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Taxes fall, wages rise and jaywalking OK'd by new state laws

January 1, 2023 Published by The Associated Press

Taxes will fall and minimum wages rise for residents in numerous states as a variety of new laws take effect Sunday that could impact people’s finances and, in some cases, their personal liberties.

Some new laws could affect access to abortion. Others will ease restrictions on marijuana and concealed guns, or eliminate the need to pay to get out of jail.

Jaywalkers will get a reprieve in California, thanks to a new law prohibiting police from stopping pedestrians for traffic violations unless they are in immediate danger of being hit by a vehicle.

Here’s a look at some of the laws taking effect in the new year.

ABORTION

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in June, abortion access became a state issue. Laws in place in 13 states, most of them controlled by Republicans, ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with varying exceptions. Meanwhile, more liberal states have been extending abortion protections.

Laws taking effect in January are not wholesale policy changes but are intended to make abortion more accessible in California and New York. Abortion already is legal in those states through viability, which is about 24 weeks gestational age.

California will allow trained nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants to provide abortions without supervision from a physician. In New York, a law dealing with multiple facets of health care requires private insurers that cover births to also cover abortion services, without requiring co-payments or co-insurance.

A new Tennessee law, adopted in May, will bar dispensing abortion pills by mail or at pharmacies, instead requiring them to be given with a physician present. But advocates on both sides of the issue believe the effect will be minimal because a ban on abortions throughout pregnancy went into effect after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

TAXES

Thanks to large budget surpluses, about two-thirds of the states approved permanent tax cuts or one-time rebates last year. Several of those will take effect in January.

Income tax cuts mean less money will be withheld from workers’ paychecks in Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. An Arizona income tax rate reduction to a flat 2.5% also will take effect in January, a year before originally scheduled because of strong state revenues.

Iowa will revamp its income tax brackets as a first step toward an eventual flat tax, and it will stop taxing retirement income.

Kansas will reduce its sales tax on groceries. Virginia will lower the tax on groceries and personal hygiene products. Colorado also will remove taxes from hygiene products, but will impose a 10-cent fee on plastic bags as a precursor to their elimination in 2024.

Other states are providing tax incentives for law-and-order professions. Rhode Island will exempt military pensions from tax. Georgia will offer a tax credit for donations to local law enforcement foundations.

But not all taxes will be going down. A voter-approved “millionaire tax” will take effect in Massachusetts, imposing a 4% surcharge on income of more than $1 million.

Wyoming is taking steps to collect taxes more quickly. Producers of coal, oil, gas and uranium will have to pay taxes monthly, instead of up to 18 months after extraction. The change comes after some counties had difficulty collecting millions of dollars owed by coal companies that went bankrupt.

WAGES

Minimum wage workers will get a pay raise in 23 states as a result of laws passed in previous years, some of which provide annual inflationary adjustments. The increases range from an extra 23 cents in Michigan to an additional $1.50 in Nebraska, where a ballot measure approved in November will raise the minimum wage from $8 to $9.50 an hour.

The gap continues to grow between the 20 states following the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and the 30 others requiring more. The highest state minimum wage now will be $15.74 an hour in Washington — more than double the federal rate.

Another law taking effect with the new year will require employers in Washington to include salary and benefits information in job postings, rather than waiting until a job offer to reveal such information. Similar salary transparency laws are in place in half a dozen other states.

Workers in Colorado and Oregon will start seeing paycheck deductions in January to fund new paid family leave programs. But Oregon residents will have to wait until September and Colorado residents until 2024 before they can claim paid time off following a serious illness in their family, the arrival of new children or recovery from sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment or stalking.

Ohio will offer a new way for people to spend their paychecks. Sports betting will become legal, joining more than 30 states that have adopted similar laws since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said it was OK.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A new law in Illinois is supposed to eliminate cash bail for people accused of crimes, but a judge put that on hold in late December after 64 counties challenged it as unconstitutional. Requiring bonds to be posted has long been a way to ensure people who are arrested show up for their trials, but critics say the system penalizes the poor. Eliminating cash bail would put Illinois in a group of states including California, Indiana, New Jersey, Nebraska and New York that have prohibited or restricted the practice.

Another area where social justice meets criminal justice is relaxing marijuana laws.

In November, voters made Maryland the 21st state to legalize recreational use by adults. That begins on July 1, 2023. As an interim step at the start of the year, possession by adults of up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis will become a civil offense punishable with a maximum fine of $100.

In Connecticut, some provisions of a 2021 law that legalized recreational marijuana also kick in, including automatic expungement of convictions for possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana that were imposed from 2000 through September 2015. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 21 other states have expungement laws.

Alabama will become the 25th state where it will be legal to carry a concealed handgun without a permit.

A new Missouri law will prohibit homeless people from sleeping on state land without permission. Violators could face up to 15 days in jail and a $500 fine after an initial warning. The law also prohibits state funding from being used for permanent housing for homeless people, instead directing it toward temporary shelters and assistance with substance use and mental health treatment.

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Associated Press writers from across the U.S. contributed to this report.

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Benedict leaves German homeland with complicated legacy

January 1, 2023 Published by GEIR MOULSON

Top News: US & International Top News Stories Today | AP News

FILE – Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd at the end of a papal Mass at the Islinger field in Regensburg, southern Germany, some 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) northeast of Munich, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006. Pope Benedict XVI leaves his homeland with a complicated legacy: pride in a German pontiff but a church deeply divided over the need for reforms in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal in which his own actions of decades ago were faulted. (AP Photo/Wolfgang Radke, Pool, File)

BERLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI leaves his homeland with a complicated legacy: pride in a German pontiff but a church deeply divided over the need for reforms in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal in which his own actions of decades ago were faulted.

Benedict has long drawn mixed reviews in Germany, a country where Christians are roughly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants and where many struggled with his conservative stance.

The day after the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the first German pope for centuries in 2005, best-selling newspaper Bild’s front page screamed “We are the Pope!” The left-leaning Tageszeitung countered with the headline “Oh, my God!”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “as the ‘German’ pope, Benedict XVI was a special church leader for many, not just in this country.” He paid tribute to the late pontiff as “a formative figure of the Catholic Church, a combative personality and a wise theologian.”

“As the church in Germany, we think with gratitude of Pope Benedict XVI: He was born in our country, his homeland was here, and he helped shape church life here as a theological teacher and bishop,” said the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Baetzing.

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Still, a decade after his resignation, deep divisions are apparent in the German church between traditionalists in Benedict’s mold and relative liberals.

“The German pope filled many with pride, but above all with hope,” said Irme Stetter-Karp, the head of an influential lay organization, the Central Committee of German Catholics, or ZdK. “For some, this hope was richly fulfilled. For others, there remained an unfulfilled longing to find a way … for their Christianity to succeed in the 21st century.”

Since 2019, German Catholic bishops and representatives from the ZdK have been engaged in a potentially trailblazing reform process — the “Synodal Path” — that is addressing calls to allow blessings for same-sex couples, married priests and the ordination of women as deacons.

German church leaders insist that the process won’t lead to a schism and vow to see it through, even as they face pressure from suspicious Vatican officials.

Illustrating both the pressure for reform and the divisions it faces, a Synodal Path assembly in September failed to approve a text calling for a liberalization of sexual teaching because, while it won 82% backing overall, it failed to get the required support of two-thirds of German bishops.

The retired pope himself stayed out of the fray though his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, has signaled his own strong skepticism about the Synodal Path.

The process was launched in response to the abuse scandal that has rocked the church in Germany and elsewhere in recent years, something that has contributed to large numbers of Germans formally leaving the church.

In 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 or younger, and nearly a third served as altar boys.

Various dioceses tasked law firms or others to put together reports on their own past. That has led to massive and unresolved tensions in the Cologne diocese, where the archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, drew widespread criticism for his handling of a report he commissioned. His offer of resignation has been pending with Pope Francis for months.

An independent report in the Munich and Freising archdiocese, where Benedict served as archbishop from 1977 to 1982, turned the spotlight on the retired pope himself last January. Its examination of decades of abuse cases faulted their handling by a string of church officials past and present, including the then-Cardinal Ratzinger in four cases.

Benedict asked forgiveness for any “grievous faults” in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases, but denied any personal or specific wrongdoing. Reform advocates and victim support groups criticized what they saw as a tone-deaf response.

The bishops’ conference head, Baetzing, said Saturday that “he asked for forgiveness from those who were affected; still, questions remained open.” But he stressed Benedict’s role in turning around the church’s approach to clergy sexual abuse as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later as pope.

The pro-reform group We are Church said that Benedict’s response to the abuse report did serious damage to his reputation and was generally critical of him as an “implacable reactionary.”

As pontiff, Benedict — who left his homeland for the Vatican in 1982 — made three visits to Germany, including a trip to his native Bavaria in 2006 and a 2011 trip in which he became the first pope to address the German parliament.

His only known trip outside Italy since his retirement also took him to Germany. He returned to Bavaria for a few days in June 2020 to see his elder brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, shortly before the latter’s death.

The governor of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, said that “he always carried his homeland in his heart” and that many there “will remember him gratefully not just as Pope Benedict XVI, but also as a humble pastor.”

“He gave many people strength and orientation,” Soeder said. “But at the same time, he also had to face responsibility for difficult phases in his work.”

In his “spiritual will,” released by the Vatican Saturday, Benedict wrote: “I pray for our country to remain a country of faith and urge you, dear compatriots: do not let yourselves be deterred from the faith.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi

Guide to investing in 2023: This year's weaknesses could turn into next year's strengths

January 1, 2023 Published by CNBC News

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A question for 2023: Why can't the world be more like a cruise ship?

January 1, 2023 Published by The Hill

I recently got off the truly stunning Sky Princess cruise ship, which carried about 2,600 passengers and a crew of 1,400.

Prior to one of the performances by the singers and dancers in the main theater, the cruise director mentioned that the crew came from 60 different nations and all get along wonderfully while working in close contact, seven days a week, during six-month contracts. It’s truly a tapestry of interwoven humanity — people of all races, colors, faiths and sexual preferences doing all they can to provide for their families back home in their various countries.

From that bit of information, I wondered: Why can’t the world be more like a cruise ship, when it comes to peaceful and necessary human interactions?

Does that sound like too simple a question? In some ways, perhaps it is unrealistic, but in a number of other quite substantial ways, it’s not at all.

Usually, it is not the hard-working citizens of nations the world over who are declaring hate and war on people of another nation; instead it’s their typically wealthy, entitled and sometimes feckless “leaders.”

The hard-working folks are simply too busy trying to feed their children, keep a roof over their heads, and find moments of happiness. They’re not really interested in hating or attacking people from other countries, who most likely are struggling similarly.

But their “leaders” (and sometimes their families) who live in bubbles of privilege and rarely suffer the consequences of the negative actions they foist upon others are the ones responsible for many of the ills plaguing humanity. For example, it will almost never be the children of these “leaders” who are forced into combat when they wage war on another country — it’s the sons and daughters of those hard-working, often poor citizens.

As someone who grew up in poverty and was often homeless as a child, I have been fortunate to have taken many cruises over the years. Each time, I sit back in awe while observing the dedicated staff and supervisors — who sometimes come from poor or disenfranchised backgrounds, too — as they interact graciously with one another, despite any differences they may have.

One reason why that is so is that the supervisors once were newly hired staff, perhaps seeking to escape tough circumstances back home and trying to provide for their loved ones. It may have taken them years to secure their promotions. They know the struggles, worries and fears their staff may feel. How many of the world’s political “leaders” can make the same claim with regard to the millions of people they govern?

So, why can’t the world be more like a cruise ship? Well, most world “leaders” likely never have experienced such a microcosm of humanity working and living as one to provide — and receive — happiness. But that “microcosm” is real. I’ve seen that it exists harmoniously, 24/7/365, within the fleets of cruise lines.

Knowing that, maybe the cruise lines should offer to host world leaders for onboard symposiums, in which they are invited down to the crew decks to watch the representatives of 60 nations in action. While there, the world leaders could learn a valuable lesson in empathy by bussing tables, doing laundry, cleaning cabins, and then unwinding in the crew lounge with those who have worked that hard for years.

Sure, it’s hard to imagine President Biden bussing tables alongside, say, French President Emmanuel Macron or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Some world leaders likely wouldn’t attend, such as China’s Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And some probably wouldn’t be invited — surely not Russia’s Vladimir Putin or Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. But the broader point stands: These leaders and others could benefit from getting their hands dirty and truly serving others while working with the crew of a cruise ship.

Such an experience just might remind our world leaders that, ultimately, we are all the same. We’re all on the “Good Ship Earth,” sailing the solar system, trying to survive in peace.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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Shocking photos show the aftermath of a Connecticut car impaled by a guardrail

January 1, 2023 Published by CNN

CNN
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A motorist was “miraculously” left with only minor injuries after a car was impaled by a guardrail in Manchester, Connecticut, according to first responders.

The single-vehicle accident occurred on Interstate 384 Monday afternoon, according to a Facebook post from the Manchester Fire Rescue EMS.

The guardrail separated and then impaled the vehicle, says the department. Shocking photos included in the Facebook post show the guardrail protruding from the side of a black sedan.

The guardrail “traveled through the passenger compartment, between both front seats and then exited the rear, extending approximately 20 ft beyond it,” according to the Facebook post.

The car’s occupant miraculously suffered only minor injuries, Manchester Fire Rescue EMS said. The occupant was transported to a hospital by fire department paramedics.

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Lawmakers remember journalist Barbara Walters as a 'trailblazer,' 'glass ceiling shatterer'

January 1, 2023 Published by The Hill

Lawmakers are praising journalist Barbara Walters and remembering her as a “trailblazer” and “glass ceiling shatterer” following her death on Friday.

Walters repeatedly broke barriers throughout her career that spanned more than half a century, becoming the first woman to co-host a news program when she started as an anchor for the “Today” show and the first woman to co-host a network evening news program when she joined ABC’s evening news program.

She interviewed every sitting president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, world leaders such as former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and celebrities such as Michael Jackson.

ABC News confirmed Walters’s death on Friday at the age of 93.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was her “privilege” to sit down with Walters on multiple occasions and see her “masterful” work firsthand.

“Barbara Walters was a trailblazer and an icon: transforming television journalism with her intellect and integrity, courage and poise,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted that many of Walters’s interviews were “unforgettable” and that she broke a glass ceiling for many women and girls. He said Walters always wanted to get the truth.

Former President Trump also praised Walters, saying in a Truth Social post that she was the “greatest of them all, by far.” Walters interviewed Trump on multiple occasions, including in 2015 while he was running for president.

“I knew her well, was interviewed by her many times, and there was nobody like the legendary Barbara Walters – And never will be!” he said.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) tweeted that Walters always drew the audience into her interviews and was “quintessential” in her job.

“Many younger women came of age watching Barbara Walters torpedo her way into the hearts and minds of Americans as a pioneering woman in the man’s world of journalism,” she said.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said that Walters will be remembered as a “fearless trailblazer who shattered the glass ceiling & paved the way for women in journalism.”

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Chief Justice thanks Congress, court personnel for ensuring judges' physical safety in annual report

January 1, 2023 Published by The Hill

Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday thanked members of Congress and other court personnel for helping to ensure judges’ safety, amid heightened threats against Supreme Court justices and other officials.

“The law requires every judge to swear an oath to perform his or her work without fear or favor, but we must support judges by ensuring their safety,” Roberts said in the opening of an annual report on the federal judiciary. “A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear.”

Roberts thanked members of Congress for “attending to judicial security needs” and expressed gratitude for the variety of court officers who “are on duty as we ring in the year, working to ensure that judges can sit in courtrooms to serve the public throughout the coming year and beyond.”

Supreme Court justices’ security became an area of particular concern earlier this year, following the high court’s controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision, as well as an earlier version of the opinion that was leaked in May, triggered protests outside of several justices’ homes.

Concerns about the justices’ security were heightened in early June when a man with a gun and a knife was arrested outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and charged with attempted murder.

Congress extended security protections to the family members of Supreme Court justices and “any officer” of the bench, if the court marshal deemed it necessary, in the wake of the incident.

However, lawmakers have also faced increased numbers of threats, with Capitol Police recording more than 9,000 threats in the last year.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was violently assaulted in the couple’s San Francisco home in late October, suffering a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands. The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Pelosi was reportedly looking for the Speaker, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time.

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Pope marks New Year as Vatican prepares to mourn Benedict

January 1, 2023 Published by FRANCES D'EMILIO

Top News: US & International Top News Stories Today | AP News

Pope Francis holds a Mass for the solemnity of St. Mary at the beginning of the new year, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the German theologian who will be remembered as the first pope in 600 years to resign, has died, the Vatican announced Saturday. He was 95. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis prayed for his predecessor’s passage to heaven as he presided over a special New Year’s Day Mass Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica, a day after Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died in retirement at the Vatican.

The huge basilica will host Benedict’s coffin starting on Monday. Thousands of faithful are expected to file by the coffin on the first of three days of viewing.

Benedict, 95, died Saturday morning in the Vatican where he had lived since retirement. He was the first pope in centuries to resign, citing his increasing frailty.

Francis looked weary and sat with his head bowed as Mass began on the first day of the year, an occasion the Catholic church dedicates to the theme of peace.

He departed briefly from reading his homily, with its emphasis on hope and peace, to pray aloud for Benedict.

“Today we entrust to our Blessed Mother our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, so that she may accompany him in his passage from this world to God,” he said.

The pontiff will lead Benedict’s funeral on Thursday in St. Peter’s Square. That rite will be a simple one, the Vatican has said, in keeping with the wishes of Benedict, who for decades as a German cardinal had served as the Church’s guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy before he was elected pope in 2005.

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In the last years, Francis has hailed Benedict’s stunning decision to become the first pope to resign in 600 years and has made clear he’d consider such a step as an option for himself.

Hobbled by knee pain, Francis, 86, on Sunday arrived in the basilica in a wheelchair, before taking his place in a chair for the Mass, which was being celebrated by the Vatican’s secretary of state.

Francis, who has repeatedly decried the war in Ukraine and its devastation, recalled those who are victims of war, passing the year-end holidays in darkness, cold and fear.

“At the beginning of this year, we need hope, just as the Earth needs rain,” Francis said.

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Nicole Winfield contributed from the Vatican.

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More on the death of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI: https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi

Mothers share how crisis pregnancy centers helped them walk away from abortion: 'huge enlightenment'

January 1, 2023 Published by Fox News

Pro-life crisis pregnancy centers have endured vandalism and attacks at the hands of ravenous protesters angered by the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the events leading up to it.

These centers have been villainized by Democrats, but mothers who’ve been helped by them say nothing could be further from the truth.

Two crisis pregnancy centers in and around the nation’s capital, the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington, D.C., and Life First in Manassas, Virginia, opened their doors to Fox News Digital to share how they are helping women and families in the nascent stages of building their lives.

PRO-CHOICE PROTESTERS DISRUPT CAPITOL HILL CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER’S BANQUET SCREAMING ‘BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS’

“My experience happened over a decade ago, so my oldest now is 11, so when I was pregnant, I came through Life First — formerly known as CareNet back then,” Alana Jenkins, a mother helped by Life First said.

Jenkins, a mother of five including her youngest, Rip, said she considered abortion when she was unexpectedly pregnant with her first but chose to keep her child after visiting with Life First.

“It was scary, you know, I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting other than they offered free services I wanted to take advantage of,” Jenkins said. “I had already decided of having an abortion, but my husband and I decided that we wanted to get more information and a sonogram at the time to confirm I was pregnant.”

Jenkins said she “was greeted with nothing but love” from the staff at Life First and that it was “amazing” to see where her experience at the center “led to.”

“It was great to feel that comfort and love through professionalism, guiding me through the steps,” Jenkins said. “Not what I wanted to hear, but the education of what having a baby was all about, the steps, the process.”

Donation items provided by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center.
(Fox News Digital)

“They offered support, which was huge for me for making my final decision, because I was scared, financially, we were not in a position for bringing on a child,” she continued. “But, again, with their professionalism and their support and what they offered, it was amazing.”

Jenkins said her pregnancy was confirmed by the center with a sonogram and that her time at the center led to a “step-by-step process” to help her and her budding family with what they needed.

Ten years and five kids later, Jenkins and her husband have made their home in Vint Hill, Virginia, where they own a CrossFit gym.

Jenkins said she fell out of contact with Life First after her first experience with them, but reconnected with the clinic after Life First CEO Becky Sheetz visited her gym promoting a church “sit-up” challenge fundraiser and shared her experience with the center.

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center executive director Janet Durig spoke with Fox News Digital about the work they do helping mothers facing crisis pregnancies and are considering abortion. The center was hit with vandalism following the Roe v. Wade opinion draft leak and their annual banquet was interrupted by protesters shouting “blood on your hands.”
(Fox News Digital)

“Anytime they need help, anything I can do of service, like here just explaining my experience and what the result of their assistance has done for my kids, my life, hopefully now for others,” Jenkins said.

Niya, a mother helped by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, initially visited to find out if she was pregnant. After confirming she was pregnant, the center gave her counseling and resources.

Niya was considering abortion at first, as she felt she “wasn’t ready” to be a mother, but knew she had to “get ready” and decided to keep her baby, Amara, after visiting with Maloney.

The team at Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center explained all the options for her baby that Niya could choose, such as raising the child or placing the child up for adoption, instead of going through an abortion.

“After that, I left, [Jamie] gave me a few pamphlets about adoption, giving your child to somebody else, a family that might want them,” Niya said. “And she was emailing me and stuff, checking on me. She sent me a gift for my baby, I told her I was going to keep it, and she’s just been in contact with me since.”

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center counseling room.
(Fox News Digital)

Both centers help new parents get on their feet through counseling and professional placement help, ensuring that the budding families have a steady source of income.

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, while not currently providing medical procedures such as ultrasounds, provides faith-based counseling to expectant mothers who may be considering abortion.

The center was hit with vandalism in the wake of the Supreme Court leak of the opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. They were hit with red paint, eggs, and graffiti reading “Jane Says Revenge.”

Janet Durig, executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, told Fox News Digital the center’s staff felt “violated” by the vandalism and it “comes back to people misunderstanding what pregnancy centers like ours do, or they really understand it and think it’s awful to help people.”

Free baby formula provided by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center.
(Fox News Digital)

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center’s annual banquet was interrupted by protesters who disrupted Durig while she was speaking on the work the center performs. The protest led to the center upping their security presence.

Durig said she was called by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who told her that the protesting group, ShutdownDC, had been chattering about the banquet protest on social media.

The protesters inside the banquet had sat at the table with one mother, Niya, and her child as well as the center’s director of client and volunteer services, Jamie Maloney and dug into the meal provided to attendees before interrupting the event.

“They ate our meal, they ate our hors d’vours, they ate our meal, and even commented on how good it was from other people I’ve been told — and so did the other protesters, by the way,” Durig said in regards to the protesters.

Life First-provided counseling room for mothers in crisis pregnancies.
(Fox News Digital)

“And then sat right next to Niya, the mother testimony-giver and her baby, and seemed to feel comfortable standing up and protesting the center,” Durig added.

Durig said the protest was mostly a lot of yelling, but nobody could “explain” to her how they have “blood” on their hands when they are “helping people who choose to give birth to their baby.”

“They want to have their baby, we don’t force that on anyone, and we don’t force that choice on anyone,” Durig said. “Where is the blood on our hands because that woman has chosen to keep her baby?”

Durig also noted that mothers coming to the clinic were “disconcerted” by the protests but they “all felt everything was under control” when handling the protest at the banquet.

She also said she believes that the protesters misunderstand what the center and others like it provide to families, such as job counseling.

Life First was also hit by vandalism prior to their move to their Manassas location “on the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned” at their old location, but CEO Becky Sheetz said the protesters tagged the back side of the building that is not as visible.

Sheetz also said the vandalism was not the reason behind the move.

First Care Women’s Health Woodbridge Center director Pam Dudley spoke on what the two First Care Women’s Health centers provide for mothers facing crisis pregnancies.
(Fox News Digital)

“We came in one day and there was vandalism, graffiti, on the back of the center, on the side that we operated the building, so we reported it to local law enforcement right away and it was cleaned up,” Sheetz said.

“It was actually just graffiti, clearly targeted along the lines of the graffiti and vandalism that you were seeing all across the nation in the tens and tens, over 100 pregnancy centers that were vandalized,” she continued.

Sheetz said the vandalism was “intimidating” but that it was “comical” that the tagging happened on the back of the building that “none” of their “patients or visitors would ever see.”

“That was the best they had that day,” Sheetz added, noting that, in the wake of the vandalism, the staff and center were operating “business as usual.”

Donation items provided by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center.
(Fox News Digital)

“So that didn’t change, the mission doesn’t change, so it made us feel like we were probably on the right track because we’re doing good work and we’re having an impact,” Sheetz said.

Additionally, both centers provide material goods and services to struggling mothers and families, carrying children’s clothes, diapers, and other necessities that are given to families that visit the center.

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center provides baby formula and car seats, as well as approved baby playpens and crib analogues. They are also planning to get their own ultrasound up and running.

“We help them with material support, which is very important, but we also help them with free childbirth classes and free parenting classes,” Durig told Fox News Digital.

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center counseling room.
(Fox News Digital)

“They could call at any time to the client advocates, especially the ones they know, but anyone can fit in if they’re not available,” Durig continued. “… They know this is someone they can call.”

First Care Women’s Health Woodbridge Center director Pam Dudley told Fox News Digital that their clinic sees “women from all different nationalities, all different backgrounds and walks of life, but one thing that they all have in common when they walk through our doors is they’re facing an unplanned pregnancy.”

She also said that the center “partners with dozens of organizations that help with things like food and clothing and diapers and formula and housing, even,” as well as organizations that provide “free prenatal care, in some cases.”

“We could almost connect her with anything because of all partnering organizations that we work with,” Dudley said, adding their centers also provides prenatal and parenting classes “at no cost” to the mother.

While they don’t distribute car seats and baby formula, Dudley said First Care Women’s Health can connect mothers with organizations that do “so they can get a free car seat, they can get free formula.”

Sheetz said their product carrying comes down to “shelf life,” “storage,” and other similar factors, so First Care Women’s Health gives “away other items like diapers and wipes and goods like that, that we can keep and can have in a steady supply.”

Dudley said that the clinic looks to “empower women with all of their information” who are facing unexpected pregnancies and will try to be a “calming voice” for the mother over the phone. The service will then confirm with the women that they are pregnant when they come into the center.

Life First also provides faith-based counseling, but has a registered nurse on staff, Linda Kisha, who performs ultrasounds and keeps track of patient information on their First Care Women’s Health side of the operation.

Staff at First Care Women’s Health/Life First in Manassas, Virginia.
(Fox News Digital)

“We talk to them about the ultrasound and how important that is as part of their decision-making process,” Dudley told Fox News Digital. “Many of them call and they’re looking for the abortion pill or they’re saying ‘I can’t have a baby right now.’”

“So all of us are trained to talk to them on the phone and explain our services and to get them to come in, especially to have an ultrasound,” Dudley said. “Because she needs to know that it’s a pregnancy that’s going to continue, and she needs to know how far along she is so that she knows how to make that next step.”

Dudley said the staff at the center will listen to the mothers; stories and “many times” the staff at First Care Women’s Health are the first people the mothers reach out to for help.

“We want to be that safe place, that nonjudgmental place, that caring place that she can come and learn about all her options,” Dudley said. “She may feel like abortion is her only option when she first comes in, but we can explain that she has does other options and how that would work.”

Pamphlets and literature provided by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center to mothers who meet with them.
(Fox News Digital)

Kisha told Fox News Digital the First Care Women’s Health clinic provides medically-administered pregnancy tests, ultrasounds to “confirm her pregnancy” and if the baby is viable, as well as tests for the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) gonorrhea and Chlamydia.

“These are all things the patient needs to know if she’s going to have an abortion,” Kisha said.

“And explain the abortion procedures to her, as well, depending on how far along she is, from a medical professional,” Sheetz added.

Dudley also encouraged people who know mothers struggling with an unplanned pregnancy to visit First Care Women’s Health.

“I always tell every patient I meet with, ‘I’m so glad you came in today,’” Dudley said. “And we mean that genuinely. We welcome anyone who desires our services, who needs a little help, who doesn’t feel like she has support, that’s what we do.”

“That’s why we’re here: we’re that safe place for her,” Dudley continued. “So we would just welcome her in this place and we also encourage an ongoing relationship with her, if she would allow us to do that.”

Pamphlets and literature provided by Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center to mothers who meet with them.
(Fox News Digital)

Amara joined her mother at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center’s recent banquet, where Niya’s spoke on her experience with the center.

During the dinner, though, Niya’s speech recounting the counseling and help she received from the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center was interrupted by protesters who had planted themselves in the crowd.

“That is all blood on your f—ing hands, every last motherf—ing one of you,” one woman screamed as security escorted her out of the event. “Jane says revenge motherf—er,” she added.

Niya said she had clocked the protesters when she showed up to the banquet but was unaware that three of the protesters were sitting next to her during the event.

“They were talking, I was talking, saying how I felt about the people outside and stuff like that, and they were listening. I think one of them did have something they really wanted to say, but she didn’t say anything,” Niya said about the protesters. “And then they just start standing up and yelling.”

Niya said she was “confused” by the protesters at first and that the protesters had been complimenting her child’s cuteness before interrupting the banquet.

“Like, I understood what they were saying, but at the same time, that’s not how you go about stuff,” Niya said. “I just felt like everybody got a mind of their own, I went to a pregnancy center and didn’t have a problem with it.”

The mothers, however, say other women in similar situations to them should explore their options at crisis pregnancy centers.

“Don’t be scared! Like, don’t be scared,” Niya said, encouraging other women in similar situations to visit crisis pregnancy clinics. “I just feel like we all have a responsibility, whether you’re pro-choice or not. And that’s something you want to do, you have to stand up for what you believe in and do it.”

“Nobody changed my mind on anything like that,” she continued. “I changed my own mind because I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t built for abortion. I really didn’t want to, but I also wasn’t ready at the same time. So, don’t be scared. Do what you want to do. Don’t let nobody tell you what’s right for you.”

“My definition of success was what I thought it was, and when I came in, I really, firmly believed for my success, I needed an abortion,” Jenkins said. “The place I was in my life, financially as a professional athlete back then, success and my plan ahead did not call for a kid. It just didn’t look like that would equate.”

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“And when I was given the support, the education, the resources, all that, it was just amazing to see a different perspective,” she said. “And when I got that different perspective, that success can be many different ways, that, yes, a decision to keep a child is hard, but when you know there’s support and everything else out there, especially centers like Life First that offers that, it really is a huge enlightenment to go out there and just get educated.”

“And with Life First not judging and offering the professionalism, that they care, it makes a huge difference,” Jenkins continued. “So I challenge women to get out there and get educated, and go to center, take advantage of centers, that offer their services.”

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed reporting.

Houston Keene is a politics writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene

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How Barbara Walters helped Americans understand their presidents

January 1, 2023 Published by CNN

CNN
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Over the course of a half-century interviewing American presidents, Barbara Walters interviewed the most powerful men in the world about their regrets, their mothers, their marriages – even their sleeping arrangements with their wives.

“Double bed,” Jimmy Carter told the newswoman in 1976. “Always have.”

Perhaps like no one else in the recent history of the American presidency, Walters helped reveal the men in the White House as people, using surprisingly intimate questions during the heyday of appointment television to help Americans understand their leaders on a human scale. The pioneering TV journalist died Friday at age 93.

Walters made news and held presidents accountable, though she was sometimes criticized for being too soft. She moderated presidential debates between Gerald Ford and Carter, and Carter and Ronald Reagan. At moments of national crisis, including during wars and recessions, she asked important questions that shed light on policy and approach.

Jimmy Carter during an interview with Barbara Walters circa December 14, 1978.

Yet it was her insistence on locating the character of the president, and mining whatever she found there, that helped usher in a new era of personality in politics, lifting the veil on the inner lives of the men leading the free world.

“Are you mean? Do you have a cold, hard, mean streak? Do those blue eyes get cold?” she asked Carter before inquiring about his bedroom setup.

“You’re more like your mother, people say,” she asked Reagan during a visit to his Santa Barbara, California, ranch in 1981. “Do you think that’s so?”

“Do you discuss these things with your father?” she asked George W. Bush during a conversation about global threats in the months after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

She interviewed every sitting president starting with Richard Nixon through Barack Obama, and spoke with Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the years before they entered the Oval Office.

“Barbara Walters has always been an example of bravery and truth – breaking barriers while driving our nation forward. Her legacy will continue as an inspiration for all journalists,” Biden said Saturday on Twitter.

Many of Walters’ presidential interviews included their wives, an opportunity for her to question a first couple about their ambitions, tastes and marriage.

“You wanted him to give up politics. And you talked about it openly. It affected your marriage. You wanted him to get out,” she asked Michelle Obama in 2010. “Is there ever a moment when you say to yourself, one term is enough?”

Instead of holding her presidential subjects at an arm’s length, she visited their ranches, climbed into their jeeps and sat next to their Christmas trees, bringing with her pages of questions that she’d prepared.

She interviewed her first sitting president in 1971, setting up in the Blue Room with a nervous-seeming Nixon, who asked whether her knee-high boots were comfortable.

After a discussion on Vietnam, Walters sought something more: “An opportunity to learn more about this secretive and remote man,” she recalled in her memoir.

“There has been a lot of talk about your image and the fact that the American public sees you as rather stuffy and not a human man,” she asked. “Are you worried about this image, Mr. President?”

So began a decadeslong procession of mining the dispositions of successive commanders in chief.

“I’m fascinated by the personality of our leaders. Who are they? What do they believe in?” she said during an episode of “Oprah’s Master Class” in 2014.

She joined the traveling press corps on Nixon’s landmark trip to China in 1972, one of only a few women among a pack of men, stepping from the Pan Am charter plane in a long shearling coat with a camera strapped around her wrist.

Her most famous interview with Nixon came after he resigned amid the Watergate scandal, questioning him in a live special several years later: “Are you sorry you didn’t burn the tapes?”

“I probably should have,” he acknowledged.

Walters seemed fascinated by presidential regrets. She asked George H.W. Bush – whom she wrote was the president she knew best “on a personal level” – whether he regretted his campaign phrase “Read my lips: no new taxes” after he was forced to, in fact, raise taxes.

“It caused a credibility problem at the time,” Bush acknowledged. “I would have to rank that as not a howling success.”

In 2005, she asked his son, George W. Bush, whether he regretted the US invasion of Iraq.

“But was it worth it if there were no weapons of mass destruction? Now that we know that that was wrong. Was it worth it?” she asked. (Absolutely, Bush said.)

Walters had her own regrets, too. She “couldn’t summon the courage” to ask Ford about falling down the steps from Air Force One. She cringed watching herself gravely asking Carter to be “good to us” at the end of an interview. And she said she was mistaken not to have aired a walk-and-talk interview with Betty Ford when the first lady appeared drunk.

“If I were interviewing a first lady today, and she was obviously inebriated, I would certainly air it,” she wrote.

Sometimes, her questions seemed to foretell coming events. She asked Bill Clinton in 1996 how important it was for the president “to be a role model.” A few years later, she would interview Monica Lewinsky – a former White House intern who became a household name in the 1990s when her affair with then-President Clinton came to light – before a television audience of 70 million people.

“I never felt that I really got through to Clinton,” Walters wrote in her book. “I never experienced his renowned sex appeal. He never sparkled with me.”

Reagan was a different story. Like many Americans, Walters seemed taken with his movie star charisma – though in one interview she voiced some skepticism that his ability to connect was genuine.

“Do you think that any of that is the acting experience?” she asked him.

In the decades since she began interviewing presidents, personal questions have become the norm for politicians and their spouses. Voters have come to expect having a view of their leaders’ personalities, or at least the ones they cultivate for public consumption.

“I used to be criticized for asking those kinds of questions: doesn’t matter, what do we care what he or she thinks? The most important thing is only the hard news question. I don’t think so,” Walters said after she’d retired. “I think it’s important to know what’s important to them. You have to find out, if you can, what makes someone tick.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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