Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: 07/01/22

Playbook PM: The Roe ruling, one week later

Jul 01, 2022

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Protesters fill the street in front of the Supreme Court after the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

A new poll and reporting from America's suburbs provide a picture of where the country stands on the Supreme Court's recent ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

It's been a week since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade and we're still putting together the full picture of what the decision will mean in the near and long term.

— New polling, via AP's Hannah Fingerhut: "Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults name abortion or women's rights in an open-ended question as one of up to five problems they want the government to work on, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research." The context: "That's more than doubled since December, when an AP-NORC poll found a notable uptick in mentions of abortion from years before, likely in anticipation of the Dobbs ruling on abortion."

— The midterm motivations: WSJ's Aaron Zitner, Scott Calvert and Daniella Cheslow have the report from the all-important suburbs : "Interviews in politically competitive states in recent days found that while abortion rights are important to many suburban women, they are only one of several issues shaping the decision of how to vote. Some who disagree with the court ruling, and with GOP candidates who say they will move to tighten abortion access, say they plan to vote Republican nonetheless." Here's a taste of the responses:

MARY LEWIS in Philadelphia: "They should be trying to figure out how to lower the prices of gas and groceries right now. … That's something I'm dealing with on a daily basis."

DIANA GARBER in Woodbridge, Va.: "That would not have swayed my vote,'' she said of the Roe ruling. "The border is number one, inflation is number two."

MARY SCHULTZ in Atlanta "said she would likely vote for [GOP Gov. BRIAN] KEMP even though she doesn't like the law he signed that allows people to carry a handgun in public without a license or background check, and she doesn't like the abortion restriction he signed in 2019." Here's where things get interesting: "Despite her misgivings, Ms. Schultz said of Mr. Kemp: 'I thought he did a good job in the last four years.' At the same time, she says she is also likely to support Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, a Democrat, this fall. And she hopes that if re-elected, Mr. Warnock will vote to expand abortion rights."

— Staggering statistics, via NYT's Elizabeth Williamson from Argyle, Texas, where she writes "even some anti-abortion adherents say their state is woefully unprepared for a likely surge in births among poor women."

"One in 10 people of reproductive age in America lives in Texas, which will soon join half of all the states in outlawing almost all abortions."
"The state's maternal mortality rate is one of the worst in the country, with Black women making up a disproportionate share of deaths. The state's infant mortality rate, at more than five deaths per thousand births in 2020, translates into nearly 2,000 infant deaths annually."

— In the states: "Post-Roe, states struggle with conflicting abortion bans," by AP's Rebecca Boone

— The ripple effect: "Same-sex couples updating legal status after abortion ruling," by AP's Jay Reeves

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — House Majority PAC raised $19.7 million in Q2 of 2022. The context: The PAC raised $55 million in 2021, which amounted to its best non-election figure for a calendar year.

Happy Friday afternoon. Programming note: Playbook PM will be off Monday for the holiday. We'll still be in your inboxes every morning.

NEWS YOU CAN USE — WaPo: "Here's your July Fourth weekend weather forecast across the U.S."

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HEADLINE OF THE DAY — "The 20-Somethings Who Help the 70-Somethings Run Washington," by NYT's Annie Karni: CASSIDY HUTCHINSON's testimony this week laid bare an under-the-radar reality of D.C.: "The capital's power centers may be helmed largely by the geriatric set, but they are fueled by recent college graduates, often with little to no previous job experience beyond an internship. And while many of those young players rank low on the official food chain, their proximity to the pinnacle of power gives them disproportionate influence, and a front-row seat to critical moments that can define the country. Sometimes, the interns themselves appear to be running the show." (Flashback: "How the Jan. 6 panel broke through Trump allies' stonewalling," by Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu, from May 9)

HERE'S A FUN ONE — "Who Said It: Lucy Van Pelt or Joe Manchin?" by The New Republic … (Perhaps you can beat my 80% score.)

HIT THE ROAD, JOE — "Joe Biden to visit Cleveland on Wednesday to discuss the economy," by Cleveland.com's Sabrina Eaton

HEADS UP — Biden announced today that he will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom "to 17 people, including actor DENZEL WASHINGTON, gymnast SIMONE BILES and the late JOHN MCCAIN," per the AP. See the full list

ALL POLITICS

VOTER FRAUD FILES — NBC's Susan Carroll has a wild story from Mentone, Texas : "One of the worst-kept secrets in Loving County sits along the shoulder of a desolate stretch of state highway in the heart of the Permian Basin. It's a sprawling ranch with a sunbaked adobe home that the Pecos River flooded out years ago, nestled near a trailer and a mobile home on stilts, all behind a padlocked gate.

"Eleven people are registered to vote at this address. One of them is Loving County Commissioner YSIDRO RENTERIA , who has been in office since 2011 and listed this property in December as his permanent address on his application to run for re-election, signed under oath. He and at least three relatives used the address to vote in the March primaries.

"The secret? 'No one lives there,' Loving County Sheriff CHRIS BUSSE , who also serves as the registrar of voters, said in May. 'I can attest that I've been here since 2008 and there has never, ever, ever been any of the Renterias — not even Ysidro — occupying it.' The old Renteria farmhouse is hardly the only open secret in this county, the least populated in the continental U.S. Voter registration has been suspiciously high for generations, driven by bitter feuds among a handful of prominent families fighting for control of the local government."

BIG PROFILE — "The Michigan Democrat Who Could Solve Her Party's Identity Crisis," Adam Wren writes from Indianapolis for POLITICO Magazine about Michigan state Sen. MALLORY MCMORROW, who has offered an unlikely but energizing "playbook for beleaguered Democrats in a dispiriting election year." In her own words:

— Would she want to replace 72-year-old Sen. DEBBIE STABENOW if she retires? "That is a conversation I haven't even thought about yet. I haven't slept in a month and a half."

— On the Roe ruling: "It's so disconnected from where a majority of people are. … Overnight, Michigan is going to be kind of the most extreme state."

— On her place in the Democratic Party: "If there's a huge generational advantage, it's because Facebook came out when I was in college. We've always existed online. A lot of my career is because I had a personality online. And there's no separation between who I am as a person and my work life, and I think that's attractive."

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

HOW CLOSE WE CAME — "'Take me up to the Capitol now': How close Trump came to joining rioters," by WaPo's Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Carol Leonnig: "Some White House officials were out of the loop. Ordinarily, the White House's legislative affairs staffers would be involved in a visit to Capitol Hill, but they were not briefed on any plans for him to go on Jan. 6, according to two senior administration officials. Aides to Vice President MIKE PENCE heard secondhand from other White House advisers that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but they were never given a formal plan and did not expect him to follow through, according to a Pence adviser with direct knowledge of their plans."

SPLC GETS INVOLVED — The Southern Poverty Law Center has "provided testimony and research to the Jan. 6 committee, according to a senior counsel at the group," Nicholas Wu reports for Congress Minutes. What they're helping with: "Over the past few months, our SPLC analysts have met with Jan. 6 Select Committee staff and submitted nearly 40 pages of written testimony and research to document the involvement of extremists in the planning and preparation for the insurrection," said MICHAEL LIEBERMAN , a senior policy counsel on hate and extremism at the SPLC, in a statement to POLITICO. "Our work has helped to document coordination between Trump, his allies and two extremist groups we've tracked for years."

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

CLIMATE FILES — In light of the Supreme Court's decision to curb the EPA's authority on greenhouse gasses, states are springing into action, saying it's more important than ever to tackle lofty climate ambitions at the local level. "New York and Colorado, for example, are on track to reduce electricity-related emissions 80 percent or more by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, according to new state scorecards from RMI," NYT's Maggie Astor writes. Why it's working: "By removing partisan politics from community discussions about climate policy, it's sometimes possible to reach a consensus that's been difficult to achieve on a national level."

STIFLING SOCIAL — Efforts to rein in social media are sweeping the nation. "State legislators have introduced more than 100 bills in the past year aiming to regulate how social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter handle their users' posts, according to POLITICO's analysis of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures," Rebecca Kern writes. "The states' efforts — in the absence of federal action — could test governments' ability to regulate speech, while forcing some of the nation's wealthiest tech companies to fight an array of legal battles against laws that could upend their business models."

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IMMIGRATION FILES — "The business of smuggling migrants to the U.S.—such as the 53 who died after being left in a truck in San Antonio—has grown quickly with more illegal immigration and stronger links between smugglers and organized crime, according to U.S. and Mexican officials," report WSJ's José de Córdoba and Juan Montes in Mexico City and Juan Carlos Rivera in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. "Migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador pay an estimated $1.7 billion a year to smugglers known as coyotes, according to a 2021 United Nations study. By far the biggest users of coyotes are Guatemalans."

MENTAL HEALTH IN FOCUS — "He threatened to kill Joe Biden. His family says he's a casualty of war," by WaPo's Paul Duggan: "Scott Merryman, a combat veteran, has struggled with PTSD for years after mistakenly shooting a child in Afghanistan. His latest mental break brought in the Secret Service."

WAR IN UKRAINE

— "At least 20 people, including a child, were killed when Russia launched overnight missile strikes at a residential building and a recreation center near Odesa, southern Ukraine, officials said on Friday," per CNN's Rob Picheta . "The attack hit a housing block, killing 16 people, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Services. Another four people, including a child, died when a missile hit a community center, while a third missile landed in a field. At least 38 people were injured, responders said."

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PLAYBOOKERS

BOOK CLUB — "From Chelsea Clinton to David Petraeus, Here's What Politicos Are Reading This Summer," from POLITICO Magazine: Chelsea Clinton, James Kirchick, Olivia Nuzzi, Pamela Paul, Newt Gingrich, Wesley Lowery, David Petraeus, Meghan Daum, Michael Fortner, Jason Mott, Keisha N. Blain, Min Jin Lee, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Miguel Cardona give their "Zoom-Side" and "Poolside" reads.

TRANSITION — Jamie DeAtley is now a senior adviser for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). He previously was deputy COS for Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md).

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Gabe Brotman, SVP for portfolio management and investments at Axel Springer SE and a POLITICO alum, and Thomas Gensemer, chief strategy officer at Public Policy Holding Company, recently welcomed Ruby Brotman-Gensemer. Pic

Correction: Thursday's Playbook PM misstated the end of the Supreme Court term. It officially ends Oct. 3.

California Today: Beloved bookstore closing

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July 1, 2022

By Livia Albeck-Ripka

It's Friday. A beloved Black-run bookstore in Los Angeles is closing. Plus, Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the nation's most sweeping single-use plastics law.

James Fugate, the co-owner of Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, first opened his shop with Tom Hamilton in 1989.Erik Carter for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES — When James Fugate and Tom Hamilton started Eso Won Books in 1988, their books, almost all by Black authors, were stacked in dozens of crates; some in Fugate's apartment, the rest in Hamilton's garage.

Nearly every weekend, at least one of them would haul their books to a community event in Los Angeles. Whatever money they made selling books, they spent on books. Soon, customers were coming to their homes, asking for specific titles.

In 1989, Hamilton and Fugate opened the brick-and-mortar store Eso Won Books in the bedroom of an old house on Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles. At the time, it was one of only a few Black-run bookstores in the city.

In the more than three decades since, the store has hosted luminaries including Muhammad Ali, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. It has become a home for Black authors, a revered fixture of Los Angeles and a place that residents have turned to for guidance in moments of political upheaval.

But now, Eso Won Books is closing.

"I'm just tired," Fugate said on Monday while sitting in his office behind the store, which is now based in Leimert Park, a largely Black neighborhood in South Los Angeles. On the desk beside him was a stack of copies of "Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition" by Cedric J. Robinson. In a box beneath the desk were several copies of Ibram X. Kendi's book "How to Raise an Antiracist."

Fugate, who grew up in Detroit and is now 67, said his love of books was instilled in him from a young age. His mother would read Dr. Seuss to him and his brother. Every week, he would go to the local library. But after a lifetime in the book business, Fugate said, the time has finally come to retire.

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Before opening Eso Won, Fugate spent several years running college bookstores. He would often sell the stores' books at weekend community events. But eventually, he got frustrated; he wanted to create something that would put money back into the community and champion Black writers. "I felt uncomfortable," Fugate said. "This should be a Black store."

By the early 1990s, Eso Won had outgrown its premises on Slauson Avenue. Fugate and Hamilton moved the store to Inglewood. There, they hosted Elaine Brown of the Black Panther Party and Barack Obama, a little-known writer at the time who was on his book tour for "Dreams From My Father."

"One of the only places that took me was Eso Won Books, back when nobody knew who I was and couldn't pronounce my name," the former president said in an interview last year with Fugate and Hamilton.

The writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has described Eso Won as watering the roots of the Black literary canon. "In much the same way we need diversity among authors and editors, we need diversity among the ranks of booksellers," Coates said in 2016. "They are the ultimate arbiters of our literary tradition."

Presciently, he added: "In these coming dark times, we can scarcely afford to be without them."

In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, that need was palpable. Eso Won was inundated with customers. "That was the most unbelievable thing ever," Fugate said. "In one day, we had over 1,000 orders," he added. "People from all over the country were ordering books."

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But business has since slowed down, and Fugate said he and Hamilton plan to close the store by the end of the year. The men have received some proposals from those wanting to keep the store open, but Fugate said it was not likely that he would accept them.

Many are devastated, but Fugate said he believed that Eso Won's closing would not leave the city bereft of Black-run bookstores.

Now, there are several in the city. "The world changed," Fugate said.

For more:

Eso Won has long been a cherished Black bookstore in a changing South Los Angeles.
Why Eso Won is Ta-Nehisi Coates's favorite bookstore.
How James Fugate, the co-owner of Eso Won, stayed afloat in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.Here's what else to know today

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The rest of the news

Tax refunds included in the new state budget will vary from as little as $200 for individuals up to $1,050 for couples with children.Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Budget signed: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a new state budget that includes a spending plan centered on gas refunds, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Single-use plastic: California lawmakers passed the country's strictest restrictions on single-use plastics as part of a deal to avoid a ballot measure in November. The bill requires that 65 percent of plastic items sold, distributed or imported into the state be recyclable by 2032, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Drug injection sites: The California State Assembly approved a bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to set up places where opioid users could legally inject drugs in supervised settings, The Associated Press reports.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Explosion: A pre-dawn explosion and fire leveled a home, injuring one person inside, and damaged at least two other homes in San Bernardino County, The Associated Press reports.
Football: The University of Southern California and U.C.L.A. are leaving the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten in a major shift that involves higher television revenues.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Diablo Canyon: The California Legislature took the first step toward possibly extending the life of the state's last nuclear facility to alleviate state power shortages, CalMatters reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Wildfire: A fast-growing fire near South Yuba River State Park in Nevada County has grown to more than 900 acres in two days, prompting evacuation orders for hundreds of residents of nearby communities.
A's stadium: A key state agency voted in favor of the Oakland Athletics' request to remove Howard Terminal's 56 acres from port designation, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Berkeley school budget: The Berkeley Unified school board approved a $190.8 million budget — its largest ever — for the 2022-23 school year, Berkeleyside reports.
Therapists: Mental health patients are urging Kaiser to reduce excessive wait times for follow-up appointments that therapists say currently extend at least 2.5 months in the Sacramento region, The Sacramento Bee reports.

When Max McQuirter decided to put down roots in Los Angeles, he wasn't sure he would find what he wanted with his $800,000 budget: three bedrooms, two bathrooms and space for a garden. Beth Coller for The New York Times

What you get

After stints in Florida, Arizona and Britain, a longtime renter fell in love with Southern California. But would $800,000 be enough for a single-family home?

Peay Vineyards in the far northwestern corner of West Sonoma Coast.Bryan Meltz for The New York Times

What we're eating

On the Sonoma Coast, fog, wind and exceptional wine.

Where we're traveling

Today's tip comes from David Warburton, who recommends the West Coast's largest nonprofit nature reserve:

"The Wind Wolves Preserve in southwest Kern County is 93,000 acres (yes, not a typo, 93,000) of private conservancy wild lands unknown to most people who live in Southern California yet open to the public free of charge for exploration, camping, picnicking, nature study galore and so much more.

Ecologically, it rises from the San Joaquin Valley lowlands up to the Transverse Range highlands. Spectacular in the late winter and early spring when myriad flowers are blooming, it offers great beauty and variety all year round. Many hiking trails are available, suitable for just about any fitness level.

And, no, there are no wolves there; the name refers to the wide-stretching grasslands there swaying in the winds. It is an amazing and generally uncrowded nature sanctuary worth visiting. Take food with you; it is quite isolated and no food is available, although water and restrooms are at the visitor center near the entrance. The entrance is about 15 minutes off I-5."

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

A California condor flying in the Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur on June 21, 2017.Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

And, before you go, some good news

By the 1980s, the California condor was on the edge of extinction — just 22 remained.

But thanks to decades of conservation work, the California condor population has rebounded to a couple hundred birds in Central California and Arizona.

Listen to the latest episode of "Short Wave" on NPR to learn more about the yearslong quest to return the birds to their ancestral skies and the importance of condors to the Yurok people — who call them Prey-go-neesh — and the natural world.

Thanks for reading. We'll be back on Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend.

P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Spanish for "woman" (five letters).

Soumya Karlamangla, Isabella Grullón Paz and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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