CO-03: Dylan Roberts, Kerry Donovan are already exploring 2022 bids to unseat Lauren Boebert

Two well-known Democratic state lawmakers say they are already exploring whether to launch a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert next year, just weeks into the fiery Republican’s term.

It’s the latest evidence that Democrats are eager to capitalize on the controversies, which have grabbed international attention, Boebert has been at the center of since being sworn into office. But the party will still be fighting an uphill battle in Boebert’s Republican-leaning district, which is set to be redrawn before the 2022 election.

State Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail and state Rep. Dylan Roberts of Avon told The Colorado Sun they are talking with people in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District about seeking Boebert’s job. Both took a pass on running for the seat in 2020 when it appeared they would be facing longtime Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, whom Boebert shockingly knocked out in last year’s primary.

“She’s done a terrible job,” Donovan said about why she is interested in running for Boebert’s seat.



https://www.vaildaily.com/news/eagle-valley/dylan-roberts-kerry-donovan-are-already-exploring-2022-bids-to-unseat-lauren-boebert/

AJC poll: Republicans in dicey political territory in Georgia

After suffering major losses, Georgia Republicans enter a new election cycle in a dire political position, according to an exclusive Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll that found leading Democrats earned significantly higher ratings than their GOP counterparts.

The poll, conducted by the University of Georgia, reflects an upended political landscape after Georgia voted Democratic for president for the first time since 1992 — and then two GOP incumbents were swept in runoffs that flipped control of the U.S. Senate.

And it offered a glimpse at political challenges ahead as state Republicans grapple with former President Donald Trump’s enduring grip on the party’s base as statewide elections, including a fresh U.S. Senate race, loom in 2022.



https://www.ajc.com/politics/ajc-poll-republicans-in-dicey-political-territory-in-georgia/IR5P2X4AK5GZ7O5BF355Q2DWRY/

OH-SEN: Hillary Clinton calls on Rep. Tim Ryan to run for Ohio Senate seat

Hillary Clinton is among those calling for Rep. Tim Ryan to run for an open Ohio Senate seat in 2022.

On MSNBC Saturday morning, the Ohio Democrat said he’s “looking closely” at running following Republican Sen. Rob Portman's recent decision not to seek a third Senate term.

Shortly after, Clinton echoed a call for Ryan to run from Kathy DiCristofaro, chair of the Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus.

“Ohio needs leaders like @TimRyan to fight for working people. I’m all In!” DiCristofaro had tweeted.

“You’re right, Kathy!” the former Democratic nominee replied in a tweet.

Ryan backed Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary over Bernie Sanders and also allied with her in 2008. He has also gotten support for running from progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).


https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/30/hillary-clinton-tim-ryan-senate-463980

Valerie June - If And

WITCH - LIVING IN THE PAST

Cilia Black - Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!

That was a nice shaker.

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers' Transition to Electric Cars

A new president took office this month determined to fight climate change. Wall Street investors think Tesla is worth more than General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford put together. And China, the world’s biggest car market, recently ordered that most new cars be powered by electricity in just 15 years.

Those large forces help explain the decision by G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, that the company will aim to sell only zero-emission cars and trucks by 2035.

Her announcement, just a day after President Biden signed an executive order on climate change, blindsided rivals who usually seek to present a united message on emissions and other policy issues. But it was also years in the making. G.M. has had a love-hate relationship with electric cars going back decades, but under Ms. Barra, who took over in 2014, it has inched its way toward a full embrace of the technology.

She has also shown a penchant for making big moves that her predecessors might have considered brash or impulsive given the company’s reputation for deliberate — or plodding to some — decision making. When Donald J. Trump became president, she pushed him to relax Obama-era fuel economy standards that G.M. had endorsed when they were put in place. Then, after Mr. Trump lost his re-election bid in November, Ms. Barra withdrew from a lawsuit seeking to prevent California from maintaining its own high fuel standards.




https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/business/general-motors-electric-cars.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

Federal workers would be eligible for paid leave for more reasons under this House bill

Federal employees would be eligible for paid leave up to 12 weeks in a 12-month period, including for personal or family medical conditions and obligations related to a spouse, child or parent being called to active military duty, under a bill introduced Thursday.
Most federal workers already may take up to 12 weeks of paid time within 12 months of the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child. But only unpaid time is allowed for the other purposes.

Enactment of paid parental leave in 2019 represented one of the most substantial expansions of federal benefits since the Family and Medical Leave Act was passed in 1993. But sponsors say the new bill is needed to fill in where that law fell short.

Sponsor Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said she is optimistic the bill will become law — either on its own or attached to another — two decades after she first proposed paid family leave. During that time, the House twice passed bills allowing for lesser amounts of paid family and medical leave time for federal employees, but the Senate did not act on them.

“You can see changing attitudes with so many women at the table,” she said in a telephone interview. “I think there’s an acceptance of family issues, ­work-family balance, the reality that it takes two paychecks in most families to raise a child.”

She added, “I also feel that the federal government oftentimes leads the way in social issues, and I’m hopeful that this
bill, when we pass it, will be a model for the private sector to move forward with a national standard on family support issues.”
However, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, said “the Democrats’ massive expansion of paid leave is ripe for fraud and abuse and provides those with job security a brand new swath of benefits.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-employees-paid-leave-maloney/2021/01/28/b1be74ce-61ad-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

Biden's sign language interpreter has translated far-right misinformation

A gesture meant to bolster President Biden’s call for unity and inclusion instead inspired divisiveness, after news emerged that a

White House American Sign Language interpreter was a Trump supporter who previously interpreted videos rife with misinformation.
Heather Mewshaw, who appeared in the White House coronavirus briefing on Monday beside press secretary Jen Psaki, was identified by deaf and hard-of-hearing advocates and Time magazine, fueling questions about the White House’s vetting process and what could have happened if Mewshaw had misinterpreted Biden officials or inserted her own bias. No one has publicly disputed her interpretation, but many questioned why the White House would legitimize her by giving Mewshaw the national platform.

A right-wing group she produced videos for acknowledged it was Mewshaw, who has not appeared in a White House briefing since Monday.

Mewshaw and the White House did not respond to requests for comment, but people in the deaf community told The Washington Post and wrote on social media that they felt Mewshaw’s role in the Biden White House signaled the administration didn’t fully understand the significance of the interpreter role, equating the use of Mewshaw to Biden hiring Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as his own spokeswoman.

Because spoken English cannot be directly translated to sign language, interpreters deconstruct words and phrases to express the spirit of the message, allowing interpretations to be colored, either intentionally or unwittingly, by biases, experts said.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/28/biden-asl-interpreter-heather-mewshaw/