'A trailblazer of her own path': Nancy Pelosi honors Francie Pepper on House floor
Truly honored that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi honored my mom just now on the floor of the House:
Posted by David Pepper on Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi honored the late Francie Pepper in a speech on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, crediting the Cincinnati activist and philanthropist as her own political inspiration.
The former Speaker of the House, D-California, spoke highly of Pepper in the roughly minute-and-a-half speech, saying she was "a fearless and focused giant in the fight for democracy, women's rights and a better world."
"Francie meant so much to so many, whether it was an unwavering love, energy, compassion as wife, mother, grandmother, friend, neighbor, activist or her vigorous advocacy for women," Pelosi said.
Pepper was 84 when she died Friday at her home in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming. She was an advocate in the Queen City and beyond for a range of causes.
She took a particular interest in women's rights and domestic violence programs. She led a campaign that raised millions of dollars for the YWCA, which helped renovate its Downtown headquarters and converted a historic mansion into a shelter for battered women. She was named an Enquirer Woman of the Year for 1996.
"As a trailblazer of her own path, Francie was truly the epitome of women helping women," Pelosi said.
Memorial services will be held Saturday, April 12, from 11 a.m. to noon at Spring Grove Funeral Home. Visitation will be before the services, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
More: Obituary: Francie Pepper, an activist, philanthropist and mom who forged her own path
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Nancy Pelosi honors Cincinnati activist Francie Pepper in House speech
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Florida lawmakers close to finalizing 2025-26 state budget after weeks of deadlock
For Gov. Ron DeSantis, the budget coming together during negotiations among lawmakers is several days late and several million dollars short in key areas. In talks between House and Senate leaders June 9 and June 10, lawmakers agreed to a spending plan that doesn't include a cut in property taxes used for schools, falls shy of what DeSantis wanted for raises for state troopers and leaves out funding for Hope Florida, a conservative alternative to welfare championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis. 'Any attempt to try to shortchange Highway Patrol will not be viewed favorably, certainly (not) by me and I know (not) by the people of Florida,' DeSantis said during a Cabinet meeting June 10. DeSantis called for a 25% raise for all veteran state law enforcement officials and a 20% hike for entry-level officers. The budget deal includes a 10% raise for new hires and 15% increase for veteran officers. The Legislature is already 40 days past its originally May 2 deadline to pass a budget. A stalemate between the chambers over Miami Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez's plan to cut the state sales tax pushed the session into overtime. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton eventually agreed to a deal to cut taxes but not the overall rate. Under the agreements reached June 10, another proposal pushed by DeSantis hit the cutting room floor, at least for the next year. The K-12 schools budget is poised to get a $945 million increase, but $674.5 million of that is from an increase in property tax revenues. DeSantis wanted to eliminate the state portion of the property tax for homeowners with a homestead exemption and use state money to backfill it. DeSantis, though, has railed against the very concept of property taxes in recent months, arguing homeowners aren't really secure in their ownership if they have to pay taxes to the government each year for their property. He's floated the idea of an expanded property tax exemption, something that would have to go before voters on the November 2026 ballot, but also wanted to use the state portion of the school property tax to provide a $1,000 rebate to some homeowners next year. 'We need to do more. We need people to actually own their property,' DeSantis said. 'It's not something that can be simply done by legislation. It is going to require a ballot initiative and I'm going to be leading the charge to be able to get that done for the people of this state because it's pinching a lot of people.' Lawmakers are also prepared to deny funding for four new positions in DeSantis' office to host a Hope Florida office, which would coordinate efforts of the initiative. But the bill to put that into place failed during the session, amid a House probe into a $10 million payment by a Medicaid vendor to a charity tied to the initiative. That money was then moved to two other nonprofits, which then passed them on to a political committee led by James Uthmeier, who at the time was DeSantis' chief of staff and has since been named Attorney General. The money was used to combat proposed constitutional amendments on last year's ballot that would have legalized recreational marijuana and installed abortion rights. Senate Appropriations chair Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, said there could still be more money added for Hope navigators, the state workers who coordinate aid for residents among agencies, charities and businesses with the aim of getting them off government assistance. 'We're having discussions about other opportunities for those programs to do what they need to do,' Hooper told reporters June 10. 'I think in chatting with the governor's office, they're OK with where we are in language right now, but there's still a couple of days left to land this plane.' Before the budget is finalized, each chamber often adds a supplemental funding packet at the end of budget negotiations, offering a last-gasp opportunity for programs that missed out in initial negotiations. It's better known in Capitol circles as the 'sprinkle lists,' a nickname from the idea that lawmakers are "sprinkling" extra money across the state – often to favored districts or causes – after the core budget already has been finalized. These lists, created behind closed doors by House and Senate leadership, have been decried by watchdogs like Florida TaxWatch. At the same time, DeSantis is getting much of what he requested from lawmakers for cancer research. The pending budget is set to provide more than $200 million for cancer research, including a program named after Casey DeSantis, who overcame breast cancer. The House initially resisted a push for a $30 million pot of money dedicated to pediatric cancer research. Another cancer fund, however, the Mary Brogan Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, is set to be eliminated, at least under the latest budget offer. The program, named after the late wife of former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, provides screenings for breast and cervical cancer. Mary Brogan died in 1999 from breast cancer. Hooper indicated that program could get another look before the end of budget talks: 'It may be zeroed out on the budget line, but it may be possibly available for some further consideration,' Hooper told reporters June 10. 'I happen to be a big believer in the Mary Brogan program.' Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@ Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis loses ground as key state budget items dropped or downsized
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Big, beautiful bill' spurs Democratic plans for emergency actions to counter cuts
Democratic governors facing potential big budget problems exacerbated by the GOP megabill being fast-tracked in Washington are considering emergency measures to try to soften the blow. Blue state policymakers from Connecticut to California to New York are raising the specter that they will call lawmakers back for special sessions to tackle what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs as a result of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' And even some deep red states — like Florida — are taking steps to address the financial fallout. The preparations signal the depths of concerns about how the Republican package might reverberate in state capitals, even as passage is far from assured, especially given the recent vitriolic attacks on the spending bill from Elon Musk. State officials are scrambling to navigate the likely fiscal challenges in what's already the toughest budget year since before the pandemic in many states. 'The bill is destructive and risks destabilizing the entire network of supporting programs,' said New Mexico Treasurer Laura Montoya, a Democrat whose governor has all but guaranteed a special session will be necessary. The bill, which cleared the House last month and now awaits Senate action, would cut some $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, largely by forcing states to pay into the program for the first time. It would also kick 7.6 million people off Medicaid and save $800 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The special session threat could be a way for Democratic governors, some of whom enjoy large legislative majorities, to respond to pressure from constituents angry about cuts to health care and food benefits — even if there's little they can do to combat Trump's agenda. The details of what the governors would even ask the lawmakers to do are scant given the high degree of uncertainty around the final bill. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, referencing potential cuts to education, school meals and Medicaid, warned earlier this year that 'nothing prohibits us from coming back in a special session to deal with anything that comes our way from the federal government.' Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said last month 'we will definitely be back in a special session to deal with' the reconciliation package if the House-passed version is adopted. There could be immediate substantive reasons for a special session in response to the GOP bill, even though provisions like sharing the costs of the nation's largest food aid program with states wouldn't take effect until 2028. The vast majority of states start their fiscal years on July 1 — meaning that their budgets have been crafted based on current conditions even as officials leave the door open to make changes later and minimize the pain in response to the final federal legislation. 'Bottom line is states will not be able to absorb all the costs, and decisions will have to be made,' said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies at the nonpartisan National Association of State Budget Officers. 'All states will be impacted.' Some Republicans have also expressed concern at the downstream impacts of the GOP megabill. Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate, a Republican who recently announced a bid for lieutenant governor, previously told POLITICO that in his state 'there would be very little interest in us generating the dollars it would take to fund something huge as SNAP.' Others are using the special session chatter as a cudgel to hammer Democrats in blue states for being in a precarious fiscal situation to begin with. 'I would say that our priorities have been on the goofy side,' California Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican on the budget committee, said in an interview regarding his state's poor fiscal outlook, pointing specifically to massive spending to attack homelessness that's failed to dent the problem. 'We're trying to offer too much to too many people when we can't even offer basic services.' Still, states would be impacted across the board even if it's only Democrats that have the political incentive to publicly oppose the reconciliation bill. That means states will need to turn to unpopular choices like cutting benefits or raising taxes to fill as much of the gap left by the federal cuts as possible, in addition to other maneuvers like drawing from their rainy day funds, said Sigritz. Some legislators are accepting that they will likely return to their statehouses for special sessions. Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell, a Democrat, said in an interview that a special session will likely be necessary if the federal budget significantly shifts costs to states to ensure that lawmakers are 'building in some flexibility to try to make whatever adjustments we may need to safeguard residents of our state.' Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont's office told POLITICO that he and legislative leaders are considering declaring a fiscal emergency in order to raise the spending cap, a move that it argues would be necessary to pay for the costs shifted to states under Republicans' megabill. New York state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat who chairs the chamber's health committee, said he fully expects to return to Albany in a special session if the reconciliation bill clears Congress — and that he will push to 'raise taxes on the wealthy' to cover some of the Medicaid spending the federal government plans to cut. In California, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said there is 'a scenario where lawmakers come back later this year' to deal with new budget realities brought by federal cuts. 'I'll come back any day,' said California Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, a Silicon Valley Democrat. 'This is our job. And if we have to come back in the fall, I will gladly come. In fact, if it means protecting some of these programs, then I think we should come back in the morning, noon, weekend, holidays.' And in deep-red West Virginia, Mike Woelfel, minority leader in the state Senate and one of the 11 Democrats in the entire Legislature, said he wants his Republican governor Patrick Morrisey to call a special session if the federal cuts are adopted. 'This is the kind of thing that should trigger special sessions if we get into this hellhole that this legislation would put our most vulnerable citizens in,' Woelfel said. 'But there's political risk in (the governor) doing that.' Eric He and Katelyn Cordero contributed to this report.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
When politics trump merit: The undoing of Florida's academic integrity
Gov. Ron DeSantis's tenure in Florida is destined to be remembered for a seismic shift in the landscape of higher education marked by an erosion of academic independence and intellectual diversity. Under his leadership, politics trumped merit, and loyalty replaced qualifications. The state's colleges and universities are no longer centers of independent thought — they've become landing pads for Republican allies, rewarded through sham 'searches' and backroom deals. The list of appointees reveals a troubling consistency. In Sarasota, New College was handed to former House Speaker Richard Corcoran. At Florida Atlantic University, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner was tapped to lead. Fred Hawkins, another former legislator with no academic credentials, was installed as president of South Florida State College in Avon Park. Former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez now leads Florida International University. And soon, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz — a former Republican legislator from Hialeah, a loyalist with no higher education leadership experience — will take the helm as interim president at the University of West Florida. Florida A&M University trustees selected telecommunications lobbyist Marva Johnson to be the new president; she has no experience working in higher education but has long-standing ties to DeSantis. Which leads me to Gainesville. Home of the University of Florida, our state's flagship university and my alma mater. After a prior Republican political appointee with no academic gravitas flamed out spectacularly as UF's president, the school (and the state) had a chance to chart a new course. Santa Ono, Ph.D., a nationally respected university leader and former president of the University of Michigan, was unanimously approved by UF's Board of Trustees. His hiring should have been a slam dunk, and a return to academic excellence. But this is the so-called 'Free State of Florida,' where freedom is reserved for those who pass an ideological litmus test. Ono didn't. And now UF will pay the price. In what was described as a 'stunning move,' the Florida Board of Governors—stacked with political appointees—rejected Ono's confirmation. It was the first time in state history that the board overruled a university's chosen president. But this rejection of a qualified candidate was not 'stunning' to those paying attention to the politics of Tallahassee. More: Santa Ono barred from UF presidency amid mounting pressure from GOP officials Credentials, experience, and vision weren't enough to shield him from partisan inquisition. In a deeply embarrassing 10–6 vote, the Board of Governors rejected a leader who could have elevated UF's already elite national standing, and it delivered a blow not just to one university, but to Florida's academic reputation as a whole. The damage is done. This decision will haunt UF for years to come. Qualified candidates won't apply, and top-tier leaders won't want to work in a system where political purity matters more than academic leadership. Florida's current and future students will pay the price for a governor and a governing board more interested in a political gamesmanship than excellence. This wasn't just a rejection of Ono. It was a rejection of everything a great university should stand for. Michael Napoleone is an attorney and the mayor of Wellington. He wrote this for the USA Today Network-Florida. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to letters@ Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis overseeing undoing of Florida's academic integrity | Opinion
