Month: June 2021

Categories
Health

Medicaid Enrollment Surpassed 80 Million, a Document, Throughout the Pandemic

Medicaid Enrollment Surpassed 80 Million, a Record, During the Pandemic

Medicaid’s enrollment soared during the pandemic, with nearly 10 million Americans joining the public health program for the poor, a government report released Monday showed.

Eighty million people were insured with Medicaid, a record. This reflected an increase of nearly 14 percent over the twelve month period ended January 31. The number also includes participation in the children’s health insurance program, which covers children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid but too little to be able to afford any other coverage.

The increase in enrollments shows the increasingly important role of Medicaid not only as a safety net, but also as a pillar of the American health system that protects a quarter of the population.

“This tells us that Medicaid is an important program for American families,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Biden government official who oversees Medicaid. “What we have seen during this pandemic is people want access to affordable health insurance and how important it is during a public health crisis.”

The Affordable Care Act transformed Medicaid from a targeted health service designed to help specific groups – such as expectant mothers and people with disabilities – to a much broader program that provides largely free insurance to most people below a certain income threshold. A notable exception are the 12 states – mostly in the south – that have declined to expand Medicaid under the ACA

Medicaid, where the state and federal government share the cost, covers all adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line, which would be about $ 17,420 this year for a person who would qualify.

The expansion of Medicaid in most states since most of the ACA came into effect in 2014 has provided a source of public protection for the new unemployed that did not exist a decade ago. Adult enrollment in Medicaid grew twice as fast as child enrollment, suggesting that the widespread job loss associated with the pandemic has created a large group of newly eligible adults.

“There has been significant growth in Medicaid enrollments in recent economic downturns, but their focus has been on children,” said Rachel Garfield, co-director of the Medicaid and Uninsured Program for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “This time around, it’s interesting that a lot of the enrollment is among adults.”

She also noted that Medicaid enrollment increased much faster during the economic contraction of the pandemic than in previous downturns. In 2009, at the start of the Great Recession, fewer than four million Americans took part in the program.

There may also be increased interest among uninsured Americans who were already eligible for Medicaid but only chose to enroll because of heightened health concerns during the pandemic.

“So often when we look at who’s not insured, it’s people who are eligible but not enrolled,” said Ms. Brooks-LaSure, the Medicaid officer. “Right now we see that if we make it easy for people to sign up, they will.”

In the years before the pandemic, the number of Medicaid enrollments had decreased. More than a million children lost insurance coverage between December 2017 and June 2019, a trend that rocked health care advocates. Many attributed the changes to new rules during the Trump administration that made it more difficult to log in and stay logged in.

That changed last spring when the pandemic hit and Congress gave states additional money to fund their Medicaid programs. Congress announced a 6.2 percent increase in spending on the condition that states do not de-register patients or tighten eligibility requirements.

For example, a woman who gave birth would normally have lost coverage 60 days after giving birth, but due to legislation, she could stay on Medicaid for the duration of the pandemic. These rules will remain in effect until the federal government declares the public health emergency over.

Three states – Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska – expanded Medicaid last year after voters approved voting initiatives; these countries recorded particularly large swings in school enrollment. A fourth, Oklahoma, will expand Medicaid to most low-income adults starting next month.

Even after growing under the Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid program has loopholes that are difficult to fix. The 2012 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law’s individual insurance mandate also made the expansion of Medicaid optional for the states.

As a result, millions of low-income adults in the 12 holdout states that include Florida and Texas are still without insurance. A recent study at JAMA found that Medicaid enrollment grew faster during the pandemic in states participating in the expansion, most likely because many more people were eligible for coverage.

Generous financial incentives offered by the recent stimulus package weren’t enough to convince any of the 12 states to expand Medicaid, but senior Biden government officials say they continue to hope some get on board.

“We hope we can encourage them,” said Xavier Becerra, the secretary for health and human services, in a call to reporters last week. “We want to make sure that they expand the supply and that it is affordable.”

Categories
Politics

Medicaid Enrollment Jumped Throughout the Pandemic, New Report Says

Medicaid Enrollment Jumped During the Pandemic, New Report Says

Medicaid enrollment soared during the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 10 million Americans joining the public health program for the poor by January, a government report released Monday shows.

80 million people – more than ever in the history of the program – are now on Medicaid insurance, which is shared by the state and the federal government. The new figures show the increasingly important role of the program not only as a safety net, but also as a pillar of American health insurance, which covers a quarter of the population.

“The purpose of Medicaid during times like these is when there is an economic downturn,” said Peggah Khorrami, a researcher at Harvard Chan TH School of Public Health who has studied the program’s surge in enrollments during the pandemic. “As people lose their jobs, Medicaid comes in and we insure people that way.”

The Affordable Care Act transformed Medicaid from a targeted health service aimed at helping specific groups of people – such as expectant mothers and people with disabilities – to a much broader program that provides largely free insurance to most people below a certain income threshold. The exception is in 12 states, mostly in the South, that have resisted expanding Medicaid under the Health Act to cover all adults on incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line, which would be $ 17,774 for one person this year .

However, the expansion of Medicaid in most states since most of the ACA came into effect in 2014 has proven important during the pandemic, creating a public source of protection for the newly unemployed that did not exist a decade ago. Adult enrollment at Medicaid grew twice as fast as child enrollment in the past year, suggesting that widespread job loss related to the pandemic has created a large group of newly eligible adults.

“There has been significant growth in Medicaid enrollments over the past economic downturn, but their focus has been on children,” said Rachel Garfield, co-director of the Medicaid and Uninsured Program for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “This time around, it’s interesting that a lot of the enrollment is among adults.”

Ms. Garfield also noted that Medicaid coverage rose much faster during this recession than in previous downturns. At the start of the Great Recession in 2009, fewer than 4 million Americans joined the program.

There may also be increased interest among uninsured Americans who were previously eligible for Medicaid but only chose to enroll because of heightened health concerns during the pandemic.

“The surge we are seeing is exactly how Medicaid works: the program steps in to support people and their families during difficult times,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who oversaw the Medicaid program, in a Biden administration Explanation.

In the years before the pandemic, the number of Medicaid enrollments had decreased. More than a million children lost insurance coverage between December 2017 and June 2019, a trend that rocked health care proponents. Many attributed the changes to new rules during the Trump administration that made it more difficult to sign up for the benefits.

Categories
Entertainment

Foo Fighters Convey Rock Again to Madison Sq. Backyard

Foo Fighters Bring Rock Back to Madison Square Garden

The house lights inside Madison Square Garden went down Sunday night, and the thousands of fans, packed like sardines in their seats, stood as if on cue. As they roared their approval, bouncing in place on the balls of their feet, the ground began to tremble. Cellphone flash lights illuminated the darkness.

The sound of a keyboard echoed through the rafters. Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters’ frontman, appeared on the stage.

“It’s times like these, you learn to live again,” Grohl sang.

The lyrics had seldom felt so on point.

After many difficult months of illness, death, hardship and pain, and shifting limits on how many people could gather, especially indoors, arena rock returned to New York City just over a year after the city was the center of the outbreak. It was the Garden’s first concert in more than 460 days, and it drew a full-capacity crowd that was asked to show proof of vaccination to enter. Inside, people grooved, tightly packed, with few masks visible.

On Sunday, a concert attendee would have had to squint to see signs of the pandemic persisting. In many ways, the evening felt like prepandemic times.

In a sea of thousands, only a few patrons here or there wore face coverings. Thousands of vaccinated people, their faces bare, belted out the lyrics to well-known songs, sending aerosols flying through the air. No one seemed concerned.

Fans were packed together. A sudden arm gesture could send a beer flying. Strangers hugged and high-fived. They bumped into each other in the busy concourse. They punched the air, swung their hair and danced, twisting and swaying at their seats in a state of high-decibel music-induced bliss.

It was “just epic,” said Rachael Cain, 51, who was among the first people to arrive at the Garden on Sunday afternoon.

But there were subtle reminders of the pandemic everywhere. Hand sanitizer pumps were clamped to the walls, and wipes could be found near any napkin dispenser. Ticketing was digital and concession buying appeared mostly cashless.

At the entrances, staff members checked people’s vaccine cards with varying levels of scrutiny. Some asked for identification to match with proof of inoculation, in a slow-moving process. Other checkers simply waved people through as they flashed their passes while walking by. A small anti-vaccine protest on the sidewalk outside drew little attention.

Several patrons said that the vaccine requirement helped them feel safe about returning to such a big indoor gathering.

“I was expecting it to be a little longer before I came to a concert again,” said Nick Snow, 29, who was among the few fans who wore a mask while inside the arena. “The precautions with the vaccinated only, they help.”

Grohl himself took care to acknowledge from the stage the unique milestone he and his band were participating in. At various points during the roughly three-hour show, he asked the crowd rhetorically if they had missed music, and mused about how good it felt to be around thousands of people while playing rock songs. The band sang “My Hero” as a tribute to those who had made the concert possible. And in a surprise cameo to celebrate the occasion, the band brought out the comedian Dave Chappelle to sing a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.”

“Welcome back, New York City!” Chappelle yelled as he exited the stage.

The show represented the return of some old, familiar comforts that music lovers may not soon take for granted again. There was call and response; people gesturing wildly to no one in particular; fans screaming the lyrics to songs only to realize their voices were drowned out by the music; and an entire floor section jumping up and down as one wave.

“I would get vaccinated 10 times over just to see a live show like this with people,” said Rich Casey, 53, of Massachusetts.

Having reached the ground floor of the venue and the echoey plaza that leads to the street, Foo Fighters fans seeking one last communal experience for the night sent up a chant, reveling again in one of the band’s most well-known songs, “Best of You.”

Ohhhhhh
Ohhhhhh.
Ohhhhhh.
Ohhhhhh.

Then they erupted in one final cheer and walked out into the New York night.

Categories
Health

WHO says variant is the quickest and fittest and can ‘choose off’ most weak

WHO says variant is the fastest and fittest and will 'pick off' most vulnerable

Coronavirus security posters will be displayed in the window of the Sondheim Theater on June 14, 2021 in London, England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed a four-week delay in the final relaxation of coronavirus restrictions amid concerns over the Delta variant of the virus and rising infection rates.

Rob Pinney | Getty Images

The highly contagious Delta variant is the fastest and strongest coronavirus strain to date and will “pick up” the most vulnerable people, especially in places with low Covid-19 vaccination rates, World Health Organization officials warned on Monday.

Delta, first identified in India, has the potential to be “more deadly because it is more efficient at transmitting between people and will eventually find those at risk who will become critically ill, hospitalized and potentially die”, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO emergency program, said at a press conference.

Ryan said world leaders and public health officials can help defend the most vulnerable by donating and distributing Covid vaccines.

“We can protect these vulnerable people, these frontline workers,” said Ryan, “and the fact that we didn’t, as General Manager (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) said time and again, is a catastrophic moral failure at a global level . “

The WHO said on Friday that Delta is becoming the predominant variant of the disease worldwide.

The agency declared Delta a “questionable variant” last month. A variant can be described as “worrying” if, according to the health organization, it has been shown to be more contagious, fatal, or more resistant to current vaccines and treatments.

Delta is now replacing Alpha, the highly contagious variant that swept Europe and later the United States earlier this year, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a recent interview.

Studies suggest it is about 60% more transmissible than alpha, which was more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

Delta has now spread to 92 countries, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for Covid, on Monday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it now accounts for at least 10% of all new cases in the United States and is on its way to becoming the dominant variant in the nation.

In the United Kingdom, Delta recently became the predominant variant, surpassing its native alpha variant, which was first discovered in the country last fall. The Delta variant now accounts for more than 60% of new cases in the UK

WHO officials said there are reports that the Delta variant also causes more severe symptoms, but that more research is needed to confirm these conclusions. However, there is evidence that the Delta strain may cause different symptoms than other variants.

“This special Delta variant is faster, it is fitter, it will intercept the more susceptible ones more efficiently than previous variants. So if people are left without a vaccination, they are even at another risk, ”Ryan said on Monday.

Categories
World News

Iran’s Incoming President Vows Powerful Line on Missiles and Militias

Iran’s Incoming President Vows Tough Line on Missiles and Militias

Iran will not negotiate with the United States over its ballistic missile or regional militia programs, its Conservative-elect Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday.

In his first press conference as President-elect, Raisi said he would not meet with President Biden and urged the United States to uphold a 2015 agreement that restricted Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions.

“My serious recommendation to the US government is to immediately return to its obligations to lift all sanctions and show their goodwill,” he said in a briefing with national and international reporters in Tehran on Monday.

“Regional issues and missiles are non-negotiable,” he said, adding that the United States had failed to enforce the issues it “negotiated, agreed and committed to”.

The comments come as the US and Iran negotiate through mediators in Vienna to revive the 2015 agreement. Mr Biden has pledged to seek a return to the deal, which would lift around 1,600 sanctions against Iran after the Trump administration stepped out of the deal in 2018, calling it too weak.

Mr Raisi’s promise to refuse to negotiate missile and militia issues falling outside of the 2015 nuclear deal came as no surprise, analysts said, reiterating the positions he had taken as a candidate as well as those of the current administration.

“It was to be expected – he knows more about what he will not do than about concrete foreign policy plans,” says Hamidreza Azizi, visiting scholar at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. “He just repeated the general positions of the Islamic Republic.”

When meeting with Mr Biden, the elected Iranian President had only one word answer: “No”.

What is striking is the determination with which Raisi declined the possibility of a meeting with the US president, said Azizi, attributing this to his lack of diplomatic background.

“The tone was not diplomatic and we will see that again during his presidency as he has no diplomatic experience,” he said.

Talal Atrissi, a sociologist at the Lebanese University in Beirut who studies Iran and its regional allies, said Raisi’s victory was a blow to reformists and would undermine Iran’s relations with its regional militias known as the “Axis of Resistance” , strengthen. These include Hezbollah in Lebanon, various militias in Syria and Iraq, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are supported by Iran and who share their anti-Israel and anti-American stance.

“Raisi will remain committed to the Axis of Resistance,” said Atrissi, adding that Iran’s regional activities were never directed by the President, but by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“This relationship is not going to change at all,” he said. “On the contrary, there will be more cooperation.”

Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran had failed, Raisi said on Monday, according to the Iranian state-controlled broadcaster Press TV.

A negotiating team involved in the indirect talks in Vienna will continue those talks until his government takes its place, he said. He added that he supported discussions that safeguard Iran’s national interests, but “we will not allow talks for talks’ sake”.

This appeal also extended to European nations, said Raisi, “who must not allow themselves to be influenced by US pressure and must meet their obligations.”

Raisi, an ultra-conservative chief justice believed to be the potential successor to the country’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been charged with human rights abuses, including participating in a mass execution of opponents of the government in 1988. That record has earned him sanctions from the United States .

However, on Monday he called himself a “defender of human rights and the safety and comfort of the people,” adding that he would continue this role as president.

He also voiced a new idea: Iran is ready to reestablish diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, which collapsed in 2016 after Iranians protested the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric that stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

That proposal, Azizi said, appeared to be part of Iran’s efforts to develop bilateral ties with other countries in the region independently of the United States, including American allies like Saudi Arabia.

Also over the weekend, the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr was temporarily shut down, with officials calling it a “technical fault” and telling Iranians that the shutdown, which began on Saturday, would take a few days, according to the media.

Farnaz Fassihi contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Health

Covid Lab-Leak Idea Renews ‘Achieve-of-Perform’ Analysis Debate

Covid Lab-Leak Theory Renews "Gain-of-Function" Research Debate

In the United States, “there are no biosafety rules or regulations that have the force of law,” he said. “And this is in contrast to every other aspect of biomedical research.” There are enforceable rules, for example, for experiments with human subjects, vertebrate animals, radioactive materials and lasers, but none for research with disease-causing organisms.

Dr. Relman, who also supports the need for independent regulation, cautioned that legal restrictions, as opposed to guidelines or more flexible regulations, could also pose problems. “The law is cumbersome and slow,” he said. At one point in the evolution of laws relating to biological warfare, for example, Congress prohibited the possession of smallpox. But the rule’s language, Dr. Relman said, also seemed to ban possession of the vaccine because of its genetic similarity to the virus itself. “To try to fix it took forever,” he said.

The current H.H.S. policy also doesn’t offer much guidance about working with scientists in other countries. Some have different policies about gain-of-function research, while others have none at all.

Dr. Gronvall of Johns Hopkins argued that the U.S. government cannot dictate what scientists do in other parts of the world. “You have to embrace self-governance,” she said. “You’re not able to sit on everyone’s shoulder.”

Even if other countries fall short on gain-of-function research policies, Dr. Lipsitch said that shouldn’t stop the United States from developing better ones. As the world’s leader in biomedical research, the country could set an example. “The United States is sufficiently central,” Dr. Lipsitch said. “What we do really does matter.”

Ironically, the pandemic put deliberations over such issues on hold. But there’s no question the coronavirus will influence the shape of the debate. Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said that before the pandemic, the idea of a new virus sweeping the world and causing millions of deaths felt hypothetically plausible. Now he has seen what such a virus can do.

“You have to think really carefully about any kind of research that could lead to that sort of mishap in the future,” Dr. Bloom said.

Categories
Politics

What to learn about Tuesday’s election

What to know about Tuesday's election

A polling station is believed to have started in the New York City mayor primaries on Saturday, where voters can vote for up to five candidates on June 13, 2021 in New York City, United States.

Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The seemingly endless race to replace New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will cross an important threshold on Tuesday as Democrats and Republicans hold their primaries.

Given the Democrats’ dominance in urban politics, that party’s primary code will be watched closely as it will likely determine who will lead the country’s largest city from more than a year of pandemic closings and economic devastation.

While the race initially focused on Andrew Yang, the nationally recognized former presidential candidate, recent polls have shown the competition is wide open. Eric Adams, President of Brooklyn District and a retired police officer, has led the most recent polls.

Mayoral candidates Eric Adams (L) and Andrew Yang

Getty Images

A total of eight major Democratic candidates and two Republicans are vying to succeed de Blasio, a progressive Democrat who, after eight years in office, is not allowed to run for a third term.

While the primary day is Tuesday June 22nd, the early voting is already in progress. The early voting opened on June 12 and ended on Sunday. Initial reports indicated that voter turnout before day one was more sluggish than expected.

Primaries are hard to predict at the best of times, but this race will likely still be in the air thanks to a change in voting rules.

For the first time this year, a ranking vote will take place during the election, in which voters can name their five preferred candidates in turn.

A polling station is believed to have started in the New York City mayor primaries on Saturday, where voters can vote for up to five candidates on June 13, 2021 in New York City, United States.

Tayfun Coskiun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

In ranking systems, the voting slips are counted in rounds. If no single candidate is the first choice of 50% of the voters in the first ballot, the last-placed candidate is eliminated. In the next round, voters who chose the eliminated candidate as their first choice are counted as their second choice. This process is repeated until a candidate reaches the 50% mark.

A poll conducted earlier this month, which took into account the ranking poll, found that Adams would win in the 12th round. The poll, sponsored by WNBC, Telemundo 47, and Politico, found that Kathryn Garcia, a former New York sanitary officer, came in second, civil rights attorney Maya Wiley in third, and Yang in fourth.

City auditor and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer made a proposal to install portable public toilets in all parks and playgrounds in Bellevue South Park.

Lev Radin | LightRakete | Getty Images

The other key candidates on the ballot are City Comptroller Scott Stringer, nonprofit executive Dianne Morales, former Citigroup Vice Chairman Ray McGuire, and Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Barack Obama.

The Republican candidates are Fernando Mateo, a businessman and activist, and Curtis Sliwa, a talk show host and founder of the controversial crime prevention group Guardian Angels.

When it comes to fundraising, Yang tops the field with the most individual donors according to a list of campaign funding data maintained by Politico. McGuire, the favorite candidate for many on Wall Street, raised the most money.

Over the weekend, Yang and Garcia fought together against Adams in an unusual demonstration of unity to improve their odds on the ranking system. Adams accused the duo of teaming up to block a black candidate. The Yang campaign later called Adam’s racism allegation “crazy”.

The Democratic race largely focused on the candidates’ competing plans for the New York economy, as well as what they would do to curb the increasing gun violence and other crimes. Polls have shown that, with the exception of Covid-19, crime is high on voters’ lists, followed by affordable housing and racial injustice.

The latest New York Police Department data for May showed a 46.7% increase in robberies, assaults by 20.5% and shootings by 73% year over year. The murder rate over the same period was flat.

During the final debate between the candidates on Wednesday, the moderate candidate Adams clashed with the progressive Wiley over the former’s proposal to bring back the controversial stop-and-frisk police tactic.

Wiley said Stop and Frisk was racist, unconstitutional and ineffective. Adams acknowledged the practice has been overused in the past, but said that it can be effective when done correctly.

People protest on the street in front of a protest against the police at a place they call the City Hall Autonomous Zone in support of Black Lives Matter in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, USA. 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

At another point in the debate on Wednesday, Yang challenged Adams about his record in policing. When asked how he would deal with crime in the city, Yang said he had the support of the Captains Endowment Association, a union of which Adams was once a member.

“The people you should ask about are Eric’s former colleagues in the Police Chiefs Union, people who worked with him for years, people who know him best,” Yang said. “You just recommended me as the next New York City Mayor. They think I am a better choice than Eric to protect us and our families. “

Candidates argued over whether cutting funding for the police was a good idea. Some progressives across the country, including influential MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., pushed for the end of police funding last year after the video of George Floyd’s murder by police in Minneapolis became widespread.

A participant holds a Defund The Police sign at the protest. Thousands of protesters filled the streets of Brooklyn in a massive march demanding justice for George Floyd, who was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin, and loudly calling for the police to defuse.

Erik McGregor | LightRakete | Getty Images

Morales, Wiley, Stringer and Donovan support cuts to the NYPD budget while Adams, Garcia and Yang do not, according to local Gothamist news agency. McGuire said Wednesday that he believed defusing the police as the worst idea of ​​any of his rivals.

The discussion about defusing the police sparked one of the most heated exchanges in the debate on Wednesday. McGuire, who is black, said “black and brown” communities did not support defusing the police.

Ray McGuire, a candidate for mayoral of NYC, speaks during a press conference on Asian American leaders and candidates for Mayor of New York City on March 18, 2021 on the National Action Network in New York City the increase in attacks on Asian Americans denounce.

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

In response, Morales, who is Afro-Latina, said, “How dare you speak as a monolith for black and brown communities?”

“You know what, I just did it,” McGuire replied.

The candidates have also taken different positions in order to free the city from the malaise caused by Covid and the measures that have been taken to stop its spread. Some of the most vivid proposals include the various ways that candidates have suggested to bring direct relief to New Yorkers.

Yang, who campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidacy based on his proposal for a universal basic income of $ 1,000 a month for every American, presented a similar plan for New York. Yang has proposed about $ 2,000 a year for about 500,000 low-income city dwellers.

Adams and others in the race have attacked Yang for his sparse details, particularly with regards to funding his plan. Adams has proposed his own $ 1 billion plan to provide up to $ 4,000 a year in tax credit to low-income residents.

Maya Wiley, a Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, speaks during a press conference with Andrew Yang, who is also running for office, while they campaign in Brooklyn, New York on March 11, 2021.

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

Another big business proposal comes from Wiley, whose platform calls for a “Works Progress Administration-style infrastructure, stimulus and employment program” that would include a $ 10 billion investment program.

To date, de Blasio has not given any confirmation in the race for his successor. However, the New York Times reported that the Mayor preferred Adams. The newspaper’s own support went to Garcia, whom the editorial staff described as “most qualified”.

Some personal scandals also rocked the race.

In April, Gothamist reported that a former Stringer intern, Jean Kim, alleged that Stringer repeatedly sexually abused her two decades ago. Stringer denied the allegations and coverage from investigative news agency The Intercept has cast doubts as to the veracity of Kim’s allegations, but the allegation nonetheless turned out to be detrimental to Stringer’s campaign. In June, a second woman charged Stringer with sexual harassment and unwanted advances. Stringer said he had no recollection of the alleged behavior.

For his part, Adams was checked to see if he even lived in New York City. While Adams says he lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, he and his partner also own a cooperative in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Earlier this month, Politico published an investigation raising questions about Adams’ whereabouts and found that he spent nights campaigning in a government building in Brooklyn.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio waves as he delivers the State of the City speech at La Guardia Community College on February 10, 2014 in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York.

John Moore | Getty Images

Categories
Health

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Monday, June 21

5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday, June 21

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to start their trading day:

1. The Dow is set to rise again after its worst weekly loss since October

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Source: NYSE

Dow futures rebounded about 200 points on Monday after the 30-stock average posted its worst weekly drop since October as investors and traders sold on concerns the Federal Reserve might start rate hike earlier than expected. The Dow lost 533 points, or nearly 1.6%, on Friday, ending a five-session losing streak of nearly 3.5%. The S&P 500, which was down 1.3% on Friday, declined for four consecutive days, down 1.9% weekly. The Nasdaq was down less than 1% on Friday but only lost about 0.3% for the week.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington on December 2, 2020.

Swimming pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Fed raised its inflation forecast last Wednesday and announced two rate hikes for 2023. Fed chairman Jerome Powell said central bankers are considering scaling back their massive Covid-era bond purchases. Fed spokesmen will get a lot of attention this week, including Powell’s congressional statement on Tuesday. The US 10-year Treasury yield continued to decline from last week’s Fed-driven surge, trading just above 1.4% early Monday. It fell briefly to 1.354%, the lowest level since the end of February.

2. Bitcoin drops as China expands crackdown on crypto mining

A bitcoin mine near Kongyuxiang, Sichuan, China on August 12, 2016.

Paul Ratje | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Bitcoin fell 7% on Monday, trading below $ 33,000 for the first time in nearly two weeks after reports that China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining extended to southwestern Sichuan province. This follows similar developments in China’s Inner Mongolia and Yunnan regions, as well as calls from Beijing to end crypto mining amid concerns about massive energy consumption. The Communist Party-backed Global Times estimates that more than 90% of China’s bitcoin mining capacity has been shut down.

3. Prime Day begins as retailers face supply chain disruptions

Amazon’s Prime Day started on Monday. Prime Day 2020, postponed to October due to the pandemic, pulled in $ 10.4 billion, according to Digital Commerce 360, a 45% increase from the two-day event last year. This year’s Prime Day takes place as retailers grapple with widespread global supply chain disruptions. Several other major retailers – including Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Costco – are holding competing sales events this week.

4. American Airlines will cancel 100 more flights on Monday

American Airlines planes at LaGuardia Airport

Leslie Josephs | CNBC

As travel demand soars to pre-pandemic levels, American Airlines canceled 100 more flights on Monday after hundreds were scrapped over the weekend due to staff shortages, maintenance, and other issues. American said it was cutting its overall plan by about 1% by mid-July to take the pressure off operations. The airline made some of its recent problems due to scheduling complications stemming from the bad weather at its Charlotte and Dallas / Fort Worth hubs in the first half of June. American is also rushing to train any pilots it has put on leave between two state aid packages banning layoffs, as well as Airmen due for regular recurring training.

5th Tokyo Olympics to allow 10,000 local fans in the venues

Visitors try to take photos in front of the Olympic Rings monument in front of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) headquarters near the National Stadium, the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which is due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) 2021) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2021.

Issei Kato | Reuters

The Tokyo Olympics will allow some local fans to compete in the Summer Games if they open in just over a month. Foreign fans were banned a few months ago. For all Olympic venues, the organizers set a capacity limit of 50% to a maximum of 10,000 fans. The decision contradicts the country’s top medical adviser, who recommended last week that the Olympics be the safest way to hold the Olympics without fans during the pandemic. Japan’s prime minister, who favored admitting fans, said ahead of the official announcement that local fans would be banned if conditions change. The Tokyo Games are slated to open on July 23rd.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics owns the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

– CNBC’s Leslie Josephs and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow the whole market like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with coronavirus coverage from CNBC.

Categories
Politics

Liz Cheney’s Unlikely Journey From G.O.P. Royalty to Republican Outcast

Liz Cheney’s Unlikely Journey From G.O.P. Royalty to Republican Outcast

CASPER, Wyo. — Representative Liz Cheney was holed up in a secure undisclosed location of the Dick Cheney Federal Building, recounting how she got an alarmed phone call from her father on Jan. 6.

Ms. Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, recalled that she had been preparing to speak on the House floor in support of certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s election as president. Mr. Cheney, the former vice president and his daughter’s closest political adviser, consulted with her on most days, but this time was calling as a worried parent.

He had seen President Donald J. Trump on television at a rally that morning vow to get rid of “the Liz Cheneys of the world.” Her floor speech could inflame tensions, he told her, and he feared for her safety. Was she sure she wanted to go ahead?

“Absolutely,” she told her father. “Nothing could be more important.”

Minutes later, Mr. Trump’s supporters breached the entrance, House members evacuated and the political future of Ms. Cheney, who never delivered her speech, was suddenly scrambled. Her promising rise in the House, which friends say the former vice president had been enthusiastically invested in and hoped might culminate in the speaker’s office, had been replaced with a very different mission.

“This is about being able to tell your kids that you stood up and did the right thing,” she said.

Ms. Cheney entered Congress in 2017, and her lineage always ensured her a conspicuous profile, although not in the way it has since blown up. Her campaign to defeat the “ongoing threat” and “fundamental toxicity of a president who lost” has landed one of the most conservative House members in the most un-Cheney-like position of resistance leader and Republican outcast. Ms. Cheney has vowed to be a counterforce, no matter how lonely that pursuit might be or where it might lead, including a possible primary challenge to Mr. Trump if he runs for president in 2024, a prospect she has not ruled out.

Beyond the daunting politics, Ms. Cheney’s predicament is also a father-daughter story, rife with dynastic echoes and ironies. An unapologetic Prince of Darkness figure throughout his career, Mr. Cheney was always attuned to doomsday scenarios and existential threats he saw posed by America’s enemies, whether from Russia during the Cold War, Saddam Hussein after the Sept. 11 attacks, or the general menace of tyrants and terrorists.

Ms. Cheney has come to view the current circumstances with Mr. Trump in the same apocalyptic terms. The difference is that today’s threat resides inside the party in which her family has been royalty for nearly half a century.

“He is just deeply troubled for the country about what we watched President Trump do,” Ms. Cheney said of her father. “He’s a student of history. He’s a student of the presidency. He knows the gravity of those jobs, and as he’s watched these events unfold, certainly he’s been appalled.”

On the day last month that Ms. Cheney’s House colleagues ousted her as the third-ranking Republican over her condemnations of Mr. Trump, she invited an old family friend, the photographer David Hume Kennerly, to record her movements for posterity. After work, they repaired to her parents’ home in McLean, Va., to commiserate over wine and a steak dinner.

“There was maybe a little bit of post-mortem, but it didn’t feel like a wake,” said Mr. Kennerly, the official photographer for President Gerald R. Ford while Mr. Cheney was White House chief of staff. “Mostly, I got a real sense at that dinner of two parents who were extremely proud of their kid and wanted to be there for her at the end of a bad day.”

Mr. Cheney declined to be interviewed for this article, but provided a statement: “As a father, I am enormously proud of my daughter. As an American, I am deeply grateful to her for defending our Constitution and the rule of law.”

The Cheneys are a private and insular brood, though not without tensions that have gone public. Ms. Cheney’s opposition to same-sex marriage during a brief Senate campaign in 2013 enraged her sister, Mary Cheney, and Mary’s longtime partner, Heather Poe. It was conspicuous, then, when Mary conveyed full support for her sister after Jan. 6.

“As many people know, Liz and I have definitely had our differences over the years,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Jan. 7. “But I am very proud of how she handled herself during the fight over the Electoral College…Good job Big Sister.’’

In an interview in Casper, Ms. Cheney, 54, spoke in urgent, clipped cadences in an unmarked conference room of the Dick Cheney Federal Building, one of many places that carry her family name in the nation’s least populous and most Trump-loving state. Her disposition conveyed both determination and worry, and also a sense of someone who had endured an embattled stretch.

Ms. Cheney had spent much of a recent congressional recess in Wyoming and yet was rarely seen in public. The appearances she did make — a visit to the Chamber of Commerce in Casper, a hospital opening (with her father) in Star Valley — were barely publicized beforehand, in large part for security concerns. She has received a stream of death threats, common menaces among high-profile critics of Mr. Trump, and is now surrounded by a newly deployed detail of plainclothes, ear-pieced agents.

Her campaign spent $58,000 on security from January to March, including three former Secret Service officers, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. Ms. Cheney was recently assigned protection from the Capitol Police, an unusual measure for a House member not in a leadership position. The fortress aura around Ms. Cheney is reminiscent of the “secure undisclosed location” of her father in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ms. Cheney’s temperament bears the imprint of both parents, especially her mother, Lynne Cheney, a conservative scholar and commentator who is far more extroverted than her husband. But Mr. Cheney has long been his eldest daughter’s closest professional alter ego, especially after he left office in 2009, and Ms. Cheney devoted marathon sessions to collaborating on his memoir, “In My Times.” Their work coincided with some of Mr. Cheney’s gravest heart conditions, including a period in 2010 when he was near death.

His health stabilized after doctors installed a blood-pumping device that kept him alive and allowed him to travel. This included trips between Virginia and Wyoming in which Mr. Cheney would drive while dictating stories to Ms. Cheney in the passenger seat, who would type his words into a laptop. He received his heart transplant in 2012.

Father and daughter promoted the memoir in joint appearances, with Ms. Cheney interviewing her father in venues around the country. “She was basically there with her dad to ease his re-entry back to health on the public stage,” said former Senator Alan K. Simpson, a Wyoming Republican and a longtime family friend.

By 2016, Ms. Cheney had been elected to Congress and quickly rose to become the third-ranking Republican, a post her father also held. As powerful as Mr. Cheney was as vice president, he had always considered himself a product of the House, where he had served as Wyoming’s at-large congressman from 1979 to 1989.

Neither father nor daughter is a natural politician in any traditional sense. Mr. Cheney was a plotter and bureaucratic brawler, ambitious but in a quiet, secretive and, to many eyes, devious way. Ms. Cheney was largely focused on strategic planning and hawkish policymaking.

After graduating from Colorado College (“The Evolution of Presidential War Powers” was her senior thesis), Ms. Cheney worked at the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development while her father was defense secretary. She attended the University of Chicago Law School and practiced at the firm White & Case before returning to the State Department while her father was vice president. She was not sheepish or dispassionate like her father — she was a cheerleader at McLean High School — but held off running for office until well into her 40s.

Once in the House, Ms. Cheney was seen as a possible speaker — a hybrid of establishment background, hard-line conservatism and partisan instincts. While she had reservations about Mr. Trump, she was selective with her critiques and voted with him 93 percent of time and against his first impeachment.

As for Mr. Cheney, his distress over the Trump administration was initially focused on foreign policy, though he eventually came to view the 45th president’s performance overall as abysmal.

“I had a couple of conversations with the vice president last summer where he was really deeply troubled,” said Eric S. Edelman, a former American ambassador to Turkey, a Pentagon official in the George W. Bush administration and family friend.

As a transplant recipient whose compromised immune system placed him at severe risk of Covid-19, Mr. Cheney found that his contempt for the Trump White House only grew during the pandemic. He had also known and admired Dr. Anthony S. Fauci for many years.

At the same time, Ms. Cheney publicly supported Dr. Fauci and seemed to be trolling the White House last June when she tweeted “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK” over a photograph of her father — looking every bit the stoic Westerner — sporting a face covering and cowboy hat (hashtag “#realmenwearmasks”).

She has received notable support in her otherwise lonely efforts from a number of top-level figures of the Republican establishment, including many of her father’s old White House colleagues. Former President George W. Bush — through a spokesman — made a point of thanking Mr. Cheney “for his daughter’s service” in a call to his former vice president on his 80th birthday in January.

Ms. Cheney did wind up voting for Mr. Trump in November, but came to regret it immediately. In her view, Mr. Trump’s conduct after the election went irreversibly beyond the pale. “For Liz, it was like, I just can’t do this anymore,” said former Representative Barbara Comstock, Republican of Virginia.

Ms. Cheney returned last week to Washington, where she had minimal dealings with her former leadership cohorts and was less inhibited in sharing her dim view of certain Republican colleagues. On Tuesday, she slammed Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona for repeating “disgusting and despicable lies” about the actions of the Capitol Police on Jan. 6.

“We’ve got people we’ve entrusted with the perpetuation of the Republic who don’t know what the rule of law is,” she said. “We probably need to do Constitution boot camps for newly sworn-in members of Congress. Clearly.”

She said her main pursuit now involved teaching basic civics to voters who had been misinformed by Mr. Trump and other Republicans who should know better. “I’m not naïve about the education that has to go on here,” Ms. Cheney said. “This is dangerous. It’s not complicated. I think Trump has a plan.”

Ms. Cheney’s own plan has been the object of considerable speculation. Although she was re-elected in 2020 by 44 percentage points, she faces a potentially treacherous path in 2022. Several Wyoming Republicans have already announced plans to mount primary challenges against Ms. Cheney, and her race is certain to be among the most closely followed in the country next year. It will also provide a visible platform for her campaign to ensure Mr. Trump “never again gets near the Oval Office” — an enterprise that could plausibly include a long-shot primary bid against him in 2024.

Friends say that at a certain point, events — namely Jan. 6 — came to transcend any parochial political concerns for Ms. Cheney. “Maybe I’m being Pollyanna a little bit here, but I do think Liz is playing the long game,” said Matt Micheli, a Cheyenne lawyer and former chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party. Ms. Cheney has confirmed as much.

“This is something that determines the nature of this Republic going forward,” she said. “So I really don’t know how long that takes.”

Categories
Entertainment

How David Ellison Constructed Skydance Into Hollywood’s Sensible Guess

How David Ellison Built Skydance Into Hollywood's Smart Bet

The equity deal with RedBird and CJ Entertainment valued Skydance at about $2.3 billion. At its current pace of growth — revenue is expected to increase more than 40 percent this year compared with last, the company said — Skydance could be worth $5 billion or more in a few years. Mr. Ellison would most likely pursue a sale or an initial public offering at that point.

Skydance could quickly become an acquisition target. After Amazon’s $8.45 billion purchase of MGM, content engines with access to established intellectual property, Skydance included, are hot prospects. Even if Skydance parts ways with Paramount next year, the expiring deal gives Skydance an incredible perk: the continuing right to invest in the Paramount franchises with which Skydance is already involved. “Star Trek.” “Mission: Impossible.” “Jack Ryan.” “G.I. Joe.” “Top Gun.”

Comcast, which needs to boost its Peacock streaming service, could be a buyer. So could Apple, which considered picking up MGM. This spring, Skydance received feelers from a special-purpose acquisition corporation, or SPAC, led by Kevin A. Mayer, Disney’s former streaming chief.

“It’s true that we have had some interesting conversations lately, but our growth curve is still significant and if we keep working hard and stay adaptive that should afford us a lot of optionality in the future,” Mr. Ellison said, sounding more like an M.B.A. graduate than a budding entertainment tycoon.

Skydance has wide-ranging expansion plans. Amy Hennig, a former senior creative executive at Electronic Arts, is building a video game division. Another department focuses on virtual-reality content. Mr. Ellison recently hired Luis Fernández, a 20-year Disney veteran, to start a consumer products business. But Skydance’s future rests on scripted content and the degree to which it can create pay-dirt movie and television franchises out of whole cloth, as it appears to have done with “The Old Guard.”

Some people in Hollywood remain skeptical that Skydance has the creative expertise to pull it off. Mr. Ellison and his team have excelled at putting projects together (29 films and television series sold to streaming services in two years). But execution — quality — has been inconsistent. And quality matters: The Skydance-made “6 Underground,” an action comedy directed by Michael Bay, drew views from a blockbuster 83 million Netflix accounts in late 2019. But the movie also received less-than-stellar reviews, lessening Netflix’s interest in a sequel.

A stream of well-reviewed original hits would force Hollywood to finally take Mr. Ellison seriously as a creative power.