Biden kills Trump plan on opioid-treatment prescriptions

The Biden administration said Wednesday that it is canceling a last-minute plan by the Trump administration to let more physicians prescribe an opioid-treatment drug, despite exhortations from lawmakers and physician groups to keep it.

“On January 14, 2021, HHS announced forthcoming Practice Guidelines for the Administration of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder,” the White House’s drug policy office said in a message obtained by The Washington Post. “Unfortunately, the announcement was made prematurely. Therefore, the Guidelines previously announced cannot be issued at this time.”

The Biden administration also vowed to continue working to “increase access to buprenorphine, reduce overdose rates and save lives” in the announcement, which was also posted on the website of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

The Trump administration’s plan was plagued by legal and operational problems, including a failure to get necessary clearance from the White House budget office, said two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

“The Biden-Harris administration absolutely supports broader access to medication-based treatment for opioid use disorder, and is working to find ways to lift burdensome restrictions on medications for opioid use disorder treatment,” said a spokesperson for the White House’s drug policy office.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/27/biden-kills-buprenorphine-waiver/

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Napa man charged with stockpiling weapons may have been targeting Newsom

A Northern California man has been charged with stockpiling weapons, including pipe bombs, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday, and the FBI said he sent texts that could be seen as threats against the governor’s office and social media companies.

Ian Rogers, 44, was arrested this month on state illegal firearm charges after sheriff’s deputies and federal agents found weapons and explosives at his home and auto repair shop, authorities said. He’s being held in lieu of $5 million bail. Federal prosecutors have now charged him with unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices, according to court records.

Officials found a cache of 49 weapons that included at least eight illegal guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, five pipe bombs and materials to make more, plus manuals like “The Anarchist Cookbook,” “U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook” and “Homemade C-4 A Recipe for Survival.” He also had a bumper sticker associated with anti-government militia the Three Percenters on his vehicle, prosecutors said.

“We draw a bright line between lawlessness and our constitutional freedoms. We will prosecute illegal weapons stockpiles regardless of the motivation of the offender,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson for the Northern District of California said in a statement.





https://ktla.com/news/california/napa-man-charged-with-stockpiling-weapons-may-have-been-targeting-newsom/

Greene Harassed Parkland Shooting Survivor

A video from last year shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) chasing after Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg and berating him for supporting “red-flag gun laws.”



https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/27/marjorie-taylor-greene-harassed-parkland-shooting-survivor/

Empowered Bernie Sanders leads new Democrat push for $15 federal minimum wage

New Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and congressional Democrats are renewing their push to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

"If we cannot get enough Republicans to vote for this legislation under regular order, we cannot simply take 'No' for an answer," Sanders said at a press conference following the introduction of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021. "We must raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour through budget reconciliation... that is exactly what I will be fighting to do."

Budget reconciliation is a process that expedites the passage of certain types of spending legislation. The newly introduced bill is co-sponsored by House Committee on Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA), Sanders, Senate HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL).


https://www.google.com/amp/s/finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/federal-minimum-wage-democrats-181301329.html

Biden announces purchase of 200M vaccine doses

(CNN)President Joe Biden announced a series of measures on Tuesday aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses and increased distribution to states by millions of doses next week.

With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans -- nearly the entire US population -- by the end of summer or early fall.

He described efforts to combat Covid-19 as a "wartime undertaking."

"We now have a national strategy to beat Covid-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," he said.

As part of the new efforts announced Tuesday, the US will buy 100 million more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna -- the two-dose vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer and Moderna are working to step up production, and Biden said that the additional doses will be available this summer.

The new purchase will increase the planned Covid-19 vaccine supply from 400 million to 600 million, an official told reporters on a call on Tuesday ahead of Biden's remarks.





https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/biden-vaccine-supply-tuesday/index.html

NC-SEN: Democrat Jeff Jackson jumps into North Carolina Senate race

Democrat Jeff Jackson jumped into the race to succeed Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Tuesday, joining what is expected to be one of the most expensive and closely watched Senate contests of the 2022 midterms.

Jackson, a 38-year-old serving in his fourth term in the state Senate, announced his campaign in a video posted online on Tuesday.

“We’re going to make it a 100-county campaign. A true 100-county campaign,” he said in the video. “An organized effort to reach every county in the state, to cut through the noise and hear directly from you about what our state needs. And that means we’re going to be on the road a lot.”

“We know how divided we are,” Jackson continued. “That’s why we have to go everywhere and talk to everyone. Rural, urban, red, blue. We’ll hold town halls in every single county in the state and we’ll use what we learn to build an agenda that’s actually tailored to our state. Not an agenda that’s imported from D.C. or from donors, but a North Carolina agenda. Something real.”




https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/535859-democrat-jeff-jackson-jumps-into-north-carolina-senate-race

Giuliani election witness who testified at Michigan hearing running for state house seat

A conservative activist in Michigan who Rudy Giuliani called to testify during a hearing on election fraud says she is running for a local state House seat.

Melissa Carone, an IT worker, testified before a Michigan House panel in early December that she had seen electoral fraud take place.

A Wayne County judge found her allegations “simply are not credible," The Washington Post reported.

In an interview with Deadline Detroit last week, Carone said she intends to run for the seat representing Michigan's 46th District, which covers much of Oakland County in the Detroit suburbs.

"My ultimate goal is to get our ballots hand-counted and clean out Lansing just like draining the swamp in D.C. because that’s what we need," she told the outlet.

"Everyone that knows me knows that I’m not a dangerous individual and that I’m totally against violence," she continued, when asked about the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.




https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/535941-giuliani-election-witness-who-testified-at-michigan-hearing-says-shes

Kellyanne Conway Posts Topless Photo of 16-Year Old Daughter

Kellyanne Conway, ex-counselor to disgraced former President Trump, allegedly posted a topless picture of her daughter Claudia, 16, on Twitter on Monday.

Reached for comment, a Twitter rep told Variety the company’s teams are investigating the incident. Kellyanne Conway could not be reached for comment.

According to screen captures posted by users on social media, Kellyanne Conway’s account (@KellyannePolls) shared an image of her topless teenage daughter using Twitter’s recently launched Fleets feature, which deletes posts after a 24-hour period (similar to Instagram and Snapchat’s stories). The Fleet was removed but not before Twitter users documented it.

On TikTok, Claudia Conway on Monday posted videos confirming that the picture was authentic; those have since been deleted from her TikTok account but Twitter users reposted copies of the videos. In the videos, a visibly upset Claudia Conway speculated that her mother may have accidentally posted the image. “I’m assuming my mom took a picture of it to use against me one day and then somebody hacked her or something,” she said. “I’m literally at a loss for words. If you see it, report it.”




https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/kellyanne-conway-accused-topless-photo-daughter-claudia-twitter-1234892220/

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