Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Chicago Sun-Times: Dolton mom turned away from hospital during labor calls for changes to maternal health by Cindy Hernandez
A Dolton mother says she is still processing the trauma of delivering her baby in a truck on the side of the road, just days after staff at a northwest Indiana hospital told her to leave.
“After being kicked out of the hospital and begging to stay but still being pushed away was hurtful, disgraceful,” Mercedes Wells told reporters Tuesday. “I felt unheard. I felt ignored. I felt treated less than human.”
She was joined by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who said she plans to file a bill to make sure what happened to Wells does not happen again to anyone else.
“It’s clear that Mercedes’ story isn’t an isolated incident,” Kelly said. “This is not a Franciscan Health problem but rather a systemic issue.”
The New York Times: Once Foes of Obamacare, Some Republicans Push to Protect It by Robert Jimison
Representative Jen Kiggans, Republican of Virginia, once called for eliminating the Affordable Care Act.
Representative Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, has repeatedly called it “a disaster.”
But the two are part of a small group of G.O.P. members of Congress — most of them facing tough re-election races next year in competitive districts — who have broken with their party to push for a temporary extension of a crucial piece of the law: subsidies, currently slated to expire at the end of the year, to help Americans afford their premiums.
Their eagerness to vote for an extension, which was Democrats’ main demand in the weekslong government shutdown fight, underscores how entrenched the health care law has become, even among Republicans who once fought to kill it. And it helps explain why President Trump, who has long railed against the law, commonly called Obamacare, is said to be weighing such a move as he and his party toil to address affordability issues that could be a major liability for them going into the midterm elections.
Letting the subsidies lapse would put a heavy financial burden on millions of voters just as the G.O.P. is grasping to keep control of Congress.
MS NOW: Trump weighing the ouster of Kash Patel, according to sources by Carol Leonnig, Laura Barrón-López, and Ken Dilanian
President Donald Trump is considering removing Kash Patel as FBI director in the coming months, as he and his top aides have grown increasingly frustrated by the unflattering headlines Patel has recently generated, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity in order to speak freely.
Patel has come under scrutiny for his stewardship of bureau resources, including his girlfriend’s security detail and use of a government jet, and for his squabbles with other Trump loyalists.
Trump and White House aides have confided to allies that the president is eyeing removing Patel and is considering top FBI official Andrew Bailey as the bureau’s new director, according to the three people.
Patel is described as being on thin ice and his ouster appears closer than ever, with Bailey as the logical replacement, two of the sources with knowledge of the situation said, though Trump could change his mind in the weeks to come.
USA Today: Some SNAP recipients still waiting on payments ahead of Thanksgiving by Mary Walrath- Holdridge
The month leading into the biggest food holiday of the year has been stressful for the 41.7 million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. The final weeks before Thanksgiving have provided relief following the end of the longest-ever government shutdown, but it has come to some in more of a trickle than a tidal wave.
Funding was fully restored to the program on Nov. 12 when the shutdown ended and federal monies were to be distributed by states within 24 hours, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously told USA TODAY.From there, it was up to the states.
There is no national distribution date for SNAP benefits, and payment dates differ by state. Even within states, the dates vary by recipient, with some using Social Security numbers, last names, or case numbers to determine who receives money on which day of the month.
El País in English: US militarization of Puerto Rico amid Venezuela tensions reopens historical wounds by Paola Nagovitch
For more than half a century, a 163-square-kilometer U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea was repeatedly bombarded by the American military. From the 1940s until the 2000s, 2,000 tons of ammunition fell every year on Vieques, a small island in the Puerto Rican archipelago. The U.S. Navy transformed this Caribbean paradise of crystal-clear waters into the most realistic recreation possible of a war zone: after expelling thousands of residents and taking control of two-thirds of the island and its resources, the navy established there a training base and a firing range to conduct artillery tests and other military exercises that terrorized the local population, forcing them to live amid explosions on a narrow strip of land.
After one of those bombs killed a civilian, massive protests forced the navy to withdraw from Vieques in 2003. Although routine military exercises have continued in Puerto Rico since then, the militarization the island experienced during World War II and the Cold War — periods when the territory served as a U.S. military stronghold due to its strategic location in the Caribbean — was not seen again. Until now. Amid escalating tensions with Venezuela, the United States has increased its military presence in Puerto Rico and surrounding areas, while also reopening military bases on the territory.
The Guardian: Jair Bolsonaro ordered to start 27-year prison term for plotting Brazil coup by Tom Phillips
Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.
The far-right populist, 70, who governed Latin America’s largest democracy from 2019 until 2022, was handed the punishment in September after the supreme court found him guilty of leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power.
The plot – which
involved a plan to assassinate Lula and his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin – foundered after military chiefs refused to take part and the court later convicted Bolsonaro and six accomplices of trying to “annihilate” Brazilian democracy and plunge the country back into dictatorship.
Bolsonaro’s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.
DW: Louvre heist: Police arrest four more suspects by Kieran Burke
French authorities on Tuesday arrested another four suspects in connection with last month's jewel heist from the Louvre museum, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
"They are two men aged 38 and 39, and two women aged 31 and 40, all from the Paris region," Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
The stolen jewels, estimated to be worth around €88 million ($102 million), have not been recovered since the brazen theft at the world-famous museum on October 19.
A statement from the prosecutor's office added that four people who had already been arrested were placed under investigation in late October and early November in relation to the heist.
The prime suspect has already been linked to the theft by DNA evidence, found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed, as reported on October 30.
Everyone have the best possible evening that you can!
