Citizen Cartwright

Note to readers

It’s time for me to turn my attention to holiday-making with my 99-year-old mother-in-law (100 next month!). 

 

Here’s wishing you and your family cozy and relaxing holidays!

 

See you on Monday, Jan. 6.

Good-news articles I’ve missed in 2019

Many thanks to the reader who on Monday emailed to me "99 good news stories you probably didn't hear about in 2019,” from Future Crunch.

 

What a pleasure to end the year with this abundance of good news!

 

A personal — and local — favorite of mine on the list:

 

Dolphins are breeding in the Potomac River within 50 miles of the nation's capital, a tribute to nearly a half century of efforts to clean up the waterway.

 

“People actually forgot that there were dolphins in the river because they hadn’t been seen since the 1880s,” says Melissa Diemand, spokesperson for Potomac Conservancy.

 

Georgetown University scientists want your help in spotting dolphins in the Potomac River and in Chesapeake Bay.

Also in the news

Protests against new India citizenship law that excludes Muslims spread to university campuses across the country

 

House leaders unveil $1.4 trillion government-wide spending package with 'unusually large load of unrelated provisions'

 

House Democrats lay out their impeachment case against Trump in 650-page Judiciary Committee report

Supreme Court leaves in place ruling that bars prosecution of homeless people sleeping in public

 

Boeing to suspend 737 Max production in January, after FAA says its review of the planes will continue into 2020

 

Purdue Pharma payments to Sackler family soared as legal pressure on the firm tightened amid opioid crisis, audit shows

 

KHN analysis: 'In medical billing, fraudulent charges weirdly pass as legal'

NYTimes: The hidden drug epidemic among people over 65

Note to email subscribers

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If you suspect that Mailchimp has slipped on the banana, please check the Citizen Cartwright website, where this blog is posted by 7 a.m. weekdays.

With House impeachment vote outcome 'all but certain,' focus is turning to Senate trial

House leaders are preparing for the final impeachment vote as soon as Wednesday, after the Judiciary Committee on Friday approved the two articles of impeachment along party lines.

 

No Republicans have signaled that they'll support the articles of impeachment, but a handful of Democrats who represent GOP-leaning districts have said they may join Republicans in voting against them.

 

Freshman Democrat Jeff Van Drew, N.J., is switching parties. He has said the impeachment process is too divisive and comes too close to the 2020 presidential election to be worth pursuing. On Sunday, five of his senior aides resigned.

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to name as soon as this week a small group of members to argue the Democrats’ case in the Senate trial. These impeachment managers likely will be members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees that took the lead on the case.

 

But a group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., has asked House leaders to consider Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich., as an impeachment manager, in "a bid to diversify House Democrats’ appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice,” says The Washington Post.

 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sunday evening proposing a detailed structure and timeline for a trial to begin Jan. 7.

 

Schumer is calling for at least four witnesses to testify in the trial: acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the acting White House chief of staff Robert Blair, and Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey.

 

Meanwhile, some leading Senate Democrats are expressing outrage over McConnell’s plan to coordinate with the White House on trial strategy and over comments by some GOP senators on how they’ll vote on impeachment, before hearing the evidence.

Also in the news

Disappointment as marathon climate talks end with action deferred on issues including carbon emissions trading

 

Ceremonies in Belgium, Luxembourg mark 75th anniversary of Battle of the Bulge, one of most important WW II battles

 

Trump-Pelosi North American trade deal creates strife among progressives

 

Opponents warn of staff exodus as Trump administration breaks up D.C. headquarters of Bureau of Land Management

 

Supreme Court to take up dispute over subpoenas for Trump financial records

Appeals court rules Mississippi abortion ban unconstitutional

 

AP: Thousands of Ohio absentee ballot applications for 2018 election were held up or denied

 

California's governor rejects $13.5 billion PG&E settlement

 

ProPublica/NYTimes: How consulting firm McKinsey makes its own rules

Study suggests 2 types of hormone replacement therapy have opposite effects on women's risk of breast cancer

 

FDA approves fish oil-based drug to cut risks of heart attacks, strokes

 

'Prehab' before surgery helps speed seniors’ recovery, study finds

Boris Johnson’s historic victory in Britain: ‘Political clown’ gets last laugh

Despite the prime minister's own reputation as a "shambolic politician,” as The Associated Press puts it, his Conservative Party’s “Get Brexit done” campaign message prevailed.

 

And Johnson now is on course to take the U.K. out of the European Union by Jan. 31.

 

It was a bigger victory than the Conservatives had dreamt of, says a BBC News analysis.

 

The victory makes Johnson the most electorally successful Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher, who was another politician loved and loathed in almost equal measure, says a separate AP article.

 

And it's a disaster for left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced calls for his resignation even as the results rolled in.

Those results are a substantial shift in support to the Conservatives from Labour, delivering the biggest Tory majority since Thatcher’s 1980s heyday — and Labour’s lowest number of seats since 1935.

 

Sara Hobolt, a political scientist at the London School of Economics, says the “genius of Boris Johnson” is that he united those who wanted Brexit behind him, while “the ‘Remain’ vote is much more split.”

 

Others say the problem was that Corbyn was unpopular and that Labour’s agenda was too radical.

 

Under Corbyn, the party swung hard to the left, calling for the nationalization of rail, mail, water and electricity, as well as pushing for a four-day workweek and free university tuition, and heavy taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

 

The Scottish National Party won nearly 50 of Scotland’s 59 seats, up from 35 in 2017, a result that will embolden its demands for a new referendum on Scottish independence, says AP.

 

European Union leaders are meeting Friday to discuss Britain’s departure from the bloc amid some relief that Johnson has secured a parliamentary majority that will allow him to push through parliament the Brexit divorce deal he negotiated, says a third AP article.

It’s the first time a country will leave the world’s biggest trading bloc. Although many EU leaders will be relieved that the Brexit saga is finally coming to an end, just as many are saddened at the departure of such a heavyweight member nation, says AP.

Also in the news

Defense of the army puzzles former admirers of Myanmar’s Suu Kyi

 

The refugee camps where Palestinians — displaced when Israel was created — have languished for 70 years

 

Senate passes resolution recognizing Armenian genocide, in defiance of Trump and reflecting bipartisan rage at Turkey

House passes sweeping Pelosi bill to allow the government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs

 

House passes bipartisan bill that could legalize 325,000 immigrants working in agriculture

 

House Judiciary Committee delays Trump impeachment vote, ending 14-hour session

 

Russia probe report spurs bipartisan calls for change to FBI surveillance powers

 

ProPublica: Facebook ads still can discriminate against women and older workers, despite a civil rights settlement

 

Vox: Three 'supertrees' that can protect us from climate collapse, if we protect them (amazing photos)

 

Another opioid crisis is raging through the developing world, this time involving use tramadol, which was seen as safer

 

Differences found in brains of children born to parents who are depressed

House Judiciary panel begins 2-day session on impeachment charges

The Wednesday evening session of the 41-member committee lasted more than three hours, with all the lawmakers getting the opportunity to make opening statements.

 

Both sides appealed to Americans’ sense of history, with Democrats describing a strong sense of duty to stop what one called the president’s “constitutional crime spree” and Republicans decrying the “hot garbage’’ impeachment and what it means for the future of the country.

 

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., opened the hearing by making a final argument for impeachment and urging his Republican colleagues to reconsider. He said the committee should consider whether the evidence shows that Trump committed these acts, if they rise to the level of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors and what the consequences are if lawmakers don't act.

“When his time has passed, when his grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns, as surely it will, to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today,” Nadler said. “How would you be remembered?”

 

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Democrats are impeaching Trump because “they don’t like us,” and he read a long list of Trump’s accomplishments.

“It’s not just because they don’t like the president, they don’t like us,” Jordan said. “They don’t like the 63 million people who voted for this president, all of us in flyover country, all of us common folk in Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas.”

 

On Thursday, the committee convenes at 9 a.m. to “mark up” — potentially amend — the articles of impeachment. Republicans are expected to offer an array of amendments and to make procedural motions.

 

But the articles aren’t likely to be changed, says The Associated Press. That’s because Democrats outnumber Republicans on the committee 24 to 17, notes USA Today.

 

In the formal articles announced Tuesday, the Democrats said Trump enlisted a foreign power in “corrupting” the U.S. election process and endangered national security by asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including Joe Biden, while withholding U.S. military aid as leverage. That benefited Russia over the United States as America’s ally fought Russian aggression, according to the Democrats.

Trump then obstructed Congress by ordering current and former officials to defy House subpoenas for testimony and by blocking access to documents, according to the charges.

Also in the news

British voters head to the polls for general election

 

India’s parliament passes contentious citizenship legislation

 

U.S. hits Iran with new sanctions, even as Pompeo expresses hope for prisoner dialogue

 

Senate panel advances Turkey sanctions bill on 18-4 vote, despite Trump's objections

 

Part 3 of WPost’s 6-part series on Afghan war documents: U.S. wasted billions in effort to rebuild Afghanistan

 

House passes $738 billion defense authorization bill with Space Force, paid family leave for federal workers

 

House asks Supreme Court not to delay access to Trump financial records, citing threat to 2020 election

 

Senate confirms Lawrence VanDyke as Trump's 50th circuit court judge, despite 'not qualified' rating

 

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz caught in political crossfire at hearing on his Russia report

After bipartisan pushback, Trump ditches effort to kill federal Office of Personnel Management

 

More Americans now are dying at home rather than in the hospital