Latest news with #AmeriCorps
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
One of America's most at-risk GOP governors gets a Democratic challenger
It's hard to unseat an incumbent governor. But Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has a plan to try. The Democrat announced his campaign for governor Monday, entering the race with just over 10 months to go until the primary. Once a recipient of food stamps and Medicaid benefits, Ford now plans to run against Republicans' cuts to those same programs, which he says will deeply impact Nevadans. 'It was Medicaid that enabled my son and me to have the health care we needed in order to be able to survive. It was food stamps that kept us fed,' Ford said in an interview, explaining that he and his son used these programs for a year and a half when he was a single father attending college. 'It hits me … particularly hard to know that people are about to be hit in those areas.' If he wins the primary, Ford will likely face Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is expected to run for reelection. Lombardo surprised many by unseating incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2022, and is widely considered to be the most at-risk incumbent Republican governor headed into 2026. Ford, an outspoken attorney general who has sued the Trump administration on everything from education funding to AmeriCorps over the last six months, is not the only Democrat vying for the governor's office. Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill also said she plans to run for governor, setting up a competitive primary. Nevada is a purple state that likes to split tickets: Both President Donald Trump and Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen won Nevada in 2024 — Trump with just under 51 percent of the vote. The state joins Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin as one of the five toss-up gubernatorial races in 2026, according to the Cook Political Report. Medicaid has become a major campaign point for Democrats across the country, and Ford is already framing his race through that lens. In a conversation with POLITICO the week before announcing his campaign, Ford talked about the negative effects the megabill will have on Nevadans and criticized Lombardo's response to the legislation — accusing him of being silent on cuts that would harm Nevadans. Lombardo in February asked the White House not to slash Medicaid funding, and in May was one of just seven governors who did not sign a letter in support of the bill. But in July, Lombardo complimented other parts of the legislation, including a provision that removes taxes on tips and overtime. The tip tax policy could have a big impact in a state like Nevada, where many residents work in the service and hospitality industries. 'While my administration continues to assess this bill as it moves to get signed into law, Nevadans should be excited about the potential impacts of tax cuts, investments in small businesses and American manufacturing, and efforts to help secure our border,' Lombardo said in a statement provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the bill's passage. Ford last week attacked that statement, arguing that nobody should be 'excited about the fact that over 100,000 people in Nevada are about to lose their health insurance.' The attorney general argued that Medicaid cuts will have a larger long-term impact on Nevadans than the benefits of removing taxes on tips. 'One of the fascinating parts about Nevada is that it is notoriously purple,' Ford said. 'And it is not at all adverse to jettisoning an incumbent that's not doing his job.'
Politico
3 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
One of America's most at-risk GOP governors gets a Democratic challenger
'It was Medicaid that enabled my son and me to have the health care we needed in order to be able to survive. It was food stamps that kept us fed,' Ford said in an interview, explaining that he and his son used these programs for a year and a half when he was a single father attending college. 'It hits me … particularly hard to know that people are about to be hit in those areas.' If he wins the primary, Ford will likely face Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is expected to run for reelection. Lombardo surprised many by unseating incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2022, and is widely considered to be the most at-risk incumbent Republican governor headed into 2026. Ford, an outspoken AG who has sued the Trump administration on everything from education funding to AmeriCorps over the last six months, is not the only Democrat vying for the governor's office. Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill also said she plans to run for governor, setting up a competitive primary. Nevada is a purple state that likes to split tickets: Both President Donald Trump and Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen won Nevada in 2024 — Trump with just under 51 percent of the vote. The state joins Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin as one of the five toss-up gubernatorial races in 2026, according to the Cook Political Report. Medicaid has become a major campaign point for Democrats across the country, and Ford is already framing his race through that lens. In a conversation with POLITICO the week before announcing his campaign, Ford talked about the negative effects the megabill will have on Nevadans and criticized Lombardo's response to the legislation — accusing him of being silent on cuts that would harm Nevadans. Lombardo in February asked the White House not to slash Medicaid funding, and in May was one of just seven governors who did not sign a letter in support of the bill. But in July, Lombardo complimented other parts of the legislation, including a provision that removes taxes on tips and overtime. The tip tax policy could have a big impact in a state like Nevada, where many residents work in the service and hospitality industries. 'While my administration continues to assess this bill as it moves to get signed into law, Nevadans should be excited about the potential impacts of tax cuts, investments in small businesses and American manufacturing, and efforts to help secure our border,' Lombardo said in a statement provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the bill's passage. Ford last week attacked that statement, arguing that nobody should be 'excited about the fact that over 100,000 people in Nevada are about to lose their health insurance.' The AG argued that Medicaid cuts will have a larger long-term impact on Nevadans than the benefits of removing taxes on tips. 'One of the fascinating parts about Nevada is that it is notoriously purple,' Ford said. 'And it is not at all adverse to jettisoning an incumbent that's not doing his job.'
Boston Globe
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Months after widespread cuts, some AmeriCorps programs receive sudden notice of reinstatement
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A request for comment to the AmeriCorps press office was not returned. Much of the national program office staff was also put on indefinite leave in April. The Office of Management and Budget also did not respond to a request for comment on the reversal or future funding. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Though court orders previously had already mandated that some programs be restored, those rulings were limited to the group of Democratic-led states and coalition of third-party organizations, including the employee union, that sued. The notifications that came this week extended the possibility of restored funding to programs in Republican-led states that had not joined the litigation. Advertisement It is unclear how the reinstatement, which applies to programs already funded under the fiscal year 2024 federal budget, will proceed. Some programs were able to tap other funding to extend the service members and their projects until the end of their contracts. Others had to make layoffs and shutter activities that could be difficult to reverse. Not all terminated programs had received the reinstatement notice by Thursday. And AmeriCorps organizations and commissions had already been warning that the Trump administration was withholding approved funding for the next fiscal year, as well, imperiling their ability to continue projects into the next term. But one program that did receive word they could reopen their funding was the Lakes Region Conservation Corps, operated by the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness, N.H., and other local conservation partners. The organization had 15 full-time and 12 part-time service members that have provided environmental education to 3,000 people, maintained over 100 acres of trails and has been heavily involved in removing invasive species like Milfoil from the lake to maintain it as an outdoor attraction. In April, they received their notice of termination and then watched as regional peers came back online without them in June after the court granted Democratic states' request to have funding restored. Until now, the Squam Lakes Association had been able to tap into its reserves to maintain its current corps, but the long-term stability of the program and its reach was in doubt, its executive director EB James said in an interview earlier this month. He warned that cuts would affect not just the service-members and his organization, but the health of the lake, regional ecosystem, and entire local economy built on tourism and desirable property. They had not yet received clarity on if they would get their funding under the fiscal year 2025 budget, which in normal years would be resolved by now. Advertisement 'Like everyone, it's thrown us into disarray,' James said earlier this month. 'This was a small program that had a really really large impact, but even though it was small, it meant a lot to us and it meant a lot to our constituents.' The April cuts spurred by the then-Elon Musk led Department of Government Efficiency shut down numerous AmeriCorps programs, immediately ending the small stipends of service members who worked in classrooms, workforce development, and health resources. The terminations did not seem to follow any pattern, and some of the programs who had been cut were then awarded funding for next year. Some The New Hampshire state AmeriCorps office, Volunteer NH, declined to comment about the possibility of restored funding. But executive director Gretchen Stallings said the situation for programs in the state was still tenuous given the confusion about future funding. 'Right now, we're still navigating a lot of uncertainty around FY25 and FY26 funding. While two NH programs were selected for competitive AmeriCorps grants, none of the funds have been released yet—not for those programs, and not for the operational support we rely on to run AmeriCorps effectively in the state," Stallings said in a statement. 'That delay is having a real impact. Programs are having to make tough decisions—scaling back, pausing operations, or bracing for shutdowns—while we wait for clarity." Advertisement Tal Kopan can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Calling Donald Trump ‘inhumane' over detention facility ignores reality
After reading Bob Kustra's op-ed on Sunday ('Trump's ethnic cleansing is proof of man's inhumanity to man'), I felt that the only thing I could agree with was that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should follow a more judicious approach in the way they apprehend immigrants. Nobody likes to be falsely accused. The detention facility in Florida nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz is providing air conditioning for the detainees. Calling President Donald Trump an 'inhumane' person hardly applies when it is the president's responsibility to deal with people who are grossly disrespectful of our borders and sovereignty. Aren't Americans who are indifferent to the suffering of their fellow Americans inhumane? Such as those living on the street or, worse yet, homeless veterans? (Those two words should never come together.) And yet, Kustra never references them. I don't know if I understand his implied disdain for his fellow citizens. Years ago, immigrants were brought in to pick seasonal crops; afterward, they returned to their homelands peacefully. Now, some of them think that they are entitled. Really? Last month, a letter writer suggested that immigrants should demonstrate in the cities south of the border where the problem originates ('March in home countries,' June 12). Great idea,Op-ed writer Bob Kustra speaks thoughtfully and forcefully to the Donald Trump administration's cruel response to the immigration 'crisis.' This crisis, he reminds us, would have been eased by the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, had it not been deliberately shot down by Republican leadership so Trump could then run on the immigration issue and produce the Immigration and Customs Enforcement horror show we're now witnessing. With the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' signed into law July 4, the atrocities will only multiply, and we will all feel the pain. I am so grateful to Kustra. Republican voices like his (Kustra served two terms as lieutenant governor of Illinois) need to be amplified. Other Republicans — who serve or have served in office, hold leadership in finance, business, law or their community, Trump voters who hoped he was all bluster when it came to some of his wilder proclamations and whose values are not being represented by this administration — you have an important perspective and one that we all need to hear. Please talk with your neighbors, your friends and your family. Write letters to the editor. Post on social media. Speak at a town hall. Attend a rally. Join an organization that's working to protect our democracy and whose values you share. You are not alone.I was pleasantly surprised to read Bob Kustra's op-ed. I worked for Lt. Gov. Kustra in the early 1990s. Although I was a Democrat, I squared voting for him and Gov. Jim Edgar for reelection in 1994 to save my job (obviously) but also because of the programs we ran out of his office: Serve Illinois and AmeriCorps (youth and young adult volunteer programs now on the Donald Trump administration's chopping block), circuit breaker (that helped seniors pay utility bills), Keep Illinois Beautiful (promoting conservation and pollution cleanup) and many others that made a positive difference in people's lives. I was sad when Kustra resigned to become a radio host, but I'm so happy that he found his voice in the world of media after all at Boise State Public Radio. I'm delighted that he is using that platform to amplify the barbarous acts perpetrated on people in America by the Trump administration. As to his last paragraph, ever since a below-zero cold protest on Feb. 17, I have been in the streets with fierce objections to the Trump administration. I'm glad Kustra has joined our ranks!A gunman, Ryan Louis Mosqueda, was killed at the border after he fired dozens of rounds at federal agents at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. Why was this story buried in Section 2, Page 6, of the July 8 Tribune? And has there been one word of outrage from House Democratic leadership and Democratic representatives from Texas or elsewhere in the U.S.? The efforts to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from doing their jobs has finally led to a death. And I pray there won't be more. But I doubt it. I'm very disappointed in the Tribune for the biased way it has handled this subject and many more conservative issues. The bias shows in the number of left-leaning letters published each day. So much for being fair and balanced. This year, we decided to give the Tribune a try, so we subscribed. I am so shocked at the strong left travel in unmarked cars. They display no badges. They cover their faces and mostly wear sunglasses. There is no accountability to local police or courts. No one knows who they really are, what their qualifications are or what training they have had. The criteria used to choose their targets is a mystery. And the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' provides their budget with $75 billion with no oversight. It surely seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is becoming Trump's secret police. The question becomes, after immigrants: What group do they go after next?In recent days, I've seen posts online celebrating the use of the ICEBlock app to submit false immigration reports for 'fun.' One person joked about reporting locations that sell frozen water. Another called it 'entertainment.' This isn't patriotism — it's cowardice wrapped in cruelty, and it's everything the Founding Fathers warned us against. Weaponizing misinformation to harass immigrant families isn't clever — it's dangerous. It turns fear into a game and treats people like prey, simply because they were born elsewhere. Many of these families contribute daily to our communities, our economy and our culture. They deserve safety — not to be hunted for sport by bored nationalists. But this cruelty doesn't stop with immigrants. It endangers the very Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents these same people claim to support. Flooding the system with false reports wastes resources, clogs operations and increases the risk of mistakes in already-volatile environments. ICE agents already have a difficult job. Sabotaging their work for a laugh doesn't make you a patriot; it makes you reckless. James Madison once said, 'Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.' You are abusing liberty. And while you're at it, you're betraying the very ideals this country was founded on. This nation was built on the backs of immigrants — many welcomed, many not. What defines us is how we treat those with the least power. The shame isn't in being outraged by cruelty. The shame is in watching it happen and calling it 'fun.' When future generations ask what we did during a time of fear and division, may our answer be this: We stood up. We spoke out. We refused to be silent while our neighbors were hunted for sport. Justice won't be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. This is my outrage. And it's time others found theirs, too.I dare any reader not to see Sophie Levenson's June 30 Tribune story concerning the reunion of a Chicago couple owing to yet another Immigration and Customs Enforcement mistake as a thorough indictment of President Donald Trump and his administration's policies on immigration enforcement ('Mistake by ICE puts woman's husband in jail ICE'). Who's going to recover the $12,000 this family has had to pay to the legal system for ICE getting it wrong? How many more stories are out there like this one? How many more taxpayer dollars will be wasted to pay for these false arrests and all the costs associated with them in travel and detention? What is our nation's leadership doing? This about providing safety. It's all about a cruel, cynical, selfish and evil grab for power and money from each and every one of us. ! Never stop speaking up and protesting. It's our only analysis by economists cited by Bloomberg News would have us believe that fewer immigrants in our country this year will mean a drop in the gross domestic product by 0.8 percentage point. In actuality, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigration is a $68,000 lifetime fiscal drain per we rush to close our southern border and deport thousands of unnamed individuals, I would like to take a moment to express gratitude to Mexico for its support during the devastating flooding in Texas. The Acuna Civil Protection and Fire Department Water Rescue Team and Fundacion 911, both based in Mexico, sent people to join in the search and rescue efforts following the overflow of the Guadalupe River. It is important to name these groups. Honoring and showing gratitude to those who step up to help others regardless of their origins is one sign of a civilized society that recognizes the worth of all human beings. It is the right thing to do. Our leadership spends its time implying anyone with origins south of our border is less than honorable and must be deported regardless of their contributions, just to feel powerful. Let's hope that one day, the U.S. will revert to the honorable nation it once is an exceptional amount of animus toward President Donald Trump and the GOP for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was just passed and signed into law. There is also a lot of confusion as to what the bill provides, what it removes and what increases to our already immense debt will be the result. The double talk that is presented by both Republicans and Democrats alike is pathetic. Can we not be addressed with straight talk? Since the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and others project that this bill, now the law of our land, will pile on much more debt over the next 10 years that is seemingly insurmountable. Is it too much to ask our elected representatives to shoot us straight and give it to us in a direct manner so that we the people may understand and absorb the consequences that will befall us? Can we not receive a simple cash flow projection of revenue, essential spending need, interest payment and principal debt reduction for each upcoming year for a three-year period? What we get is politicians from each party putting their spin on the details to generate the reaction and acceptance they want. We're left to decipher the difference between fact and fiction. A case in point is the concerns by Democrats over the reduction in Medicaid. The projection is that more than 11 million people will lose benefits. First is to understand exactly what existed and what the changes are. Are there ineligible people in the program? How many 'very capable' people are abusing the system by choosing not to work? Are these the 11 million people who will no longer have access to Medicaid? If so, is this appropriate in our country in this day and age? Considering we are in debt over our eyeballs, it is incumbent upon our elected representatives to review every single dollar that has been appropriated and immediately cut every program in every department that is not . Further, and as much as this is painful, many programs that were implemented by the federal government must now revert back to the state and local governments. The reality is that over the last 100 years, our government has become a bloated bureaucracy. It is inefficient. It is well past time that our government becomes a lean, efficient machine.I don't recall ever being so revolted as I was by the high-fives and jubilation shown by the GOP members who just took food out of the mouths of our poorest children, health care from millions of people and Medicaid from more millions of people in addition to cutting funding for crucial medical research that saves lives. How is that anything to celebrate and/or to be proud of?
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Another federal judge orders AmeriCorps to reinstate workers, restore funds
An AmeriCorps member works in Philadelphia in this 2014 file photo. (Photo courtesy AmeriCorps) A second federal district judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate AmeriCorps workers who were laid off without notice in April and to restore $400 million in funding and grants to nonprofit organizations. The preliminary injunction handed down Monday by District Judge Matthew Maddox comes a month and two days after a similar ruling in a separate AmeriCorps case in Maryland by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman — whose ruling is quoted heavily by Maddox. Both judges blocked moves by the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to shut down AmeriCorps programs, including the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and various state and private grant programs. Boardman ruled in favor of 24 states and the District of Columbia that sued to block the DOGE cuts. Maddox ruled in favor of a number of nonprofits from around the country, members of an AmeriCorps labor union and three AmeriCorps service members. Both cases were a response to DOGE moves in mid-April to immediately terminate all NCCC projects, along with 2,000 NCCC participants, and to put more than 600 AmeriCorps staffers — about 85% of the agency's staff — on administrative leave, to be laid off less than two weeks later. Workers were ordered to immediately stop working and were locked out of AmeriCorps offices, email and other systems. About $80,000 raised to support Maryland AmeriCorps programs gutted by Trump Maddox said the workers and nonprofits that sued the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs AmeriCorps, were likely to win on their claims that the abrupt government cuts were made without authority, failed to follow appropriate procedures and were likely to cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs. Maddox wrote that the government 'cancelled approximately $400 million in AmeriCorps grants and terminated funding to both direct grantees and subgrantees of State Service Commission…. These actions have led to significant disruptions in the delivery of services that were previously funded by AmeriCorps and provided by the Nonprofit Plaintiffs.' 'This disruption has included the termination or suspension of assistance with college applications, provision of teachers to Indigenous school districts, housing assistance for low-income families, childhood literacy programs, summer and afterschool learning programs, and neighborhood revitalization programs, among other services,' he wrote. Maddox ordered the return of roughly $400 million in funding to 14 nonprofits that had grants to do AmeriCorps work, the reinstatement of hundreds of AmeriCorps Employees Union Local 2027 members who were put on administrative leave on April 15 and subsequently laid off, and the return of three AmeriCorps members who lost their positions as a result of the cuts. Boardman had ordered much of the same in her June 5 order. Besides Maryland and Washington, D.C., other states that sued, and are subject to Boardman's preliminary injunction, are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Maddox's order affects three unnamed AmeriCorps members as well as about 400 members of AmeriCorps Employees Union, AFSCME Local 2027. It also applies to 14 nonprofits: Elev8 in Baltimore; Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota; Bur Oak Land Trust in Iowa; Partners for Campus-Community Engagement in Pennsylvania; National College Attainment Network in Washington, D.C.; Michigan College Access Network; North Carolina Housing Coalition; Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey; Handson Suburban Chicago; Democracy Maine; the Service Collaborative of WNY in New York; Rainbow Labs in California; the SEED Coalition in Minnesota; and the Aspire Afterschool Learning in Virginia. Maddox gave the government 24 hours to file a status report confirming that all parties had been notified of his order and that the government was complying with it. It is to file an updated status report every two weeks.
