New Delhi: The Centre has decided that states/UTs will ensure capturing of attendance for all the works (except individual beneficiary scheme/project) through the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
This digitally capturing of attendance for all worksites is in place from January 1, 2023.
As per information given by Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, in a written reply in the Lok Sabh on Tuesday, the ministry has been providing training to the states/UTs to ensure smooth transitioning to NMMS app as and when requested by the states/UTs.
The technical issues being faced are taken up with the NIC, Rural Development, on a real-time basis. The new provisions/suggestions requested by the states/UTs are being incorporated. All the issues concerning the NMMS application are reviewed and resolved from time to time.
The NMMS application has been modified to capture a second photograph just after four hours from the uploading of attendance and first photograph. It has eased out the specific time point requirement for capturing the attendance and photographs. The morning attendance along with the first photograph can be captured in offline mode and be uploaded once the device comes in network.
In case of exceptional circumstances due to which attendance cannot not be uploaded, the District Programme Coordinator (DPC) has been authorised to upload the manual attendance.
The reply said that all states/UTs are using the NMMS app for capturing the attendance for eligible worksites. So far, no specific issue related to non-use of NMMS App due to non-availability of smartphone has come to the notice of the ministry.
As per Section 19 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, “the state government shall, by rules, determine appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms at the block level and the district level for dealing with any complaint by any person in respect of implementation of the scheme and lay down the procedure for disposal of such complaints”.
Hyderabad: In another setback to the Telangana government, the state High Court on Monday dismissed its appeal challenging the transfer of the investigation into the MLAs poaching case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji dismissed the petitions of the state government and MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy challenging the order of the single judge transferring to the CBI the case relating to the alleged attempt to poach four legislators of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The division bench ruled that the single judge bench’s order can’t be faulted and interfered with.
The division bench’s order paved the way for CBI investigation into the sensational case. The High Court did not accept the request of the Advocate General to stay the implementation of the order as the state government plans to challenge the same in the Supreme Court.
On December 27, 2022, Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy ordered the transfer of the MLAs’ Poachgate case to the CBI. The High Court had also quashed a Government Order under which a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted by the state government to probe the case.
The single judge had pronounced the order on the petitions filed by the accused priest Ramchandra Bharati, pontiff Simhayaji, and restaurant owner Nandu Kumar that they did not have faith in the SIT investigation.
The judge had also observed that the media should not have been given access to investigation material. He also noted that the state has not responded to the question who provided the Chief Minister with investigative materials.
During the hearing on an appeal filed by the state government, Supreme Court advocate and senior counsel Dushyant Dave had faulted the order of the single judge for coming to a conclusion based on apprehensions of the accused and the BJP without any material beyond reasonable doubt.
Dave told the court that once evidence was submitted to the court, it becomes a public document and such revealing of the public document by Chief Minister to the media cannot be considered as leakage of material by the investigating agency. He pointed out that while the BJP was toppling State governments by defecting MLAs from other parties across the country, there was nothing wrong about the Chief Minister of Telangana bringing to the notice of millions of voters the politics played by BJP.
The three accused were arrested by Cyberabad police from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad on the night of October 26, 2022 when they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of BRS with offers of huge money.
Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others to make them defect to BJP.
The state government had subsequently constituted SIT headed by Hyderabad Police commissioner C.V. Anand to probe the case.
BJP general secretary B.L. Santosh,ABharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) president Tushar Vellapally and a doctor from Kerala, Jaggu Swamy, lawyers Srinivas and Pratap Goud and Nanda Kumar’s wife Chitralekha were also summoned by the SIT for questioning.
Santosh, Tushar and Jaggu Swamy had approached the High Court and secured a stay on the notices.
The high court on December 1 granted conditional bail to the accused.
However, Ramachandra Bharati and Nanda Kumar were re-arrested by the police soon after their release from jail on December 8 in connection with other cases registered against them.
While Ramachandra Bharati was booked for holding multiple passports, Aadhaar cards and other documents, five cases were registered against Nanda Kumar for cheating and other offences.
Amaravati: Youth from Andhra Pradesh are migrating to various parts of the country in search of employment opportunities as there are no jobs in the state, TDP national General Secretary Nara Lokesh said on Sunday.
As part of his ongoing padayatra ‘Yuva Galam’, Lokesh, the son of TDP chief and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, had a meeting with the local youth at Kanipakam in Puthalapattu Assembly segment in Chittoor district.
The youth informed Lokesh that they are migrating to other states in search of some employment and wanted him to initiate immediate steps for establishing companies in the state soon after coming back to power, thus saving the lives of the youth. “The state government should not threaten the companies and only then the investors will set up their units in the state,” a youth said.
The youth from Rayalaseema lost employment opportunities as the Amara Raja Batteries shifted its unit to Telangana. They told the TDP leader that they pursued their studies by raising loans and now there is no employment.
Lokesh assured the youth that all the companies that shifted their units from the state will be invited back once the TDP is again into the government and the youth will be provided employment opportunities.
Responding to the complaint that the RTC fares are revised following which there is a lot of financial burden on them, Lokesh promised to withdraw once the TDP is back in the government.
The TDP national General Secretary also demanded that the age limit be extended for government jobs since the employment notifications are issued very late.
“Why is the job calendar not released on January 1 as promised,” Lokesh asked and said that over 2.30 lakh posts have been lying vacant for the past four years.
“Chief Minister Mr Jagan (Mohan Reddy) who had said that he would make Delhi tremble if the voters from the State give him 25 MPs, is now getting shivers on seeing Delhi,” Lokesh said in a sarcastic manner.
Here’s a day-to-day timeline of events leading up to the dramatic shootdown over the water off the East Coast on Saturday. The following is based on interviews with three senior U.S. officials, all of whom asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Saturday, Jan. 28:
The balloon is first detected over U.S. airspace high over Alaska, north of the Aleutian Islands. The military’s North American Aerospace Defense Command closely tracks the balloon, assessing it poses no threat or intelligence risk.
Monday, Jan. 30:
NORAD tracks the balloon as it travels into Canadian airspace. Officials determine it is used for spying, as it carries surveillance equipment including a collection pod and solar panels located on the metal truss suspended below the balloon. Based on its small motors and propellers, officials also assess it can be actively maneuvered to fly over specific locations.
The balloon is part of a Chinese fleet developed for spying, which over the past few years have been spotted over countries across five continents, including Asia and Europe. Balloons were observed over the United States three times in the Trump administration, and once before at the beginning of the Biden administration. What makes this new encounter different was the long duration over the continent.
Tuesday, Jan. 31:
The balloon re-enters U.S. airspace over northern Idaho. The Defense Department alerts President Joe Biden, who asks for military options to shoot it down.
The Pentagon begins working to keep the balloon from collecting sensitive information from sites on the ground. This was “straightforward,” a senior administration official said, “because we could track the exact path of the balloon and ensure no activities or sensitive unencrypted comms would be conducted in its vicinity.”
Wednesday, Feb. 1:
Pentagon officials are alarmed as the balloon makes its way over Montana, which is home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three sites that operate and maintain the nation’s silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin convenes military and civilian leaders, including U.S. Northern Command Chief Gen. Glen VanHerck and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley, to discuss the situation.
All flights at Billings Logan International Airport are grounded for about two hours as authorities weigh what to do. The military scrambles F-22 fighter jets in case a decision was made to shoot it down.
Ultimately, Milley and VanHerck recommend against targeting the balloon over land due to the risk to civilians from the falling debris. Defense officials estimate debris from the balloon, which is the size of three buses, could fall in at least a seven-mile radius.
The president directs the Pentagon to come up with options to shoot down the balloon as soon as it is safe to do so over U.S. territorial waters, and in a way that allows them to recover the payload. He also directs the military and intelligence community to monitor the balloon to gain insight into its capabilities. NASA begins analyzing and assessing the possible debris field, based on the trajectory of the balloon, the weather and airship’s estimated payload.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman meet with Chinese embassy officials.
Thursday, Feb. 2:
The Pentagon issues a statement that a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon has entered U.S. airspace. Lawmakers call for briefings and begin criticizing Biden for not shooting it down. Reports emerge of a second balloon observed flying over Central and South America.
The military continues to work on options to bring down the balloon safely. National security adviser Jake Sullivan updates the president regularly.
Blinken decides to postpone his planned trip to China, and senior leadership across the administration agree.
Friday, Feb. 3
The Chinese Foreign Ministry releases a statement acknowledging the balloon is Chinese but claims it’s a civilian airship used to collect weather data. China says it entered U.S. airspace accidentally and expresses regret. But U.S. officials push back, saying the balloon is clearly used for surveillance and the breach is a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty.
Biden is briefed on Friday night on the plan to shoot down the balloon on Saturday over Wilmington, North Carolina, including what aircraft will be used to take it down and what naval vessels to recover it, as well as the initial intelligence analysis of its capabilities. Biden approves the plan.
Throughout the night, the National Security Council and the Pentagon work to ensure all measures are in place for the plan to succeed.
Saturday, Feb. 4:
In the morning, Biden speaks with Austin and Sullivan multiple times about the mission. Later, Biden pledges “we’re going to take care of it” when asked about the balloon during a stop in Syracuse, New York. He flashes a thumbs up to reporters when asked if the military was going to shoot it down, as he boards Air Force One at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in New York.
The FAA temporarily grounds flights at airports in Wilmington and in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina. This allows the military aircraft — an F-22 stealth fighter from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, F-15s from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and tanker aircraft from multiple locations — to get into position.
At 2:39 pm, the F-22 flying at 58,000 feet shoots a single AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile that takes down the balloon, which is flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 65,000 feet. The military begins efforts to recover the balloon, which fell six nautical miles off the coast in an estimated 47 feet of water. The amphibious ship USS Carter Hall, destroyer USS Oscar Austin and cruiser Philippine Sea are in the area to aid with recovery. Navy divers are in position to descend to the site if needed.
Once the balloon is recovered, the intelligence community will begin efforts to further analyze the balloon.
“It’s actually provided us a number of days to analyze this balloon [and] learn a lot about what this balloon was doing, how it was doing, why the PRC might be using balloons like this,” said a senior DoD official. “We have learned technical things about this balloon and its surveillance capabilities. And I suspect if we are successful in recovering aspects of the debris, we will learn even more.”
Later Saturday, China issues a statement calling the shoot-down a violation of international practice and threatened repercussions. The U.S. government speaks directly with Beijing about the mission. The State Department briefs allies and partners around the world.
“The balloon never posed a military or physical threat to the American people. However, its intrusion of our airspace for multiple days was an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” said the senior DoD official.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“We’re not trying to be anti-anybody, anti-trans, anti-anything, we’re just trying to protect our kids,” said Bentley, who acknowledged at the hearing that schools expressed concerns that student performances might be targeted if costumes had exaggerated anatomical features or had certain types of singing and dancing. “We’re not trying to stop plays. We’re not trying to stop Peter Pan, or Tootsie, or any of those things.”
Drag show restrictions have become a leading cultural issue during this year’s legislative sessions for the right and prominent Republicans like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is set to deliver her party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Lawmakers in at least eight states — including Arizona, South Carolina and Texas — introduced measures to block children from drag shows at the start of this year, according to PEN America, a free speech advocacy group. Many of the measures would subject educators, business owners, performers and parents to criminal prosecution and professional sanctions for allowing children to view performances, many of which have been the focus of recent armed demonstrations.
Drag performers are not a regular presence at school events, despite GOP uproar. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, reportedly petitioned the state school board association for help this week after middle school students attended an event that featured a drag performance.
The bills often seek to categorize drag shows the same way as explicit adult entertainment, and sometimes include language saying restrictions only apply to “prurient” exhibitions with erotic intentions, or include nudity or explicit material. Several proposals would prohibit drag performances or appearances in schools, while other bills further regulate shows on public property and in private businesses.
Opponents argue that signing these measures into law might not only violate constitutional protections, but also provoke a broader cultural suppression of LGBTQ people.
“The goal for many of these lawmakers has been to frighten people about what drag performances are, and what kids are actually being exposed to,” said Sarah Warbelow, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign.
“Many of these bills essentially allow private individuals to report a performance to be investigated oftentimes for violations of criminal law,” Warbelow said in an interview. “That’s going to have a chilling effect on drag performances from Pride parades, to the drag queen story hour at the local library, to college campuses that might have a drag performance as part of a Pride celebration.”
North Dakota’s House of Representatives last week approved a drag show ban that would categorize repeated performances in front of children as a felony offense, sending the measure to the state Senate for consideration.
Bentley’s measure in the Arkansas House was approved by a committee on Wednesday, one week after the state Senate signed off. Lawmakers backtracked on Thursday, however, by filing an amendment that scrubs all “drag performance” mentions from the proposal.
Sanders appeared eager to sign the original measure into law.
“This is not about banning anything; it is about protecting kids,” Sanders spokesperson Alexa Henning told POLITICO in a statement, before the legislation was amended. “We don’t let kids smoke, drink alcohol, go to strip clubs, or access sexually explicit material, and the Governor believes sexually explicit drag shows are no different. Only in the radical left’s woke dystopia is it not appropriate to protect kids.”
North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office declined to comment on the proposal moving through his state’s legislature, but one of its top Democrats is livid.
“It pisses me off,” state House Minority Leader Josh Boschee said of the bill.
“There aren’t parents coming forward to say there are all these drag performances happening on Main Street and we need to be protected from them,” Boschee, who is gay, said in an interview. “These are all concepts and ideas that are being taken from the dark sides of the internet.”
State Rep. Brandon Prichard, a newly elected Republican lawmaker who introduced North Dakota’s bill, is still confident the measure will win Senate approval.
“There is a clear path to victory for the bill,” Prichard said in an interview. “The Senate is more conservative than it has ever been in North Dakota. And I think that there is a natural tendency in North Dakota to agree with this bill.”
In South Carolina, the proposed “Defense of Children’s Innocence Act” explicitly bars schools and publicly funded entities from using taxpayer dollars to provide a drag show, and would allow the prosecution of anyone who allows a minor to view a drag show with a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine.
“I don’t know when drag shows became the devil,” said Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, in an interview. “To my knowledge, I don’t know that schools are doing this. I’ve never known of a school to do this. The homophobic attitude from some of our elected officials is quite concerning and disappointing.”
A Montana bill would prohibit state-funded schools and libraries from hosting drag performances during school hours or at school-sanctioned extracurricular activities. Librarians or educators convicted of violating the law would face $5,000 fines and the potential suspension and revocation of their teaching license.
Nearly two dozen South Dakota lawmakers have co-sponsored a proposed change to state education law that would prohibit university systems and public schools from using public money and facilities to “develop, implement, facilitate, host, promote, or fund any lewd or lascivious content” including drag performances.
Arizona Republicans have proposed a trio of drag restrictions including a bill that would classify drag performers, their shows, and establishments that host them as “adult-oriented businesses” — under existing law that regulates strip clubs, erotic massage parlors and movie theaters. Approval would prohibit cross-dressing performances within a quarter-mile of schools, playgrounds, and child care facilities.
“The tactics and the angle that these bills are taking are very different,” Warbelow, of the Human Rights Campaign, said. “But the goal really feels the same, which is to ensure that young people have no exposure to the LGBTQ community.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from Centre and six state governments on a plea by Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind seeking transfer of over 20 cases, challenging laws regulating religious conversion, to the top court.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, issued a notice on the Muslim body’s plea moved through advocate M.R. Shamshad.
The bench, also comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha, said: “Issue notice in petitions, in which no notices have been issued till now, including the transfer petition.” The bench also asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani to file a reply.
Five petitions are pending in Allahabad High Court, one petition in the Karnataka High Court, three in the Gujarat High Court, three in the Himachal Pradesh High Court, three in the Jharkhand High Court, and six in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. These petitions have challenged the respective state laws. The Muslim body has sought transfer of all these petitions from the high courts to the apex court.
Also, two separate petitions have been filed by Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments challenging the interim orders of the respective high courts, which put on hold certain provisions of the state laws on conversion.
The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
On January 30, the top court had agreed to examine a clutch of pleas challenging the controversial state laws regulating religious conversions.
NGO “Citizens for Justice and Peace” of activist Teesta Setalvad, had also moved the apex court in the matter but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had challenged the locus standi.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in a written response to a petition filed by NGO ‘Citizens for Justice and Peace’, said: “The petitioner is guilty of collecting huge funds exploiting the agonies of riot affected people for which criminal proceedings are going on against Teesta Setalvad and other office bearers of the petitioner.”
It further added, “under the guise of serving public interest, the petitioner deliberately undertakes, and consciously and surreptitiously espouses, divisive politics in an attempt to divide the society on religious and communal lines. Similar activities/endeavors of the petitioner organization are also found in other states. Presently this activity is going on in the state of Assam”.
The NGO has challenged the laws passed by the Uttar Pradesh government and Chhattisgarh government.
Attorney General R. Venkataramani had submitted that the high courts concerned should hear these petitions instead of the apex court.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced that the Centre will continue 50-year interest-free loans to state governments for one more year.
She also said the enhanced capex of Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development is at 3.3 percent of the GDP.
Presenting the Budget for 2023-24, she said the newly established infrastructure finance secretariat will assist in attracting more private investment.
An expert committee will also be set up to make infrastructure classification and financing framework suitable for Amrit Kaal, she added.
On October 13 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gati Shakti – National Master Plan, aimed at developing an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistics costs.
All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through the NPG, constituted under the PM Gati Shakti initiative.
She also informed that the PM Primitive Vulnerable Tribal Group scheme would benefit 3.5 lakh tribals.
The DeSantis administration made the decision earlier this month to bar high school students from taking the new course over concerns that the lessons run “contrary” to state law that restricts how race is taught in the classroom and that it “significantly lacks educational value.”
DeSantis, who said the original coursework “pushed an agenda,” claimed victory this week after the College Board announced changes could be expected by the framework’s unveiling on Feb. 1. The state’s feedback included scrapping the lessons flagged by Florida officials, such as pieces on “Black Queer Studies,” advocacy for reparations, activism and intersectionality, which is a piece of critical race theory.
Critical race theory is the study of how racism has been weaved into American laws and institutions throughout history. Most public school officials across the country say they do not teach the theory.
“We are glad the College Board has recognized that the originally submitted course curriculum is problematic, and we are encouraged to see the College Board express a willingness to amend,” Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement on Wednesday. “AP courses are standardized nationwide, and as a result of Florida’s strong stance against identity politics and indoctrination, students across the country will consequentially have access to an historically accurate, unbiased course.”
On Wednesday, Pritzker urged the College Board to “refuse to bow to political pressure” and maintain its course. “I am extremely troubled by recent news reports that claim Governor DeSantis is pressuring the College Board to change the AP African American Studies course in order to fit Florida’s racist and homophobic laws,” he wrote, adding that he will “not accept any watering down” of history.
The College Board, in its Thursday letter to its members, said the course has “been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.” More than 300 professors of African American Studies from more than 200 colleges nationwide, including dozens of historically Black colleges and universities, were consulted in developing the official course framework. The yearlong framework development process was completed in December.
“We invite everyone to read the framework for themselves when it is released; it is a historic document that deserves your attention,” the letter from College Board said.
Andrew Atterbury and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Now, Maine Democrats are pushing a bill to eliminate copays for abortion, a policy California enacted last year and that Bonta is defending in court from a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.
And in Minnesota, where Democrats flipped control of the legislature in the 2022 midterms, lawmakers are pushing the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act that replicates several California policies aimed at protecting patients and providers from legal peril.
“One of the places we looked to for inspiration was the blueprint that came out of California,” Democratic state Sen. Erin Maye Quade said in an interview. “Minnesota has never had a reproductive freedom majority in both chambers, ever, in its history, until now. So it was a new muscle we had to develop.”
California’s example, she added, was “super helpful.”
Illinois just passed a law to protect doctors treating out-of-state patients, as California did last year. And Missouri and Washington lawmakers have introduced bills similar to California’s that would prevent state officials and law enforcement from obtaining personal medical data from period trackers and other health apps.
Massachusetts’ law to make abortion pills available on public college and university campuses, inspired by California’s and passed in July, is set to take effect later this year. And New York may be right behind them.
“Each state is, obviously, different, but we definitely are watching what [California] is doing,” said New York Democratic Assemblymember Amy Paulin, who chairs the health committee in Albany. “Like them, we have to provide access, to the best of our ability, for people in our states and allow people to come here and avail themselves of it as well.”
New York lawmakers also voted Tuesday to put a constitutional amendment codifying abortion rights on the ballot in 2024 — something California did last year.
Maryland lawmakers recently invited Bonta to testify as they debated their own measures to shield abortion providers and their patients from prosecution, and California officials met with Vice President Kamala Harris, formerly the state’s attorney general, to walk her through the new policies and offer advice for other states that want to follow suit.
The Newsom administration created a website that lists all of the actions the state has taken related to abortion — administrative, executive and legislative — with the full bill language available should any legislator in another state want to copy it.
“The type of fight we’re having here is occurring elsewhere in the country, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” said Julia Spiegel, the deputy legal secretary for Newsom.
Becoming an ‘abortion sanctuary’
California’s new abortion laws were crafted to serve two purposes: To shore up protections for people seeking and providing abortions and to expand access to the procedure.
In the first category are laws that block California law enforcement and private companies from cooperating with other states that attempt to prosecute someone over an abortion performed in California and laws that also block out-of-state subpoenas and requests for information about the procedure. There is also a new law to shield people in the state from criminal and civil liability if they experience a miscarriage — a direct response to a prosecutor in Kings County who jailed two California women in recent years over alleged drug use during pregnancy that resulted in stillbirth.
Other new state laws are aimed at preparing California’s clinics to care for the thousands of patients from around the country who are already traveling from anti-abortion states — and making sure that influx doesn’t impede California residents’ access.
More than $200 million in state funding has been allocated to help people from other states pay for travel, lodging and other needs, reimburse doctors for providing abortions to people unable to afford them, and help clinics hire and train more providers.
Most of that funding has yet to be dispersed. But as clinics in the state continue to be inundated with patients six months after the fall of Roe, Dipti Singh, the general counsel for Planned Parenthood of Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, said other new state laws are already having an impact. Among them: a swifter and easier process for out-of-state providers to become licensed in California provide new legal protections for medical workers who perform the procedure.
“We were afraid many providers would say they wouldn’t do abortions [on out-of-state patients] anymore because of the personal and professional risks. But we’re just not seeing that,” she said. “And patients are continuing to come all over because California is going above and beyond to ensure it’s a reproductive freedom state.”
State officials, including Newsom, aren’t just bracing for traveling patients — they’re actively courting them.
In addition to paying for billboards last year in South Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas promoting the state as an “abortion sanctuary,” the Newsom administration launched an online tool to help people around the country find a California provider, make an appointment and learn about the state’s new legal protections and financial supports.
In the four months since the site launched, the governor’s office told POLITICO, there have been nearly 60,000 unique visitors and nearly 60 percent of them are from outside of California.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody called the new Biden program “a reckless attempt to continue flooding the country with massive waves of illegal immigrants.”
Florida is already home to sizable populations of people who have left all four countries covered by the White House actions. In recent weeks, hundreds of migrants fleeing Cuba and Haiti have made the dangerous 100-mile journey by boat to the Florida Keys, straining resources and moving Gov. Ron DeSantis to activate the state National Guard to respond to the influx.
A White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden announced the program amid a continued surge of migrants crossing the southern border, many of them coming in from countries that are ruled by authoritarian regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela.
Both Republicans and Democrats have been critical over how the Biden administration has handled border issues, but some of the strongest criticism has come from GOP leaders in Florida and Texas. DeSantis last fall arranged to fly nearly 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, an effort that itself has drawn legal challenges in Florida and Massachusetts. Abbott has also bused thousands of migrants from the southern border to Democratic-led cities like Washington, D.C. and NYC.
Under the new program, the United States said it would grant “humanitarian” parole to eligible migrants who apply from their home countries. Those who have an eligible sponsor and pass background checks are allowed to come to the United States for two years and receive work authorization. The program was an expansion of one created for Venezuelans last year.
But Biden and federal officials stressed that those who wanted to apply for the program would not be eligible if they tried to cross the border.
When Biden announced the parole program, he called on Republicans to support comprehensive immigration changes. He said that changes outlined earlier this month “won’t fix our entire immigration system but they can help us a good deal in better managing what is a difficult challenge. … Until Congress passes the funds, a comprehensive immigration plan to fix the system completely, my administration is going to work to make things at the border better using the tools that we have.”
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Miami) has put together a comprehensive immigration package but it’s not clear if the proposal will gain much traction in Congress.
Both Florida and Texas have launched several lawsuits challenging Biden administration immigration policies.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
