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Boston Globe
11-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress
Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to 'train' their AI systems. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the 'centrality of human creativity' in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. Advertisement 'Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,' Perlmutter said in January. 'Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.' The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Advertisement Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. 'Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,' said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday. Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘If You Can Survive the Hill, You Can Survive in Prison'
Barring a last-minute presidential pardon, former Rep. George Santos is about to join the relatively exclusive group of Americans who have spent time in both Congress and federal prison. There are some similarities between the two locales. Both involve taxpayer subsidies and include individuals of questionable character, but the lifestyles are quite different. Members of Congress have private dining rooms and private elevators; prisoners have no privacy at all. For a sense of what life will be like for Santos, a New York Republican who wassentenced to more than seven years in prison for his con artist ways, POLITICO Magazine talked to former Rep. Bob Ney, who, before Santos, was perhaps the most well-known member of Congress to serve time in prison in recent decades. A former chairman of the House Administration Committee, Ney served 17 months in federal prison for his role in theJack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The Ohio Republican also had some advice for Santos, including what lessons from politics are applicable in prison. And Ney noted that Santos, who was expelled by his colleagues, has some experience navigating such a cold-blooded and adversarial environment. 'If you can survive the Hill, you can survive in prison,' he said. 'The Hill can be a treacherous place, no question about it. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What does it feel like knowing that you're going from being a member of Congress to being a prisoner? It depends on the person. But let's face it, if you've been in Congress, you have led a different type of life, a different type of schedule and a different type of give and take with people, obviously. I had never spent an hour, ever in my lifetime, in a jail. I'd dealt with prison issues, but never spent time in a prison. So when you finally realize that's going to happen, it's quite stunning. How anxious were you about going behind bars? Your world's falling apart. You go from being chairman of a committee, member of the House, to you're going to prison. And you hear all these stories that it's a little country club and all that nonsense. Then you hear other stories where you're probably going to be shanked the first day you're in there. You hear everything. I kind of woke up to the fact that when you were a congressman, you voted for the laws that sent people who do drugs to prison How did you prepare for it? I met with Webb Hubbell for four hours, and he walked me through everything. [Editor's note: Hubbell was a close friend and ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton in Arkansas who went to federal prison after getting caught up in the Whitewater scandal.] I learned everything under the sun from him, everything. The four hours with him was a blessing. He taught me what to do. When you go into prison and you're a member of Congress, they don't have a special place for you or someone to call if somebody is harassing you. My life would have been completely different without him. Did people know who you were coming into prison? Everyone knew, because it had been on CNN. There are TV rooms in prison, and everybody knew I was coming. And here's the worst part. After dinner, they have a movie that can be watched. You can request movies, and they have a lottery to see what movie they will play. What I found out later on is that they had shut the entire prison down on a lockdown because I was coming in. After a while being in there, if they shut the movie off, you're not happy. Did being a politician teach you anything useful for prison life? Webb Hubbell had told me, 'Use your political skills. Use humor. And avoid certain things.' After 24 years in office, 11 in Congress, you deal with the public, you deal with some hot situations, people who are angry. He said, 'It's no different in there. It's a community. Use those skills.' And being around people all those years in politics, the tens of thousands of people you meet and work with, it helped. How did prison compare to Capitol Hill? I loved the Hill, but the Hill could be a vicious place. It could be a blood sport. If you can survive the Hill, you can survive in prison, because people are people, and the Hill can be a treacherous place, no question about it. One day in rehab, I'm standing there and said, 'When I get out of here, I'm going to talk about all the thieves and liars and vicious people that I've had to be around. Maniacs! You can't trust them.' And they're looking at me, and one guy's laughing. He goes, 'We're not that bad.' I said, 'No, I'm talking about Congress. I'm not talking about you guys.' How were you regarded in prison? I made a lot of friends, I really did. I mean, you had some people that weren't friendly, but I made a lot of friends, and people were pretty nice to me. Ed Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton's father-in-law, was in there with me. He was pretty well-liked, and we used to joke about running for governor of the prison, me versus Ed. I was kind of always a congressman. People would come to me and they would say, 'Can you talk to me?' Or they would say, 'Hey, tell me the secrets. Are there aliens?' Stuff like that. But I had a lot of guys that would come to me, and I used to walk around the yard every night. I walked off 68 pounds in a year. And if people wanted to talk to me, I would say, 'Come down, walk with me.' And they would ask me, 'How do I start a business? Do you know anything about that?' 'What about becoming a realtor?' So I did that. I also tutored guys in prison. We helped them with their resumes, and we did mock interviews for when they got out, when they had to interview with a company. Then you get people like one guy who told me 'You're the reason I'm eating this shitty food. Yes, you did this. Yeah, you did that.' And another friend of mine is like, 'Shut the hell up. You're in here because you sold drugs.' Were you always viewed as a member of Congress or just as another prisoner? The thing about going in as a congressman, you're going to be labeled because you are going to be looked at as privileged. So when you go in there, you've really got to open yourself up, open your mind up and keep some humility to yourself and realize that you've just got to take it one day at a time. What advice would you give to George Santos as he goes into prison? First of all, there's no internet in the prison, but they have relatives that visit them, and the system knows where George is going to go eventually, and so when I went in, they knew everything about me, what bills I had co-authored, it was amazing. So he should go in understanding they're going to have read about him and know about him. Number two, it won't carry any weight that he was a former congressman. In fact, again, it will look like somebody of privilege didn't use the privileges they should have. And a lot of people in prison feel that they don't have that privilege. They weren't given that chance to be in the United States Congress, so that's how he'll be looked at. I would say, go in, be low-key but friendly, be real with people and don't make up stories. And also give back. They need volunteers for people that don't have GEDs. There are some people that don't know how to read and write. There's all kinds of things that can be done. The other thing I would advise him is this: You can go in there and you can come out having a real problem mentally. It can happen to anybody. So you need to go in and focus on self help. There are books in these facilities that people can read and keep busy. One of the main problems in these systems is keeping busy — boredom — there's not a lot out there to focus on. You need to create that type of environment for yourself, where you're reading and learning and giving back to fellow inmates. And he has to remember that he is a fellow inmate. He's one of them. Santos said in an interview that he was concerned he'd be targeted by gangs like MS-13 because he'd voted for law enforcement to go after them in Congress. Is that an issue? When I walked in prison the first day, a guy stopped me. He said, 'You co-authored the bill that put me in here.' I think it was dealing with stealing Sudafed to make methamphetamine. I said, 'I didn't do that.' I supported the bill, but I can't remember what it was, an amendment or bill or something. But I said, 'We all put ourselves in here.' And then I walked away, because you want to defuse things.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's firing of Hayden brings culture wars to the Library of Congress
Republicans have waged a yearslong battle against cultural institutions. It reached an abrupt zenith on Thursday night. President Donald Trump's firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday marked the arrival of the conservative culture wars to the world's largest library. At its core was the intersection of Trump administration priorities — an eradication of any semblance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from the federal government and an axing of those seen as potentially disloyal to the president — with the grassroots movement to stunt perceived progressive ideology in the nation's libraries. Hayden had the misfortune of representing both. When she was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2016, she became both the first woman and Black person to lead the library. Hayden moved from the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, where she had worked since 1993. She received bipartisan support during her Senate confirmation, but some conservatives were unhappy with her appointment. She served through Trump's first administration, and her tenure as librarian was broadly celebrated by both sides. But decisions in recent years, as well as past donations to Democratic political candidates, kept her and the library in the crosshairs of a faction of hardline conservatives. That made Thursday's announcement unexpected but not entirely unanticipated. In fact, it was unknowingly foreshadowed earlier this week. For months, the Trump administration has bounced from agency to agency, implementing cuts to DEI and perceived 'woke' initiatives. During a House Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday, ranking member Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, worried that the Library of Congress would be next. 'The current administration, by virtually every measure, has declared war on cultural institutions, libraries and museums, chief among them,' Morelle said during the hearing. 'It doesn't take much imagination to see the Library of Congress next in the crosshairs, and I'm very concerned about it.' The House Administration Committee oversees the Library of Congress. Earlier this month, the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative research group, started a social media campaign to get Trump to fire Hayden. Tom Jones, the group's president, said at the time that the administration needed to dismiss Hayden and 'return an America First agenda to the nation's intellectual property regulation,' according to the Daily Mail. The group took issue with Hayden's previous donations to Obama and other Democratic candidates. Hayden also allowed the pop singer Lizzo to play a historic crystal flute that belonged to President James Madison during a concert in 2022, further drawing the ire of conservatives. A series of social media posts followed the group's announcement. The final one celebrated her dismissal. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Hayden's firing or the influence of AAF's campaign. Morelle plans to introduce legislation that would move the appointment of librarians of Congress under the purview of Congress. Rep. Johnny Olszewski is a co-sponsor of the legislation. 'We will continue to resist President Trump's outrageous attack on our democratic norms and basic decency in Congress, the courts and in the community,' Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Baltimore County Democrat, told The Sun in a statement. 'In the case of Dr. Hayden, if she intends to seek reinstatement, we will do whatever we can to support her efforts. We will also be cosponsoring legislation to give Congress the explicit hiring and firing authority over the nation's library.' Hayden has not publicly commented on her dismissal. Before being appointed to her role as the 14th Librarian of Congress, Hayden served as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library from 1993 to 2016. Upon her recent termination, the library voiced support for its former executive, calling her '(a) visionary leader and tireless advocate for equity in access to information' in a news release signed by current CEO Chad Helton and Board of Directors Chair Chris Espenshade. 'Her tenure at the Library of Congress has been marked by expanded public access, modernization, and a commitment to making one of the nation's most treasured institutions more inclusive and accessible,' the release said. Hayden has worked closely with Orioles owner David Rubenstein, who grew up in Baltimore, on efforts to boost literacy and other projects. Rubenstein was unavailable for comment on her firing on Friday, a spokesperson said. Libraries across the country — from local public libraries to the Library of Congress — have found themselves in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's anti-DEI regime. 'What's different about today's day and age is these efforts from fringe groups have been enabled, empowered and emboldened,' Skip Auld, CEO of Anne Arundel County Public Library said. 'Libraries are places of free and open access to all the world's knowledge. These attacks have become intensified.' In March, Anne Arundel County Public Library was criticized for hosting an LGBTQ+ event for National Transgender Day of Visibility. The event, one of more than 6,000 held across the county's library system each year, drew criticism from across the state and U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican who represents the Eastern Shore. Harris said taxpayer dollars and federal funding should not support such events or the institutions hosting them. In an X post, he called for re-examining federal support for libraries and later told The Sun that the federal government should withhold tax dollars until lawmakers ensure recipients are not promoting LGBTQ+ events. 'If the Anne Arundel County Public Library insists on programming like this, then my position would be that they shouldn't receive any federal taxpayer dollars,' Harris told The Sun. 'If they want to do this with state dollars, they want to do this with local dollars, that's the business of the state or Anne Arundel County. But I would object, as the majority of American taxpayers would, to the use of federal tax dollars for an entity that runs this kind of programming.' The library receives about $25,000 in federal funding per year, according to the library's director of marketing and communications, Christine Feldmann, none of which contributed to the event. Days later, the Trans Pride Party drew 30 members of the Maryland Republican Party to the Glen Burnie Library in protest of what they called 'grooming.' They were met with roughly 100 counter-protesters. Auld, a friend of Hayden's for more than 30 years, called her sudden termination 'a casualty of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle all cultural institutions' that are trying to educate and provide safe spaces. Nearly 250,000 people attended Anne Arundel County Library's 6,781 programs hosted in fiscal year 2024. In a county of about 600,000 residents, nearly 280,000 people own a library card, Auld said. The United States Naval Academy Nimitz Library, which serves the 4,400 Midshipmen on campus, has also been involved in a DEI battle. The Annapolis military school released a list of 381 books and literary works last month that were removed from its library as part of a review of diversity, equity and inclusion materials. The review followed directives from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's office to evaluate and eliminate works focused on DEI. Some titles included 'How to Be an Antiracist' by Ibram X. Kendi, 'White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America' by Anthea Butler, 'Writing/teaching: Essays Toward a Rhetoric of Pedagogy' by Paul Kameen, and 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' by Literarian Award recipient Maya Angelou. Naval Academy Public Affairs did not respond for comment. _____ Jeff Barker contributed to this report. _____
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House passes bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections
WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill Thursday that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections in an effort to codify one of President Donald Trump's executive actions from his second term. Lawmakers approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in a 220-208 vote, with four Democrats — Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii; Henry Cuellar of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state — joining every Republican present in support of the measure. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would amend the National Voter Registration Act so that states would be required to obtain proof of citizenship in person from people who are registering to vote. It would also require states to establish a program to remove undocumented immigrants from existing voter rolls and would allow American citizens to sue election officials that don't follow proof of citizenship requirements. "In order to preserve this republic, we must uphold what it means to be able to vote in a U.S. election," Roy said in a statement. "I am grateful that my colleagues answered the call and passed the SAVE Act, as this serves as a critical first step to ensure that we maintain election integrity throughout our country." Election officials, voting rights advocates and Democrats have warned that the SAVE Act would disenfranchise eligible voters who don't have easy access to identification documents. 'My Republican colleagues crafted and passed one of the most damaging voter suppression bills in modern history. There's no doubt that women, military members, and people of color will be disproportionately impacted," Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., the ranking member on the House Administration Committee, said in a statement. "The fight to stop this bill — to protect Americans' sacred right to vote — is not over. I will do everything in my power to ensure every eligible American has access to the ballot box.' It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and the practice occurs rarely. Federal law requires that voters registering to vote swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens and eligible to vote. And registering to vote and casting a ballot leaves a paper trail that elected officials are required by law to routinely review. Courts have blocked states from adding documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for voters in federal races. Trump and his GOP allies have zeroed in on the threat of noncitizens voting in elections as part of their broader unfounded claims of election fraud. Trump signed an executive order last month to require people to prove their citizenship when they register to vote. Democrats and voting rights groups have challenged the order in court. The fate of the House's bill is uncertain in the Senate, where Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, unveiled a companion bill earlier this year. With a 53-47 majority, Senate Republicans would need Democratic support to overcome the 60-vote threshold to advance the bill to a final vote and ultimately send it to Trump to sign into law. Lee's bill currently has 20 co-sponsors, all of whom are Republican. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congressman Morelle concerned for future of elections
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Democratic New York Congressman Joe Morelle, has voiced concerns regarding one of the Trump administration's proposed bills that would overhaul the U.S. election system. Morelle is on the House Administration Committee, which has oversight of federal election law. This week, the proposed measure called the 'SAVE' Act is being presented to the House to be voted on. The bill would require documented proof of citizenship, like a passport, to register to vote in federal elections and mandate that all ballots be received by election day across the country. 'It restricts voting access and makes it incredibly difficult for eligible Americans and Americans broadly speaking to cast their vote. In my view, there are three things in particular that we should all be worried about that eats away at American Democracy,' he said. New York proposal to restrict smartphones in schools causes debate He went on to outline them as the tax on the judiciary, the decision to 'attack' and restrict press outlets from White House coverage, and the attempt to 'destroy' American elections. Morelle said that this would make registering to vote harder for married women, students, and members of the armed forces. While Congress has the power to regulate voting–and has done so by passing such laws as the Voting Rights Act–the Constitution says states have primary authority to set the 'times, places, and manner' for elections. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
