A growing number of Senate Democrats are warming to the idea of eliminating the filibuster as they encounter Republican resistance to President Biden’s legislative agenda, forcing the White House to cut deals on issues like the minimum wage and pandemic relief payments. Under Senate rules, 60 votes are required to end debate on major bills. […]
The Senate was poised on Friday to reject a bid by Democrats to increase the federal minimum wage as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, with senators in both parties registering their opposition to the move. As of late Friday afternoon, the vote on the proposal, which would raise the wage to $15 […]
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – The United States on Friday (March 5) called China’s moves to change the Hong Kong electoral system a direct attack on its autonomy and democratic processes and said Washington was working at “galvanising collective action” against Chinese rights abuses. Earlier on Friday, Beijing proposed legislation that would tighten its increasingly authoritarian grip […]
SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) – During several days of brutal cold in Texas, the city of Austin saw its fleet of 12 new electric buses rendered inoperative by a statewide power outage. That problem will be magnified next year, when officials plan to start purchasing electric-powered vehicles exclusively. The city’s transit agency has budgeted US$650 million […]
In Sacramento, California, last Friday, a high school Spanish teacher made a slant-eyed gesture during a Zoom class. “If their eyes went up, they’re Chinese. If they’re down, they’re Japanese,” she said in a video recorded by a student. “If they’re just straight, you don’t know.” Four months earlier, a U.S. marine threatened to shoot […]
Last March, a crowd gathered in Downtown Brooklyn to celebrate a new name for Gold Street: Ida B. Wells Place. Jacob Morris, the tireless activist behind the renaming effort, addressed the group. “I’m almost speechless,” he said. “Yeah, almost,” someone in the audience commented, laughing. Mr. Morris has not achieved success by mincing words. A […]
Democrats spent much of the 2020 presidential primary debating the best way to expand public health insurance. They sparred over whether to enroll everyone in public coverage — the preferred policy of Senator Bernie Sanders — or to give everyone a choice to do so, the public option plan that President Biden supports. The candidates […]
Rosalyn Koo, a powerful fund-raiser for the Chinese community in the San Francisco area and for schoolgirls in China, died on Jan. 30 at her home in San Mateo, Calif. She was 94. The cause was chronic kidney failure, her daughter Debbie Soon said. Ms. Koo had led a successful career as the chief financial […]
A Dallas police officer was arrested on Thursday and charged with two counts of capital murder after a witness said the officer had instructed him to kidnap and murder two people in 2017, the city’s police chief said. The officer, Bryan Riser, joined the Dallas Police Department in August 2008 and had been on patrol […]
House Democrats passed a sweeping federal policing overhaul on Wednesday that would combat racial discrimination and excessive use of force in law enforcement, as lawmakers seek to rekindle bipartisan negotiations on the issue. The House first passed the legislation last summer, in an effort to respond to an outpouring of demands for racial justice after […]