SACRAMENTO, California, Feb. 6 -- Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-California, issued the following news release: Governor Gavin Newsom announced that his office would be launching a new clemency initiative to pardon people who were prosecuted in California for being gay. The move was inspired by a legislative call to pardon Bayard Rustin, a humanitarian and civil rights leader who was convicted of a misdemeanor vagrancy offense for consensual adult sexual activity. In launching the new clemency initiativ  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 -- The Center for Education Reform issued the following news release: State of the Union address by President Donald J. Trump will very likely include more than a passing reference to education reform, and specifically, the Administration's effort to enact education freedom scholarships to help low-income students choose the schools they'd prefer to attend outside of their attendance zone. Tonight will not be the first time, nor the last, that a president makes a national pi  more

SAN FRANCISCO, California, Feb. 4 -- Cooley, a law firm, issued the following news release: * * * - Former associate counsel to President Obama and US Supreme Court law clerk Kathleen Hartnett joins as partner * * * Cooley has expanded its litigation department with the addition of experienced trial and appellate lawyer Kathleen Hartnett, who joins as a partner in San Francisco. Hartnett arrives from Boies Schiller Flexner, where she was co-administrative partner of the firm's San Francisco   more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 -- The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued the following news release: * * * - Axios: only one of the parties has a track record of defending those protections, and it's not the GOP. * * * President Trump lied about he and Washington Republicans' record on attacking Americans' health care last night. And he's getting called out for it. To be fair, lying is his best option given that 54 percent of Americans disapprove of his record on health care. And the ri  more

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, Feb. 6 -- The Florida Democratic Party issued the following statement by Chair Terrie Rizzo: President Trump has pledged repeatedly to protect health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and last night in his State of the Union Address he did so again. But let's not forget that Trump has repeatedly broken his promises on health care, and is suing to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions. H  more

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 7 -- Global Voices issued the following story: * * * - US deems Nigeria 'high risk' in terms of 'terrorist travel' * * * On January 31, 2020, the Trump administration confirmed a travel ban on six additional countries: Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania. Four of the six countries are in Africa, leading many netizens and critics to call this latest travel ban an "Africa ban" shaped by "racist" and "xenophobic" logic. They join Syria, No  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 -- The House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee issued a report (H.Rpt. 116-335) on the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry report together with minority views. The report was advanced by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, on Dec. 11. UPDATED Continued from Part 1 The President's Intimidation of Witnesses President Trump publicly attacked and intimidated witnesses who came forward to comply with duly authorized subpoenas and testify about his misconduct, raising grave conc  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 -- The House Oversight and Reform subcommittees on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties issued the following testimony on Feb. 5 by Michael Hendrix, director for state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute, at a hearing entitled "A Threat to America's Children: The Trump Administration's Proposal to Gut Fair Housing Accountability": My name is Michael Hendrix, and I am the director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute. Along with my colleagues, we seek to ad  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 -- The National Archives and Records Administration issued the following news release: On Wednesday, February 12, at 7 p.m., the National Archives will host a screening and discussion of the premiere episode of the CNN original series, Race for the White House "Obama v. McCain." The event is free and open to the public, and will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC. Presented in partnership with CNN Original Series. Foll  more

AMHERST, Massachusetts, Feb. 6 -- The University of Massachusetts Amherst campus issued the following news on Feb. 4: * * * - Poll shows high degree of fluidity, however, as 61% of respondents say their votes may switch before they enter the booths on Feb. 11 * * * Bernie Sanders holds a five-point lead over Joe Biden in what has become a four-candidate race in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, according to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst / WCVB Poll released today. The Vermon  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 -- Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Florida, chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, issued the following statement on the invitation to Gina McCarthy, ex-administrator of Environmental Protection Agency and president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, as guest at State of the Union Address: "I'm proud to stand with environmental champion Gina McCarthy, who has devoted her professional career to public health and the public interest. "As a former EPA Ad  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 -- Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, issued the following column: When it comes to matters of war, you might have heard of something called an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF). In recent days following Iranian aggression and the President Trump's use of defensive force, there has been a lot of attention paid to prior authorizations and the U.S. military's ongoing presence in the Middle East. This was a primary focus of the legislative activity in the House last wee  more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 -- Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts, issued the following news release: With the cases of identified coronavirus at 11 in the United States and the World Health Organization warning of a potential global pandemic with the continuing spread of the virus, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) queried the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) about its efforts to design and produce a universal coronavirus vaccine. In a statement last week Dr. Anthony F  more

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, Feb. 4 -- The city of St. Petersburg issued the following news release: Yesterday, the City of St. Petersburg launched the Girls Cohort of Champions, a youth training program that offers support by way of educational, entrepreneurial, workforce and enrichment training opportunities for young women ages 12-16. This new program is nested within the City's My Brother's and Sister's Keeper (MBSK) initiative, which was first established by President Barack Obama to address   more

DAVIS, California, Feb. 6 [TNSgrants] -- The University of California Davis campus issued the following news: The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, will for the first time have a fund dedicated to purchasing and acquiring new art. Janet and Clint Reilly, a notable San Francisco couple with deep civic, philanthropic and business ties to the Bay Area, have pledged a $1 million family gift to establish the Janet and Clint Reilly Acquisition Fun  more