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NY Legislature moves to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of emergency powers

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Democratic leaders of the New York Legislature have reached an agreement set to pass as early as this week that would revoke the emergency powers granted to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) early last year to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Lawmakers said they seek to return to a balance of power, but the move comes as Cuomo remains embroiled in controversy over allegations that his administration underreported nursing home deaths — and the day after a third woman went public with claims that the governor made unwanted sexual advances toward her.

What are the details?

The legislature announced in a news release that Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D) have agreed to legislation that would immediately revoke the temporary emergency powers granted to Cuomo, which are currently set to expire at the end of April.

Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner told WNBC-TV that the measure could be passed as early as Friday.

The outlet reported that “Queens State Senator John Liu (D) said the agreement is less about retribution from the mushrooming scandals the governor is facing, and more about restoring the balance of power in Albany between the branches of government.”

Meanwhile, calls for the governor to resign have escalated, as three women have come forward accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment, and reporters and lawmakers alike have issued public claims that Cuomo bullied and threatened them. That is all in the midst of widespread outcry after a top aide was recorded acknowledging to state Democratic leaders that nursing home deaths during COVID-19 were underreported over fears from political fallout under former President Donald Trump.

Cuomo issued a statement in reaction to the harassment claims, saying in part, “I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended.”

The governor has refused to step down, but the New York Post — which broke the story of the nursing home scandal — reported Tuesday that Cuomo has been “quick” to call on other politicians to resign over allegations of sexual harassment in the past.

Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) vowed Monday to launch an investigation into the sexual harassment claims against Cuomo. Several fellow New York Democrats, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have said that Cuomo should resign if the claims against him are confirmed.

Prolonged school closures have reportedly resulted in millions of students going 'missing' from school systems

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An eye-popping number of students have reportedly gone “missing” from public school systems around the country amid prolonged school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, ABC News determined in a shocking new report published Tuesday.

The news, which serves as yet another sad reminder of the unintended injury caused by lengthy and exorbitant shutdown policies, is poised to add fuel to the fiery debate over reopening schools happening now in countless American communities.

“A notable number of students seem to have simply fallen off the grid, not showing up for online or in-person instruction, their whereabouts unknown by school officials,” the report stated, adding that the dilemma has left experts and educators scrambling to find the students and come up with policies to buck the dangerous trend.

The report made mention of a recent study put forward by Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit focused on underserved communities, which estimates that as many as 3 million of America’s “most educationally marginalized students in the country” have “functionally disappeared” since last March, when the pandemic first forced schools to close. The group claims to have arrived at its estimate by making projections based upon the “percentage of at-risk groups not in school, based on media reports and available data.”

In its report, ABC News gave credence to the estimate, though it stopped short of explicitly confirming it. Nevertheless, after contacting officials from school systems in all 50 states, the outlet determined that many states who tracked such information confirmed they have seen a “significant decline in their enrollment numbers,” while many other states “reported they have thousands of missing students.”

Here are a few of the examples cited in the report:

  • “In Michigan, K-12 enrollment decreased this fall by some 53,000 students out of about 1.5 million students.”
  • “In Dallas, Texas, which was home to approximately 153,000 students last year, there are about 9,000 high-schoolers, 2,000 middle-schoolers, and 1,000 elementary school students unaccounted for.”
  • “In Florida, officials are trying to determine the whereabouts of nearly 88,000 students who were expected for the 2020-’21 academic year and failed to show up in the fall.”

The report noted that students can go missing for a variety of reasons. Students from low-income families, in particular, may not have the access to technology needed to participate in distance learning. It could also be that the economic downturn that resulted from the pandemic caused poorer students to be more at risk of missing school.

In any case, the tragic revelations confirm some of the fears many critics of school closures have expressed for the better part of a year; namely, that with schools closed indefinitely, students would inevitably be left behind.

White professor under fire after complaining about racism, discrimination against white males at his college

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After a white professor demanded an apology from his college’s faculty senate for “racist sentiments” in its recent resolution that “contribute to a hostile work environment” — including discrimination against him — a former student launched a petition to fire the professor, the New York Post reported.

What are the details?

Jeffrey Burl used Michigan Technological University letterhead for his message to the school’s senate: “I find this resolution particularly offensive because I, as a white male, have been systematically discriminated against for 40 years,” the Post reported.

The senate’s resolution said it “explicitly and loudly denounces white supremacy, anti-blackness, systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, and other oppressive and intolerant behaviors, actions, and speech” — and that “no student should be able to earn an undergraduate degree … without having had a sound education concerning the historical and current manifestations and operations of anti-Blackness and systemic racism in American culture,” the paper said.

However, Burl — an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering — countered that during his 28 years at the university in Houghton he saw no “discrimination against women and people of color” while the college “actively discriminated against white males,” the paper added.

Burl noted that “simple statistical analysis will demonstrate that Michigan Tech’s hiring practices are biased against white males” and that he’d been “denied an opportunity to compete for my dream job because of gender discrimination,” the paper also said.

In addition, a second Michigan Tech professor, Jaroslaw Drelich, submitted a letter of complaint saying the faculty resolution pushes a leftist narrative, the paper said, citing MLive.

Backlash

The Post said Burl’s letter was widely circulated among students, and then former student student Timothy Ward launched a petition demanding Burl’s termination for his “ignorance and hate,” the paper said.

The petition said Burl’s “letter was full of racist views and ignorant statements that would make many if not most prospective students uncomfortable in his classroom. I felt gross just trying to read it. I can only imagine how his students will feel going forward having to sit in lectures for hours with him.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the petition reached just over 1,550 signatures — about 1,000 shy of its 2,500-signature goal.

Anything else?

University President Richard Koubek told students in a statement that didn’t mention Burl by name that the college condemns racism, the paper said, citing MLive.

Burl said he’s no racist or white supremacist, the paper said, citing the outlet: “I would argue that I have a squeaky-clean reputation in that I don’t think that anybody who knows me will think that I’m a racist.”

California city council votes unanimously to outlaw new gas stations — and new pumps at existing stations. Expect more bans, Axios warns.

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The city council in Petaluma, California, voted unanimously Monday night to permanently bar the construction of new gas stations as well as ban adding more gas pumps to existing stations, The Drive reported. According to local officials, the city already has enough places to fuel up internal combustion engine-bearing polluters.

What’s going on?

This new prohibition — which also includes language to streamline the process to add charging stations and possible hydrogen fuel cell stations — is part of the city’s attempt to push residents to shift to electric vehicles and get the city to hit its target of zero emissions by 2030, Gizmodo said.

According to the outlet, the bill is effective immediately for the city of 61,000 people that currently has 16 gas stations, with another one approved for construction later this year.

The bill claims, “Based on this inventory, there are multiple stations located within a 5-minute drive (2.1 miles at 25 mph) of every existing residence as well as all areas planned for residential development by the 2025 General Plan but not yet constructed.”

And the existing stations are not allowed to add more pumps, so if the city grows in population and gas becomes more in demand, well, people are just going to be out of luck.

Environmentalists are getting their way

Stand.earth, an environmental nonprofit group whose Stand Against Fossil Fuel Expansion Cities program pushed for the bill, celebrated the win, calling the ban “a massive step forward in the fight to protect communities and the climate from fossil fuels.”

Matt Krogh, the U.S. oil and gas campaign director at Stand.earth, told Axios that the current stations are providing all the fuel the community could need.

“This is not a ban on the existing gas stations, which are providing all the gas currently needed,” Krogh said. “The problem with allowing new gas stations is we don’t really need them and they’re putting existing gas stations out of business.”

“In California in particular, where state climate targets are required by law, new gas stations will have a short shelf life, and could be abandoned before they make enough money to pay for their own shut down and clean up,” he added in an email to Gizmodo. “This gas station ban is a common sense step to not get further bogged down by fossil fuel infrastructure.”

Krogh went on to praise Petaluma’s leadership for their bravery in being the first city to institute such a ban, noting that some 30 cities and counties have been instituting policies that imposed the Stand.earth agenda, Axios said.

The Petaluma effort has inspired more groups pressure local governments to ban gas stations, according to Axios, which added that the movement is spreading quickly.

Poll: Public Overwhelmingly Supports Donald Trump's Border Wall

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Americans, by three to one, strongly favor the preservation and use of President Donald Trump’s border wall, according to a poll by Harvard-Harris.

The panel of 1,778 adults was asked: “Do you think that any holes in the border wall with Mexico should be patched or should be left open?”

Seventy-three percent of the respondents wanted the government to patch gaps in the wall, while 27 percent opposed such action.

Retaining the existing wall received 79 percent support when respondents were asked: “Should the hundreds of miles of the border wall that have been constructed over the last few years be left in place or dismantled?”

Only 21 percent — or one in five — said the government should come down.

The border wall is a barrier to illegal migration and to the transport of drugs into Americans’ communities.

The survey was conducted February 23 to 25, as border-agency officials struggled to minimize media coverage of the growing number of economic migrants they have invited to the U.S. border.

President Joe Biden stopped the additional construction of the border wall as soon as he got into office. However, a lawsuit may force Biden to restart construction because his agencies have not completed work that Congress directed and funded in 2019 and 2020.

The Harvard-Harris poll also showed the public ambivalence toward the wall. For example, 53 percent of respondents in the poll said they supported Biden’s decision to halt the construction.

Forty-seven percent of the public disagreed with Biden’s decision. The detail of the poll showed 33 percent strongly approved of Biden’s decision, while 32 percent strongly disapproved.

For years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.

The multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, intra-Democratic, and solidarity-themed opposition to labor migration coexists with generally favorable personal feelings toward legal immigrants and toward immigration in theory — despite the media magnification of many skewed polls and articles that still push the 1950’s corporate “Nation of Immigrants” claim.

The deep public opposition is built on the widespread recognition that migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to real estate investors, and from the central states to the coastal states.