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Their bills projected plummet in Medicaid spending isnt helping matters for G.O.P. leaders. Even a proposal for $45 billion to fight opioid abuse is under fire, as addiction specialists say its simply not enough to counter the cuts.

Dean Heller, above, the Republican senator from Nevada who denounced his partys bill, is facing the wrath of Las Vegas titans and the states rank and file.

____

3. Newly unfettered by the Supreme Court, the Trump administration swiftly enacted portions of its travel ban, which bars entry to the U.S. by refugees and visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. Heres who can get in, and who cant.

The court will hear arguments on the travel ban in October.

____

4. In a meeting on Miami Beach, where fighting rising seas is now routine, American mayors called on President Trump and Congress to rejoin the Paris climate accord, and they doubled down on their own efforts to combat climate change and commit to renewable energy.

According to a new study, Southern states will be hardest hit by global warming.

____

5. Combating climate change and bolstering international institutions are priorities as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, above, prepares to host a G-20 summit meeting beginning Friday. She has her sights set on President Trump, predicting very difficult talks.

Mr. Trump will meet with Vladimir V. Putin on the sidelines. The White House wouldnt say whether Mr. Trump would press him on Russias meddling in last years election.

There was, however, some action on the election: A White House commission set up to examine unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud set off bipartisan furor with a sweeping request for the personal and public data of the nations 200 million voters. Many states said no.

____

6. Questions about President Trumps priorities grew pointed after a particularly crude explosion on Twitter.

Rebukes abounded, even in media usually friendly to Mr. Trump, after he lashed out at the often critical co-hosts of MSNBCs Morning Joe, above, bashing Mika Brzezinskis appearance and intellect and calling Joe Scarborough psycho. The co-hosts then said the White House had told them that The National Enquirer would quash a story about their romantic relationship if they apologized to the president for criticizing him.

Our media columnist took the fracas as proof of TVs iron grip on the president.

____

7. Doctors and hospital staff moved quickly and worked furiously to help those shot during a rampage at a New York hospital on Friday. Had the injured not been treated where they fell, they might not have lived.

Six people were wounded and one doctor was killed before the gunman, a disgruntled doctor, committed suicide.

And a shooting at a nightclub in Little Rock, Ark., early Saturday left at least 25 people with gunshot wounds; all are expected to survive. The police said it appeared to be the result of a dispute.

Above, the scene in New York.

____

8. Disclosures that a venture capitalist, Justin Caldbeck, had preyed on female entrepreneurs prompted more than two dozen women to speak to our tech reporter about being sexually harassed by investors and mentors.

Ten named the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and emails.

For instance, this Facebook message: I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you.

____

9. Turning our attention upward, a new initiative to beam messages into space may be our best shot yet at learning whether were alone in the universe.

But if were not, theres an important consideration. As Stephen Hawking once said, If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America.

Above, the astronomer Frank Drake at the Green Bank observatory in West Virginia in the 1960s.

____

10. Back down on Earth, Hong Kong also observed a major anniversary: the 20th of the territorys return from British rule.

President Xi Jinpings speech underscored Chinas tightening grip, and it came as mainland authorities refused to allow the democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace laureate paroled from prison for cancer treatment, to go abroad for care, despite appeals to Mr. Xi, above, from dozens of prominent writers.

And China reacted with fury over the U.S. decision to sell $1.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, which one Chinese official said contradicted President Trumps agreements with Mr. Xi.

____

11. Bankers and economists are increasingly discussing whether artificial intelligence could permanently eliminate huge numbers of jobs.

The U.S. jobs numbers for June come out Friday. In the previous report, unemployment was at a 16-year low, but with stubborn weak spots, like lagging wage growth and a shrinking labor force.

____

12. Finally, welcome to Broadways biggest night for teenagers.

More than 70 of the countrys most talented theatrical hopefuls took the stage last week for the Jimmy Awards, the Tonys for teens. They warbled, kicked and smiled until their faces hurt, vying for scholarships, cash prizes, and maybe even the eye of a Broadway casting director.

We also went behind the scenes at the Met Opera just before a show, a wondrous maze. Here are the 12 rooms youll probably never see otherwise, featuring Misty Copeland, Toscaninis head, wigs, harps and a snow yak.

Have a great week.

_____

Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help.

Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing, weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Evening Briefing, weeknights at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Want to look back? Heres Fridays Evening Briefing.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

Original post:
Republicans, Mika Brzezinski, Trump: Your Weekend Briefing - New York Times

Senate Republicans better get ready for some fireworks. Their July 4 recess is going to be a hot one.

Earlier this week, with Republican ranks deeply fractured, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced he was postponing a critical, make-or-break procedural vote on a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act, until after a weeklong holiday break.

The not-entirely-unsurprising announcement is a virtual guarantee that GOP senators will be deluged by lobbyists and constituents on both sides of the issue at a time most of them would rather be marching in home state parades or crashing barbecues.

The Kentucky Republican needed 50 votes to approve a measure allowing debate to proceed on the Obamacare replacement bill, which would result in 22 million more Americans losing their insurance over the next decade, even as it drove up out-of-pocket expenses.

The analysis by the independent Congressional Budget Office also concluded that the GOP bill would reduce federal spending by $321 billion during the same time period.

But in a perfect storm of awful, McConnell couldnt muster the support. As was the case in the House, conservatives complained that the bill didnt go far enough.

For example, they demanded that states be allowed to waive the existing laws prohibition against insurance companies charging sick people higher prices for coverage, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, GOP senators from states that embraced the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare worried about the bills impact on home state beneficiaries of the that expansion.

One of the exceptions in that case was U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who spent the weekend trying to minimize the impact of the Medicaid rollback in the Senate Republican bill.

The CBO analysis knocked the legs out from under that argument on Monday.

McConnells action was also an embarrassing setback for the Trump White House, which, while it may be basking in special election victories, is still zero-for-life in serious legislative accomplishments.

So, youd expect that, faced with the seeming collapse of his domestic agenda, President Donald Trump would be appealing for comity and cooperation from his fractious party.

Nope.

Trump has spent most of his time on Twitter flipping out on CNN after three staffers resigned, and the network retracted, a story about a Trump fund-raisers alleged Russia connection.

So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC?, Trump harrumphed. What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!

The delay, of course, cuts both ways.

On the one hand, it gives McConnell time to sway skeptics to his side.

On the other, the longer this vote gets delayed, the more likely it is that other Republicans will find a reason to peel off and join Team No.

But, as The Washington Posts Aaron Blake points out, the House got to yes back in May by wooing more conservatives to its cause. And there, they control 55.4 percent of the chamber.

Republicans in the Senate, conversely, control a little bit more than 52 percent. And divisions are such that moving the bill either way is going to be very difficult.

Get ready for the fireworks.

Award-winning political journalist, Micek is the opinion editor and political columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@pennlive.com.

The rest is here:
It should be an interesting July 4 for Republicans - Times-Enterprise

When lawmakers return to Washington after the Independence Day recess, they are scheduled to be in session for just three weeks before a five-week recess for the month of August. After the August break, the House is scheduled to be in session just three weeks before a series of legislative deadlines hits onSept. 30.

With so little accomplished in the first seven months of the year, many have called for Republican leadership to cancel August recess. The calls may seem like little more than political stunts, but they have a very practical purpose: to buy lawmakers more time to accomplish some conservative goals.

Traditionally, August recess serves as a time for lawmakers to return to their districts to campaign or host town halls or assist with constituent services. This year, however, members have so few accomplishments and such a long to-do list, that returning to their districts may be fruitless from a political stand point. Perhaps it would serve them better to stay in Washington and work on the important legislative projects on the docket.

For years, they have been hoping to enact conservative spending riders to move some of their agenda. Either way, the spending measure is likely to take up quite a few weeks of floor time.

Also, by late September, Congress must act on the debt ceiling. Again, Republicans have been hoping to use this opportunity to enact more of their agenda, specifically fiscal restraints that would put the federal government on a more sustainable spending path. Democrats are unlikely to yield any ground on this front, especially if a debt-ceiling vehicle is being negotiated at the last minute.

Congress will also need to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration and the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Once again, Republicans are hoping to enact conservative reforms on both of these bills, but wont have the ability to process sweeping overhauls if they wait until the last minute.

Spending, the debt ceiling, and those important expiring authorizations are already a big enough agenda to eat up the remaining scheduled work weeks. But Republicans have a much bigger agenda than just dealing with the strictly must pass legislation. Indeed, Republicans have more than a wish list, they have a series of direct promises to keep.

To start, Republicans must repeal ObamaCare. Then they need to enact tax reform that lowers rates for families and businesses and broadens the tax base. From there, they have promised to secure the border, rebuild the military, enact regulatory reform and much more.

Canceling August recess is certainly not an ideal solution. However, the time crunch lawmakers face is one of their own making. In order to get serious about their agenda, and avoid the pitfalls of 11th hour negotiating, Republicans must seriously consider cancelling the five-week break they have scheduled for themselves.

Thomas Binion is the director of Congressional and Executive Branch Relations atThe Heritage Foundation.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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If Congress can't pass a budget, Republicans should cancel August recess - The Hill (blog)

Churches should have the right to endorse political candidates and still keep their tax-free status, say House Republicans targeting a law that prohibits such politicking from the pulpit.

Republicans repeatedly have failed to scrap the law preventing churches and other nonprofits from backing candidates, so now they are trying to starve it.

With little fanfare, a House Appropriations subcommittee added a provision that would deny money to the IRS to enforce the 63-year-old law to a bill to fund the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.

The subcommittee passed the bill this week.

Republicans say the law is enforced unevenly, leaving religious leaders uncertain about what they are allowed to say and do.

I believe that churches have a right of free speech and an opportunity to talk about positions and issues that are relevant to their faith, said Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio.

Democrats say the measure comes too close to mixing church and state.

They say religious leaders already have First Amendment rights, just like anyone else. But if they want to get political, they dont have a constitutional right not to pay taxes.

Some also worry that the measure could upend the system of campaign financing by allowing churches to use their tax-free status to funnel money to political candidates.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., recalled a speech that former President John F. Kennedy gave to religious leaders when he was running for president.

He said the pope wouldnt tell him what to do, and the people in that audience shouldnt be telling people on Sunday morning who to vote for, Neal said. I dont think churches should be endorsing.

Many nonprofit groups want to avoid politics. In April, 4,500 nonprofit groups signed onto a letter to congressional leaders asking them to preserve the law.

The law prohibits tax-exempt charitable organizations such as churches from participating directly or indirectly in any political campaign to support or oppose a candidate. If the IRS determines that a group has violated the law, it can revoke its tax-exempt status.

The law doesnt stop religious groups from weighing in on public policy or organizing in ways that may benefit one side in a campaign.

The bill specifically forbids the IRS from spending money to enforce the law against a church, or a convention or association of churches, unless the IRS commissioner signs off on it and notifies Congress.

The bill doesnt mention other types of non-profit groups, or even synagogues or mosques, said Nick Little of the Center for Inquiry, which promotes secularism.

All they care about is the Christian groups, and in particular, it will end up as the extreme religious right Christian groups, Little said. If this goes through, this would add just another way in which unregulated dark money could be used.

Religious leaders have been weighing in on political issues for generations, whether its the debate over abortion or advocating for the poor. But periodically, the IRS has stepped in when religious leaders explicitly endorse or oppose candidates.

The law is called the Johnson Amendment after former President Lyndon Johnson, who introduced it in 1954 when he was a Democratic senator from Texas. Johnson was upset because a few nonprofit groups attacked him as a communist in a Senate campaign.

The law was signed by a Republican president Dwight Eisenhower but Republicans have been attacking it in recent years.

House Republicans have pledged to repeal the law as part of a tax overhaul. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May discouraging the IRS from enforcing the law.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, says the law has been enforced unevenly.

Some churches, including my own, have been very concerned about appearing political in any way shape or form, Tiberi said. Churches I went to that were primarily in Democrat areas, that I would go to because I had a Democrat district, the local candidates on the Sunday mornings before the election would be introduced, would speak from the pulpit about the campaign and why the congregation should vote for them.

The full Appropriations Committee will consider the measure after the July 4 congressional recess.

See the rest here:
House Republicans want churches to be able to endorse political candidates - Wisconsin Gazette

Did a 2010 law violate Latino students constitutional rights?

Edwin RiosJul. 2, 2017 6:00 AM

Protesters rally in support of Tuscon Unified School District in 2011 after Arizona state superintendent announces Mexican-American Studies program violates state law.Ross D. Franklin/AP

Seven years ago, Arizona Republicans passed a measure, HB 2281, that sought to limit ethnic studies programs in public schools.

Specifically, the bill set out to bancourses that promote the overthrow of the United States government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals. Only one program in one school district qualified to be shut down: the Mexican American studies program in the Tucson Unified School District.

Since then, parents and students from the district have protested HB 2281. This week,attorneys on behalf of Tucson students argued in federal district court that the state violatedLatino students constitutional rightsand that the law should be tossed out.

When did the Tucson program start?

The Mexican American studiesprogramfirst started in 1998, partlyin response to a long-standing desegregationorderagainst Tucsons school district in which black and Latino parents claimed that the districts make-up promoted intentional segregation and unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of race or national origin.

Tucsons program aimed to offer a curriculum through the lens of the Mexican American experience, driven by works of Mexican American authors and other writers of color, as a way to narrow the academic gaps between Latino students and their peers.

Curtis Acosta, a former teacher at Tucson High Magnet School and one of the programs founders,testifiedearlier this week the program was meant to build confidence in students who didnt engage in a traditional curriculum.

Ethnic studies courses, which first arose at universities during the civil rights movement, have been expanding into high schools in recent years. In California, for instance, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last year that called for the development of a model curriculum for ethnic studies in high schools throughout the state.

How did the Tucson program fare?

Over the next 13 years, the program expanded, enrolling about 1,300 students in courses in elementary, middle, and high schools at its height in 2010.A state-commissioned audit in 2011 recommended, among other things, maintaining and expanding the program.And participation in the courses paid off for students: A 2012 study by University of Arizona professor Nolan Cabrera found that students who participated in the programs courses performed better on state tests and graduated at higher rates.

How did it become so controversial?

The crusade against the Mexican American studies program goes back to 2006whenlabor rights activistDolores Huerta gavea speechto students at Tucson High Magnet School. She called on studentsto look at the immigration legislation arising at the time and address why Republicans hate Latinos.

The comment stuck with Thomas Horne, then the superintendent of public instruction for Arizonas Department of Education. When students werent allowed to ask questions at a meeting with Hornes deputy, some raised their fists and turned their backs in protest. In an open letter to Tucson residents following the speech, Horne criticized the Mexican American studies program for teaching students a kind of destructive ethnic chauvinism and blamed teachers for the students actions.

In 2010, the same year Arizona lawmakers passed an infamous anti-immigration law, SB 1070, a Republican-controlled legislature passed HB 2281. That October, a group of teacherssued the state, alleging that the elimination of the program violated their First Amendment rights.

On his last day as state superintendentin January 2011and right before he officiallybecame state attorney generalHorne announced that the Tucson program violated state law and ordered that the district terminate the program or else lose 10 percent of state funding.

John Huppenthal, a state senator who helped pass the law, emerged as Hornes successor. Despite an independent audit in 2011 that found no observable evidence the Mexican American studies program violated Arizona law, Huppenthal rejected the finding. After a second investigation,he statedthe program violated state law and threatened to withhold state funding from Tucsons school district for failing to end the program. In January 2012, in the wake of sanctions, the school board voted to end it and physically confiscated books from schools.

Whats at stake in this case?

The casefocuses on the intent of state officials when they implemented the law.In 2013, District Judge A. Wallace Tashima, who is hearing the case again,upheldmost of the 2010 law, arguing that the students involved failed to show that it waspassed with discriminatory intent.Two years later, a federal appeals court in San Francisco disagreed and ordered the case back to trial, concluding that there was enough evidence to determine otherwise.

In court this week, Huppenthal denied his actions in enacting the law were made with discriminatory intent. I never anticipated that the program would collapse, Huppenthal testified Wednesday. He refusedto apologize forinflammatory remarks he made anonymously on different websites before and during his time as state superintendent: Under different pseudonyms, Huppenthal lambasted the programs teachers, likening them to the Ku Klux Klan and saying the classes use the exact same technique that Hitler used in his rise to power, according to court documents.

At one point during testimony, Huppenthal described the fight over the ethnic studies program as eternal, adding that the battle between collectivism and individualism defines the human race, the Huffington Post reported. The trial will come to an end in mid-July.

Edwin Rios is a reporter at Mother Jones. Reach him at erios@motherjones.com.

Mother Jones is a nonprofit, and stories like this are made possible by readers like you. Donate or subscribe to help fund independent journalism.

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Arizona Republicans Banned Mexican American Studies. The Fight Is Now Back in Court. - Mother Jones