I am thinking of the families in Bend today, and of everyone trying to help a community through something no community should have to endure. Mom has written about Silver Rail Elementary and its aftermath in this morning’s piece. Those families deserve our attention long after the cameras leave.
The California voting ultimatum we covered earlier this week has now become a federal lawsuit. The government has moved from demanding that officials set ballots aside to asking a judge to make them do it.
The Justice Department sued California on Thursday, seeking to stop officials from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 people it identifies as “likely” noncitizens until their citizenship can be established. In its announcement, the department says Homeland Security investigators compared publicly available voter-registration records with federal immigration data and used additional verification methods. It accuses California of failing to review the resulting list and says the lawsuit will protect eligible citizens’ votes.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s written response tells a different story. She says federal officials haven’t provided her office with the underlying data or explained their methodology, despite requests going back to July. She also says the list supplied to Los Angeles County lacks the detail needed to investigate the allegations.
That is a substantial disagreement about the evidence offered to justify putting people’s ballots on hold. Weber’s letter says California would review proof that particular voters are ineligible and take appropriate action under the law. She rejects treating thousands of registered voters as ineligible on the strength of an unexplained suspicion, and argues that the demands conflict with federal voting protections, including restrictions on systematic voter-roll removals close to an election.
The new development is the attempt to give those demands the force of a court order. A database comparison can be a reason to investigate. Whether it should be enough to interrupt someone’s vote is a much more consequential question, especially when the people administering the election say they cannot verify the work.
I would like the government’s confidence in its accusations to be accompanied by a corresponding willingness to show how it reached them. Twenty thousand people’s ballots are a rather large place to put the words “we believe.”
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department is advancing a proposal to broaden access to certain injectable peptides. The government’s regulatory review register lists an “Interim Access Policy for Compounding Using Certain Peptides,” received October 14 and still pending review.
According to the Associated Press, the proposal is intended to temporarily allow specialty pharmacies to compound some popular peptides, including BPC-157, which is promoted for muscle growth and injury healing. The public filing doesn’t spell out the policy’s details. The approach described to AP would give pharmacies assurances against enforcement for producing certain products.
Peptides already have established uses in approved medicines, including treatments for diabetes. The products and uses at issue here haven’t undergone that approval process. AP reports that, in July, outside FDA advisers recommended easing restrictions on six of seven peptides they considered, despite agency scientists concluding that the available studies didn’t establish their safety and effectiveness.
Compounding itself serves legitimate medical needs. The FDA explains that compounded drugs can help patients, while also emphasizing that these products don’t undergo its review for safety, effectiveness, and quality before reaching the market. Poor-quality preparations can cause serious harm.
Kennedy has argued that allowing domestic pharmacies to supply peptides would reduce Americans’ reliance on gray-market products from overseas. That concern deserves an answer, but it also deserves evidence that the proposed alternative will protect patients. Moving a product into a different sales channel doesn’t, on its own, resolve the unanswered medical questions.
I understand the appeal of something that promises to help a body heal. I would still like the people making that promise to bring human evidence, adequate safeguards, and something more substantial than the enthusiasm of the people selling it. “Wellness” is a lovely word, but it’s been asked to carry a frankly unreasonable amount of scientific luggage.
Today is also World Food Day, and the World Meteorological Organization is warning that an intensifying El Niño is disrupting the conditions that farms and fisheries depend on.
The effects vary by place and season. Parts of the northern Greater Horn of Africa experienced rainfall deficits that stressed crops and pasture, while the equatorial and southern parts face a wetter outlook for the October–December rains. Rain can replenish water supplies and help crops, but excessive amounts bring flooding and agricultural losses. There is no single forecast that tells every farmer what to expect.
Warming Pacific waters also threaten fishing livelihoods. WMO notes that Peru has suspended anchoveta fishing to protect stocks, and warns of marine heatwaves affecting fisheries more broadly. El Niño’s additional heat arrives on top of an already warmer climate.
The useful response includes seasonal forecasts that help farmers plan, governments manage water, and humanitarian agencies prepare assistance. That information can support decisions before a failed harvest becomes an emergency. Food security depends partly on whether people have the tools and support to act while there’s still time.
On our actual Homefront, my husband’s latest order of oil pastels arrived yesterday, and there are so many amazing colors that I have been happily making one creation after another. Being sick has given me the perfect excuse to draw all the time, which has been a wonderful bit of brightness in a fairly snotty chapter of our lives. As we head toward the mend, though, I must gradually return to my usual adult responsibilities and our other projects. Those are exciting in their own way, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can make of them.
Our heat pump should be fully installed by the end of today, which is a particularly welcome development with winter approaching. There is considerable appeal in an improvement that will eventually require me to press a button rather than locate another tool.
Grammy has also decided to take all three kids tonight, leaving my husband and me with a quantity of freedom we may need to approach cautiously. I’m not sure what we’ll do with it. We’ll probably talk at length about how much we would like a nap, then stay awake until two in the morning drawing or woodworking.
Two adults, no children, absolutely no excuse for failing to go to bed, and somehow a particular color or piece of wood will probably require our immediate attention. I’m looking forward to it.
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Regarding Bend! Our youngest son (37) moved to Bend in August after taking a remote position with a non profit Rewiring America that allowed he, his wife and son to come back to the West Coast after living in Maryland the last 5 years. He grew up in Sacramento, CA. Long story short he contacted us yesterday to let us know that by luck or the grace of God. They are leasing a different house than one of the ones they considered when looking at moving to Bend. That house location would have put our 7 year old Grandson on the Silver Rail campus yesterday!