George Texs blog

Miami Gardens Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones announced Tuesday that he is running for chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Executive Committee, following the removal of now-former party chair Robert Dempster last month. Jones says that, if elected, he intends to serve in that role only until the end of the year. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t invest in robust, focused outreach and take communities for granted,” Jones said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “This moment calls for a reset for our Miami-Dade County party so that we can re-elect Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and re-elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to finish the job. That starts with a willingness to step up, show up, and listen to voters’ concerns.” Miami-Dade has historically been a Democratic stronghold, but that has changed in recent years. Ron DeSantis won the county in 2022, becoming the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win there in 20 y...

A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced Monday . The recall comes years after surgeons say they first noticed problems with the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3, manufactured by Thoratec Corp., a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories. The devices are not currently being removed from the market. In an emailed response, Abbott said it had communicated the risk to customers this year. The delayed action raises questions for some safety advocates about how and when issues with approved medical devices should be reported. The heart devices in question have been associated with thousands of reports of patients’ injuries and deaths, as described in a KFF Health News investigation late last year . “Why doesn’t the public know?” said Sanket Dhruva , a cardiologist and an expert in medical device safety and regulation at the University of California-San Francisco. Though some surgeons may hav...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a Jan. 6, 2021, case that could potentially upend convictions for a mass of Capitol riot defendants and slash some election interference charges against former President Donald Trump. The case,  Fischer v. United States , centers on whether former Pennsylvania police officer and Jan. 6 defendant Joseph W. Fischer violated an obstruction statute when he joined the mob that entered the U.S. Capitol and prevented Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results for several hours. The justices, appearing split and at times opaque in their individual stances, questioned Fischer’s attorney Jeffrey Green and U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar for more than 90 minutes, though they grilled Prelogar for twice as long as Green. “We thought it went about as well as it could, but we still think it will be a very close case,” Green told States Newsroom outside the court following arguments. Photo of Jo...

WASHINGTON — Eleven U.S. House Republicans serving as impeachment managers delivered two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, before the House Judiciary Committee. (Screenshot from committee webcast) The ceremonial delivery of  the articles of impeachment , which charge Mayorkas with a “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with federal immigration law and breaking the public trust, is an escalation in a years-long clash between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration over its handling of immigration. The issue has taken center stage in the leadup to November’s elections. Senate Democrats have indicated that they plan to move quickly to dismiss the impeachment process. “We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate ...

The DeSantis administration plans to punish teachers and principals deemed to be exploiting public school book challenges to, in the governor’s view, “weaponize” Florida’s parental rights laws. DeSantis leveled that charge Monday during a news conference in Pensacola. On Tuesday, he raised it again during a second news conference in Jacksonville, where he signed legislation restricting nonparents to one book challenge per month. The challenges come under state law allowing anyone to complain about the content of classroom materials they deem objectionable or pornographic. The laws require removal of challenged books pending reviews that can take considerable time. DeSantis began trying to tone down the situation in February, in advance of the 2024 legislative session. Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a news conference on April 16, 2024, in Jacksonville. Source: Screenshot/DeSantis Facebook “Manny, in the Department of Education, they’re going to be holding many principals or...

More than $4.3 billion in opioid settlement money has landed in the hands of city, county and state officials to date — with billions more on the way. But instead of using the cash to add desperately needed treatment, recovery and prevention services, some places are using it to replace existing funding. Local officials say they’re trying to stretch tight budgets, especially in rural areas. But critics say it’s a lost opportunity to bolster responses to an ongoing addiction crisis and save lives. “To think that replacing what you’re already spending with settlement funds is going to make things better — it’s not,” said Robert Kent , former general counsel for the Office of National Drug Control Policy . “Certainly, the spirit of the settlements wasn’t to keep doing what you’re doing. It was to do more.” The debate is playing out in Scott County, Ind . The rural community made headlines in 2015 after intravenous drug use led to a massive HIV outbreak and then-Gov. Mike Pence ...

Ousted Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren announced Tuesday morning that he will run for re-election to his former job, where he will likely face off against sitting State Attorney Susan Lopez, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in August 2022 to replace him. DeSantis suspended Warren, a Democrat, for alleged “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” after he signed a pledge not to prosecute alleged crimes arising from abortion or transgender care. Warren challenged his suspension in federal court. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that DeSantis had violated the First Amendment in removing Warren because of political differences and anticipated “political benefit” to the governor — but said he lacked power to reinstate him. However, a federal appeals court ruled in January that Hinkle should reconsider that decision. “In 2020, you reelected me to serve as your state attorney, because you believed in my vision, and it worked,” Warren says in  a video his campaign...

Abortion opponents have maneuvered in courthouses for years to end access to reproductive health care. In Arizona last week, a win for the anti-abortion camp caused political blowback for Republican candidates in the state and beyond. The reaction echoed the response to an Alabama Supreme Court decision over in vitro fertilization just two months before. The election-year ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court allowing enforcement of a law from 1864 banning nearly all abortions startled Republican politicians, some of whom quickly turned to social media to denounce it. The court decision was yet another development forcing many Republicans legislators and candidates to thread the needle: Maintain support among anti-abortion voters while not damaging their electoral prospects this fall. This shifting power dynamic between state judges and state lawmakers has turned into a high-stakes political gamble, at times causing daunting problems, on a range of reproductive health issues, f...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits. A medical industry challenge to a new minimum wage ordinance in one Southern California city suggests layoffs and reductions in hours and benefits, including cuts to premium pay and vacation time, could be one result of a state law set to begin phasing in in June. However, some experts are skeptical of that possibility. The California Hospital Association brought a partly successful legal challenge to Inglewood’s $25 minimum wage ordinance , which barred employers from taking those sorts of steps to offset their higher costs. “Layoffs, reductions in premium pay rates, reductions in non-wage benefits, reductions in hours, and increased charges are consequences of an employer having less money to spend—which will n...

Editor’s note:  This is the fourth installment of an occasional States Newsroom series called When and Where: Abortion Access in America, profiling individuals who have needed abortion care in the U.S. before and after Dobbs. The first installment can be found  here , the second installment is  here , and the third is  here . Kelly Shannon was grieving a pregnancy she would need to terminate because of multiple fetal anomalies when she got the call that Alabama doctors wouldn’t approve an abortion procedure despite exceptions in the law. That meant she would have to leave the state. Shannon, 36, was about 16 weeks along in January 2023 when genetic testing – and confirmation from an amniocentesis – showed her fetus likely had Trisomy 21, better known as Down syndrome. It didn’t take long for the doctor to determine the fetus likely wouldn’t survive to term. There was fluid buildup in the head and body, evidence of a heart defect, and a tumor on the abdomen that was roughly one-...