The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed handing more power to states and tribes to block major energy projects based on water quality concerns.

The proposal would undo a Trump-era rule that restricted local regulators' authority to stand in the way of fossil fuel development. The new proposal would allow states to conduct a broader, more flexible review before making a permitting decision.

The public will have time to weigh in on the proposal. For now, the Trump-era rule will remain in place.

That rule required local regulators to focus their reviews on the pollution that projects might discharge into rivers, streams and wetlands. It also rigidly enforced a one-year deadline for regulators to make permitting decisions. Some states lost their authority to block certain projects based on allegations they blew the deadline, the Associated Press reported.

The EPA is taking the position that states should have authority to look beyond pollution discharged into waterways and “holistically evaluate” the impact of a project on local water quality. The proposal would gives local regulators more power. It allows localities to make sure they have information needed before facing deadline pressure to then issue or deny permits.

Hong Kong —

State-backed Chinese hackers foiled Microsoft's cloud-based security in hacking the email accounts of officials at multiple U.S. agencies that deal with China ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing last month, officials said Wednesday.

The surgical, targeted espionage accessed the email of a small number of individuals at an unspecified number of U.S. agencies and was discovered in mid-June by the State Department, U.S. officials said. They said none of the breached systems were classified, nor was any of the stolen data.

Related video above: Rossen Reports: How to sign up for dark web monitoring

The hacked officials included Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous U.S. officials. Export controls imposed by her agency have stung multiple Chinese companies.

One person familiar with the investigation said U.S. military and intelligence agencies were not among the agencies impacted in the monthlong spying campaign, which also affected unnamed foreign governments.

The officials spoke on condition they not be further identified.

In a technical advisory Wednesday and a call with reporters, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI said Microsoft determined the hackers gained access by impersonating authorized users.

Officials did not specify the nature of the stolen data. But one U.S. official said the intrusion was “directly targeted” at diplomats and others who deal with the China portfolio at the State Department and other agencies. The official added that it was not yet clear if there had been any significant compromise of information.

The Blinken trip went ahead as planned, although with customary information security procedures in place, which required his delegation to use “burner” phones and computers in China.

The hack was disclosed late Tuesday by Microsoft in a blog post. It said it was alerted to the breach, which it blamed on a state-backed, espionage-focused Chinese hacking group “known to target government agencies in Western Europe,” on June 16. Microsoft said the group, which it calls Storm-0558, had gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organizations, including government agencies, since mid-May as well as to consumer accounts of individuals likely associated with those agencies.

Neither Microsoft nor U.S. officials would identify the agencies or governments impacted. A senior CISA official told reporters in a press call that the number of affected organizations in the United States is in the single digits.

While the official declined to say whether U.S. officials are displeased with Microsoft over the breach, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge noted that it was “government safeguards” that detected the intrusion and added, “We continue to hold the procurement providers of the U.S. Government to a high security threshold.”

In fact, those safeguards consist of a data-logging feature for which Microsoft charges a premium. The CISA official noted that some of the victims lacked the data-logging feature and, unable to detect the breach, learned of it from Microsoft.

But of greater concern to cybersecurity experts is that The Storm-0558 hackers broke in using forged authentication tokens — which are used to verify the identity of a user. Microsoft's executive vice president for security, Charlie Bell, said on the company's website that the hackers had done that by acquiring a “consumer signing key.”

Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, a former National Security Agency offensive hacker, said it remains unclear how the hackers accomplished that. Microsoft did not immediately respond to emailed questions, including whether it was breached by the hackers to obtain the signing key.

Williams was concerned the hackers could have forged tokens for wide use to hack any number of non-enterprise Microsoft users. “I can’t imagine China didn’t also use this access to target dissidents on personal subscriptions, too."

The head of intelligence for the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, Adam Meyers, said in a statement that the incident highlights the systemic risk of relying on a single technology provider in Microsoft. He said “having one monolithic vendor that is responsible for all of your technology, products, services and security - can end in disaster.”

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, called the U.S. accusation of hacking “disinformation” aimed at diverting attention from U.S. cyberespionage against China.

“No matter which agency issued this information, it will never change the fact that the United States is the world’s largest hacker empire conducting the most cyber theft,” Wang said in a routine briefing.

U.S. intelligence agencies also use hacking as a critical espionage tool and it is not a violation of international law.

Last month, Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant said suspected state-backed Chinese hackers broke into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally exploiting a vulnerability in a popular email security tool.

Earlier this year, Microsoft said state-backed Chinese hackers were targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and could be laying the technical groundwork to disrupt critical communications between the U.S. and Asia during future crises.

____

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report. Bajak reported from Boston.

It began in the 1950s, during the communist witch hunt known as the Red Scare: A belief that gay people would be vulnerable to blackmail. 

"Homosexuals must not be handling top-secret material," former U.S Senator Joseph McCarthy said. 

Something that was never proven. 

David Johnson is a historian and author of the book "Lavender Scare" and says the name came from a color associated with LGBTQ people — a mix of the stereotypical blue for boys and pink for girls.  

"Before the Lavender Scare, as far as we know, gays and lesbians didn't have much trouble with the federal government. So there was a kind of openness," Johnson recounted. "The FBI or the Civil Service Investigators would call an employee into their office, make them swear an oath, would not allow them to have an attorney and would start asking questions. And usually the first question was, 'We have information that you are a homosexual. What comment do you care to make?'"

Johnson says thousands of gay and lesbian people were ousted from government jobs. 

"Most of them resigned quietly rather than, you know, face some sort of public humiliation," Johnson continued. "And some of them, we've learned, actually committed suicide after the brutal interrogations."

Then came government astronomer, gay activist, and veteran Frank Kameny.  

"To the best of my knowledge and belief, I was the first person to fight back out of all those large, huge numbers of people that were fired in the ‘50s," he said.  

He fought in the courts and on the streets, saying his civil rights were violated.  

The Lavender Scare ended after 25 years, in 1975, but the purge continued in the national security community. For LGBTQ Intelligence Officers, the discrimination often started with polygraphs.  

Tracey Ballard is a former Intelligence Officer for the CIA.  

"In 1988, during my polygraph, I decided to come out as a lesbian," she said.  

NEWSY'S SASHA INGBER: Wow. How did the polygrapher respond? 

TRACEY BALLARD: The polygrapher was just kind of like, 'Ohhh? Okay,' and we turned off all the recording machines, and we just had a conversation. 'Well, what did I mean, how did that work?,' and so we went through the questions and we reworked them so that I could answer them honestly. 

Ballard contacted every person involved in her investigation to get them to sign off and nearly two years later, she was cleared. Then, she founded and chaired a group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender officers at the CIA. 

"We went through the regulations, looked at the language and said, 'This is how this language affects this officer’s ability to move up in their career,'" Ballard continued. 

The game changer was President Bill Clinton signing an executive order that ended a ban on security clearances for gay workers. 

"We always said that we were the best persons to go undercover because we lived it on a regular basis back then. There were instances where we could engage with those in the foreign field, that perhaps were also in the LGBTQ community that others weren't reaching out to. We had the ability to go in, and speak to them in a way that others couldn't — where they could then trust us," Ballard said.  

But working overseas was complicated. Graham Segroves was one of the first intelligence officers to be openly gay during job the application process. He says when he started in 2002, he learned the CIA would not ask host countries if his boyfriend, now husband, could accompany him on foreign posts. 

"Let's be clear. I was talking about, 'Could I go to Europe? Could I go to Australia? Where could I go with my partner?,' and the answer was pretty much nowhere," Segroves said. 

He says he was never harassed or bullied, but the policy compelled him to stay in Washington, D.C. and silently stymied his career.  

"We were willing to spend money to send someone's pet overseas. But we were not willing to send their spouse," he said.  

That officially changed when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. As the CIA raised the pride flag at its headquarters this month, an openly gay intelligence officer sat down with Newsy to discuss the culture today. We're concealing his identity and calling him "Drew," as he is still active in the CIA.  

DREW: Have I experienced any overt discrimination or people who have been outright rude or unkind to me because I'm gay? No. Have I heard about times when there might be something said that causes offense? Yes.

INGBER: So what is the agency doing, to make sure that the LBGTQ community isn't discriminated against in high stress situations?  

DREW: They have provided a seat at the table for members of the LGBTQ community, to talk about their experience with the senior-most leaders of the agency. My experience has been that those senior leaders have not just listened to what the individuals have to say, but they've acted on it. And they have, and they have picked up the phone and called the appropriate team and said, ‘this is an issue that we are wanting to address right now. What can be done?’ 

He says the CIA is currently working on it system updates so transgender officers can see their preferred names instead of their legal names, providing gender-affirming restrooms and training staff to handle medical issues and travel requests.  

INGBER: Is the agency recruiting in the LGBTQ community? 

DREW: Yeah. We have had a presence at DC pride, for example, and we've also been working with, in some instances, student groups — so that we can have an open conversation about what it looks like to be gay at CIA.  

There is now an Intelligence Community Pride Network, and this officer says all of their work was made possible by the people who bravely faced adversity before them. 

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced earlier this week that they were again extending its waiver deadline for those in need of baby formula.

On Wednesday, the agency said the waivers made available through the federal WIC nutrition program would be extended through the end of the year.

The current waivers were set to expire on Sept. 30.

“USDA recognizes the flexibilities provided by these waivers remain necessary as we continue to pull every lever to address infant formula supply issues and provide certainty for families,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. “We will continue to work all hands on deck to ensure families can access infant formula, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to get more safe formula on store shelves nationwide.”

The waiver program was first introduced in June to deal with the infant formula crisis.

The crisis began in February amid the coronavirus pandemic and then was exacerbated after Abbott announced a voluntary recall and then had to shut its Michigan factory due to contamination, the agency said.

The agency said close to 500 waivers have been issued to WIC state agencies.

CINCINNATI — The race for Ohio's 1st Congressional District is coming down to the wire as Nov. 8's election day looms closer.

Ohio's 1st Congressional District is made up of the eastern majority of Hamilton County as well as Warren County.

Republican incumbent Steve Chabot is going head-to-head with Democratic candidate Greg Landsman.

RELATED | Your Ohio Midterm Election Guide

The issues listed below are the topics prioritized by Chabot and Landsman on their respective campaign websites.

Here's a breakdown of each candidate, as well as the issues they've campaigned on:

Backgrounds

Steve Chabot

Steve Chabot is serving Ohio's 1st Congressional District in his 12th term. From Cincinnati, he previously served as a city councilman and Hamilton County commissioner for nearly five years before being elected to Congress in 1994.

Chabot serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House.

Greg Landsman

Greg Landsman is a former public school teacher in his fifth year as a Cincinnati councilman. Landsman was born in Greater Cincinnati, and after earning a Master's Degree he went on to work for former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. As a councilman, Landsman established City Hall's first-ever Office of Ethics and Good Government and the Balanced Development Scorecard.

Issues

Steve Chabot

Revitalizing the Economy: Chabot wants federal agencies to look for alternatives to ease the burden on small businesses so they can grow and create jobs

Health Care: Chabot supports the repeal of Obamacare and replacing it with market-based reforms that will give families more options at a lower cost. The legislation he supports to replace Obamacare is also guaranteed to cover those with pre-existing conditions.

Energy: He believes America needs to increase domestic oil production, and Chabot is a strong proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline. He has also introduced legislation to stop price-gouging and anti-competitive behavior by OPEC nations by subjecting them to antitrust laws and prohibiting them from withholding supply with the intent of creating a shortage or raising prices.

Government Spending: Chabot is a supporter of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Protecting Social Security: Chabot is a longtime supporter of the Social Security Preservation Act, which says that money paid into Social Security can only be used for Social Security and no other government programs.

Veterans: He vows to be a strong supporter of legislation and funding efforts to ensure veterans have access to medical care, education and financial services.

School Security: Chabot help pass legislation that reauthorized the COPS Secure Our Schools grant program for 10 years. The legislation more than doubles the funding available for important security measures, including metal detectors, improvements in identifying and treating mental health issues, the installation of improved communications systems and security training for school employees and students.

Cybersecurity: As part of the House Small Business Committee, Chabot has focused on steps small businesses can take to prevent and combat cyberattacks. Alongside Ranking Member Nydia Velasquez, Chabot introduced bipartisan legislation to help give small businesses the tools and resources they need to defend themselves against cyberattacks, both foreign and domestic.

Greg Landsman

Lowering Costs for Families: Landsman has called for the suspension of the state and federal gas taxes, as well as for lowering the costs of prescription drugs. He also promises to hold big corporations accountable for price gouging.

Jobs & the Economy: He supports the bipartisan COMPETES Act that works to bring the supply chain back home. Landsman also supports strengthening worker protections, including making it harder for employers to bust unions before they have a chance to organize and update labor laws. He also supports raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and to expand high-quality and affordable childcare.

Reproductive Health & Rights: Landsman believes that it's not the place of the government to dictate the decisions that Americans make about their own bodies. He opposes any effort to undermine privacy between women and their doctors, and he supports the codification of Roe v. Wade. Landsman also wants to address the racial discrepancies in maternal mortality.

Education: Landsman promises to fight for more equitable access to education. He also plans to vote to lessen the burden of college on students and their parents.

Infrastructure: Landsman supports the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and plans continued investment in projects to improve crumbling roads and bridges as well as expanding digital infrastructure to ensure broadband internet for everyone.

Public Safety: Landsman supports improving public safety by building trust between communities and public safety officers and police.

Gun Safety: Landsman has been named a Gun Sense candidate by Moms Demand Action, and he supports requiring universal background checks on all gun sales. He also supports banning the sale of assault weapons.

Voting Rights: Landsman supports the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also supports expanding voter registration and access, strengthening ethics requirements, outlawing voter purges, increasing election security and establishing independent redistricting nationwide.

Health Care: He promises to push for lower healthcare premiums and work to eliminate surprise billing. Landsman also supports bipartisan legislation that holds Big Pharma accountable and allowing Medicaid to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.

Veterans: Landsman promises to fight to make sure veterans suffering from toxic exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan get the support and medical attention they deserve. He also said it's "inexcusable" that any veteran lacks access to health care for physical and mental health.

Environment: Landsman is endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters. He promises to fight to protect access to clean air and water, and he'll hold polluters accountable for damages that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

Equality: If elected to Congress, Landsman will support the Equality Act to ensure that no one can be discriminated against due to sexual orientation or gender. He also wants to codify marriage equality into federal law.

Foreign Policy: As a member of Congress, Landsman will advocate for Israel's right to self-determination and work to build bridges between the U.S., Israel and other regions to achieve sustainable peace in the region. He also supports the Abraham Accords effort started by former President Trump and continued by President Biden. Lastly, Landsman supports delivering military and humanitarian aid to those in Ukraine.

More election guides
Looking at Ohio's Senate race between JD Vance, Tim Ryan
A guide to Ohio's governor race between Mike DeWine, Nan Whaley

Twitter has been sued over Elon Musk's plan to lay off around half of the company's staff, after purchasing the social network for around $44 billion dollars.

Bloomberg News reported that a class-action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court.

The outlet reported that a similar lawsuit by Tesla workers was labeled as "trivial" by the billionaire.

The lawyer that filed the suit against Twitter Inc. said it was being done "pre-emptively," just as the mass layoffs were set to move forward.

The lawyer said she is "pleased" that she found out Twitter employees will continue to be paid until Jan. 4, Bloomberg reported.

Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan said Friday Musk "is making an effort to comply" with the legal matter.

Liss-Riordan said in the suit that Twitter is violating federal and California statutes.

INDIANA — ABC News projects Todd Young has won reelection.

Young defeated Democratic challenger Thomas McDermott Jr., the longest-serving mayor in the history of Hammond, Ind., to serve his second term in the U.S. Senate. With 68% of precincts reporting, Young has 59% of the vote.

The Republican incumbent previously served as a representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district before he was elected to the Senate in 2018. He succeeded Dan Coats.

Young was considered a clear front-runner throughout the race, mostly ignoring McDermott's campaign. Like many of his incumbent colleagues, Young had a large fundraising advantage over McDermott. He spent most of his campaign talking about inflation and rising gas prices.

His campaign raised about $14.9 million in contributions through Oct. 19, according to Federal Election Commission filings, while McDermott’s campaign had collected $1.27 million.

He did not get an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. He voted to acquit Trump in his Senate impeachment trials, though he did vote to uphold President Joe Biden's election win.

Young is on the Senate committees on finance; foreign relations; commerce, science and transportation; and small business and entrepreneurship. He was in the Marine Corps before attending law school and starting his political career.

There are several additional elections for state legislators, mayors and council members in Indiana. Hoosiers in the Tri-State are also electing Indiana's representative for the 6th congressional district. Greg Pence, the older brother of former Vice President Mike Pence, has represented the district since 2018.

FIND THE LATEST MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS FROM OHIO, KENTUCKY AND INDIANA HERE.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — José Irizarry accepts that he's known as the most corrupt agent in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration history, admitting he "became another man" in conspiring with Colombian cartels to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive sportscars, Tiffany jewels and paramours around the world.

But as he used his final hours of freedom to tell his story to The Associated Press, Irizarry says he won't go down for this alone, accusing some long-trusted DEA colleagues of joining him in skimming millions of dollars from drug money laundering stings to fund a decade's worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events and frat house-style debauchery.

The way Irizarry tells it, dozens of other federal agents, prosecutors, informants and in some cases cartel smugglers themselves were all in on the three-continent joyride known as "Team America" that chose cities for money laundering pick-ups mostly for party purposes or to coincide with Real Madrid soccer or Rafael Nadal tennis matches. That included stops along the way in VIP rooms of Caribbean strip joints, Amsterdam's red-light district and aboard a Colombian yacht that launched with plenty of booze and more than a dozen prostitutes.

"We had free access to do whatever we wanted," the 48-year-old Irizarry told the AP in a series of interviews before beginning a 12-year federal prison sentence. "We would generate money pick-ups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there it was about drinking and girls."

All this revelry was rooted, Irizarry said, in a crushing realization among DEA agents around the world that there's nothing they can do to make a dent in the drug war anyway. Only nominal concern was given to actually building cases or stemming a record flow of illegal cocaine and opioids into the United States that has driven more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths a year.

"You can't win an unwinnable war," he said. "The drug war is a game...It was a very fun game that we were playing."

Irizarry's story, which some former colleagues have attacked as a fictionalized attempt to reduce his sentence, came in days of contrite, bitter, sometimes tearful interviews with the AP in the historic quarter of his native San Juan. It was much the same account he gave the FBI in lengthy debriefings and sealed court papers obtained by the AP after he pleaded guilty in 2020 to 19 corruption counts.

But after years of portraying Irizarry as a rogue agent who acted alone, U.S. Justice Department investigators have in recent months begun closely following his confessional roadmap, questioning as many as two-dozen current and former DEA agents and prosecutors accused of turning a blind eye to his flagrant abuses and sometimes joining in.

The once-standout agent has accused some former colleagues in the DEA's Miami-based Group 4 of lining their pockets and falsifying records to replenish a slush fund used for foreign jaunts over the better part of a decade, until his resignation in 2018.

"The indictment paints a picture of me, the corrupt agent that did this entire scheme. But it doesn't talk about the rest of DEA. I wasn't the mastermind," Irizarry said.

The Justice Department declined to comment. A DEA spokesperson said: "José Irizarry is a criminal who violated his oath as a federal law enforcement officer and violated the trust of the American people."

AP was able to corroborate some, but not all, of Irizarry's accusations through thousands of confidential law enforcement records and dozens of interviews with those familiar with his claims and the ongoing criminal investigation.

The probe is focused in part on George Zoumberos, one of Irizarry's former partners who traveled overseas extensively for money laundering investigations. Irizarry told AP that Zoumberos enjoyed unfettered access to so-called commission funds and improperly tapped that money for personal purchases and unwarranted trips.

Authorities are so focused on Zoumberos that they also subpoenaed his brother, a Florida wedding photographer who traveled with DEA agents, and even granted him immunity to induce his cooperation. But Michael Zoumberos also refused to testify and has been jailed outside Tampa since March for "civil contempt" — an exceedingly rare pressure tactic that underscores the rising temperature of the investigation.

Some current and former DEA agents say Irizarry's claims are overblown or flat-out fabrications. The lawyer for the Zoumberos brothers says prosecutors are on a "fishing expedition" to bring more indictments because of the embarrassment of the Irizarry scandal.

"They're looking to find a crime to fit this case as opposed to a crime that actually took place," said attorney Raymond Mansolillo.

Irizarry parlayed his knowledge of the black-market peso exchange into a life of luxury that prosecutors say was bankrolled by $9 million he and his Colombian co-conspirators diverted from money laundering investigations.

Irizarry's spending habits quickly began to mimic the ostentatious tastes of the narcos he was tasked with targeting, with spoils including a $30,000 Tiffany diamond ring for his wife, luxury sports cars and a $767,000 home in the Colombian resort city of Cartagena.

"I got caught up in the lifestyle," he said. "I got caught up with the informants and partying."

Since his arrest, Irizarry has written a self-published book titled "Getting Back on Track," part of his attempt to own up to his mistakes, and his wife has told him she is seeking a divorce.

Adding to Irizarry's despair is that he is still the only one to pay such a heavy price for a pattern of misconduct that he says the DEA allowed to fester. To date, prosecutors have yet to charge any other agents, and several former colleagues have quietly retired rather than endure the disgrace of possibly being fired.

"I've told them everything I know," Irizarry said. "All they have to do is dig."

Congress passed a $858 billion defense policy bill this week called the National Defense Authorization Act.

Most of that money – $816.7 billion – will go toward Department of Defense programs, according to documents. About $30.3 billion will go toward national security programs, and $378 million is allocated for defense-related activities.

The NDAA will fund new military weapons purchases, increase pay for service members, and add more support for Ukraine and Taiwan.

The bill would also end the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The bill increases America’s total national security budget by about 10& from the defense bill we saw last year.

To put our defense spending into context, a chart by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation shows the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 9 countries combined. It shows the U.S. spending $801 billion, while China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea spend $777 billion combined.

China had the second highest military spending at $293 billion, according to 2021 stats from Statista.

The bill will now go to President Biden’s desk to be signed.

More than 1,100 cities, towns and villages in the U.S. lost their status as urban areas on Thursday as the U.S. Census Bureau released a new list of places considered urban based on revised criteria.

Around 4.2 million residents living in 1,140 small cities, hamlets, towns and villages that lost their urban designation were bumped into the rural category. The new criteria raised the population threshold from 2,500 to 5,000 people and housing units were added to the definition.

The change matters because rural and urban areas often qualify for different types of federal funding for transportation, housing, health care, education and agriculture. The federal government doesn't have a standard definition of urban or rural, but the Census Bureau's definition often provides a baseline.

"The whole thing about urban and rural is all about money," said Mary Craigle, bureau chief for Montana's Research and Information Services. "Places that qualify as urban are eligible for transportation dollars that rural areas aren't, and then rural areas are eligible for dollars that urban areas are not."

The Census Bureau this year made the biggest modification in decades to the definition of an urban area. The bureau adjusts the definition every decade after a census to address any changes or needs of policymakers and researchers. The bureau says it is done for statistical purposes and it has no control over how government agencies use the definitions to distribute funding.

There were 2,646 urban areas in the mainland U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. islands on the new list released Thursday. Among them were three dozen new urban areas that were rural a decade ago.

"This change in definition is a big deal and a substantial change from the Census Bureau's long-standing procedures," said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire. "It has significant implications both for policy and for researchers."

Under the old criteria, an urbanized area needed to have at least 50,000 residents. An urban cluster was defined as having at least 2,500 people, a threshold that had been around since 1910. Under this definition, almost 81% of the U.S. was urban and 19% was rural over the past decade.

Under the new definition, hammered out after the 2020 census, the minimum population required for an area to be considered urban doubled to 5,000 people. Originally, the Census Bureau proposed raising the threshold to 10,000 people but pulled back amid opposition. The new criteria for urban areas shift the urban-rural ratio slightly, to 79.6% and 20.4%, respectively.

In 1910, a town with 2,500 residents had a lot more goods and services than a town that size does today, "and these new definitions acknowledge that," said Michael Cline, North Carolina's state demographer.

With the new criteria, the distinction between an urbanized area and an urban cluster has been eliminated since the Census Bureau determined there was little difference in economic activities between communities larger and smaller than 50,000 residents.

Of the 50 states, California was the most urban, with 94.2% of its population living in an urban area. Vermont was the most rural, with almost 65% of its population residing in rural areas.

For the first time, the Census Bureau is adding housing units to the definition of an urban area. A place can be considered urban if it has at least 2,000 housing units, based on the calculation that the average household has 2.5 people.

Among the beneficiaries of using housing instead of people are resort towns in ski or beach destinations, or other places with lots of vacation homes, since they can qualify as urban based on the number of homes instead of full-time residents.

"There are many seasonal communities in North Carolina and this change in definition to housing units may be helpful in acknowledging that these areas are built up with roads, housing, and for at least one part of the year, host many thousands of people," Cline said.

Housing, instead of population, is also going to be used for density measures at the level of census blocks, which typically have several hundred people and are the building blocks of urban areas. The Census Bureau said using housing units instead of population will allow it to make updates in fast-growing areas in between the once-a-decade censuses.

But there's another reason for switching to housing units instead of population: the Census Bureau's controversial new tool for protecting the privacy of participants in its head counts and surveys. The method adds intentional errors to data to obscure the identity of any given participant, and it is most noticeable in the smallest geographies, such as census blocks.

"The block level data aren't really reliable and this provides them an opportunity for the density threshold they picked to be on par with the population," said Eric Guthrie, a senior demographer in the Minnesota State Demographic Center.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP

A Senate committee is scheduled to review legislation aimed at repealing multiple authorizations passed in previous administrations for wars in Iraq.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed on Wednesday that Congress has intensified its focus on determining the legislative body's place when it comes to decisions on sending U.S. troops to combat zones.

While the Senate Foreign Relations Committee didn't appear to make an official announcement ahead of its planned meeting, Reuters reported that it would focus on the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, according to Sen. Schumer.

A full vote could be expected before lawmakers depart for their April recess.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — In a country with so much diversity, around 8.75 million people identify, at least partially, as American Indian or Alaska Native.

In Minnesota, a state with more than 100,000 of those residents, the Dakota people have the largest presence.

Shelley Buck, who has devoted her life to her culture and tribe, serves as the president of Friends of the Falls. She is pushing to transform the heart of Minneapolis' Central Riverfront into an iconic destination honoring Indigenous history.

Friends of the Falls has been working with the City of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Park Board and Dakota nations to possibly reassume ownership of a historic stretch of the city's downtown riverfront that was traditionally a Dakota sacred site.

"I want it to be a place of healing, connecting and reconnecting," Buck said. "A place for education where we can educate the people about things they weren't taught growing up and also that community building."

Dakota people went to Owámniyomni, meaning turbulent waters, for ceremony and women traveled to Spirit Island to give birth. Both sites have since experienced extensive damage and destruction.

"Friends of the Falls did a ton of work to arrive at a vision for what this place could ultimately be, that would highlight it in a way that would set us apart as a city and sets this particular destination apart from anything else you'll find in the rest of the country," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Frey says acknowledgment of the lost history is one part of the process. He said another part is rectifying broken treaties.

"This is an opportunity for us to use that same legal system that did wrong to do right," Frey said.

Buck points out it's rare for people to want to help tribes get their land back.

"And saying, 'Here you go, it's your project. It needs to be native-led and native-focused, have at it.' You never hear about that," Buck said.

This project began with non-native people. People like Kjersti Duval, the CEO of Duval Companies, which is a real estate development and policy solutions company, first helped to protect the site.

"I was really one of those folks that were there at the beginning," Duval said. "The initial push was to prevent the site from further industrialization."

Quickly, native leaders were brought on board. One of the biggest hurdles is working to change land ownership.

"It has been extremely difficult to move this very small piece of land from federal ownership to local ownership. Like I said, seven years, it should be easier," Duval said.

These leaders want their work to be encouraging and emulated in other parts of the country.

"Great opportunity to touch people to have something that was once invisible become very visible, become a learning opportunity," Duval said.

"I'm excited for this to be a one-of-a-kind and really something that can help other states work towards," Buck said.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a statement Friday confirming a ProPublica report that he went on lavish globe-trotting trips on the dime of a wealthy Republican donor. 

ProPublica said Thomas did not report the trips as gifts. In a statement, Thomas said he sought guidance and was told he did not need to report the vacations. 

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” Thomas said. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than a quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”

The ProPublica report said Thomas used a private jet to fly to Indonesia to board a yacht staffed by a private chef. The outlet reported that had Thomas paid for this trip on his own, it would have cost over $500,000. 

ProPublica noted that the salary for a Supreme Court justice is $285,000. Given his career in public service, going on such trips would be well beyond his means. 

SEE MORE: How the Supreme Court is still entangled in Jan. 6

The report drew the ire of Senate Democrats. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., vowed to take action. 

“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said. “Today’s ProPublica report reveals that Justice Thomas has for years accepted luxury travel on private yachts and jets and a litany of other gifts that he failed to disclose. This behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”

ProPublica reports that Thomas has accepted trips from Harlan Crow for more than 20 years without disclosing them. 

In a statement to the publication, Crow said that he and his wife had been friends with Thomas and his wife, Ginni, since 1996. Crow rebuffed any suggestion that the trips were offered in exchange for anything from Thomas. 

"We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue," Crow said. 

Thomas was seated on the Supreme Court in 1991. 

Rep. Hank Johnson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was among the Democrats who introduced the Supreme Court Ethics Recusal and Transparency Act. The act would require Supreme Court justices and staff to have the same gift reporting rules as members of Congress. 

SEE MORE: Supreme Court says trans girl can run girls track in West Virginia

Congress allows members and staff to receive gifts of over $250 from personal friends, but they must seek committee approval before accepting. 

“These are men and women who, though they are officials on the highest court of the land, they are not above the law,” Johnson said. “And they should be subject to the same disclosure rules and rules of ethics that members of Congress and members of the executive branch are bound to.”

According to the government watchdog database OpenSecrets, Crow has made over $20 million in political contributions, mostly with GOP donors.

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Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati leaders announced the city's proposed budget for the next two years Friday morning, with a focus on public safety spending.

This comes after Cincinnati's police and fire chiefs told city council in the last few months that the department is facing staffing shortages. CPD Chief Theresa Theetgedescribed her department's situation as "dire."

The proposed budget totals $1.59 billion and includes funding for three new police recruit classes totaling 160 possible positions and four new fire recruit classes, totaling 200 possible positions.

Last year, each department only had two recruitment classes each.

"There has been years in which we're trying to catch up from lost recruitment classes in both police and fire. Couple that with a lack of interest in the industry all together, we are essentially like drinking from a fire hose," said Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long.

The proposed budget lays out three recruit classes — two that will graduate in 2024 and one that graduates in 2025. Each of those classes are intended to have roughly 50 recruits each. The budget allocated for each recruit class is roughly $2 million, with the full two-year total for all three classes running $6,259,940.

The fire department's budget is a little more complicated: It highlights the four budgeted recruit classes, two set to graduate in 2024 and two in 2025. Those are each going to run roughly $1.4 million. But the bigger financial impact comes from overtime hours. For each of those recruit classes, the city has also allocated each recruitment class $550,000 in just overtime hours.

In total, that would mean the fire department's recruitment classes are budgeted to cost around $3,857,460 in 2024 and $4,087,350 in 2025.

City leaders said the goal is to get back up to the full number of officers CPD and the fire department are budgeted to have and keep up with retirements and other forms of employee attrition.

"I think they're taking a half step when they need to take four or five," Fraternal Order of Police President Dan Hils said.

He said more police recruit classes are good but he thinks bigger pay increases are key to attracting more candidates. In the new budget proposal, the city is aiming to address that. The new budget proposes increasing operating funds for CPD by $2,428,410 "due to wage and benefits increases and increases in expert services." However, that increase, the budget says, is offset by the transfer of full-time officers to other bureaus.

The proposed budget also allocates $615,000 to expand the Alternate Response to Crisis unit (ARC), which was a pilot program this year.

"For 3,000 hours mental health professionals, not police, responded to calls," Long said.

This discussion comes as the city faces a deficit.

"Our expenses frankly are growing more quickly than our revenues," said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. "We are living in a very difficult and frankly uncertain time. The ground is moving under our feet and so what this budget tries to do is act responsibly in anticipation of that dire fiscal situation that we're walking into next year."

City leaders said with fewer people commuting into the city to work after the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is collecting less income tax. They plan to use American Rescue Plan Act dollars to make up for it in Fiscal Year 2024, which starts in July.

By Fiscal Year 2025, though, the city could be facing a nearly $9.5 million operating budget deficit. Plus, city leaders say there's about $400 million in deferred maintenance.

"Which is why this council and I have been so aggressive at looking for new streams of revenue to make us. less reliant on our earnings tax revenue," Pureval said.

The city increased the property tax rate for 2024, plus Pureval said the possible sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern could be a potential revenue stream.

There will be a public comment meeting about the proposed budget at City Hall on June 5 and 5:30 pm.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has split the hacking community, sending some of the most recognizable and powerful groups scrambling to pick a side to declare which has their allegiance.

In a tweet, hacking group Anonymous declared "a cyberwar against the Russian government" and has claimed to be responsible for attacks that brought down Russia Today, a state-backed news outlet, and several government websites. It also said it hacked other Russian state-TV channels.

Conti, a ransomware group with possible ties to Russian intelligence that attacked more than 290 American targets last year, declared its "full support of Russian government" and said it would use "all possible resources to strike back" at any adversaries. Cyberthreat intelligence company Orpheus Cyber reported another group united with Russia obtained stolen data from more than 45 Ukrainian government websites, and some of it is up for sale.

Motives that push hacking groups to pick a side range widely. Members of Anonymous have stated that their guiding principle is "anti-oppression," while Russian-aligned attacks may be state-sponsored. Pro-Russia attacks can also come from groups who feel pressured to operate on their behalf by the Kremlin.

"It's not entirely clear what the connection is between the ransomware gangs and the Russian government," said Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emsisoft. "At best, they are working within a permissive environment. At worst, they are working for certain wings of the Russian government."

"Some of the actions of Russia's government just prior to the war — shutting down the REvil gang or arresting them and shutting down a number of dark web forums and shops — these cybercriminals are afraid that if they don't support the regime, they're going to be next," said Alex Holden, the founder of Hold Security.

Hacking groups may become targets for moving away from their usual financial motives for attacks. After Conti declared support for Russia, an apparent insider who objected to the group's support for Russia leaked a trove of internal chat messages and other files that Holden says "mortally wounded" the gang.

"When we see things like this, we are learning how in 2021, 2022, cybercriminal enterprises operate, so we have [the] ability to detect and deter organizations like this in the future," Holden said.

Moving forward, experts say that any further cyber escalation could spell trouble for those outside the conflict zone, including Americans. Groups like Conti could come back to hit the U.S. as well.

"They are a highly effective ransomware group, albeit one that has terrible operational security," Callow said. "They likely do still have access to certain U.S. networks that they have yet to encrypt, and they could potentially do that any time."

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here: https://bit.ly/Newsy1

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Trending stories at Newsy.com

A new study is showing how mask mandates affect COVID-19 case numbers during the pandemic.

Doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania looked at case numbers in counties weeks after mask mandates were implemented.

The study spanned between March and October of 2020, during the time cases were peaking across the country.

Researchers found that, on average, daily cases declined by 23% four weeks after mask mandates were implemented, in comparison to counties that did not have mask mandates.

Case numbers improved as time went on.

Daily cases decreased by 33% six weeks after mask mandates were implemented, compared to unmasked counties.

The study goes on to show that mask mandates were more effective in urban counties.

The study comes as the CDC prepares to issue new guidance on masks.

Arizona now ranks number one in the nation when it comes to excess deaths. A metric used to measure the number of deaths over what's expected for the state over time was used to determine the alarming statistic.

Will Humble, Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association says the excess death rate was a stable data point before the pandemic and therefore, a good baseline to measure the impact COVID-19 is having on the state.

“What you clearly see both in Arizona and across the country is an increase in total mortality or total deaths over and above what you would normally expect in a regular year,” Humble said.

“So according to CDC estimates, Arizona is at about 25% to 30% over what would be the expected amount of deaths for this last year," said Garrett Archer, a data analyst.

Archer said, "That translates to about 10,000 to 20,000 extra deaths than we would expect to see.”

Humble claims the reason Arizona has so many more excess deaths is that Governor Doug Ducey and former State Health Director Dr. Cara Christ failed to implement policy to prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially during the surges over the past two years.

“The biggest thing was last winter in December and January when bars, restaurants, and nightclubs were just open and they could do whatever they wanted, that started all kinds of chains of transmission that ended up resulting in the deaths of older persons who never went to a bar or nightclub,” Humble said.

He also points to the impact COVID-related issues had on non-COVID-19 health conditions.

"Deaths from diabetes, deaths from heart disease, and it could be elective procedures that were delayed. Accidents and injuries were also another big category," Humble said.

He again blamed the lack of mitigation from the governor and state health leaders on overwhelming the hospital system and preventing people from either having access or seeking care.

"You also have the fact that the care within the hospital system during the surges is not what it normally is, and that results in excess deaths and mortality as well," he added.

Archer says that policy is just part of the equation.

"Policy is going to be one measure, but another variable is the vaccination rates, especially early on during the Delta and Alpha surges. Arizona did not have a very high vaccination rate," Archer said. "We have a large older population because we are a retirement community and that will factor into things like excess deaths," he said.

The Arizona Department of Health Services disputes Humble's claims that failed policy by the governor and state health officials played a major role in the excessive death rate and said in a statement to the media, "I encourage you to review this information we provided to your newsroom and others when the Arizona Public Health Association first promoted its report on excess deaths. In short, the CDC data the Arizona Public Health Association uses isn’t intended to answer the questions the group is attempting to answer."

The statement went on to say, "Each death is an unspeakable tragedy for that person, their loved ones and Arizona as a whole. Out of respect for those who have died and those who continue to suffer from COVID-19, we politely suggest that attempts to draw conclusions from deaths - and stories that may result from these attempts - look carefully at the data, sources, and conclusions of those presenting findings before properly vetted, complete and consistent state-by-state information is available."

The CDC also posted data, which the department added comments to, and released as a statement below:

Limitations

"These estimates are based on provisional data, which are incomplete. The weighting method applied may not fully account for reporting lags if there are long delays at present than in past years. For example, in Pennsylvania, reporting lags are currently much longer than they have been in past years, and death counts for 2020 are therefore underestimated. Conversely, the weighting method may over-adjust for underreporting, given improvements in data timeliness in certain jurisdictions. Unweighted estimates are provided, so that users can see the impact of weighting the provisional counts. However, these unweighted provisional counts are incomplete, and the extent to which they may underestimate the true count of deaths is unknown. Some jurisdictions exhibit recent increases in deaths when using weighted estimates, but not the unweighted. The estimates presented may be an early indication of excess mortality related to COVID-19, but should be interpreted with caution, until confirmed by other data sources such as state or local health departments. It is possible that recent improvements in the timeliness of data could also contribute to the pattern where a jurisdiction exhibits recent increases with the weighted data, but not the unweighted. Conversely, recent increases may be missed in jurisdictions with historically low levels of completeness (e.g., Connecticut, North Carolina) either due to the lack of provisional data or insufficient weighting to address incomplete data."

We raise the following specific concerns with the report:

1. Estimating all-cause of mortality by excluding injuries and other (minor) natural causes is a limitation of this report. Injuries are among the top five causes of death in Arizona, and this cannot be overlooked in this type of study. It begs the question of whether the percentage of excess mortality found in this report is actually representative for Arizona.

2. The differences in burden of mortality between ADHS data and the result of this report (ref. Page 3) might stem from the assignment of COVID-19 as primary cause of death - that is, the various ways jurisdictions (CDC, states) determine a COVID-19 death case.

2. Figure 7 (page 6) begs the question of whether these rates are adjusted or crude. Comparison of mortality across time periods or even geographic areas is typically done using standardized rates, and it is worth asking whether AZPHA is following this best practice."

This article was originally published by Marc Thompson of KNXV.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers proposed a plan on Thursday that would give every resident of the state of Wisconsin a $150 tax rebate. The plan would also send hundreds of millions of dollars into education in the state and would help with the rising cost of gas and goods at stores, Evers said.

The governor announced the plan on Twitter writing that the money would come from a state surplus and would help reduce "barriers to work by making caregiving and childcare more affordable."

Gov. Evers' office wrote, "We've worked hard to provide hundreds of dollars in relief to Wisconsinites through withholding table changes and our tax cuts—including one of the largest income tax cuts in state history—but I know folks are still being stretched thin due to rising prices, and we can do more."

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, Gov. Evers plan would also aim to help cover childcare costs for parents and it would potentially funnel around $750 million into Wisconsin education.

Gov. Ever's election-year plan is reminiscent of his predecessor, Republican Scott Walker, who offer something similar as he headed into reelection in 2018, according to the Milwaukee Journal.

As the Associated Press noted, the plan would have to be approved first by the state's Republican-controlled legislature and GOP leaders there have said they'd like to use the money, which comes from a surplus, to offer a tax cut in 2023.

Evers, who had criticized a similar plan by his predecessor in 2018, said Thursday, “We weren’t in a pandemic back then and we didn’t have people that were struggling mightily at home, especially with some inflationary costs.”

Gov. Evers also said Thursday that he plans to invest $180 million into property tax relief and $130 million into a plan for childcare and "childgiver tax credits."

COLUMBUS — Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a map of new congressional districts on Saturday that will be in effect for the next four years, despite objections from Democrats and voting rights groups.

States must redraw their congressional districts every 10 years to reflect new population numbers. Under this year’s U.S. Census results, delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ohio lost one seat in Congress starting next year, taking it from 16 to 15.

The new map will only last for 4 years, instead of the normal 10, because it wasn't a bipartisan decision — the map as a whole is still expected to face legal challenges.

"There's a provision in the Constitution that says you can't draw the maps to favor or disfavor a party," said David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati. "And so there's a very compelling case to be made, that the only reason you would draw a map that links Cincinnati to Warren County instead of Cincinnati to the rest of Hamilton County, is to favor or disfavor a party. And you can see that same pattern in other places across the state."

The new law creates at most three safe Democratic districts out of 15 new U.S. House seats in a state where voters are split roughly 54% Republican, 46% Democratic.

Populous Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties — home to Cleveland and Cincinnati, respectively, and their concentrations of Democratic voters — are divided three ways each. Franklin County, home to Columbus, is divided two ways, and the western Cleveland suburbs in Lorain County are part of a district that stretches to the Indiana border, a nearly 3-hour drive.

"They wound up having to split Hamilton County into three different pieces, all three of those pieces are heavily influenced by voters in other counties," said Niven. "So Hamilton will go from two members of Congress to three. But just as is the case now, those three members are going to be influenced by the voters who are outside of Hamilton County."

DeWine said in a statement that, compared with other proposals from House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, the Senate legislation he signed “makes the most progress to produce a fair, compact, and competitive map.”

The redistricting measure cleared the state Legislature along party lines with House approval Thursday after a breakneck sprint through both chambers, amid praise from majority Republicans.

Democrats blasted the Republican-led mapmaking process as unfair, partisan and cloaked in secrecy. The Senate approved the bill Tuesday, only about 16 hours after the new map was released. The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade.

Image provided

DeWine, however, said Saturday that the new map “has fewer county splits and city splits” than recent proposals and the current congressional map. He said it keeps Lucas and Stark counties and the Mahoning Valley within single congressional districts “for the first time in decades” and keeps Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, and Toledo “all whole within the same congressional map for the first time since the 1840s.”

State Rep. D.J. Swearingen, a Republican, defended the map during debate Thursday as fair, constitutional and not unduly favoring either political party or its incumbents. He echoed the arguments of sponsoring GOP Sen. Rob McColley in calling the plan superior in competitiveness and in the spirit of a 2018 constitutional amendment.

“If you have the right candidate on the right issues, you can win a competitive district,” McColley said. “Whereas, the Democratic map that was offered in the House offered a determined outcome.”

Fair Districts Ohio, a coalition of voting-rights groups and labor organizations, had called on the governor to strike down the bill. Executive director Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, a member organization, said instead of “bipartisan, transparent redistricting” leaders had “disrespected voters, trampled the Ohio Constitution and rigged the congressional map to serve partisan, political operatives rather than fairly represent Ohioans.”

The Ohio Democratic Party on Saturday blasted the governor for signing the bill, with party chair Elizabeth Walters accusing DeWine of “naked, partisan self-interest.”

“DeWine and the Ohio GOP are doing everything and anything they can to prevent voters from holding them accountable at the ballot box while they continue to betray Ohioans at every turn,” Walters said.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley accused the governor of being “more interested in maintaining political power and appeasing his party ahead of a contentious primary than respecting the will of Ohioans.”

Under a new process established under a popular 2018 constitutional amendment, creating a 10-year map — the ideal — would have required robust Democratic support. Without it, the plan will last only four years.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director.

He becomes the first Native American to lead the agency that oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks and other landmarks.

Some conservationists hailed Sams’ confirmation as a commitment to equitable partnership with tribes, the original stewards of the land.

Sams told the Confederated Umatilla Journal that he's deeply honored.

Sams has said he would work to ensure that Indigenous history of National Park Service lands is included.

Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and lives on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's clear the country won’t be adding any more stars to the American flag any time soon.

Efforts to make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico official states have stalled in Congress.

However, while D.C. citizens still have access to many government programs that citizens of all the 50 states enjoy, Puerto Rico citizens are ineligible for many. 

Take, for instance, Supplemental Security Income, SSI.

It’s a program that helps Americans with illnesses or disabilities get by.

Those who live in D.C. qualify for it, but those who live in Puerto Rico do not, even though people in both places pay federal taxes.

Why? When Congress passed SSI decades ago, they didn’t include residents of the island.

SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE

Well, the debate over the rights of Puerto Rico citizens will be front and center in the Supreme Court this week.

The case is called United States v. Vaello-Madero.

Oral arguments are on Tuesday.

It’s about a man named Jose Luis Vaello-Madero. In 2013, he moved from his home of 28 years in New York City back to Puerto Rico. When he became ill he filed for SSI benefits.

If he moved to, let’s say, Florida instead, it would have been no problem. However, when the Social Security Administration learned where he moved, they cut him off from the program and demanded he pay back $28,000 worth of benefits he had already received. 

The Biden administration is split on the issue.

President Joe Biden has issued statements calling for Puerto Rico citizens to be covered by government programs like SSI.

“There can be no second-class citizens,” Biden said. 

Biden’s Justice Department, however, has done the opposite, actually arguing against Vaello-Madero in court.

"The Constitution vests Congress, not the courts, with responsibility for making appropriate changes,” attorneys wrote in legal briefs.

While the high court is not expected to issue an opinion on this case for months, the outcome could dramatically change what Puerto Rico’s 3 million-plus residents are entitled to.

That would potentially make government programs even more costly to American taxpayers since more people would be eligible to enroll.

Microsoft now says suspected Russian hackers behind a massive campaign that impacted government agencies, local municipalities and companies were also able to view some of the company’s source code.

In a blog post Thursday, Microsoft says the unauthorized access “has not put at risk the security of our services or any customer data.”

"We detected unusual activity with a small number of internal accounts and upon review, we discovered one account had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories," Microsoft stated. "The account did not have permissions to modify any code or engineering systems and our investigation further confirmed no changes were made. These accounts were investigated and remediated."

Source code is the basic building blocks of computer programs, like the instructions.

Last month, as news of the hacking campaign surfaced, Microsoft acknowledged using the IT management software SolarWinds Orion, which is how the attackers gained access to thousands of government, public, and private organizations.

Microsoft has said in earlier blog posts they were aware of clients they serviced who were compromised, Thursday’s update is the first time the company has confirmed the attackers compromised them.

Microsoft says they operate with a philosophy of making source code viewable, and do not rely on secrecy of this code for security. “So viewing source code isn’t tied to elevation of risk,” they stated.

Video above: New Hampshire Department of Education outlines spending plan for relief funds

Congress authorized more than $190 billion to help America's schools reopen and stay open during the pandemic — and while a lot of the funds were used to buy PPE, upgrade ventilation and boost summer school programs, there are still billions of dollars left to be spent.

Many local school boards haven't yet decided how to use the most recent round of funds released in March. In most states, districts are required to submit a spending plan between mid-August and mid-September and will be reimbursed after they use the money.

"I'm both sympathetic and frustrated with the rate of district spending at the moment," said Marguerite Roza, professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and director of the Edunomics Lab research center.

The COVID-19 relief money — which came from three different pieces of legislation — is a huge federal investment equal to roughly six times the amount of fiscal year 2021 base funding. Congress gave schools more than three years to spend the latest and biggest round of money, with few strings attached. It's unlikely to be spent all at once, especially if it's used for teachers' salaries or capital improvements that are paid for over time.

The money was meant to help schools provide safe, in-person instruction for all students and while a majority of schools have reopened, many are facing new challenges to keeping kids in classrooms this fall as the delta variant spreads and families await vaccine approval for children under 12.

Schools in Texas have already surpassed the highest COVID-19 case weekly total from last year. A shortage of bus drivers in Chicago, partly due to resignations over a vaccine mandate, have left families scrambling to find transportation. Parents are frustrated and in some places have thrust school boards into the heated debate over masks and vaccines, fueling interest in local elections.

Here's what we know about what schools are getting and how they're spending it.

How much money are schools receiving?

Not every school will get the same amount of money. The law directs states to disburse the money like it does Title I funding, which means more money goes to districts with more low-income families. Some districts, those with very low poverty rates, won't receive any direct COVID-19 relief funding — but may be eligible for some funds that are left up to the state's discretion.

When the pandemic first hit, the CARES Act authorized about $13 billion for K-12 schools, or about $270 per pupil. The bill that passed in December delivered about $54 billion, or $1,100 per pupil, and the most recent and biggest package, the American Rescue Plan, allowed for $128 billion in spending, that amounts to $2,600 per pupil, according to an analysis by FutureEd, another non-partisan think tank at Georgetown University.

Schools spent a big portion of the money from the first relief bill, passed a year ago, on PPE, cleaning supplies, technology and learning management systems that helped students learn from home, and salaries and wages — according to a survey from the Association of School Business Officials conducted in February.

How are schools allowed to spend the money?

About 20% of the money a district receives must be used to address learning loss — which can include tutoring programs, summer school or extended school days going forward.

But there are few other restrictions on the funding, so it's largely up to the local school boards to decide how to spend it on a broad range of pandemic-related needs.

The law notes that it can be spent on things like sanitation supplies, technology, mental health services and ventilation systems, to name a few. But it's not certain all the plans will be fully executed — especially when it includes hiring more teachers and counselors who may be hard to find.

Districts are required to seek public input on how to spend the money, though outreach efforts vary. Many school boards have discussed the spending at public meetings throughout the summer. On agendas, the topic is often referred to as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, or ESSER.

States are allowed to keep 10% of the COVID-19 education aid and decide how to disburse the money. They were required to submit an application to the Department of Education earlier this year and will receive the last third of the money once it's approved. The department has approved 33 to date.

Spending plans: tutoring, mental health counselors, renovations

The decentralized nature of the U.S. school system makes it difficult to track how exactly districts are spending the money. A recent survey from the School Superintendents Association found that a majority of districts are planning to use the funds for support staff, technology to access the internet, and professional development for educators. Other top priorities include high-intensity tutoring, adding learning time by compensating staff to work longer and renovating facilities.

The Detroit public school district, for example, plans to use COVID-19 relief funds to give teachers a one-time bonus, provide tutoring, expand mental health services, make facility improvements and reduce class size by hiring more teachers.

But not every proposed use can be justified. The Illinois State Board of Education recently rejected a district's plan to use COVID-19 relief dollars towards an artificial surface on its football field.

For decades, Black farmers say they have been at the mercy of historically discriminatory lending practices by the U.S. government and banks that do not treat them fairly.

“Farming is really hard for white males, and if it’s really hard for white males, then it’s dreadful for anyone else,” said Zephrine Hanson, an urban farmer who grows small crops she then sells to artisan shops.

Hanson and others say the practices have led to a precipitous decline in the number of Black farmers in our country.

According to the Census of Agriculture, there were roughly 1 million Black farmers in the United States in 1920, comprising around 14 percent of the total number of farmers in the United States.

In 2020, according to the same data, the number of Black farmers in the U.S. had fallen to 45,000, comprising only 1.4 percent of all farmers.

“You know, when you take a man’s farm, it’s not like he’s going down to work at McDonald’s,” said Dr. John Boyd, CEO of the National Black Farmer’s Association. “You break his spirit. You take his history, and dignity, and respect, and you crush him.”

Boyd says he founded the NBFA in the 1980s after he and four other Black farmers would experience discriminatory practices at the hands of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) when they would go into the office and ask for loans.

“At one particular time, [the director of the local USDA] spat on my shirt,” said Boyd. “He tore my application up and threw it in the trash can. I was pleading for $5,000, and this white farmer comes in, during my time when I’m supposed to be getting this loan, and he passes [the white farmer] a government check for $157,000.”

We reached out twice to the USDA for comment but have not gotten a response.

Boyd says, today, discrimination is less blatant. It can be something like pleasantly-worded letters saying loans cannot be processed and a farmer will have to try again next year. But to farmers of color, it is difficult; federal loans are often their only funding option outside of predatory lenders and suppliers who charge outrageous interest rates.

Otherwise, in a business built on credit, Black farmers are pushed out and forced to sell their farms.

“I’ll be honest, I hope the USDA changes, but I’m not waiting,” said Hanson. “That’s definitely something they’ll have to want to change.”

In 1997, more than 400 Black farmers filed a class action lawsuit against the USDA in what became known as Pigford vs. Glickman, charging the agency with discrimination against Black farmers. The government settled for more than $1.25 billion, the largest discrimination settlement ever paid by the federal government.