Politics
Longtime Rep. Nita Lowey dead at 87

Former Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., has died at age 87, according to her family.
Lowey, who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years and was the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, died Saturday after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer, according to a report from the New York Post.
“Nita’s family was central to her life as she was to all of ours,” the longtime lawmaker’s family said in a statement. “We will miss her more than words can say and take great comfort in knowing that she lived a full and purposeful life.”
NITA LOWEY, LONGTIME DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRWOMAN, TO RETIRE
Rep. Nita Lowey makes a few remarks at the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development Launch at Ronald Reagan Building on Nov. 18, 2011, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/WireImage)
The New York lawmaker was born Nita Sue Menikoff in the Bronx in 1937, later graduating from Bronx High School of Science before going on to receive a degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1959, the Post report noted.
She married attorney Stephen Lowey in 1961, and was first elected to Congress in 1988 to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District.
A longtime ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton family, Lowey became chair of the House Appropriations Committee in 2019. She frequently clashed with President Donald Trump during his first term in office in her time as chair, telling Lohud in 2019 that the president was an “embarrassment.”

Rep. Nita Lowey speaks during hearings on President Donald Trump’s first budget on Capitol Hill on March 28, 2017. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
DEMOCRATS LASH OUT AT SCHUMER FOR ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SIDING WITH TRUMP
“The president is an embarrassment and as a member of the Congress and as the leader of the Appropriations Committee, we have the responsibility to serve the people,” she said at the time.
Lowey announced her retirement that same year, with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., telling the New York Post that the longtime lawmaker was a “principled, passionate and powerful public servant.”

Rep. Nita Lowey listens as Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Jan. 28, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg)
“Over the course of her historic career, Congresswoman Lowey courageously served her constituents and stood up for New Yorkers while shattering multiple glass ceilings along the way,” Jeffries said Sunday, adding that Lowey was a “mentor and friend.”
Lowey is survived by her husband, three children and eight grandchildren.

Politics
White House Attacks Amazon Over Idea of Showing Tariffs’ Cost

There’s a fresh spat brewing between the White House and Amazon.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday accused the online retail giant of being “hostile and political,” citing a report — disputed by Amazon — from Punchbowl News saying that the company would start displaying the exact cost of tariff-related price increases alongside its products.
Displaying the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are shouldering the cost of President Trump’s tariff policies rather than China, as he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case.
An Amazon spokesman said the company had considered a similar idea on part of its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying “import charges” to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items from tariffs.
“Teams discuss ideas all the time,” the spokesman, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. He said it was never under consideration for the main Amazon site, adding: “This was never approved and is not going to happen.”
Standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday morning, Ms. Leavitt tore into the retailer. She said that she had just been on the phone with the president about the report, and she asked why Amazon hadn’t done such a thing when prices increased during the Biden administration because of inflation.
Ms. Leavitt said it was “not a surprise” coming from Amazon, as she held up a copy of a 2021 article from Reuters with the headline, “Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm.”
Mr. Trump’s aggressive tariffs on Chinese goods have touched off an escalating trade war, even as his administration has backed off its broader global levies amid what it said were negotiations with dozens of nations on new trade deals.
Ms. Leavitt’s attack on Amazon was all the more noteworthy because the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has lately gone to great lengths to curry favor with this White House. Amazon donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inaugural fund, securing seats for Mr. Bezos and his bride-to-be in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration.
In December, Mr. Bezos explained his Trump-ward turn while speaking at The New York Times DealBook conference. “What I’ve seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time,” Mr. Bezos said of Mr. Trump, “more confident, more settled.”
He added, “I’m very hopeful. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation.”
Ms. Leavitt was asked whether the White House still considered Mr. Bezos to be a Trump supporter, given the latest report.
“Look, I will not speak to the president’s relationships with Jeff Bezos,” Ms. Leavitt said, “but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.”
Politics
Eric Adams unfazed by ruling against his plan to combat migrant crime: ‘All part of the process’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, one of the only major Democrats in the nation who has been willing to cooperate with the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrant crime, appears unfazed by the latest ruling against his efforts to allow ICE agents into Rikers Island detention facilities.
When asked by Fox News Digital what his response to this ruling was, Adams simply laughed and said it is “all part of the process.”
Adams, who is running for re-election as an Independent, is facing heavy criticism from Democrats across the country for cooperating with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In one of the latest developments, he has been sued by the Democrat-controlled New York City Council over an executive order issued by his office to allow ICE agents to access Rikers Island Prison to conduct immigration checks and interviews.
In the suit, the City Council accuses Adams of engaging in an illegal “quid pro quo” with the Trump administration and prioritizing his own political goals over the city’s “prized sanctuary laws.”
TRUMP’S BORDER CZAR TELLS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS THEY ‘CANNOT HIDE FROM ICE’ AMID MASS DEPORTATION AGENDA
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, one of the only major Democrats in the nation who has been willing to cooperate with the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrant crime, appears unfazed by the latest ruling against his efforts to allow ICE agents into Rikers Island Prison. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The suit called the executive order “the poisoned fruit of Mayor Adams’s deal with the Trump Administration.”
Last week, New York Judge Mary Rosado ruled to bar the city from “taking any steps toward negotiating, signing, or implementing any Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government” for the time being.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE
ICE previously had a presence at Rikers, but the agency was banned from the jail complex in 2014 under New York City’s sanctuary laws limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement.
This remained the case until this month when New York City First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro signed an executive order allowing federal immigration authorities to operate an office on Rikers Island.
DEMOCRAT CITY COUNCIL SUES MAYOR FOR ALLOWING ICE INTO MAJOR AMERICAN PRISON

The Rikers Island jail complex stands with the Manhattan skyline in the background on June 20, 2014 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
The order states that the safety of New Yorkers has been jeopardized by violent transnational gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua – gangs designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration – and there is a critical need for federal law enforcement to share “real-time” intelligence with the city’s corrections department and police.
The order allows federal law enforcement agencies to share intelligence with the corrections department and the NYPD about criminal gang activity among individuals both inside and outside of custody.
It does not give ICE permission to carry out civil immigration enforcement and arrest people simply for being undocumented.
The order was issued the week after federal charges against Adams were dismissed. He had been accused of using his position as mayor to receive luxury travel and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish foreign nationals.
Adams insisted the case was politically motivated and was pursued in retaliation for his criticism of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
Politics
Edison told the government that Calderon was an ‘executive.’ Now it claims she wasn’t.

Southern California Edison has repeatedly insisted that its former government affairs manager, state Assemblywoman Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), was never an executive with the company.
But that’s not what Edison told the federal government.
Calderon is sponsoring legislation favored by Edison that would slash the credits that many homeowners receive for generating electricity with rooftop solar panels.
Edison has objected to The Times’ identifying Calderon as a former executive for the utility, claiming on its website that the news organization is “choosing sensationalism over facts.”
But in its official reports to the Federal Election Commission, the political action committee for Edison International — the utility’s parent company — listed Calderon’s occupation as an executive in more than a dozen filings made before she left the company in 2020 to run for office.
An example of the reports that Edison International’s political action committee filed with the Federal Election Commission.
All the filings were signed by the PAC’s treasurer saying that “to the best of my knowledge and belief” the information “is true, correct and complete.”
Asked to explain the contradiction, Edison spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy said that the company was referring in its filings with the commission to a broad class of individuals that met requirements for executive as defined by the commission, but not by Edison itself.
Edison uses the term to “designate someone in a high position of authority,” she said, such as “an employee director, vice president or similar title.” Because Edison didn’t consider Calderon an executive, she said, others shouldn’t either.
Calderon told The Times earlier that she was a senior advisor of government affairs at Edison International. In other biographies, she is described as government affairs director. On Monday, she said her official title was government affairs manager.
For years, she managed the parent company’s political action committee.
In a statement, Calderon said she had not filled out the political action committee’s reports. Instead they were prepared and filed by the company’s law firm, she said.
“Due to her professional responsibilities, she was categorized as an executive for FEC filing purposes,” her office said. “That does not mean that she was an executive at Edison.”

For years, Lisa Calderon managed Edison International’s Political Action Committee
(EIPAC — 2019 Annual Report)
Calderon’s AB 942 would sharply reduce the financial credits that the owners of rooftop panels receive when they send unused power to the grid.
The bill applies to those who installed the panels before April 15, 2023. It would limit the current program’s benefits to 10 years — half of the 20-year period that the state had told the rooftop owners they would receive. The bill also would cancel the solar contracts if the homes were sold. It wouldn’t apply to customers served by municipal electric utilities.
Edison and the state’s other big for-profit utilities have long fought to reduce the energy credits aimed at getting Californians to invest in rooftop solar panels. The popularity of the systems has cut into electricity sales.
Calderon, Edison and other supporters of the bill point to an analysis by the California Public Utility Commission’s Public Advocates Office that found the energy credits given to the rooftop owners were increasing the electric bills of those who don’t have solar panels.
The bill’s first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Edison has been under scrutiny since Jan. 7, when videos captured the devastating Eaton wildfire igniting under one of its transmission towers. The wildfire killed 18 people and destroyed thousands of homes, businesses and other structures in Altadena.
Edison says it is cooperating with investigators working to determine the cause of the inferno.
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