Blue Bus expects to restore routes limited by onset of COVID-19
A North Central Regional Transit District bus shown in downtown Santa Fe. (NCRTD courtesy photo)
Over the next year, Northern New Mexico's bus system anticipates restarting routes that were suspended or curtailed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, fears of a national recession are driving uncertainty about how much the so-called Blue Bus will receive from both local governments and Washington.
The North Central Regional Transit District Board of Directors on Friday approved a preliminary $53 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a nearly 7% decrease from the previous year's budget. The board will meet again in June to formally vote on the budget, which staff will then submit to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
The district projects the number of riders on its 26 fixed routes to increase compared to last year, when more than 565,000 people took the bus, a marked decline from the 2018-2019 fiscal year pre-pandemic numbers of more than 814,000 rides.
In his budget message to the board, Executive Director Anthony Mortillaro wrote that the district suspended some routes or limited them to on-demand service in response to the pandemic's outset, but most have returned, and the rest will in the coming year as they hire more staff.
The district's service area encompasses 74 communities across 10,0000 square miles where nearly 290,000 people live. NCRTD employs approximately 100 people, and the budget pays for two additional bus drivers.
At its Friday meeting in Española, Mortillaro told the board that the district's future projections remain uncertain because of federal actions. Nearly 50% of the district's income comes from the federal government.
'There's an increasing concern about the odds of a national recession due to the tariffs and high interest rates, and all that could impact tax revenues as well as future grant levels,' he said.
Most Blue Bus routes run in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Taos and Los Alamos counties, with some connecting to eight Northern Pueblos, the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the counties of San Juan, Mora and San Miguel.
While the area is experiencing a 'leveling economic recovery based upon reported tax revenues,' Mortilarro wrote, a recession could lower those tax revenues and how much grant money the federal government will provide.
Los Alamos County, the City of Santa Fe and the Rio Metro Regional Transit District, which operates the Rail Runner, contribute more than $7 million to the Blue Bus's budget, which it uses to fund regional transit in those areas, Mortillaro wrote.
The budget also includes $9.5 million for electrical charging infrastructure in Española and Taos, and three diesel hybrid electric buses. Tariffs can add between 5% and 10% to the price of an electric bus, Mortillaro said.
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USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Trump agenda survives key Senate vote but final outcome still uncertain
The GOP-led Senate has agreed to begin a marathon floor debate that's expected to go overnight and culminate with a final roll call - where the outcome still remains uncertain. WASHINGTON – The Senate voted to begin a marathon debate about President Donald Trump's package of legislative priorities − stuffed with tax cuts, Medicaid reforms and border security funding – despite lingering Republican concerns about the legislation. Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, has said he is uncertain whether enough Republicans will support their version to send it back to the House. "We'll find out," Thune said. But the 51-49 vote to proceed signals that there is enough GOP support to at least begin the hours-long debate and expected voting on dozens of amendments. GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina each voted against debating the bill as written. The vote that began at 7:30 p.m. EDT was held open for more than three hours as Thune scrambled to find a majority of votes to kickstart the debate. If the Senate is ultimately successful, the House would have to vote on the upper chamber's changes in order to reach Trump's desk by his self-imposed deadline of July 4. The Senate has trimmed the House version from about 1,100 pages to 940 − and still faces votes on what are expected to be dozens of amendments. The success of Trump's domestic agenda for tax cuts and border security hangs in the balance. Republican approval of the spending blueprint would allow a majority of the 100-member Senate to approve all of Trump's priorities included in it through legislation later in the year, rather than needing 60 votes to overcome a filibuster for each measure. Here's what we know about the legislative package: Senate voting on whether to debate Trump's bill A long wait, then a vote to begin debate With little fanfare, the Senate began voting at about 7:30 p.m. EDT on whether to begin the debate on Trump's legislative package. Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, simply asked the Senate to vote on a motion to begin debating the bill. The move came after hours of inaction – interrupted by the occasional speech – since the Senate gaveled into action at 2 p.m. - Bart Jansen Nevada senator votes despite COVID-19 The vote was close enough and important enough that a Nevada senator voted despite testing positive for COVID-19. 'After experiencing mild symptoms, I have tested positive for COVID,' Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, said in a social media post. 'I'll continue to follow my doctor's guidelines and wear a mask while voting this weekend.'- Bart Jansen Lee drops provision for public land sales from bill Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, agreed to drop a contentious provision for public land sales from the legislative package. Environmental groups had criticized the provision for opening lands to logging and oil, gas and coal production. A fellow Republican, Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, threatened to vote against the bill unless the provision was removed, which could have scuttled the entire bill. Lee announced on social media that he wasn't able to secure safeguards that the land must be sold to Americans rather than the Chinese or investors. 'I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land – land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation,' Lee said. - Bart Jansen Trump blasts Tillis over opposition to legislation Trump criticized Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of three Republicans to vote against debating the legislation, as 'making a BIG MISTAKE.' Tillis had voiced concern about steeper Medicaid cuts in the Senate version of the bill than in the House version, and said he would have to oppose it. But Trump noted he won the state in three presidential elections in the Tarheel State, where Tillis faces reelection next year. Trump highlighted provisions in the legislation to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. He argued taxes will rise if 2017 tax cuts aren't extended, and that the country needs to increase the limit on borrowing. 'Thom Tillis is making a BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!' Trump said in a post June 28 on social media. In another post, Trump said he would be meeting with 'numerous people' who have asked to run in the GOP primary against Tillis. Trump said he is 'looking for someone who will properly represent the Great people of North Carolina.' - Bart Jansen Democrats force Senate to read entire Trump bill Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, forced Senate clerks to read the entire bill out loud, further delaying the start of debate on the bill. While typically a formality, Schumer objected to waiving the reading of the bill. His objection forced clerks to read the 940-page document. Then senators will begin hours of debate followed by hours of voting. A vote on final passage could come June 30. - Bart Jansen 'No cause for alarm' on vote delay: Sen. Mike Rounds South Dakota GOP Sen. Mike Rounds told CNN that he thinks Republicans will ultimately have the votes to begin the floor debate but were working on ensuring commitments for concerned GOP lawmakers that they'll get the chance to offer amendments to address their issues. "No cause for alarm," Rounds said, adding that the lengthy delay from the plan to have a 4 p.m. EDT opening procedural vote stemmed from the wait for the Congressional Budget Office to analyze late changes to the Senate bill. Looking ahead, Rounds outlined a floor plan that would start with Democrats forcing a full reading of the 990-page bill, something the Republican said he hoped they would not do so that congressional staff can go home for the night and get rest before resuming debate on June 29. Once the floor debate begins, Rounds said Democrats and Republicans would get 20 hours equally divided - with the GOP likely surrendering a considerable amount of that time. Only then would the Senate begin to hold what's known as a "vote-a-rama" where they consider scores of amendments."We've got a long couple of days ahead of us yet," Rounds said. - Darren Samuelsohn Business Roundtable endorses Trump bill Business groups endorsed Trump's legislative package for its anticipated economic benefits as the Senate prepared to debate it. 'This critical legislation would protect and enhance the transformative economic benefits that President Trump's historic 2017 tax reform delivered for American businesses, workers and families,' Business Roundtable President Kristen Silverberg said. 'We urge the Senate to swiftly pass this measure.' - Bart Jansen Democrats to force reading aloud of the entire Senate bill Senate Democrats unified in opposition to the legislation plan to force the chamber's clerk to read the entire 990-page GOP tax, policy and spending bill aloud if Republicans vote to open the floor debate. "Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York. "Under this draft Republicans will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich." Schumer's plans mean that the Senate is sure to be in session late into the night, if not past dawn - presuming Republicans vote to begin the debate. - Darren Samuelsohn, Reuters Elon Musk opens fire, calls Trump bill 'utterly insane and destructive' Billionaire Elon Musk, Trump's former adviser on cutting government spending, fired off another set of attacks against the president's legislative package for potentially killing millions of jobs. The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. Musk had quieted his harsh criticism of Trump and the legislation the week after his departure from government May 30. But he blasted the bill again as the Senate prepared to debate it. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' Musk said June 28 on social media. 'Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' As the Senate vote remained in limbo, Musk added another post warning the GOP of the electoral risks if they vote for the Trump-backed legislation that is not polling well with Republicans. Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party - Bart Jansen Paging Vice President JD Vance: The Senate might need a tie-breaker Coming out of a GOP lunch June 28, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said he's 'under the impression' Senate leadership has the buy-in to advance Trump's bill. But, 'I'm thinking we need the VP,' he said. Republicans need a simple 51-vote majority to pass the bill. But with a tight 53-member majority and ongoing disputes, every swing vote counts. If they hit 50, Vice President JD Vance, in his capacity as Senate president, can break the tie in Trump's favor. -Savannah Kuchar Environmental groups criticize bill's support for fossil fuels Environmental advocates criticized the Senate version of Trump's legislative priorities for not just ending incentives for renewable energy but setting taxes on wind and solar power generation. The advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council estimated taxes on some projects could grow 50%. The bill could also trigger the largest sale of public lands in history for logging and oil, gas and coal production, according to the group. Trump campaigned on boosting domestic energy production with the phrase 'drill, baby, drill.' "The new budget reconciliation bill text is a shocking fossil fuels industry fever dream come to life,' said Christy Goldfuss, the council's executive director. 'The bill has gone from fossil fuels boosterism to an active effort from Congress to kill wind and solar energy in the United States.' - Bart Jansen GOP senators join Trump for golf President Donald Trump had no public events on his calendar, but he had a couple of key allies join him for golf at his Northern Virginia course: CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Republican Sens. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Looking forward to beginning the One Big Beautiful Bill the day with @POTUS and thanked him for his Go! After posting a picture with Trump on the golf course, Graham added that he partnered with Trump and Paul to beat Schmitt and Ratcliffe. "Proud to announce no casualties," Graham wrote. "A lot of fun! Big Beautiful Bill on the way.". - Bart Jansen Saying 'no' and voting 'no' two different things: Sen. Markwayne Mullin Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, a supporter of Trump's legislative package, told reporters at the Capitol that lawmakers warning about voting against it and actually voting 'no' are two different things. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin; Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina; and Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, have each said they were opposed to the bill that is still changing. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have voiced concerns about it. 'Everybody's got concerns, but saying you're voting 'no' and when you get to the floor and voting 'no' is two totally different things,' Mullin said. 'I don't believe in losing and we're going to get the votes.' - Bart Jansen Budget blueprint debate could be 30 hours of 'nonsense': Sen. Brian Moreno Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a supporter of Trump's legislative package, said a final vote would likely come after 30 hours of 'nonsense' from Democrats voting on proposals to change the contentious bill. 'It's an absolutely historic and transformative piece of legislation that reverses four years of an assault on American workers,' Moreno said. 'I want everybody watching this to remember this as you listen to probably what's going to be 30-plus hours of complete nonsense from the other side.' - Bart Jansen Senate meets before debating Trump legislative package The Senate gaveled in at 2 p.m., in anticipation of beginning debate on President Trump's legislative priorities, but lawmakers haven't yet voted to begin talking about the measure. A majority of senators must agree to begin debate, which can sometimes kill legislation before it begins. With 53 Republicans and 47 Democratic caucus members, just a few GOP lawmakers could prevent a debate. But the hurdle appears a mere technicality because wavering GOP members such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine have said she would support the debate even if not necessarily the final bill. -Bart Jansen Sen. Josh Hawley says Republicans have 'soul searching' to do Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, had been one of the leading voices among Senate Republicans raising concerns about proposed cuts to Medicaid and how that would impact his largely rural state. But after studying the latest, finalized bill text — which delays pushing costs onto states and establishes a $25 billion rural hospital fund — Hawley said he's a yes on passing the bill. Beyond this weekend's vote, though, Hawley said he intends to keep pushing back in effort to prevent the delayed federal spending cuts from ever going into effect. 'This has been an unhappy episode, here in Congress, this effort to cut to Medicaid,' he said. 'And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul searching.' — Savannah Kuchar Sen. Susan Collins remains a wildcard Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she'll support Senate leadership bringing the mega bill to the floor and kicking off presumably hours of debate. But she cautioned reporters that she remains uncertain how she'll side when a final vote gets called. 'That does not, in any way, predict how I'm going to vote on the final passage,' Collins told reporters while walking into the Capitol for the start of the day's events. Collins said her final vote ultimately will depend on what the bill looks like after lawmakers — including herself — introduce and potentially tack on further amendments. 'There's some very good changes that have been made in the latest version, but I want to see further changes,' Collins said. - Savannah Kuchar What is in the Senate bill? The largest provisions in the legislation would extend expiring tax cuts and create a few new ones, and a dramatic increasing in spending on border security. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican holdout on the bill, said he wouldn't vote for the bill unless the debt limit gets a separate vote. But Republican leaders want to keep the unpopular vote within the overall package. −Bart Jansen What's not in the Senate version of the bill? Republican support in the Senate waned after Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled several significant provisions would have to be removed to avoid a filibuster. Republicans removed provisions to curb environmental regulations; restrict federal judges' powers; bulk up immigration enforcement; and cut funding from a consumer protection agency. MacDonough also ruled against provisions that aimed to reduce Medicaid spending on health care programs for undocumented immigrants. −Bart Jansen What does Trump say about the Senate version of the bill? The Trump administration 'strongly supports' the Senate version of the bill, in a White House Office of Management and Budget statement June 28. The statement isn't intended to favor the Senate version over the House version on any particular provision, but to signal Trump would sign it if approved by Congress. The two-page statement highlighted provisions for tax cuts, border security, energy and defense. 'President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal," the statement said. −Bart Jansen Is there really a July 4 deadline? Trump has told congressional Republicans he's want this thing wrapped up by Independence Day. But the due date is less procedural than it is political. The sooner the president can tout legislation that makes good on several of his 2024 campaign promises, including a tax limit on tips and overtime wages, plus extends his 2017 tax cuts for high-income earners, the better. The more impending deadlines are sometime in August, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the federal government is at risk of hitting its debt ceiling, and the end of the year, when Trump's first-term tax cuts are set to expire. The legislation up for a vote in the Senate currently contains a provision to raise the debt limit.− Savannah Kuchar
Politico
19 hours ago
- Politico
Can ‘Ohio's Anthony Fauci' Stage a Political Comeback?
ARCHBOLD, Ohio — On a Thursday night in early April, outside the banquet hall of a community college off a rural stretch of highway in northwest Ohio, a small group was hovering excitedly around Amy Acton. Acton, Ohio's Covid-era health director, was headlining a Democratic fundraiser an hour outside Toledo as the party's first announced 2026 gubernatorial candidate. Beside a table of wilted iceberg lettuce bowls, Acton greeted a gaggle of mostly female supporters. A woman in her 80s, a former Republican, gushed that Acton had been 'marvelous' as pandemic health director. A woman in her 50s, an employee of a local health department, asked Acton to sign a printout of the 'Swiss Cheese Model,' a visual aid that became a hallmark of Ohio's Covid briefings. A nurse in her 30s showed Acton her Covid scrapbook. 'I feel like I didn't get this part [as health director],' Acton, now five years out from that job, told the nurse, 'getting to meet people and hear their stories.' Acton's own pandemic story is Ohio lore. A Democrat appointed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to lead Ohio's Department of Health, Acton joined DeWine's cabinet in February 2019, with a mandate to address health outcomes in a state still grappling with the opioid epidemic. A year later, Acton was thrust into overseeing the statewide response to a global pandemic and cultivating a national profile as a compassionate and telegenic leader who put Ohio at the forefront of proactive school closures. Ohio's first stay-at-home orders went into effect on March 23, 2020. 'Today is the day we batten down the hatches,' Acton said at the time. By mid-June, following weeks of nonstop demonstrations outside her home (which included armed protesters and signs with antisemitic symbols), the harassment of her family both in Ohio and out-of-state, and an effort to blunt her powers in the legislature, Acton resigned as health director, a decision she later said was due to political pressure to sign health orders she opposed, specifically one to allow large, maskless crowds at county fairs. Acton's current-day campaign pitch to succeed DeWine begins where she left off as health director: 'I saw under the hood during Covid. I saw how fragile our democracy is,' she tells voters. 'I'm running for governor because I refuse to look the other way while our state continues to go in the wrong direction on every measure.' There's no existing model for Acton's candidacy — she's the only Covid-era health director using that experience as a springboard to run for a top statewide office, at a time when the only sitting U.S. governor who was previously a physician is Democrat Josh Green of Hawaii. How voters ultimately assess her will offer a window into how a segment of the country has processed the pandemic and its aftermath half a decade later. The takeaways won't be definitive. Acton enters the race at a distinct disadvantage, beyond even her reputation on the right as the chief architect of the state's divisive lockdowns. Donald Trump ushered in a new conservative era in Ohio, the state responsible for making JD Vance a senator. The likely GOP nominee for governor is Vivek Ramaswamy, a MAGA celebrity from Cincinnati who has effectively cleared his own primary with endorsements from Trump and the Ohio Republican Party. Acton may not even win her own primary next May, which could feature ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Rep. Tim Ryan, two of the state's most prominent Democrats. That hasn't stopped Ramaswamy from treating Acton as his opponent, calling her an 'Anthony Fauci knockoff' who 'owes an apology to every kid in Ohio for the Covid public school shutdown.' It can be hard now to imagine the Before Times, when Amy Acton and Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor during the pandemic, were obscure government bureaucrats. In Acton's case, the aggressively unglamorous role of state health director was not typically seen as a launchpad for stardom or a political career. But the dark days of early Covid elevated a host of unlikely voices from the trenches of public health and medicine, including Acton, Fauci, and White House Covid coordinator Deborah Birx. Those days revealed Acton to be a compelling communicator with a knack for distilling complexity and putting Ohioans at ease — traits that, in theory, translate well to retail politics, if not for the fact that Acton's skills as a messenger also inevitably recall those excruciating times. 'This is a war on a silent enemy. I don't want you to be afraid. I am not afraid. I am determined,' Acton declared on March 22, 2020. 'All of us are going to have to sacrifice. And I know someday we'll be looking back and wondering what was it we did in this moment.' Acton was lauded far and wide that spring. 'This is why we need Acton right now — she's a guiding star in what often seems like an endless night,' a local news site editorialized, below an illustration of Acton, with her prominent cheekbones and glossy-brown beach waves, as Rosie the Riveter. The New York Times called her 'The Leader We Wish We All Had.' Glamourwondered whether she was the 'Pandemic's Most Midwestern Hero.' Little kids dressed as her in white lab coats. The intensely earnest 'Dr. Amy Acton Fan Club' emerged on Facebook and amassed over 100,000 members. Acton's fans had responded to the way she 'delivered tough truths with clarity and compassion,' Katie Paris, the founder of Red, Wine and Blue, a group that aims to engage suburban women in politics, told me. She was also ridiculed by Republicans who felt her orders amounted to overreach. One GOP lawmaker accused Acton of promoting a 'medical dictatorship.' Another agreed with his wife who accused Acton, who is Jewish, of running Ohio like Nazi Germany. 'She might be the nicest and most well-intentioned person on the planet,' Bill Seitz, the GOP House majority leader during Acton's tenure, told me. 'But people were pissed off at the extent their lives changed, in their view, for the worse, because of these restrictions.' Acton hasn't been in the public eye since the early throes of the pandemic, and she's reemerging now into a totally different world. Bitter Covid skepticism on the right has given rise to the crunchy health and wellness doctrine known as MAHA, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who claims processed foods and seed oils are driving chronic illness, setting the tone as the nation's health secretary. In the years since the pandemic, trust in doctors and scientists has plummeted among members of both parties, and an increasing number of young Americans are getting their medical advice from TikTok and YouTube. In the midst of these trends, Acton will be reckoning with her own legacy and the decisions she made when so little was known about the virus. Acton is defensive of her posture back then — 'a leader's job is to give you a north star, to tell you these cold, hard facts,' she says in her stump speech, an unsubtle jab at her detractors — as well as the parasocial relationship some people have to her from the days of near-daily briefings. (That connection is 'something I'm very protective of,' Acton told me.) She's also relatively tight-lipped about DeWine — who has swatted away any notion he might cross party lines to endorse his former health director — insisting they had remained on good terms after her departure. 'The way we worked together was real,' she said. Acton acknowledges the mere fact of her candidacy dredging up Covid times can be strange and painful for some people — and may even kneecap her campaign in its infancy. 'We did overwhelm hospitals. People died during Covid from heart attacks and strokes because ambulances had nowhere to go,' Acton said, recalling one of the more nightmarish realities of that chapter. 'We haven't been honest as a country and just laid that out there. It's been too political. But we have a lot to learn from that, because we will face crises again.' 'Just hearing my voice, for some people, brings it back,' Acton told me in early April, at a park not far from her home in Bexley, where Acton arrived looking mostly like she does on TV — shoulder-length brown hair, dress, tights, ballet flats. Acton explained how at every meet-and-greet as a candidate for governor, 'somebody is crying in line … somebody is breaking down in a room. It's visceral. You don't have control over it. It just comes out.' Allyson Smith, the nurse with the Covid scrapbook in Archbold, opened up to Acton about being a contact tracer. 'I told her that I was threatened,' Smith said, thumbing open the book to a photo of her children, 2 and 4, in masks. 'It really makes me cry when I look back. It was a hard time … It was actually traumatic for people in a lot of ways.' Acton theorizes this sense of connection with her among total strangers comes from 'everybody in the world … watching the same thing at the same time, [which] led to a bond with me that's unusual. When I was trying to go back to my normal life, I realized people would come from everywhere just to see me speak. It doesn't go away.' Acton traces her empathy back to a tough childhood. Raised poor in Youngstown, Acton was always the 'smelly kid' in school. Her parents split up when she was 3, and her mother eventually remarried a man that Acton later accused of sexual abuse. The family moved a dozen times throughout her childhood and early adolescence. For nearly two years, she and her younger brother lived in a basement below a storefront where her mother sold antiques. Later, the family was homeless, sharing a tent for the winter. Acton ended up testifying about her stepfather's abuse to a grand jury, but according to Acton, he skipped town before facing charges. 'I was in the seventh grade,' she recalled, 'because I remember the feeling of new clothes and squeaky shoes walking through the courthouse.' The rest of her childhood she spent with her biological father. After high school, Acton enrolled in an accelerated medical degree program through Youngstown State University and Northeast Ohio Medical University. Acton credits her medical residency in the Bronx during the crack epidemic with her decision to pursue public health and preventive medicine. Back in Ohio, she spent most of the decade prior to her government appointment as a public health professor. Acton met DeWine through one of his aides while serving on a youth homelessness task force at the philanthropic organization where she worked as a grants manager. In Acton's retelling, she found the governor immediately 'disarming.' Acton was a pro-choice Democrat, DeWine a pro-life Republican who came up in the Bush-era GOP. Before Covid, the role of state health director was generally seen as apolitical (and non-specialized: one of Acton's predecessors was the former executive director of the Ohio Turnpike). Acton said she and DeWine were both passionate about addressing vexing health issues like the opioid epidemic and the state's below-average life expectancy. Their first joint Covid briefing was March 7, 2020. 'We know once again that there's a lot of fear, a lot of confusion out there,' Acton, wearing a white lab coat, told the press corps at the Ohio Statehouse. Two days later, Acton and DeWine signed a health order making Ohio the first state in the nation to close its schools. Almost overnight, the weekday 2 p.m. Covid pressers became appointment viewing with dedicated hashtags on a pre-Elon Musk Twitter and homemade merch. Fans praised DeWine's 'aggressive sincerity, buttressed by his endearing dorkiness,' and Acton's 'super powerful' determination and 'soothing' tone. They produced over-the-top tributes, like a cartoon of Acton and DeWine set to the theme from the '70s sitcom Laverne & Shirly. It was all part of a larger trend of prayer candles for Fauci and liberals swooning over a pre-scandal Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York. 'You could see [the pandemic] being solved, literally, day by day, and then the rest of the time behind the scenes,' said Acton, who praised DeWine for allowing the briefings to be authentic and unscripted. DeWine was also Acton's chief defender during this time, hailing her as a 'good, compassionate and honorable person' who, in the face of intense backlash, has 'worked nonstop to save lives and protect her fellow citizens.' As neo-Nazi protesters descended on the statehouse and Acton's neighborhood, DeWine warned: 'Any complaints about the policy of this administration need to be directed at me. I am the officeholder, and I appointed the director. Ultimately, I am responsible for the decisions in regard to the coronavirus. The buck stops with me.' The governor even lauded her live on air after she resigned. 'It's true not all heroes wear capes,' DeWine said on June 11, 2020. 'Some of them do, in fact, wear a white coat, and this particular hero's white coat is embossed with the name Dr. Amy Acton.' Acton stepped down as caseloads were plateauing and calls were mounting for DeWine to loosen the reins. But Acton was uncomfortable with outsiders influencing how the state reopened, she now says. From the pandemic's onset, Acton had been the governor's top adviser on health matters and a key collaborator on health orders. 'What changed in June was the pressure to sign orders,' Acton said. 'At a certain point the orders started to feel like political pressure … industries trying to leverage their [influence] to get something through the pandemic.' The county fair order, which allowed thousands of maskless spectators, 'just made no sense to me at all … I didn't sign it,' she said. DeWine's office declined to comment on the record, but noted the fair order was introduced several days after Acton's departure. Any illusion of cozy bipartisanship was gone within a year of those early briefings. In February 2021, a reporter asked DeWine about rumors Acton was considering a U.S. Senate campaign. DeWine smirked. 'I'm going to stay out of Democrat primaries, so … no comment.' For DeWine, the price of working closely with a Democrat was a semi-serious primary in 2022. 'I could give Amy Acton a pass, simply because she was acting on the knowledge she had at the time, and she was acting on good faith,' said former Republican state Rep. John Becker. 'The governor was the guy that we in the General Assembly had the problem with.' DeWine easily won the general election, though, which the Democrats now pushing Acton's candidacy take as a positive sign. 'DeWine was rewarded by voters as having been seen as reasonable, thoughtful, careful,' said David Pepper, the former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. 'I think in one way we've let the negative side of Covid — the RFK wing of the world — define the response to Covid, when in fact, Mike DeWine was reelected by 25 points by moderate voters who, on another part of their ballot, voted for Tim Ryan [for Senate].' In early April, as Acton was embarking on a listening tour for her campaign, conservative Cleveland radio host Bob Frantz prodded DeWine about whether he might endorse his former health director against Ramaswamy or another Republican. 'Easiest question you've asked me,' DeWine told Frantz. 'I'm a Republican.' Facing off against Ramaswamy, Acton would be forced to answer for the many things well-intentioned public health experts got wrong at the very onset of the pandemic. We now know the virus doesn't transmit well outdoors or via surfaces, which means nobody really needed to be wiping down groceries or disinfecting the mail. There's also plenty of research now into the harmful impact of lockdowns and school closures on mental health and academics. When I asked Acton about the aspects of pandemic response that didn't age well, she argued her decision-making then was based on the best available data, while also taking into account the imperative to use stay-at-home orders sparingly. 'You don't want to do the throttle down unless absolutely your systems are collapsing,' she said. 'The best way to save the economy was to get control of the virus and be able to treat it and keep people working. So you should have had very few quarantine orders, [which are] 150-year-old powers to keep people safe.' In a statement to POLITICO Magazine, Ramaswamy senior campaign strategist Jai Chabria accused Acton, Ohio's 'Chief Lockdown Officer,' of 'keeping kids home so long they forgot what a classroom looked like. Some lost a full year of learning — and not just math and reading, but basic childhood stuff like making friends and playing sports.' Shaughnessy Naughton, the president of 314 Action, a liberal PAC supporting scientists and doctors that has endorsed Acton and is making a major push to elect doctors up and down the ballot, also conceded that lockdowns are a fraught subject. 'I think you do have to recognize that there are portions of the population that still are upset about the shutdowns, especially around schooling,' she said. With several years' hindsight, Acton still regards sweeping school closures as utterly necessary, arguing that buildings were going dark even before the state had issued orders mandating remote classrooms. 'Schools were closing already because no one was showing up,' she told me. 'Getting kids educated was the question. How do we keep kids talking to teachers? How do we get breakfast to them when they're in a food program? Those were the problems we were solving then, because it wasn't safe to be in schools. But by fall, we started to know how to open school safely.' (Acton was no longer health director when DeWine released school reopening guidelines in July, though she was technically still employed as an advisor through early August.) While many Democrats may be excited for Acton's comeback, others are more clear-eyed about their chances after endless defeats in the Trump era, including Brown's loss to Republican Bernie Moreno in November. 'I think what's unknown about her is where does she stand on all the other things,' said David Plant, the chairman of the local Democratic Party in ultra-red Defiance County. 'She's going to have to really work to define that. Because there's no doubt the Republicans will try to brand her for that.' At a deeper level, Acton has to reckon with the reality that Covid, the event that catapulted her into public consciousness, might render her an unpleasant memory for the many Ohioans who'd much rather never think about the practical reality of that time again. 'I don't think people want to hear about [Covid],' said Jim Watkins, a former director of a rural county health department. 'I hope they would not pigeonhole her with that, but that is baggage that's going to be there.' Acton realizes there are 'probably a lot of Democrats who fear I'm not electable because of Covid. They also think you're not electable because you're a woman, even though Kansas has had three women governors and Michigan is on their third almost. They'll say I'm not tough enough. Some of that was due to misunderstanding about why I stepped down.' But when problems like this arise now, Acton often reaches for one of the lessons she absorbed from Covid: 'A leader,' she said, 'has to maximize the best outcomes you can get with what you have as your reality.'
CNBC
19 hours ago
- CNBC
Gas prices are expected to fall: ‘It's going to be the cheapest summer since 2021,' one expert says
As Americans gear up for summer travel, prices at the pump may be cooling off. This summer could bring the lowest gas prices in years, and the national average price of gas could fall below $3 a gallon as early as September, says Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. "It's going to be the cheapest summer since 2021, when the economy was heavily influenced by Covid," De Haan says. As of Tuesday, the national average for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $3.21, up roughly 10 cents from two weeks ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The spike was largely driven by a jump in oil prices due to the Israel-Iran conflict in the Middle East, but now that both countries have agreed to a ceasefire, De Haan says he expects prices to steeply fall and then resume their "slow decline" over the course of the summer. Typically, gas prices tend to drop throughout the summer due to various factors that increase the supply of gas, De Haan says. That includes jolts to gas prices from the switch to a more expensive summer blend of gasoline leveling off, refineries increasing production and consumer demand softening after early summer travel peaks. "Obviously the Middle East situation is an exception, but now that this is, seemingly for now, in de-escalation, gas prices should resume their slow decline over the course of the summer," De Haan says. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices are near the lowest levels we've seen in the last 20 years, De Haan says. The typical American uses about 3% of their income to fill up their tank every year, De Haan says, whether it's with gasoline or diesel. Due to rising incomes, "Americans are actually spending far less of their income on energy than they have in quite some time," De Haan says. Year over year, the price of gas is down 12%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent Consumer Price Index report released earlier in June. This is largely due to fears that the U.S. economy is slowing down and an increase in supply of oil from a group of oil-producing nations known OPEC+, CNBC reported in May. Ultimately, De Haan says it's important to remember that most shocks will be temporary. The price of gas is mostly determined by the market for oil, which is constantly reacting to global events — so just as quickly as prices rise, they will often fall once the disruption passes. "Every event that's ever affected us from a pipeline outage … to major hurricanes that impact gas prices, all these events are temporary," De Haan says. "The world is changing every day. It's not always for the worst."
