Playbook PM: The Georgia investigation grows

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Jul 18, 2022 View in browser
 
Playbook PM

By Garrett Ross

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Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia

Fulton County investigators sent Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) a subpoena recently seeking testimony this week. | Bill Clark/Pool via AP

Rep. JODY HICE (R-Ga.) has received a subpoena from Fulton County D.A. FANI WILLIS instructing him to "appear Tuesday morning before the special grand jury," our colleagues Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu report for Congress Minutes . "But in a filing Monday morning in Fulton County Superior Court, Hice moved to transfer the jurisdiction of his subpoena to federal court, contending that his role as a federal official permits him to adjudicate it in the U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia." He joins Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), RUDY GIULIANI and JOHN EASTMAN as recent recipients of subpoenas in the Fulton County investigation.

MEANWHILE, AT THE BANNON TRIAL — NBC's @ryanjreilly: "This town: the daughter of one of DC's shadow senators has been struck from STEVE BANNON'S jury panel. … Shadow senator's daughter mentioned her that her father had been shadow senator since the 90s and that he had a DUI in the 2000s when she was a child, which means it's PAUL STRAUSS."

HEADS UP — CNN's Manu Raju (@mkraju): "The House will vote this week on a bill to codify same-sex marriage, in the wake of CLARENCE THOMAS' views of the precedent set by the abortion ruling."

Thought bubble: How many Republican lawmakers might join Democrats in voting for this messaging bill? And will GOP leadership whip votes against it?

WHERE THE CHIPS FALL — "Several U.S. semiconductor firms are deliberating whether to oppose a package of chip industry subsidies if the final language of the legislation awaiting a vote in the Senate disproportionately benefits manufacturers like Intel Corp," Reuters' Stephen Nellis reports.

CLIMATE CRISIS — As a record-setting heat wave strikes Europe, WaPo's Chris Mooney and Harry Stevens lay out the the global stakes for America's climate goals in a new analysis piece: "In 101 months, the United States will have achieved President Biden's most important climate promise — or it will have fallen short. Right now it is seriously falling short, and for each month that passes, it becomes harder to succeed until at some point — perhaps very soon — it will become virtually impossible. That's true for the United States, and also true for the planet, as nearly 200 nations strive to tackle climate change with a fast-dwindling timeline for doing so." The very climate provisions that Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) axed from Dems' reconciliation bill, they write, would have gone a long way to help meet these targets.

Good Monday afternoon.

 

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CONGRESS

STATE OF THE UNION — "Staffers who work for at least eight House Democrats are wasting no time in their plans to unionize, filing petitions Monday to kick off the process," Roll Call's Chris Cioffi writes. "Now they must wait on the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to vet their petitions before holding a secret ballot election to decide whether they want a union to represent them."

The offices: Reps. JESÚS "CHUY" GARCÍA (D-Ill.), ANDY LEVIN (D-Mich.), RO KHANNA (D-Calif.), ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.), MELANIE STANSBURY (D-N.M.), ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.), TED LIEU (D-Calif.) and CORI BUSH (D-Mo.).

ALL POLITICS

WHERE DEMS THINK THEY CAN WIN — In most of the country, Democrats will largely be on defense in the midterms this fall. But in California, party leaders see an opportunity to pick up a few seats. "Five of six candidates added to their 'Red to Blue' program on Monday are in this state, according to an announcement by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee," L.A. Times' Seema Mehta reports. "Many of the California Democrats in the program are running in districts made more favorable in the redrawing of congressional maps after the U.S. census." Read the story for the full list of newly targeted districts

PRESSURE CAMPAIGN — Progressive group Demand Justice is dropping a six-figure digital ad buy in Illinois to turn the screws on Senate Majority Whip and Judiciary Chair DICK DURBIN to "hold more judicial confirmation hearings during the August recess," Marianne LeVine reports for Congress Minutes.

NEW CHENEY POLL — A poll released on Friday showed Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) down by 22 points. A new one shows things looking even worse for Cheney. "NBC News' Marc Caputo got his hands on another Wyoming poll — via WPA Intelligence for the conservative Club for Growth — which shows [HARRIET] HAGEMAN up 28 points among likely primary voters, 59%-31%. (The Club for Growth has endorsed Hageman.)," NBC's Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar write. "From Caputo: 'Those results are based on a model in which 13% of the primary's voters are Democrats (Wyoming allows party-switchers to vote in primaries). The poll tested two other scenarios, where Democrats are 20% or 25% of the electorate, and Hageman still leads Cheney by 18 percentage points and 12 points, respectively.'"

TAKING ON TRUMP — Retiring Rep. CHRIS JACOBS (R-N.Y.) told the Buffalo News' Jerry Zremski that former President DONALD TRUMP "lost his mind" between Election Day 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, and called for his party to look elsewhere for its 2024 nominee. "I think it would be best for the party if we embrace the new generation of leadership," Jacobs said, though Zremski notes that Jacobs "did not identify any of the particular leaders he would like to see come to represent the party in the next presidential election." Jacobs' critique is notable because he voted on Jan. 6 not to certify the election results. "Now, though, he criticizes Trump as an ungraceful loser, citing the 1960 presidential race in which JOHN F. KENNEDY narrowly beat RICHARD M. NIXON as an example of how to lose more gracefully."

 

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ABORTION FALLOUT

IN THE STATES — "A judge has extended a temporary restraining order through tomorrow that blocks Louisiana's ban on abortions. District Judge DONALD JOHNSON, who made today's decision, also issued a temporary restraining order last week that blocked the enforcement of the ban until today's hearing," per WAFB.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

PULLOUT FALLOUT — "Pentagon leadership is reviewing an assessment of the military's role in the Afghanistan conflict but hasn't decided if aspects of the highly classified document will be released," WSJ's Gordon Lubold scoops . "The draft report, which was submitted to top Pentagon officials earlier this month, is one of a series of assessments — known as after action reports — that each agency is conducting to assemble a record of the American role in Afghanistan. The Pentagon's report was sent back earlier this year for revisions to broaden its scope, according to a Department official."

GUNS IN AMERICA

HAPPENING TODAY — "Buffalo mass shooter to be arraigned on federal charges," by AP's Carolyn Thompson

RED-FLAG RED LIGHT — While discussions about red-flag laws circulate on the federal level, there's not much momentum for them at the state level. "While 19 states and the District of Columbia have passed red-flag laws — mostly in the years following the shooting in Parkland, Fla. — numerous other red-flag bills … have fizzled out in the same time period, mostly in GOP state legislatures," WaPo's Kimberly Kindy reports . "A Washington Post review of legislative battles in those states suggests that the bills were defeated through campaigns organized by local and national gun rights groups, including the NRA. Faced with heavy lobbying, Republican lawmakers have echoed the groups' concerns in hearings and public venues."

JUDICIARY SQUARE

THE NEW SCOTUS — NYT's Adam Liptak has a good perspective piece on the state of the Supreme Court as Justice KETANJI BROWN JACKSON takes the bench. "In joining the court, Justice Jackson returned to a familiar setting. She had served as a law clerk to Justice STEPHEN G. BREYER , whom she replaced, in the term that ended in 2000. But that was a very different time — and the differences illuminate both the extraordinary transformation of the institution and the challenges its newest member will face.

"In an end-of-term overview that July, The New York Times's Supreme Court reporter, Linda Greenhouse, asked JOHN G. ROBERTS JR., then a prominent lawyer, for his assessment of the court's major decisions. 'Which cases were most visible to the public this year?' asked Mr. Roberts, who would become chief justice five years later. 'Probably school prayer, abortion and Miranda, and the conservatives lost all three.' The term that ended last month also featured cases on school prayer, abortion and Miranda. This time around, though, the conservatives won all three. … It was by most accounts a happy place. That too has changed."

 

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POLICY CORNER

MAJOR IMMIGRATION REPORT — Trump-era immigration enforcers deployed mobile location data to track people's movements on a larger scale than previously known, Alfred Ng reports, raising "new questions about federal agencies' efforts to get around restrictions on warrantless searches."

The details: "The data, harvested from apps on hundreds of millions of phones, allowed the Department of Homeland Security to obtain data on more than 336,000 location data points across North America, the documents show. …This location data use has continued into the Biden administration, as Customs and Border Protection renewed a contract for $20,000 into September 2021, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed another contract in November 2021 that lasts until June 2023."

THE ECONOMY

DATA DIVERGENCE — "The U.S. is adding workers at a strong pace over the past three months. It is also losing workers. The conflicting employment data come from two different surveys — one of employers and one of households — used to calculate employment, unemployment and other key figures in the Labor Department's monthly jobs report. The divergence raises questions about the labor market's overall strength as more signs point to a slowing economy," WSJ's Jeffrey Sparshott reports.

VALLEY TALK

INSIDE THE NEW AMAZON — In Amazon CEO ANDY JASSY , the company has entered a "new era," particularly in D.C., where Jassy "has quietly put his own imprint on Amazon, making more changes than many insiders and company watchers expected," NYT's David McCabe and Karen Weise write. He's popped up on Capitol Hill and at the White House multiple times since taking over last July and made himself no stranger to two of Dems' biggest power brokers in White House COS RON KLAIN and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER . "The starkest difference with [JEFF] BEZOS may [be] the new chief executive's far more hands-on approach to regulatory and political challenges in Washington."

THE PANDEMIC

FOR YOUR RADAR — "A deadly virus was just identified in Ghana: What to know about Marburg," by WaPo's Adela Suliman: "The highly infectious disease is similar to Ebola and has no vaccine."

WAR IN UKRAINE

— "Russia ordered its forces to target the long-range missiles and artillery weapons that Western countries have recently supplied to Ukraine, a sign of how Kyiv's additional firepower has begun to reshape the conflict," write WSJ's Brett Forrest and Mauro Orru from Kyiv.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

NATIONAL NIGHTMARE — "Air Travel Is Broken. Here's Why," by WSJ's Benjamin Katz and Alison Sider: "Cutbacks in 2020 mean there aren't enough baggage handlers, pilots and others. When something goes wrong, it ripples through to flight delays, cancellations, long lines and lost luggage."

MEGATREND — "Foreign Purchases of U.S. Homes Fall to New Low," by WSJ's Nicole Friedman

PLAYBOOKERS

Deb Haaland broke her leg on a hike in Shenandoah National Park this weekend.

Val Demings has Covid.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Luis Miranda is now deputy assistant secretary for comms at DHS. He most recently was assistant commissioner for public affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and since April has also served as the deputy senior coordinating official for external affairs for the Southwest Border Coordination Center.

TRANSITIONS — Scott Hodge is transitioning to become president emeritus and senior policy adviser at the Tax Foundation, after 22 years as president and CEO. … Sarah Gilmore is joining the Retail Industry Leaders Association as director of supply chain. She previously was coordinator for global government affairs at Airlines for America.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — John Huston, a summer associate at Jones Day and a Trump Education Department and Luke Messer alum, and Lauren Huston, a Navy JAG officer and an alum of Ajit Pai and the Senate Commerce and House Judiciary committees, on July 9 welcomed Grant James Huston, who joins big brother Clark. Pic ... Another pic

BIRTHWEEK (was Sunday): Steve Spinner

BONUS BIRTHDAY: LS2 Group's Jim Gwinner

 

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California Today: Why is LA bringing back mask mandates?

An interview with Los Angeles County's public health director on her plan to reinstate an indoor mask mandate on July 29.
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By Soumya Karlamangla

California Today, Writer

It's Monday. I spoke with the Los Angeles County public health director, Barbara Ferrer, about her plan to reinstate an indoor mask mandate. Plus, the authorities cracked decades-old California murders.

A patron wears a mask while waiting for a food order at Grand Central Market.Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

As a highly infectious coronavirus variant surges nationwide, 56 of the 58 counties in California are grappling with high levels of Covid transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But only one of them is planning to reinstate an indoor mask mandate.

While health officers nationwide are largely shying away from new restrictions during this latest Covid wave, Los Angeles County health officials hope that asking people to mask up will curb the virus's spread as well as growing hospitalization and death rates.

Already, more than 4,400 people have died of Covid-related causes in 2022, far more than the number who die from flu or motor vehicle accidents annually, said the Los Angeles County public health director, Barbara Ferrer.

"Covid is still one of the leading causes of death in L.A. County," Ferrer said in a press briefing on Thursday. "Every day when I report out who dies, there are people who die who have no underlying health conditions. So no one should not go into a space of saying, 'I'm not at any risk.' Because that's just absolutely not true."

The mask mandate is expected to take effect July 29 absent a sudden turnaround in Covid tracking metrics. It would apply to indoor shops, offices, events, schools and more. The order would be rescinded once case levels begin to drop again.

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Some experts disagree with Ferrer's approach and believe that mandates should be reserved for crises, which the BA.5 wave has not yet proved itself to be. I spoke with Ferrer by phone about her thinking behind the proposed mask mandate.

Here is our conversation, edited for clarity and space:

Almost all of California is dealing with high Covid transmission and has been for weeks. But other than Alameda County (which put in a mask mandate and then quickly rescinded it), no other county seems to be instating new restrictions. Why is Los Angeles going in a different direction?

We've always been very concerned about the disproportionate impact of Covid, particularly on people who are living in communities with higher rates of poverty, and on Black and brown residents. Every time we have a significant increase in our cases, our hospitalization and death numbers reflect this disproportionality.

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I don't think we should be settling for high mortality that disproportionately affects people who have less economic means and people of color. And masking remains a strategy that layers in protections when transmission is high.

I'm like everyone else: I hate wearing that mask. But more than that, I hate the idea that I might accidentally transmit to somebody else. And I hate the idea that I'm not taking a simple step to layer in protections in my community.

I'm not sure why other people feel comfortable sort of doing nothing when cases are going up this dramatically. And, while we're nowhere near overwhelming the health care system the way we were before, we're having significant numbers of people hospitalized and we still have, tragically, people dying. There's something we can do to actually try to get those numbers lower. It's one thing if you can't do anything, but we actually have things we can do.

When you say you're not sure why other people feel comfortable with inaction, do you mean regular citizens in Los Angeles County or public health officials in other places?

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I just mean in general, with everyone. I don't want to call out any particular sectors. But I'm looking at our data and I still think there are too many people dying of Covid. And if that's the case, and you have fairly straightforward sensible actions you can take that are not disruptive, then we should take them.

That's my biggest fear — that we're so anxious to be done with this virus that we're getting complacent.

I regularly see people in Los Angeles packing into indoor spaces without masks, seemingly unconcerned about Covid. Do you think people will actually follow a mask mandate?

I think there's a lot of people out there that, because it's not a health officer requirement at the moment, feel like masking isn't essential. I think for a very large number of people a mandate will be an indication that it's time to go ahead and layer in an additional safety measure.

But you're absolutely right. There will be some people — and we're a large county, so that will translate into many people — who won't agree and won't want to do this. My hope is that certainly in places where there's businesses and there's lots of exposures to workers that our work force will get protected and they'll be offered respirator masks so that they can deal with the fact that they might have many, many exposures during the course of the day. And that patrons of places will also take note of the fact that we have an opportunity to keep other people safe.

We've all heard that the BA.5 variant is the most contagious yet. It seems as though that's contributed to a sense of futility, with people thinking they're going to get it somehow, so they might as well stop trying to avoid it. How are you thinking about that?

Even in my own family when we discuss this they're like, "Oh, come on, everyone's getting it. What are you thinking?" I'm thinking, first of all, everyone isn't getting it.

You still have millions and millions of people here that have not yet gotten infected. It's not inevitable that people are going to get infected. And one thing that we've always known is that slowing down transmission just helps us reduce stress elsewhere. It helps reduce disruptions at work. Our emergency departments are now complaining because they've seen pretty big increases. Urgent cares are complaining. So anything you can do to sort of mitigate the steepness of that increase in cases is always going to be helpful.

So I'm going to continue to advocate for slowing the spread. Slowing the spread is still a meaningful strategy, even when we have these highly infectious variants that are circulating.

For more:

  • Tell us: Do you want mask mandates to return? Email us at CAToday@nytimes.com with your opinions. Please include your name and where you live.
  • Comic-Con issued a mask mandate for next week's event in San Diego.U.C. Irvine is also reinstating an indoor mask mandate, The Los Angeles Times reports. BART is lifting its mask requirement on Monday, ABC7 reports.
  • Check Covid case rates where you live.

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Detectives from the Los Angeles and Inglewood police departments traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to arrest a man who now faces murder and related charges in four decades-old murders.Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

The rest of the news

  • Cold case solved: DNA evidence helped crack unsolved murders, some dating to 1980, of three women and a teenage girl in California and led to the arrest of a 75-year-old man in Texas.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
  • Missing jewelry: Jewelry and gems worth millions — a conservative figure put the value at up to $10 million — were stolen from a Brink's armored truck near Los Angeles.
  • Stabbing: The ex-NASCAR driver Robert East, known as Bobby, was fatally stabbed at a gas station in Westminster.
  • Robberies: Two Los Angeles men were arrested in connection with a string of robberies at 7-Eleven stores in Southern California in which two people were fatally shot.
  • Water park opens: Irvine's Wild Rivers water park has reopened after an 11-year hiatus, The Los Angeles Times reports.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
  • Tigers rescued: Two neglected tigers rescued from a long-shuttered tourist attraction in Oklahoma are beginning new lives at the Oakland Zoo, The Associated Press reports.
Bobbi Lin for The New York Times

What we're eating

Easy salads for every summer table.

Butterfly Beach last year.Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images

Where we're traveling

Today's tip comes from Lisa Kirk Colburn, who lives in Cambridge, Mass.:

"Montecito is a charming destination for long walks on Butterfly Beach at low tide. The historic Santa Barbara is only a 10-minute drive away. Montecito is a real getaway from crazy. The gorgeous sky, its beautiful light and the quiet make it worth the trip. And it's only a 1.5-hour drive from LAX. Worth the trip!"

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.

Loulou João

And before you go, some good news

My colleague Shira Ovide recently published lovely tales of ways that technology is helping people unleash their creativity or discover new joys. Technology, she reminds us, isn't all bad.

In her newsletter On Tech, Shira shared stories of parents and children bonding through Spotify playlists and teachers using podcasts to engage their students. I particularly liked this submission from Ann McLaughlin, a reader who lives in Carmel:

"My morning stroll down the driveway to retrieve the newspaper has been transformed by the Merlin Bird ID app.

A daily chore has become a joy. Now, instead of ignoring the sounds around me, I'm able to focus on and identify the bird songs I'm hearing. The birds vary with their seasonal migration patterns, so the sounds are ever-changing. It's become a meditation of sorts."

Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Homophone of scents, cense and cents (5 letters).

Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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