As virus talks drag, Congress works on temporary funding
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and COVID-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill thatwould prevent a shutdown thisweekend.
House floor leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said onTwitter that the temporary government funding bill is slated for a voteWednesday, whenit is sure toeasily pass. The development comes as Capitol Hill is struggling to figure out how to deliver long-delayed pandemic relief, including additional help for businesses hard hit by the pandemic, further unemployment benefits, funding to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and funding demanded by Democrats for state and local governments.
Hoyer had previously told lawmakers that this weekwould probably be the last of the session, but talks are going more slowly than hoped on a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill under assembly by senior members of the powerful Appropriations committees. The stopgap measure would prevent a government shutdown through Dec. 18.
“I am disappointed that we have not yet reached agreement on government funding,” Hoyer said.
Three main items of legislation are at issue in the end-of-session agenda: a defense policy bill thatPresident Donald Trump is threatening to veto, the $1.4 trillion governmentwide spending bill and perhaps $900 billion in long-sought COVID-19 relief.
There are two sets of talks on COVID-19 relief — on the leadership level and by a group of Senate moderates — occurring at the same time.
If an agreement isn’t possible on the omnibus bill, lawmakers might have no option but to pass another continuing resolution that would keep the government running on autopilot and permit them to punt the unfinished spending bills into next year.
New DA in LA: New Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, seeking to revamp the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office with progressive policies, saidMonday after taking office that cash bail will be ended for many offenses and sentences in thousands of cases will be reevaluated.
Gascon, in remarks after taking his oath of office, took aim at his predecessors in recent decades — calling Los Angeles “a poster child for the failed tough-oncrime approach.”
“The status quo hasn’t made us safer,” he said during a livestreamed ceremony.
A former San Francisco district attorney and assistant Los Angeles police chief, Gascon has already drawnthe ireofprosecutors in his own office, as well as membersof theLosAngeles Police Department.
Flint makes progress:
Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis thatmadetheimpoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that plague many U.S. communities, officials said Monday.
A total of $120 million in federal and state funding has helped Flint replace more than 9,700 lead service lines, which carry water from main pipes into homes, said Kurt Thiede, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 5, which includes Michigan.
Fewer than 500 service lines remain to be checked — a task the city hopes to complete this month, he said. The search-and-replace operation, involving more than 26,000 digs, was required under a 2017 settlement of a lawsuit filed by Flint residentsandnonprofit groups against the city and state.
Flint also has finished most actions required under an emergency order the EPA issued in 2016, including the completion of a study on proper treatments to preventwater pipe corrosion and the regular sampling of water from homes that still have lead service lines, Thiede said.
Mayor Sheldon Neeley acknowledged that many Flint residents remain skeptical that theirwater is safe.
“Though the technology is saying we’re better, the psychological impact of having poor water quality for a long period of time still exists, so there is still a crisis in confidence and that’s not going to be resolved overnight,” Neeley said.
Ghana election: Voters in Ghana cast their ballots Monday for presidential and legislative elections likely to test the West African nation’s credentials as one of the continent’s most politically stable countries.
There are 12 presidential candidates, including three women, with President Nana Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo, 76, of the New Patriotic Party and former President John Dramani Mahama, 62, of the National Democratic Congress forecast as the front-runners.
The two have faced off twice before. Mahama won the 2012 elections, but lost in 2016 to Akufo-Addo. If either of the two heavyweights win, they’ll serve a second and final term under current constitutional limits.
A candidate must win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a second round, which would take place in about 21 days.
Mystery illness in India:
At least one person has died and 200 others have been hospitalized due to an unidentified illness in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, reports saidMonday.
The illness was detected Saturday in Eluru, an ancient city famous for its hand- woven products. Since then, patients have experienced symptoms ranging from nausea and anxiety to loss of consciousness, doctors said.
A 45-year-old man who was hospitalized with symptoms similar to epilepsy and nausea died Sunday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Officials are trying to determine the cause of the illness.
So far, water samples from impacted areas haven’t shown any signs of contamination, and the chief minister’s office said people not linked to the municipal water supply have also fallen ill.
Thepatients are of different ages and have tested negative for COVID-19 and other viral diseases.
The longtime executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee has stepped down.
Scripps announced Paige Kimble’s departure Monday, effective immediately, after 22 years in charge of the world’s preeminent spelling competition.
Kimble’s final year on the job ended up being the first year without a bee since 1945. The event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is normally held in lateMay at a convention center outside Washington and includes hundreds of spellers from around the country, along with a handful of international competitors.
Cincinnati-based Scripps has yet to announce plans for next year’s bee, but schools have been holding competitions this fall that serve as the first steps toward qualifying.
Spelling bee change: