WASHINGTON – The Trump administration proposed new rules on Thursday to make it easier for small businesses and individuals to buy a type of health plan long favored by conservatives that could bypass some of the insurance protections built into the Affordable Care Act.
The proposal, issued by the Labor Department, would carry out the most significant part of an executive order that President Donald Trump signed in October, directing the government to foster more alternative types of insurance. Proponents say that the so-called association health plans would be less expensive, while critics – including the insurance industry – fear that they would promote substandard coverage and weaken the ACA’s already fragile insurance marketplaces.
Such plans have existed for years under limited circumstances in which small businesses band together to buy insurance. Just six percent of relatively small U.S. companies used this approach last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The administration’s proposal essentially would expand the availability of association health plans in a variety of ways. It would allow individuals to buy them for the first time. And in a significant change, it would classify such plans the same way as large employers’ insurance, which means that they would no longer have to include a set of 10 essential health benefits that the ACA requires of insurance sold to individuals and small companies.
The proposal also would broaden the circumstances under which association health plans could be created.
But the administration would preserve the ACA’s rule that bars insurers from charging certain customers more based on their health status or from refusing to cover those with conditions that are expensive to treat. Insurers had feared that dropping this prohibition would be particularly damaging to the ACA’s marketplaces because it might encourage healthier people to turn toward these alternative health plans while leaving the marketplaces with expensive plans purchased by people who are sick.
The draft rules make clear that association health plans may be sold across state lines. However, they do not go as far as some conservatives have wanted – freeing the plans from state regulation. Instead, the rules invite public input “about the relative merits of possible exemption.”
The rules, posted on the Office of Management and Budget website Thursday morning, are open to 60 days of public comment starting Friday.
In proposing the changes, the Labor Department predicted that up to 11 million currently uninsured Americans who work for small businesses or are self-employed could benefit from the expansion of association health plans. “These plans would close the gap of uninsured without eliminating options available in the health care marketplace,” a department news release said.
The proposed rules do not address a second change that was part of Trump’s executive order – an expansion of the use of skimpy, short-term insurance that has been meant as a bridge for consumers between jobs.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Work crews dump road salt during a snowstorm in Times Square in Manhattan, New York, U.S., January 4, 2018. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
A fast-moving winter storm, whipping the Northeast with blinding snow, has grounded more than 3,000 flights, prompted states of emergency in parts of New York and New Jersey and closed schools from Philadelphia to Boston.
Manhattan could get as much as 9 inches of snow by late Thursday, and Boston could see 14 inches, the National Weather Service said. At 7 a.m., the storm was off the Virginia coast and getting stronger by the hour, said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
“There is moderate to heavy snow from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, all the way down to New York City,” said Rob Carolan, a meteorologist at Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire. “The worst is between now and 2 p.m. in New York, and now and 5 p.m. in Boston.”
Winter storm warnings cover parts of 13 eastern states, while blizzard warnings blanket the U.S. coast from North Carolina to Maine, including New Jersey, Long Island and Boston. Governors in several states have declared emergencies. On Wednesday, the storm brought snow as far as south as Florida. Charleston, South Carolina, got 5.3 inches.
About 72,000 homes and businesses were blacked out as of 11 a.m. New York time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from utility websites. More than half were in Virginia Beach and the surrounding area, according to utility owner Dominion Energy Inc.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County. “Unless it’s essential for you to be out and using the roads today you should not be,” he said at a news conference.
New Jersey closed its state offices and declared emergencies in Cape May, Atlantic, Ocean and Monmouth counties. Massachusetts told non-essential state workers to stay home.
As of 10 a.m., 3,168 flights around the U.S. were canceled, with airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston hardest hit, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based airline tracking service. Amtrak had cut back on train service between Boston and New York, according to a statement.
Traffic was uncharacteristically light on the wind-tossed streets of of Midtown Manhattan, and subways were emptier than normal as many commuters opted to stay home.
The Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad were reporting delays on commuter lines. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority canceled ferry service in Boston Harbor and was running commuter trains on a reduced schedule. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported delays and service changes on more than a dozen subway lines. Bus service to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan may be delayed as much as 30 minutes, New Jersey Transit said.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Ahead of an incoming winter snow storm, a Jet Blue flight waits to take off from Logan International Airport next to the frozen waters of the Atlantic Ocean harbour between Winthrop and Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., January 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
High winds brought on near whiteout conditions in much of Long Island.
In addition to the snow, coastal areas are at risk for flooding, the weather service said. Tides in New York could run about 18 inches higher than normal, putting parts of Queens and Staten Island particularly at risk until about noon, Faye Morrone, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, New York, said.
Tides could run even higher along the Massachusetts coastline just after midday Thursday, the weather service said.
The storm, as predicted, has been getting more powerful, a process called bombogenesis, which means its central pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours.
“The pressure has dropped tremendously, 21 millibars in six hours, so it is really going to town off the Mid-Atlantic coast now,” Oravec said.
One bright spot might be the storm’s speed, Carolan said. Unlike past historic blizzards that caused billions in damage from flooding and snowfall, this storm won’t stick around.
“It is moving very, very quickly. It is in and out, which is good news because it is going to limit the potential damage,” Carolan said. “It only gets one tide cycle” to bring its worst to the coast.
The speed of the storm could even hold down total snowfalls, he said. It’s possible New York won’t reach the 9 inches forecasted by meteorologists.
As the storm moves north into Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia could get pummeled with heavy snow, high winds and damaging surf, according to Environment Canada. In the U.S., the storm will give way to plunging temperatures from the Great Plains to the East Coast.
“There is a lot of potential for records being broken Friday and Saturday,” said Gregg Gallina, a forecaster with the Weather Prediction Center.
Lows in Florida could drop into the 30s as the cold sweeps across the eastern U.S., Carolan said. In New York and the rest of the Northeast, the low temperatures and high winds will make the air feel as cold as 30 degrees below zero.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Ice begins to collect at the base of the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, January 3, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron Lynett
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.FILE PHOTO – People hold signs against U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed end of the DACA program that protects immigrant children from deportation at a protest in New York City, U.S., August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday called on Congress to deliver a bipartisan deal protecting younger undocumented immigrants from deportation, but he maintained his demand for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration that Democrats have opposed.
“I think it can be bipartisan,” Trump said at the White House ahead of a meeting with Republican senators on immigration. “I hope it can be bipartisan. It can take care of a lot of problems; it would be really nice to do it in a bipartisan way.”
Lawmakers are facing a March 5 deadline to pass legislation to help “dreamers,” immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, after Trump announced in September he would terminate an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that has provided two-year work permits to hundreds of thousands of them. Nearly 700,000 DACA recipients are enrolled in the program; after March 5, nearly 1,000 per day will lose their work permits unless Congress acts.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump would play host to a bipartisan group of Congress members next week to continue the negotiations. That gathering comes as a Jan. 19 deadline looms to enact a new spending bill to keep the government open. Democrats are pushing to complete a deal on DACA by then and add it to the spending legislation – an effort that, if it fails, could force a government shutdown.
“This must be done now,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday. He told reporters later that Democrats are continuing to push for “an agreement to enshrine DACA protections alongside additional border security” in the next spending agreement.
Republicans are resisting attempts to tie the two issues together.
“Our deadline is not two weeks from now. Our deadline wasn’t Christmas. Our deadline is by the first week of March,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who attended the meeting with Trump on Friday.
While Lankford and others would prefer to take a slower approach, other Republicans including Sen. Jeff Flake, Ariz., as well as dozens of moderate Republicans in the House insisted that the issue must be resolved quickly.
To earn his support for the GOP’s tax reform plan, Flake said he was assured by Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that a bill addressing the fate of DACA recipients would be given an up-or-down vote this month.
“The promise we have is for a bill on the floor by the end of January,” Flake told reporters. He called ongoing meetings among Republicans “counterproductive” because any resolution to the issue “has to be a bipartisan bill.”
Trump said that Democratic support on a DACA fix “would be terrific.” But he emphasized that “any legislation on DACA must secure our border with a wall. It must give our immigration officers the resources they need to stop illegal immigration.”
He also reiterated previous calls to end a diversity visa lottery that provides 50,000 green cards a year to immigrants from countries with low immigration rates to the United States. “The lottery system has to be laughed at by people outside our country,” Trump said.
After the meeting at the White House, Lankford and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in a joint statement that the lawmakers and Trump are “on the same page” when it comes to striking a deal that would bolster border security and resolve the years-long fight over how to protect young immigrants from deportation.
Immigrant rights groups, including those representing DACA recipients, have called for a “clean” DACA bill that is not attached to the spending bill and does not contain other border security provisions.
Congressional Democrats have signaled they are open to some security measures, but they have steadfastly refused to support Trump’s border wall, saying such a barrier is costly and unnecessary at a time when illegal crossings at the Mexican border are at records lows. Some moderate Republicans are also wary of supporting a wall.
In comments to reporters, Lankford, Tillis and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who all attended the meeting, tried to redefine Trump’s campaign commitment to build a border wall along the roughly 2,100-mile stretch between the United States and Mexico.
“People want to paint his definition – people want to paint that it’s some 2,000-mile long, 30-foot high wall of concrete. That’s not what he means and that’s not what he’s tried to say but I think that’s what people are portraying it as,” Lankford told reporters. “The issue has always been there’s going to be border fencing in some areas, there’s going to be vehicular barricades, there’s going to be technology, there’s going to be greater manpower in some areas.”
Cornyn and Tillis said they expect any agreement to include language authorizing a years-long project to fortify the border with funding for the new security measures to be doled out in future appropriations bills.
Ultimately, the plan would result in “probably a net increase of 600 miles of wall,” Tillis said. “That will be varying barriers based on where you are along the border, but that’s the long-term view.”
Left unclear Thursday is how the GOP-controlled House might respond to an emerging bipartisan immigration deal crafted by senators. A bipartisan immigration reform plan passed the Senate in 2013 only to be shelved by the more conservative House amid growing political pressure to reject the idea.
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who is helping negotiate a potential immigration agreement in the House, warned Thursday in an interview with CBSN that any agreement coupling a solution to the fate of dreamers with changes in border security “needs to be narrow, because when you start adding on this other stuff, you start building coalitions of opposition.”
“We need to solve this problem quickly and if we solve it this month, that’d be great,” Hurd said.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley as they attend a session on reforming the United Nations at U.N. Headquarters in New York, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Even by the standard of their tumultuous relationship, the growing feud between the United States and Pakistan is unusually serious, with the potential to trigger a breakdown in ties that could threaten cooperation on intelligence, nuclear safety and America’s war in Afghanistan.
Tensions flared this week after President Donald Trump lashed out in his first tweet of the new year, saying Pakistan had repaid U.S. assistance with “nothing but lies & deceit,” a claim that Pakistani leaders labeled as “completely incomprehensible.”
The Trump administration, led by senior officials known for taking a hard line on Pakistan, has been considering a range of punitive measures to force Islamabad to eliminate safe havens used by militants blamed for stoking violence in Afghanistan. The United States has withheld $255 million in military aid since last year.
Experts say that Trump’s penchant for public shaming and Pakistani leaders’ need to demonstrate their strength ahead of elections this year have increased the potential for an explosive cycle of retaliation.
Moeed Yusuf, a Pakistan scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the overt recriminations made it harder for the two countries to set aside their differences and, at least publicly, espouse a desire to focus on shared interests in Afghanistan.
“That constructive ambiguity is a buffer against a divorce that neither wants but both threaten all the time,” he said.
The latest flare-up accelerates a downward trajectory in a fragile anti-terror allegiance forged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
While Pakistan has at times figured as a valued counterterrorism partner, helping to detain key 9/11 suspects and enabling American drone strikes, it has also been one of the most problematic for U.S. policymakers.
Successive American administrations have used a range of tactics, including private pressure and billions of dollars in military and civilian aid, to induce Pakistan to take more decisive action against terrorists within its borders.
American officials believe Pakistan has allowed the Taliban’s reclusive leadership, along with members of the Haqqani network, an aggressive Taliban offshoot, to shelter within its borders, fueling a war that has claimed over 2,000 American lives and consumed massive U.S. resources over 16 years.
Pakistani leaders deny those claims, saying that militants in Afghanistan launch cross-border attacks of their own and chiding the United States for failing to recognize their efforts to curb militant groups. They blame poor governance and corruption in Afghanistan for a conflict that prompted Trump to authorize additional U.S. troops.
“We don’t think you can explain away the whole Afghanistan imbroglio just by putting blame on Pakistan,” Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, said in a recent interview.
Trump administration officials, vowing to get results where previous administrations failed, are considering additional measures, including cutting aid and withdrawing Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally.
On Thursday, the State Department announced it had placed Pakistan on a “watch list” of countries seen as failing to protect religious freedom, a modest step that nevertheless symbolizes waning U.S. patience.
The United States could also consider imposing sanctions, increasing the tempo of drone strikes outside of tribal areas or withholding backing for Pakistan at global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Deliberations on Pakistan are led by national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who appears to share the concerns of other senior officers who served in Afghanistan.
Lisa Curtis, senior director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council, has argued that the United States should pressure Pakistan to curtail arms exports into Afghanistan, expel Taliban leaders and seize their assets.
It’s not yet clear how much time the Trump administration will give Pakistan before moving to impose new measures. Pakistani authorities so far have shaken off the threats.
Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, a Pakistani military spokesman, told the Geo news channel on Wednesday that while Pakistan still considers the United States an ally, “no amount of coercion can dictate us how to continue.”
Pakistan’s increasingly close ties with China – including a new development deal worth more than $62 billion for infrastructure and energy projects – might help soften the blow of any new punitive measures from the United States.
“Trusted, friendly countries will support us at this critical time,” said Mahmood Shah, a Peshawar-based former Army brigadier who is now a defense analyst.
Experts warned that additional U.S. measures might prompt Pakistan to take retaliatory action of its own, possibly including closing road routes and airspace the United States relies on to support its campaign in landlocked Afghanistan.
In 2011, Pakistan suspended access to those routes after U.S. aircraft killed more than two dozen Pakistani military personnel along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later apologized for the incident.
It was one of a series of crises during a turbulent year in which Pakistan curtailed intelligence cooperation following the arrest of a CIA contractor and the secret U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
According to Sameer Lalwani, a senior associate at the Stimson Center, Pakistan might also suspend cooperation on safe-against terrorism.”
The comments followed an angry tweet from President Donald Trump on Monday that the United States had been rewarded with “nothing but lies and deceit” for “foolishly” giving Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the past 15 years.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Hafiz Saeed speaks with supporters after attending Friday Prayers in Lahore, Pakistan November 24, 2017. -Reuters
“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he tweeted.
Pakistan civilian and military chiefs on Tuesday rejected “incomprehensible” U.S. comments and summoned American Ambassador David Hale to explain Trump’s tweet.
Pakistani U.N. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said in a statement that her country’s fight against terrorism was not based on any consideration of aid but on national interests and principles.
“We have contributed and sacrificed the most in fighting international terrorism and carried out the largest counter terrorism operation anywhere in the world,” Lodhi said. “We can review our cooperation if it is not appreciated.”
Relations with Washington have been strained for years over Islamabad’s alleged support for Haqqani network militants, who are allied with the Afghan Taliban.
The United States also alleges that senior Afghan Taliban commanders live on Pakistani soil, and has signaled it will cut aid and take other steps if Islamabad does not stop helping or turning a blind eye to Haqqani militants crossing the border to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
In 2016, Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike inside Pakistan and in 2011, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. troops in the garrison town of Abbottabad.
STATE DEPT: PAKISTAN NEEDS TO EARN AID
At the State Department on Tuesday, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pakistan knew what it needed to do, including taking action against the Haqqani network and other militants.
Pakistan needs to “earn, essentially, the money that we have provided in the past in foreign military assistance,” she said.
Islamabad bristles at the suggestion it is not doing enough to fight militants, noting that its casualties at the hands of Islamists since 2001 number in the tens of thousands.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday chaired a National Security Committee meeting of civilian and military chiefs, focusing on Trump’s tweet. The meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, was brought forward by a day and followed an earlier meeting of army generals.
The committee, in a statement issued by the prime minister’s office, did not name Trump but spoke of “deep disappointment” at a slew of critical comments from U.S. officials over the past few months.
“Recent statements and articulation by the American leadership were completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation,” it said.
In the latest ‘expose’ on the internal troubles roiling the White House, The New York Times reported that a top Indian-American legal advisor deliberately misled President Donald Trump on whether he could fire former FBI Director James Comey.
In a Jan. 4 article, “Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trump’s Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation” the Times said Uttam Dhillon, one of the President’s advisors kept under wraps an earlier finding that legally allowed the Commander-in-Chief to fire the FBI director even without cause.
After a Congressional hearing at which then FBI Director Comey refused to answer a question on whether President Trump was under investigation on the Russia collusion issue, an “infuriated” Mr. Trump “began to discuss openly with White House officials his desire to fire Mr. Comey.”
“This unnerved some inside the White House counsel’s office, and even led one of (White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn) Mr. McGahn’s deputies to mislead the president about his authority to fire the F.B.I. director,” the Times report says. That deputy was Dhillon, a former Justice Department lawyer.
Dhillon, according to the Times, “was convinced that if Mr. Comey was fired, the Trump presidency could be imperiled, because it would force the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether Mr. Trump was trying to derail the Russia investigation.”
But according to existing law, a President has the right to fire the FBI director without any grounds, something Dhillon knew as a veteran Justice Department lawyer who had worked with McGahn.
“Mr. Dhillon, a veteran Justice Department lawyer before joining the Trump White House, assigned a junior lawyer to examine this issue. That lawyer determined that the F.B.I. director was no different than any other employee in the executive branch, and that there was nothing prohibiting the president from firing him,” the Times says, basing its report on numerous interviews with unnamed sources.
“But Mr. Dhillon, who had earlier told Mr. Trump that he needed cause to fire Mr. Comey, never corrected the record, withholding the conclusions of his research,” the Times said.
Michael Schmidt’s report in The New York Times contains so many blockbusters that it’s hard to know where to begin. Here are the most critical claims:
– Special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence, including a memo from former chief of staff Reince Priebus, confirming at least some of the allegations that former FBI director James Comey made and documented in contemporaneous memos. For instance, Priebus documents President Donald Trump’s attempt to get Comey to publicly clear him, something Comey recounted at the time.
– The original draft of the letter firing Comey reportedly contained an introductory statement claiming that the Russia investigation was “fabricated and politically motivated.” The president’s aides prevailed upon him not to send it, but Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (cleverly) took an original copy of the letter. He nevertheless drafted a memo setting out entirely different grounds for firing Comey (i.e., Comey’s handing of the Hillary Clinton emails and the false allegation that FBI morale was low).
– Trump was frantic to keep Attorney General Jeff Sessions in place to protect him in the Russia probe, dispatched the White House counsel to lean on Sessions not to recuse himself and then blew his stack when Sessions did recuse himself. He demanded an attorney general who would protect him the way that he imagined Robert Kennedy protected his brother President John F. Kennedy and Eric Holder protected President Barack Obama.
– A Sessions aide reportedly went looking for dirt on Comey, going to a congressional office for evidence several days before Comey was fired. Sessions apparently wanted one negative story a day on Comey in the media.
– A White House lawyer, Uttam Dhillon, reportedly lied to the president, telling him he could not fire Comey without cause, because he was afraid of what Trump would do.
Let’s look at what each item tells us.
First, Comey, as many suspected, appears to have taken accurate notes that can at least in part be corroborated. The idea that discrediting Comey or the FBI will somehow protect Trump was always daft. Now, it should rightly be seen as a ridiculous, transparent attempt to again meddle in the investigation. Republicans engaged in this gambit should cut it out. They’re enabling a grossly inappropriate plan to smear a key witness to possible criminal activity.
As for the first draft of the letter, it not only shows the “real” motivation for the firing but also suggests a deliberate attempt by Trump and others present at his Bedminster, New Jersey, property to conceal the real reason for firing Comey. Those advisers include Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller. All are now arguably implicated in a potential obstruction scheme, as is Rosenstein, who knew the real reason for the firing. Everyone from the president on down who sought to fire Comey to stymie the Russia probe, if that is the case, and come up with a false rationale arguably committed obstruction of justice.
The effort to keep Sessions in place may in and of itself be problematic. But Trump’s insistence on personal loyalty bolsters Comey’s claim that Trump demanded the same of him. It also reveals an intent to remove or interfere with the Justice Department’s actions, as if it were his personal law firm. The idea that the Justice Department should be protecting him and not the country goes to the essence of abuse of power.
If Sessions was looking for dirt on Comey, that makes him a thug and an unfit character to be attorney general. If he did that knowing the real reason Trump wanted to get rid of Comey, it’s a potential obstruction-of-justice problem.
As for Dhillon, this actually confirms author Michael Wolff’s ongoing refrain in histell-all book that White House advisers considered Trump to be mentally and/or temperamentally incapable of doing his job. To continue to enable and defend him, knowing he is not capable of carrying out his oath, is a moral abomination and a violation of these advisers’ own oaths to defend the Constitution and country. Moreover, if Mueller has this information, it is because Dhillon and/or White House counsel Donald McGahn are talking to Mueller. Trump will now know that he is surrounded, in his mind, by disloyal people who are helping Mueller to make a case against him.
The walls are closing in on Trump, at least with respect to an obstruction-of-justice claim. Literally everyone mentioned above may have evidence that incriminates the president. Some of these people will have personal liability and therefore be ready to cut a deal with prosecutors. The White House is melting down.
The American people are dangerously divided, but one event looming on the horizon has the potential to put us on a path toward unity: the U.S. census.
If President Donald Trump makes no changes, the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020 will again seek to shoehorn some 330 million Americans into official racial and ethnic categories. This system doesn’t just ignore science. It also completely overlooks a burgeoning “mixed-race” population that resents arbitrary racial straitjackets.
Why this unnecessary division? Because for four decades our government has been engaged in the unsavory practice of designating official groups, and standing against any reform is a coalition of special-interest liberal organizations that depend on it for funds and prestige.
Changing this status quo is therefore a fight Trump should relish. If he doesn’t, the United States will continue its present evolution from a nation-state into a “state of nations” – something more akin to the Ottoman Empire, where people were stratified legally based on ethnicity and religion.
The president has the power to change the census. Many Americans believe the division into five ethnicities – white, black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American – has been around for as long as we’ve been collecting census data. Not so. The system goes back only to 1977, when the Office of Management and Budget issued Statistical Policy Directive No. 15.
The groups were then jammed into the 1980 Census, with no input from voters. Science also didn’t get a vote: Bureaucrats conjured up pan-ethnic groups such as “Hispanics” and “Asians” with no basis in anthropology, biology or culture. Today, this regime stands behind the identity-consciousness that is tearing the nation apart. Obviously, we need another approach.
The Trump administration wants to change the census by asking a question on citizenship. Though important and with historical precedent, that modification doesn’t go far enough. A more valuable reform would include getting rid of the official categories and asking simple national-origin questions (“Are your ancestors from Ecuador, Germany, Japan? Check as many boxes as apply.”) and, perhaps, questions on races identified by anthropologists – not bureaucrats.
But even these are too reductionist. Today, you can spit into a vial, send it to genomics companies and discover that you are not “Irish,” as you thought, but instead 60 percent English. Or you could be roughly 30 percent German, 45 percent Slavic, 15 percent Native American and 10 percent Bantu. The census’s official categories ignore this rich diversity.
Of late, mixed-race Americans who balk at being straitjacketed have gained a highprofile defender: Meghan Markle, the American engaged to Britain’s Prince Harry. Markle detailed in Elle magazine a personal experience in her seventh-grade class that involved a mandatory census with only the standard race-box options.
When she complained, the teacher told her to check Caucasian “because that’s how you look, Meghan.” But she couldn’t do that and hurt her African-American mom’s feelings. When she told her father that night, he responded sagely, “If that happens again, you draw your own box.”
Opposing this common-sense approach are the leaders of ethnic special-interest organizations such as UnidosUS, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and many others. They, along with academics from “critical theory” departments – the census “stakeholders” – have enormous influence over the racial questions in the census.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A helicopter flies past a Pakistan’s national flag in the premises of parliament house during the Revolution March in Islamabad September 2, 2014. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
How seriously should one take President Donald Trump’s tweets? His first tweet of 2018, calling out of the “lies and deceit” of Pakistan, had pretty much all of India whooping in approval. Trump’s remarks on Pakistan’s failure to act against theterrorist groups it has cultivated, and his administration’s subsequent announcement that it would be freezing nearly all of its millions of dollars in security assistance to Pakistan, was a “gotcha” moment for New Delhi.
For years, Pakistan’s deep state (controlled by its allpowerful military and covert agencies) has used terrorism as an instrument of asymmetric warfare both in India and Afghanistan. For Indians, Trump’s tweet and the suspension of funds was a moment of vindication. But the unfortunate reality is that publicly shaming Pakistan, as Trump has done, and even the cuts in security aid have very little real impact on a country whose skin has grown comfortably thick from rhetorical battering. Pakistan survives in the smug belief that after the United States’ grandstanding is done and over, Washington will eventually turn to it for mopping up its half-finished mess in Afghanistan. Holding back the dollars every few years is just a nip and tuck, when what’s really needed is a surgical uprooting of terrorist support systems inside Pakistan.
The former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, agrees. “Pakistan’s military has convinced itself that it is acting in Pakistan’s national interest and that pursuing that interest is more important than U.S. aid. An aid cutoff may not be the huge price that would force Pakistan to change a policy of terrorism that is now three decades old. President Trump would have to go farther than an aid cutoff to force Pakistan’s hand,” he told me, arguing that any “limp U.S. response would simply say to Pakistan that it does not have to change.”
It is telling that (notwithstanding the temptation to gloat) India’s foreign ministry avoided any hasty comment on Trump’s Twitter rant. A high-ranking Indian official who works on Afghanistan told me, “India has itself always highlighted the deceit and duplicity with which Pakistan has actually nurtured and protected various terrorist groups while pretending to be an ally in the war on terror. It is good to see that the international community is no longer being taken in by Pakistan’s lies, false narratives and propaganda. Putting an end to terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens in Pakistan is essential to bringing peace to Afghanistan and the region.”
But Indian officials are aware that while Trump’s bombastic outburst gives the impression of a dramatic firsttime tectonic shift in policy, American military aid has been scaled back from Pakistan several times in the past, including most recently during the Obama years. In 2011, the Obama administration suspended $800 million of military aid two months after U.S. Navy SEALs took out Osama bin Laden in a residential compound just three hours away from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. In 2015, $300 million of the Pentagon’s Coalition Support Funds were made conditional on Pakistan acting against the Haqqani network terrorist group in Afghanistan – Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has long been accused of patronizing and protecting the group.
Frankly, none of it has worked.
Last year, Husain Haqqani co-wrote a paper with Lisa Curtis (who today serves as part of the Trump administration) asserting that Americans need to stop viewing Pakistan as an ally. “The new U.S. administration should recognize that Pakistan is not an American ally. It has engaged in supporting the Afghan Taliban, who have killed American troops and their allies in Afghanistan,” they wrote in the Hudson Institute paper, going on to say that the United States must “keep the option of using unilateral action (including drones) to target Taliban targets in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban safe havens in Quetta and elsewhere should no longer be safe.” This unambiguous reference to the possible use of U.S. force and hot pursuit of terrorist havens inside Pakistan is the most direct clue to what Haqqani and others mean when they say that aid cuts by themselves will be mostly ineffectual.
Trump’s stance on Pakistan could also have implications for the U.S.-China proxy war in Asia, as Pakistan moves closer into China’s embrace. This week, right after Trump’s tweet, Pakistan’s central bank gave the green light for using the yuan, instead of the dollar, as a currency for bilateral trade with China. Beijing brings more than $60 billion in investment and infrastructure, prompting the question of whether Pakistan is now effectively a Chinese vassal. More critically, will the slashing of U.S. dollars to Pakistan’s military change anything substantively?
How Pakistan responds to Trump’s threats will come down to whether the United States is willing to stay the course in Afghanistan and fundamentally change its policy. The United States would have to end its dependence on Pakistan as the main supply route for NATO troops to landlocked Afghanistan. It would have to commit to using the more expensive and complicated northern route via Central Asia or spending much more flying in supplies. It would also have to work harder at getting the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table. A failing, inconclusive war in Afghanistan or any U.S. abandonment of the country will only result in a brazen Pakistan, indifferent to Trump’s threats.
The United States also needs to use its leverage to strengthen Pakistan’s civilian leadership instead of its army’s remote-control rulers. This week, ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif called on his country to reflect on its lack of credibility on the world stage, reminding people that he had asked military commanders to isolate militants. But democratically elected civilians have never been able to take control of Pakistan’s security policies.
From an Indian perspective, while Trump’s actions score well for Indian diplomacy, no one doubts that U.S. self-interest, not principled concerns about Pakistan’s patronage of terrorist groups in Kashmir, triggered this outburst. In November, American lawmakers dropped a provision that conditionally linked aid to Pakistan to a crackdown on the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist group responsible for a spate of attacks inside India (including the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai). The bill voted into law retained the clause on linking U.S. aid only to Pakistan’s curbing of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.
This free pass to Pakistan on some terrorist groups, while expecting it to act against others, is part of the schizophrenia that has defined U.S. policy. Trump’s tweet exposes Pakistan’s double standards on terrorism. But the United States needs to examine its own.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.NEW YORK – There’s been virtual pandemonium among immigrants with work visas, lobbyists for tech service companies, and Democrat politicians, since a McClatchy Bureau report came out earlier this week which said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering new regulations that would prevent H-1B visa extensions, aims ‘self-deportation’ of those whose Green Card applications have been accepted.
“The proposal, being drafted in memos shared between DHS department heads, is part of President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign,” said the McClatchy report.
The report said the administration is specifically looking at whether it can reinterpret the “may grant” language of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act to stop making the H-1B extensions.
“The idea is to create a sort of ‘self- deportation’ of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States to open up those jobs for Americans,” said a U.S. source briefed by Homeland Security officials, said the report.
This piece of disheartening news for those on H-1B visa comes on the heels of the devastating news that those H-4 visa holders who had a work permit, an EAD, would soon have to give up their right to work, be confined to the sidelines of the jobless, unemployed, and pitiful, their graduate and doctorate degrees be damned.
If the hundreds of thousands of H-1B workers and their family members, who prefer to live in the US, rather than head back to the country of their origin sense this new move by the DHS guided by the puppeteering hands of the Trump Administration were to actually come about – and reports say as many as 750,000 to 1.5 million in total workers and family members, mostly Indian nationals, could be deported – feel like a stranded deer caught in the headlights of a giant truck bearing down at a manic speed, they have every right to feel so.
Make no mistake about this: this is a calculatedly draconian move by the Trump Administration, meant to be disruptive, create chaos to the entire H-1B visa system; the system of hiring foreign workers, and arm-twist the companies who hire such workers on these visas.
President Trump, whose popularity rating is on the up since tax reforms, is playing true to his base. Although it’s only a memo at this stage, the DHS has made its intention clear: start a war against immigrant skilled workers on H-1B visa, and their families. Banish Brown folks, seem to be the new motto.
With this move, Trump has played his hand: he doesn’t care for the brilliant Indian engineer hired by Google, who could create a new cutting-edge company someday, or the fantastic researcher/doctor next door waiting for his Green Card, and could one day win the Nobel Prize.
The only people Trump cares about in his quest for immortality through his legacy is his base of ‘deplorables’, those men and women in the Republican flank who feel the country is being overrun by people of color, who ‘take’ away jobs meant for white folks and their white children.
Here’s the bigger danger in all this, even if this memo targeting H-1B workers remain an unfulfilled wish, bogged down by lawsuits and ultimately fail to come to fruition – there is surreptitious brainwashing being done here, like a bright paint job on a rundown house.
The animosity to foreigners, and skilled workers is beginning to build up. With an economy on an upsurge, White America may well come to the conclusion that Trump is right on the mark; nobody of color, on a visa, should be allowed to work in the US.
In time, enough Americans may buy into Trump’s core logic: ‘Buy American, Hire America’ means to generate business with White folks, create businesses for White folks, and hire white folks for businesses.
Now, here’s the good, bad and ugly truth behind this memo that’s floated in the DHS.
The good news: it’s highly unlikely it would ever become law, since unlike an executive order that Trump can overturn in a flash, to bar H-1B holders from getting an extension would require an act of Congress.
The bad news: Trump needs only to disrupt the system, create panic, to achieve partial success. The DHS is within its rights to not grant extension beyond the initial three years for an H-1B visa, and even if it does so for another three years, or one, or two, as the case may be, they are again legally allowed to either reject an extension, or to ask for onerous amount of paperwork and proof to show eligibility.
The ugly news: hundreds of thousands of lives could be in limbo, the quality of life suffer, diminish if this war over the H-1B visa goes into a court of law. Like the travel ban on Muslims from some countries, the Supreme Court may ultimately side with the Trump Administration on the issue of not granting extension to H-1B visa.
For now, immigrants on H-1B visas should also worry about the fact that the Indian government has kept mum on the issue; not a single tweet on the issue expressing anger or disappointment over the issue, has been voiced.
NASSCOM, the industry lobby for India’s IT sector, is aghast. They are trying to keep calm by reasoning that the US needs H-1B workers, and ultimately will see reason in their argument.
“The US has a big skill gap. Out of the 2 million vacant STEM jobs, 1 million are in IT related areas. All these measures, mostly political and emotive, aren’t changing the skills gap and will hurt the American economy. All these factors have to be kept in mind by the US administration,” Nasscom President R Chandrasekhar told The Times of India.
Fact is, NASSCOM doesn’t understand Trump. To their consolation, most people don’t either.
It’s pointless to try and reason with sane arguments after NASSCOM have at periodic intervals showered data to show how many jobs Indian companies have created in the US. Nobody cares in the Trump Administration for such data, somebody needs to tell them.
Democrats are also voicing dismay, but it’s not going to change anything, at least for now as the memo does its rounds for business later this year.
Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said, according to a PTI report, “imposing these draconian restrictions on H-1B visa holders will tear families apart, drain our society of talent and expertise, and damage our relationship with an important partner, India.”
“This proposal could lead to the deportation of an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Indian H-1B visa holders, many of whom are small business owners and job creators who are helping to build and strengthen our US economy. This brain drain will stifle innovation and decrease our ability to compete in the global 21st century economy,” Gabbard said.
Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said the move would kneecap American economy and encourage companies to further offshore jobs, reported PTI.
“I hope the administration immediately rejects this proposal,” he said.
California Congressman Ro Khanna said the proposal was “anti- immigrant”.
“My parents came here on green cards. So did Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella. Trump is saying to immigrants and their kids we don’t have a place in America. It’s not just wrong. It’s dumb. Mr. President, would America really be greater without us?” he asked in a tweet.
As angst builds up, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has come up with sobering prediction on Trump’s policies on immigration: this is just the beginning. Things are going to get much worse, they say.
Pointing out to the fact that the US government has made 12 major immigration reforms since January 2017, an MPI report said that more actions can be expected from the administration and it may significantly change the nation’s immigration policy.
The MPI prediction apart, what really stands out in the memo which intends to target H-1B visa extensions, is the absurdity and lack of intelligence of it all (except for the disruption part of it).
Consider this: the goal is to have an H-1B holder who has been here in the US for six years, not be given an extension, be sent home, or ‘self-deport’, if a Green Card has been filed, with the assurance that he or she can come back with family after the Green Card is approved. With falling immigration numbers, and assuming that Trump is able to stop chain migration and the Diversity Visa Lottery, resultantly applications for Green Cards likely to fall to record abysmal levels, the clogged pipeline will suddenly become unclogged. So instead of having to wait for some 12 years for a Green Card, that H-1B holder who is sent home after six years, may get a letter in mail after a year, while he is vacationing in India, that his Green Card has been approved. Presto! The ‘self-deported’ H-1B holder now makes a grand flight to the US with his family as a permanent resident.
Consider also this scenario: all the top Indian IT companies, like TCS and Infosys, still are able to get the H-1B workers they need, but will stop filing for a Green Card. They will just shuffle them around, after every six years. Only American companies who wanted skilled talent will scrounge for workers, as most workers would rather go to the UK, Europe or Australia, Canada, rather than be given an opportunity to work for only six years in US. In time, these US companies will outsource their jobs to India, get workers there. Net loss of jobs would be for the US. Other companies will follow suit.
Here’s another scenario to mull on: with the H-1B jobs prospects hitting a wall – if the Trump administration disrupts the system more through RFEs (Request for Evidence), the international student population would shift base from the US to other developed countries, who treat them with more respect, and are willing to give equal rights. Like the UK just did by making it easier for foreign graduates to get jobs. Many US colleges and universities will plunge into debt and shut down shop.
The Trump Administration may finally realize at some point: it’s easier to paint white a house that has fading brown paint, than actually change the demographics in a similar way, at the cost of tearing the house down.
(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.U.S. President Donald Trump signs the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul plan in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.NEW YORK – That old adage of ‘who needs enemies, with friends like you?’ is what India should confront the United States and the Trump Administration with, on the issue of proposed Draconian changes in the H-1B visa rules, including, as a McClatchy report outlined, a devious plan doing the rounds in the Department of Homeland Security aimed squarely at ousting Indian techies, force them to ‘self-deport’, along with their families.
India should conclude their argument in a court of law, the WTO, by telling the US: ‘Shame on you!’
India should realize by now that what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has got in return for his warm and lavish outreach to President Donald Trump since he assumed office in January, 2017 – including being a generous and kind host to Ivanka Trump, a nobody by diplomatic protocol, by hosting her for a royal state dinner in Hyderabad, made her feel like a princess – is plain backstabbing.
Reports say anywhere between 750,000 to 1.5 million Indian immigrants, on H-1B visa and dependents, are being targeted, hounded by the Trump Administration, for the egregious crime of being skilled workers, paying taxes, contributing to society, staying scrupulously law abiding residents.
Try throw out one American from India for a crime he didn’t do, and wait for the furious reaction from the US – perhaps as a midnight tweet by Trump himself. Why should India tolerate the nonsense of having a million plus of their nationals humiliated and thrown out of a country for no fault of their own?
What self-respect will India be left with if that comes about?
I’ve earlier written about the carrot-and-stick policy the US has adopted with India under the Trump administration. What India, however, should be aware by now is that the US coming down hard on Pakistan is not out of concern for cross-border terrorism, but Trump’s zeal to stamp out radical Islamist forces against the US; his eagerness to claim victory in Afghanistan; bring troops home if possible under his watch, lambast the Democrats for their ‘failure’.
If India thinks they have to be cautious about voicing their concerns to the US because of the ‘largesse’ by the US on the Pakistan issue, by cutting aid and being tough on measures to clamp down on terrorism, then it’s a huge blunder.
India should not mix geopolitical issues with that of rank protectionism and contravention of recognized international labor laws, which is what the US is brazenly trying to do by disrupting the H-1B visa laws.
Fine, India should tell the US, if you want to clamp down on H-1B visa, go ahead, but give advance notice, begin the new rules only on those Indian nationals who start an H-1B visa in the future; not target, exploit those residents who have been staying in the US for years.
India should demand that the US give back the social security taxes of each and every Indian national who is forced to leave the US because of unfair laws. It’s time India become forceful in trying to forge a totalization agreement, so that the US recognizes there is a price to pay for their discriminatory act against legal workers on H-1B visa.
At present, it’s only those immigrants who have stayed and worked in the US for at least 10 consecutive years who are allowed to get their social security taxes back if they quit the US.
India should sue the US in an international court of law, demand they pay the entire social security plus compensation, including all applicable legal fees that an H-1B visa immigrant paid, while he or she stayed in the US, before being forced to ‘self-deport.’
A legal immigrant spends tens of thousands of dollars – which is great for the DHS and the US government – in fees, while getting an extension to stay on in the US. All that should be returned back by the US government to anybody whom they force out.
Modi should tell Trump: I will continue to be nice to you, as long as you are nice to me. Or, I’ll see you in court.
(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Ramsey County District Court Judge Gurdip Singh Atwal (G. Tony Atwal) of Minnesota, pleaded guity Jan. 2, to DWI. (Photo courtesy Ramsey County Sheriff’s office)
An Indian-American district court judge pleaded guilty Jan. 2, the day after he was arrested for careless driving and running through a red light and charged with driving while intoxicated.
Ramsey County District Court Judge Gurdip Singh Atwal, (also referred to as G. Tony Atwal), was charged on Jan. 1, and pleaded guilty to DWI the next day.
“I can’t express in words the remorse I feel,” Atwal is quoted saying in a twincities.com news report. Atwal apologized to colleagues, and Minnesotans, saying “I’m humbled and shamed by what happened,” and accepted that he made “poor decisions” and how those endangered fellow citizens, the news report said, adding that Atwal had faced a similar charge back in 2007.
A copy of Atwal’s arrest and charges as well as his official photos, was sent to News India Times by the Ramsay County Sheriff’s Office.
Atwal was charged with two counts of third-degree DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), careless driving and failing to stop at a STOP sign. Police found a blood-alcohol level of .17 where the allowable limit is .08, according to twincities.com.
The judge was sentenced to 365 days of which 345 days were stayed for two years, leaving 20 days to be served since date of arrest Jan. 1. He will wear an ankle bracelet and is allowed to travel to work and back, according to twincities.com. The Indian-American’s case was handled by a different county judge, Hennepin County Judge Shereen M. Askalani, to avoid conflict of interest, the report said.
Atwal, who is also an adjunct professor at his alma mater Mitchell Hamline School of law, was also sentenced to two years of supervised probation and a chemical dependency evaluation.Though his attorney expressed the hope that Atwal would be serving his sentence and getting back to work, twincities.com reported that Ramsey County Chief Judge John Guthmann, was reviewing Atwal’s sentence and was not certain when the Indian-American judge would be allowed back to work.
A graduate of Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Atwal was appointed by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in 2016. His term expires in January 2019.
An Indian-American who was among the youngest lawmakers in the Ohio State House, says he is considering a run for the U.S. Congress to fill a seat being vacated by a Republican, after being approached by some Democrats.
Following Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s announcement Jan. 5, that the special election to fill the District 12 seat, would be held Aug. 7, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Jay Goyal, 37, of Mansfield, Ohio, has been approached by “top” Democrats to run in the Democratic primary. District 12, is currently held by Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, who announced last October that he will be quitting Congress end of January to head the Columbus Business Roundtable.
Goyal, who was 26 when he was first elected in 2006, and served three terms from 2007-2013, is seen as a good candidate to fill the seat because parts of the district fall in his old stomping grounds. Goyal also served as the State’s House Majority Leader for a period of time during his six years there.
“Some people have reached out to me and it’s something I am giving thought to and will make a decision shortly,” Goyal told News India Times in a phone interview from Mansfield, Ohio.
He left in 2012 to help run the family business, Goyal Industries, a manufacturing concern that produces metal fabrications, and has already been taking the helm of the company, something that would greatly impact his decision.
The filing deadline for both the District 12 special election, and the November general election, is Feb. 7. Goyal will have to get through the May 8 primary where he faces a number of Democratic contenders already lined up to fight in the primaries. Ballotpedia’s “potential and declared” candidates list for the May 8 primaries includes five other Democrats and five Republicans.
Last November, just days after Tiberi’s announcement about leaving, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee listed District 12 among its targets for turning Red to Blue in the 2018 Congressional elections. But Ballotpedia lists it as “safely Republican,” and the Cook Political Report describes it as a “Solid Republican” district.
The Dispatch spoke to Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, and Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady and “both said they would support the 37-year-old Goyal, saying the rising voter opposition to President Donald Trump could help Democrats win a seat held by the Republicans since 1982,” the Dispatch reported.
“He is brilliant, a hard worker, and I can’t imagine not ever being on the side of Jay Goyal in any race he was in,” Beatty is quoted saying. “I consider myself a godmother to Jay Goyal,” she added. She was the one who had recruited Goyal to run for the State House, she said.
O’Grady told the Dispatch the young Indian-American was a “prolific fundraiser” who “knows large chunks of this district very well, having represented” much of it while in the Ohio House.
The 12th District covers central Ohio and includes Delaware, Licking, and Morrow counties, sections of Franklin, Marion, Muskingum and Richland counties, some of the areas Goyal is familiar with because of his previous three terms in the House.
Sources also told the Dispatch that other top Democrats like Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein were interested in Goyal. This was not confirmed by News India Times.
Beating a Republican would be no easy task. District 12 has been in Republican hands since 2001, and in 2016, Tiberi won by a handy majority of nearly 67 percent. Goyal may well decide against competing despite his name recognition and the Cook Political Report and other analysts predicting a good year for Democrats, on Nov. 6.
Reluctant to hint at what his decision might be, Goyal nevertheless praised the achievements of the five Indian-Americans currently in Congress – Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, Ami Bera and Ro Khanna, D-California; Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illiois; and Senator Kamala Harris, D-California. Calling that an “absolute achievement” Goyal added, “They’re doing so well and they are already leaders.”
A graduate in industrial engineering from Northwestern University, with an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Goyal was recognized and received several awards including being listed in TIME Magazine” “Top 40 Under 40 Rising Stars of American Politics” and the New Leadership Council’s “Top 40 Under 40 Community Leaders in the United States.” Several organizations recognized him as Legislator of the Year; He was one of two members of the Ohio House of Representatives selected by a bi-partisan panel to receive a fellowship for the Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development; he received the prestigious “Eagle Award” from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission for his historic achievements in politics. During his term, Goyal was selected as an Honorary Member of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.
Technology and economic development had been his focus while in the state legislature.
He held several positions in the Democratic Party during his stint in the state House. The Democratic National Committee under then Chairman Tim Kaine (vice presidential candidate with Hillary Clinton), as At-Large member of the DNC, and in executive committees of the state Democratic Party.
NEW DELHI – Welcoming the jail sentence to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the BJP on Saturday said the corrupt faced consequences of law, adding there was no political interference.
“Public money was looted from the government treasury. These are out and out black and white cases of corruption. No amount of press conference is going to help Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) politically,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Spokesperson G.V.L Narasimha Rao said.
“What is important to this country is that politicans who have indulged in brazen acts of corruption actually face consequences of law for their corrupt deeds.”
In a tweet, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said BJP’s charges against Lalu Prasad “were vindicated” by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
“Conviction is conviction. Either 3.5 years or 7 years… Our charges against Lalu has been vindicated by the court,” he said.
Refuting the charges that Lalu Prasad was targeted by the BJP, he tweeted: “A.R. Kidwai, Deve Gowda were not BJP men when Lalu was prosecuted in Fodder Scam. Court was monitoring the case. Lalu went to jail during his own rule. Where is bias?”
Meanwhile, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader K.C. Tyagi criticised the RJD for its lack of faith in Indian judiciary. He also said the development meant an end of an era, which had corruption, nepotism and third-grade non-governance.
WASHINGTON – The major trade group representing Facebook, Google, Netflix and dozens of other tech firms in Washington said Friday that it plans to sue the Federal Communications Commission over its recent decision to deregulate the broadband industry – drawing fresh battle lines in a years-long fight over the future of the Internet.
The Internet Association, in a statement, said it would be joining what will likely be a multi-pronged legal attack against the FCC’s rewritten rules, which the agency released Thursday night. Approved last month under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the new rules make it legal for Internet providers such as AT&T and Verizon to speed up or slow down websites at will, as well as to block them outright.
“The final version of Chairman Pai’s rule, as expected, dismantles popular net neutrality protections for consumers,” the Internet Association said. “This rule defies the will of a bipartisan majority of Americans and fails to preserve a free and open internet. IA intends to act as an intervenor in judicial action against this order and, along with our member companies, will continue our push to restore strong, enforceable net neutrality protections through a legislative solution.”
The FCC declined to comment.
Friday’s announcement foreshadows a barrage of lawsuits on net neutrality that could soon drop. But first, the FCC rules must be officially published in the Federal Register before any appeals can take place. That process could take a number of weeks, analysts say.
This isn’t the first time the FCC will have gone to court over net neutrality. In 2015, the Democratic-led commission successfully defended a legal challenge from the cable and telecom industries, who alleged that the FCC had overstepped its authority in passing the rules. While the regulations may have survived then, Pai’s effort to repeal them in December is now leading to yet another court battle.
Supporters of the rules argue that they represent a vital consumer protection, and have vowed not only to fight the FCC decision in court but also to seek solutions at the state level and in Congress.
Opponents of the rules plan to argue that the regulations discouraged Internet providers from building out their broadband networks to underserved areas, and that the FCC lacked the authority to regulate Internet providers like legacy telephone companies in the first place.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Emergency services arrive at a site where two planes collided at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, Canada, January 5, 2018 in this still image taken from social media video. John-Ross Parks/via REUTERS
Dozens of passengers were evacuated from an aircraft at Toronto’s Pearson Airport late on Friday after a plane under tow struck an arriving jet that was waiting to park, sparking a small fire, the airport authority said.
Fire and emergency services responded to the collision between the two planes from Sunwing Airlines and Westjet Airlines, which happened at 6:19 p.m. (2319 GMT), the Greater Toronto Airport Authority said in a statement.
Calgary-based Westjet said it had unconfirmed reports of “minor injuries” in the incident, but that all 168 passengers and six crew members on board its plane were safe and accounted for.
The jet, a Boeing 737-800, had just arrived in Toronto from the resort of Cancun, Mexico, and was waiting to proceed to the gate at the time of the collision, Westjet said.
Sunwing, part of the privately held Sunwing Travel Group, said there were no passengers or crew onboard its plane at the time of the collision and that the aircraft was being towed by ground handler Swissport International Ltd.
A spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, a Canadian agency that investigates transportation incidents, said a team was headed to the airport to investigate.
Swissport, a provider of ground and cargo handling services for the aviation industry, confirmed late on Friday that one of its employees was involved in the collision and said it would cooperate in the investigation.
“The incident occurred when our employee was pushing back the plane from the gate,” Pierre Payette, Swissport Canada Handling Inc. vice president of operations for Toronto, said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “The impact caused a small fire in the empty aircraft’s exterior generator, which was quickly extinguished by the Fire Department.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley speaks at the second day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday, August 28, 2012. (Harry E. Walker/MCT)
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweet about having a bigger nuclear button than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s has kept Kim “on his toes” and makes clear the risks of a nuclear standoff, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday.
After Kim asserted that he had a nuclear button at the ready, Trump last week dismissed the taunt by saying in a tweet that the U.S. button at his disposal was bigger and more powerful.
The comment drew criticism, including from former Vice President Joe Biden, who said it caused allies to lose confidence in Washington.
Asked on the ABC program “This Week” whether the president’s tweet was a good idea, Haley said: “I think that (Trump) always has to keep Kim on his toes. It’s very important that we don’t ever let him get so arrogant that he doesn’t realize the reality of what would happen if he started a nuclear war.”
Haley said North Korea should be clear that the United States will not reduce pressure on Kim.
“We’re not going to let them go and dramatize the fact that they have a button right on their desk and they can destroy America,” she said. “We want to always remind them we can destroy you too, so be very cautious and careful with your words and what you do.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.U.S. President Donald Trump looks up during a meeting about healthcare at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files
Donald Trump’s allies turned out in force Sunday to defend the president from assertions in a new book that he’s seen by aides and confidants as unfit for office, with CIA Director Mike Pompeo saying he’s found the president “engaged.”
Trump is an “avid consumer” of the CIA’s daily intelligence briefing, Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday,” his first appearance on a Sunday political talk show since August.
“We talk about some of the most serious matters facing America and the world, complex issues, the president is engaged, he understands the complexity, he asks really difficult questions of our team at CIA,” Pompeo said.
Trump’s fitness for office has become a topic of discussion since Friday’s publication of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by Michael Wolff.
The president denounced the book on Saturday as “fiction” during a press conference at Camp David, several hours after he described himself on Twitter as a “stable genius.” He returned to the fray on Sunday as he prepared to leave the presidential retreat in rural Maryland.
“I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author,” Trump said. “Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!”
Trump has been an “active, engaged and effective leader,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on ABC’s “This Week.” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, also defended Trump’s stability and said, “he didn’t become the president by accident.”
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” to downplay as “greatly exaggerated” the role that Stephen Bannon, former White House chief strategist, played in the early months of the Trump administration. It was fair for Trump to describe himself as a genius because it “happens to be a true statement,” Miller said.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Wolff said he was given access to the White House in the early months of Trump’s term, and that his “goal was to keep going until somebody said go away.” If Trump said the pair never sat for an interview, it may be that “he probably did not see” their conversations in that way.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Indian-Americans attending the Friends of Madhya Pradesh Conclave Jan. 3-4, in Indore, presented a large model of the Statue of Liberty to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Seen in photo: Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan holding the statue, Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir Parikh to his left, and Dr. Sudha Parikh, second from right. (Photo courtesy Friends of MP)
Hundreds of delegates including non-resident Indians and Indian-Americans gathered in Indore, to celebrate at the Friends of Madhya Pradesh Conclave Jan. 3-4. The event was addressed by the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary among other top officials and experts.
The Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, who addressed attendees, and posted his thoughts from the Conclave, on Twitter, noted his state’s growth and economic development –
Madhya Pradesh is not considered as the BIMARU state now, the state is maintaining 10% average growth from last 10 years with over 20% growth in agriculture, the highest in India.
– CM @ChouhanShivraj — #FriendsofMPConclave2018 https://t.co/40rUjIyi7N
More than 700 people attended the Conclave over the two days, according to one estimate.
Desi Talk publisher Dr. Sudhir Parikh, recipient of India’s Padma Shri award, and other Indian-Americans, were called upon to speak at the event, and dwelt on the need to channel talents from the diaspora to help the state develop. The NRIs presented a large Statue of Liberty model to the Chief Minister to appreciate and recognize the achievements of the state.
Parikh was among those who participated with Chouhan and the Mayor of Indore Malini Laxmansingh Gaur, in lighting the auspicious traditional lamp at the event. Parikh praised the Chief Minister for “maintaining such rigorous standards of impeccable growth,” in the state and praised programs like the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana to provide electrical connections to about 45 lakh families.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A newspaper article with a photo of the lamp-lighting ceremony held at the Friends of Madhya Pradesh Conclave Jan. 3-4, in Indore. Seen in photo are among others, Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, second from right, Padmashri Dr. Sudhir Parikh, publisher of News India Times, center, Mayor of Indore Malini Laxmansingh Gaur, second from left, and Dr. Sudha Parikh, left.
At a panel on ‘The Role of Friends of MP in Development of Madhya Pradesh’ Chief Secretary B.P. Singh focused on “Growth of MP in last decade,” where he noted a rise in every measurable sector in the state. He also said the ‘Friends of MP’ website would be converted into a portal to facilitate exchange of ideas, and to enable people of Madhya Pradesh residing abroad to redress matters related to their relatives, Centralchronicle.com reported. Other top state government officials who spoke at the event noted they had received positive feedback from abroad and expected those in the diaspora to act as ambassadors of Madhya Pradesh.
Dr. Parikh, as well as other NRIs, like Jitendra Muchhal, Ashish Pandya, Sunil Nayak, and Ashish Jain, gave important suggestions, emphasizing their willingness to extend cooperation and the need to make time-bound programs for reaching objectives, the Central Chronicle reported; They also said development should reach the weakest sections of society.
In his speech during the Conclave, Dr. Parikh, recommended increasing the number of Special Economic Zones in the state, focusing on the agrarian economy, building small scale industries in rural areas, publicizing the diamond and copper industries, encouraging youth and women to become entrepreneurs, and strengthening education by cooperating with higher education institutions in the U.S.
“I think Madhya Pradesh, with its central location, bordering states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and excellent highways and train network, would be an ideal center for large manufacturing bases. It can be the premier IT hub in central India,” Parikh said. As a physician, he also drew attention to his idea of developing a health biometrics system with vital statistics of the population to improve health care delivery throughout the state.
During the Conclave, one-to-one discussions were held between guests and government representatives of different departments. “Members expressed their desire in rendering support for growth of MP in different areas including Skill Development, Education. Guests of the event also showed keen interest in working for well-being in areas like solar & sustainable energy, promotion of tourism, Ayurveda & entrepreneurship, ways in which the state could contribute in bringing down global warming etc.,” the website FriendsofMP.com said.
Friends of MP, which has a dedicated website by the same name, says it is driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of setting up a global talent pool for each state, comprising of a network of individuals and organizations whose skills can be utilized for developing various states. The Friendsofmp.com web portal is expected to work as a ‘matchmaker’ between the ‘Friends’ and the Madhya Pradesh government.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Amid reports of the United States administration’s plans to introduce stricter norms for issuance of H1-B visas, which are largely availed by Indian IT firms, the US-India Business Council (USIBC) has voiced its opposition to the move.
“It would tremendously be a bad policy to tell highly skilled individuals who are applying for permanent residency and have been working in the US for several years that they are no longer welcome,” a USIBC spokesperson said in a statement.
“This policy would harm American business, our economy, and the country,” the spokesperson said. “Further, it is inconsistent with the goals of a more merit-based immigration system.”
Last month, the U.S-.based news agency McClatchey’s DC Bureau reported that the Department of Homeland Security is considering new regulations that would prevent H-1B visa extensions. The measure potentially could stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.
According to the report, the proposal is part of President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign.
The act, under its current form, allows the administration to extend the H-1B visas for thousands of immigrants, predominantly Indian immigrants, beyond the allowed two three-year terms if a green card is pending.
