In Brief: October 1, 2021

Vote delayed, Democrats struggle to save Biden $3.5T overhaul bill

WASHINGTON — Despite a long night of frantic negotiations, Democrats were unable late Thursday to reach an immediate deal to salvage President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion government overhaul, forcing leaders to call off promised votes on a related public works bill. Action is to resume Friday.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pushed the House into an evening session and top White House advisers huddled for talks at the Capitol as the Democratic leaders worked to negotiate a scaled-back plan that centrist holdouts would accept. Biden had cleared his schedule for calls with lawmakers but it appeared no deal was within reach, particularly with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Manchin refused to budge, the West Virginia centrist holding fast to his earlier declaration that he was willing to meet the president less than halfway — $1.5 trillion.

“I don’t see a deal tonight. I really don’t,” Manchin told reporters as he left the Capitol.

Deeply at odds, the president and his party are facing a potentially embarrassing setback — if not politically devastating collapse of the whole enterprise — if they cannot resolve the standoff over Biden’s big vision.

School board group asks US for help policing threats

A group representing school board members around the country asked President Joe Biden on Thursday for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism.

The request by the National School Boards Association demonstrates the level of unruliness that has engulfed local education meetings across the country during the pandemic, with board members regularly confronted and threatened by angry protesters.

School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, parents and former educators who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget, but they have been frightened at how their jobs have suddenly become a culture war battleground. The climate has led a growing number to resign or decide against seeking reelection.

“Whatever you feel about masks, it should not reach this level of rhetoric,” NSBA Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven told The Associated Press by phone.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said responsibility for protecting school boards falls largely to local law enforcement but “we’re continuing to explore if more can be done from across the administration.”

Ethiopia expels UN officials amid Tigray blockade pressure

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia said Thursday it is kicking out seven United Nations officials whom it accused of “meddling” in the country’s internal affairs, as pressure grows on the government over its deadly blockade of the Tigray region.

The expulsions are the government’s most dramatic move yet to restrict humanitarian access to the region of 6 million people after nearly a year of war. The U.N. has become increasingly outspoken as the flow of medical supplies, food and fuel has been brought to a near-halt.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by the announcement and expressed “full confidence” in U.N. staff, saying they are guided by impartiality and neutrality. In a statement, he said the U.N. is engaging with Ethiopia’s government “in the expectation that the concerned U.N. staff will be allowed to continue their important work.”

Ethiopia’s government has accused humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray forces who have been fighting its soldiers and allied forces since November. Aid workers have denied it. Thousands of people have died in the conflict marked by gang rapes, mass expulsions and the destruction of health centers, with witnesses often blaming Ethiopian soldiers and those of neighboring Eritrea.

The U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, this week told The Associated Press that the crisis in Ethiopia is a “stain on our conscience” as children and others starve to death in Tigray under what the U.N. calls a de facto government blockade. Just 10% of needed humanitarian supplies have been reaching Tigray in recent weeks, he said.

Nation’s most restrictive abortion law returns to Texas court

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge on Friday will consider whether Texas can leave in place the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., which since September has banned most abortions and sent women racing to get care beyond the borders of the nation’s second-largest state.

A lawsuit filed by the Biden administration seeks to land the first legal blow against the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which thus far has withstood an early wave of challenges — including the U.S. Supreme Court allowing it to remain in force.

“Abortion care has almost completely stopped in our state,” Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, a Texas abortion provider, told the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee during a hearing over abortion access Thursday.

From wire sources

The law prohibits abortions in Texas once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks, which is before some women know they are pregnant. In the short time since the law took effect Sept. 1, abortion providers say “exactly what we feared” has become reality, describing Texas clinics that are now in danger of closing while neighboring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients now driving hundreds of miles from Texas. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin will hear arguments Friday over whether to temporarily halt the Texas law, which stands as the nation’s biggest curb to the constitutional right to an abortion in a half-century.

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Scarlett Johansson, Disney settle lawsuit over ‘Black Widow’

LOS ANGELES — Scarlett Johansson and the Walt Disney Co. on Thursday settled her lawsuit over the streaming release of “Black Widow,” bringing a swift end to what had begun as the first major fight between a studio and star over recent changes in rollout plans for films.

Johansson filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court two months ago, saying the streaming release of the Marvel movie breached her contract and deprived her of potential earnings.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the two sides released a joint statement in which they pledged to continue working together.

“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” said Johansson, who has played Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, in nine movies going back to 2010’s “Iron Man 2.” “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration.”

Alan Bergman, chairman of Disney Studios Content, said he is “pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement.”

A ‘dangerous cabal’? Alito says high court is no such thing

Justice Samuel Alito pushed back Thursday against criticism, including some from colleagues, that recent Supreme Court actions in major cases have been done hastily and in the shadows. “A dangerous cabal” improperly deciding important matters — hardly, he said.

Alito, in remarks at the University of Notre Dame, took aim at critics of three recent decisions in which the court’s conservatives prevailed over dissents by liberals.

In rapid succession beginning in late August, the court reinstated a Trump-era immigration program, allowed evictions that had been paused by the coronavirus pandemic to resume and let a Texas law severely limiting abortion go into effect.

All three cases came to the court as emergency motions, and were decided quickly and without the court’s more typical full briefing and oral argument. That process has been called the court’s ” shadow docket.”

“Our decisions in these three emergency matters have been criticized by those who think we should have decided them the other way, and I have no trouble with fair criticism of the substance of those decisions,” Alito said.

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American Dream unveils luxury wing as virus still looms

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If you build it during a pandemic, will they still come?

American Dream put that to the test when it opened the new luxury shopping wing of its megamall in September featuring Saks Fifth Avenue, Dolce &Gabbana, Hermes and other luxury stores, along with exotic fish ponds, gardens and 16-foot sculptures.

Like everything about American Dream, the timing has been less than ideal. The new wing comes as the world grapples with the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, which continues to threaten life — and business — from returning to normal.

American Dream took nearly two decades — and lots of fits and starts in between — to become a reality. When it finally did open its doors in October 2019, the giant shopping and entertainment complex was forced to close five months later as the coronavirus bore down on the globe.

It reopened last October with new safety protocols in place. But the pandemic has complicated its outlook, delayed expansion plans, cut off its cash flow and stolen international visitors. American Dream also lost a handful of key partners that either filed for bankruptcy — like Barneys New York, Century 21and Lord &Taylor — or pulled out like high-end retailer Montcler.

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McPherson makes FG as time expires, Bengals beat Jags 24-21

CINCINNATI — Evan McPherson kicked a 35-yard field goal as time ran out to give the Cincinnati Bengals a 24-21 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night, spoiling Urban Meyer’s Ohio return.

Joe Burrow passed for 348 yards and two touchdowns to help the Bengals (3-1) overcome a 14-0 halftime deficit. Burrow, the top overall draft pick in 2020 outdueled the 2021 top pick, Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Meyer coached Ohio State to the 2014 national championship. He was born in Toledo, grew up in Ashtabula rooting for the Bengals, went to college at Cincinnati, played safety for the Bearcats, got his first coaching job at nearby Saint Xavier High School in 1985, and has two sisters who still live in the area.

Cincinnati had two quick scoring drives to open the second half. James Robinson’s second rushing touchdown put Jacksonville (0-4) up again early in the fourth quarter. Burrow answered with a 31-yard touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah to tie it again.

Another methodical drive set up the kick by McPherson, who has the winners in two of Cincinnati’s three wins.