WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is embarking on a three-day campaign swing aimed at shoring up his standing in the Sun Belt as part of an aggressive play to reenergize vital parts of his 2020 electoral coalition.
Much of Biden’s time on this trip this week, which includes stops in Nevada, Arizona and Texas, will be geared toward courting the Latino voters who helped power his coalition in 2020 and to emphasizing his pro-union, pro-abortion rights message.
The Democratic president’s first stop Tuesday is in Reno, Nevada, where he will meet with local officials and campaign volunteers in Washoe County before heading to Las Vegas to promote his administration’s housing policies.
Next he’ll travel to Phoenix for another campaign stop in a critical swing county paired with an event talking up what he has done to bolster the computer chip manufacturing sector.
Biden’s push with Latino voters this week, which includes the formal launch of the Latinos con Biden-Harris (Spanish for Latinos with Biden-Harris) initiative on Tuesday, is also part of the campaign’s broader efforts to put in place the infrastructure to re-engage various constituencies that will be critical to the president’s reelection. That effort is all the more crucial as key parts of Biden’s base, such as Black and Hispanic adults, have become increasingly disenchanted with the president’s performance in office.
In an AP-NORC poll conducted in February, 38% of U.S. adults approved of how Biden was handling his job. Nearly 6 in 10 Black adults (58%) approved, compared to 36% of Hispanic adults. Black adults are more likely than white and Hispanic adults to approve of Biden, but that approval has dropped in the three years since Biden took office.
Biden’s reelection campaign, along with allied Democratic groups, has opened offices in Washoe County and in specific areas of Las Vegas that aides said will help the campaign to target Black, Latino and Asian American voters.
Bilingual campaign organizers are already in place in Arizona, and the campaign has opened an office in Maryvale, a major Latino community in Phoenix. The campaign has hired more than 40 staffers in Nevada and Arizona.
Campaign officials believe that tuned-out voters are starting to pay attention to the reality of a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump now that the two candidates have clinched their respective nominations. They’re trying to boost coalition-building efforts in battleground states now that the matchup is set, using the energy coming out of Biden’s State of the Union earlier this month to jolt their campaign momentum.
That includes, for example, ensuring that chapters are in place across college campuses so that students have a place to organize and that campaign offices are open and stocked with yard signs, campaign literature and other materials. Democrats are hoping that Trump and the GOP will struggle to catch up in key states.
The campaign has already established Women for Biden-Harris, an effort led by first lady Jill Biden to mobilize female voters who were a vital part of Biden’s winning coalition in 2020, as well as Students for Biden-Harris, which will focus on getting young voters organized and active. Latinos con Biden-Harris will formally launch at Biden’s Phoenix stop on Tuesday and include other campaign events, such as volunteer trainings and house parties, in other battleground states including Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin later this week.
“This isn’t stuff that you can just stand up. This is stuff that requires work,” Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager for the Biden campaign, said in an interview. “It does require training. It does require making sure that your volunteers and supporters have what they need on the ground.”
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee dismissed dozens of staffers after new leaders closely aligned with Trump took over last week. Those let go include people who worked at the party’s community centers that helped build relationships with minority groups in some Democratic-leaning areas. The committee’s new leadership has since insisted that those centers will remain open.
The RNC, already strapped for cash, is also trying to bat away assumptions that it’ll pay for Trump’s ever-escalating legal bills as he faces multiple criminal cases.
Still, the Biden campaign and the broader Democratic Party are confronting their own struggles, despite their cash and organizational advantages. On top of Biden’s weaker job performance numbers, Democrats are seeing less support from key voting blocs come election time: While Biden won 63% of Hispanic voters in 2020, that percentage shrunk to 57% for Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterms, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of the national electorate.
Despite the waning approval numbers, campaign officials say they are confident that once the contrast between the president’s agenda and Trump’s plans for a second term are presented to disillusioned members of Biden’s coalition, they will ultimately back the president.
“I can say this as a Latina, we always come late to the party. We like to make a grand entrance,” said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. “I think that’s what you will see again because when it comes down to people making a real decision that is consequential to their future, the future of their children, the future of their communities, it’s not some random phone call from an anonymous pollster — I think that the Democratic coalition will come home.”
Alongside the campaign stops, the administration is pairing official White House events on matters that have particular significance in the two states. In Arizona, Biden will continue talking up a law he signed encouraging domestic manufacturing of computer chips, which has already spurred significant private investment in the state, especially in Phoenix.
And in Nevada, Biden will continue promoting a new housing proposal that would offer a mortgage relief credit for first-time homebuyers and a seller’s tax credit to encourage homeowners to offload their starter homes. The issue of housing is sure to resonate in Nevada, where home prices have nearly doubled since early 2016, according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace.
“As the president has said, the bottom line is, we have to build, build, build,” said Lael Brainard, the director of the White House National Economic Council.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., stressed that Democrats cannot take the state — which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004 — for granted, even as she dismissed some polling that shows Trump with an edge in Nevada.
“You got to be there talking to voters, particularly in Nevada,” Cortez Masto said. “It’s still small enough, it’s 3 million people, they expect you to show up, right? It’s a swing state. It’s very diverse. And people just expect that type of engagement, so they can decide for themselves.”
Biden’s three-day trip will wrap up in Texas, where he will host a trio of fundraisers in Dallas and Houston.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a carcinogen that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year but is still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products. The final rule marks a major expansion of EPA regulation under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled regulations governing tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, from household cleaners to clothing and furniture.
The new rule would ban chrysotile asbestos, the only ongoing use of asbestos in the United States. The substance is found in products such as brake linings and gaskets and is used to manufacture chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, including some that is used for water purification. EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the final rule a major step to protect public health.
“With today’s ban, EPA is finally slamming the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in over 50 countries,” Regan said. “This historic ban is more than 30 years in the making, and it’s thanks to amendments that Congress made in 2016 to fix the Toxic Substances Control Act,” the main U.S. law governing use of chemicals.
Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Ending the ongoing uses of asbestos advances the goals of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, a whole-of-government initiative to end cancer in the U.S., Regan said.
“The science is clear: Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health. This action is just the beginning as we work to protect all American families, workers and communities from toxic chemicals,” Regan said.
The 2016 law authorized new rules for tens of thousands of toxic chemicals found in everyday products, including substances such as asbestos and trichloroethylene that for decades have been known to cause cancer yet were largely unregulated under federal law. Known as the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, the law was intended to clear up a hodgepodge of state rules governing chemicals and update the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that had remained unchanged for 40 years.
The EPA banned asbestos in 1989, but the rule was largely overturned by a 1991 Court of Appeals decision that weakened the EPA’s authority under TSCA to address risks to human health from asbestos or other existing chemicals. The 2016 law required the EPA to evaluate chemicals and put in place protections against unreasonable risks.
Asbestos, which was once common in home insulation and other products, is banned in more than 50 countries, and its use in the U.S. has been declining for decades. The only form of asbestos known to be currently imported, processed or distributed for use in the U.S. is chrysotile asbestos, which is imported primarily from Brazil and Russia. It is used by the chlor-alkali industry, which produces bleach, caustic soda and other products.
Most consumer products that historically contained chrysotile asbestos have been discontinued.
While chlorine is a commonly used disinfectant in water treatment, there are only eight chlor-alkali plants in the U.S. that still use asbestos diaphragms to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide. The plants are mostly located in Louisiana and Texas.
The use of asbestos diaphragms has been declining and now accounts for less than one-third of the chlor-alkali production in the U.S., the EPA said.
The EPA rule will ban imports of asbestos for chlor-alkali as soon as the rule is published but will phase in prohibitions on chlor-alkali use over five or more years to provide what the agency called “a reasonable transition period.”
A ban on most other uses of asbestos will effect in two years.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents 350 publicly owned wastewater treatment agencies, said in a statement that it supports “EPA’s efforts to move away from asbestos products” and will work with the agency to track implementation of the rule. The association warned before the final rule was announced that an immediate ban on asbestos would “almost certainly cause shortages and price increases for chlorine and other disinfection and treatment chemicals used by the water sector.”
The American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s largest lobbying group, said a 15-year transition period is needed to avoid a significant disruption of chlorine and sodium hydroxide supplies.
A ban on asbestos in oilfield brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes and linings and other gaskets will take effect in six months.
The EPA rule allows asbestos-containing sheet gaskets to be used until 2037 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to ensure that safe disposal of nuclear materials can continue on schedule.
Scott Faber, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group that pushed to ban asbestos, hailed the EPA action.
“For too long, polluters have been allowed to make, use and release toxics like asbestos and PFAS without regard for our health,” Faber said. “Thanks to the leadership of the Biden EPA, those days are finally over.”
Separately, the EPA is also evaluating so-called legacy uses of asbestos in older buildings, including schools and industrial sites, to determine possible public health risks. A final risk evaluation is expected by the end of the year.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said the United States was “finally starting to catch up” with the rest of the world on asbestos. “However, it cannot be the end of the road when it comes to phasing out other dangerous asbestos fibers,” he said. “Congress has a role to play here when it comes to providing stronger protections for our health.”
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at https://apnews.com/hub/us-environmental-protection-agency.
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ plan to arrest migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally is on hold while the Supreme Court considers a challenge to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest move over immigration.
The nation’s highest court put the law on pause over a lawsuit led by the Justice Department, which argues that Texas is overstepping the federal government’s immigration authority. Under the law, any police officer in Texas could arrest migrants for illegal entry and a judge could order them to leave the U.S.
Justice Samuel Alito ordered an indefinite stay on the law Monday. The court could decide on the future of the legislation any day.
A federal judge in Texas blocked the law in a sweeping rejection last month, calling it a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Texas swiftly appealed and argued that it has a right to take action over what Abbott has described as an “invasion” of migrants on the border.
Here’s what to know:
WHO CAN BE ARRESTED?
The law allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
Arresting officers must have probable cause, which could include witnessing the illegal entry themselves or seeing it on video.
The law cannot be enforced against people lawfully present in the U.S., including those who were granted asylum or who are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Critics, including Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have said the law could lead to racial profiling and family separation. American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Texas and some neighboring states issued a travel advisory warning of a possible threat to civil and constitutional rights when passing through Texas.
Abbott has rejected concerns over profiling. While signing the bill, he said troopers and National Guard members at the border can see migrants crossing illegally “with their own eyes.”
WHERE WILL THE LAW BE ENFORCED?
The law can be enforced in any of Texas’ 254 counties, including those hundreds of miles from the border.
But Republican state Rep. David Spiller, the law’s author, has said he expects the vast majority of arrests will occur within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas’ state police chief has expressed similar expectations.
Some places are off-limits. Arrests cannot be made in public and private schools; places of worship; or hospitals and other health care facilities, including those where sexual assault forensic examinations are conducted.
Migrants ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens.
Amrutha Jindal, executive director at Lone Star Defenders Office, said her organization expects the law will be enforced in border counties. Her office already represents migrants who have been arrested since 2021 under a more limited Texas operation that has charged thousands of migrants with trespassing on private property.
IS THE LAW CONSTITUTIONAL?
The Justice Department, legal experts and immigrant rights groups have said the measure is a clear conflict with the U.S. government’s authority to regulate immigration.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, agreed in a 114-page order. He added that the law could hamper U.S. foreign relations and treaty obligations.
Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law — denounced by critics as the “Show Me Your Papers” bill — that was largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ezra cited the Supreme Court’s 2012 Arizona ruling in his decision.
Texas has argued that the law mirrors federal law instead of conflicting with it.
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE BORDER?
Arrests for illegal crossings along the southern border fell by half in January from record highs in December. Border Patrol officials attributed the shift to seasonal declines and heightened enforcement by the U.S. and its allies. The federal government has not yet released numbers for February.
Tensions remain between Texas and the Biden administration. In the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, National Guard members have prevented Border Patrol agents from accessing a riverfront park.
Other Republican governors have expressed support for Abbott, who has said the federal government is not doing enough to enforce immigration laws. Other measures implemented by Texas include a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and razor wire along the border.
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Associated Press writers Acacia Coronado and Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
HOUSTON (AP) — A 1-year-old girl died after being hit by an Uber driver who had just dropped her family at their apartment complex in Houston and apparently didn’t see her in front of his car as he pulled away, authorities said.
Harris County Sheriff’s officials said the girl’s family members then pulled the driver from his vehicle and assaulted him Sunday.
“It’s just an unfortunate tragedy at this point,” said sheriff’s office Lt. K. Benoit.
The driver thought his path was clear after dropping the girl and her family off, but as he drove forward he hit the girl and dragged her for a bit, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Surveillance video shows the girl walking alone in front of the car just before she was hit.
“We as parents, relatives, custodians of children, we have to just be a lot more alert, hold their hands, guide them to a safe place and then watch the driver pull away,” Benoit said.
Gonzalez said the driver was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
No charges have been filed and the case remains under investigation, authorities said.