Day: December 6, 2024

The Washington Examiner   Republicans killed two measures that would have compelled the House Ethics Committee to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, but some would be willing to reverse their stance if the former Florida congressman is nominated for another position. “Many of us voted to support the precedent but will feel differently if he’s nominated for a high-level position or runs for office. I’m not the only one. There’s many,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner. Gaetz had been the subject of an investigation by the committee over allegations of sex trafficking and sex with a minor, accusations he has denied. The Florida Republican resigned from his House seat last month after being named President-elect Donald Trump‘s pick for attorney general, but he later withdrew himself from the nomination after it appeared doomed. READ THE FULL STORY                 

Breitbart   Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Thursday, after a groundswell of support for Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, denied she is behind a campaign on Capitol Hill to tank his nomination and seek the job herself. “I don’t have a campaign against Pete,” she told RealClearPolitics’s White House correspondent Philip Wegmann, adding that he deserved to have a Senate confirmation hearing. “I just want to make sure the process is able to play out and that we’re thoroughly vetting him. I do believe that Pete deserves to have a hearing. All the rumblings out there are absolutely false. My role as a senator is to make sure that we are putting to bed any rumors, any anonymous whatever,” she claimed. READ THE FULL STORY                 

Axios   The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday announced a federal order that the country’s milk supply be tested for bird flu. The sluggish federal response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak has alarmed researchers, especially with new findings that the virus is one mutation away from being able to more efficiently affect humans. “This new guidance from USDA, which was developed with significant input from state, veterinary and public health stakeholders, will facilitate comprehensive H5N1 surveillance of the nation’s milk supply and dairy herds,” the department said. READ THE FULL STORY                 

The Economist   JOHANNA OLSON-KENNEDY is among the most celebrated youth gender medicine clinicians in the world. She has been the Medical Director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), one of the first high-profile American youth gender clinics and presently the largest, since 2012. A frequent expert witness in court cases who is often quoted in the media, Dr Olson-Kennedy also leads a $10m initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health to study youth gender medicine—by far the largest such project in America. In addition, she is the president-elect of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health.   As state-level bans on youth gender medicine have accumulated, and are being tested at the Supreme Court, this controversial field has been seized by a fierce debate over the proper role of mental-health assessments. The Dutch clinicians who published the seminal youth gender medicine protocol in 2012 emphasised the importance of conducting a careful, in-depth assessment prior to starting a young person on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. But Dr Olson-Kennedy has emerged as a critic of what she views as undue and unnecessary “gatekeeping”. “I don’t send someone to a therapist when…