NATION IN BRIEF
Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson demoted by Navy after scathing report on conduct as White House doc
Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson was quietly demoted by the Navy following an investigation into his behavior as the White House physician, a Navy spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
Jackson, who served as the top White House doc under President Obama and President Trump, retired in 2019 as a one-star rear admiral and was demoted to captain in 2022.
According to a Pentagon inspector general’s report, Jackson’s White House tenure was marred by him acting inappropriately, including regularly screaming at subordinates, drinking on the job, and once making “sexual and denigrating statements” about a female staffer.
However, the Texas congressman, first elected in 2020, has continued to refer to himself as an admiral, with his website describing him as a “retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service.” He’s a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
When the report was first released, Jackson described the allegations as politically motivated. The accusations first surfaced after then-president Trump nominated Jackson to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Shortly after, Jackson declared Trump in “excellent health” after his 2018 physical exam. He eventually withdrew from consideration for the VA role.
A Navy spokesperson told the Washington Post the “substantiated allegations” against Jackson — bullying subordinates, “fostering a negative work environment” and drinking alcohol inappropriately — “are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the Secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022.”
A second inspector’s general report released in February found that during the Obama and Trump administrations, the White House Medical Unit gave out powerful sedatives and stimulants without prescriptions and provided complimentary treatment to patients who were not eligible for it.
Kentucky Democrats walk out over bill urging women with nonviable pregnancies not to get abortions
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Democrats walked out of a legislative committee meeting Thursday in protest of a Republican-sponsored bill aimed at encouraging women with nonviable pregnancies not to terminate those pregnancies, but instead carry them to term.
Under House Bill 467, or the “Love Them Both Part II Act” from Rep. Nancy Tate, R-brandenburg, all hospitals, birthing centers, maternal fetal medicine providers and midwives “shall provide or make referrals to a perinatal palliative care program, or perinatal palliative care support services” if one of their patient’s pregnancies is nonviable.
This program, according to
Tate and the bill language, is to offer “alternatives to pregnancy termination.”
Just as Tate was approaching the table during the House Standing Committee on Health Services meeting to introduce her bill, Democratic Reps. Lindsey Burke, Adrielle Camuel and
Rachel Roarx stood up and quietly walked out.
In the hallway, Burke said she opposes the bill because it “specifically calls out women who are choosing to terminate a pregnancy and discourages that. Everything in her bill is available to suffering parents. When you experience this, the hospital offers services just like the ones she proposed, so she’s not giving us anything new, she’s just taking away from what we already have.”
Burke said the bill was “an insult to grieving parents everywhere” and added, “we have a duty today to step up, step out and refresh the narrative.”
Shortly after, the bill passed unanimously. As he was casting his vote in favor of the bill, Committee Vice Chair Ryan Dotson, R-winchester said, “I’d like everyone to take notice: my colleagues on the Democratic side all got up and left. That’s an atrocity. I want folks to understand we’re just protecting the life and health of these children.”
A nonviable pregnancy is one in which the fetus is diagnosed with a condition or anomaly that will lead to their death, either in utero or shortly after birth. In these situations, as the Heraldleader has reported, termination — by way of an abortion or early induction, for example — is one of the handful of options considered the standard of care health care providers present to patients with nonviable pregnancies.
Palliative care for babies born with fatal conditions already exists in hospitals across Kentucky, according to doctors who’ve spoken with the Heraldleader, though not all hospitals may have a formalized program like the one Tate’s bill calls for.
Florida Senate won’t confirm Moms for Liberty co-founder to ethics board
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate won’t be confirming Gov. Ron Desantis’ choice of Moms for Liberty cofounder Tina Descovich for the Commission on Ethics this year, marking the second time since August that an ethics appointee of the governor has run into potential ethical problems.
The ethics board nominees all were recommended for approval by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee last week along party lines. But Descovich was removed from that list after an ethics complaint filed by a Melbourne political consultant suggested her role with Moms for Liberty amounted to lobbying.
The commission prohibits its members from lobbying state or local governments.
“There was a concern raised … (that) Ms. Descovich’s employment could constitute lobbying the Legislature,” said Katie Betta, deputy chief of staff for communications at the Senate President’s office. “That issue requires additional review prior to Senate confirmation.”
Even so, Descovich can remain on the ethics board until lawmakers meet again in session, currently scheduled for next spring.
Glen Gilzean resigned as chairman of the ethics commission in August, more than five months after starting a $400,000-a-year job managing Disney World’s formerly named Reedy Creek Special Improvement District. He quit after news media reports about a state law that says ethics commissioners could not be public employees.
“In the span of less than a year, the governor’s appointments to the ethics commission have starkly contravened the commission’s two cardinal prohibitions,” said Robert Burns
III, the consultant and online publisher who filed the ethics complaint against Descovich. “First, the chair was compelled to resign for holding public office, and now, the chair’s successor faces allegations of lobbying.”
Descovich was appointed by Desantis in September to replace Gilzean.
A spokesman for Desantis said the governor stands behind Descovich, whose Moms of
Liberty group has become a national voice against LGBTQ rights and for book banning in public schools.
$700,000 Michigan casino heist leads FBI on trail back to Chicago
CHICAGO — A high-profile $700,000 heist from Michigan casino last year has led federal authorities on a trail back to Chicago, where a South Side man was arrested this week on charges of participating in a made-for-hollywood scheme to impersonate the casino’s tribal operator and cage boss, court records show.
Jesus Gaytan-garcia, 43, was charged in a criminal complaint last week in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids with one count of theft from the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Tribe, which owns the Four Winds Casino in Hartford, Michigan.
Garcia-gaytan was arrested in Chicago and appeared for a detention hearing Thursday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where he was ordered released on electronic monitoring over the objections of federal prosecutors.
According to the charges, Gaytan-garcia was one of three co-conspirators who stole $700,000 from the Four Winds Casino on the afternoon of July 23, 2023 — a heist that made headlines in Michigan both for the amount stolen and the unusual manner in which it went missing.
“The amount of money involved in this theft is extraordinary,”
U.S. Attorney Mark Totten, who heads the office in Grand Rapids, said in a statement Thursday. “Unfortunately, instances of telephone scams at casinos are on the rise across the country, impacting both tribal and commercial gaming operations.”
Prosecutors said that at least two co-conspirators remain at large.
Michigan judge issues bench warrant for pro-trump lawyer who worked to reverse 2020 election
PONTIAC, Mich. — An Oakland County Circuit Court judge issued a bench warrant Thursday for Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer who worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election, after she failed to appear for a hearing.
Lambert is already facing felony charges for her alleged involvement in a conspiracy to improperly obtain voting equipment in Michigan. Ahead of her trial next month, a hearing was scheduled before Judge Jeffery Matis at 3 p.m. Thursday over why Lambert hadn’t complied with past orders that she be fingerprinted and have a DNA sample taken.
But Lambert didn’t show up Thursday. At about 4 p.m. Matis agreed with a prosecutor’s request to issue a bench warrant for Lambert and to give her 24 hours to turn herself in.
Matis said he had authorized at least four orders previously requiring Lambert to be fingerprinted and to have a DNA swab taken.
Utility provider says its facilities appeared to play role in igniting Texas wildfire
Utility provider Xcel Energy said in a Thursday statement that its facilities appeared to have been involved in igniting the Smokehouse Creek fire in the Texas Panhandle.
The fire, which began in Hutchinson County before engulfing more than 1 million acres, is the largest wildfire in state history and among the largest in U.S. history.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling a cluster of wildfires for more than a week, and officials confirmed at least two people have died in the blazes. Gov. Greg Abbott said in a recent news conference that an estimated 400 to 500 structures had been destroyed. Tens of thousands of cattle were also killed in the fires.
“Xcel Energy has been cooperating with the investigations into the wildfires and has been conducting its own review,” the statement said.
The energy company disputed that it acted negligently in maintaining and operating its infrastructure, the statement said, but it encouraged people who had property destroyed or lost livestock in the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim.
“We will review and respond to any such claims in an expeditious manner, with a priority on claims from any person that lost their home in the Smokehouse Creek fire,” it said.
The company said it does not believe its facilities played a part in igniting the Windy Deuce fire, however, which burned more than 140,000 acres and impacted many structures in and around Fritch.
US jobless claims hold at historically low level of 217,000
Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits held at historically low levels last week, the latest evidence of a resilient labor market.
Initial claims was unchanged at 217,000 in the week ending March 2, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That was in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
In the decade before the pandemic, such claims averaged more than 300,000 a week.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits, ticked up to 1.91 million in the week ending Feb. 24.
While initial claims have remained subdued, recurring applications have been trending higher in the past six months, suggesting it may be taking longer for people who lost their jobs to find a new one. Looking ahead, economists expect the labor market to moderate in coming months as still-elevated prices and soaring borrowing costs take a toll on firms’ expansion plans.
Source: Tribune News Service