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Where things stand
At this point, even the best-case coronavirus outcome is not looking very good. Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the top government doctors in charge of the crisis, said their target was to keep the nation’s deaths from the virus to under 240,000. In a scenario in which the government had done nothing to intervene, more than two million people could have died. Striking an uncharacteristically somber tone, President Trump warned, “I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead.”
Fauci looked to New York for some (limited) signs of optimism. Saying that only by curbing people’s exposure to the virus, would the country be able to keep a handle on the fatalities, he ventured: “I don’t want to jump the gun on it. We’re seeing little inklings of this in New York.”
But the news coming from Andrew Cuomo, the state’s Democratic governor, was mostly grim. He announced on Tuesday morning that the virus had killed 332 people in New York since the day before — bringing the state’s total to 1,550. (That official toll will undoubtedly rise again this morning.) And for Cuomo, the crisis has hit home: He said at his daily news briefing that his brother, Chris, a CNN host, had contracted the virus. “He’s my best friend,” the governor said. “Now he’s quarantined in the basement. But he’s funny as heck. He says to me, ‘Even the dogs won’t come downstairs.’”
The ink is barely dry on the $2 trillion stimulus package that Trump signed last week, but House Democrats are already prepping to fight for more. It was the largest single stimulus bill in history, but the legislation’s provisions are not long-term. It offers most adults a series of one-time (not recurring) cash payments, and its expansions to unemployment benefits are good for just 13 weeks on top of what states normally allow. And millions of Americans have joined the unemployment rolls since the coronavirus began spreading widely a few weeks ago. Still, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, threw cold water on the idea of another big stimulus bill. “I’m not going to allow this to be an opportunity for the Democrats to achieve unrelated policy items they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pass,” he said Tuesday on the radio show of Hugh Hewitt, a conservative commentator.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, spoke on Tuesday as President Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci listened.
How New York is handling renters’ rights during the crisis
A cadre of progressive Democrats in New York, who led a recent partisan takeover of the State Legislature, have proposed a generous bailout for tenants and property owners who are hit hard in the cratering economy.
Andrew Cuomo has ordered a 90-day moratorium on evictions, but some lawmakers, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, say that is not enough. One of the leading bills in the State Legislature, introduced by State Senator Michael Gianaris, would waive rent and mortgage payments for three months.
Cuomo would have to sign off on the bill, which some observers, including those in the tenants’ rights movement, question whether he would do and if it could withstand a legal challenge in court. On the other side, representatives of landlords are telling state lawmakers that the financial burden cannot be simply transferred from renters to property owners. They want their own financial help, too.
So far, the financial relief for renters under consideration in Albany is the most sweeping and generous package of potential aid in any state, and it reflects the newfound clout of tenants in a legislature long dominated by the powerful real estate industry. The proposed legislation has positioned New York as a leader across the country — though lawmakers in California and Washington State are not far behind in proposing similar assistance.
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Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
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Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
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VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.
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