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Jeffries, Schumer privately warned Biden he could imperil Democrats

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Jeffries, Schumer privately warned Biden he could imperil Democrats


House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, in separate private meetings with President Biden last week, told him that his continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year.

Jeffries (D-N.Y.) met with Biden on Thursday night at the White House, and Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with him on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Del. In the meetings, the congressional leaders discussed their members’ concerns that Biden could deprive them of majorities, giving Republicans a much easier path to push through legislation, according to four people briefed on the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

In a separate one-on-one conversation, a person close to Biden told the president directly that he should end his candidacy, saying that was the only way to preserve his legacy and save the country from another Trump term, the person said. Biden responded that he adamantly disagreed with that opinion and that he is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

The Democratic leaders released short statements after the meetings, acknowledging only that they occurred but saying little or nothing about the substance. The Biden campaign and the White House also have not provided public summaries of the meetings.

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White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden told Schumer and Jeffries in their private meetings that he would remain at the top of the ticket. “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families,” Bates said in a statement.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in California and a close ally of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), on Wednesday became the latest and most prominent House member to call on Biden to leave the race. Adding to the president’s challenges, he was diagnosed with covid-19 on Wednesday, forcing him to curtail his campaign schedule.

Even before last month’s presidential debate, in which Biden repeatedly stumbled, Democrats’ internal polls showed his support trailing his 2020 levels by significant margins in key districts, according to people familiar with the data. Biden’s team had long hoped that the debate would boost those numbers, but it has not worked out that way.

“Democratic House polls have not shown any change in congressional candidate standing since the debate,” said one person familiar with the data, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

In the Senate, Democrats have a 51-49 majority, but Sen. Joe Manchin III, a longtime Democrat who recently switched to independent, is not seeking reelection, meaning the GOP will almost certainly recapture his seat. Even if Democrats win all the other contested seats, the result would be a 50-50 split — meaning the Senate would be controlled by whichever party wins the White House, because the vice president casts the tiebreaking vote in the chamber.

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That has deeply worried many Senate Democrats, given that Biden is trailing Trump in numerous battleground state polls in which Democratic Senate candidates continue to lead — a sentiment Schumer expressed to Biden in their meeting. “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus,” said an aide to the senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

In private meetings with larger groups of lawmakers, Biden has disputed the notion that he is losing to Trump or that he would hurt other Democrats and has cited polls as a defense, although he has not specified which ones prove his point, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.

The private warnings from Jeffries and Schumer are a striking message from the party’s leaders and reflect the dire outlook among many Democrats after Biden’s debate performance. Nearly two dozen members of Congress have publicly called on Biden to exit the race, and many more elected officials privately share that sentiment.

Pelosi and former president Barack Obama, who have spoken out about the state of the race in recent days, have expressed concern privately about the president’s path forward, according to people familiar with their conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Obama spoke with Biden after his debate performance, offering his support as a sounding board and private counselor for his former vice president.

Biden has in recent days launched an energetic, sometimes combative, effort to hear out the concerns of fellow Democrats, meeting virtually with five groups of House lawmakers. He has also spoken privately with party leaders, including Pelosi and Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.).

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Biden had a phone conversation on Friday with Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which coordinates the party’s House races, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversation was private. A DCCC spokesman declined to comment.

Although their path to retaining their Senate majority has seemed shaky for some time, Democrats had seen a clear path to win back the House, which Republicans now control 220-213. With Trump leading Biden in the polls, Democrats fear that a failure to retake the House would give Trump and the far-right faction of the Republican Party a free hand to remake Washington.

The day after his meeting with Biden, Jeffries sent a letter to his Democratic House colleagues to inform them of his conversation, noting that he had requested the meeting.

“In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together,” Jeffries wrote, referring to the full caucus of House Democrats.

After his meeting Saturday, Schumer said in a statement, “I sat with President Biden this afternoon in Delaware; we had a good meeting.”

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In recent days, Democratic lawmakers and even top strategists working on Biden’s reelection effort have grown increasingly concerned that the president is not getting a full picture of the state of the race. In particular, they worry that he has not met with his campaign’s pollsters and, instead, has relied largely on the advice of a dwindling circle of longtime aides.

The back-and-forth is playing out alongside a related dispute over whether to proceed with a virtual roll call that would formally nominate Biden several weeks before the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22. Some Democrats say that is a necessary move to ensure that Republicans cannot challenge Biden’s nomination as coming too late; others complain that it is a ploy to cement his nomination before the delegates gather.

On Wednesday, the co-chairs of the convention’s rules committee issued a letter saying that the virtual roll call would take place, but they promised it would not be rushed and would not occur before Aug. 1. The announcement came after some Democratic lawmakers had started protesting the process and urging the party to abandon it.

Paul Kane, Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.



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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily

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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily


The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.

Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.

Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.

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This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.

One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”

The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.



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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington

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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington


The Newsfeed

This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest

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Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.

Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown 



By Venice Buhain

The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten. 

One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID. 

“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.  

He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.” 

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The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum  

In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID. 

“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said. 

Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.  

While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.  

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“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said. 

The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals. 

Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle. 

“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said. 

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Venice Buhain

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.



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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple

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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple


The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.

“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”

The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.

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The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.

Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.

The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.

In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.

“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.

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The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.

This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.

This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.

The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.

Five dozen temples are now under construction.

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President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.

At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.

  • May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
  • May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
  • May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
  • June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
  • June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
  • Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
  • Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
  • Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.

Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.

Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.



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