Stefanik calls for 'immediate' legal response to Gov. Cuomo's nursing home scandal

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., addresses next steps of action involving New York governor undercounting the number of coronavirus deaths in elder care facilities.

Recommended Stories

  • Mother whose 11-year-old son died in Texas freeze sues for $100 million

    The mother of an 11-year-old boy who died after they lost electricity and heat in their Texas mobile home during last week's freeze has filed a $100 million lawsuit against two power companies for gross negligence. Maria Pineda said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Entergy Corp are responsible for the death of her son Cristian, who was found unresponsive on the morning of Feb. 16 at home, where he shared a bed with his 3-year-old brother. More than 4 million people in Texas lost power and at least two dozen people died after a snowstorm blanketed the state last week and sent temperatures plunging well below freezing.

  • Biden choice for budget chief faces new hurdles in Congress

    The increasingly slim odds — and surprisingly thin outreach from the White House — for Neera Tanden’s nomination as head of the Office of Management and Budget are raising growing questions about how long the president will stick with her, in an early test of how he will use his limited political capital. In the latest sign of trouble for Tanden, two Senate panels slated to take up her nomination, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Budget Committee, both postponed meetings scheduled for Wednesday. For the third straight day, the White House batted off questions about Tanden’s path to confirmation after at least one key Democrat and multiple Republicans came out against her.

  • Canada's parliament passes motion saying China's treatment of Uighurs is genocide

    Canada's parliament passed a non-binding motion on Monday saying China's treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide, putting pressure on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government to follow suit. Canada's House of Commons voted 266-0 for the motion brought by the opposition Conservative Party. Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained from the vote, although Liberal backbenchers widely backed it.

  • Wake Up Call from Halifax

    Tuesday's Wake Up Call comes from Halfax.

  • 70-year-old kayaker drowns trying to save dogs in icy pond, Pennsylvania cops say

    “Any person that would risk their life to save his pets is a small glimpse of what an incredible person this was,” one woman said.

  • Cruz and Cuomo Face Scandal. Trump Can't Save Them.

    Even by Washington standards, this has been a particularly shameless week. With millions of Texans freezing in their homes, Sen. Ted Cruz fled to a Mexican beach, offering his constituents little more than the political cliché of wanting to be a “good dad.” (Apparently, flying your daughters to Cancún is just like carpooling — if your minivan were the Ritz-Carlton resort.) Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas blamed the complete meltdown of state infrastructure not on a lack of preparation from leaders in the state but the Green New Deal — a liberal policy proposal that is not even close to becoming law. His predecessor, former Gov. Rick Perry, suggested that Texans would willingly endure days of blackouts to keep the “federal government out of their business.” It seems hard to believe that any Texan — or really any human — would choose to have to melt snow for water. The outrageous behavior extended beyond the Lone Star State. In New York, a state lawmaker said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had vowed to “destroy” him for criticizing Cuomo’s handling of the deaths of nursing home residents in the past year — an issue that is under investigation by the Justice Department. And Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin senator, said the armed attack on the Capitol did not seem all that well armed. Apparently, he missed the many, many videos of attackers carrying guns, bats and other weapons. And yet, beneath all this noise was the sound of something even more unusual: silence. For much of the past six years, former President Donald Trump has dominated the political conversation, prompting days of outrage, finger-pointing and general news cycle havoc with nearly every tweet. The audacious behavior of other politicians was often lost amid Trump’s obsessive desire to dominate the coverage. Well, the former president has now gone nearly silent, leaving a Trump-size void in our national conversation that President Joe Biden has little desire to fill. That has been a rude awakening for some other politicians, who find themselves suddenly enmeshed in controversy that is not quickly subsumed in a deluge of Trump news. It is unclear whether any will pay a significant political price for their actions. The last administration delivered a constant stream of chaos that may have fundamentally reshaped the kind of fact-based rhetoric and norm-abiding behavior we expect from our political leaders. Already, some politicians have adopted Trump’s playbook for surviving controversy: Blame liberals, double down and never admit any mistake. Biden, at least, seems determined to set a different tone. T.J. Ducklo, a deputy press secretary who reportedly used abusive and sexist language with a female reporter, resigned last Saturday — reflecting Biden’s Inauguration Day promise that he would fire anyone he heard being disrespectful. And in his first presidential town hall Tuesday, Biden repeatedly used two words that many in Washington have not heard in a while: “I’m sorry.” Democrats in Disarray. Kind Of? After a few weeks of party unity, Democrats are showing some fresh signs of division. Over the past week, Biden indicated that he was not fully sold on two proposals backed by his progressive base: forgiving $50,000 of student debt for each borrower and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Both plans have some high-profile champions. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have called on Biden to use his executive authority to cancel about 80% of the student loan debt run up by about 36 million borrowers. And the party is fairly united over a $15 minimum wage, with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont committed to including it in the COVID-19 relief package currently making its way through Congress. The issue for Democrats is how quickly to move. Biden favors a more gradual phase-in of the $15 minimum wage, in part to assuage concerns from business owners. And on student debt, Biden is not convinced that he can erase so much with a stroke of his executive pen. He has also signaled that the proposals should include income caps. “My daughter went to Tulane University and then got a master’s at Penn; she graduated $103,000 in debt,” he said at a CNN town hall Tuesday. “I don’t think anybody should have to pay for that, but I do think you should be able to work it off.” Biden may simply be looking at some political realities. Polls indicate that both proposals are popular, though support for a $15 wage drops when voters are told of potential economic effects — like a Congressional Budget Office forecast that it could cost more than 1 million jobs. As for student debt, majorities back the $50,000 in relief, but support rises when the plan is targeted at lower-income families. By the Number: 16 That was the number of crossover districts — congressional districts where the two parties split results between the presidency and Congress — in 2020, according to a new analysis by Daily Kos. That is the lowest number in a century. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

  • After 170 years, the America's Cup still eludes Britain

    Britain’s attempt to recover the America’s Cup sailing trophy after 170 years has again ended in failure, this time on the opposite side of the world from where the Cup first slipped its grasp. Ineos Team UK, skippered by Britain’s most celebrated competitive sailor, four-time Olympic gold-medalist Ben Ainslie, was beaten 7-1 by Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the final of the Prada Cup challengers series that ended off Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday. Luna Rossa will go on to race defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the 36th Cup match next month while Team UK will head home, eventually to reflect on the failure of a well-funded, talented but troubled campaign.

  • White supremacy a 'transnational threat', U.N. chief warns

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that white supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are becoming a "transnational threat" and have exploited the coronavirus pandemic to boost their support. Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, Guterres said the danger of hate-driven groups was growing daily. Without naming states, Guterres added: "Today, these extremist movements represent the number one internal security threat in several countries."

  • Biden administration suggests it will add 'X' gender markers to federal documents

    The ACLU has been in talks with the Biden White House about the change, which would allow nonbinary and intersex people to get passports that reflect who they are.

  • COVID vaccine reducing risk of hospitalisations, Scottish study suggests

    Scotland's vaccination drive appears to be markedly reducing the risk of hospitalisation for COVID-19, suggesting that both the Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca shots are highly effective in preventing severe infections, preliminary study findings showed on Monday. Results of the study, which covered the entire Scottish population of 5.4 million people, showed that by the fourth week after the initial dose, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation by up to 85% and 94% respectively. "These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future," said Aziz Sheikh, a professor at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute who co-led the study.

  • India, China complete troop pullout from lake area

    Indian and Chinese troops have completed a pullout from a lake area on their disputed border in the western Himalayas, setting the scene for disengagement at other friction points, the two countries said on Sunday. Thousands of soldiers have been facing off since April on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), or the de facto border, including at the glacial Pangong Tso lake. On Saturday, the two commanders met to review the pullout.

  • Tiger Woods feeling stiff coming off back surgery, hopes to play in Masters

    Tiger Woods remains optimistic he'll be able to play at the Masters in April as he continues to recover from back surgery.

  • Explainer: U.S. Treasury's cash drawdown - and why markets care

    The U.S. Treasury is due to run down a $1.6 trillion bank account at the Federal Reserve as government spending ramps up in the months ahead - a move some analysts warn may crush short-term money rates further and flood financial markets with cash. The Treasury said recently it would halve its extraordinarily large balance at the so-called Treasury General Account (TGA) by April and cut it to $500 billion by the end of June. The U.S. government runs most of its day-to-day business through the TGA - managed by the New York Fed and into which flow tax receipts and proceeds from the sale of Treasury debt.

  • Hong Kong crafting 'patriotic' oath for local councils, Beijing wants loyalists in charge

    Hong Kong's government will gazette a bill later this week that will require community level district councils to pledge an oath of allegiance to the Chinese-ruled city's mini-constitution, further stifling democratic opposition. Secretary for Mainland and Constitutional Affairs Eric Tsang said politicians deemed insincere would be blocked from office, releasing details of the bill a day after a senior official in China's cabinet said provisions should be made to ensure "patriots" were running Hong Kong. "The law will fulfill the constitutional responsibility of the government," Tsang said.

  • 'It's life and death': Non-English speakers struggle to get COVID-19 vaccine across US

    Language and cultural barriers have made it difficult for many immigrant communities to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

  • Rock Hill teen charged with reckless homicide after York woman killed in weekend crash

    Police say a car crossed the center line on Celanese Road and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.

  • The Swedish royal family owns more than a dozen palaces and residences across the country. Take a closer look at their properties.

    Their official residence is the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden, a 600-room property that dates back to the 1600s.

  • GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert was slammed on Twitter for bungling the basics of the Constitution

    The freshman congresswoman tweeted that "protecting and defending the Constitution doesn't mean trying to rewrite the parts you don't like."

  • ‘The Muppet Show’ features disclaimer on Disney+ about ‘harmful impact’ of stereotypes

    Disney+ previously added the same disclaimer to many classic Disney movies on its service.

  • Ted Cruz’s wife and children back in US after controversial Mexico trip

    They travelled to Cancun on Wednesday as millions were without power in Texas amid Winter Storm Uri