Amazons 2nd HQ
November 13th, 2018
On Tuesday Amazon announced that Long Island City in New York City and Arlington, Virginia will be the locations for their new headquarters. An Operations Center of Excellence will also be formed in Nashville, Tennessee bringing 5,000 jobs to the city. Amazon says they will invest $5 billion into these cities and bring an estimated 25,000 jobs to New York City and Arlington each. The cities chosen had competed to secure the prestigious spot of Amazon’s HQ2; Amazon will receive more than $1.5 billion in performance-based incentives over the next ten years for its investment in Long Island City in New York City. Despite the benefits the high-paying jobs bring for the cities of the new headquarters, some residents worry that it will spur the same problems that Seattle has seen from Amazon: increased traffic, higher housing prices, gentrification, repression of local culture and prolonged construction. James Thomson, ex-head of Amazon Services, warns, “The expense [of being an Amazon headquarter] is a trade-off against schools, infrastructure, health care, etc. Can [a city] support 50,000 high-net earners who all want nice homes, nice restaurants, easy commutes, etc.? Amazon is NOT a fan of unions or regulation.”
Criminal Justice Reform Finds Bipartisan Support
November 14th, 2018
President Trump publicly endorsed a new criminal justice bill that is making its way through Congress. The legislation, called “Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act” or FIRST STEP Act, is part of a bipartisan proposal in Congress supported by President Trump. It was introduced to the House of Representatives on May 7, 2018. The purpose of the act, outlined in the White House briefing, will be to “reform America’s prisons to make our communities safer and our justice system fairer” and “to better prepare inmates for reentry into our society and communities. The proposed steps that the act will take to address these goals are outlined below.
“[The FIRST STEP Act will reform] mandatory minimums (sentencing), which have created racially discriminatory outcomes and increased overcrowding and costs. The legislation reduces the enhanced penalties for certain nonviolent repeat drug offenders and eliminates the three-strike mandatory life provision.”
The current system allows judges to give reduced sentences to nonviolent drug offenders with only little or no criminal history. Judges were forced to give longer sentences if the offender lived in an area with a three-strike rule or had a longer criminal history. The act would change the rule so that judges can give shorter sentences to nonviolent drug offenders who have longer criminal histories.
The FIRST STEP Act would also restrict a common practice of adding gun charges against a drug defendant even if the gun wasn’t used. The law was meant to target repeat offenders, but it has been used to ‘stack’ charges against first-time offenders, adding up to 25 years to their sentences.
The FIRST STEP Act will try to promote participation in vocational training, educational coursework, or faith-based programs in prison to lower the rate in which former inmates are rearrested. For every 30 days they spend in rehabilitative programs, inmates can earn 10 days in halfway houses or in-home supervision. Job training, education programs, and other prison rehabilitation programs would receive $375 million in federal funding.
This part of the act excludes serial killers, fentanyl traffickers, illegal immigrants, sex offenders and terrorists.
Pregnant women in federal custody will no longer be shackled. Activists have argued for better treatment of pregnant women while incarcerated by providing examples of female inmates who were in labor while shackled.
President Trump has voiced support for the FIRST STEP Act and promised to sign it when it reaches the Oval Office. The bill made it through the House of Representatives on May 22, 2018, but now awaits a vote in the Senate. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, will decide whether to bring the bill up for a vote. McConnell has voiced doubts on the timing of the passage of the bill, saying in a private meeting with Trump that there may not be enough time to give the bill a vote in the Senate. McConnell says he will "see how it stacks up against our other priorities going into the end of our session."
California Wildfires
All week
Only days after the California massacre in Thousands Oaks, the state was hit with two more tragedies. Last Thursday, a dominating “Camp Fire” broke out early morning in Butte County, which was followed by the “Woolsey Fire” just north of Los Angeles at 2:00 p.m. The Camp Fire has burned over 148,000 acres with only 60 percent of the fire contained. There have been 76 fatalities and 12,595 structures destroyed, making it the most devastating wildfire in California history. The Woolsey Fire has burned 96,949 acres while 88 percent of it has been contained. This wildfire has taken three lives, leaving 1,130 buildings destroyed. California's largest utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, has been responsible for at least 17 wildfires last fall, making them a potential cause of the current fires The company's share price plummeted following the fire, with investors fearful of the company’s liability. Another possible cause of the destruction is climate change, with rising temperatures and drying fields making the perfect conditions for wildfires to start. The U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment stated that, “Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of many U.S. forests through fire, insect infestations, drought, and disease outbreaks.” Celebrities such as couple Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth have had their homes destroyed, with Cyrus and Hemsworth donating to help other victims.
The White House vs. Jim Acosta
All Week
The war between Trump and CNN has reached a new height over the past two weeks, with the battle being over the suspension of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta from attending future press conferences. It started on Nov. 7, when President Trump decided to hold a press conference following the midterm elections, and, as most do nowadays, things got out of hand pretty quickly. After calling a question about nationalism asked by PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor “racist,” the President got into a heated argument with Acosta, who asked him about the caravan of immigrants from Central America heading to the US, which Trump has called “an invasion.” Trump responded, “That’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough,” telling him to “put down the mic.” After that, Acosta pressed President Trump about the Russia investigation, which angered the president further. He called Acosta a “rude, terrible person” and told him that “CNN should be ashamed of itself for having you work for them.” Following this exchange, the White House suspended Acosta’s press credentials indefinitely, meaning that he is not allowed back to any future press briefings for the time being. Shortly after, CNN sued President Trump and several top aides in response to the suspension, with major news medias, including the typically pro-Trump Fox News, standing in solidarity with the network. Then, on Friday, a Trump-appointed judge temporarily restored Acosta’s press pass while the lawsuit is still ongoing, citing a violation of not the First Amendment but the Fifth Amendment because the White House did not give a reason as to why they banned Acosta, defying the due process clause.
Midterm Elections
November 15-18
Florida
Mired in recounts, lawsuits and temperamental vote-counting machines, many of Florida’s elections were far from over after election day.
The Senate race between current Governor Rick Scott (R) and incumbent Bill Nelson (D) has effectively concluded Sunday after a manual recount showed Scott leading by over 10,000 votes. The race was hard fought and dramatic, with Scott’s accusations of fraud and a lawsuit from Nelson demanding that every vote be counted, piling onto the issues with Palm Beach County's aging voting machines and Broward County’s rejected recounted results. The hand recount was initiated after a machine recount showed Nelson trailing behind Scott by over 12,000 votes. Nelson’s only hopes of voters correcting mismatched signatures fell short of closing the gap, and Nelson conceded on Sunday.
It’s a lot of the same in the Florida’s gubernatorial race. Even after Democratic Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum went from conceding the race to demanding a recount on Nov. 10, former House Representative Ron DeSantis (R) held an approximate 34,000 vote lead over Gillum after a machine recount. This gap is not close enough to trigger a manual recount, and Gillum later conclusively conceded on Saturday. DeSantis, an ardent Trump supporter, was able to fend off Gillum’s bid to become Florida’s first black governor.
Georgia
A race for governor of Georgia effectively ended Friday when Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams announced she would end her campaign, crushing Democratic hopes to elect the first black woman governor. However, she made it clear that her surrender was not a concession saying that “concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper,” and continued her accusation that Brian Kemp, Republican candidate and Georgia’s previous secretary of state, actively suppressed votes while overseeing the election. After Nov. 6 the Abrams campaign insisted that there were still votes to be counted, filing multiple lawsuits to attempt to include more ballots, which did eventually allow some absentee ballots to be corrected and counted, although the gap was obviously too much to overcome.
Illinois
Illinois saw its own blue wave on Nov. 6, with one Naperville area Congressional seat among the many others flipping from Republican to Democrat. Democrats also retained majorities in the state House and state Senate, solidifying a general Democratic control of Illinois’ government in addition to victories for statewide positions like governor or attorney general. Nationally, Democrats were able to take control of the House of Representatives, many victors being young, diverse newcomers to politics capitalizing on Donald Trump’s contentious presidency. On the flipside, Republicans flipped three (Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota) Senate seats while Democrats flipped two (Nevada and Arizona), adding a seat to a current Republican Senate majority. You can find your districts and current representatives here.
Naperville Winners
Illinois/Naperville Winners
Governor: J.B. Pritzker (D)
Attorney General: Kwame Raoul (D)
Comptroller: Susana Mendoza (D)
Secretary of State: Jesse White (D)
Congressional 6th: Sean Casten (D)
Congressional 11th: Bill Foster (D)
Illinois Senate 21st: Too close to count, incumbent Michael Connelly (R) holds a 12 vote lead on Laura Ellman (D) while mail-in and provisional ballots are still being counted.
Illinois Senate 41st: John Curran (R)
Illinois House 42nd: Amy Grant (R)
Illinois House 41st: Grant Wehrli (R)
Illinois House 81st: Anne Stava-Murray (D)
Images from:
Greg Gilbert, The Seattle Times; Mark Wilson, Getty Images; Noah Berger, AP Images; Shutterstock;