House advances D.C. statehood bill

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Happy Earth Day, TOPLINE readers! As a fellow American, earthling, and someone who enjoys living on this planet, I hope to keep it inhabitable for a long time. Together we have spent more than a year dealing with a pandemic and working to flatten the curve. Meanwhile, there has been another existential threat looming, climate change. For many of us, the climate crisis seems daunting and unsolvable. Similar to COVID-19, partisan divides have been drawn, but right now, we have a chance to change that. The world saw first-hand what it looks like when our leaders put humanity above their partisan politics and work together to find a solution to the pandemic. We saw the expediting of vaccines, and now, more than 80 million Americans are already fully vaccinated, and 213 million have already had their first shot! This is nothing short of extraordinary, and while our leaders are taking a victory lap on the success of being able to remove our world from the clutches of a global pandemic, they
should apply the same spirit of cooperation to solving the climate crisis. While people such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos explore alternate planetary living, currently Earth is the only planet we have. So why not roll up our sleeves and solve another existential threat? Today, in honor of Mother Earth, let's reach out to our leaders and encourage them to continue to work together on solving the climate crisis. —Mary Anna Mancuso, Media Manager, Stand Up Republic

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** This week on the Hill
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The House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill today that would grant statehood to Washington, D.C., via a party-line vote of 216-208. Democrats have framed the issue as an important step for equal representation and voting rights, while Republicans have argued that the bill is potentially unconstitutional and represents a partisan effort to tip the scales in Congress in Democrats' favor. The legislation now faces an uphill fight in the Senate, where it is unclear whether even every Democrat supports it. Stay tuned. —CNN ([link removed])
* — Policing. Police reform legislation that was stalled on Capitol Hill is now closer than ever to consensus, following the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial earlier this week. Negotiations led by Black lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Tim Scott, are narrowing in on a bipartisan compromise for a sweeping overhaul. Rep. Karen Bass, urging passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, said, "This is the human rights issue in the United States of America." —Associated Press ([link removed])
*
* — DOJ confirmation. The Senate voted yesterday to confirm Vanita Gupta as the first woman of color to serve in the No. 3 job at the Justice Department, a role at the forefront of the DOJ's efforts to combat systemic racism in policing. Gupta won confirmation as associate attorney general in a final vote of 51-49, with only one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, voting to confirm. Murkowski said she felt Gupta was personally committed to combating injustice. —Reuters ([link removed])
*
* — Cannabis. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has promised a vote on federal cannabis legalization, underlined his commitment with a public celebration of an unofficial marijuana holiday earlier this week. However, he's having trouble corralling votes in his own caucus, much less among Republicans. Two Democrats, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Jon Tester, went on the record to say they oppose removing federal penalties on marijuana. —Politico ([link removed])

MORE: Bipartisan Senate group seeks immigration deals —Axios ([link removed])


** 'We're not looking for any pro-Trump in the crowd'
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In an early-morning police broadcast on Jan. 6, a U.S. Capitol Police officer directed units to monitor only for anti-Trump agitators, according to the findings of an internal investigation. Rep. Zoe Lofgren described the broadcast, which has not been publicly released, during a House Administration Committee hearing on security failures during the insurrection. In the transmission, the officer said: "Attention all units on the field, we're not looking for any pro-Trump in the crowd. We're only looking for any anti pro-Trump who want to start a fight," according to Lofgren. Thirty-six Capitol officers came under investigation for their actions during the riot. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: Pelosi offers concessions on bipartisan Jan. 6 Capitol attack commission —NBC News ([link removed])


** Solana: Reviving nuclear diplomacy with Iran
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"In international relations, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and illusions are not a useful yardstick. The [Iran nuclear deal] was not intended to be a panacea, but defusing the nuclear proliferation threat is undoubtedly the best route to tackling troublesome Iranian behavior elsewhere in the region." —Javier Solana on ([link removed]) Project Syndicate ([link removed])

Javier Solana, a former secretary-general of NATO, is the president of the EsadeGeo Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution.

MORE: Iran nuclear deal talks advance as U.S. offers sanctions relief —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])


** Salt Lake City adopts ranked-choice voting
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The city council of Salt Lake City, Utah, has decided to move to ranked-choice voting for its next municipal election. SLC is just one of several Utah towns and cities that plan to use the innovative voting format as part of the Utah Alternative Voting Methods Pilot Project. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates from first to last. If no candidate gets more than half of votes, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and their votes go to the voter's second choice. The process repeats until a candidate reaches a majority. The Utah State Legislature enacted the pilot project in 2018. Other municipalities have until May 10 to notify the Utah Office of Elections whether they will participate. —Daily Herald ([link removed])

MORE: More voting curbs advance under the GOP whip in Arizona, Florida, and Ohio —The Fulcrum ([link removed])
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** NYT Ed Board: Putin's national address leaves much unsaid
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"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's address did touch, relatively briefly, on international affairs, but it was largely a familiar plaint about Russia being picked upon 'without any reason,' along with chest-thumping about an 'asymmetric, fast, and tough' response should anybody think to cross a 'red line' against Russia. That flourish raised eyebrows in the West, even though Putin never said where the red line was. But there was no mention of the current situation around Ukraine—nor of Alexei Navalny, the dissident said to be in serious condition in a prison clinic..." — ([link removed]) The New York Times ([link removed])

MORE: Ukraine President Zelensky is ready for war with Russia, vows to 'stand to the last man' —Newsweek ([link removed])


** Global roundup
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Russian security forces arrested more than 1,000 demonstrators yesterday as thousands of Russians in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities rallied in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The protesters are demanding that the hunger-striking Kremlin critic be released and allowed to receive independent medical care. The marches were timed to coincide with President Vladimir Putin's annual address to the nation. —CNN ([link removed])
* — Armenia. More than a century after the Ottoman Empire's killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian civilians, President Biden is expected to officially declare that the atrocities were an act of genocide. The announcement would signal that the American commitment to human rights outweighs the risk of further fraying the tenuous U.S. alliance with Turkey, the modern successor of the Ottoman Empire. —The New York Times ([link removed])
*
* — Brazil. Brazil's defense minister, Walter Braga Netto, defended the country's democratic system this week amid growing concerns over President Jair Bolsonaro's politicization of the military and fears that the armed forces may be forced to pick sides in the event of a contested election result next year. Netto said the armed forces were committed to upholding the constitution and "prepared and ready to serve national interests." —WTVB ([link removed])
*
* — Chad. Rebels in Chad have threatened to depose the son of President Idriss Deby Itno, who was slain on the battlefield earlier this week. Mahamat Deby Itno was named interim leader following his father's death after three decades in power. The rebel forces are said to be heading to the capital city of N'Djamena, raising the specter of a potentially violent power struggle. —Yahoo! News ([link removed])

MORE: Countries from around the world are chipping in to help find Indonesia's missing naval submarine —Insider ([link removed])


** Mancuso: Tackle climate change with the same gusto as the pandemic
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"Similarly to what we experience with COVID-19, climate change threatens the lives of every single person on earth. Just like early delays in mask mandates and shutdowns led to greater deaths, with each passing year that we don't act on climate change, our planet gets warmer. In fact, since 1998, the earth is heating up twice as fast as scientists originally thought. The last time the Earth experienced cooler than average temperatures was in February 1985." —Mary Anna Mancuso in RealClearEnergy ([link removed])

Mary Anna Mancuso is a political strategist and a spokesperson for RepublicEn.org.

MORE: At Earth Day climate summit, Biden pushes for sharp cut to greenhouse-gas emissions —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])

By finding Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts, the jury got it right. Thank you to the bystanders who testified and everyone who recorded the tragedy, as devastating as it is to watch, which showed without a shadow of a doubt what really happened. Thank you also to the law enforcement officers who testified to the truth. Hopefully this verdict will bring George Floyd's family and friends some measure of peace. —Carol M., Pennsylvania

First, thanks for publishing my comment about Trump pardoning Chauvin in yesterday's issue. Somehow, my New York state was printed as "Utah." Great state, just not mine. And thanks for all of the hard work it takes to put these issues out there. —Susan K., New York (Our apologies, Susan!)
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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