Yang Sues State for Voter Suppression
Former 2020 presidential candidate and potential 2021 mayoral candidate Andrew Yang (D) sued the state of New York Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
The lawsuit is a response to the state’s decision to cancel its presidential primary on June 23. Though former Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) has all but secured the nomination, Yang and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) planned to remain on the ballot, hoping to use their delegate count to shape the Democratic Party Platform.
“The current president can make the same argument as the defendant, namely, that it is too dangerous to vote as no one can accurately predict when it will be 100% safe, if ever again in the future of humanity, to leave one’s house, or touch an object, such as an election ballot, that could be contaminated with the Covid-19 virus,” Yang and his supporters argued.
Espaillat, Maloney Urge Pelosi to Include Puerto Rico in Coronavirus Relief
U.S. Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-Harlem, Washington Heights, the Bronx) and Carolyn Maloney (D-Upper East Side, Brooklyn, Queens) were the Manhattan delegation in a Monday letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). NBC News reported they wanted Puerto Rico’s coronavirus stimulus to be equal to that of the fifty states.
Joining seven of their colleagues,they discussed how economic trouble and natural disasters had made the island’s residents vulnerable to the pandemic.
“Reports of massive layoffs in Puerto Rican hospitals have started to surface due to low occupation rates as an unintended consequence,” of imposing a strict islandwide curfew early on, they wrote. “Yet, experts argue that Puerto Rico has not reached its COVID infection peak.”
Levine Proposes “Public Health Corps”
City Councilmember Mark Levine (D-Morningside Heights, Hamilton Heights) called on establishing a “public safety corps”, the Daily News reported Thursday.
The organization, a $1 billion effort, would centralize coronavirus testing efforts, trace connections to those infected, and promote safe isolation.Levine also hopes that the corps could create as many as 15,000 jobs.
“We are entering a new phase in this fight and the only way we’re going to be able to reopen safely is if we can trace the contacts of every person who’s infected and offer a safe way to isolate,” said Levine.
