Arkansas will no longer allow drivers to use an “X” for their gender on driver’s licenses, state regulators said Tuesday, rolling back a policy that was inclusive to nonbinary people.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said the changes are being made to “safeguard” state IDs. The agency also announced it will make it more difficult for transgender people to change the gender listed on their ID.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) celebrated the announcement, comparing the ID changes to fraught conservative culture war talking points.
“This policy is just common sense. Only women give birth, men shouldn’t play women’s sports, and there are only two genders,” she said in a statement. “As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas state government will not endorse nonsense.”
The effort continues moves by Republican state governments to legally mandate gender as binary, a move which goes against the common academic understanding of gender and which critics argue completely erases the recognition of transgender and nonbinary people. The changes also raise concerns for intersex people, those with sex traits of either both or neither gender.
There are approximately 1.2 million nonbinary or transgender Americans, according to a 2021 study. Nonbinary driver license gender labels are allowed in 22 states plus the District of Columbia, and are supported for federal IDs, including passports.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas denounced the changes on Tuesday, saying they “threaten the safety and dignity” of transgender, nonbinary and intersex Arkansans.
“Accurate and consistent identity documents are a fundamental necessity, enabling individuals to travel, secure employment, open bank accounts, and enroll in educational programs,” the group said in a statement. “For transgender people, in particular, an ID that accurately reflects their true self is not just a matter of dignity — it is crucial for their safety and well-being.”
“We strongly oppose the Governor and the Department of Finance and Administration’s (DFA) attempt to implement this regressive and damaging policy,” the statement continues. “It is shameful that they have failed to consider the significant impact such measures will have on the lives of many Arkansans.”
Just 342 of the state’s more than 2.6 million active driver licenses use the “X” gender designator, the DFA said, in addition to 174 of 503,000 other state IDs. Those IDs will remain valid through their expiry date, when owners will be forced to choose male or female for their documentation.
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Learn the truth behind Boeing’s airplane failures and why John Barnett was suicided.
Alex Jones breaks down the shocking story of a Boeing whistleblower’s suspicious death amid frightening revelations that the airplane manufacturer is shirking safety protocols in its assembly process as aircraft incidents during flight accelerate.
Alex Jones Breaks Down What's Really Happening At Boeing And The Aftermath Of Whistleblower's Death pic.twitter.com/sggda4BHrO
The First Lady, Mrs Remi Tinubu, has said that she wasn’t afraid of death as she was more than 60 years old.
She stated this on Tuesday while reacting to Governor Bala Mohammed’s comment regarding recent threats to her life during a visit to the state.
“I want to thank the Bauchi State governor for assuring me that I am safe, but I want to say that I am too old to be afraid.
“If God has granted me more than 60 years on earth, I shouldn’t be afraid of death.
“I thank God that you encouraged me to come and I want to say that Nigeria belongs to all of us. This is the time for us to unite more than ever before,” she said.
Earlier, Mohammed had condemned the recent threats to the life of the First Lady and described it as a “national embarrassment”.
“I am particularly disappointed and frustrated that the death threats came from someone from Bauchi State.
“It is a national embarrassment that someone from Bauchi State would threaten the wife of the President.
“I want to apologise to the First Lady over the incident and assure her that the person will not be spared,” he said.
Mohammed pointed out that the President’s wife had distinguished herself “not only as a distinguished Senator, but as a politician that has opened the new frontier of politics and politicking”.
“Your renewed hope programme is being genuinely embraced because you have set aside all differences related to politics and partisanship.
“I am aware of some of the challenges and threats to your life and person by somebody from this State. I was so disappointed and frustrated, but you made my day as a courageous mother by deciding to come to Bauchi.
“This distinguished lady has shown that Nigeria is really working and that Nigeria is one and nobody can play politics with our lives.
“We are very grateful; your life is more important to us than our own lives. Nothing will happen to you,” he said.
The Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Biliyamin, in a remark, dispelled insinuations that Bauchi was not a peaceful State.
“The First Lady’s visit is a powerful symbol of the peace and progress of Bauchi State,” he declared.
Why I’m Not Afraid To Die — First Lady Remi Tinubu is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés), dieron nuevas recomendaciones para el COVID-19 que se alinean con los consejos de salud pública para la gripe y otras enfermedades respiratorias. Haciendo que escépticos en redes sociales digan que ellos siempre tuvieron la razón.
“Al CDC sólo le tomó 4 AÑOS estar de acuerdo con ‘teóricos de la conspiración’ que dijeron en 2020 que: COVID es más o menos como la GRIPE”, dice la publicación en Facebook del 2 de marzo. “Ya es oficial”.
También encontramos otra publicación que dice una afirmación similar y llama a los médicos del mundo a despertar sobre “la verdad de COVID-19”.
La publicación fue marcada como parte del esfuerzo de Meta para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Meta, propietaria de Facebook e Instagram).
Pero estas declaraciones llegan a una conclusión errónea sobre los cambios y lo que esto dice de los primeros días de la pandemia, la cual resultó en la muerte de más de 1 millón de personas en los Estados Unidos y más de 7 millones globalmente, dijeron expertos a PolitiFact.
¿Qué cambio en las directrices ?
Los CDC cambiaron sus directrices de COVID-19 para alinearlas con otros virus respiratorios como influenza (gripe) y el virus respiratorio sincitial, o VRS. Las personas con COVID-19 ya no tienen que aislarse por cinco días antes de volver a la oficina o a la escuela, como los CDC lo habían recomendado previamente.
En vez, los CDC dijeron que las personas enfermas con COVID-19, o la gripe y otros virus respiratorios, deben quedarse en casa y lejos de otros hasta que sus síntomas hayan mejorado y no tengan fiebre — sin el uso de medicinas que bajan la fiebre — por al menos 24 horas.
Las personas también están alentadas a tomar pasos adicionales durante los siguientes cinco días para evitar esparcir el virus, como distanciamiento social, usando una mascarilla o mejorando la calidad del aire abriendo las ventanas o usando un filtro purificador, dijeron los CDC.
Esos son importantes para proteger a los más vulnerables al COVID-19, como personas de 65 años o más y aquellos con un sistema inmunológico débil, dijeron los CDC.
Los CDC realmente están diciendo, “‘Aquí hay tres opciones sobre qué hacer durante el periodo de cinco días cuando puedes seguir estando infeccioso,’” dijo la Dra. Céline Gounder, una especialista en enfermedades infecciosas y editora general en el KFF Health News.
Los CDC también recomiendan que las personas estén al día con sus vacunas, practiquen una buena higiene y tomen pasos para tener un aire limpio, utilizando purificadores de aire.
Esta nueva directriz no aplica a los lugares de atención médica o a patógenos como el sarampión que pueden tener medidas específicas de confinamiento, dijeron los CDC.
¿Por qué cambiaron las directrices ?
Los CDC dijeron en un comunicado el 1 de marzo que las nuevas directrices tienen el propósito de traer un enfoque unificado a virus respiratorios comunes que tienen rutas similares de transmisión y síntomas. Los cambios harían las directrices más fáciles de seguir y ayudarían a proteger aquellos con más riesgo, dijo la agencia.
El cambio es posible ya que hay muchas menos hospitalizaciones y muertes hoy en día asociadas con COVID-19, y hay más herramientas disponibles para tratarlas, como vacunas y tratamientos.
Estamos en una posición diferente y tenemos datos y evidencia que muestran que nuestras herramientas están funcionando para protegernos contra COVID-19, dijo la directora de los CDC, Dr. Mandy Cohen en una publicación del 4 de marzo en X anunciando las nuevas directrices.
Las admisiones semanales al hospital por COVID-19 bajaron más del 75% este invierno, y las muertes bajaron a más del 90% comparado con enero de 2022, el punto más alto de la primera ola ómicron del virus, dijeron los CDC.
“Vimos estas disminuciones aun cuando nuestros datos de aguas residuales mostraban que teníamos altos niveles de enfermedad viral circulando esta temporada”, dijo Cohen en su video en X.
Más del 98% de la población estadounidense tiene algún grado de inmunidad contra COVID-19, a través de vacunas, infecciones previas o ambos, dijeron los CDC. Al mismo tiempo, vacunas y tratamientos como la droga antiviral Paxlovid están disponibles, las cuales no estaban al comienzo de la pandemia.
Algunos estados, como California y Oregon, ya habían puesto directrices de aislamiento similares antes del cambio de los CDC.
Gounder dijo que la mayoría de personas que están enfermas no están haciéndose pruebas y no saben si tienen COVID-19, la influenza o un virus común de resfriado. Así que la meta del cambio de los CDC es para “alinear las directrices alrededor de todas ellas para que ni siquiera tengas que hacerte una prueba para saber qué hacer”.
¿Significa eso que el COVID-19 debía ser tratado como la gripe desde el principio?
No, los expertos le dijeron a PolitiFact. Solo significa que estamos en un mejor lugar del que estábamos al principio de la pandemia, cuando estábamos aprendiendo sobre la marcha del nuevo coronavirus.
“Los CDC están comparando la mortalidad de COVID-19 con la influenza ahora, pero ese no era el caso al principio de la pandemia”, dijo la Dra. Monica Gandhi, una profesora médica y experta en enfermedades infecciosas de la University of California, San Francisco. “El COVID fue mucho más mortal que la influenza hasta que llegamos a esparcir inmunidad en la población”.
Eso no significa que el COVID-19 fue como la gripe en 2020, dijo Gandhi.
“SARS-CoV-2 golpeó a una población no inmune en todo el planeta al mismo tiempo, desafortunadamente llevando a altas tasas de mortalidad”, dijo Gandhi.
La Dra. Leana Wen, una médico de emergencia y profesora asociada adjunta en la George Washington University, dijo que las políticas públicas deben evolucionar cuando la ciencia — y los hechos — cambian.
La perspectiva de alguien sufriendo de la gripe es mucho más diferente hoy, y las medidas de salud pública también han evolucionado. Antes de que existieran las vacunas para la gripe o antibióticos, la pandemia de la influenza de 1918 se esparció mundialmente y mató al menos 50 millones de personas, incluyendo alrededor de 675,000 en los Estados Unidos. Al igual que con el COVID-19, los esfuerzos de control de la salud pública en torno al brote inicial de la gripe estaban limitados en gran medida al distanciamiento social y las cuarentenas.
Oficiales de salud usaron apropiadamente medidas de mitigación específicas para COVID-19 durante 2020 y 2021 cuando no había esperanza de que la enfermedad fuera contenida o eliminada, dijo Wen.
“Las circunstancias han cambiado”, dijo Wen, señalando a vacunas disponibles, tratamientos y la alta exposición de la población al virus, y las subvariantes menos letales de ómicron. “Ahora está claro que no es posible que COVID sea eliminado. Como resultado, ahora es apropiado considerar COVID en la misma categoría con otros patógenos respiratorios graves como la influenza”.
Gounder dijo que la declaración de que las directrices de los CDC le dio la razón a las personas que dijeron que debíamos haber tratado al COVID-19 como la gripe desde el principio es “evidentemente falsa”, agregando que aunque las muertes han bajado de sus altos niveles, COVID-19 sigue siendo el virus respiratorio más común en los Estados Unidos, y el que tiene más probabilidades de llevar a los adultos al hospital.
Nuestro veredicto
Una publicación en Facebook dice que las nuevas directrices de COVID-19 de los CDC significan que “al CDC sólo le tomó 4 AÑOS estar de acuerdo con ‘teóricos de la conspiración’ que dijeron en 2020 que: COVID es más o menos como la GRIPE”.
Pero esta declaración ignora lo que sabían los oficiales de salud pública sobre el virus que causó COVID-19 durante el principio de la pandemia. También desestima que las vacunas, tratamientos y la inmunidad natural hayan disminuido la amenaza de COVID-19, llevando a muchas menos muertes y hospitalizaciones.
Calificamos esta publicación como Falsa.
Una versión de este artículo fue escrito originalmente en inglés y traducido por María Briceño.
Read a version of this article in English.
Lea más reportes de PolitiFact en Español aquí.
Debido a limitaciones técnicas, partes de nuestra página web aparecen en inglés. Estamos trabajando en mejorar la presentación.
There were good reasons why pitcher Alex Wood wanted to sign with Oakland in free agency – even aside from the $8.5 million he’ll receive from the A’s this year.
Not only would leaving the Giants and coming across the Bay allow him to become a starting pitcher again, but the 12-year veteran also relished the idea of becoming a mentor and leader on the young A’s ballclub.
“That part, I’m really excited about,” said Wood, who became the first A’s starter to work into the fifth inning during Oakland’s 4-2 spring training win over Seattle in Mesa, Ariz. on Tuesday.
In addition to Wood’s stressing the importance of hard work, focus and preparation to teammates this spring, he’s demonstrated to his fellow pitchers another way to stay grounded. The left-hander induced six ground outs and just one flyout – to go along with five strikeouts — among his 13 batters retired in 4 1/3 innings.
Oakland Athletics’ Darell Hernaiz fields a ground out hit by Seattle Mariners’ Luis Urias during the second inning of a spring training baseball game, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
That’s no small deal for an A’s club that was dead last in the major leagues in getting ground balls last season. Conversely, Wood’s career ground ball percentage of 48.6% is just a shade lower than San Francisco’s major league-leading ground ball rate of 48.7% last season. You can connect the dots.
A’s second baseman Zack Gelof, who should be gobbling up plenty of grounders from Wood this season, picked up two more hits to pace the offense for Oakland (10-8). Gelof, batting a robust .412, belted an opposite field, two-run home run off Seattle starter Bryce Miller to give the A’s the lead for good in the third inning. It was his fourth home run in Arizona.
Left fielder Miguel Andujar, another of the A’s hot hitters, belted an RBI single to open the scoring. The former Yankees phenom is now hitting .406 with 13 RBIs, just one behind Dodgers’ star Freddie Freeman for the spring training lead.
Before the game, A’s manager Mark Kotsay revealed that infielder Aledmys Diaz will likely start the season on the injured list. Diaz suffered a setback during his rehabilitation from a groin injury on Monday when he strained his calf while running the bases, MLB.com reported. Diaz injured his groin two weeks ago.
This is part one of “Life or Debt,”Word In Black’s drug price series, exploring the ways Black folks living with chronic disease are forced to manage an expensive health care system. Read the series.
$8,000 to $10,000 a year.
That’s about how much Jason Noldon spends to manage his Type 1 diabetes. With regular technology updates to insulin pump equipment, batteries, syringes, alcohol pads, tape, a gym membership, and the monthly price of insulin, he estimates he probably pays even more.
But his story paints a broader picture of what it’s like to care for diabetes in the United States. 34 million adults have diabetes, and about 5% to 10% of people living with diabetes have Type 1. Although Type 2 is more commonly diagnosed, the quality of care you get for either kind of diabetes depends on access to health care. Overall, Black adults are nearly twice as likely as white adults to develop Type 2 diabetes.
It’s been 13 years since Noldon was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease that prevents his pancreas from producing insulin. Ever since, it’s been an uphill battle navigating the health care system and insurance companies.
Last summer, his doctor advised him to get a new insulin pump. The current one wasn’t providing accurate readings. In July, he applied for the upgrade through his health care plan. In August, he changed health plans — a decision made by his employer. Due to the change, his insurance deductible was reset. Even though he paid it until the end of December.
With the change, he sent all the necessary paperwork to the insurance company. But, Noldon says, they delayed the process by requesting additional paperwork from his doctor.
He didn’t get his new pump until he paid the out-of-pocket cost of $1,200. Then, he had to pay another $1,100 to upgrade the software to match the new pump. This excludes the price of the 90-day supply of insulin his doctor prescribes.
“It felt like a setup,” he says. “That just sucked for me. I did everything I was still supposed to do. Had I been able to get the order done before the end of the year, it would have been 100% covered by my insurance deductible.”
This was just the latest example for Noldon.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between January and June 2023, medical care commodities or medicinal drugs, supplies, and equipment rose above the annual inflation rate — with a range of 1% to 3% increase.
And it doesn’t help that January is the most popular month for biopharmaceutical companies to raise the prices of their drugs. Just after the new year, drugmakers, including Pfizer, Sanofi, and Takeda, were set to raise the prices of more than 500 drugs.
The Cost of Care
Dr. Archana Sadhu is the director of the system diabetes program and director of pancreas transplantation at Houston Methodist Hospital. She says her mission as a physician is to help and heal people. But it becomes more challenging when the drugs on the market to treat diabetes are not always accessible to her patients.
20%-30% of her current patient population is Black. In her more than 25 years of experience, she’s treated thousands of patients with Type 1 and 2 diabetes. Throughout her career, many of Sadhu’s patients have rationed their insulin due to the price of insulin continuously rising over the years.
“It was horrible,” she says. “They would come into the hospital because they ran out of insulin. They couldn’t afford it for the month, and it got out of control.”
On Jan. 1, 2023, out-of-pocket costs for insulin were capped at $35 per monthly prescription for Medicare Part D enrollees as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly Co., and Sanofi are the three companies that control 90% of the world’s insulin market by value. Each company cut the U.S. insulin prices between 70% to 78%.
But it doesn’t remedy the fact that patient spending on insulin tripled in the last decade, according to the American Diabetes Association — from $8 billion in 2012 to $22.3 billion in 2022. Between 2017 and 2019, more than a dozen Americans died because they rationed their insulin — with 10 deaths between the ages of 20 and 28.
“Even now, patients still don’t know to ask for that insulin cap price,” Sadhu says. “Your pharmacist should be able to tell you — it shouldn’t cost more than $35.”
Patients living with diabetes and who have insurance must navigate insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry to access their needed medications.
Sadhu breaks down the process. Physicians write a prescription. Each insurance company has a drug formulary — which is a list of prescription drugs covered by the company. Pharmacy benefit managers will decide on the formulary, which is traditionally based on economics.
PBMs act as middlemen between pharmacies, insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and drug wholesalers. Initially, Sadhu says they were supposed to help patients and insurance companies keep the costs of prescription drugs down. However, PBMs have come under scrutiny because of business practices. For example, pharmaceutical companies negotiate with PBM companies to get their drugs in the formulary by offering rebates.
“It’s that negotiation and business practice that is actually going to affect what access a patient has to a drug,” Sadhu says. “They have really become the evil middlemen that we can’t fight, we can’t touch them as physicians.”
If a patient is lucky enough to manage these systems, they are still left at the mercy of pharmacy benefit managers and insurance companies — who can easily dictate how much they will cover for a drug.
“We are advocates for patients. We go through so much training and education to learn how to apply science,” Sadhu says. “Then we get handicapped by issues like this. It’s almost demoralizing. They don’t care what we think; they’re looking at profit … and revenues.”
For patients without insurance, the out-of-pocket cost of insulin is quite literally out of reach. In 2022, 10% of Black Americans were uninsured, while 6.6% of white Americans were uninsured. Depending on the state and income level of individuals, they may qualify for certain programs. But Sadhu says it’s unlikely uninsured patients would be able to access an endocrinologist like herself.
A Broken System that Kills
“No one should have to struggle to afford their insulin,” Sarah Ryan, a spokesperson for PhRMA, a trade association representing biopharmaceutical companies, says. “We are advocating policy reforms that fix a broken system where insurance companies and their middlemen are blocking people from getting lower-priced insulins.”
But it’s going to take more than policy reform to fix the health care system that continues to harm those who are most vulnerable.
“I have to have the hormone, or I’ll die,” Noldon says. Without a regular dosage of insulin, he wouldn’t survive more than a couple of days.
There were times at work when he had to be careful of challenging his supervisors so as not to lose his job. If he loses his job, like most Americans, he loses his health care benefits. Without health care benefits, he would pay about $1,600 out-of-pocket for a 90-day supply of insulin.
“It’s a vicious cycle, and there’s no end in sight,” he says. Even with the federal government capping insulin prices for Medicare Part B and D enrollees, Noldon is wary that it will create any significant change. “It just continues to get more expensive, and there’s more hoops to jump through every single year.”
In a July 2023 KFF Health Tracking Poll, about one in four U.S. adults say it is either somewhat or very difficult for them to afford prescription drugs. 36% of Black adults were more likely than 24% of white adults to say it is difficult for them to pay for prescription drugs.
Type 1 diabetes does not discriminate, Noldon says, but he does acknowledge the discriminatory health care practices that continue to cause harm to Black people. As he continues to manage his diabetes, he’s burdened with navigating a “mess” of a health care system.
“Health care is something you need; it’s not a choice.”
Leaked Border Patrol email also warns agency to brace for large influx of Haitian illegal aliens bound for Florida.
Defense Department officials testified that America may soon see a “mass migration” of Haitian nationals as the Caribbean nation descends into chaos after cannibalistic gangs took over the region.
During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) pressed the officials to answer “what we are doing to prepare for that wave and to ensure that these people are not paroled into the United States as the administration has done with people on the southern border, but instead are repatriated back at the dock at Port-au-Prince?”
INCOMING HAITIAN INVASION: DoD officials testify before the House Armed Services Committee that the Biden Administration acknowledges there IS an anticipated mass migration from Haiti into the United States through Florida pic.twitter.com/Fo9XyR9v8n
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Rebecca Zimmerman assured him that the DoD is “doing a number of things to ensure that we’re keeping track of the situation and we’re prepared,” but admitted that an influx of Haitian illegal aliens coming to America is a distinct possibility.
“At the moment we have not yet seen large numbers, what we would characterize as a maritime mass migration, but we are alert to that possibility. I think you’re right that the driving conditions in Haiti could very well press more people,” she said.
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Though Zimmerman said the Coast Guard has been made aware of the threat of more Haitian migrants, Gaetz said he’d spoken to the Coast Guard, who would benefit from “more naval vessels” and “DoD support” to address the possible influx.
“And because I think you correctly said that there is an anticipated mass migration here, there are specific legal authorities that we can access that I would implore you to access, specifically, George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13276,” Gaetz explained.
“And in that executive order, there is the ability for any president to designate an anticipated mass migration, and get gray hull naval vessels into the straits of Florida to deter that migration and then to reach Patriot those people before they get to Florida.”
Additionally, border agents in Miami have been told to prepare for a wave of migration from Haiti, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
A leaked internal agency email revealed the border patrol is ill-prepared to manage the Haitian illegals coming to Florida and that they will likely not be sent back to Haiti.
“One landing will cripple the station and our ability to respond to other traffic,” the email stated.
“With the breakdown of the government in Haiti repatriating Haitians may not be happening for the foreseeable future,” the email read. “If this is the case, then the Coast Guard may not be stopping Haitian sail freighter[s].”
Nevertheless, a federal judge recently upheld a Biden administration parole program that would allow up to 30,000 illegal aliens into the U.S. each month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined on humanitarian grounds.
Haiti has collapsed into chaos after over 4,000 inmates broke out of two of the island nation’s largest prisons, with the capital, Port-au-Prince, now under the rule of ruthless cannibalistic gangs, including a gang led by Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by “Barbecue.”
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned Tuesday in the face of political pressure over the escalating violence and disorder.
Since the Biden regime seems determined to cause as much chaos as possible via open borders, soaring crime, and runaway inflation due to reckless spending, it stands to reason it’s also perfectly content allowing hordes of cannibalistic foreigners to run amok in the country if it means advancing Democrat political objectives.
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President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Engr. Emeka Ezeh as the Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Civil Service Commission.
This was revealed on Tuesday in a statement by the FCTA Director of Press, Anthony Ogunleye, who also announced the appointment of commissioners to commission.
Ezeh, from Alor in Anambra State, is a civil engineer and procurement expert with a career spanning over 40 years and has worked closely with four Nigerian presidents.
The appointments are effective immediately and will be followed by a swearing-in ceremony on Monday, March 18, 2024.
The commissioners appointed are: Hon. Ahmed Mohammed – North West, Chief Anthony Okeah – South-South, Mohammed Magaji Ibrahim – North East, Miskoom Alexander Naantuam – North Central, Hon. Jide Jimoh – South West and Barrister Martin Azubike – South East.
Similarly, Tinubu approved the following to fill existing vacancies in some critical agencies of the FCTA.
They areAbdulkadir Zulkarfi – Coordinator Satellite Town Development Department, Chief Felix Obuah – Coordinator Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, and Oladiran Olufemi Akindele – Coordinator, Abuja Infrastructure Investment Council (AIIC).
Also, to strengthen the bureaucratic structure of the FCTA, the president approved the appointment of the Head of the Civil Service, Mr. Atang Udo Samuel, and Permanent Secretaries in the FCT Civil Service for various regions.
They are, Dr. Adam Babagana – North East, Wanki Adamu Ibrahim – North East, Asmau Mukhtar – North West, Dogo Aliyu Wadata Bodinga – North West, Olusa Olusegun – South West, Adetoyi Rabiu Kolawole – South West, Grace Adayilo – North Central, Olubunmi Olowookere – North Central, Ibe Prospect Chukwuemeka – South East and Okonkwo Florence Nonubari – South South
Tinubu Appoints Anambra Engineer As FCT Civil Service Commission Chairman is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
During a recent campaign rally, former President Donald Trump amplified a growing argument among some Republicans that foreigners are taking jobs away from native-born Americans.
On March 9 in Rome, Georgia, Trump said, “Unions should endorse Trump because I am closing our border good and tight. … In February alone, nearly 1 million jobs held by native-born Americans disappeared. Think of that. You lost 1 million jobs. Black people. That’s who lost the jobs. Hispanic people. That’s who lost the jobs.”
However, this is wrong on several levels, including that economists consider Trump’s statistic to be cherry-picked and all but meaningless.
Trump’s campaign did not answer an inquiry for this fact-check.
How credible is the statistic Trump used?
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics every month publishes the “employment level for the native-born” and calculates a monthly companion employment level statistic for the foreign-born.
The native-born employment statistic emerges from the same monthly survey that asks households about who is working, who is unemployed but looking for work and who is not currently looking for work. This survey is used to calculate the widely tracked unemployment rate.
Although the household survey also produces a raw number for people who are currently employed, economists consider this number inferior to the one from a different federal survey that asks businesses about the workers they employ. Also, the household survey has a significantly higher margin of error because it’s much smaller than the survey of businesses.
Of the two surveys, only the household survey asks demographic questions, including whether the worker is native-born or foreign-born. But that doesn’t mean the overall employment numbers in the household survey are precise.
For instance, in February, the month Trump referred to, the household survey found that the nation lost 184,000 jobs. By contrast, the survey of business establishments found that employment had increased by 275,000 jobs, which was broadly in line with monthly job gains over the past few years.
“It’s a terrible measure of employment,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum said of the household survey. “We don’t know what we’re really learning.”
Beyond this, Trump’s 1 million figure is exaggerated.
The household survey statistic shows that in February, the employment level for native-born Americans fell by 494,000, not 1 million.
Seasonal differences also undercut Trump’s statistic
One problem with using the household survey’s employment figure is that the number bounces around because it’s not “seasonally adjusted” — that is, regular, seasonal differences in hiring patterns aren’t smoothed out. (The establishment survey, by contrast, offers a seasonally adjusted number.)
A recurring pattern in the native-born and foreign born employment data is that employment usually falls during the year’s first two months. One reason is that workers hired for the year-end holiday season leave their jobs. Another is that construction projects slow during winter’s depths.
Since 2008, the household survey’s data shows that two-thirds of the time, January and February collectively produced a job loss for native-born workers. In most cases, these losses ranged from 500,000 to 2 million. So, a native-born job loss of about 500,000, such as the one in February, is not unprecedented.
Losing the forest for the trees
Focusing on one month also overlooks the broader trend that native-born employment has been robust on President Joe Biden’s watch.
The native-born employment level has declined for each of the last three months, but the increase during Biden’s tenure has been substantial nevertheless. Since Biden’s 2021 inauguration, native-born employment has risen by about 6.2 million jobs.
Also, years when Biden was president account for two of the five instances since 2008 when native-born employment bucked the historical trend and rose in January and February. (We did not include 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the labor market.)
“Anyone who makes a big deal out of the monthly changes in the household survey is basically telling you that they don’t understand the data,” said Dean Baker, co-founder of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Our ruling
Trump said, “In February alone, nearly 1 million jobs held by native-born Americans disappeared.”
Trump is wrong on the number — it was closer to 500,000 that month. But other things also make Trump’s statistic problematic.
Economists say the survey Trump used for measuring raw changes in employment isn’t the most accurate. It’s common for this metric to show a large decline in jobs during the first two months of the year, because the statistic is not adjusted for regular seasonal cycles of employment.
Also, focusing on one month obscures the overall trend line under Biden: an increase of 6.2 million jobs for native-born Americans since his inauguration.
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Donald Trump, whose single turbulent term in the White House transformed the Republican Party, tested the resilience of democratic institutions in the U.S. and threatened alliances abroad, will lead the GOP in a third consecutive presidential election after clinching the nomination Tuesday.
With wins in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state, Trump surpassed the 1,215-delegate threshold needed to become the presumptive Republican nominee. He’ll formally accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July, by which point he could be in the remarkable position of being both a presidential candidate and convicted felon. Trump has been indicted in four separate criminal investigations and his first trial, which centers on payments made to a porn actress, is set to begin March 25 in New York City.
Trump’s victory in the GOP primary ushers in what will almost certainly be an extraordinarily negative general election campaign that will tug at the nation’s already searing political and cultural divides. He’ll face President Joe Biden in the fall, pitting two deeply unpopular figures against each other in a rematch of the 2020 campaign that few voters say they want to experience again.
Thirty-eight percent of Americans viewed Trump very or somewhat favorably in a February poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs, compared to 41% for Biden.
Trump is attempting to return to the White House after threatening democratic norms in the U.S. He refused to accept his loss to Biden in 2020, spending months grasping at baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud that were roundly rejected by the courts and his own attorney general. His rage during a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, helped rile up a mob of supporters who later violently attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to disrupt the congressional certification of Biden’s win.
Only in the wake of the insurrection, with storefronts in the nation’s capital boarded up and military vehicles parked on streets to prevent further violence, did Trump accept the reality that Biden would become president. He has since called Jan. 6 “a beautiful day” and aligned himself with those have been imprisoned for their actions — many for assaulting police officers — labeling them “hostages” and demanding their release.
Trump has been ambivalent about other basic democratic ideals during his 2024 campaign. He has not committed to accepting the results of this year’s election and, during a December interview on Fox News, suggested he would be a dictator for the first day of a new administration. He has aligned himself with autocratic leaders of other countries, most notably Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.
Such alliances are a departure from the longstanding posture of the U.S., which has focused on strengthening democracies abroad. But a Trump election could upend U.S. support for Ukraine after its invasion by Russia. And it could have dramatic implications for NATO.
During his years in the White House, Trump often derided the transatlantic alliance as antiquated and lamented that some countries weren’t spending enough on their own defense. He has maintained that critique this year, causing a stir on both sides of the Atlantic in February when he told a rally crowd that he once warned members that he would not only refuse to defend countries that were “delinquent,” but that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to them.
Legal trouble
Trump becomes the GOP’s standard-bearer at a time of profound legal trouble, raising the personal stakes of an election that could determine whether he faces the prospect of time behind bars. He faces 91 felony charges in cases that span from the New York hush money case to his efforts to overturn the election and his hoarding of classified documents.
While the New York case is moving forward this month, there’s significant uncertainty about the trajectory of the other, more serious cases, raising the prospect that they may not be decided until after the election.
The Republican Party’s rules for its convention do not address what might happen if the presumptive nominee is convicted of a crime. A conviction wouldn’t bar Trump from continuing to run, though a felon has never been a major party nominee or won the White House.
If he were to win in November, Trump could appoint an attorney general who would dismiss the federal charges he faces, a remarkable possibility that would undermine the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House.
In addition to the criminal cases, Trump owes in excess of $500 million in fines and interest after a judge in New York ruled he had engaged in a scheme to inflate his net worth to obtain favorable financing. He was ordered to pay $355 million, plus interest, in that case — adding to the $88.3 million he already owed writer E. Jean Carroll after he was found liable of defamation and sexual abuse.
Trump, so far, has deftly used the legal cases as a rallying cry, portraying them as a plot hatched by Democrats to keep him out of power. That argument proved powerful among GOP primary voters, with whom Trump remains a deeply popular figure.
He now enters the general election phase of the campaign in a competitive position, with voters frustrated by the current state of the economy after years of sharp inflation, despite robust growth and low unemployment, as well as growing concern about the influx of migrants across the southern border. As he did with success in 2016, Trump is seizing on immigration this year, deploying increasingly heated and inflammatory rhetoric in ways that often animate his supporters.
The 77-year-old Trump is aided by Biden’s perceived weaknesses. The 81-year-old president is broadly unpopular, with deep reservations among voters in both parties about his age and ability to assume the presidency for another four years, though he is not much older than Trump.
Biden is also struggling to replicate the coalition that ushered him into the presidency four years ago as some in his party, particularly younger voters and those on the left, have condemned his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Trump’s headwinds
While those dynamics may play in Trump’s favor, he faces stiff headwinds in winning support beyond his base. A notable chunk of GOP primary voters backed his rivals, including Nikki Haley, who ended her campaign after the Super Tuesday races but has not endorsed Trump. Many of those voters have expressed ambivalence about backing him. He’ll have to change that if he wants to win the states that will likely decide the election, such as Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — each of which he lost in 2020.
It remains unclear how Trump’s legal cases will resonate in the general election, particularly among suburban voters, women and independents. Trump’s role in appointing the justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion could prove a liability in swing states, where women and independent voters are especially influential. He’s also made a string of racist comments, including an assertion that his criminal indictments boosted his support among Black Americans, that aren’t likely to win over more moderate voters.
Still, Trump’s speedy path to the nomination reflects more than a year of quiet work by his team to encourage states to adopt favorable delegate-selection rules, including pushing for winner-take-all contests that prevent second-place finishers from amassing delegates.
That helped Trump become the presumptive nominee much earlier than in recent presidential elections. Biden didn’t win enough delegates to formally become his party’s leader until June 2020. During his 2016 bid, Trump won the needed delegates by May.
This year, Trump handily dispatched his Republican primary rivals, sweeping the early voting states that typically set the tone for the campaign. The field included a range of prominent Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president.
At one point, DeSantis was ahead of Trump in early state polls. But he wilted in the national spotlight, failing to live up to sky-high expectations, despite $168 million in campaign and outside spending. DeSantis dropped out of the race after losing Iowa — a state he had staked his campaign on — and endorsed Trump.
In the end, Haley was Trump’s last challenger. She only won the District of Columbia and Vermont before ending her campaign.
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
