News roundup: Oct. 1 – 14

Here are the top stories Oct. 1 – 14 from Texas, the United States and around the world.

Texas:

Indian Child Welfare Act: On Oct. 4 Judge O’Connor ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Brackeen v. Zinke/Cherokee Nation in citing that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was a federal overreach and discriminated to prospective parents based on race. This federal law was put in place to curtail the issue of Native American family separation. The US has a history of separating Native American children from their tribes and sending them away to assimilation. NPR reported in 2012 that South Dakota removed “700 Indian children” a year and that 90 percent were placed in non-native homes. 

Prairie View A&M: Oct. 10 Jacob Aronowitz, field director for congressional candidate Mike Siegel, was arrested after he took a photo showing he delivered a letter to the Waller County Courthouse. The letter addressed concerns about possible voter suppression at Prairie View A&M(PVAMU), a historically black college, after students’ registrations were called into question. Waller County has a history challenging resident student’s access to voting booth that led all the way up the Supreme Court in 1979. PVMAU published that they are working “with officials across Texas to make sure that voting rights are protected “ and Waller County Courthouse has not made a public statement. 

Heidi Group: On Oct. 12, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC) announced, “the Heidi Group is unable to come into compliance” and that the anti-abortion organization would be removed from Texas’ Family Planning Program and Healthy Texas Women funding as of Dec. 11. In 2017, after serving less than 5 percent of texans the Heidi Group projected they would serve, the THHSC cut funding from $5.1 million to just under $1 million. In addition to the removal from THHSC, officials said the money that was used is under investigation.

United States:

Amazon increases minimum wage: Amazon announced Oct.2 that starting Nov. 1 all U.S. employees will be receiving a minimum of $15 an hour and that they would be pushing Congress to increase the federal minimum wage above the current $7.25. Amazon has been criticized in the past by many for the high number of Amazon employees being on SNAP. This is contrasted with Amazon receiving federal tax subsidies and Amazon being the second highest private U.S. employer. Disney, Target and other national privately owned businesses have also announced plans for increased minimum wages earlier this year.

Nikki Haley resigns: Trump-appointed United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley announced her resignation Oct. 9 for sometime later this year. Trump stated he has five names he is looking at to take Haley’s position when she steps down later this year. Though Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called for an ethics violation investigation Oct. 8, Trump, alongside Haley, revealed that he was informed about her possible resignation six months ago.

Multi-million tax scheme: The New York Times released a report that outlined how roughly $413 million was moved from Fred C. Trump’s, Donald Trump’s father, estate through the 1980s, 1990s and after both parents died by 2000. Millions of dollars were moved through gift taxes, misrepresenting the value of different real estates owned and instances like that of Trump family friends buying $3.35 million worth of casino chips without placing bets. Sarah Sanders and President Trump have both responded that the report is “boring.”

International:

USMCA:  After over a year of public discourse, the Trump Administration has negotiated and rebranded the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Dairy, steel, labor/environmental regulations, copyright law and trade with China were some of the major negotiation points publicly discussed between the countries. USMCA still needs to be ratified by the legislative bodies in all three countries. Trump’s interactions with reporters at the press conference about this agreement drew criticism.

Climate Change:  On Oct. 8, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) published a report warning that if greenhouse gases continued to be emitted at its current rate, as soon as 2040 coastlines would be raised to a level intensifying droughts and poverty. The authors suggest the best possible ways to combat this being actions such as carbon taxes and warns that if the world reaches a 2.7 degree, increase the damage would be about $54 trillion and with a 3.6 degree increase it would grow to $65 trillion. This report, used more than 6,000 scientific references and had more than 91 authors and editors from 40 countries.

China:  One of China’s highest-paid actresses has put a spotlight on the growing income divide and the authoritarian response in China. Fan Bingbing disappeared off all her daily social media and in public during the summer. She returned online Oct. 3 with an apology expressing shame and that she “did not uphold the responsibility of safeguarding the interests of [her] country and [China’s] society against [her] personal interests.” Her letter is referencing her use of double contracts for tax evasion and publicly displaying a wealthy lifestyle. Previously published articles that reported on her speaking to police have since been censored by China. China’s state-run media, Xinhuanet, published a notice that they will be cracking down on actions like this that  “foster a tendency to worship money, mislead young people to blindly chase stars, and distorted social values.”

On the bright side:

5-month-old Harper Yeats is the youngest person to ever visit all 50 states as of Oct. 18. The Australian-Canadian family said they applied for the category to be created on Guinness World Record so that they can submit evidence. Ending with Vermont, they regularly update their trek on Instagram.