Two stories on Senator Mitch McConnell
Mitch McConnell has fallen multiple times this year, uses wheelchair: What we know
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is once again being hounded with questions about his health after freezing for roughly 28 seconds during a press conference on Wednesday.
The 81-year-old Kentucky Republican, who is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, had to be escorted away from a lectern by colleagues in a startling moment that came four months after he suffered a concussion and a broken rib from a fall in March.
But McConnell has fallen at least two other times this year — once at a Washington, D.C. airport on July 14 and another time during a foreign trip in February — a source close to the senator who is familiar with his work habits confirmed with USA TODAY. (Courier-Journal)
Mitch McConnell will continue serving as Senate GOP leader after health questions, his office said
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue serving as the top GOP leader in the lower chamber, his office said in a statement Friday, after fielding multiple questions about his health this week.
“Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do," his office told USA TODAY. (Courier-Journal)
As the U.N. warns “The era of global boiling has arrived,” Biden resists declaring a climate emergency
July is on pace to be the hottest month ever recorded, and the impact of the soaring temperatures is being felt across the globe in massive heat waves, wildfires, flooding and more. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the world has entered the “era of global boiling,” and President Joe Biden gave a major speech to unveil new measures to combat the crisis but resisted calls to declare a climate emergency. David Wallace-Wells, an opinion writer for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, says the world is not moving quickly enough to phase out fossil fuels, and even some of the progress that has been made is easily erased by massive wildfires like those burning in Canada right now. (Democracy Now!)
Democrats push more resilient, lower-carbon infrastructure at U.S. Senate climate hearing
The changing climate is hurting infrastructure and the national economy, members of a U.S. Senate panel and experts said Wednesday.
Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee agreed at a Wednesday hearing on the need for more resilient infrastructure that could withstand the pressures of a changing climate. They also agreed speeding up the process for gaining federal approval for large infrastructure and energy projects would be helpful.
Democrats voiced support for taking steps to reduce carbon emissions, while Republicans mostly ignored that issue or said it would be a waste. Among those testifying was Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, who said his state is particularly vulnerable to climate change and contributes more carbon emissions than most states. (Kentucky Lantern)
Cameron would renew push for Medicaid work requirement if elected governor in Kentucky
Republican candidate Daniel Cameron said Wednesday that he would move quickly as Kentucky’s governor to revive a push to require some able-bodied adults to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid.
If he succeeds in unseating Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear later this year, Cameron said his administration would seek federal permission to impose the Medicaid work requirement. The proposed rule would exclude able-bodied adults who are “truly vulnerable,” including those with children or who are pregnant, his campaign said in a follow-up statement. Cameron declared that connecting Medicaid coverage to work for some Kentuckians would raise workforce participation in the post-pandemic era. (Courier-Journal)
Progressives unveil bill to tax billionaire wealth up to 8 percent
A group of progressive lawmakers in the House have introduced a bill that would levy up to an 8 percent tax on the wealth of the richest Americans, with a goal of combating extreme and growing wealth inequality in the U.S.
The bill, dubbed the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act, would levy an additional wealth tax on individuals who have at least 1,000 times median household wealth. There would be four tax brackets under the bill that progressively levy a higher tax the more wealth an individual holds.
Representatives Barbara Lee (D-California), Summer Lee (D-Pennsylvania), Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) introduced the bill with six cosponsors in the House. (Truthout)
And from the Twitterverse (or is that now the X-Verse?) ...
