'God was protecting me,' Trump says, one year after assassination attempt
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Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Proposed charter would reduce Luzerne County Council from 11 to 9 at start of 2028
Jul. 18—Luzerne County Council would be reduced from 11 to nine members at the start of 2028 if voters adopt a revised county home rule charter in the Nov. 4 general election, the Government Study Commission drafting the charter decided Thursday. Voters currently elect council members on a rotating schedule of five or six every two years, and the next future election in 2027 would be a six-member selection. Under the recommendation approved Thursday, voters will select four council members instead of six in 2027. Commission Vice Chairman Vito Malacari was the lone commission member to vote against this plan. He favored an option to keep council at 11 until the start of 2030, citing increased work that will be placed on council in the first two years of the transition to the new plan. Commission member Stephen J. Urban said he wants to implement the reduction to nine as soon as possible. Commission Secretary Matt Mitchell concurred, saying he believes the adopted plan will be the "cleanest and most efficient" way to move forward. With this change, voters would then select four or five council members every two years. Final report The commission has added a July 28 meeting to its roster so it can approve the final proposed package, which includes the new charter, the question that will be placed on the ballot and a report detailing the changes and some reasoning behind them for voters. Once approved, the proposed charter and final report must be formally certified by Council Clerk Sharon Lawrence. Lawrence must then deliver it to the county election board within five days. The election board must vote to place the referendum on the ballot. The next regularly scheduled election board meeting is Aug. 20. While some portions are still under construction, a copy of the draft final report is posted with Thursday's agenda at Malacari suggested adding creation of a transition committee in the final report to ensure the county meets initial requirements specified in the new charter. A few study commission members could agree to serve on this temporary committee and meet every four months to track compliance with new charter deadlines and provide additional background on the intent of requirements to council if requested, he said. Commission member Mark Shaffer said clarification is needed in a section of the draft final report that states the current volunteer citizen election board will be retained in the new charter. Shaffer said council will have the option to place county employees and elected officials on the board after 23 months if a council majority determines a change is warranted, with a majority-plus-one council vote required for such a change. The commission informally agreed to add a footnote noting retention of the current five-citizen structure is pending council review. The report says the study commission deliberated numerous changes and opted to keep the following intact: a council elected at-large instead of by districts; an appointed county manager; an ethics code and commission; a resign-to-run provision for the district attorney and controller if they seek other offices; term limits; and language barring council members from interfering in day-to-day operations. It said the updated charter "represents a thoughtful evolution of county governance," proposing a "more streamlined" county council with "enhanced responsibilities and tools." The proposal also "modernizes legal structures, including the creation of one of only two Public Defender Advisory Boards in the state, increasing the county's legal independence," it said. "These changes are not just procedural; they are foundational. They aim to build a government that is more efficient, responsive, and aligned with the values and needs of Luzerne County residents," the document said. "Adopting this charter is not about rejecting the past — it's about building on it with clarity, purpose, and a renewed commitment to public service." Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes. Solve the daily Crossword
CNN
10 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients' personal data, including addresses, to ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press. The information will give ICE officials the ability to find 'the location of aliens' across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly. The extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health data to deportation officials is the latest escalation in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, which has repeatedly tested legal boundaries in its effort to arrest 3,000 people daily. Lawmakers and some CMS officials have challenged the legality of deportation officials' access to some states' Medicaid enrollee data. It's a move, first reported by the AP last month, that Health and Human Services officials said was aimed at rooting out people enrolled in the program improperly. But the latest data-sharing agreement makes clear what ICE officials intend to do with the health data. 'ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE,' the agreement says. Such disclosures, even if not acted upon, could cause widespread alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children. Other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration have made schools, churches, courthouses and other everyday places feel perilous to immigrants and even US citizens who fear getting caught up in a raid. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon would not respond to the latest agreement. It is unclear, though, whether Homeland Security has yet accessed the information. The department's spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in an emailed statement that the two agencies 'are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.' The database will reveal to ICE officials the names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, as well as Social Security numbers for all people enrolled in Medicaid. The state and federally funded program provides health care coverage program for the poorest of people, including millions of children. The agreement does not allow ICE officials to download the data. Instead, they will be allowed to access it for a limited period from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday, until September 9. 'They are trying to turn us into immigration agents,' said a CMS official did not have permission to speak to the media and insisted on anonymity. Immigrants who are not living in the US legally, as well as some lawfully present immigrants, are not allowed to enroll in the Medicaid program that provides nearly-free coverage for health services. Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government. But federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-US citizens. Emergency Medicaid is often used by immigrants, including those who are lawfully present and those who are not. Many people sign up for emergency Medicaid in their most desperate moments, said Hannah Katch, a previous adviser at CMS during the Biden administration. 'It's unthinkable that CMS would violate the trust of Medicaid enrollees in this way,' Katch said. She said the personally identifiable information of enrollees has not been historically shared outside of the agency unless for law enforcement purposes to investigate waste, fraud or abuse of the program. Trump officials last month demanded that the federal health agency's staffers release personally identifiable information on millions of Medicaid enrollees from seven states that permit non-US citizens to enroll in their full Medicaid programs. The states launched these programs during the Biden administration and said they would not bill the federal government to cover the health care costs of those immigrants. All the states — California, New York, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado — have Democratic governors. That data sharing with DHS officials prompted widespread backlash from lawmakers and governors. Twenty states have since sued over the move, alleging it violated federal health privacy laws. CMS officials previously fought and failed to stop the data sharing that is now at the center of the lawsuits. On Monday, CMS officials were once again debating whether they should provide DHS access, citing concerns about the ongoing litigation. In an email chain obtained by the AP called 'Hold DHS Access — URGENT,' CMS chief legal officer Rujul H. Desai said they should first ask the Department of Justice to appeal to the White House directly for a 'pause' on the information sharing. In a response the next day, HHS lawyer Lena Amanti Yueh said that the Justice Department was 'comfortable with CMS proceeding with providing DHS access.' Dozens of members of Congress, including Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, sent letters last month to DHS and HHS officials demanding that the information-sharing stop. 'The massive transfer of the personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients should alarm every American. This massive violation of our privacy laws must be halted immediately,' Schiff said in response to AP's description of the new, expanded agreement. 'It will harm families across the nation and only cause more citizens to forego lifesaving access to health care.' The new agreement makes clear that DHS will use the data to identify, for deportation purposes, people who in the country illegally. But HHS officials have repeatedly maintained that it would be used primarily as a cost-saving measure, to investigate whether non-US citizens were improperly accessing Medicaid benefits. 'HHS acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,' Nixon said in a statement responding to the lawsuits last month.
Fast Company
11 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Trump's bill cutting $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid gets final OK from House
The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda. The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won't be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda. The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature. 'We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,' said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented. No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats' push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files. The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump's tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade. 'No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,' said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense. The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming. Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are 'not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.' As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states. But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America's Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was 'at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.' Inside the cuts to foreign aid Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations. Democrats argued that the Republican administration's animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America's standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill. 'This is not an America first bill. It's a China first bill because of the void that's being created all across the world,' Jeffries said. The White House argued that many of the cuts would incentivize other nations to step up and do more to respond to humanitarian crises and that the rescissions best served the American taxpayer. 'The money that we're clawing back in this rescissions package is the people's money. We ought not to forget that,' said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee. After objections from several Republicans, Senate GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under Republican President George W. Bush. Looking ahead to future spending fights Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation's priorities. Triggered by the official rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needed a simple majority vote to advance in the Senate instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines. Two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process. 'Let's not make a habit of this,' said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn't providing enough information on what exactly will be cut. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows 'enthusiasm' for getting the nation's fiscal situation under control. 'We're happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,' he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts — $9 billion — Vought said that was because 'I knew it would be hard' to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is 'likely to come soon.'
