Controversy has erupted in Osun State after the Coalition of Civil Society groups under the aegis of The Osun Masterminds (TOM) accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of allegedly diverting the Federal Government’s N2 billion palliative fund meant for citizens of the state.
During a state-of-the-state address in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State on Tuesday, the Executive Director of TOM, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, condemned the state government’s approach in utilizing the N2 billion funds.
“Osun state government failed to utilise FG’s palliative for the purpose that it was given. Other states who received N2b FG’s subsidy removal palliatives fund are looking for ways to ease the pressure on the people. States also received thousands of bags of rice and maize, to be distributed to their citizens. This is in addition to the increase in statutory allocations to States since subsidy was removed.
“The Osun State Government stubbornly insisting on adding the N2billon palliative to its N100 billion Naira Infrastructure plan is a diversion of funds and it is criminal and inhuman. We are also asking what the State Government’s additional palliatives are.”
He continued “Other States of the Federation are taking critical steps to reduce the hardship on their people. What is Osun doing? Provision of Imole De Buses is not palliative to the generality of Osun people. We are also asking the Osun State Government, what it is doing with the allocation windfall it is receiving from the Federal Government.”
Oyedokun-Alli added, “When times are easier, the Government should be seen taking deliberate steps to plan for tough days. What are we doing with the increased figures we receive today? We are also asking the Osun State Government, what is the State’s Agricultural Production plan? What is Osun State doing to achieve food sufficiency here in the State? Where is the Osun State Commissioner for Agriculture at a time like this? What is his Ministry doing? The Osun State Government, under Sen. Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, must answer these questions and clarify what it is doing to ensure the State’s short and long-term prosperity.”
However, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, reacting to the allegations, said, “The -N2b fund is a loan from FG which we are going to repay and the state government would determine how it will put it to use.”
He berated the group, saying, “They are hallucinating, they are on the payroll of APC. The state has addressed how it spent the N2 billion provided by the federal government. We used part of it to repair ‘Imole-De buses used for subsidised transportation for people of the state. We also used part of it to enroll pensioners on the State Health Insurance Scheme free of charge and the remaining was added to the fund the government used for wage awards for the civil servants.”
OSUN: Adeleke Reacts To Allegation He Diverted N2bn FG Palliative Fund is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is on his way to a third consecutive GOP presidential nomination, but will Republicans who didn’t vote for him in the primary go for President Joe Biden? Probably not.
Forty-nine percent of Republican caucus goers didn’t support Trump in Iowa. Forty-five percent of New Hampshire Republican primary voters didn’t vote for him either. And 40% of Republican primary voters in South Carolina supported former Gov. Nikki Haley.
Considering Trump is the de facto incumbent in the GOP race, this could be a warning sign for the former president and two-time nominee that his support within the party is soft and there’s a risk that Republicans won’t support him in the general election.
But, in the end, history suggests the vast majority of Republicans will support him, even if they preferred an alternative in the primary or have concerns about his character and candidacy.
The bottom line is that party unity in the general election is powerful. In 2020, 94% of Republicans voted for Trump and 94% of Democrats supported Biden, according to the exit poll for CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS.
Party unity is also a trend in the midterm elections. In 2022, 96% of self-identifying Republicans voted for GOP candidates and 96% of Democratic voters supported Democratic candidates. It was a similar trend in 2018, when 95% of Democratic voters voted for Democrats and 94% of GOP voters supported Republican candidates.
There was some slippage in party unity in the 2016 presidential election. Just 88% of Republicans supported Trump, but that didn’t prevent him from winning the race. He was probably helped by the fact that Hillary Clinton’s support among Democrats dipped as well, to 89%.
Given Trump’s more than 90 indictments in four different criminal cases or potential general fatigue with his style and approach, it’s possible that he slips below 90% among Republicans again this November. And it wouldn’t take a lot of party defectors in key states to potentially make a difference.
But there’s also no guarantee Biden maintains the typical 94% to 96% support among Democrats. In the most recent Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 1-20, 18% of Democrats disapproved of the job Biden was doing, and there’s concern the president’s support among some minority communities has softened.
Of course those are national numbers in a race decided by a state-by-state Electoral College battle. But a look at the swing states shows the party unity trend is also strong at the state level and there’s been minimal or no difference in party unity in the last two presidential elections featuring Trump.
In 2020, Trump averaged 93% support from self-identified Republicans in the six states Biden carried narrowly (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin). Biden did slightly better and received 95% of Democratic voters in the same states.
Swing state party unity in that election was greater than four years earlier, when Trump received an average of 90% of the vote from Republicans in 2016. Clinton received 90% of Democratic voters in the same states as well.
It’s certainly possible that party unity dips below typical levels. But despite any concern about each of the likely nominees, the vast majority of partisan voters are likely to support their party’s nominee in the end.
Despite its critical role in bridging the digital divide, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has yet to bring a bill for ACP extension to the floor, putting millions at risk of losing affordable internet access.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent As the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) faces an imminent funding shortfall, the lifeline that connected more than 23 million disadvantaged and low-income American families to broadband hangs in the balance. Despite its critical role in bridging the digital divide, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has yet to bring a bill for ACP extension to the floor, putting millions at risk of losing affordable internet access.
President Biden’s ambitious goal of connecting every American to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet by 2030 is now in jeopardy, as Johnson holds the key to the ACP’s future. Despite bipartisan support, Johnson inexplicably hasn’t brought a bill funding the ACP to the floor for a formal vote. The White House and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have urged the Speaker to act.
Just last month, Biden urged more people to sign up for the ACP, noting that only 43% of eligible households had enrolled in the program and highlighting the urgent need for its continuation.
The ACP, offering $30 per month for qualifying families in most areas and $75 on tribal lands, has been a game-changer, enabling participants to overcome financial barriers and access essential services like telehealth, remote schooling, and work.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed a bill to sustain the ACP through 2024 with an additional $7 billion in funding, surpassing the president’s initial request. However, without a floor vote, the Federal Communications Commission has initiated steps to wind down the program, instructing internet providers to notify users about its projected end.
The FCC halted new enrollments after February 7, with the program expected to end in April. The digital divide persists due to broadband infrastructure limitations, particularly in urban areas with limited coverage in low-income neighborhoods. Tribal lands also face challenges, with broadband access lagging behind the rest of the country.
“If Congress does not provide additional funding for the ACP in the near future, millions of households will lose the ACP benefit that they use to afford internet service,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “This also means that roughly 1,700 internet service providers will be affected by the termination of the ACP and may cut off service to households no longer supported by the program.”
Blair Levin, a senior fellow at Brookings and a former FCC chief of staff, lamented that “there are 15 Republican co-sponsors today of the ACP extension bill—meaning the only reason it’s not going to pass the House is because the Speaker will not let it on the floor. A minority of the House has decided we should not have it; it’s not a majority, and there’s a lot of political support for the extension.”
Even in Johnson’s Louisiana district, connectivity remains a pressing issue, with 29% of his constituents set to lose coverage because he fails to act. Johnson’s office didn’t return several telephone calls and emails seeking comment.
The program is also good for business. In February, researchers at George Mason University in Virginia wrote that the ACP added $3.89 to the U.S. GDP for every dollar spent.
Also, affordable broadband access led to more people working, increasing job rates and individual earnings. A recent poll of ACP members found that 78% said their internet connection helped them find better-paying work.
Low-income households will lose the discount the program offers, but officials and people in the industry say many will lose access to the internet because they can’t pay higher bills. Ninety-five percent of said it would be hard to handle the extra costs.
Civil rights activists have sent a letter urging Congress to act promptly, emphasizing the ACP’s role in closing the digital divide and ensuring equitable access to broadband services for low-income families and historically underserved communities.
National Urban League President Marc Morial, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, and other activists stressed in a letter to lawmakers the program’s significance in connecting Americans to the digital economy, expanding telehealth services, and supporting students in remote learning opportunities.
“Without the additional $6 billion, millions of Americans reliant on ACP will lose access to high-speed internet, a fundamental civil right in the 21st century,” the group wrote, urging Congress to secure ACP funding for 2024 and devise long-term solutions for equitable broadband access.
This week, 19 House Ways and Means Committee members wrote to President Biden opposing broadening the pandemic-era waiver on intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Despite evidence that the waiver failed to foster developing countries’ access to these vaccines, left serious supply-chain deficits unresolved and threatened future drug development and innovation, the Biden administration and World Trade Organization are contemplating extending it to include COVID-19 diagnostic tools and therapeutics.
Undermining pharma giants and blaming them for excessive profits off patented medicines — even as these companies benefit from billions in public contracts and government-authorized liability waivers — has a lot of populist appeal. Unfortunately, fixing the price of intellectual property at zero deters new American drugs from being developed and brought to market, thus jeopardizing the nation’s critical leadership in global public health innovation.
In June 2022, the WTO waived certain parts of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for all its members after lobbying by developing nations and the withdrawal of the United States’ initial opposition.
The move adversely affected American pharmaceutical companies while benefiting large generic drug industries in India and South Africa, whose nations had lobbied for the pandemic exemptions and for softer IP protections for decades before that. We were told it would make critical vaccines available by allowing generic manufacturers to scale up production and reduce costs without paying patent royalties.
These claims were greatly overstated. Low vaccination rates and low access in many developing nations persisted for entirely different reasons, including COVID-19 misinformation and logistical and supply chain constraints like transportation and infrastructure challenges, lack of adequate storage, scant access to raw materials due to factors including trade barriers and the technical challenges of producing complex pharmaceuticals and biologics.
Waiving patents did little to help. By mid-2023, only 503 million of the 635 million vaccine doses procured through World Bank financing had been delivered. Vaccination rates in low-income nations lingered around 30 percent, lagging two years behind the United States.
This should not have been a surprise. Even before the TRIPS waiver, because of commercial agreements between vaccine patent owners and manufacturers across the developing and developed world, enough vaccines for over 70 percent of humanity were projected to arrive by November 2021 — with no further untapped manufacturing capacity left.
For example, AstraZeneca and other drug companies had contracted with the Serum Institute to manufacture millions of doses in India. Twelve billion doses had been administered worldwide prior to the TRIPS waiver’s actual mid-2022 ratification.
Unlike the TRIPS waiver of IP protections — which no manufacturers have relied on as of late 2023— commercial licensing agreements facilitated the transfer of the technical manufacturing know-how and quality standards necessary for effective vaccine production and rollout.
Conversely, waiving IP or flagging that IP protections could soon be eroded for the sake of short-term low prices takes away some of the incentive to invest in the development, approvals process and rollout of future drugs and biotechnology innovations.
It’s true that over $31.9 billion of U.S. public investment was crucial to developing what eventually became the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. But they wouldn’t have come to market without private investment. Most of the public funds went towards a guaranteed order for 2 billion doses contingent on an effective vaccine.
However, billions of extra private dollars were poured into researching and developing the drugs, rolling them out and securing the necessary regulatory approvals. The process of developing these particular vaccines began decades ago, building off prior innovations funded by heavy and risky investments in R&D and incentivized by the prospect of recovering those costs through proprietary patent rights.
These patent rights eventually allow for generic manufacturing. They come with a predictable expiration date, allowing for generic manufacturers, who don’t face nearly the same upfront costs, to take advantage of innovations that would not otherwise exist. Generic drug manufacturing usually costs several million dollars. By contrast, the average cost of bringing a single FDA-approved medication to market is $1.3 billion, including out-of-pocket costs, capital costs and sunk costs of failed attempts.
Besides preventing unknown numbers of future innovations from coming to market, compromising IP rights could direct American research investment to competitor economies like China, where IP protections are being strengthened to attract inventers to patent their technologies.
New lipid nanoparticles that will better supply mRNA to cells, can be stored at higher temperatures and have fewer side effects than current vaccines, are already being developed. Extending the pandemic-era IP waiver sends an adverse signal against these and future efforts to bring immense public health benefits to the world’s population.
With COVID-19 no longer the public health emergency it once was, it’s a good time to rescind the TRIPS waiver.
Satya Marar is a visiting postgraduate fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, specializing in competition law, innovation and governance.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
‘Lee Harvey Oswald’s grandson must complete his contract,’ the letter states.
Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. was sent a letter that reached his house on Monday, containing a white powder along with a bizarre threatening message.
The ranting writings claim, “Lee Harvey Oswald’s grandson must complete his contract,” and that Trump will soon become a citizen of the Soviet Union.
The end of the letter says, “It’s time for Mary to hear that Donald and his family have gone up in smoke when the ‘Trump’ plane dives into the Atlantic Ocean.”
Here is the death threat letter that was mailed to Don Jr in an envelope with white powder pic.twitter.com/aHUSnB3gA4
Don Jr. told the Daily Caller, “It’s just become a little bit too commonplace that this sort of stuff happens. Clearly, if this happened to a prominent Democrat it wouldn’t be tolerated and would drive news coverage for weeks. The media would blame all Republicans and force them to answer for it, But since it’s me, radical haters on the left will largely get a free pass and the media will barely flinch.”
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“It doesn’t matter what your politics are, this type of crap is unacceptable. This is actually the second white powder substance envelope that’s been mailed to me. The last time we had this happen, it was during my father’s presidency and my then-wife opened it up with my kids by her side. So, it’s just sad that we live in a society where politics and the left’s hatred of my father would drive people to do such crazy things, but that’s where we are unfortunately,” he added.
TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk pointed out the media’s silence on the news and accurately noted the same outlets would lose their minds if a Biden family member was sent white powder with a death threat letter.
Hazmat crews were rushed to Don Jr.’s home yesterday to investigate a letter he received containing a death threat and white powder, and barely a whisper of it in any of the legacy news media! Can you imagine if this was Hunter? The DOJ would be rounding up MAGA with wall-to-wall… https://t.co/ABz5ZgS2C5
A prominent economist in the country has berated the economic advisory team recent constituted by President Bola Tinubu to help put the economy on the right track.
President Tinubu on Sunday announced an economic advisory committee comprising the federal government, sub-nationals and the private sector.
Some of the prominent members of the private sector that made the list include the Chairman of United Bank for Africa, Mr. Tony Elumelu, and the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.
The development came amid efforts to stabilize the falling naira exchange rate, check rising inflation and other economic headwinds that have affected the cost of living.
However, a prominent economist who did not want his name mentioned, has confided in THE WHISTLER that the inclusion of private sector players like Dangote, Elumelu and Abdulsamad Rabiu, among others, will work against the economic interest of Nigeria.
He said, “Setting up a committee peopled with potential rivals to foreign investors you want to attract. These are vested interests who’re going to compete with potential foreign investors. It will be sending very wrong signals, and I don’t think it’s good for the country.
“They told us they will attract domestic direct investors, foreign direct investors, they will do PPP and they will attract diaspora investments. How does that tie with you putting candidates who will bid for the domestic direct investments on an advisory committee? You can’t be a player and be a referee. That’s what they’re doing. They should think about the signals it is sending.
“We should keep people who will parade themselves as investors out of government’s advisory team which will superintend over the bids of the investors we’re looking for. So, for example I run a conglomerate that owns businesses that are being regulated in the power sector; I run a power generating company or DISCO or others, which are regulated entities, and now I sit on a presidential advisory committee, what signal I’m I sending to the regulatory agency?”
He said members of the committee will be hamstrung by conflict of interest since they would be potential bidders in the domestic direct investment process.
“Some of these private businesses already have bought some of the national assets, and have a stake in partnership with the government on the national assets. And it is very important that boundaries are respected to avoid conflict of interest. You should avoid a situation where they are posing, on the one hand, as investors subject to the rules of government umpire, and at the same time you’re the government umpire, “he advised.
Expert Condemns Inclusion Of Dangote, Elumelu, Others In Tinubu’s Economic Team is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
A map claiming to show levels of gun violence across the United States says that states with more guns have lower levels of gun violence. But data shows that states with more gun ownership have higher rates of firearm deaths.
Instagram users shared an image of the map with text that read, “97% of all guns are in the red territory. 97% of all gun violence is blue.”
Portions of the map appeared to be divided by counties, with most of the blue regions where 97% of gun violence is allegedly occuring in areas of Democratic-led states such as California, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Washington
(Screenshot from Instagram)
The red regions, which purport to show where “97% of all guns are,” were largely in Republican states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, Arkansas and Tennessee. But some blue-marked counties were in Republican states such as Texas and Florida.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
We could not find the map’s source. And the graphic did not cite what statistics were used to create the map.
David Hemenway, director of Harvard University’s Injury Control Research Center and a firearm injury prevention expert, said there is no data on the number of firearms in each county, as the map suggests.
Because most states do not require gun owners to register their firearms, firearm registrations do not signal how many guns are in each state, reports Giffords Law Center, a nonprofit promoting gun safety legislation created by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., after she was shot during a 2011 mass shooting.
Charles Branas, director of Columbia University’s Center for Injury Science and Prevention and a member of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, said because there is no data collected on county-based gun ownership across the U.S., researchers will use gun manufacturing data and gun-related suicide rates as proxies for gathering region-specific gun ownership data.
The map also does not specify the type of gun violence. Branas said gun deaths are separated into three basic categories: homicide, accidental death and suicide.
The Gun Violence Archive collects data on firearm injuries and fatalities. Its database shows that in 2024, there have so far been 18 firearm injuries and eight firearm deaths in Massachusetts and 151 gun injuries and 98 gun deaths in Louisiana. Massachusetts has a population of more than 7 million people, and Louisiana has a population of more than 4.5 million people according to U.S. Census data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which publishes the most reliable statistics on gun deaths, shows that in 2022 Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico and Alabama were the states with the highest firearm death rates, and Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey and New York had the lowest gun death rates.
Those statistics show the map’s claims are reversed, with states that it purports to have the lowest levels of gun violence having the highest levels of gun deaths.
Branas said the map shared on social media “doesn’t coincide with anything else we’ve seen.” A report on U.S. gun violence in 2021 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found that states with the highest gun death rates “tend to be states in the South or Mountain West, with weaker gun laws and higher levels of gun ownership, while gun death rates are lower in the Northeast, where gun violence prevention laws are stronger.”
Cass Crifasi, co-director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, echoed Branas’ assessment: “There is no evidence to support the claim that more guns equals less violence,” Crifasi told PolitiFact. “In fact, the opposite is true. In places with higher levels of gun ownership, we see higher rates of gun deaths.”
Crifasi said several factors contribute to gun violence, with the biggest being easy access to guns. Gun violence is more prevalent in areas with social vulnerability, she said.
Hemenway pointed to multiple studies, some of which he authored, that show U.S. households with guns have a higher likelihood of homicides, accidental gun deaths and suicides than U.S. households without guns.
The map also appeared to show that regions with large populations have higher gun violence. PolitiFact previously found that if only gun homicides are examined, big cities do account for a disproportionate amount of gun deaths.
But Branas said there are more gun suicides than there are gun homicides annually in the U.S. “In the past 20 years there’s been such a growth in suicides, that the risk in our small towns of gun death broadly, mostly driven by gun suicides, is now higher than the risk of gun death in our big cities,” Branas said.
A Harvard’s School of Public Health report looked state-by-state at the median percentage of households with guns and rates of suicides. It found that the three states with the highest gun prevalence, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska, were also in the top four states with the highest suidice rates. The report also found that the nine states with the lowest gun prevalance also had the lowest suicide rates.
None of the experts that PolitiFact consulted with had seen the data to which the map on Instagram referred.
We asked 97Percent, a nonprofit that connects gun owners and researchers to reduce gun deaths, to ask if it was familiar with the image and claim. Spokesperson Stephanie Cunnane said 97Percent had no connection to the map and called the graphic misleading, partly because it identifies Hawaii and Massachusetts as having high levels of gun violence although those states have the nation’s lowest gun violence rates.
We rate the claim that states that have 97% of guns are the states with the least amount of gun violence False.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Rev. Steve Bland Jr. remembers the massive get-out-the-vote effort he helped mobilize four years ago, when pastors and community leaders spread out across Detroit neighborhoods, made phone calls and worked around the clock to encourage people to vote.
He’s not seeing that kind of enthusiasm this time around.
Madeleine Byrne, a 25-year-old from Bloomfield Hills in Oakland County, a wealthy suburban enclave that proved pivotal in Michigan’s swing back toward Democrats in recent years, said she likes how former President Donald Trump has “put America first” but has misgivings about supporting him in 2024.
“I think he causes fights where they aren’t necessary,” she said.
Madeleine Byrnes, a master’s degree candidate studying speech pathology at Wayne State University, writes in a notebook in Birmingham, Mich., Feb. 15, 2024. In Michigan, a state that both major parties say they must have to win the White House in 2024, a cloud of apathy has settled over the electorate. Byrnes, a 25-year-old Republican from Oakland County, says she sees signs of slowing in President Joe Biden, but that former President Donald Trump “causes fights,” and that she has “been thinking about whether I want to vote or not.” (AP Photo/Thomas Beaumont)
In Michigan, a state that both major parties say they must have to win the White House in 2024, a cloud of apathy has settled over the electorate. Even with crucial races for the U.S. Senate and Congress also on the ballot, genuine enthusiasm is hard to find. The state’s voters are poised to cast ballots in their respective primaries on Tuesday, but the prospect looms that they will be left with the same choices for president in November that they considered four years ago.
That means the biggest task for candidates may be inspiring Michigan voters to care.
“A good quarter of the people I talk to aren’t sure if they’ll vote at all,” said Lori Goldman, who founded a group called “Fems for Dems” to help drive up voter turnout for Biden in Oakland County four years ago. “A lot of people are just like, ‘I’m not voting. I’m not doing it.’”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Monday that over 1 million people had already cast their primary ballots, taking advantage of new voting laws that allow for nine days of early, in-person voting. A total of 2.3 million people — or 30% of registered voters — participated in the 2020 primary.
The early vote totals may include a number of “uncommitted” ballots from Democrats unhappy with Biden’s support for Israel in its response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib has urged voters to mark their ballots that way on Tuesday to send a message to Biden and other Democrats.
Joseph Boots calls a voter for the Listen to Michigan uncommitted vote campaign in Detroit, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Michigan voters are poised to cast ballots in their respective presidential primaries on Tuesday but a feeling of voter apathy has swept over the state. Both major parties have said that they must win Michigan to secure the White House this year but they’re struggling to connect with voters. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Among Republicans, Trump’s rallies draw enthusiastic crowds, and he has racked up decisive wins so far in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But it remains unclear whether his support extends beyond the core of true believers who have helped him maintain his grip on the GOP. Surveys by AP VoteCast have shown that some Republicans, especially college-educated and moderate voters, have misgivings about the former president.
For voters such as Byrne, in politically competitive areas like Oakland County, the unease sometimes takes the form of Trump fatigue. Asked how she feels about the choice that’s looming in this year’s presidential contest, Byrne wrinkles her face.
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about whether I want to vote at all.”
“We as Americans have this great privilege and, as a woman, I’m aware we’ve had it for only 100 years,” she said. “But given our circumstances, with the choices that we do have, I think it’s difficult to actually make a choice. And so, I wonder if I will.”
Lena Hazime, of Dearborn, calls a voter for the Listen to Michigan uncommitted vote campaign in Detroit, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Michigan voters are poised to cast ballots in their respective presidential primaries on Tuesday but a feeling of voter apathy has swept over the state. Both major parties have said that they must win Michigan to secure the White House this year but they’re struggling to connect with voters. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
In 2020, voter turnout surged by 14% compared to the previous election, eclipsing the record set in 2008 for the highest number of votes cast in Michigan. The trend continued in 2022 when the state registered its highest midterm election turnout ever.
Young Michigan voters have stepped up in recent years. In 2022, Michigan saw the highest youth voter turnout rate nationwide at 36.5%, surpassing the estimated national youth turnout of 23% by over 13 percentage points, according to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.
But the excitement that led to hours-long lines on college campuses across Michigan appears to have died down.
“You’re hearing people say that maybe they’re going to stay out of the election or they don’t know who you’re going to vote for,” said Vrunda Patel, a junior at the University of Michigan.
Patel and fellow University of Michigan Democrats met with California Rep. Sara Jacobs, part of a wave of recent Biden surrogates sent in to drum up enthusiasm, at an Ann Arbor coffee shop to strategize for the upcoming election. The discussion mainly revolved around motivating college students to vote, with one student saying bluntly: “No one I talk to is excited to vote for Joe Biden this election.”
Jacobs offered reassurance.
“It’s a long way away from the election,” she said. “With the 2012 Obama campaign, this far out, Obama’s poll numbers were bad. People were not that excited. This is a normal progression in a reelection.”
Several students mentioned the idea of “uncommitted” votes in the Tuesday primary. Double-digit numbers could spell trouble for Biden in the general election.
“I’d rather the president be hearing how people feel now rather than in October,” said Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, who has spoken with the president about his difficulties in Michigan.
Biden’s campaign is acutely aware of its enthusiasm problem. Several top surrogates, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have trekked to Michigan this month. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a co-chair of his reelection campaign, is already holding get-out-the-vote events.
Whitmer, who won reelection by almost 11% in 2022, has publicly and privately pushed the president to lean into his effort to defend abortion rights. Her own campaign benefited directly from a voter-led ballot proposal enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
Trump appears to have the luxury of looking to November. His supporters lined up for nearly a mile to hear him speak at an Oakland County event this month, and the rules of the GOP primary are tilted heavily in his favor.
“If we win Michigan, we win the election,” Trump told the enthusiastic crowd.
But Trump’s loyal core has not translated into wins in recent years. After winning the state by only 11,000 votes in 2016, he lost it by nearly 154,000 votes just four years later. In the 2022 midterms, all three of the statewide Republican candidates he endorsed were crushed by Democratic incumbents.
Michigan’s Republican Party may not be in position to help much in the fall. Dueling pro-Trump factions are now claiming to run the state party ahead of a March 2 presidential nominating convention during which 39 of the state’s 55 delegates will be awarded.
Trump, meanwhile, is trying to broaden his appeal to voters disillusioned with Biden and the Democrats. His campaign points to Biden’s faltering poll numbers with Black adults and what he characterizes as advantages on issues like immigration and the economy, He traveled to Michigan last year to court autoworkers, although the United Auto Workers union recently gave its endorsement to Biden.
Recent AP polling has shown that more U.S. adults are feeling slightly better about the economy, but so far those numbers have not translated into higher approval ratings for the president. If that disconnect persists, it could pose a challenge in places like Michigan.
Nearly 78% of Detroit’s population is Black, and the city has long been a Democratic stronghold. That isn’t likely to change, and yet frustration is running high among Black voters there. Few people expect to see the long lines of people who waited patiently in 2008 and 2012 to cast their ballots for Barack Obama, or even four years ago for Biden, his former vice president.
The current lack of enthusiasm won’t stop the Rev. Bland from once again working with pastors across Detroit to encourage voting. Bland got attention in 2020 with his statement that the Black community had gone from “from picking cotton to picking presidents,” and he remains steadfast in his determination to replicate that success.
“Apathy always is high when information is low,” he said. “So if we have informed people and we spend time talking, informing them about what’s at stake, then I think that’s what will bring the energy.”
Associated Press writers Corey Williams and Tom Beaumont contributed to this report.
The French president has insisted that everything necessary must be done to ensure that Russian forces lose
French President Emmanuel Macron has argued that deployments of troops to Ukraine by NATO members and other allies cannot be ruled out because Western powers must stop at nothing to ensure that Russia does not defeat Kiev’s forces.
“There’s no consensus today to send, in an official manner, troops on the ground,” Macron told reporters after hosting a meeting of European leaders on Monday in Paris. “But in terms of dynamics, we cannot exclude anything. We will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
France hosted Monday’s summit of Ukraine backers to demonstrate steadfast support and European unity amid concerns that US aid to Kiev may stop, especially if Donald Trump wins this year’s presidential election. Macron said that while Ukraine’s European allies want to avoid escalating the conflict into a direct war with Russia, they agree that they must do more to ensure that Moscow doesn’t win.
“We have to take stock of the situation and realize our collective security is at stake,” the French leader said. “We have to ratchet up. Russia must not win, not only for Ukraine, but secondly, we are, by doing so, ensuring our collective security for today and for the future.”
Macron noted that the allies who say “never, ever” today about direct troop deployments to Ukraine are the same ones that previously ruled out escalations of military aid that were later granted, including long-range missiles and fighter jets. “Two years ago, a lot around this table said that we will offer helmets and sleeping bags, and now they’re saying we need to do more to get missiles and tanks to Ukraine. We have to be humble and realize that we’ve always been six to eight months late, so we’ll do what is needed to achieve our aim.”
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There is broad consensus among the nations represented at Monday’s meeting that the allies must provide more aid to Ukraine and step up more quickly, Macron claimed. “We are not at war with the Russian people, but we cannot let them win in Ukraine,” he said, adding, “We are determined to do everything necessary for as long as necessary. That is the key takeaway from this evening.”
Washington ran out of money for Ukraine last month, after burning through $113 billion in congressionally approved aid packages. US President Joe Biden is seeking an additional $60 billion in Ukraine funding as part of an emergency spending bill that also includes aid for Israel and Taiwan. Conservative Republican lawmakers have balked at approving more aid for Ukraine, saying Biden is merely prolonging the conflict without changing its outcome. Trump has claimed he will end the crisis within 24 hours by forcing Ukrainian and Russian leaders to the negotiating table.
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The National Universities Commission (NUC) is facilitating the establishment of the first four Private Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Universities in Nigeria, aimed at resolving the challenges of equity and access to university education in the country.
The NUC also announced the appointment of the Acting Executive Secretary of the NUC, Chris J. Maiyaki into the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of the United Kingdom.
Maiyaki’s appointment, the Commission stated in a statement was conveyed in a letter by the Director of International and Professional Services of the QAA for Higher Education in the UK, Eduardo Ramos, is in recognition of his wealth of experience at the NUC as well as achievements recorded since his assumption of office as Acting Executive Secretary, including the approval of guidelines on Transnational Education (TNE) in Nigeria and Quality Assurance, in line with the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS).
Acknowledging the appointment, Maiyaki expressed gratitude to the Agency, saying that he was excited by the opportunity given him to contribute in promoting the partnerships and collaborations that would certainly enhance the higher education landscape of the United Kingdom, Africa and, indeed, the world at large.
“The flagship that regulates university education in Nigeria. The commitment of the QAA in safeguarding standards and improving the quality of higher education in the United Kingdom is not only legendary, it also resonates with the mandate of the NUC,” he said.
The NUC boss expressed confidence that the combined wealth of experience, expertise and insights of the Committee members would contribute to the fulfilment of the international agenda of the QAA on higher education.
NUC Facilitates Establishment Of Four Private Open Distance Learning is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
