 11 who voted for Greater Idaho.)

“We believe almost nothing like it on the West Side,” said Matt McCaw, a small business owner who is now a spokesman for Greater Idaho. He called state borders an imaginary line established at a very different time in history.

In 2015, Grant Darrow sent a letter to the editor proposing breaking off portions of Oregon, a notion that has become the Greater Idaho Movement today. Mr Darrow keeps the letter framed at his home in Cove.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail

Today, “where the state line runs makes no sense in this state. Because it’s not where the cultural, political and economic divide is.”

The pandemic in particular has roused dissatisfaction. “People in eastern Oregon didn’t like the lockdown,” McCaw said. “And it was forced upon us by the west side of the state.”

History, supporters say, is on their side. Other borders have been shifted, albeit slightly, in recent decades following an agreement between two states. The US Congress must approve such a change.

Still, no one needs to have a precise idea of ​​what Greater Idaho might cost just yet. Critics have suggested that Idaho would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. Proponents say the state’s eastern counties are home to 9 percent of the population, and therefore Idaho could be expected to shoulder 9 percent of the state’s debt.

Nonetheless, they say it’s much more viable than other self-government concepts like Jefferson State, an idea to create an entirely new West Coast state.

And the 11 county votes should be taken seriously, said Dennis Linthicum, an Oregon state senator.

“King George III. probably should have given it serious thought when 13 colonies pleaded for their freedom,” said Mr. Linthicum, who recently proposed legislation to open negotiations in the greater Idaho area. He calls Alberta’s recently passed sovereignty law “a bit inspiring”.

But even for him, actually redrawing the map isn’t a top priority.

“We get some conversation started and that’s the main thing,” he said. “Is it really pushing the line and that’s the be-all and end-all? I don’t believe.”

But for others, Greater Idaho’s very existence reflects a grim modern reality. Oregon author and commentator Robert Leo Heilman accuses leaders who have tracked social fractures for their own political gain.

“I blame the angry people less than the people who intentionally piss them off,” he said.

“In Dante’s Inferno, the discordants occupy the eighth ring of Hell. Just off the ground,” he added. “Hell, the lechers are on the second ring. Choose your sins wisely.”

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Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz, the only Republican district attorney seeking re-election in Massachusetts, is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Rahsaan Hall this week.

The contest marks an important challenge for the so-called progressive prosecutor movement, which hopes to overhaul the criminal justice system and suffered key losses in Massachusetts this fall.

Timothy Shugrue defeated fellow Andrea Harrington, the progressive district attorney in Berkshire County, in the Democratic primary. Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, a progressive Democrat, lost his bid for Suffolk County district attorney to the more moderate Kevin Hayden, a fellow Democrat who was appointed as interim district attorney in January.

Nationally, progressives have also faced challenges around the country with concerns rising about crime in some major cities. For instance, San Francisco residents overwhelmingly voted to recall a progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, in June.

But Democrats are hoping to beat two Republicans in the Bay State on Tuesday. Democratic attorney Robert Galibois is running against Republican Assistant District Attorney Daniel Higgins for the district that includes Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The seat is open because longtime District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, a Republican, is retiring.

And in Plymouth County, Hall is challenging Cruz, the longtime Republican incumbent. Despite the recent setbacks in Massachusetts and across the country, Hall says there is still a lot of interest in criminal justice reform.

“The voices that would normally push for the type of reforms within the system aren’t there,” said Hall, who worked as a prosecutor in Suffolk County and led the ACLU’s racial justice program.

Rev. Rahsaan Hall, of the St. Paul AME Church in Cambridge, speaks outside the State House on July 20, 2020 in Boston. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

Hall, also an ordained minister, vowed to find “another way to deal with harm and disruption in a community that doesn’t over-criminalize and overburden people and still find ways to keep people safe and healthy in their communities.”

Hall says his views are similar to former Suffolk County district attorney and now US Attorney Rachael Rollins. He supports her so-called “do not prosecute” list of low level crimes where prosecutors wouldn’t automatically prosecute, but would seek diversion instead. Hall said he would also support reducing cash bail with the goal of eliminating it entirely.

“This is a very significant moment in the life of progressive reform in the criminal legal system here in Massachusetts,” Hall said.

Much of his time on the campaign trail has been focused on educating voters about the role of the county prosecutor and outlining his proposals to improve transparency and collect data to measure outcomes and the effectiveness of reforms. He said he realizes he’s running in what’s considered a more conservative part of a blue state, but he said he’s encouraged.

“Because the public narrative around this system tends to default to law and order and public safety, a lot of people don’t push for or expect the types of reforms that are achievable,” Hall said.

Hall points to research showing that crime declined in Suffolk County under Rollins. But Cruz, who has been district attorney in Plymouth for more than two decades, questions that research and says progressive reforms have been ineffective.

“People are talking about reimagining criminal justice,” Cruz said. “I don’t believe that our county is ready for the philosophies of a progressive district attorney who wants to turn a courthouse into a turnstile where people are coming in and out of there. I think that’s very dangerous and I think it doesn’t work.”

Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz holds a news conference in 2017. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Cruz opposes reducing bail and creating a list of crimes that would not be automatically prosecuted. He also supports mandatory minimum sentences and opposes raising the age by which a juvenile charged with a crime is treated as an adult.

To be sure, Cruz acknowledges that many crimes are related to poverty, addiction and mental health, but he said his office already has programs to address those issues. He also said crime rates in Plymouth County are down, showing he has been effective as the region’s top prosecutor.

“We’re in an era where cases are going down, the people that are being incarcerated are going down,” Cruz said. “That means what you’re doing is working and you can continue to help your community and keep it safe and at the same time help people with these terrible diseases like addiction and mental health problems.”

Cruz also noted he has beaten a string of Democratic challengers before.

“I’m the last standing Republican DA, which is why there’s a target on my back,” Cruz said. “This is my sixth election and it’s the fourth time I’ve been contested. I think I’ve had more contested elections than all the other DAs put together.”

In addition, incumbents traditionally have a big advantage at the polls, particularly for low-profile races.

Still, Cruz may be vulnerable, according to Nasser Eledroos, managing director for Northeastern University’s Center for Law Information and Creativity. Eledroos says some recent studies have found criminal justice reform efforts are effective.

“The body of research is there,” Eledroos said. “It’s now a big, long game of trying to communicate that effectively to voters.”

Eledroos also thought the demographics in Plymouth County have gradually shifted, increasing the odds for Democratic challengers. President Joe Biden got 57% of the votes, compared to Donald Trump’s 40% two years ago.

The results for this year’s contest should be in the near future. Polls close in Massachusetts at 8 pm on Tuesday.

correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Cruz was the only Republican district attorney in Mass. He is the only GOP district attorney seeking re-election. The post has been updated. We regret the error.

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A candidate running in November’s election for the board governing City College of San Francisco posted controversial views condemning critical race theory, often referred to as CRT, in a since-deleted tweet.

The revelation on Twitter of a prior comment by board trustee candidate Marie Hurabiell is now prompting a Democratic club in the city to reopen discussions on their endorsement for her, the club’s president told KQED.

In the tweet, which was published in May 2021, Hurabiell wrote, “CRT was a tactic used by Hitler and the KKK.” These were not her words; Rather, Hurabiell was amplifying the words of a speaker at a school board meeting in Loudoun County, Va.

A screenshot of a now-deleted tweet from board trustee candidate Marie Hurabiell published in May 2021. (Twitter)

Then, Hurabiell added, in her own words, “Gratitude to this strong and passionate parent for fighting this dangerous nonsense.”

Critical race theory is at an academic school of thought teaching how racism is baked into the systems and policies of the United States. It entered the national spotlight last year as a bogeyman of conservatives looking to lambaste local school boards. Striking critical race theory from school campuses is among a number of efforts by conservatives to reform school boards across the country over the past year, including banning books promoting racial equity and LGBTQ+ themes.

Outrage against CRT is usually reserved for screeds on ultraconservative websites like Breitbart, or on President Donald Trump’s social network, Truth Social. It’s certainly not an everyday talking point in liberal San Francisco.

The Virginia school board meeting took place amid heated rhetoric against critical race theory from then-gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin. After he won the race, Youngkin issued an executive order to end “inherently divisive concepts,” which he billed as a way to end critical race theory from being taught in K-12 schools.

Fanning flames against critical race theory was central to Republicans in his race, but in Democratic San Francisco, Hurabiell may have found a sympathetic ear for those views from people wishing to recall several local school board members.

In the deleted tweet, Hurabiell tagged numerous accounts, including an account of the San Francisco Board of Education recall called @recallsfboe that belongs to a group now called the SF Guardians. That group worked to successfully recall school board commissioners Gabriela López, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga.

“I think it was a really stupid thing that I said,” Hurabiell told KQED. “I think it was really stupid that I retweeted it and I’m extremely apologetic for that.”

Hurabiell said she believes systemic racism is a “real problem” in the country.

“In my life I have not spent a lot of time digging into CRT, but I’m trying to understand it better now,” she said. “I’m always open to being wrong.”

When asked if she usually calls things she doesn’t know about “dangerous nonsense,” she responded, “I don’t routinely talk about things that I’m not terribly familiar with.”

Hurabiell is an eighth-generation San Franciscan and has been an attorney since the 1990s. She also serves on the Georgetown University Board of Regents. An ardent supporter of the recall campaigns of the three San Francisco Board of Education members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, she also is a member of the nonprofit Stop Crime SF, which was started by Board of Supervisors candidate Joel Engardio.

Adele Failes-Carpenter, political director for the City College of San Francisco faculty union, AFT Local 2121, said Hurabiell’s views are out of step with the college’s mission.

“We need public education to keep our commitment to ending racism at the center of our work,” she said. “Anyone who is participating in open, reactionary attacks on critical examinations of the history of race and racism in this country is not in a position to help us do that work.”

Hurabiell has been endorsed by at least two local Democratic clubs in their race so far this year: the Eastern Neighborhoods Democratic Club and the United Democratic Club. These endorsements can be especially key in political races that don’t have as much funding, like down-ballot college board races.

When reached by text, Eastern Neighborhoods Democratic Club President Bruce Agid said he was not aware of Hurabiell’s tweet about critical race theory, and that he would discuss her views with his club’s board. Bobak Esfandiari, president of the United Democratic Club, did not answer texts inquiring about the club’s endorsement of Hurabiell.

Failes-Carpenter said the clubs should reconsider their endorsements.

“I would ask them to stand by students and by public educators that have committed to fighting racism within our public institutions and within our educational institutions, by not endorsing and supporting candidates who are openly hostile to anti-racist analyzes and anti-racist teaching, ” she said.

The endorsement of Hurabiell by two Democratic clubs may be an odd choice for another reason: For two decades Hurabiell was a Republican. She was appointed to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors, where she served for three years, by former President Donald Trump in 2018.

Records from the San Francisco Department of Elections show she was a registered Republican in San Francisco from at least 2000, which is as far back as more easily accessible records could reveal. She changed her party preference to Democrat on Aug. 18, 2022 — six days after she filed paperwork to run for the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees.

San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Honey Mahogany said the organization’s bylaws do not specify how long someone needs to be registered as a Democrat before a Democratic club can endorse them. Furthermore, Democratic clubs are allowed to endorse someone of any party in nonpartisan races, like for City College’s Board of Trustees.

Hurabiell would have had an uphill battle running for office advertising herself as a Republican in San Francisco, where the party is widely disfavored in local elections.

San Francisco has no elected Republicans in office. The last Republican elected in San Francisco was the late James Fang, who formerly sat on the BART Board of Directors. He was first elected in 1990 and served until his defeat in 2014.

Hurabiell said she changed her party registration after joining a group called “No Labels,” and finding moderate Democrats who agreed with her on issues, but disliked her being known as a Republican Party member.

“We just wanted to solve problems. We just wanted to work together and effect positive change in our community,” she said.

The San Francisco Chronicle praised Hurabiell during her 2020 run for the college board — which she lost — endorsing her for “fiscal savvy.” Indeed, in her interview with KQED, she professed a desire to set City College on a fiscally solvent path, and expressed concern that too many classes that are still being offered are under-enrolled.

When Hurabiell said she didn’t know much about CRT, we asked whether she believed in other progressive causes that may be valued at City College, like the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I’m not sure I fully understand that movement,” she said, repeating her same explanation for having no stance on CRT. While the death of George Floyd left her “disgusted and devastated,” she said, “I want to say yes to that, but again I’m not sure I understand enough about it.”

Responding to Hurabiell’s repeated claims of not understanding both CRT and the Black Lives Matter movement, Jane Kim, state director of the California Working Families Party — who championed and won free City College tuition during her time on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — bristled.

“Listen, it is one thing for an individual in our society or to say that they don’t know a lot about critical race theory or Black Lives Matter, but if you are a candidate that is running to represent over 800,000 residents of San Francisco , many of whom are people of color, then I think that it is your job to understand those things,” Kim said. “If you don’t understand the Black community, the Latino community, API community, then you shouldn’t be running for office.”

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A law mandating efficient toilets, faucets, and shower heads could reduce annual water use by 16,000 acre-feet.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The eastern finger of Deer Creek Reservoir continues to recede as Main Creek becomes a narrow band of water during extreme drought conditions on Monday, July 12, 2021. An estimated one-third of the reservoir’s capacity is used for toilets in Utah annually.

| Oct. 21, 2021, 11:49 a.m.

| Updated at 4:49 pm

In one year, Utah toilets flow 51,000 acres of water, enough to fill one-third the capacity of Deer Creek Reservoir.

That’s the “eye-opening” statistic that Senator Jani Iwamoto highlighted Tuesday when he proposed a bill that would require more efficient toilets, faucets and shower heads in new home construction, and said annual water use would be reduced by 16,000 acre-feet by 2030 . That’s enough water to supply 30,000 households.

“Utah is the only state in the Colorado Basin that has not implemented a similar standard or allows communities to issue regulations that require these fittings,” said the Democrat in Salt Lake City of the Legislative Water Development Commission. “This is one way of addressing our scarce water supply. And let’s be honest, there is no more water left, so we have to do something with our existing water supply. “

Utah is facing both explosive housing growth and dwindling water supplies due to climate change, she added. Iwamoto’s action would have an impact on installations for new build and renovation of residential bathrooms. Building codes would be amended to set the maximum flow rate for toilets at 1.28 gallons per flush; for faucets at 1.5 gallons per minute; and for shower heads at 2 gallons per minute. These exceed the current standard by 20%.

While highly efficient faucets are generally no more expensive than less efficient ones, their ruling drew opposition from Republican lawmakers such as MP Casey Snider of Paradise, who said he prefers tiered water prices to encourage people to reduce water use.

“I am concerned that the government is telling me what type of toilet I can have in my house,” said Snider. “I’m worried what it can do to the Great Salt Lake.”

Snider argued that reducing the amount of water used in the bathroom will result in less water going into the depleted Great Salt Lake, which takes up most of the purified wastewater from the Wasatch Front.

The commission voted 5 to 4 in favor of the bill, but the move still failed because four members of the Republican House of Representatives voted against it. The vice chairman of the commission, Rep. Joel Ferry, R-Brigham City, voted in favor.

The tepid support for the law frustrated water conservation advocates such as Utah Rivers Council Executive Director Zach Frankel, who witnessed the demise of many water conservation policies.

“This shows how much the water saving in the Statehouse is hostile,” said Frankel on Tuesday. “I sat through almost 10 hours of committee discussion on water today and they didn’t allow a second of public input. That is in part why there is so much basic ignorance about water up here. They refuse to listen and learn to save money. “

Despite failing to get the commission’s official blessing, Iwamoto plans to submit the bill to the Senate at the upcoming session.

“This is a critical time and this change will make a difference,” she said. “As we see in Monroe [in Sevier County], the city council voted to suspend construction because there is no water. It’s a scary time and we need serious solutions. “

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A Republican senator, concerned that the Federal Reserve is going beyond its Congressional mandate, asks the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank for documents on its growing focus on climate and social issues.

In a letter to the regional Fed bank, Senator Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) Said he was concerned that the bank’s new focus of research could destabilize the central bank’s apolitical profile, which could undermine its independence.

Some of the Fed’s regional banks, including San Francisco, “have become increasingly concerned with sociopolitical issues that reflect the political and normative leanings of unelected Federal Reserve Bank officials,” wrote Toomey, senior Senate banking committee member. “That approach has put the Federal Reserve in the emotionally charged political arena – a place the Federal Reserve has seldom ventured into for good reason.”

Mr Toomey wants the San Francisco Fed to provide him with documents by April 9th, outlining bank planning for upcoming public climate seminars, documents and emails related to shifts in the bank’s research focus, and spending over the past decade in Related to research and community development are listed work. He is also seeking a briefing with Glenn D. Rudebusch, Senior Policy Adviser at the bank.

A San Francisco Fed spokesman said, “We have received the letter from Sen. Toomey and are reviewing it. We look forward to discussing the contents with Sen. Toomey’s office.”

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Washington • Burgess Owens’ conversion to the Republican Party came after a decade of professional football as he watched Ronald Reagan rise and longed to start his own business.

“I’ve always been a conservative, and I’ve realized that,” says Owens. “I grew up conservative, but I voted as a Democrat because we’d talk [about how] that was the party in our favor. “

He left the NFL a “cocky liberal” but years later he said, “I found myself a very humble and appreciative Conservative.”

Owens, 68, is now the Republican candidate in Utah’s 4th Congressional District after beating three candidates in last week’s primary. He is hoping to topple Rep. Ben McAdams, a new Democrat, in the November elections. This race is expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation. And it puts McAdams, who has long been involved in Utah politics, against Burgess, who is new to the campaign.

Ohio-born, Florida-educated Owens says his life was shaped by a black man who grew up in the deep south – how his father’s ambition to overcome obstacles helped strengthen his character. And how he believes that a strong work ethic and conservative politics are more effective than government handouts that didn’t help people who look like him.

“I happen to be attracted to a party that believes in freedom – No. 1,” says Burgess, “and believes that each of us can succeed if we pay the price for it.

“So what we’re seeing is that more and more black Americans are literally leaving the Democratic plantation,” added Burgess. “I’ve never seen anything like this because of the President [Donald] Trump because the success he has brought to the black community is the lowest unemployment in our country’s history for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women and veterans. “

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Burgess Owens, former NFL player and now District 4th GOP candidate for Congress, attends a rally in support of police officers at Salt City Hall on Saturday, June 20, 2020 Lake City part.

That was before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, of course, and the decline in employment for each category.

Owens is a full supporter of Trump – he put on a red Make America Great Again cap in a protest against Blue Lives Matter on June 20 – for saying the president will “do the job”.

“I support every person, every president who will fight for the American way,” says Owens. “By the way, I have no problem with his tweets. … I look at it very simply. If the tweets drive the nuts, it makes me happy. “

And he got Trump’s confirmation on Friday in one of those tweets. Trump wrote, “As a Super Bowl champion, Burgess knows how to WIN.”

In response, Burgess tweeted, “From a segregated childhood to being approved by the president. It is an honor to live in a country that made this possible. “

It is an honor to have the support of the President of the United States. From a segregated childhood to being approved by the president. It is an honor to live in a country that made this possible. Many thanks to @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/XU7V6pn1av

– Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) July 3, 2020

Owens says his campaign will focus on “prioritizing God, country, family first,” and he has election words for democratic leaders that he says have gone so far as to be Marxists and socialists.

“This will result in a very simple decision this time around in 2020,” says Owens. “Do we keep our country, our culture, our way of life? Rule of law, security? Or go the path we now see on the streets of the city centers: chaos, destruction, damage, death, bullying. “

The GOP contender, who still wears his Super Bowl championship ring, was far from his southern roots to find his home in the GOP, Latter-day Saints Church of Jesus Christ and Utah.

From the NFL to WordPerfect

Owens was born in Columbus, Ohio, where his father had relocated to get a degree he couldn’t get due to the then Jim Crow laws in Texas. The family later moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where his father was a college professor.

Owens, who had spent some time in college labs over the summer, eventually sought a degree in biology from the University of Miami, where he was only the third black student to receive a scholarship. Playing soccer was an added bonus, he says, but education came first.

However, football became a livelihood after Owens was drafted by the New York Jets in the first round of the 1973 NFL draft. For safety reasons, he played 10 seasons, including as part of the Oakland Raiders 1980 team that won the Super Bowl.

Towards the end of his professional career, Owens said he converted to Latter-day Saints because of some teammates who shared the faith.

Playing pro didn’t make him as much money as he had hoped, and a business he started with his brother selling electronic equipment to keep track of business expenses failed and caused his first bankruptcy.

He later moved to a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, NY with his children and worked as a chimney sweep by day and a security guard by night.

“That was a very humbling moment,” says Owens. “It was also a very important moment in my life, standing in the basement apartment at the end of the long day, looking outside and just thinking that I knew this wouldn’t be the way because I believe in the American Second chance promise. “

Soon after, a friend told Owens about a job at WordPerfect, a fast-growing computer software company based in Utah. The sales job was in Philadelphia and Owens answered and moved.

But he had a thing for Utah.

“I made a promise with all of my children [they] I could see any college in the country while they were in their freshman year in Utah, “says Owens,” because I wanted them to have a nice soft landing. “

Eventually Owens moved west and settled in Draper.

He founded Second Chance 4 Youth, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children in trouble “start a new chapter and live their American dream,” and embraced the four principles of Owens’s campaign: head, heart, hand, and home .

Owens has also authored several books, including “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whimpers, Weenies and Wimps” and his most recent book “Why I Stand: From Freedom to Socialism’s Death Fields”.

Documents filed with the House indicate that Owens receives $ 70,000 a year from his foundation, plus income from his books and lectures. A December filing showed Owens with up to $ 5 million owed to the IRS. However, this was changed to $ 6,500 in an addendum published in January. Owens says the original filing was a “big mistake” and most of the IRS debt has now been paid off.

Owens’ rhetoric fits the books, and he doesn’t shy away from the threat he sees from Democrats. He says Americans must do what they can to take our country back from the left.

Owens has never met McAdams.

“I hear he’s a really nice guy,” says Owens. “And I don’t doubt that. But it’s not about Ben McAdams. It’s about the party he authorizes. “

Owens questions Congressman’s votes for the agenda of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, McAdams support for the Trump indictment and Pelosi ideology, and Liberal MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom Owens describes as “very anti-American”.

In contrast, the Democratic Campaigns Committee notes Owens’ support for Trump, his plan to jettison the Department of Education, and his opposition to protecting the Affordable Care Act on pre-existing terms. The DCCC also notes that while McAdams fought against resumption of nuclear testing in the West, Owens has expressed support.

“Its out-of-the-mainstream agenda does not suit moderate voters in Utah,” the DCCC said in a memo following Owens’ primary victory.

The arguments preview the general campaign messages Utahns is likely to see, a flurry of Democrats tying Owens to Trump and Republicans tying McAdams to Pelosi. Right now, political handicappers say McAdams is a small favorite. Cook Political Report says the normally conservative 4th district “leans democratically”.

Owens says he can win because his focus is “God, country, family first” – things that all 4th district voters believe in.

“It all comes down to what I really stand for,” he said. “This is something that resonates with Republicans, Independents and Democrats who take the time to listen to it and just think about their future.”

The post Meet Burgess Owens, the Utah Republican who seeks to switch Rep. Ben McAdams appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

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