The stock market went up — but Trump will be furious about why: CNN's Jim Acosta
March 04, 2020
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Greg Abbott issues disaster declaration for Texas ice storm
February 04, 2023
Four days after an ice storm left hundreds of thousands of Texans without power, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for seven counties impacted by the severe weather.
Subfreezing temperatures combined with rain to produce a nasty storm that coated much of the Texas Hill Country in ice, toppling tree limbs and downing electric lines. As of Saturday evening, more than 60,000 households were still without power.
"The State of Texas has provided all assistance requested throughout the severe weather this week, and we continue to ensure that communities across our state have the resources and support they need to recover from the winter weather event," Abbott said in a statement.
Abbott issued the declaration for Denton, Hays, Henderson, Milam, Smith, Travis and Williamson counties, all of which experienced significant damage over the last week. Abbott said more counties may be added based on damage assessments still in progress.
Abbott said the declaration would enable the state to provide assistance to people and communities with property damage. He encouraged residents to report damage, with details and photos if possible, through the Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool survey.
The declaration came after Austin officials faced criticism for fumbling communication about the storm and falling short on early promises of a quick resolution to the outages.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Austin Energy officials waited more than 24 hours after people began losing power to hold the first press conference. And hours after they spoke Thursday, the electricity provider walked back its estimate that power would be restored by the end of the third day of outages, extending the sense of uncertainty. Eventually, the city-owned utility said it could no longer promise when electricity would be fully restored.
Despite frustration about the initial slow pace, progress has been made. Between Thursday and Saturday, almost 100,000 Austin customers had their power restored.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/04/texas-ice-storm-disaster-austin-power-outage/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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'Perfect Man': Accused Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger gets love letters from Kentucky mom
February 04, 2023
The man accused of the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students last November has apparently been receiving passionate love letters from a Kentucky single mom, multiple outlets are reporting.
Murder suspect Bryan Kohberger is described as “my divine masculine (sic)” and “my perfect man,” according to Fox News and the New York Daily News, among others.
Kohberger also received photos from the woman, “who goes by Brittney J. Hislope on Facebook and claims to have a 16-year-old son.” Fox News reported that she “has written about her feelings for Kohberger nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day since early January.” And it quoted this:
“’I know that the last I had heard weeks ago is that Bryan is being kept isolated from other inmates, and so I know that we do both likely sleep alone as I mentioned in a past post,’ Hislope wrote in her most recent post, which was dated shortly after midnight Friday.”
READ: 'Stuff of nightmares': Bicyclist killed after driver runs into him and stabs him to death
The Daily News also reported on the posts.
“In a series of love letters posted to social media, a woman named Brittney Hislope gushes over Kohberger, declaring him her “love interest” and a “perfect man,” it reported. ‘I don’t know if Bryan is or was single when he supposedly committed the murders, but I wonder if he and I ever would’ve met if he would’ve like me and if we could’ve connected well,’” Hislope wrote in one lengthy note.”
The Daily News reported that the woman “acknowledged some of her commenters, who compared her romantic feelings to women who swooned over Ted Bundy, the notorious 1970s serial killer who confessed to 30 murders.”
As Raw Story reported, University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death in their beds on November 13 at their off-campus dormitory.
Kohberger is being held without bail in a jail in Latah County, Idaho. He has been charged with four counts of felony murder along with one count of felony burglary in connection with their killings.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Durham's dud is worse than it looks — and now Trump suddenly doesn't want to talk witch hunts
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White House says GOP bill would force 'one of the biggest Medicare benefit cuts' in history
February 04, 2023
The White House on Saturday condemned a newly introduced Republican bill that would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that includes a number of changes aimed at lowering costs for Medicare recipients.
Unveiled Thursday by freshman Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), the bill has 20 original co-sponsors and is endorsed by several right-wing groups, including the Koch-funded organization Americans for Prosperity.
The Biden White House argued that rolling back the Inflation Reduction Act, which also contains major climate investments, would represent "one of the biggest Medicare benefit cuts in American history" as well as a "handout to Big Pharma." According to Politico, which first reported the White House's response to the GOP bill, the administration is planning to release "state-by-state data indicating how this would affect constituents in different areas."
"House Republicans are trying to slash lifelines for middle-class families on behalf of rich special interests," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. "Who on earth thinks that welfare for Big Pharma is worth selling out over a million seniors in their home state?”
The Inflation Reduction Act authorized a $35-per-month cap on insulin copayments for Medicare recipients, as well as an annual $2,000 total limit on out-of-pocket drug costs.
The bill will also, among other long-overdue changes, allow Medicare to begin negotiating the prices of a subset of the most expensive prescription drugs directly with pharmaceutical companies, which fiercely opposed the law and are working with Republicans to sabotage it. The newly negotiated prices are set to take effect in 2026.
Ogles, whose two-page bill would eliminate the above reforms, repeatedly attacked Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs and protections during his 2022 campaign for the U.S. House.
The White House's critique of Ogles' bill comes as Biden is facing pressure from advocates and physicians to cancel a Medicare privatization scheme that his administration inherited from its right-wing predecessor and rebranded.
It also comes as the White House is locked in a standoff with House Republicans over the debt ceiling. Republican lawmakers have pushed for deeply unpopular cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and other critical federal programs as a necessary condition for any deal to raise the country's borrowing limit and avert a catastrophic default.
"In less than a month, MAGA extremists have threatened to drive the economy into a recession by defaulting on our debt, promised to bring up a bill to impose a 30% national sales tax, and now have introduced legislation to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act," Patrick Gaspard, president and CEO of the Democratic Party-aligned Center for American Progress said in a statement. "This will cut taxes for corporations who earn billions in profit while empowering Big Pharma and Big Oil to continue ripping off the American people."
"It is vital that all Americans understand what is at risk if MAGA extremists succeed in passing their latest dangerous idea: millions of lost jobs, millions more without health insurance, and higher costs for lifesaving insulin, utilities, and more," Gaspard added.
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