What to Know
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Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is set for a week of marathon hearings before the Judiciary Committee
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More than 10 percent of U.S. kids have been diagnosed with ADHD, up from 6 percent 20 years ago, researchers report
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Facing widespread outrage, The New Yorker has dropped plans to interview Steve Bannon during its festival next month
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Senators to Drill Down Into Supreme Court Nominee’s Background
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is set for a week of marathon hearings before the Judiciary Committee, where senators will drill down into the judge’s background, writings and legal philosophy. Republicans who mostly back President Trump’s pick are focusing on Kavanaugh’s 12-year career as an appellate court judge, which has produced more than 300 opinions. Democrats are expected to take a more pointed tack, grilling the 53-year-old conservative on hot-button issues that could swing the court’s majority rightward. Now, four days of hearings begin. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer fumed over the committee receiving more than 42,000 pages of documents about Kavanaugh’s years with the Bush administration the night before the hearings get underway. He called for a delay until Kavanaugh’s records could be reviewed.
Trump Attacks Sessions, Suggests DOJ Hurt GOP in Midterms
President Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen. In his latest broadside against the Justice Department’s traditional independence, Trump tweeted “Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.” He added: “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……” The president’s striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agency’s independence. Trump has frequently suggested he views Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding. Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate.
1 in 10 Kids Diagnosed With ADHD, Study Shows
More than 10 percent of U.S. kids have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, up from 6 percent 20 years ago, researchers report. It’s not clear why, but it’s startling, said Dr. Wei Bao of the University of Iowa, who helped lead the study. “It is very common now – one in 10 kids,” Bao told NBC News. The team used surveys covering more than 180,000 children aged 4 to 17 between 1997 and 2016. The surveys were in-person with a parent or guardian and asked whether the child had ever been diagnosed with ADHD. “Over the 20-year period from 1997 to 2016, we found a significant increase in the prevalence of diagnosed ADHD from 1997-1998 to 2015-2016,” they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Open Network.
New Yorker Drops Plans to Interview Steve Bannon at Festival
Facing widespread outrage, The New Yorker has dropped plans to interview Steve Bannon during its festival next month. New Yorker editor David Remnick told The Associated Press in a statement shared with the magazine’s staff that he had changed his mind. The former Donald Trump aide and ex-chairman of Breitbart News was supposed to be a featured guest during a prestigious gathering that over the years has drawn some of the world’s most prominent artists and public figures. This year’s guests include Emily Blunt, Zadie Smith and Sally Yates, who Trump fired as deputy attorney general after she refused to back his initial ban on travelers from Muslim countries. The ban was advocated by Bannon, a senior White House adviser at the time. Remnick also acknowledged that festival guests, unlike those interviewed on radio or for a print story, are paid an honorarium, along with money for travel and lodging.
Aretha Franklin’s Family Says Eulogy Was Offensive
The late Aretha Franklin’s family said it found an Atlanta pastor’s eulogy delivered at the Queen of Soul’s funeral to be offensive and distasteful. The eulogist, the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., was criticized for a political address that described children being in a home without a father as “abortion after birth” and said black lives do not matter unless blacks stop killing each other. “He spoke for 50 minutes and at no time did he properly eulogize her,” said Vaughn Franklin, the late singer’s nephew, who said he was delivering a statement for the family. Franklin said that his aunt never asked Williams to eulogize her, since she didn’t talk about plans for her own funeral. The family selected Williams because he has spoken at other family memorials in the past, most prominently at the funeral for Franklin’s father, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin, 34 years ago. Williams has not backed down from anything he said at the funeral, and said he respects the family’s opinion.
Source : Nbcnewyork
