Podcasts about human services department

Today Sam has his much-anticipated discussion with Ezra Klein about his book Abundance, tune in! Sam and Ezra's convo is wide-ranging, but focuses mostly on housing, regulation and the influence of money in politics. But first, Sam checks on the Republicans' efforts to make cuts to Medicaid. To hear more from Ezra, check out his podcast The Ezra Klein Show: https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast Or read his book Abundance: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Abundance/Ezra-Klein/9781668023488 Or check out his column at the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein After that, Sam checks in on a Congressional hearing where RJK Jr. won't answer whether he'd recommend his kids be vaccinated for Measles, despite that it's already infected more than 1,000 people in the country. Kennedy goes on to say he doesn't think people should be taking medical advice to him. Remind you, he's the head of Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Department. Chuck Schumer won't address the new reporting from Jake Tapper that Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and co. were working on a plan to pull Biden from the top of the presidential ticket before the disastrous debate. Then, Steven Crowder tries to explain why Trump's toothless executive order to regulate the cost of pharmaceutical drugs is a shot across the bow of Marxist countries like Germany. It's funny but doesn't really make sense. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase! Check out today's sponsors: Prolon: ProlonLife.com/majority Get 15% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Nutrition Program Naked Wines: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/MAJORITY and use code MAJORITY for both the code AND PASSWORD Fast Growing Trees: Get 15% off your first purchase.  FastGrowingTrees.com/majority Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @RussFinkelstein Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder – https://majorityreportradio.com/

Classic appearances by two giants in the world of poetry regardless of gender or orientation, reading from their work and responding to their audience, brought together by the magic of recording tape (!) and the courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives (produced by Brian DeShazor). And in NewsWrap: transgender former High Court judge Dr. Victoria McCloud will take the U.K. Supreme Court definition of the word “woman” to the European Court of Human Rights, the sports world in the U.K. feels the Supreme Court's trans-exclusive definition of “woman” and “sex,” a phalanx of congressional Democrats introduce a new version of the Equality Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity to U.S. civil rights law, a case that could determine whether private businesses must offer coverage for PrEP in their employee insurance policies gets a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department releases a 400-page report on pediatric gender dysphoria that recommends conversion therapy under a different name, Poland says goodbye to its last remaining “LGBT Free Zone” when local authorities in the small town of Łańcut vote for repeal, a group of Maryland parents take their demand to opt their children out of LGBT-themed lessons to the U.S. Supreme Court, Jill “I Kissed a Girl” Sobule goes out with a vice presidential satirical song, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor). All this on the May 5, 2025 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

Plus: Virginia's former state health commissioner is now warning that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department's recent decision to cut federal funding for COVID-related grants makes Virginians more susceptible to future pandemics — and “horrific consequences.”    In the podcast: Virginia is the top state to survive an alien invasion; Sens. Kaine and Warner's candidates for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia 

Federal layoffs are hitting San Francisco, with officials set to shutter the US Health and Human Services Department in the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building this Spring. For more, KCBS Radio news anchor Steve Scott spoke with KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

The Trump administration spends a lot of time trumpeting all the ways it's cracking down on immigrants in the United States. From the very public raids in sanctuary cities that defined the first few weeks of Trump's second term, to sending Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem down to El Salvador this week to pose in front of alleged gang members at a massive prison, the White House wants people to believe it's nabbing all the bad guys. But arrest data shows that we may be seeing a shift in who the administration is targeting for deportation. Ted Hesson, immigration reporter for Reuters, explains what's happening on the ground.And in headlines: The Health and Human Services Department said it wants to lay off 10,000 full-time employees, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggests the Justice Department won't pursue criminal investigations over Signal-gate, and President Trump withdrew his nomination of Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.Show Notes:Check out Ted's reporting– https://www.reuters.com/authors/ted-hesson//Read the op-ed co-authored by the detained Tufts student - https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkjSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/reliefWhat A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

In our news wrap Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department will slash its workforce by almost 25 percent, the White House pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination to be UN ambassador over the GOP's slim House margin and Attorney General Pam Bondi signaled there is unlikely to be a criminal investigation into the sharing of military details by Trump officials on a commercial messaging app. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on big cuts at the Health and Human Services Department.

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on a major Health and Human Services Department overhaul.

In our news wrap Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department will slash its workforce by almost 25 percent, the White House pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination to be UN ambassador over the GOP's slim House margin and Attorney General Pam Bondi signaled there is unlikely to be a criminal investigation into the sharing of military details by Trump officials on a commercial messaging app. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Will the government shut down this week? That's the big question rocking Washington right now. House Republicans floated a plan over the weekend that would boost funding for the Pentagon and deportations while cutting billions in non-defense spending. Democrats say they're a 'no' on that. But with slim margins in both the House and the Senate, some level of bipartisan support is necessary to keep the lights on. Nicholas Wu, who covers Congress for Politico, explains why there's a 50/50 chance the government stays open past Friday.And in headlines: The Trump administration cancels $400 million in federal grants for Columbia University, Syria sees its worst violence since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, and staff at the Health and Human Services Department have been offered up to $25,000 to resign from their jobs.Show Notes:Check out Nicholas' work – www.politico.com/staff/nicholas-wuSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/reliefWhat A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

US officials say Ukraine is ready to move forward to end the war as high stakes meetings start this week in Saudi Arabia. Investors haven't reacted well to President Donald Trump's Fox News interview. Authorities are investigating how wildfires started in two states on the east coast. The Health and Human Services Department wants the CDC to study vaccines and autism. Plus, we'll tell you who Billboard has named as 2025 Woman of the Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In our debut episode, Dr. Stacy Connor, Assistant Professor and incoming Chair of the Family and Human Services Department, shares her journey, expertise, and why this major is a gateway to helping people, building stronger communities, and achieving personal and professional growth.

The Health and Human Services Department under RFK Jr. just released a set of common-sense gender guidelines that are sure to send the far left into a meltdown! You HAVE to see this list. PLUS—Dr. Jesse Lopez joins Pags to break down how the H5N1 virus is directly impacting the price of eggs. Was the mass chicken culling really necessary, or was this another overblown crisis? This is a MUST-HEAR conversation packed with critical info you'll want to share! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz rejected calls to recuse herself from a case challenging Act 10, the law that curtailed public workers' bargaining rights.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fight to improve Americans' nutrition could get new momentum from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he will face practical and political limits to changing U.S. food supply if he's confirmed to lead the Health and Human Services Department. Guests:Laura Schmidt, professor at the University of California at San Francisco Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; and School of Medicine. Susan Mayne, former director of the Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition 2015-2023; Yale University adjunct professor of epidemiology.Christina Roberto, director of the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at the University of PennsylvaniaLearn more and read a full transcript on our NEW website.Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news.Support this type of journalism today, with a gift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three of President Trump's most contested nominees — Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — sat for confirmation hearings last week, facing scathing questions from Senate Democrats about their qualifications, judgment and ability to lead critical federal departments. The Senate Finance Committee is set to vote Tuesday morning on whether to put Kennedy's nomination to lead the Health and Human Services Department to a floor vote. We look at the status of all the nominations along with other breaking national political news. Guests: Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent, NPR. Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at the School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; served in the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Evanston Health and Human Services Department has launched a new Health Hub that offers free screening and health consultations to residents at Ebenezer AME Church. The program was created in partnership with TBF Diagnostic. Read the full story here: https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/02/04/audio/everything-evanston-health-hub-expands-community-access-to-medical-screenings/

Interview with Jay Richards, director of the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Family, and Religion, on RFK Jr. hearings this week, for his nomination to lead the Health and Human Services Department. Headlines: China’s Deep Seek prompts global sell-off in AI linked stock; trump signs EO launching US Iron Drone; Red flag against ‘dangerous’ Trump nominee for key education post; Buy Greenland and you may get more than you bargained for.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hospitals treat the sick and injured. But they can be dangerous places. A unit of the Health and Human Services Department aims to reduce patient and healthcare workforce harm by 50%. So it's set up a dashboard that aggregates safety information. Joining me with the details, the director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Craig Unsheid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hospitals treat the sick and injured. But they can be dangerous places. A unit of the Health and Human Services Department aims to reduce patient and healthcare workforce harm by 50%. So it's set up a dashboard that aggregates safety information. Joining me with the details, the director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Craig Unsheid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is the nomination of RFK Jr. to the Health and Human Services Department a strategic masterstroke or a perilous misstep for pro-life advocates? This episode of the Life Challenges podcast features a thought-provoking discussion with Pastors Bob Fleischmann and Jeff Samelson as we examine the complex intersection of politics, faith, and social movements. We scrutinize RFK Jr.'s controversial stance on making abortion a state's rights issue, probing the tensions it creates between political pragmatism and unwavering pro-life values. How should voters weigh these conflicts, and what might be the broader ramifications on policies and services?In a world in flux, the 4B movement emerges as a radical voice challenging societal norms. Originating in South Korea and igniting conversations post-Trump's election, this feminist initiative's strikingly bold slogans challenge misogyny and the status quo. By exploring the deeper societal changes linked to this movement, including the growing acceptance of physician-assisted suicide and the evolving discourse on birth control access, we consider how these cultural shifts are reshaping perceptions of equality, autonomy, and personal empowerment. How do these movements compel us to rethink the glorification of self within contemporary society?As society continuously redefines spirituality and guidance, the rise of atheist chaplaincy presents a fascinating conundrum. With fewer people identifying with formal religions and more seeking spiritual support in secular contexts, we ponder the implications of this trend in places like universities and hospitals. Through engaging anecdotes, we highlight the importance of aligning spiritual guidance with personal beliefs, especially in pivotal life circumstances. This episode serves as a poignant reminder for believers to demonstrate hope and faith, influencing those around them in profound ways.SHOW NOTES:RFK Jrhttps://www.thebulwark.com/p/republicans-turn-a-blind-eye-to-rfk?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=sharehttps://www.cathstan.org/us-world/washington-roundup-trumps-cabinet-picks-rfk-jr-s-pro-abortion-record-abortion-ballots-examinedhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/pence-says-opposes-rfk-jrs-nomination-hhs-secretary-stance-abortionhttps://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/15/rfk-jr-s-abortion-record-riles-the-right-00189975Atheist Chaplainshttps://www.cnn.com/2024/11/07/us/atheist-chaplains-humanist-cec/index.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-11-09&utm_campaign=Today+s+Bioethics+News+via+bioethics+comSupport the show

The Trump cabinet position appointments keep coming, and true to form, the President-Elect is throwing some surprise choices into the mix. One that shouldn't be much of a suprise is his selection of RFK jr. as incoming Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, seeing as how RFK was a key ally and advocate for Trump during the campaign.   Nevertheless, as TJDS guest hosts Russell Dobular and Keaton Weiss point out, in certain circles the RFK pick is sending folks into apoplexy — and those circles include powerful business sectors like Big Pharma and Big Ag.   Plus a segment on the Deep State freakout over Trump's selection of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.   Also featuring Mike MacRae. And a phone call from Jeff Bridges, man!

Donald Trump selects RFK Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department. Libs cry foul, and we think it could be a great decision. If you can't say what a woman is, we don't think you should weigh in on health policy. We recount the lies told by pharmaceutical companies. Sylvester Stallone compares Trump to George Washington. Mike Tyson slaps Jake Paul at their final face-off before their boxing match. And we think the octopus might be an alien species. ► Sponsor: Angel Studios' new movie "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin." tells the story of a moral hero who stood up to Hitler as few did. The movie is a powerful antidote to the rampant antisemitism seeping the world today. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Don't miss it as Dietrich Bonhoeffer is swept into the epicenter of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler in Angel Studios' upcoming film "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin." Hitting theaters November 22nd. Get showtimes right now at htp://www.Angel.com/RICK ► Sponsor: Go to http://wwww.ShopBlazeMedia.com today. Check out all the cool merchandise available from Blaze Media and be sure you use the promo code “BLAZE10” to get 10% off your ENTIRE order! http://www.ShopBlazeMedia.com, promo code “BLAZE10” for 10% off. Do it today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump selects RFK Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department. Libs cry foul, and we think it could be a great decision. If you can't say what a woman is, we don't think you should weigh in on health policy. We recount the lies told by pharmaceutical companies. Sylvester Stallone compares Trump to George Washington. Mike Tyson slaps Jake Paul at their final face-off before their boxing match. And we think the octopus might be an alien species.► Sponsor: Angel Studios' new movie "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin." tells the story of a moral hero who stood up to Hitler as few did. The movie is a powerful antidote to the rampant antisemitism seeping the world today. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Don't miss it as Dietrich Bonhoeffer is swept into the epicenter of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler in Angel Studios' upcoming film "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin." Hitting theaters November 22nd. Get showtimes right now at htp://www.Angel.com/RICK► Sponsor: Go to http://wwww.ShopBlazeMedia.com today. Check out all the cool merchandise available from Blaze Media and be sure you use the promo code “BLAZE10” to get 10% off your ENTIRE order! http://www.ShopBlazeMedia.com, promo code “BLAZE10” for 10% off. Do it today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob in Naples Florida thinks RFK JR isn't a great choice to lead the Health and Human Services Department. Tim in Connecticut is confused on Governor Hochul's decision making on congesting pricing.

Donald Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. U.S. President Joe Biden touches down in Lima, Peru for the APEC summit. Plus, Japan moves closer to having flying electric taxis. We speak to the CEO of the firm that makes them. All that and more with Lynda Kinkade, in for Julia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If this were a garden party, my next guest might answer the what-do-you-do question like this: I give out billions of dollars every year. He's not a venture capitalist. He's not a construction financier. He's the deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Grants at the Health and Human Services Department. He's also a new inductee in the National Academy of Public Administration. Joining me in studio, Dale Bell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If this were a garden party, my next guest might answer the what-do-you-do question like this: I give out billions of dollars every year. He's not a venture capitalist. He's not a construction financier. He's the deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Grants at the Health and Human Services Department. He's also a new inductee in the National Academy of Public Administration. Joining me in studio, Dale Bell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two of Moser's top consultants, Shannon Call and Anwar Eaton, are joining us this week to discuss UX Design.Shannon's excitement for user experience comes from her relentless drive to improve products that don't function smoothly, constantly assessing which adjustments could enhance a product's functionality and user engagement. Her creative approach—no matter the medium—is to create an enjoyable experience and to ultimately be an advocate for the end user. With more than 10 years of experience in the industry, she has worked with international clients such as Cigna, Bayer Crop Science, and Eli Lilly. Anwar is passionate about UX and aims to create user-friendly products for everyone. He has a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction and more than eight years of experience in UX, having worked for companies such as Eli Lilly, Liberty Mutual, and the Health and Human Services Department. In addition to his dedication to creating accessible products, he shares his knowledge with the next generation of UX designers by lecturing at IUPUI (now IU Indianapolis).

In this episode we talk about the County's safety net. When people fall on hard times, the Sonoma County Human Services Department is there to soften their landing and help them get back on their feet. Our guest is Angela Struckmann, who oversees the County's safety net services as director of the Human Services Department.

A Senate committee votes to both investigate Steward Health Care and subpoena its CEO to testify. The American Medical Association and other physician groups implore Congress to act on physician Medicare pay. And the Health and Human Services Department reorganizes its technology functions to better address AI and cyber threats in healthcare. That's coming up on today's episode of Gist Healthcare Daily. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Senate unanimously passes a bill that cracks down on drug patent practices. House GOP leaders demand regulatory reviews from federal agencies, including the Health and Human Services Department, following the Supreme Court's Chevron decision. And a new study links alcohol to more than a half dozen cancers. That's coming up on today's episode of Gist Healthcare Daily. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A unit of the Health and Human Services Department has launched a call for an unusual type of leader. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA, is looking for people who have experienced and overcome substance abuse in themselves or family members. It's called the SAMHSA Trailblazers in Advancing Recovery, or STAR Awards program. Joining the Federal Drive with detailed, the director of the SAMHSA's Office of Recovery, Paolo del Vecchio. https://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/press-announcements/20240626/nominations-open-samhsa-trailblazers-advancing-recovery-awards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A unit of the Health and Human Services Department has launched a call for an unusual type of leader. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA, is looking for people who have experienced and overcome substance abuse in themselves or family members. It's called the SAMHSA Trailblazers in Advancing Recovery, or STAR Awards program. Joining the Federal Drive with detailed, the director of the SAMHSA's Office of Recovery, Paolo del Vecchio.https://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/press-announcements/20240626/nominations-open-samhsa-trailblazers-advancing-recovery-awards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rhythm & News Podcast interview with Mary Mitchell, Director of the Aging and Disability Services Division of the City of Seattle's Human Services Department, discussing the state of Washington's WA Cares Fund, the first-in-the-nation public long-term care insurance program. Interview by Chris B. Bennett. 

Following its previous Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, the Health and Human Services Department is looking to continue the effort with its latest plan, which covers the next six years. HHS is now open for public comment. Officials are hoping to continue improving the exchange and availability of electronic health information. They also have some new goals in mind. Federal News Network's Eric White got the change to speak to one HHS official: Dustin Charles, Policy Specialist in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Following its previous Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, the Health and Human Services Department is looking to continue the effort with its latest plan, which covers the next six years. HHS is now open for public comment. Officials are hoping to continue improving the exchange and availability of electronic health information. They also have some new goals in mind. Federal News Network's Eric White got the change to speak to one HHS official: Dustin Charles, Policy Specialist in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even as Alabama scrambles to enact a law protecting in vitro fertilization in the state, the Biden-Harris Administration sees additional challenges that legislation may not be able to quickly fix. Carole Johnson leads the Health Resources and Services Administration, the part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department tasked with strengthening the health workforce and connecting skilled professionals to rural, urban and tribal underserved communities. Johnson explains that some health care providers were already reluctant to work in states with restrictive reproductive legislation and the Alabama situation presents a new challenge. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

MSU is birthing a new midwife program to improve women's health care, filings for political races continue to pour in, and the head of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department talks about healthcare challenges in Montana.

Originally broadcast on March 4, 2024 Even as Alabama scrambles to enact a law protecting in vitro fertilization in the state, the Biden-Harris Administration sees additional challenges that legislation may not be able to quickly fix. Carole Johnson leads the Health Resources and Services Administration, the part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department tasked with strengthening the health workforce and connecting skilled professionals to rural, urban and tribal underserved communities. Johnson explains that some health care providers were... Read More Read More The post IVF Fallout: Top Biden Health Official Sees Dangers Beyond Reproductive Rights appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

Are you ready to challenge the mainstream narrative? Join us as we sit down with Dr. Ealy, an expert who dares to question the integrity of some of the biggest institutions in healthcare. Listen in as he pulls back the curtain on alleged criminal data fraud and willful misconduct by the CDC, Health, and Human Services Department and National Vital Statistics System. We delve into how changes in COVID death certificate reporting practices may have contributed to an inflated death toll, shining a light on what may well be an egregious abuse of power.Ever questioned the legitimacy of PCR tests? Dr. Ealy does too, raising crucial issues about the role of these tests in creating a possible inflation of COVID-19 cases. We discuss the grand jury petition he filed, which alleges massive fraud that seemingly paved the way for justifying lockdowns, 5G tower installations, and, tragically, the death of millions of Americans. We also introduce you to Gareth Care, a beacon of hope in independent healthcare advocacy services, in our pursuit of truth.Finally, we get into the nitty-gritty of the legal battle that underpins this case. We navigate the intricate court system, exposing the corruption we've encountered along the way while highlighting our fight for justice. It's a journey that underscores the importance of persistence and determination in holding these powerful institutions accountable. Despite the challenges, we are reminded that we are a force to be reckoned with - the resolve of the people will prevail in the fight for freedom. Join us for this essential conversation and become a part of the movement.graithcare.com Graith Care Independent Patient Advocate medical advocacy, consultation, advice US and InternationalOH EDDIES WHISKEY BOURBON SAUCE Oh Eddies Sweet Whiskey Bourbon Sauce is guaranteed to step up your next barbeque. Made in MinnesotaBuzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEInstacart - Groceries delivered in as little as 1 hour. Free delivery on your first order over $35.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show Thank you for listening to this episode of HuttCast, the American Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's discussion and gained valuable insights. To stay updated on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your preferred listening platform. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review, as it helps others discover our show. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future topics, please reach out to us through our website or social media channels. Until next time, keep on learning and exploring the diverse voices that make America great.

One previous individual connected to the Health and Human Services Department, once influential in deflecting implications of the C-19 virus leaking from a laboratory, sat down with Sky News to share his thoughts on the pandemic's potential root. This official, Dr. Robert Kadlec, who served as the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, discussed ways to manage the conversation around the lab leak theory along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the prior Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the upcoming Tuesday broadcast, Kadlec unveils speculation about a potential trail leading to the outbreak's source. It involves a Chinese scientist, reputed for his military ties, who specialized in vaccine research on live organisms. Kadlec pointed to Zhou Yusen as possibly having a direct influence on the onset of COVID-19. Details shared with Sky News reveal Yusen held a patent for a C-19 vaccine as early as February 2020. Within a short span afterwards, around May of the same year, the scientist unfortunately passed away. The suddenness and timing of Yusen's demise sparked some curiosity, prompting speculation. Kadlec didn't hold back on such speculative possibilities during his interview. He pondered on whether Yusen's untimely death was a consequence of provoking the global health crisis. He clarified, however, that these thoughts were hypothetical, not being backed by concrete evidence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this Election 2023 re-air, Crystal chats with Teresa Mosqueda about her campaign for King County Council District 8 - why she decided to run, the experience and lessons she'll bring to the County from serving on Seattle City Council, and her thoughts on addressing progressive revenue options, public service wage equity and morale, housing and homelessness, public safety, transit rider experience, climate change, and budget transparency. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Teresa Mosqueda at @TeresaCMosqueda.   Teresa Mosqueda As a Progressive Labor Democrat, Teresa Mosqueda is committed to creating healthy and safe communities, investing in working families through job training, childcare and transit access, and developing more affordable housing for all residents. She brings a proven track record of successfully passing progressive policies and building broad and inclusive coalitions. Teresa was named one of Seattle's Most Influential People 2018 for acting with urgency upon getting elected, received the Ady Barkan Progressive Champion Award from Local Progress in 2019; and earned national attention by leading the passage of JumpStart progressive revenue to invest in housing, economic resilience, green new deal investments, and equitable development. Prior to elected office Teresa worked on community health policies from SeaMar to the Children's Alliance, and championed workers' rights at the WA State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, where she helped lead state's minimum wage increase, paid sick leave, farmworker protections, workplace safety standards, and launched the Path to Power candidate training with the AFL-CIO.   Resources Campaign Website - Teresa Mosqueda   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. I am very excited today to have joining us - current Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who is a candidate for King County Council District 8, which covers Seattle - including West Seattle, South Park, Georgetown, Chinatown International District, and First Hill - as well as Burien, part of Tukwila, and unincorporated King County - in White Center and Vashon Island. Welcome to the program - welcome back. [00:01:22] Teresa Mosqueda: Thank you so much for having me back - I appreciate it. [00:01:25] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. So I guess the first question is - what made you decide to run for King County Council after being on the Seattle City Council? [00:01:35] Teresa Mosqueda: I've been really, really honored to be able to serve the full City of Seattle - 775,000 residents at this point - to be able to pass progressive policies like progressive revenue through JumpStart, Green New Deal and affordable housing that it was funding, to be able to quadruple the investments in affordable housing, to expand worker protections. But the truth is, we know that much of the population that I was elected by - the folks that I really center in my public policy - also work and have family outside of the City of Seattle. And in many ways, I want to build on what I've been able to accomplish in Seattle - investments in affordable housing, investments in new career pathways, good union jobs, to expand on the childcare and working family supports that I've centered in my work on City Council. But in order to reach the broader population of working families who are just outside of Seattle's borders but may work in Seattle and come in and out of the City - I want to create greater equity and stability across our region - the County is the place to do it. And in terms of stability, the County is the only place that has purview over public health, has the purse strings for behavioral health investments. And so if I want to complement efforts to try to house folks and create long-term housing stability, especially for our most vulnerable community members, the County is the place to do that - through investments in behavioral health, by sitting on the Public Health Board, by being directly involved in the budget that has purview over public health and behavioral health investments. I see it as an extension of my work at the City to create housed and healthy communities. And it actually goes full circle back to my roots where I started my career in community health. It is exciting opportunity, and I see it as a growth and expansion of the work that we've done in Seattle. [00:03:24] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. You talk about progressive revenue - the JumpStart Tax, which is a really, really important source of revenue that has been so helpful for businesses in the City, for residents, so many people in need - and has been a benefit to the City, especially in this time of a budget downturn in that the JumpStart Tax helped to bail out a budget shortfall there. So this revenue seemed to come just in time. You had to fight for it. You led the fight for it. What lessons do you take out of that fight to the County, and what progressive revenue options are there at the county level that you would be willing to pursue? [00:04:05] Teresa Mosqueda: I think one major lesson is how I've approached building these big progressive policies that have not only earned the majority of votes, but the vast majority - if not unanimous vote sometimes - that have withstood the test of time, have not been overturned, and have not been overturned by legislative councilmatic action nor by the courts. I will take with me to King County the ability to build these broad coalitions. And think about JumpStart - who was there when we launched it? It was ironworkers and hardhats, along with business entrepreneurs from both small and large business, with community and housing advocates standing collectively together to say - We will not only stand by this progressive revenue, we will stand by it knowing that it's five times the amount of the previous policy and it's twice as long. That's a huge effort that took place to try to get people on the same page, and we had to - with growing income inequality, growing needs, an increase in our population. There was no other option. This had to succeed, and so I will take that same approach to King County Council. So much is on the needs list right now in the "wake" of the global pandemic. We have the ongoing shadow pandemic. We have increased needs for mental health and community health investments. We have increased needs for food security and housing stability. There is not an alternative. We must invest more and we must do it in a way that withstands the test of time, like I've done on Seattle City Council. So for me, it's the how I bring people together that I will bring to King County Council. And I think it's also the what - not being afraid to push the envelope on what's possible. Many people said it was impossible to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights - and we got sued, and we won. People said it was impossible to legislate having hotel workers get access to guaranteed healthcare at the gold level, protections from retaliation, maximum workload. We not only passed that in legislation, but we withstood that in the court. And the same is true of JumpStart. We withstood multiple litigation attempts to try to take away JumpStart, and it's withstood the test of time. And I'm excited to see what else we can do in a city that sees so much growth but incredible inequity across our region - to bring people together to address these pressing needs. [00:06:24] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. You talked about housing and homelessness, and one thing called out by experts as a barrier to our homelessness response is that frontline worker wages don't cover their cost of living. Do you believe our local service providers, a lot of whom are nonprofits, have a responsibility to pay living wages for the area? And how can we make that more likely with how we bid and contract for services at the county level? [00:06:54] Teresa Mosqueda: Yeah, two things I would say. One is - absolutely, we need to make sure that folks who are working on the frontline as human service providers - think folks who are the counselors to youth, or people who have mental health or substance abuse needs that we need to help address so that they can get stably housed, think about services to our vets and seniors. These are workers on the frontline who rely on relationships and have skills, expertise in the human service category. They need to have investments in these deeply needed services. And in order for us to create greater stability, we need to be paying them living wages. I say "we" - because this is not about the nonprofits needing to pay them more. It is about we, the public entities, needing to increase our contracts to these organizations who then employ people to be on the frontline. For better or worse, we have a human services system that has largely relied on contracting out critical services that are arguably public services. They are supported by public dollars, and we, public officials, have a responsibility to pay those organizations enough so that they can invest in the wages for frontline workers. That is what I have tried to do at Seattle City Council. The first year that I came in at Seattle City Council, the Human Services Coalition came to me and said - We have not had a cost of living increase in 10 years. To not have a COLA in 10 years for most workers in our region and across the country is unheard of, but it's especially unheard of for the very folks on the frontline trying to address the most pressing crisis in our country right now - and that is housing instability and homeless services. So we worked in 2019, and we passed the Human Services cost of living adjustment - that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what needs to be addressed. The historic and chronic underfunding of these positions still needs to be addressed. We are not going to be able to close this gap of 40, 50, 60% turnover in our critical organizational partners, organizations, if we don't address the wage stability issue. So I think actually going to the County and bringing that experience of having worked directly with the human service providers and hearing their stories about why it was so critical not only to have a cost of living adjustment, but to get at this chronic underfunding is going to be really coming at a pivotal moment. Seattle does have a cost of living adjustment. I want to bring that cost of living adjustment to King County and collectively with Seattle, I want to work to address the underpayment for human service providers as well. [00:09:26] Crystal Fincher: There's been a lot of action when it comes to addressing housing and homelessness from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to new legislation, and potentially even more legislation coming out through the end of this legislative session. We're currently recording this in mid-April, so it may come out a little bit further when there's a definitive answer for everything that happens. But amid a lot of this work that is currently being implemented or has just been authorized, there's a lot in process but still seemingly a lot more that needs to be done. What would your top priorities be to make a noticeable and meaningful difference in both homelessness and housing affordability if you're elected to this position? [00:10:11] Teresa Mosqueda: Resources for housing is critically needed across King County. Resources will help local jurisdictions be able to implement the new requirements that are going to be coming forth from our State Legislature, which - I want to thank our State legislative members - every year they go to Olympia and every year we ask them to be bold - be bold on housing solutions, recognizing that housing is the solution to being houseless. Housing helps people who have multiple compounding factors get healthy, get stable, and be productive members of our community. Housing is the solution to this biggest crisis that we see, not only in Seattle and King County, up and down the West Coast, but across our entire country. We have not built enough housing to house our current population plus the population who will continue to come to our region. So one of the things that I think I can take to the County is the desire to make sure that local jurisdictions, whether it's Burien or Tukwila, or unincorporated areas like in Vashon and Maury Island or in White Center - that they have resources as well to help build the type of housing that's being requested from the State Legislature - to do so in accordance with their Comprehensive Plan so that people can implement it in the time frame that works for those local jurisdictions, but to help them take away the barrier of not having enough resources. Seattle is unique in that we have pushed forward different resources. We have different types of tax revenues - thanks to JumpStart, for example - but in areas that don't have those type of resources, I hope the County can continue to be a good partner, in addition to the state, to build the type of diverse housing that we're now going to be required to build and hopefully we can do even more. The State Legislature is actually creating a new floor. We should be building upon that, and where we can go higher and denser - that is good for the local environment, it is good for the local economy, it's good for the health of workers and small businesses. And it's what I've heard from Vashon Island to Tukwila - people have said, "We don't have enough workforce housing." Small business owners have said, "I don't have enough workers in this area because they can't afford to live here." So I want to hopefully break down misperceptions about what type of housing we're talking about. We're talking about housing for seniors and vets, kiddos, youth, workers. We're talking about supporting the creation of that housing with additional revenue - that's one of the things I'd like to bring to the County. And to also recognize that when we have diverse economies that are prosperous, it's because workers can live next to their place of employment. Workers can walk to their childcare. We don't have time to spend two hours in the car commuting back and forth - that's not good for our health, our family's health, and it sure isn't good for the health of our planet. So it's a win-win-win, and I think that's something that I can really bring in as a County Councilmember - the knowledge that these local jurisdictions want to do more, but sometimes are limited with their resources. And wherever I can, I want to help step up and provide that support. [00:13:08] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Public safety has also been an area where the County continues to make a lot of news, has a lot of responsibility - they operate a jail, and that has itself made a lot of news. Over the past couple years throughout the pandemic, some of the employees of the jails - the guards - other people, the Public Defenders Association have called out overcrowding conditions, unsafe conditions in the jail. There's been times where the jail has not had clean water, several illness outbreaks, people not being treated correctly. It seems to be a really bad situation. Recently, the King County Council just voted to extend a contract to rent additional beds from a SCORE facility in Des Moines. This, during a backdrop of events where the King County Executive has made a promise to close the King County Jail, but it seems like we're getting further away from that, or at least not getting closer to that. Would you have voted to extend the SCORE contract? And should we close the jail? What is your vision for the short term? [00:14:17] Teresa Mosqueda: I think that the move to close down a jail that's both outdated and unsafe is not only good for the inmates, it's good for the folks who are working there. I think this is another example of where there's a false perception of sides. People who work within the jail, as well as those who are incarcerated, have expressed their not only horror when seeing mold and deterioration of the building, but it is extremely unsafe as well - as you mentioned - due to overcrowding. There's a few things that I think we can do. Number one, we should address upstream - who was being sent to these facilities in the first place. In a presentation that the Seattle City Council received from the City Attorney's Office, there was a large number of people who were initially booked and jailed, and ultimately were released because there was no grounds to put forward charges. And I think we need to stop the habit or the practice of putting folks in that situation to begin with. Even if they are not incarcerated for long periods of time, the fact that people are being jailed - especially youth - creates consequences down the road, mental health consequences, consequences for your housing, for your livelihood, your employment. And the negative impact of just being booked in the first place - both for the physical health of somebody, but also the trajectory of their life - is quantifiable. It is known, and we should stop that practice early. I agree with the effort to move folks into a situation that is healthier, but I also want to continue to look at how we can reduce the chance that someone is ever incarcerated in the first place, invest more in restorative justice practices. I'm optimistic by some of the conversations I've heard from folks in the community, specifically in Burien, about the ways in which some of the initial conversations have taken place with the Burien City Police Chief Ted Boe, and some of the commitments that have been made to try to look at restorative justice differently. And I think that holistically we need to look at what leads someone to be in that situation in the first place and back up to see what additional community investments we can be making so that people can have greater access to economic security, community safety, and reduce the chance that someone ever interacts with the carceral system to begin with. [00:16:40] Crystal Fincher: What do you think, or for people who are considering this voting decision and who are looking around and who are feeling unsafe, and who are not quite sure what the right direction is to move forward, or what can be done but feel like something should be done - what is your message to them? And what can make us all safer? [00:17:01] Teresa Mosqueda: There's a few things that I think have really come to light, especially during the pandemic. We tell people to stay home to stay healthy. Well, if people don't have a home, they can't stay healthy. If we can think about the increased situation where many of us have probably seen loved ones in our lives - whether it's family members or friends - who have turned to substances to cope, to self-medicate with the stress, the trauma, the isolation that has only increased during the pandemic. I hope there's greater empathy across our community and across our country for why people may be self-medicating to begin with. And I think if we think about these recent examples of where we have seen people become more unstable in their housing situation or turn to substances because of increasing stress and pressure, that hopefully there's greater empathy for why it is so critical that we invest upstream. It is not an either/or - it's creating greater balance with how we invest in community safety, in what we know equals the social determinants of health. When we invest in housing, it helps reduce the chance that someone is going to engage in criminal activities later in life. When we invest in early learning, in job opportunities, in youth interactive programs, when we invest in even gun reduction and youth violence reduction strategies, it helps create healthier individuals and healthier populations, reduce the chance that someone ever interacts with an officer to begin with. These are public safety investments, and they shouldn't be seen as a separate silo from "traditional safety." It actually saves lives, and there's a huge return on investment when we make some of these upstream program policies a priority. I think it actually creates healthier communities, and for those who are looking at it through the economic lens, healthier economies - knowing that that return on investment has been proven time and time again. And it's good for individuals and community health as well. [00:19:02] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now, there's a shortage of workers across the board - certainly King County is included in this shortage of county workers in several areas, including in many front-line positions that impact public safety - maintenance, care, health - all of those that are crucial to delivering services and help that the residents of the County need. We've seen hiring, retention, and referral bonuses for public safety employees. Do you think we should be considering those for other employees? [00:19:39] Teresa Mosqueda: Absolutely. This is part of the conversation that I raised while at Seattle City Council. There is, I think, a detrimental impact to workplace morale across public servants when we're not uniformly treating people the same. It's not what I feel, it's not that that's my perception - that's actually coming from workers within the City of Seattle who completed a survey that our Human Resources Department, in addition to Seattle Police Department and other Seattle agencies, completed to ask, "What would you like to see? How would you feel if certain employees got a hiring bonus or retention bonus?" And overwhelmingly, workers in public service said that they thought that this would hurt morale - if existing public servants weren't treated the same. I mentioned that in the Human Services category, there's a 40% to 60% turnover rate for our nonprofit organizations who are helping folks on the frontline. There's a huge turnover rate, as well, within our Human Services Department - we've had to freeze the hiring, and reduce hours, and reduce positions. Public libraries, community centers are front-facing programs for the community during COVID and we are slowly starting to scale those back up, but they're nowhere at capacity right now. And what workers themselves have said within the City of Seattle is - they want to see greater strategies for retention. Investments in childcare keeps coming up. Investments in more affordable housing keeps coming up. And if you want to look specifically at the Seattle Police Department, the officers themselves said that they did not think that hiring bonuses was the way to address retention and morale issues - that played out in their comments in the press, as well as the survey results that we saw. I think that there's a more equitable approach that we should be taking. I think that we should be looking at how we recruit and train and incentivize people to come to public service overall, whether that means you're coming in to work as a firefighter or a police officer, or whether that means that we want to recruit you to be serving the public in libraries or as a lifeguard - which we don't have enough of - or as a childcare provider, which we don't have enough of. We should be looking across the board at these public service programs and figuring out ways to both address retention and morale, and to do so equitably. And to listen to what workers have said - they want housing, they want childcare, they want regular and routine transit. And they want us to, especially within the City of Seattle, address disparity in wages for folks of color and women compared to their counterparts. Those are some things that I think we should be taking on more seriously. [00:22:17] Crystal Fincher: Definitely. Now, you talk about people saying they want regular and routine transit. Lots of people want that. Lots of people - more importantly - need that, are relying on that. And there's been lots of talk about the rider experience around safety on transit, but also about the availability and accessibility of service and all-day service - not just some of those commuter-centric commute-time service bumps that we've seen. What would your approach to Metro be as a councilmember? [00:22:50] Teresa Mosqueda: So I appreciate that you raise safety because it is an issue that comes up for riders as well as the drivers. Members of ATU, who drive buses around King County, have expressed increased concern around their safety. Whether they're driving in the day or night - given COVID has increased interpersonal violence across our country, they are on the receiving end of that as well. So I'm excited to talk with ATU, with members who have been out on the frontline as our bus drivers, as well as riders to talk about how we can improve safety for everyone. That is - again, on the preventative side, trying to figure out ways that structurally and through public policy we can ensure that riders and drivers are safe. There's also two things that drivers have talked to me about and folks within King County Metro. They say there's a lot of focus on new routes and how do we expand routes - routes, routes, routes - which I also agree with. But they've also brought up that we need to continue to invest in the people, maintenance, and operation to make sure that there's enough people to be working on existing routes and new routes to come. Similar to housing, we don't want to just build units. We want to make sure that for those who need personnel in those units to make sure that folks stay stably housed, we're investing in the workforce to ensure that that housing, that that unit is successful. We need to be looking at investments in the workforce, recruiting folks to come to these good living wage union jobs, and to be thinking about how we improve retention and stability as well. And for as far as maintenance is concerned - thinking more about how we can invest in greener fleets, greener maintenance opportunities, and ensure that those vehicles are running well and routinely. So those are two of the things that have come directly from the frontline drivers themselves. And then more broadly - workers. You mentioned all-day services. I would also argue all-night services to the degree that we can add additional stops, because many of the childcare providers who are coming in early in the morning, construction workers who are coming in early in the morning, janitors who might be going out late at night, talk about how they have to rely on vehicles because there are not times that the buses are showing up to get them to work and back home in time. So I think that it's multi-prong. But again, I think the common ground here is that the workers in this sector are agreeing with the recipients of the service. And collectively, I'm hoping that we can address safety, workforce needs, and increase routes as well. [00:25:23] Crystal Fincher: Definitely, and I really appreciate you bringing up the workforce needs. I know a couple people who use transit regularly but ended up getting vehicles because of the unpredictable cancellations due to staff shortages, whether it's maintenance or drivers, just making it unreliable to get to work on time. And already the time taken to commute that way is a lot, so that would improve the experience greatly - definitely appreciate that. Transit is also very, very important to achieving our climate goals. And by most measures, we're behind on our 2030 climate goals - while we're experiencing devastating impacts from climate change, including extreme heat and cold, wildfires, floods. What are your highest-priority plans to get us on track to meet our 2030 climate goals? [00:26:17] Teresa Mosqueda: One thing might surprise folks in that category - probably not a huge surprise for folks who have heard me talk before - but I think if we can invest in additional housing, dense housing across our region, it will actually reduce CO2 emissions. And it's really common sense, right? We are the third-highest mega-commuter city or region in the nation. We have more people who are commuting back and forth to work than most of the country. And the reason is because they can't afford to find a house near their place of employment. If CO2 emissions from cars - single-occupancy cars - is the number-one contributor to pollution in our region, I believe that is at the top of our list for helping to reduce our carbon footprint across the country and across the globe. We should be increasing density. We should see it not only as a good economic stimulant, what's right to do for workers and working families, but it is one of the best things that we could also do for our climate. I think that there's - again, a misperception or a false divide between folks who are environmentalists and want to see more trees, and their perception that additional housing or density takes that away. It does not. We can both create setbacks for higher buildings and use the airspace to create living opportunities, while we plant additional trees and preserve old growth. I've gone to at least three ribbon-cutting ceremonies for Habitat for Humanity, who created - basically - townhouses connected altogether. We don't have a lot of row houses in Seattle, but row houses, if you will, around trees created in the shape of a U with old-growth trees in the middle - allowing for greater shade, and a play area for kiddos, and a place to sit for elders. It is very much possible to build dense housing options and preserve old growth while planting new trees. So I think in addition to creating density, we can plant more trees. We can do more to incentivize good living-wage jobs in industries that are cleaner. I heard from our friends in Georgetown Community Center that they had to beg and plead for one of the local industries to incorporate more greener options for a glass manufacturer down there. And we should simultaneously be seeing the opportunity to promote good jobs as a requirement for also promoting good green jobs. And I worked very hard with members of both the environmental community and the labor community in the past to push Just Transition policies - to ensure that as we transition to greener economies or greener manufacturing strategies, that we're preserving good living-wage jobs and, even better, preserving good union living-wage jobs. So I look forward to making sure that we have denser cities, that we have greener cities, and that we have greener industries. [00:29:13] Crystal Fincher: Now, King County does incremental budgeting, making it more challenging for people to understand how county funds are allocated in a base budget. The budget is known as one of your areas of strength. What do you think can be done to make the budget process easier for the public to understand and influence at the county level? [00:29:35] Teresa Mosqueda: I've been really proud of what we've been able to accomplish in Seattle. And coming from working the halls of Olympia on behalf of the Washington State Labor Council for eight years and then for three years before that with the Children's Alliance, I was used to this concept of having these biennial budgets that needed to be seen in full, that you could see the red line to know what was the investment from last year versus the upcoming year. Unfortunately, the City of Seattle doesn't have such a budget document. It's basically like single pages - page after page of narrative descriptions of what the dollars will do. That's fine for some budget notes, but what I think we are working towards in the City of Seattle - a preview for folks who love budget talk - is we're going to one day have a true biennial budget and an actual budget document where you will be able to see the red line, either additions or subtractions to specific programs so that everyone knows what is being invested in, how funding is changing, and where priorities are showing up in the budget. I am excited about being able to build on that work that I've done in Seattle, especially as Budget Chair, in some of the most pressing economic times in recent history, starting in 2020. And have been able to not only allocate millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, but also to create greater transparency in how we budget. One of the things that I think is maybe misunderstood out there is the way in which we've helped to provide transparency in the entire budget, but specifically the Seattle Police Department. It had not been exposed year-over-year that Seattle Police Department actually had about $40 million that was rolling over year-over-year on top of funding that the chief, that the mayor, that the department had acknowledged they could not use. And in a time where we saw an economic crisis on the horizon, growing needs in our community, and knew that that was $40 million that was not going to be put to use, not going into direct services for the community - and for those who wanted to see additional officers, wasn't even going to be able to use to increase the hiring plan. It's good budgeting to be able to make sure that that funding is transparently accounted for in the General Fund - and where we can deploy it to things like food, housing, childcare, economic security for small businesses that we do so. That's something I'm really proud of - that we were able to show what the full picture was, not only for that department, but for all departments. And to make some important investments in mental health services, behavioral health services, youth violence, gun violence reduction strategies - things that similarly invest in community safety, but we were able to show where those line items move. I will bring to King County Council the ability to structurally push for greater transparency for members of the public, encourage us as the legislative branch to own the separate but equal branch of government that the council is as the legislative branch, and ensure that the public has an opportunity to dive into the proposal that comes from the executive, just like the proposal that comes from the governor to the State Legislature. You receive that, you dissect it, you talk to community about what it means - and then ultimately the legislative branch reconvenes, reconfigures the budget, and presents it to the executive for a signature. It's good governance, it's good transparency. I think it's understandable from folks across whatever political spectrum - it's important to have budget transparency and accountability, and that's what I've been able to accomplish in the City of Seattle. [00:33:02] Crystal Fincher: It is, and I think there are a number of people, especially listeners to Hacks & Wonks, who do enjoy budget conversations, who would definitely look forward to more budget transparency at the County level, like you've been working towards at the City level. As we close here and as people are going to be making the decision about who they're going to be voting for for this County Council position, what is your message to voters and people listening about why they should choose you? [00:33:30] Teresa Mosqueda: I'm very thrilled to be in this race for King County Council. I think I have not only proven that I'm an effective legislator at the council level, but that I know how to center folks who have been left out of policy conversations in the room, but more importantly - follow the lead of those who've experienced the injustices over the years. We have been able to move historic, monumental, national-headline-grabbing policies within the City of Seattle in my now going into six years in Seattle City Council. And it has been done, I believe, in a collaborative way, in a way that has made transformational change, and in a way that I think has always centered - been centered on my progressive commitments to investing in working families, folks of color, and the LGBTQ community, workers to ensure that there's greater opportunity and prosperity. And creating housing and stability - that is something that is good for our entire community. I do this work because it's all about how we create healthy communities. You have to have investments in good living wage jobs and housing stability and opportunity education to have self-determination and control over your own life and your own decisions. And I think through public policy, through investments with public resources, we can create greater opportunity across our county. I am excited, as well, to be coming to this race as a woman, as a Latina, as a Chicana - poised to be the first Latina ever elected to King County Council. And with a King County population that is made up of half people of color and a quarter immigrant and refugee, it is critical that we have more voices with folks who have the lived experience coming from communities of color serving in these positions. I think that's why I've been able to effectively and efficiently move policy through so quickly - because I have put at the front of the line many of the community members who are often left out of policy discussions. I hope to bring in my commitment to working with folks who are workers, women, folks of color, members of the LGBTQ community to hear more about what we can do at King County Council. I know I have big shoes to step into with Councilmember McDermott and his commitment to public health, working with the LGBTQ community, his tenure in the State Legislature - and I'm also excited to add to that and serve our broader region and our growing needs. [00:35:59] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much, Councilmember Mosqueda, for spending this time with us today and having this conversation. Sincerely appreciate it, and we'll certainly be following your campaign eagerly over the next several months. Thank you. [00:36:13] Teresa Mosqueda: Thank you so much - I appreciate it. [00:36:15] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he believes former President Barack Obama is the “driving force” behind the Biden administration's decisions. The Health and Human Services Department under the Biden administration has proposed that marijuana be reclassified from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, marking a historic shift in federal policy. This change would place cannabis in the same category as codeine-laced Tylenol, viewed as less addictive and harmful. However, the final decision rests with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has rejected similar propositions four times in the pastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Florida Gov and GOP 2024 also-ran Ron DeSantis looks to lead in wake of violence and major hurricane | Former SC Gov and UN Ambassador under President Trump, Nikki Haley is having a moment, kind of | President Biden names first 10 drugs subject to negotations with Medicare | 60th anniversary of the March on WashingtonSong playsIntro by hostWelcome to Heartland Pod Wednesday!Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Hurricane in Florida / Shooting in FloridaPOLITICO: DeSantis knows how to handle a hurricane. The racist shooting poses a bigger dilemma.A racially-motivated Jacksonville tragedy, couple with a looming storm, pose big tests for the governor.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center and his wife Casey, right, bow their heads during a prayer.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (center) and his wife Casey bow their heads during a prayer at a vigil for the victims of Saturday's mass shooting on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, in Jacksonville. | John Raoux/AP PhotoBy KIMBERLY LEONARD08/28/2023 04:14 PM EDTUpdated: 08/28/2023 05:12 PM EDTMIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' handling of back-to-back crises — a racist mass shooting and a potentially catastrophic hurricane — could help burnish his image as a can-do, effective governor or further damage his standing with Black Americans who have grown livid over his policies.Already, DeSantis' attempts to show leadership in the immediate aftermath of the Saturday shooting were poorly received by some Black lawmakers, Democrats and residents in Florida. In the hours after a 21-year-old white man killed three Black Floridians near a historically Black college in Jacksonville, several state Democrats blamed DeSantis, who is running for president, for creating an environment, through policies such as loosening gun laws and ending diversity programs, that helped hate fester.DeSantis has condemned the shooting and said “targeting people due to their race has no place in this state of Florida.” But attending a Sunday night vigil in Jacksonville, he was jeered and booed by people who had come out to remember the victims. At one point, a Jacksonville Democratic councilmember stepped in to calm the crowd, urging people to “put parties aside.” Later during the event, a pastor took issue with DeSantis describing the gunman as a “scumbag,” and said he should have used the word “racist” instead.The vigil stood in contrast to press conferences in Tallahassee on Sunday and Monday, when DeSantis appeared visibly tired but spoke authoritatively about preparations overseeing Tropical Storm Idalia, which is forecast to become a major hurricane. He canceled campaign appearances and fundraisers, and told Floridians Sunday they could “rest assured” because “I am here” and would “get the job done.”DeSantis says politics won't interfere with storm response“He needs to be in Florida for as long as it takes,” said Adam Hollingsworth, the former chief of staff to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who served as governor before DeSantis. “His presidential ambitions could be a distraction, but first Gov. DeSantis has to dance with the one who brought him. Right now, that's the people of Florida.”Though the shooting and looming storm are taking DeSantis away from campaigning for president following a high-profile debate, they'll also allow voters and donors to see the governor at work leading the hurricane response, letting the public assess how he balances multiple priorities, displays empathy and projects leadership in moments of tragedy. At the same time, the shooting has shined a spotlight on DeSantis' record and vulnerabilities on race, one of the areas for which he has faced the most criticism and controversy as governor.In times of tragedy, opponents are “looking for a misstep,” acknowledged Craig Fugate, who led Florida's emergency division under Gov. Jeb Bush and oversaw FEMA during the Obama administration.“They're looking for something to go wrong — particularly for the opponents; they're looking for something to capitalize on,” Fugate said.DeSantis began his Monday morning hurricane preparedness press conference by first addressing the mass shooting. He pledged $1 million in security funding to Edward Waters University, a historically Black university that the gunman is believed to have initially targeted, as well as $100,000 toward a charity for the families of the victims. He also deployed state law enforcement officials to evaluate the campus' security and make additional recommendations, pledging to continue to assist in the “days and weeks ahead.”But many Democrats in the state panned his response. They pointed to laws he enacted in Florida to carve up representation in a Black-majority district that eventually led a Black Democratic congressman, Rep. Al Lawson, to lose his seat. They also pointed to his policies, approved by the GOP-led Legislature, banning what he calls “critical race theory” in schools, as well as his defense of a public school curriculum on Black history that required middle-school teachers to instruct that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”Florida Minority House Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Black Democrat of Tampa, said it was “absolutely” the right decision for DeSantis to attend the vigil but added that she didn't want to give him a pass.“The reality is, a number of wrongheaded decisions about the state of Florida, and who we are as a people, I think contributed to this charged political climate that resulted in the violence that we saw,” Driskell said in an interview.The accused gunman, identified as Ryan Palmeter, had a racist manifesto and drew swastikas on his weapons. He also had a history of mental illness, having been involuntarily institutionalized for emergency mental health services as a teenager, police said.During DeSantis' vigil remarks Sunday, Democratic state Rep. Angela Nixon, who represents the district where the shooting took place, could be seen glaring at the governor in videos and photos widely shared on social media.“We feel the same,” the NAACP wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.AXIOS: Biden set to name first 10 drugs subject to Medicare negotiations.The blood-thinners Eliquis and Xarelto are among the 10 prescription medicines the Biden administration will seek lower Medicare prices for as part of a new program allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for America's seniors.Why it matters: The administration's landmark announcement Tuesday detailed the first-ever set of drugs subject to Medicare price negotiations, a longtime Democratic priority included in last year's Inflation Reduction Act over drug companies' fervent objections.Other drugs up for negotiation include:Jardiance, a diabetes drug.Januvia, also for diabetes.Farxiga, another diabetes drug.Entresto, for heart failure.Enbrel, for arthritis and psoriasis.Imbruvica, a blood cancer drug.Stelara, used on psoriasis, Crohn's disease and other illnesses.Fiasp, also used for diabetes.Of note: Insulin is already subject to a $35 monthly co-pay cap for Medicare prescription drug plan enrollees under a different provision of the IRA.State of play: The drugs' manufacturers will have just over a month to decide whether to participate in negotiations — which the industry is battling in court — or sit out the process, at the risk of significant financial penalty.Drugmakers who refuse to negotiate with Medicare face an excise tax of up to 95% of their U.S. sales, or they can withdraw their drugs from Medicare and Medicaid coverage, shutting them out of huge markets.What they're saying: "The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there," Stephen Ubl, CEO of industry trade group PhRMA, said in a statement following the release of the list.Zoom out: The medicines up for negotiation were chosen from a list of the 50 products with the highest spending in Medicare's prescription drug program, Part D.The selected drugs accounted for 20% of Part D prescription costs between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023, according to the Health and Human Services Department.Some of the highest-cost Medicare drugs were not eligible for this round of negotiations, either because they still have market exclusivity, they're the only option for a rare disease or another factor.The prices won't take effect before the 2024 elections, but Democrats are expected to tout the negotiations, along with other drug cost reforms in the IRA, as part of their campaign messaging.What's next: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will submit price offers to the drug companies by Feb. 1, with negotiations continuing until next August.CMS will publish the drugs' final maximum fair prices by Sept. 1, 2024, and prices will go into effect in 2026.What we're watching: Ongoing legal challenges could draw out or halt the negotiation process.Drugmakers and allied groups have already filed eight lawsuits against the Medicare drug negotiation process, and more lawsuits could follow Tuesday's announcement.President Biden and his health officials committed this morning to fighting industry lawsuits."Let me be clear: I am not backing down. There is no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma's pockets," Biden said in a statement.Nikki HaleyDAILY BEAST: Is it time for Republicans to take Nikki Haley seriously?According to a new Emerson College Polling survey, “Haley saw the largest increase in support among Republican candidates, jumping 5 points from 2 percent to 7 percent” following last week's debate.“Nikki Haley's support increased from about 2 percent to 9 percent among voters over 50 [years of age],” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, “while Trump's support dropped within this age group from about 56 percent to 49 percent after the debate.”Republican Debaters Agreed on One Thing: They Hate Vivek RamaswamyThis jump is modest, inasmuch as it still leaves Haley in the single digits. But it's also no outlier. According to a poll conducted by The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, and Ipsos released last Thursday, voters were persuaded to at least give her a second look. “Pre-debate, 29 percent of GOP primary voters who watched the debate said they were considering voting for her,” according to the survey, “and that increased to 46 percent after the debate.”So how did she do it? Haley caught our attention by being first to hit Trump (from the right), when she criticized him for “adding eight trillion to our debt.” This surprised everyone, demonstrated courage, and put to rest the notion that she is merely running to be Trump's vice president.Haley also staked out a strong position on abortion. While stressing her pro-life beliefs, she made the pragmatic case that a federal abortion ban would require 60 votes. Instead, Haley urged Republicans to focus on consensus issues, like banning late-term abortions, making sure contraception is widely available, and supporting adoption as an alternative.Trump's former veep, Mike Pence, who supports a 15-week federal ban on abortion, took umbrage with this. “Nikki, you're my friend, but consensus is the opposite of leadership,” Pence scolded. (As the Never Trump conservative writer Jonah Goldberg has pointed out on his podcast, building consensus is often a key attribute of leadership.)The Republican Debate Was a Futile Pudding Wrestling MatchThis exchange, like others during that same debate, made it clear that in a general election Nikki Haley would likely be Joe Biden's most challenging opponent.Having served as governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, she has the experience needed for the office. She also has sharp elbows. (“You have no foreign policy experience and it shows,” she told Vivek Ramaswamy.)At 51, Haley would present a stark contrast in terms of generational change, assuming that Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee. And (unlike others) she is not staking out an abortion position that might render her effectively unelectable, should she become the Republican nominee.Haley (who frequently cites Margaret Thatcher's line, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman”) was the only woman on that stage. Her identity, temperament, and policy positions could help chip away at the gender gap that has only grown in recent years.The obvious caveat here is that all of these things would make Haley a great candidate to beat Joe Biden if she somehow wins the Republican nomination. But that's an awfully big “if.”Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: GOP Debate Showed How Not to Pick a PresidentHaley's answer to this is to make the electability argument: “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America,” she—and she, alone—averred during last week's debate.But will that dog hunt?Right now, the electability argument isn't persuading Republicans to jump off the Trump bandwagon, even though that argument is likely the only one that could ever work. At some point (perhaps after Donald Trump goes on trial and it's too late), Republicans might be convinced that, as entertaining as Trump is, he simply can't win.Based on all of this, you might expect me to suggest that it's time to clear the field—to rally every freedom conservative, Reagan Republican, and Never Trump conservative to coalesce around Haley as the GOP's last, best hope.Some of my colleagues are already there. The New York Times columnist David Brooks, for example, declared last week that “Wednesday's debate persuaded me that the best Trump alternative is not [Tim] Scott, it's Nikki Haley.”But here's my problem. Haley has been all over the map for years now. One day she's courageous and impressive, and the next day she's a pathetic Trump toady.Haley is a political chameleon, which makes me reluctant to ever trust her again.Trump and Ramaswamy Show Us How the Worst Get to the TopOn the other hand, anyone looking for purity (as it pertains to Trump) can also dismiss Pence and Chris Christie—both of whom supported Trump until Jan. 6—and a vast swath of today's leading Never Trumpers. As the Good Book says, “Who then can be saved?”Nikki Haley's got a long way to go before she clears the not-Trump lane of candidates, much less taking on the final boss himself. And though nothing has yet made a dent in Trump's domination of the GOP voter base, he's never run as a candidate on trial before. But the whole 91-felony indictment thing might just do the trick.If Haley can prove herself by stringing together two or three of these kinds of courageous performances—in which she not only characterizes Trump as the guy who already lost to Biden, but also that she's as real a conservative as any of the other contenders—there is a path to success.It's hardly guaranteed, and as I've noted, courage comes and goes with Haley. But in the “Matt Lewis primary,” you can count me among the 46 percent who are now considering voting for her.Read more at The Daily Beast.SEMAFOR: Nikki Haley's abortion message could catch on in the GOPMorgan Chalfant and Kadia GobaRepublicans worried about Democrats leveraging abortion (again) to make gains in 2024 want GOP candidates to take a page out of Nikki Haley's debate prep playbook.Haley dismissed the idea that a 15-week national abortion ban could pass through Congress. Instead, she argued the focus should be on finding “consensus” around banning “late-term abortions,” sustaining access to contraception, allowing doctors who don't support abortion refuse to perform them, and preventing women who get abortions from being penalized.Defeated Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon bluntly said on Fox News that Republicans would lose the messaging war in 2024 unless they followed Haley's “perfect response” in the debate.“No one really understood how important abortion would be in 2022 because no one had run in a post-Roe world, so we suddenly got attacked, viciously attacked, by the Democrats, and it is a winning message for them,” she said. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer highlighted Dixon's opposition to rape exceptions in abortion bans in their contest, which took place alongide a ballot initiative guaranteeing abortion rights that passed by a wide margin.“The only candidate on the stage that talked about how we should protect women and not demonize them was Nikki Haley,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. said Sunday on CBS of the first GOP presidential debate. “And that is a message that we have to carry through. We have to be pro-woman and pro-life. You cannot go after women and attack them because they make a choice that you don't like or don't agree with.”And Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who represents a district President Biden won in 2020, told Semafor at a watch party last week: “She had probably the best-packaged message on abortion that I've heard, I want to say, in my entire adult life.”Haley might have won herself some fans, but her position wasn't a favorite within the anti-abortion movement, which has rallied around a 15-week federal ban as a minimum ask for candidates.

Florida Gov and GOP 2024 also-ran Ron DeSantis looks to lead in wake of violence and major hurricane | Former SC Gov and UN Ambassador under President Trump, Nikki Haley is having a moment, kind of | President Biden names first 10 drugs subject to negotations with Medicare | 60th anniversary of the March on WashingtonSong playsIntro by hostWelcome to Heartland Pod Wednesday!Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Hurricane in Florida / Shooting in FloridaPOLITICO: DeSantis knows how to handle a hurricane. The racist shooting poses a bigger dilemma.A racially-motivated Jacksonville tragedy, couple with a looming storm, pose big tests for the governor.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center and his wife Casey, right, bow their heads during a prayer.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (center) and his wife Casey bow their heads during a prayer at a vigil for the victims of Saturday's mass shooting on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, in Jacksonville. | John Raoux/AP PhotoBy KIMBERLY LEONARD08/28/2023 04:14 PM EDTUpdated: 08/28/2023 05:12 PM EDTMIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' handling of back-to-back crises — a racist mass shooting and a potentially catastrophic hurricane — could help burnish his image as a can-do, effective governor or further damage his standing with Black Americans who have grown livid over his policies.Already, DeSantis' attempts to show leadership in the immediate aftermath of the Saturday shooting were poorly received by some Black lawmakers, Democrats and residents in Florida. In the hours after a 21-year-old white man killed three Black Floridians near a historically Black college in Jacksonville, several state Democrats blamed DeSantis, who is running for president, for creating an environment, through policies such as loosening gun laws and ending diversity programs, that helped hate fester.DeSantis has condemned the shooting and said “targeting people due to their race has no place in this state of Florida.” But attending a Sunday night vigil in Jacksonville, he was jeered and booed by people who had come out to remember the victims. At one point, a Jacksonville Democratic councilmember stepped in to calm the crowd, urging people to “put parties aside.” Later during the event, a pastor took issue with DeSantis describing the gunman as a “scumbag,” and said he should have used the word “racist” instead.The vigil stood in contrast to press conferences in Tallahassee on Sunday and Monday, when DeSantis appeared visibly tired but spoke authoritatively about preparations overseeing Tropical Storm Idalia, which is forecast to become a major hurricane. He canceled campaign appearances and fundraisers, and told Floridians Sunday they could “rest assured” because “I am here” and would “get the job done.”DeSantis says politics won't interfere with storm response“He needs to be in Florida for as long as it takes,” said Adam Hollingsworth, the former chief of staff to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who served as governor before DeSantis. “His presidential ambitions could be a distraction, but first Gov. DeSantis has to dance with the one who brought him. Right now, that's the people of Florida.”Though the shooting and looming storm are taking DeSantis away from campaigning for president following a high-profile debate, they'll also allow voters and donors to see the governor at work leading the hurricane response, letting the public assess how he balances multiple priorities, displays empathy and projects leadership in moments of tragedy. At the same time, the shooting has shined a spotlight on DeSantis' record and vulnerabilities on race, one of the areas for which he has faced the most criticism and controversy as governor.In times of tragedy, opponents are “looking for a misstep,” acknowledged Craig Fugate, who led Florida's emergency division under Gov. Jeb Bush and oversaw FEMA during the Obama administration.“They're looking for something to go wrong — particularly for the opponents; they're looking for something to capitalize on,” Fugate said.DeSantis began his Monday morning hurricane preparedness press conference by first addressing the mass shooting. He pledged $1 million in security funding to Edward Waters University, a historically Black university that the gunman is believed to have initially targeted, as well as $100,000 toward a charity for the families of the victims. He also deployed state law enforcement officials to evaluate the campus' security and make additional recommendations, pledging to continue to assist in the “days and weeks ahead.”But many Democrats in the state panned his response. They pointed to laws he enacted in Florida to carve up representation in a Black-majority district that eventually led a Black Democratic congressman, Rep. Al Lawson, to lose his seat. They also pointed to his policies, approved by the GOP-led Legislature, banning what he calls “critical race theory” in schools, as well as his defense of a public school curriculum on Black history that required middle-school teachers to instruct that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”Florida Minority House Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Black Democrat of Tampa, said it was “absolutely” the right decision for DeSantis to attend the vigil but added that she didn't want to give him a pass.“The reality is, a number of wrongheaded decisions about the state of Florida, and who we are as a people, I think contributed to this charged political climate that resulted in the violence that we saw,” Driskell said in an interview.The accused gunman, identified as Ryan Palmeter, had a racist manifesto and drew swastikas on his weapons. He also had a history of mental illness, having been involuntarily institutionalized for emergency mental health services as a teenager, police said.During DeSantis' vigil remarks Sunday, Democratic state Rep. Angela Nixon, who represents the district where the shooting took place, could be seen glaring at the governor in videos and photos widely shared on social media.“We feel the same,” the NAACP wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.AXIOS: Biden set to name first 10 drugs subject to Medicare negotiations.The blood-thinners Eliquis and Xarelto are among the 10 prescription medicines the Biden administration will seek lower Medicare prices for as part of a new program allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for America's seniors.Why it matters: The administration's landmark announcement Tuesday detailed the first-ever set of drugs subject to Medicare price negotiations, a longtime Democratic priority included in last year's Inflation Reduction Act over drug companies' fervent objections.Other drugs up for negotiation include:Jardiance, a diabetes drug.Januvia, also for diabetes.Farxiga, another diabetes drug.Entresto, for heart failure.Enbrel, for arthritis and psoriasis.Imbruvica, a blood cancer drug.Stelara, used on psoriasis, Crohn's disease and other illnesses.Fiasp, also used for diabetes.Of note: Insulin is already subject to a $35 monthly co-pay cap for Medicare prescription drug plan enrollees under a different provision of the IRA.State of play: The drugs' manufacturers will have just over a month to decide whether to participate in negotiations — which the industry is battling in court — or sit out the process, at the risk of significant financial penalty.Drugmakers who refuse to negotiate with Medicare face an excise tax of up to 95% of their U.S. sales, or they can withdraw their drugs from Medicare and Medicaid coverage, shutting them out of huge markets.What they're saying: "The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there," Stephen Ubl, CEO of industry trade group PhRMA, said in a statement following the release of the list.Zoom out: The medicines up for negotiation were chosen from a list of the 50 products with the highest spending in Medicare's prescription drug program, Part D.The selected drugs accounted for 20% of Part D prescription costs between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023, according to the Health and Human Services Department.Some of the highest-cost Medicare drugs were not eligible for this round of negotiations, either because they still have market exclusivity, they're the only option for a rare disease or another factor.The prices won't take effect before the 2024 elections, but Democrats are expected to tout the negotiations, along with other drug cost reforms in the IRA, as part of their campaign messaging.What's next: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will submit price offers to the drug companies by Feb. 1, with negotiations continuing until next August.CMS will publish the drugs' final maximum fair prices by Sept. 1, 2024, and prices will go into effect in 2026.What we're watching: Ongoing legal challenges could draw out or halt the negotiation process.Drugmakers and allied groups have already filed eight lawsuits against the Medicare drug negotiation process, and more lawsuits could follow Tuesday's announcement.President Biden and his health officials committed this morning to fighting industry lawsuits."Let me be clear: I am not backing down. There is no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma's pockets," Biden said in a statement.Nikki HaleyDAILY BEAST: Is it time for Republicans to take Nikki Haley seriously?According to a new Emerson College Polling survey, “Haley saw the largest increase in support among Republican candidates, jumping 5 points from 2 percent to 7 percent” following last week's debate.“Nikki Haley's support increased from about 2 percent to 9 percent among voters over 50 [years of age],” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, “while Trump's support dropped within this age group from about 56 percent to 49 percent after the debate.”Republican Debaters Agreed on One Thing: They Hate Vivek RamaswamyThis jump is modest, inasmuch as it still leaves Haley in the single digits. But it's also no outlier. According to a poll conducted by The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, and Ipsos released last Thursday, voters were persuaded to at least give her a second look. “Pre-debate, 29 percent of GOP primary voters who watched the debate said they were considering voting for her,” according to the survey, “and that increased to 46 percent after the debate.”So how did she do it? Haley caught our attention by being first to hit Trump (from the right), when she criticized him for “adding eight trillion to our debt.” This surprised everyone, demonstrated courage, and put to rest the notion that she is merely running to be Trump's vice president.Haley also staked out a strong position on abortion. While stressing her pro-life beliefs, she made the pragmatic case that a federal abortion ban would require 60 votes. Instead, Haley urged Republicans to focus on consensus issues, like banning late-term abortions, making sure contraception is widely available, and supporting adoption as an alternative.Trump's former veep, Mike Pence, who supports a 15-week federal ban on abortion, took umbrage with this. “Nikki, you're my friend, but consensus is the opposite of leadership,” Pence scolded. (As the Never Trump conservative writer Jonah Goldberg has pointed out on his podcast, building consensus is often a key attribute of leadership.)The Republican Debate Was a Futile Pudding Wrestling MatchThis exchange, like others during that same debate, made it clear that in a general election Nikki Haley would likely be Joe Biden's most challenging opponent.Having served as governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, she has the experience needed for the office. She also has sharp elbows. (“You have no foreign policy experience and it shows,” she told Vivek Ramaswamy.)At 51, Haley would present a stark contrast in terms of generational change, assuming that Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee. And (unlike others) she is not staking out an abortion position that might render her effectively unelectable, should she become the Republican nominee.Haley (who frequently cites Margaret Thatcher's line, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman”) was the only woman on that stage. Her identity, temperament, and policy positions could help chip away at the gender gap that has only grown in recent years.The obvious caveat here is that all of these things would make Haley a great candidate to beat Joe Biden if she somehow wins the Republican nomination. But that's an awfully big “if.”Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: GOP Debate Showed How Not to Pick a PresidentHaley's answer to this is to make the electability argument: “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America,” she—and she, alone—averred during last week's debate.But will that dog hunt?Right now, the electability argument isn't persuading Republicans to jump off the Trump bandwagon, even though that argument is likely the only one that could ever work. At some point (perhaps after Donald Trump goes on trial and it's too late), Republicans might be convinced that, as entertaining as Trump is, he simply can't win.Based on all of this, you might expect me to suggest that it's time to clear the field—to rally every freedom conservative, Reagan Republican, and Never Trump conservative to coalesce around Haley as the GOP's last, best hope.Some of my colleagues are already there. The New York Times columnist David Brooks, for example, declared last week that “Wednesday's debate persuaded me that the best Trump alternative is not [Tim] Scott, it's Nikki Haley.”But here's my problem. Haley has been all over the map for years now. One day she's courageous and impressive, and the next day she's a pathetic Trump toady.Haley is a political chameleon, which makes me reluctant to ever trust her again.Trump and Ramaswamy Show Us How the Worst Get to the TopOn the other hand, anyone looking for purity (as it pertains to Trump) can also dismiss Pence and Chris Christie—both of whom supported Trump until Jan. 6—and a vast swath of today's leading Never Trumpers. As the Good Book says, “Who then can be saved?”Nikki Haley's got a long way to go before she clears the not-Trump lane of candidates, much less taking on the final boss himself. And though nothing has yet made a dent in Trump's domination of the GOP voter base, he's never run as a candidate on trial before. But the whole 91-felony indictment thing might just do the trick.If Haley can prove herself by stringing together two or three of these kinds of courageous performances—in which she not only characterizes Trump as the guy who already lost to Biden, but also that she's as real a conservative as any of the other contenders—there is a path to success.It's hardly guaranteed, and as I've noted, courage comes and goes with Haley. But in the “Matt Lewis primary,” you can count me among the 46 percent who are now considering voting for her.Read more at The Daily Beast.SEMAFOR: Nikki Haley's abortion message could catch on in the GOPMorgan Chalfant and Kadia GobaRepublicans worried about Democrats leveraging abortion (again) to make gains in 2024 want GOP candidates to take a page out of Nikki Haley's debate prep playbook.Haley dismissed the idea that a 15-week national abortion ban could pass through Congress. Instead, she argued the focus should be on finding “consensus” around banning “late-term abortions,” sustaining access to contraception, allowing doctors who don't support abortion refuse to perform them, and preventing women who get abortions from being penalized.Defeated Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon bluntly said on Fox News that Republicans would lose the messaging war in 2024 unless they followed Haley's “perfect response” in the debate.“No one really understood how important abortion would be in 2022 because no one had run in a post-Roe world, so we suddenly got attacked, viciously attacked, by the Democrats, and it is a winning message for them,” she said. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer highlighted Dixon's opposition to rape exceptions in abortion bans in their contest, which took place alongide a ballot initiative guaranteeing abortion rights that passed by a wide margin.“The only candidate on the stage that talked about how we should protect women and not demonize them was Nikki Haley,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. said Sunday on CBS of the first GOP presidential debate. “And that is a message that we have to carry through. We have to be pro-woman and pro-life. You cannot go after women and attack them because they make a choice that you don't like or don't agree with.”And Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who represents a district President Biden won in 2020, told Semafor at a watch party last week: “She had probably the best-packaged message on abortion that I've heard, I want to say, in my entire adult life.”Haley might have won herself some fans, but her position wasn't a favorite within the anti-abortion movement, which has rallied around a 15-week federal ban as a minimum ask for candidates.

On this Primary Week re-air, Crystal chats with Teresa Mosqueda about her campaign for King County Council District 8 - why she decided to run, the experience and lessons she'll bring to the County from serving on Seattle City Council, and her thoughts on addressing progressive revenue options, public service wage equity and morale, housing and homelessness, public safety, transit rider experience, climate change, and budget transparency. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Teresa Mosqueda at @TeresaCMosqueda.   Teresa Mosqueda As a Progressive Labor Democrat, Teresa Mosqueda is committed to creating healthy and safe communities, investing in working families through job training, childcare and transit access, and developing more affordable housing for all residents. She brings a proven track record of successfully passing progressive policies and building broad and inclusive coalitions. Teresa was named one of Seattle's Most Influential People 2018 for acting with urgency upon getting elected, received the Ady Barkan Progressive Champion Award from Local Progress in 2019; and earned national attention by leading the passage of JumpStart progressive revenue to invest in housing, economic resilience, green new deal investments, and equitable development. Prior to elected office Teresa worked on community health policies from SeaMar to the Children's Alliance, and championed workers' rights at the WA State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, where she helped lead state's minimum wage increase, paid sick leave, farmworker protections, workplace safety standards, and launched the Path to Power candidate training with the AFL-CIO.   Resources Campaign Website - Teresa Mosqueda   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. I am very excited today to have joining us - current Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who is a candidate for King County Council District 8, which covers Seattle - including West Seattle, South Park, Georgetown, Chinatown International District, and First Hill - as well as Burien, part of Tukwila, and unincorporated King County - in White Center and Vashon Island. Welcome to the program - welcome back. [00:01:22] Teresa Mosqueda: Thank you so much for having me back - I appreciate it. [00:01:25] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. So I guess the first question is - what made you decide to run for King County Council after being on the Seattle City Council? [00:01:35] Teresa Mosqueda: I've been really, really honored to be able to serve the full City of Seattle - 775,000 residents at this point - to be able to pass progressive policies like progressive revenue through JumpStart, Green New Deal and affordable housing that it was funding, to be able to quadruple the investments in affordable housing, to expand worker protections. But the truth is, we know that much of the population that I was elected by - the folks that I really center in my public policy - also work and have family outside of the City of Seattle. And in many ways, I want to build on what I've been able to accomplish in Seattle - investments in affordable housing, investments in new career pathways, good union jobs, to expand on the childcare and working family supports that I've centered in my work on City Council. But in order to reach the broader population of working families who are just outside of Seattle's borders but may work in Seattle and come in and out of the City - I want to create greater equity and stability across our region - the County is the place to do it. And in terms of stability, the County is the only place that has purview over public health, has the purse strings for behavioral health investments. And so if I want to complement efforts to try to house folks and create long-term housing stability, especially for our most vulnerable community members, the County is the place to do that - through investments in behavioral health, by sitting on the Public Health Board, by being directly involved in the budget that has purview over public health and behavioral health investments. I see it as an extension of my work at the City to create housed and healthy communities. And it actually goes full circle back to my roots where I started my career in community health. It is exciting opportunity, and I see it as a growth and expansion of the work that we've done in Seattle. [00:03:24] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. You talk about progressive revenue - the JumpStart Tax, which is a really, really important source of revenue that has been so helpful for businesses in the City, for residents, so many people in need - and has been a benefit to the City, especially in this time of a budget downturn in that the JumpStart Tax helped to bail out a budget shortfall there. So this revenue seemed to come just in time. You had to fight for it. You led the fight for it. What lessons do you take out of that fight to the County, and what progressive revenue options are there at the county level that you would be willing to pursue? [00:04:05] Teresa Mosqueda: I think one major lesson is how I've approached building these big progressive policies that have not only earned the majority of votes, but the vast majority - if not unanimous vote sometimes - that have withstood the test of time, have not been overturned, and have not been overturned by legislative councilmatic action nor by the courts. I will take with me to King County the ability to build these broad coalitions. And think about JumpStart - who was there when we launched it? It was ironworkers and hardhats, along with business entrepreneurs from both small and large business, with community and housing advocates standing collectively together to say - We will not only stand by this progressive revenue, we will stand by it knowing that it's five times the amount of the previous policy and it's twice as long. That's a huge effort that took place to try to get people on the same page, and we had to - with growing income inequality, growing needs, an increase in our population. There was no other option. This had to succeed, and so I will take that same approach to King County Council. So much is on the needs list right now in the "wake" of the global pandemic. We have the ongoing shadow pandemic. We have increased needs for mental health and community health investments. We have increased needs for food security and housing stability. There is not an alternative. We must invest more and we must do it in a way that withstands the test of time, like I've done on Seattle City Council. So for me, it's the how I bring people together that I will bring to King County Council. And I think it's also the what - not being afraid to push the envelope on what's possible. Many people said it was impossible to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights - and we got sued, and we won. People said it was impossible to legislate having hotel workers get access to guaranteed healthcare at the gold level, protections from retaliation, maximum workload. We not only passed that in legislation, but we withstood that in the court. And the same is true of JumpStart. We withstood multiple litigation attempts to try to take away JumpStart, and it's withstood the test of time. And I'm excited to see what else we can do in a city that sees so much growth but incredible inequity across our region - to bring people together to address these pressing needs. [00:06:24] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. You talked about housing and homelessness, and one thing called out by experts as a barrier to our homelessness response is that frontline worker wages don't cover their cost of living. Do you believe our local service providers, a lot of whom are nonprofits, have a responsibility to pay living wages for the area? And how can we make that more likely with how we bid and contract for services at the county level? [00:06:54] Teresa Mosqueda: Yeah, two things I would say. One is - absolutely, we need to make sure that folks who are working on the frontline as human service providers - think folks who are the counselors to youth, or people who have mental health or substance abuse needs that we need to help address so that they can get stably housed, think about services to our vets and seniors. These are workers on the frontline who rely on relationships and have skills, expertise in the human service category. They need to have investments in these deeply needed services. And in order for us to create greater stability, we need to be paying them living wages. I say "we" - because this is not about the nonprofits needing to pay them more. It is about we, the public entities, needing to increase our contracts to these organizations who then employ people to be on the frontline. For better or worse, we have a human services system that has largely relied on contracting out critical services that are arguably public services. They are supported by public dollars, and we, public officials, have a responsibility to pay those organizations enough so that they can invest in the wages for frontline workers. That is what I have tried to do at Seattle City Council. The first year that I came in at Seattle City Council, the Human Services Coalition came to me and said - We have not had a cost of living increase in 10 years. To not have a COLA in 10 years for most workers in our region and across the country is unheard of, but it's especially unheard of for the very folks on the frontline trying to address the most pressing crisis in our country right now - and that is housing instability and homeless services. So we worked in 2019, and we passed the Human Services cost of living adjustment - that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what needs to be addressed. The historic and chronic underfunding of these positions still needs to be addressed. We are not going to be able to close this gap of 40, 50, 60% turnover in our critical organizational partners, organizations, if we don't address the wage stability issue. So I think actually going to the County and bringing that experience of having worked directly with the human service providers and hearing their stories about why it was so critical not only to have a cost of living adjustment, but to get at this chronic underfunding is going to be really coming at a pivotal moment. Seattle does have a cost of living adjustment. I want to bring that cost of living adjustment to King County and collectively with Seattle, I want to work to address the underpayment for human service providers as well. [00:09:26] Crystal Fincher: There's been a lot of action when it comes to addressing housing and homelessness from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to new legislation, and potentially even more legislation coming out through the end of this legislative session. We're currently recording this in mid-April, so it may come out a little bit further when there's a definitive answer for everything that happens. But amid a lot of this work that is currently being implemented or has just been authorized, there's a lot in process but still seemingly a lot more that needs to be done. What would your top priorities be to make a noticeable and meaningful difference in both homelessness and housing affordability if you're elected to this position? [00:10:11] Teresa Mosqueda: Resources for housing is critically needed across King County. Resources will help local jurisdictions be able to implement the new requirements that are going to be coming forth from our State Legislature, which - I want to thank our State legislative members - every year they go to Olympia and every year we ask them to be bold - be bold on housing solutions, recognizing that housing is the solution to being houseless. Housing helps people who have multiple compounding factors get healthy, get stable, and be productive members of our community. Housing is the solution to this biggest crisis that we see, not only in Seattle and King County, up and down the West Coast, but across our entire country. We have not built enough housing to house our current population plus the population who will continue to come to our region. So one of the things that I think I can take to the County is the desire to make sure that local jurisdictions, whether it's Burien or Tukwila, or unincorporated areas like in Vashon and Maury Island or in White Center - that they have resources as well to help build the type of housing that's being requested from the State Legislature - to do so in accordance with their Comprehensive Plan so that people can implement it in the time frame that works for those local jurisdictions, but to help them take away the barrier of not having enough resources. Seattle is unique in that we have pushed forward different resources. We have different types of tax revenues - thanks to JumpStart, for example - but in areas that don't have those type of resources, I hope the County can continue to be a good partner, in addition to the state, to build the type of diverse housing that we're now going to be required to build and hopefully we can do even more. The State Legislature is actually creating a new floor. We should be building upon that, and where we can go higher and denser - that is good for the local environment, it is good for the local economy, it's good for the health of workers and small businesses. And it's what I've heard from Vashon Island to Tukwila - people have said, "We don't have enough workforce housing." Small business owners have said, "I don't have enough workers in this area because they can't afford to live here." So I want to hopefully break down misperceptions about what type of housing we're talking about. We're talking about housing for seniors and vets, kiddos, youth, workers. We're talking about supporting the creation of that housing with additional revenue - that's one of the things I'd like to bring to the County. And to also recognize that when we have diverse economies that are prosperous, it's because workers can live next to their place of employment. Workers can walk to their childcare. We don't have time to spend two hours in the car commuting back and forth - that's not good for our health, our family's health, and it sure isn't good for the health of our planet. So it's a win-win-win, and I think that's something that I can really bring in as a County Councilmember - the knowledge that these local jurisdictions want to do more, but sometimes are limited with their resources. And wherever I can, I want to help step up and provide that support. [00:13:08] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Public safety has also been an area where the County continues to make a lot of news, has a lot of responsibility - they operate a jail, and that has itself made a lot of news. Over the past couple years throughout the pandemic, some of the employees of the jails - the guards - other people, the Public Defenders Association have called out overcrowding conditions, unsafe conditions in the jail. There's been times where the jail has not had clean water, several illness outbreaks, people not being treated correctly. It seems to be a really bad situation. Recently, the King County Council just voted to extend a contract to rent additional beds from a SCORE facility in Des Moines. This, during a backdrop of events where the King County Executive has made a promise to close the King County Jail, but it seems like we're getting further away from that, or at least not getting closer to that. Would you have voted to extend the SCORE contract? And should we close the jail? What is your vision for the short term? [00:14:17] Teresa Mosqueda: I think that the move to close down a jail that's both outdated and unsafe is not only good for the inmates, it's good for the folks who are working there. I think this is another example of where there's a false perception of sides. People who work within the jail, as well as those who are incarcerated, have expressed their not only horror when seeing mold and deterioration of the building, but it is extremely unsafe as well - as you mentioned - due to overcrowding. There's a few things that I think we can do. Number one, we should address upstream - who was being sent to these facilities in the first place. In a presentation that the Seattle City Council received from the City Attorney's Office, there was a large number of people who were initially booked and jailed, and ultimately were released because there was no grounds to put forward charges. And I think we need to stop the habit or the practice of putting folks in that situation to begin with. Even if they are not incarcerated for long periods of time, the fact that people are being jailed - especially youth - creates consequences down the road, mental health consequences, consequences for your housing, for your livelihood, your employment. And the negative impact of just being booked in the first place - both for the physical health of somebody, but also the trajectory of their life - is quantifiable. It is known, and we should stop that practice early. I agree with the effort to move folks into a situation that is healthier, but I also want to continue to look at how we can reduce the chance that someone is ever incarcerated in the first place, invest more in restorative justice practices. I'm optimistic by some of the conversations I've heard from folks in the community, specifically in Burien, about the ways in which some of the initial conversations have taken place with the Burien City Police Chief Ted Boe, and some of the commitments that have been made to try to look at restorative justice differently. And I think that holistically we need to look at what leads someone to be in that situation in the first place and back up to see what additional community investments we can be making so that people can have greater access to economic security, community safety, and reduce the chance that someone ever interacts with the carceral system to begin with. [00:16:40] Crystal Fincher: What do you think, or for people who are considering this voting decision and who are looking around and who are feeling unsafe, and who are not quite sure what the right direction is to move forward, or what can be done but feel like something should be done - what is your message to them? And what can make us all safer? [00:17:01] Teresa Mosqueda: There's a few things that I think have really come to light, especially during the pandemic. We tell people to stay home to stay healthy. Well, if people don't have a home, they can't stay healthy. If we can think about the increased situation where many of us have probably seen loved ones in our lives - whether it's family members or friends - who have turned to substances to cope, to self-medicate with the stress, the trauma, the isolation that has only increased during the pandemic. I hope there's greater empathy across our community and across our country for why people may be self-medicating to begin with. And I think if we think about these recent examples of where we have seen people become more unstable in their housing situation or turn to substances because of increasing stress and pressure, that hopefully there's greater empathy for why it is so critical that we invest upstream. It is not an either/or - it's creating greater balance with how we invest in community safety, in what we know equals the social determinants of health. When we invest in housing, it helps reduce the chance that someone is going to engage in criminal activities later in life. When we invest in early learning, in job opportunities, in youth interactive programs, when we invest in even gun reduction and youth violence reduction strategies, it helps create healthier individuals and healthier populations, reduce the chance that someone ever interacts with an officer to begin with. These are public safety investments, and they shouldn't be seen as a separate silo from "traditional safety." It actually saves lives, and there's a huge return on investment when we make some of these upstream program policies a priority. I think it actually creates healthier communities, and for those who are looking at it through the economic lens, healthier economies - knowing that that return on investment has been proven time and time again. And it's good for individuals and community health as well. [00:19:02] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now, there's a shortage of workers across the board - certainly King County is included in this shortage of county workers in several areas, including in many front-line positions that impact public safety - maintenance, care, health - all of those that are crucial to delivering services and help that the residents of the County need. We've seen hiring, retention, and referral bonuses for public safety employees. Do you think we should be considering those for other employees? [00:19:39] Teresa Mosqueda: Absolutely. This is part of the conversation that I raised while at Seattle City Council. There is, I think, a detrimental impact to workplace morale across public servants when we're not uniformly treating people the same. It's not what I feel, it's not that that's my perception - that's actually coming from workers within the City of Seattle who completed a survey that our Human Resources Department, in addition to Seattle Police Department and other Seattle agencies, completed to ask, "What would you like to see? How would you feel if certain employees got a hiring bonus or retention bonus?" And overwhelmingly, workers in public service said that they thought that this would hurt morale - if existing public servants weren't treated the same. I mentioned that in the Human Services category, there's a 40% to 60% turnover rate for our nonprofit organizations who are helping folks on the frontline. There's a huge turnover rate, as well, within our Human Services Department - we've had to freeze the hiring, and reduce hours, and reduce positions. Public libraries, community centers are front-facing programs for the community during COVID and we are slowly starting to scale those back up, but they're nowhere at capacity right now. And what workers themselves have said within the City of Seattle is - they want to see greater strategies for retention. Investments in childcare keeps coming up. Investments in more affordable housing keeps coming up. And if you want to look specifically at the Seattle Police Department, the officers themselves said that they did not think that hiring bonuses was the way to address retention and morale issues - that played out in their comments in the press, as well as the survey results that we saw. I think that there's a more equitable approach that we should be taking. I think that we should be looking at how we recruit and train and incentivize people to come to public service overall, whether that means you're coming in to work as a firefighter or a police officer, or whether that means that we want to recruit you to be serving the public in libraries or as a lifeguard - which we don't have enough of - or as a childcare provider, which we don't have enough of. We should be looking across the board at these public service programs and figuring out ways to both address retention and morale, and to do so equitably. And to listen to what workers have said - they want housing, they want childcare, they want regular and routine transit. And they want us to, especially within the City of Seattle, address disparity in wages for folks of color and women compared to their counterparts. Those are some things that I think we should be taking on more seriously. [00:22:17] Crystal Fincher: Definitely. Now, you talk about people saying they want regular and routine transit. Lots of people want that. Lots of people - more importantly - need that, are relying on that. And there's been lots of talk about the rider experience around safety on transit, but also about the availability and accessibility of service and all-day service - not just some of those commuter-centric commute-time service bumps that we've seen. What would your approach to Metro be as a councilmember? [00:22:50] Teresa Mosqueda: So I appreciate that you raise safety because it is an issue that comes up for riders as well as the drivers. Members of ATU, who drive buses around King County, have expressed increased concern around their safety. Whether they're driving in the day or night - given COVID has increased interpersonal violence across our country, they are on the receiving end of that as well. So I'm excited to talk with ATU, with members who have been out on the frontline as our bus drivers, as well as riders to talk about how we can improve safety for everyone. That is - again, on the preventative side, trying to figure out ways that structurally and through public policy we can ensure that riders and drivers are safe. There's also two things that drivers have talked to me about and folks within King County Metro. They say there's a lot of focus on new routes and how do we expand routes - routes, routes, routes - which I also agree with. But they've also brought up that we need to continue to invest in the people, maintenance, and operation to make sure that there's enough people to be working on existing routes and new routes to come. Similar to housing, we don't want to just build units. We want to make sure that for those who need personnel in those units to make sure that folks stay stably housed, we're investing in the workforce to ensure that that housing, that that unit is successful. We need to be looking at investments in the workforce, recruiting folks to come to these good living wage union jobs, and to be thinking about how we improve retention and stability as well. And for as far as maintenance is concerned - thinking more about how we can invest in greener fleets, greener maintenance opportunities, and ensure that those vehicles are running well and routinely. So those are two of the things that have come directly from the frontline drivers themselves. And then more broadly - workers. You mentioned all-day services. I would also argue all-night services to the degree that we can add additional stops, because many of the childcare providers who are coming in early in the morning, construction workers who are coming in early in the morning, janitors who might be going out late at night, talk about how they have to rely on vehicles because there are not times that the buses are showing up to get them to work and back home in time. So I think that it's multi-prong. But again, I think the common ground here is that the workers in this sector are agreeing with the recipients of the service. And collectively, I'm hoping that we can address safety, workforce needs, and increase routes as well. [00:25:23] Crystal Fincher: Definitely, and I really appreciate you bringing up the workforce needs. I know a couple people who use transit regularly but ended up getting vehicles because of the unpredictable cancellations due to staff shortages, whether it's maintenance or drivers, just making it unreliable to get to work on time. And already the time taken to commute that way is a lot, so that would improve the experience greatly - definitely appreciate that. Transit is also very, very important to achieving our climate goals. And by most measures, we're behind on our 2030 climate goals - while we're experiencing devastating impacts from climate change, including extreme heat and cold, wildfires, floods. What are your highest-priority plans to get us on track to meet our 2030 climate goals? [00:26:17] Teresa Mosqueda: One thing might surprise folks in that category - probably not a huge surprise for folks who have heard me talk before - but I think if we can invest in additional housing, dense housing across our region, it will actually reduce CO2 emissions. And it's really common sense, right? We are the third-highest mega-commuter city or region in the nation. We have more people who are commuting back and forth to work than most of the country. And the reason is because they can't afford to find a house near their place of employment. If CO2 emissions from cars - single-occupancy cars - is the number-one contributor to pollution in our region, I believe that is at the top of our list for helping to reduce our carbon footprint across the country and across the globe. We should be increasing density. We should see it not only as a good economic stimulant, what's right to do for workers and working families, but it is one of the best things that we could also do for our climate. I think that there's - again, a misperception or a false divide between folks who are environmentalists and want to see more trees, and their perception that additional housing or density takes that away. It does not. We can both create setbacks for higher buildings and use the airspace to create living opportunities, while we plant additional trees and preserve old growth. I've gone to at least three ribbon-cutting ceremonies for Habitat for Humanity, who created - basically - townhouses connected altogether. We don't have a lot of row houses in Seattle, but row houses, if you will, around trees created in the shape of a U with old-growth trees in the middle - allowing for greater shade, and a play area for kiddos, and a place to sit for elders. It is very much possible to build dense housing options and preserve old growth while planting new trees. So I think in addition to creating density, we can plant more trees. We can do more to incentivize good living-wage jobs in industries that are cleaner. I heard from our friends in Georgetown Community Center that they had to beg and plead for one of the local industries to incorporate more greener options for a glass manufacturer down there. And we should simultaneously be seeing the opportunity to promote good jobs as a requirement for also promoting good green jobs. And I worked very hard with members of both the environmental community and the labor community in the past to push Just Transition policies - to ensure that as we transition to greener economies or greener manufacturing strategies, that we're preserving good living-wage jobs and, even better, preserving good union living-wage jobs. So I look forward to making sure that we have denser cities, that we have greener cities, and that we have greener industries. [00:29:13] Crystal Fincher: Now, King County does incremental budgeting, making it more challenging for people to understand how county funds are allocated in a base budget. The budget is known as one of your areas of strength. What do you think can be done to make the budget process easier for the public to understand and influence at the county level? [00:29:35] Teresa Mosqueda: I've been really proud of what we've been able to accomplish in Seattle. And coming from working the halls of Olympia on behalf of the Washington State Labor Council for eight years and then for three years before that with the Children's Alliance, I was used to this concept of having these biennial budgets that needed to be seen in full, that you could see the red line to know what was the investment from last year versus the upcoming year. Unfortunately, the City of Seattle doesn't have such a budget document. It's basically like single pages - page after page of narrative descriptions of what the dollars will do. That's fine for some budget notes, but what I think we are working towards in the City of Seattle - a preview for folks who love budget talk - is we're going to one day have a true biennial budget and an actual budget document where you will be able to see the red line, either additions or subtractions to specific programs so that everyone knows what is being invested in, how funding is changing, and where priorities are showing up in the budget. I am excited about being able to build on that work that I've done in Seattle, especially as Budget Chair, in some of the most pressing economic times in recent history, starting in 2020. And have been able to not only allocate millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, but also to create greater transparency in how we budget. One of the things that I think is maybe misunderstood out there is the way in which we've helped to provide transparency in the entire budget, but specifically the Seattle Police Department. It had not been exposed year-over-year that Seattle Police Department actually had about $40 million that was rolling over year-over-year on top of funding that the chief, that the mayor, that the department had acknowledged they could not use. And in a time where we saw an economic crisis on the horizon, growing needs in our community, and knew that that was $40 million that was not going to be put to use, not going into direct services for the community - and for those who wanted to see additional officers, wasn't even going to be able to use to increase the hiring plan. It's good budgeting to be able to make sure that that funding is transparently accounted for in the General Fund - and where we can deploy it to things like food, housing, childcare, economic security for small businesses that we do so. That's something I'm really proud of - that we were able to show what the full picture was, not only for that department, but for all departments. And to make some important investments in mental health services, behavioral health services, youth violence, gun violence reduction strategies - things that similarly invest in community safety, but we were able to show where those line items move. I will bring to King County Council the ability to structurally push for greater transparency for members of the public, encourage us as the legislative branch to own the separate but equal branch of government that the council is as the legislative branch, and ensure that the public has an opportunity to dive into the proposal that comes from the executive, just like the proposal that comes from the governor to the State Legislature. You receive that, you dissect it, you talk to community about what it means - and then ultimately the legislative branch reconvenes, reconfigures the budget, and presents it to the executive for a signature. It's good governance, it's good transparency. I think it's understandable from folks across whatever political spectrum - it's important to have budget transparency and accountability, and that's what I've been able to accomplish in the City of Seattle. [00:33:02] Crystal Fincher: It is, and I think there are a number of people, especially listeners to Hacks & Wonks, who do enjoy budget conversations, who would definitely look forward to more budget transparency at the County level, like you've been working towards at the City level. As we close here and as people are going to be making the decision about who they're going to be voting for for this County Council position, what is your message to voters and people listening about why they should choose you? [00:33:30] Teresa Mosqueda: I'm very thrilled to be in this race for King County Council. I think I have not only proven that I'm an effective legislator at the council level, but that I know how to center folks who have been left out of policy conversations in the room, but more importantly - follow the lead of those who've experienced the injustices over the years. We have been able to move historic, monumental, national-headline-grabbing policies within the City of Seattle in my now going into six years in Seattle City Council. And it has been done, I believe, in a collaborative way, in a way that has made transformational change, and in a way that I think has always centered - been centered on my progressive commitments to investing in working families, folks of color, and the LGBTQ community, workers to ensure that there's greater opportunity and prosperity. And creating housing and stability - that is something that is good for our entire community. I do this work because it's all about how we create healthy communities. You have to have investments in good living wage jobs and housing stability and opportunity education to have self-determination and control over your own life and your own decisions. And I think through public policy, through investments with public resources, we can create greater opportunity across our county. I am excited, as well, to be coming to this race as a woman, as a Latina, as a Chicana - poised to be the first Latina ever elected to King County Council. And with a King County population that is made up of half people of color and a quarter immigrant and refugee, it is critical that we have more voices with folks who have the lived experience coming from communities of color serving in these positions. I think that's why I've been able to effectively and efficiently move policy through so quickly - because I have put at the front of the line many of the community members who are often left out of policy discussions. I hope to bring in my commitment to working with folks who are workers, women, folks of color, members of the LGBTQ community to hear more about what we can do at King County Council. I know I have big shoes to step into with Councilmember McDermott and his commitment to public health, working with the LGBTQ community, his tenure in the State Legislature - and I'm also excited to add to that and serve our broader region and our growing needs. [00:35:59] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much, Councilmember Mosqueda, for spending this time with us today and having this conversation. Sincerely appreciate it, and we'll certainly be following your campaign eagerly over the next several months. Thank you. [00:36:13] Teresa Mosqueda: Thank you so much - I appreciate it. [00:36:15] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Lawmakers today pressed a former FDA Deputy Commissioner who resigned in the wake of a baby formula shortage. The hearing comes as House Republicans ask the FDA to share all communications between the agency, the White House and the Health and Human Services Department. FOX's John Saucier speaks with Lydia Hu, FOX Business Network correspondent, about what the testimony tells us and why a shortage is still a worry.   Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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