Millions of Americans were able to work at home and stay safe as the coronavirus pandemic exploded and continues to rage. But at least 1.87 million people kept working in America's farm and food processing industries — 790,000 of whom are immigrants — putting their health on the line to keep America fed, The Center for Public Integrity and Mother Jones report.
About 43 percent of the 1.87 million frontline workers in 10 food processing industries that kept functioning through the pandemic are immigrants, Public Integrity found by analyzing census numbers and other data. A third of them are undocumented. Immigrants make up a far greater portion of these high-risk jobs than they do the total U.S. workforce, leaving them disproportionately likely to contract COVID-19.
And yet the undocumented haven't been compensated for the additional risk they took on during the pandemic. They were left out of the federal government's coronavirus relief packages; Even filing jointly with an undocumented person would erase a citizen or legal resident's stimulus money. Unemployment and local relief programs were also restricted from the undocumented, pushing them to go to work even though meatpacking and other agricultural and food industry jobs often require working side by side. When some workers did fall ill, they either avoided medical treatment or pursued it without health insurance, they tell Public Integrity.
Beyond a lack of fair compensation throughout the deadly pandemic, immigrants have also had to deal with nonstop attacks by President Trump. Read more at The Center for Public Integrity. Kathryn Krawczyk
Peaky Blinders and Harry Potter actress Helen McCrory has died at 52 after a battle with cancer, her husband, actor Damian Lewis, has announced.
Lewis on Friday said that McCrory, whom he married in 2007, died "peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family," following a "heroic" cancer battle.
McCrory was known best for her roles as Polly Gray on Peaky Blinders and as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies. She also starred in films like The Queen, Skyfall, and Hugo. According to Variety, McCrory's career began in theater, and her stage work included Macbeth and Pride and Prejudice. McCrory and Lewis had two children together, according to Entertainment Tonight.
"She died as she lived," Lewis said. "Fearlessly. God we love her and know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you." Brendan Morrow
Lawmakers who have criticized former President Donald Trump have reportedly had to spend a significant amount of cash on security following the deadly Capitol riot.
A report from Punchbowl News on Friday described how members of Congress "are spending tens of thousands of their campaign dollars on security to protect themselves and their families" in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot, during which supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of President Biden's election win.
This phenomenon has reportedly been "most acute" among Republicans who voted to impeach and convict Trump earlier this year. For example, first-quarter Federal Election Commission reports showed that Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) spent $43,633 on security, while Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) spent almost $70,000 and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) spent $50,400, according to Punchbowl. These lawmakers all drew Trump's ire after they voted to impeach him on charges of inciting the Capitol riot, and Romney was also the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial.
Some prominent Democrats are also spending similar sums on their private security, according to the report, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) security costs reportedly totaling $45,000 in the first quarter. In the wake of the Jan. 6. attack, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in February unveiled new security measures for lawmakers traveling to and from the nation's capitol, Axios notes, and according to Punchbowl, she's also preparing a spending bill that would add more officers to the Capitol Police and provide certain lawmakers with security in their districts.
"Several lawmakers privately told us that they got a flood of death threats after opposing Trump," Punchbowl also writes, adding that "threat levels against lawmakers have soared." Brendan Morrow
In a Thursday night vote, the House overwhelmingly passed a reauthorization of the National Marrow Donor Program, which matches bone marrow donors and cord blood units with patients who need transplants. Overwhelmingly, that is, except for Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), reports CNN.
The two lawmakers were the only nays in a 415-2 vote, though another 12 representatives didn't vote, including fellow freshman Republican Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), reports Newsweek.
Greene's spokesperson Nick Dyer told Newsweek: "Nothing in this bill prevents the funding of aborted fetal tissue by taxpayers. It opens the door for the [National Institutes of Health] to use this bill to research the remains of babies who were murdered in the womb." Meanwhile Boebert said "this bill added hundreds of millions of dollars to the national debt, while not receiving a [Congressional Budget Office] score or going through the committee process."
As Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said on the House floor before the vote, the authorization greenlit "$23 million each year for 5 years for the cord blood side and, again, some $30 million each year for the bone marrow program." He noted the Be The Match registry, which pairs donors with patients who have leukemia and other diseases, has facilitated more than 105,000 bone marrow transplants and more than 40,000 cord blood transplants.
Greene has continued to double down on her argument, asserting Americans "would be outraged if they knew" the details of the bill, seemingly referring to the authorization of stem cell research as detailed here. Summer Meza
Just when she thought she was out...
Chrissy Teigen returned to Twitter on Friday weeks after generating headlines for deleting her account, as the exit apparently wasn't all she expected it might be.
"Turns out it feels TERRIBLE to silence yourself and also no longer enjoy belly chuckles randomly throughout the day and also lose like 2000 friends at once," she wrote.
Teigen, who had nearly 14 million followers when she deleted her Twitter account in March, had previously explained she was leaving because the platform "no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively." She clarified this was "absolutely NOT Twitter's fault" and also wasn't the result of being bullied by trolls, but she said she was struggling to "come to terms with the fact some people aren't gonna like me."
Less than a month later, Teigen's account was back online on Friday, and she's apparently got a lot of catching up to do, joking she's spent "weeks just saying tweets to shampoo bottles." Teigen added that in returning to Twitter, she's choosing to "take the bad with the good," which fans can perhaps see as a more positive lesson out of this whole saga than the idea that there's truly no escape from Twitter for anyone. Brendan Morrow
One of the Louisville police officers who shot Breonna Taylor is writing a book, but Simon & Schuster is now backing away from plans to be involved.
The publisher announced it has "decided not be involved in the distribution of" a book written by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers involved in the raid that Breonna Taylor was killed in last year, The New York Times and CNN report.
Officers in March 2020 were executing a no-knock warrant at Taylor's apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, and Mattingly was shot by Taylor's boyfriend, who says he thought they were intruders and was firing a warning shot. Taylor was killed after the officers returned fire. According to the Times, Mattingly "fired at least one of the six shots that hit Ms. Taylor, but not the lethal bullet."
It had previously been reported by the Louisville Courier Journal that Post Hill Press would publish Mattingly's book, The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy. But after facing criticism, Simon & Schuster said it only "learned of plans by distribution client Post Hill Press to publish a book by Jonathan Mattingly" on Thursday as this report emerged and will no longer be involved.
Prior to Simon & Schuster's announcement, a spokesperson for Post Hill Press told the Times it was standing by its decision to publish the book, as "in the case of Sergeant Mattingly, the mainstream media narrative has been entirely one-sided related to this story and we feel that he deserves to have his account of the tragic events heard publicly." Mattingly previously sued Taylor's boyfriend for assault and battery last year. Brendan Morrow
You may soon need a license to drive and vote in Texas but not carry a handgun in public.
After years of failed attempts by gun advocates, the Texas House on Thursday gave initial approval to a bill that would drop the state's requirement that most handgun owners obtain a $40 license to carry their firearm in public, concealed or openly. Currently, Texans 21 and over with no criminal record can get a license to carry a handgun if they complete a training requirement, don't have a drug addiction, and can "exercise sound judgment with respect the proper use and storage of a handgun," the Austin American-Statesman explains.
The measure would drop the license requirement, though federal background checks would remain in place for most handgun purchases, with exceptions for private and gun show sales. It passed 84-56, mainly along party lines; five Democrats voted in favor, one Republican voted against. The legislation needs another vote in the House, and it faces an uncertain future in the state Senate.
The El Paso delegation led the unsuccessful opposition to the bill, HR 1927. After a gunman murdered 23 people at a Walmart in 2019, followed weeks later by the mass shooting of seven people in Midland Odessa, "there were roundtable discussions and stakeholder meetings and a lot of promises — and I was hopeful, members, even knowing the political realities, I was hopeful," said state Rep. Joe Moody (D). "I'm so tired of doing nothing," he added. "I'm so tired of catering to a very small number of very loud people whose thinking about guns is wrapped up in unfounded fears and bizarre conspiracy theories."
Permitless carry has the support of the Texas Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. It is opposed by law enforcement groups, firearms trainers, and groups of clergy and veterans. At a break in the five-hour debate, a group of gun control advocates prayed and sang "Amazing Grace" in the gallery, before being escorted out by law enforcement. Peter Weber