Rising homelessness is tearing California cities apart
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A crew of state workers arrived early one hot summer day to clear dozens of people camped under a dusty overpass near California’s Capitol. The camp’s residents gathered their tents, coolers and furniture and shifted less than 100 feet across the street to city-owned land, where they’ve been ever since.
But maybe not for much longer.
The city of Sacramento is taking a harder line on homeless encampments, and is expected to start enforcing a new ban on public camping by the end of the month — if the courts allow.
As the pandemic recedes, elected officials across deep-blue California are reacting to intense public pressure to erase the most visible signs of homelessness. Democratic leaders who once would have been loath to forcibly remove people from sidewalks, parks and alongside highways are increasingly imposing camping bans, often while framing the policies as compassionate.
“Enforcement has its place,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat who has spent much of the past year trying to soothe public anger in a city that has seen its unsheltered homeless population surpass that of San Francisco — 5,000 in the most recent count compared with San Francisco’s 4,400. “I think it’s right for cities to say, ‘You know, there are certain places where it’s just not appropriate to camp.'”
Steinberg is one of many California Democrats who have long focused their efforts to curb homelessness on services and shelter, but now find themselves backing more punitive measures as the problem encroaches on public feelings of peace and safety. It’s a striking shift for a state where 113,000 people sleep outdoors on any given night, per the latest statewide analysis released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2020. California’s relatively mild climate makes it possible to live outdoors year-round, and more than half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless people live here.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the state had cleared 1,200 encampments in the past year, attempting to soften the message with a series of visits to social service programs. But without enough beds to shelter unhoused people, advocates say efforts to clear encampments are nothing more than cosmetic political stunts that essentially shuffle the problem from street corner to another.
Steinberg, a liberal Democrat who resisted forcibly removing people until more shelters can come online, has for more than 20 years championed mental health and substance abuse programs as ways to get people off the street. But such programs have been largely unable to keep up with the rising number of homeless people in cities like Sacramento, where local leaders are now besieged by angry citizens demanding a change.
He and many of his fellow Democratic mayors around the state are not unsympathetic to their cause. San Diego has penalized people refusing shelter. Oakland upped its rate of camp closures …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/california-authorities-uproot-homeless-people-00057868
Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation
Christian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the right.
Prominent Republican politicians have made the themes critical to their message to voters in the run up to the 2022 midterm elections. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, has argued that America is a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a “myth.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia hard-liner, declared: “We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists.” Amid a backlash, she doubled down and announced she would start selling “Christian Nationalist” shirts. Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to be flirting with Christian nationalist rhetoric, as well.
Appeals to Christian nationalism have a long tradition in American history, though they have usually operated on the fringes. But the increasingly mainstream appearance of this belief in GOP circles makes sense if you look at new public opinion surveys. Our new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll suggests that declaring the United States a Christian nation is a message that could be broadly embraced by Republicans in the midterms and 2024 presidential race. But our findings also see limits to its appeal — and over the long-term, Christian nationalism could be a political loser.
Most Republicans Say Christian Nationalism Is Unconstitutional — But Still Support It
Our national poll included 2,091 participants, carried out May 6-16, 2022, with a margin of error of +/- 2.14 percent.
We started by asking participants if they believed the Constitution would even allow the United States government to declare the U.S. a “Christian Nation.” We found that 70 percent of Americans — including 57 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of Democrats — said that the Constitution would not allow such a declaration. (Indeed, the First Amendment says Congress can neither establish nor prohibit the practice of a religion.)
We followed up by asking: “Would You Favor or Oppose the United States Officially Declaring the United States to be a Christian Nation?” The findings were striking.
Overall, 62 percent of respondents said they opposed such a declaration, including 83 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Republicans. Fully 61 percent of Republicans supported declaring the United States a Christian nation. In other words, even though over half of Republicans previously said such a move would be unconstitutional, a majority of GOP voters would still support this declaration.
Not surprisingly, much of the support for declaring the U.S. a Christian nation comes from Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelical or born-again Christians …read more
McCarthy reaches for the GOP’s brass ring: A unifying agenda
Kevin McCarthy will announce it in a red Pittsburgh suburb, not on the Capitol steps. In most other ways, though, his Friday GOP agenda rollout will mirror Newt Gingrich’s 28-year-old Contract With America.
The blueprint that the California Republican plans to unveil is designed to serve as a voter messaging guide for party incumbents and candidates. Just as Gingrich’s “contract” aimed to do, this year’s Commitment to America is expected to set out the GOP’s plans for addressing pressing national problems before a midterm election that’s likely to hand it the House majority.
And McCarthy planned for his framework to echo the eight-point document that Republican lawmakers released on the Capitol steps ahead of their 1994 House takeover, inviting their snowy-haired former speaker to this year’s conference retreat and asking for his input on the plan itself. But the current frontrunner for speaker next year is taking pains to do what 2010’s House GOP leadership class couldn’t fully achieve with its own nod to Gingrich’s contract: get the entire conference on board, from the right flank to centrists.
“From the first day I became leader, the whole job was: You got to unite before you can win. Unite the conference. And then, it’s much better to unite in the minority before you get there, so we’ve talked about the tough issues,” McCarthy said in an interview. “It is so you’re prepared on Day 1. This is the product of a work in a conference for the last year and a half.”
McCarthy’s four-part agenda has widespread buy-in among House Republicans, including high-profile GOP candidates, according to conversations with a dozen sitting members. That appears to include prominent members of the House Freedom Caucus who weighed in on the McCarthy-backed blueprint, even as other members of the Donald Trump-aligned group are still withholding their public support.
“I haven’t seen all the details, but I am excited about it. It’s something the conference has been working on, gosh, seems like forever now,” first-term Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said, adding that she’s been involved in one of the plan’s task forces. “I am really looking forward to a unified Republican conference. I really am. I want to see that happen.”
It’s not clear, though, whether McCarthy can manage to avoid any conservative grumbling about his Commitment to America. Not every Freedom Caucus member is openly backing the agenda, which he plans to release alongside Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).
The pro-Trump group’s chair, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), as well as Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.), and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/mccarthy-brass-ring-unifying-agenda-00057886
Manchin and Capito hit pothole on Country Roads
For a small state, West Virginia has two senators with major pull. At the moment, however, the two aren’t exactly rowing in the same direction.
At the exact moment Joe Manchin took to the Senate’s TV studio on Tuesday and implored Republicans to support his energy permitting plan, Shelley Moore Capito was talking to her own camera on the floor, laying into the Democratic party-line deal he helped negotiate. The divergent messages encapsulated the tense dynamic between Manchin and Capito, whose cordial but up-and-down relationship is being tested by an issue deeply important to their energy-dependent home.
Manchin is hoping Capito will help deliver the votes for his permitting bill set for release on Wednesday, yet she’s telling colleagues she can’t whip votes for something she hasn’t seen yet. The two are expected to talk again soon.
‘”They have a working relationship just like most of us do. Being on either side of the parties, I’m sure it gets strained every once in a while,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
The Democratic centrist Manchin and deal-seeking Republican Capito share a desire to speed construction of massive energy projects. But under political pressure, they’re diverging on the details. Capito has her own bill that would weaken some environmental regulations and has broad GOP support. Manchin dismisses it as a “messaging bill” because it can’t win over Democrats and is racing to finalize a bill that would help renewable as well as fossil-fuel projects.
Their partnership, and the duress it is currently under, is generating plenty of intrigue in the clubby Senate as well as in the press back home in the Mountain State, where a multi-billion-dollar natural gas line would benefit from progress.
Hanging over it all is Manchin’s potential 2024 reelection run in deep red West Virginia and the climate, tax and health care package that he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). As part of that deal, Schumer and President Joe Biden agreed to support legislation speeding up consideration of massive energy projects, but now that push is in doubt thanks to Republican opposition in the Senate — and because its text won’t be public until Wednesday.
After Manchin aired hopes last week that Capito would help build Republican support, she declared that she feels “the onus is on me to provide support for something I had no hand in and still don’t know what it is.” She declined to comment this week on the specifics of his permitting bill, instead saying she needs to see it first.
And in a mark of their unique cross-aisle relationship, she said of Manchin: “We’re friends. We’ve known each other forever.”
He allowed that “we disagree” on the specifics of permitting policy: “I understand that and respect it,” …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/west-virginia-the-manchin-and-capito-split-00057865
House Dems’ latest pre-election push: Stopping another Jan. 6
House Democrats are rapidly pushing ahead on a new bill designed to prevent future election challenges. It carries the added benefit of helping them put Donald Trump back on the midterm ballot.
Lawmakers are voting Wednesday on a proposal to modernize the 135-year-old law that Trump backers tried to use to their advantage on Jan. 6. After weeks of testing a MAGA-focused message on the campaign trail and the airwaves — one that scorches Republicans for the roles some played in Trump’s failed attempts to claim the second term he lost — the vote gives Democrats a chance to back it up with action.
However, it’s far from clear whether the House version can prevail over a Senate alternative that’s incredibly similar and currently has the necessary GOP support to overcome a filibuster. Republicans in both chambers have panned the House bill, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s team is whipping against it, but Democrats are determined to plant their own election-reform flag ahead of November.
“If it weren’t for the MAGA movement, we wouldn’t even be talking about [changing the law],” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who leads the House Democrats’ campaign arm. “So it’s one more action we need to take to protect our democracy from the radical actions of the MAGA movement.”
It’s a sign that Democrats view the MAGA moniker, and the fallout from Trump supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol, as a potent path to persuade voters of the former president’s connection to this November’s crop of Republican candidates. While Democrats have struggled to counter GOP economic attacks, they’re hoping democracy protection can join abortion rights as a way to pump turnout in the fall.
Republicans, for their part, aren’t sweating the pressure from Democrats. They’re expected to largely oppose the election reform legislation, have openly whipped against it and view party-exiled Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) endorsement as a black mark on the bill.
Republican Study Committee Chair Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said he’s “always been open” to clarifying the 19th-century election law but he opposes the House bill and Cheney’s involvement means he takes it “a lot less seriously.”
“I take it for what it is, a political weapon to beat up on Donald Trump and not about preventing a Jan. 6 from ever happening again,” Banks said.
Some Republicans have said they would support the Senate’s version of the Electoral Count Act overhaul — which ultimately could include provisions of the House bill anyway once it goes through a markup next week.
“[With] the Senate version you’ve got Republicans and Democrats working together. I know Liz is a Republican, but the fact is they just foist it on us,” Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a moderate Republican running in a Biden …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/electoral-count-act-democrats-maga-trump-00057843
If not now, when can Canadians expect an election?
OTTAWA, Ont. — As Canada’s Parliament resumes for its fall sitting, with a new opposition leader in place, one question lurks in the background: How long will it last?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government is being propped up by the left-leaning New Democratic Party in an agreement that could keep the Liberals in power until 2025 in exchange for progress on key NDP priorities, including a federal dental care plan.
Over the summer, there was plenty of speculation about whether Trudeau might call a snap fall election to undermine the newly elected Conservative leader before he’d had a chance to introduce himself to Canadians.
But now, the prospect of an election in the near term seems remote. Public opinion of Trudeau has deteriorated over the summer as voters struggle with record inflation. Pierre Poilievre won a resounding victory Sept. 10 to become the new Conservative leader after attracting huge crowds and signing up hundreds of thousands of new party members during his campaign. And Canada’s last election was just one year ago, meaning any party that decides to force voters back to the polls will risk their wrath.
Still, many insiders and observers wouldn’t bet on this government going the distance until 2025. So — if not now, when?
On Tuesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he’s “confident” his party can push the Liberals to meet a 2023 deadline to unroll a federally administered dental care plan for children under 18, seniors, and people with disabilities. If the program doesn’t materialize by the end of that year, he said, New Democrats will withdraw their support for the government. “We’re going to stay vigilant to ensure this is accomplished,” he told reporters.
The Liberals introduced new legislation as Parliament returned on Tuesday to provide “dental benefit” payments of up to C$650 per child per year for those under 12 who don’t have dental insurance. The government is billing the stop-gap measure as the “first stage” of a national dental care plan. By 2025, the program is supposed to be expanded to all Canadian families with incomes less than C$90,000.
An NDP source told POLITICO the party is determined to see the next phase through by the end of 2023, and will likely stick with the government until then. But they believe there’s a good chance the Liberals will pull the plug and call an election shortly after that — perhaps in the winter of 2024. At that point, both parties could claim a win on dental care, even if the program was not yet available to everyone.
A Liberal source with knowledge of internal government matters said nobody’s “trying to scuttle” the agreement with the NDP, and that there’s “no reason not to have confidence” in it. “We don’t believe Canadians want an election, and certainly we’re not looking to trigger one,” the source said.
Of course, the NDP deal isn’t the only factor at play. Canadians are feeling the pinch of …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/canada-election-parliament-00057852
‘Spillover’: Supreme Court’s affirmative action cases could affect the workplace next
In taking the cases, the court added a highly polarizing issue to its docket, and another chance to unwind precedent, after it overturned Roe v. Wade.
A recession is now likely in 2023. Here’s what could trigger a sharp downturn in the economy.
The odds of a recession next year top 50% economists say. Weaker consumer spending and lower corporate profits are among the likely causes.
Ivorian fintech Julaya gets $5M to become banking partner for businesses in Francophone Africa
European venture capital fund Speedinvest led Julaya’s pre-Series A extension round. EQ2 Ventures, Kibo Ventures, angel syndicates Unpopular Ventures and Jedar Capital, existing investors Orange Ventures, Saviu, 50 Partners and Ivorian business angel Mohamed Diabi and professional football player Édouard Mendy also invested in the round.
Mendy’s participation — his first in Africa and second globally — spotlights athletes’ growing involvement in Africa’s venture capital scene. This week, TechCrunch featured
Ivorian payments-led fintech startup Julaya has extended its pre-Series A round by $5 million. The company, which facilitates B2B payments for businesses in Francophone West Africa, mainly via mobile money channels, has raised a total of $7 million in the financing round.
In 2019, West Africa reported the most live mobile money services in any region, with 56 million active accounts. In Ivory Coast, one of Francophone Africa’s largest mobile money markets, 75% of the population own a mobile money account, compared to 20% who hold bank accounts. It’s why Julaya launched its services in the west African country and has since expanded into Senegal, where mobile market penetration is around 80% as well as other countries in the UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) region, which also have prevalent mobile money usage.
Small to large enterprises in these countries can use the Julaya platform to make bulk payments to other businesses and their unbanked employees through existing mobile money channels. But they can now access more services, for example, the startup’s prepaid card — issued by Mastercard — for corporate expense management. The cards are tailored for businesses’ travel needs, other online expenses and easy import of transactions into their accounting systems, CEO Mathias Léopoldie told TechCrunch in an interview.
“Our sense or strategy with the cards is to provide a full range of service. Because if you have just cards, I don’t think you could build a great startup with a lot traction as you would like, for example, in the U.S.,” said the chief executive, who founded the company with Charles Talbot. “The card payment industry, except for South Africa, maybe Nigeria and a little bit in Egypt, is a developing one and while you might be able to grow a business on that, it’s almost impossible in our region [Francophone Africa].”
Léopoldie stated that offering cards — most of which are physical (upon clients’ requests) — is not the main strategy for Julaya in terms of revenue growth. It’s a switching cost strategy which, according to him, differentiates the fintech from competitors such as YC-backed, which see cards as the main driver.
More than 40% of Julaya’s 500 small and medium businesses (SMBs), startups, large corporates and government institutions use its corporate expense management feature. While the most significant volumes come from medium to large enterprises, the fintech has surprisingly seen greater adoption from its traditional and non-digitised small clients, remarked Léopoldie.
Within the past year, the Ivorian-French startup has also extended its range of products to include a “Cash & Collect” solution that allows “fast and secured” cash collection, especially in the FMCG sector. Here, businesses can deposit their cash from physical and field sales into their Julaya account via a mobile money agent branch without going to a bank.
Last …read more
Why people keep correcting the President
• Is the Covid-19 pandemic really ‘over’?
• Biden returns to UN as world grapples with Putin’s latest provocations in Ukraine war
• LIVE UPDATES: Biden and Zelensky to address UN General Assembly …read more
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/politics/biden-comments-covid-taiwan-walkbacks-analysis/index.html