Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Florida on Sunday and deliver remarks on the 50th anniversary of a ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion but which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

In June 2022, the Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Harris’ speech is an effort by the Biden administration to show its commitment to defending reproductive rights even after the midterm elections, when Democrats campaigned to protect a woman’s right to choose and performed better than expected.

During the speech, Harris will “make the case for national legislation to protect reproductive rights and she will draw a contrast between the Republicans’ extreme approach to reproductive health and that of the Biden-Harris administration,” a senior administration official said.

In 2023, Harris and President Joe Biden will continue to push back against anti-choice legislation in Congress, including Republican efforts to pass a national abortion ban, and laws in Republican-controlled legislatures where elected officials are embracing extreme restrictions such as criminalizing doctors who perform abortions, senior administration officials said.

They will also call on Congress to codify abortion rights, the officials added.

The chances of codifying Roe v. Wade have not improved since it was first proposed by the administration and Biden has struggled to find new ways to safeguard abortion access.

Officials said on Wednesday that 60 anti-choice bills have been filed in the 2023 legislative session and over 26 million women currently live in states that have banned abortion.

Harris’s decision to speak in Florida was guided by the state’s decision last year to pass an abortion ban without exceptions for rape and incest, they said.

The state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

Biden will also commemorate the anniversary by issuing a statement and a proclamation, the officials said, without offering more details.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned Republicans in a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday that limiting President Joe Biden’s authority to tap the nation’s oil reserves would undermine national security, cause crude oil shortages and raise gasoline prices.

Biden repeatedly tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) last year to manage rising gasoline prices and disruptions to supply caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sales shrank the SPR to about 380 million barrels, the lowest level since 1984, raising concerns about energy security.

A bill called the Strategic Production Response Act, introduced earlier this month by Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, would limit presidential authority in releasing oil from the strategic reserve, except in the case of a severe energy supply interruption.

McMorris Rodgers now chairs the House Energy & Commerce Committee, after Republicans took over the chamber this month from Democrats.

“This bill would significantly weaken this critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages in times of crisis and higher gasoline prices for Americans,” Granholm said in the letter to the House energy panel, first seen by Reuters.

The administration has faced bipartisan concern over the current levels of the emergency reserves. The letter represents the administration’s latest efforts to defend its actions and ease concerns about the state of reserves.

Rodgers said in an email the committee was still reviewing the letter, but that the bill would have “absolutely no effect” on the department’s emergency authorities regarding the oil reserve. She also said the department had mismanaged and depleted the SPR “with no real plan to refill it.”

Granholm also cited estimates from the Treasury Department that the administration’s use of the SPR had cut prices for American consumers at the pump by as much as 40 cents per gallon.

In March, Biden announced the sale of 180 million barrels of oil out of the SPR to combat surging gasoline prices that boosted inflation after the February invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels. The sales of the oil were spread out over months, ending in December.

A Department of Energy spokeswoman said at its current levels the reserve remained the largest in the world.

The White House has repeatedly argued such drawdowns were necessary to help lower gas prices and help Americans who were paying more than $5 per gallon in parts of the country. Prices have plummeted in recent months but disagreements over energy policy remain.

The SPR has largely been used to address supply concerns – such as in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – and Republicans were dubious of Biden’s efforts to use the reserves to help drive down U.S. gasoline prices, particularly ahead of critical midterm elections.

The new House bill would make Biden’s authority conditional on him opening up more federal lands to oil and gas drilling at the same time, a long-held view of Republican lawmakers.

The Biden administration has no set plans to conduct further sales from the SPR, though some smaller sales required by legislation passed by Congress in prior years could occur this year.

The White House has criticized the legislation, calling it “backwards” and an attempt by House Republicans to help oil companies make more profits.

Under a court order, the Biden administration did allow for new leases on federal lands last year. However, many Republicans remain convinced that he wants to do away with fossil fuels and transition to an economy entirely reliant on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar.

Related Galleries:

(NewsNation) — Questions continue to swirl surrounding the classified documents found at the former office and home of President Joe Biden.

The White House has refused to answer specific questions about the discoveries, which the Justice Department is investigating. The president also faces an inquiry from House Republicans, with chair of the Oversight Committee saying Wednesday he’s focusing on the Penn Biden Center and who had access to it.

So what comes next?

Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of The Hill, says the White House will need to start releasing more information soon if they want to get a handle on the situation.

“The lawyers and the White House need to figure out everything that’s out there to make sure this is not continually a drip, drip type of story, which it has been because they keep finding stuff,” Cusack said Wednesday on “Rush Hour.” “They’re really gonna need to wrap this up and tell more to the press within the next couple weeks.”

According to World Baseball Classic rules, a player can suit up for any country where he holds citizenship — or where he would be eligible to attain it. That’s how Team Israel ended up stocked with American Jewish MLB stars. And it’s why a tweet from an MLB.com staff reporter revealing that Chicago White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease — who finished second in American League Cy Young voting last season — had been on Team Israel’s early roster sent Jewish baseball fans into a hopeful frenzy.

Cease was on the early roster for both Team Israel and Team USA for the World Baseball Classic but he will not be pitching in the competition.

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) January 17, 2023

It remains unclear whether Cease considers himself Jewish, and a cursory Google search yielded nothing alluding to the religious identity of the 27-year-old right-hander who hails from the small town of Milton, Georgia. But an article on MLB.com Tuesday detailing Cease’s decision to skip the March tournament mentions “Jewish heritage in his lineage.”

Fans demanded more. “Is he Jewish??? I must know!” one wrote. “I have a tribe member on the Sox?” commented another.

Another account posted a meme depicting what Team Israel’s pitch to the White Sox ace might be — hoisting him on a chair like the groom at a Jewish wedding:

Exclusive image of Team Israel’s pitch to Dylan Cease: https://t.co/av3a8QcP9C pic.twitter.com/yEYUcN99zM

— Bennett Karoll (@TheBennettK) January 18, 2023

The MLB.com reporter who tweeted the news about Cease didn’t elaborate on his Jewish lineage. So I looked into it.

Preliminary digging

I reached out to Cease by phone and via Instagram and to his father, Jeff Cease, on LinkedIn — neither has responded thus far. I also tried to figured out myself.

That preliminary Google search did produce some family lore: Dylan’s father, Jeff, played high school football, and his paternal grandmother, Betty Cease, played professional baseball in the late 1940s. “Like A League of Their Own,” Dylan’s twin brother Alec told the Chicago Tribune. His mother’s first name was not easily discoverable.

Going a little deeper, a search on JewishGen.org suggested that “Cease” could be an Anglicization of “Suissa,” a common Mizrahi surname. That didn’t prove anything.

So I contacted a Jewish genealogist for an assist.

The tombstones for Dylan Cease’s Jewish great-great-grandparents, Kaufman and Esther Cease, in Adas Israel Cemetery in New Haven. Photo by FindaGrave.com users Suzanne, and Jan Franco

Genealogical clues

Renee Stern Steinig, a genealogy hobbyist in Dix Hills, New York, had helped the Forward determine last summer that Irina McCarthy was among the Jewish casualties of the attack on a Highland Park July 4 parade, despite her non-Jewish sounding last name. (McCarthy’s parents’ surname was Levberg.) Steinig also used burial records to clarify that, “although each life was equally precious,” a different victim, despite a Jewish-sounding last name, likely came from a Christian family.

Armed with scant information about Cease, Steinig found burial and other records for people who appear to be Cease’s grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents — all of whom are buried in Jewish cemeteries. And she figured out what is likely their ancestors’ original European surname.

Here’s what Steinig reported back: Jeff Cease’s parents, Harold Cease and Betty Wright Cease (the ballplayer) are both buried in Lakeside Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Doral, Florida, as are Harold’s parents, Edward and Sarah (Beck) Cease. (Betty Wright’s parents were probably not Jewish, Steinig noted, as a minister officiated at Betty’s mother’s funeral.)

Tracing the Cease ancestry into the 19th century, the FindaGrave.com profiles for Edward’s parents Kaufman and Esther Cease, buried in Adas Israel Cemetery in New Haven, include photos of tombstones that show their Hebrew names: Koppel Hirsh son of Aharon David, and Esther Malka daughter of Avraham Leib. 

A New York marriage certificate for Kaufman and Esther Cease, turned up by genealogy sleuth Renee Stern Steinig. Courtesy of New York City Department of Historical Records

Steinig noted in an email: “Censuses report that Kaufman was from ‘Austria’ (i.e. the former Austrian Empire) and Esther from ‘Russia’ (the former Russian Empire). They probably immigrated c. 1890.”

On what is probably Kaufman and Esther’s marriage record, Steinig noted, the surname is spelled “Csya.” 

And she added that from scanning the family tree of Dylan Cease’s mother, Anne Marie (Carroll) Cease, she did not see any likely Jewish ancestry on that side.

Conclusion: Dylan Cease is most likely eligible for Israeli citizenship under the country’s Right of Return law because it seems his father and (at the very least) his father’s father were Jewish.

Reached by phone, White Sox Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert said he would share the research with Cease and try to confirm it.

Dylan Cease pitching at Camden Yards in 2022. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

A loss for Team Israel

If he identifies as Jewish, Cease, who won 14 games and struck out 227 batters last season, would become part of a second lineage: that of Jewish hurlers past and present. Sandy Koufax needs no introduction in these pages. And Jewish Atlanta Braves southpaw Max Fried was 2022 Cy Young runner-up in the National League, like Cease was in the AL.

At the World Baseball Classic, Team Israel’s rotation will feature Fried and the Baltimore Orioles’ Dean Kremer, an Israeli American righty who enjoyed a breakout 2022. But a hard-throwing righty like Cease — whose four-seam fastball has been known to overheat a radar gun —would have bolstered their chances against a daunting pool that includes Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Cease was also on the 50-man list of possible players submitted by Team USA, but decided to focus on preparing for next season rather than compete in the games for either country. 

“It’s definitely a huge honor and exciting any time you get the opportunity to represent something bigger than yourself like that,” Cease told MLB.com. “It’s a really big deal. But a lot of it is just the unfortunate reality of having to weigh not what’s more important but essentially what I’m preparing for, and it made more sense not to risk anything and to prepare for the season.”

Israel’s first game, against Nicaragua, is March 11 in Miami.

The post Is White Sox ace Dylan Cease Jewish? appeared first on The Forward.

House Republican George Santos has turned out to be such a disaster, he could end up costing his party a seat and end up being the kind of walking talking scandal who could cost his party the majority in the next election cycle. One of the big questions is how House Republican leaders could have not known that Santos was a lifelong fraud. Now we’re starting to get the obvious answer: they did know.

It turns out Republican leaders, including one of Kevin McCarthy’s close allies, knew that Santos was a fraud before the 2022 election cycle even meaningfully got underway, according to a new expose from the New York Times. This means the GOP could have intervened early on and gotten itself a different nominee in that race, who would have ended up being less of a headache. All they’d have needed to do is threaten to expose Santos’ endless lies unless he dropped out, and that would likely have been the end of him.

But as we keep seeing lately, these House Republicans just aren’t that smart. Instead they just crossed their fingers and hoped that George Santos would never get exposed. Republicans got lucky in the short term when local Long Island media and local Democrats tried but failed to get the national media to take an interest in Santos’ lies during the election cycle. But once Santos won and the national media concluded that it could get ratings by covering the scandals of a guy who was about to get sworn into Congress, it did precisely that.

It’s not like there was going to be a better outcome than this for House Republicans. What, were they hoping Santos would lose the election? Are they that tepid? Were they afraid of replacing Santos with a better candidate because Santos was aligned with Donald Trump?

In any case it’s now clear that Kevin McCarthy knew, through his close allies, very early on that George Santos was a serial fraudster. It’s yet another reminder that McCarthy is a weak, tepid deer in the headlights. He has no idea how to lead, or how to handle anything, or what he’s even supposed to be doing. Santos is now a daily problem for McCarthy and his caucus, because McCarthy didn’t make this problem go away back when he could have.

The post Kevin McCarthy knew all along appeared first on Palmer Report.