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US health chief says Sen. Cassidy promised pick on vaccine panel

US health chief says Sen. Cassidy promised pick on vaccine panel

Yahoo21 hours ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he told U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy that he would allow Cassidy to pick a candidate for a key panel of vaccine advisers.
Cassidy, a Republican, serves as chairman the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
"What I told Senator Cassidy is that I would allow him to put one of his candidates on, which we're going to do," Kennedy said on Thursday during an interview on Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum," referring to the vaccine advisory panel.
Kennedy on Wednesday named eight members to serve on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advises the agency on who should get the shots after they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after gutting the panel last week.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human smuggling charges in Tennessee federal court
Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human smuggling charges in Tennessee federal court

Yahoo

time25 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human smuggling charges in Tennessee federal court

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, pleaded not guilty on Friday to human smuggling charges in a federal court in Tennessee. The plea was the first chance the Maryland construction worker has had in a U.S. courtroom to answer the Trump administration's allegations against him since he was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The Republican administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last week to face criminal charges related to what it said was a human smuggling operation that transported immigrants across the country. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. His lawyers have called the allegations 'preposterous.' Friday's hearing will also focus on whether Abrego Garcia should be released from jail while awaiting trial on the smuggling charges. A federal judge will hear arguments from Abrego Garcia's lawyers and attorneys for the U.S. government. Before the hearing began in Nashville, Abrego Garcia's wife told a crowd outside a church that Thursday marked three months since the Trump administration 'abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family.' Her voice choked with emotion, Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she saw her husband for the first time on Thursday. She said, 'Kilmar wants you to have faith,' and asked the people supporting him and his family ''to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us.'' Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in the United States for more than a decade before he was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration. The expulsion violated a 2019 U.S. immigration judge's order that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he likely faced gang persecution there. While the Trump administration described the mistaken removal as 'an administrative error,' officials have continued to justify it by insisting Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His wife and attorneys have denied the allegations, saying he's simply a construction worker and family man. U.S. attorneys have asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, describing him as a danger to the community and a flight risk. Abrego Garcia's attorneys disagree, pointing out he was already wrongly detained in a notorious Salvadoran prison thanks to government error and arguing due process and 'basic fairness' require him to be set free. The charges against Abrego Garcia are human smuggling. But in their request to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, U.S. attorneys also accuse him of trafficking drugs and firearms and of abusing the women he transported, among other claims, although he is not charged with such crimes. The U.S. attorneys also accuse Abrego Garcia of taking part in a murder in El Salvador. However, none of those allegations is part of the charges against him, and at his initial appearance June 6, the judge warned prosecutors she cannot detain someone based solely on allegations. One of Abrego Garcia's attorneys last week characterized the claims as a desperate attempt by the Trump administration to justify the mistaken deportation three months after the fact. 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' private attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. In a Wednesday court filing, Abrego Garcia's public defenders argued the government is not even entitled to a detention hearing — much less detention — because the charges against him aren't serious enough. Although the maximum sentence for smuggling one person is 10 years, and Abrego Garcia is accused of transporting hundreds of people over nearly a decade, his defense attorneys point out there's no minimum sentence. The average sentence for human smuggling in 2024 was just 15 months, according to court filings. The decision to charge Abrego Garcia criminally prompted the resignation of Ben Schrader, who was chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. He posted about his departure on social media on the day of the indictment, writing, 'It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.' He did not directly address the indictment and declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. However, a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter confirmed the connection. Although Abrego Garcia lives in Maryland, he's being charged in Tennessee based on a May 2022 traffic stop for speeding in the state. The Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera video of the encounter that was released to the public last month shows a calm exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia. It also shows the officers discussing among themselves their suspicions of human smuggling before sending him on his way. One of the officers says, 'He's hauling these people for money.' Another says Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope. Abrego Garcia was not charged with any offense at the traffic stop. Sandoval-Moshenberg, the private attorney, said in a statement after the video's release that he saw no evidence of a crime in the footage. Meanwhile, the lawsuit over Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation isn't over. Abrego Garcia's attorneys have asked a federal judge in Maryland to impose fines against the Trump administration for contempt, arguing that it flagrantly ignored court orders forseveral weeks to return him. The Trump administration said it will ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it followed the judge's order to return him to the U.S. ___ This story has been corrected to show the Trump administration said that the human smuggling operation transported immigrants across the country, not that it brought immigrants into the country illegally. ___ Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.

Dimming America's Beacons to the World
Dimming America's Beacons to the World

New York Times

time28 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Dimming America's Beacons to the World

To the Editor: Re 'Fulbright Board Resigns, Citing Political Interference' (news article, June 12): Your reporting on the mass resignation of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board captures a seismic moment in American public diplomacy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his head of public diplomacy, Darren Beattie, have crossed a line that generations of diplomats, scholars and public servants refused to cross. They have politicized and undermined the Fulbright program, bringing dishonor to one of America's most respected global institutions. This is not bureaucratic reshuffling. It's a complete breach of the bipartisan mission to promote peace and understanding through education and cross-cultural exchange. I had the honor to serve as chair of the binational Fulbright commissions in Poland and Colombia. I've seen how Fulbright advances U.S. interests through something more enduring than force: academic excellence and mutual understanding. Senator Fulbright believed that empathy and education could help prevent conflict. The program was designed to erode the mistrust that sets nations against each other — not to serve short-term political agendas. Overriding merit-based selections. Subjecting scholars to unauthorized reviews. This isn't how you lead the world. It's how you lose it. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Judge blocks Trump's election executive order, siding with Democrats who called it overreach
Judge blocks Trump's election executive order, siding with Democrats who called it overreach

Yahoo

time41 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Judge blocks Trump's election executive order, siding with Democrats who called it overreach

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to overhaul elections in the U.S., siding with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who challenged the effort as unconstitutional. The Republican president's March 25 executive order sought to compel officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections, accept only mailed ballots received by Election Day and condition federal election grant funding on states adhering to the new ballot deadline. The attorneys general said the directive 'usurps the States' constitutional power and seeks to amend election law by fiat.' The White House defended the order as 'standing up for free, fair and honest elections' and called proof of citizenship a 'commonsense' requirement. Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts said in Friday's order that the states had a likelihood of success as to their legal challenges. 'The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,' Casper wrote. Casper also noted that, when it comes to citizenship, 'there is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections and the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship.' Casper cited arguments made by the states that the requirements would 'burden the States with significant efforts and substantial costs' to update procedures. Messages seeking a response from the White House and Department of Justice were not immediately returned. The ruling is the second legal setback for Trump's election order. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., previously blocked parts of the directive, including the proof-of-citizenship requirement for the federal voter registration form. The order is the culmination of Trump's longstanding complaints about elections. After his first win in 2016, Trump falsely claimed his popular vote total would have been much higher if not for 'millions of people who voted illegally.' Since 2020, Trump has made false claims of widespread voter fraud and manipulation of voting machines to explain his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He has said his executive order secures elections against illegal voting by noncitizens, though multiple studies and investigations in the states have shown that it's rare and typically a mistake. Casting a ballot as a noncitizen is already against the law and can result in fines and deportation if convicted. Also blocked in Friday's ruling was part of the order that sought to require states to exclude any mail-in or absentee ballots received after Election Day. Currently, 18 states and Puerto Rico accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Oregon and Washington, which conduct their elections almost entirely by mail, filed a separate lawsuit over the ballot deadline, saying the executive order could disenfranchise voters in their states. When the lawsuit was filed, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs noted that more than 300,000 ballots in the state arrived after Election Day in 2024. Trump's order has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and will give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls. But many legal experts say the order exceeds Trump's power because the Constitution gives states the authority to set the 'times, places and manner' of elections, with Congress allowed to set rules for elections to federal office. As Friday's ruling states, the Constitution makes no provision for presidents to set the rules for elections. During a hearing earlier this month on the states' request for a preliminary injunction, lawyers for the states and lawyers for the administration argued over the implications of Trump's order, whether the changes could be made in time for next year's midterm elections and how much it would cost the states. Justice Department lawyer Bridget O'Hickey said during the hearing that the order seeks to provide a single set of rules for certain aspects of election operations rather than having a patchwork of state laws and that any harm to the states is speculation. O'Hickey also claimed that mailed ballots received after Election Day might somehow be manipulated, suggesting people could retrieve their ballots and alter their votes based on what they see in early results. But all ballots received after Election Day require a postmark showing they were sent on or before that date, and that any ballot with a postmark after Election Day would not count. Christina A. Cassidy, The Associated Press

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