Senate reaches unemployment benefits deal, ending logjam on Covid aid bill

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Caitlin Emma, Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett
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Senate Democrats clinched a deal on Friday night over unemployment benefits that will smooth the upper chamber's passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill this weekend.

After about a nine-hour delay following Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) resistance to an earlier agreement on jobless payments, party leaders announced a new accord with Manchin. The latest deal would provide $300 a week in extra unemployment benefits through Sept. 6, and up to $10,200 in tax relief for unemployed workers.

Democratic leaders also agreed to limit eligibility for that tax relief, restricting the tax-free status of the benefits to households with incomes under $150,000 a year.

The White House quickly announced its support after endorsing the earlier compromise.

"The President supports the compromise agreement, and is grateful to all the senators who worked so hard to reach this outcome,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Friday night.

With Manchin's objections eased, Democrats plowed forward with a marathon “vote-a-rama” — an all-night ordeal in which any senator can offer an amendment to Biden’s bill. The Senate is now on track to pass the package on Saturday.

Earlier, it was expected that Vice President Kamala Harris would be needed to cast a tie-breaking vote. Republicans were down one member on Friday night, however, with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) flying back to his home state for his father-in-law’s funeral.

After Senate passage, the bill will go back to the House, where lawmakers must approve the changes before it reaches Biden’s desk.

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to break the tie on a procedural vote as the Senate works on the Democrats' $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to break the tie on a procedural vote as the Senate works on the Democrats' $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.

“The president has made it clear we will have enough vaccines for every American by the end of May, and I am confident the economic recovery will follow," Manchin said after calling a truce Friday night. "We have reached a compromise that enables the economy to rebound quickly while also protecting those receiving unemployment benefits from being hit with unexpected tax bill next year."

The two parties spent Friday afternoon battling for Manchin's support on changes to federal unemployment benefits, showcasing how a 50-50 Senate can instantly swing power to one holdout.

Before the Senate started voting on amendments, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reveled in what he called the “spectacle” of Democratic disagreement over one of the package’s biggest provisions. McConnell then forced a vote to adjourn for the night, which failed.

The version of the bill passed by the House last week would have raised the current weekly payment from $300 to $400, extending that benefit through August.

But earlier Friday, Senate Democrats agreed to an amendment from Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) that would have lowered the benefit to $300 and extended it through the end of September, in addition to providing up to $10,200 in tax relief for laid-off workers without any income restrictions.

The latest deal means that federal unemployment benefits will now expire on Labor Day, when the Senate is scheduled to be in recess. The prior deal would have ensured that benefits expired closer to a government funding deadline at the end of September, providing a natural legislative vehicle if another extension is needed.

The protracted delay in the Senate came as Manchin weighed a proposal from Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) that would have extended the $300 unemployment benefits until July 18 — amounting to a cut from both Carper‘s proposal and the House bill.

The Senate ultimately passed Portman’s amendment, 50-49, with Manchin voting in favor. But that measure will be canceled out by another amendment reflecting the latest deal on unemployment benefits, which also has Manchin’s support, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

Even after the agreement with Manchin, there's still plenty more drama ahead, with the GOP seeking to inflict maximum political pain. Republicans filed more than 500 amendments, and dozens of them are likely to get a vote. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), for example, offered an early amendment that would shrink the overall bill to $650 billion, reflecting the GOP’s push for more targeted legislation.

The first amendment on raising the minimum wage to $15 hourly by 2025 — offered by Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — failed as expected, illustrating a broader divide over the issue between progressives and moderates in the Democratic caucus.

The protracted vote-a-rama is widely despised by members of both parties and guaranteed to leave sleepless members running on fumes just ahead of the bill’s passage in the upper chamber. But there's no way around it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Friday that the Senate would "power through and finish this bill, however long it takes."

"We’re not going to make the same mistake we made after the last economic downturn, when Congress did too little," he said on the floor.

The legislative endurance run is part of the budget reconciliation process, which Democrats are using to pass Biden’s plan without the need for GOP support.

The Senate already slogged through one vote-a-rama last month, amending a budget measure that unlocked the reconciliation process, which allows Democrats to pass Biden’s package with a simple 51-vote majority in the upper chamber. The agony lasted nearly 15 hours, concluding around 5:30 a.m. after lawmakers voted on a raft of largely symbolic amendments.

But now the main event is Biden’s pandemic package itself — and some amendments are expected to receive bipartisan backing.

During the last vote-a-rama, Democrats and Republicans joined together to approve amendments ensuring that $1,400 stimulus checks wouldn’t go to “upper-income taxpayers,” to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving stimulus checks and prevent tax hikes on small businesses during the health crisis, among other issues.

Many other amendments will be fruitless messaging votes.

“The whole term 'vote-a-rama' has never sounded to me like it should apply to the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body,’” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said on Thursday. “It is what it is and it always turns into a largely partisan exercise.”

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It remained open while Democrats attempted to nail down support for their plan to extend supplemental unemployment through September.The Senate parliamentarian had previously ruled that the phased-in increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 fell afoul of budget-reconciliation rules, which Democrats are using to get the Covid-19 aid bill through the Senate with just a simple majority vote.Sanders’s bid to waive the rules and restore the wage hike would have required 60 senators of 100 senators to agree to go along with the amendment. But it failed to get even a majority.“An unelected staffer in the Senate should not be in charge of determining whether 32 million workers in America receive a raise,” Sanders said on the Senate floor.There wasn’t even majority support within the Democratic caucus. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema was among the Democrats who voted against it, saying the chamber should look at the issue separate from the relief legislation.“The Senate should hold an open debate and amendment process on raising the minimum wage, separate from the Covid-focused reconciliation bill,” Sinema said in a statement.Also voting against the attempt were Democratic senators Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Tom Carper and Chris Coons as well as independent Angus King.Biden has called on lawmakers to move ahead with his proposed wage hike on a standalone basis. -- Erik WassonWhite House Sees Bill Speeding Job Recovery by a Year (11:08 a.m.)Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan will accelerate the U.S.’s return to full employment by a year, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said.“Most people say that this bill would pull forward by about a year the length of time it would take to get back to full,” Deese said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. He declined to make more specific predictions about unemployment.A government report earlier Friday showed that total U.S. payrolls in February remained more than 9 million lower than the peak prior to the pandemic. Biden said Friday the report showed his stimulus legislation is “urgently needed.”Deese added that the administration is working to speed up the delivery of stimulus checks that are a key feature of the aid bill that Congress is expected to pass in coming days.White House economist Heather Boushey, also speaking in an interview, underscored that economic recovery will depend heavily on the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.“Just to state the obvious, this all depends on getting shots in arms,” she said. -- Jennifer JacobsSenate Democrats Resolve Differences Over Jobless Aid (11:03 a.m.)Senate Democrats have resolved differences over the level and duration of supplemental unemployment benefits in the pandemic relief bill, according to a Democratic aide.The bonus will be kept at the current level of $300 a week, rather than the $400 provided in the House version of the bill, but they will last until Oct. 4 -- rather than the end of August, the aide said. 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That means that the millions of workers who received unemployment benefits could face large, unanticipated tax bills.The deal would also expand a tax provision from the GOP 2017 tax law that restricts how businesses losses can be carried forward to offset future-year profits through 2026. The provision was initially implemented through 2025.In past economic crises, Congress has approved tax relief to help unemployed individuals. In 2009, lawmakers waived taxes on up to $2,400 in jobless benefits. -- Erik Wasson, Laura DavisonSenate Begins Debate as Schumer Pledges to Power Through (9:30 a.m.)The Senate reconvened Friday morning for three hours of debate on the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan ahead of a marathon series of amendment votes expected to last through the night.The first amendment to get a vote will be offered by progressive Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders, who has said he will attempt to amend the bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. That amendment is subject to an objection, since the parliamentarian has ruled it against budget rules, and 60 senators would have to vote to add it to the bill. Some moderate Democrats are expected to vote against the amendment, arguing that it would sink the bill by allowing the entire package to be filibustered by Republicans.While many of the Republican amendment votes are expected to be designed to cause political damage to Democrats and have no chance of succeeding, others may go through.“They are dead-set on ramming through a partisan spending spree packed with non-Covid related policies” said Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell on Friday on the Senate floor. “This isn’t a pandemic-rescue package, this is a parade of left-wing pet projects.”McConnell said the economy is “already on track to bounce back from this crisis,” because of last year’s bipartisan virus-relief packages, not because of the $1.9 trillion bill before the Senate this week.“Republicans have many ideas to improve the bill, many ideas, and we are about to vote on all kinds of amendments in the hope that some of these ideas make it into the final product,” McConnell said.For amendments that are in order under budget rules -- such as one to cut supplemental unemployment benefits from the $400 per week in the bill -- it would only take one Democrat to side with 50 Republicans to make the change.“We are going to power through and finish this bill however long it takes,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Friday. “We are not going to make the same mistake we did after the last economic downturn, when Congress did too little.” -- Erik WassonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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    In a video shot by the police, the man is seen walking on a road carrying the severed head.

  • Batman Forever almost starred Real World's Eric Nies, says Real World's Eric Nies

    Congratulations to all of us for living to see a bold new renaissance of news about original Real World cast member Eric Nies, because, well: We’re now living in a bold new renaissance of news about original Real World cast member Eric Nies. Hot off yesterday’s report—backed up by today’s premiere, in which it was revealed that the actor, model, and modern shaman had tested positive for COVID-19—that Nies was forced to tele-commute to Paramount Plus’s Real World reunion series, Homecoming New York, Nies has now also revealed another somewhat improbable wrinkle in his generally improbable career. I.e., that he was almost cast as Robin in 1995's Batman Forever (at least, according to original Real World cast member Eric Nies).

  • Republicans Won Blue-Collar Votes. They're Not Offering Much in Return.

    As the election returns rolled in showing President Donald Trump winning strong support from blue-collar voters in November while suffering historic losses in suburbs across the country, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, declared on Twitter: “We are a working class party now. That’s the future.” And with further results revealing that Trump had carried 40% of union households and made unexpected inroads with Latinos, other Republican leaders, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, trumpeted a political realignment. Republicans, they said, were accelerating their transformation into the party of Sam’s Club rather than the country club. But since then, Republicans have offered very little to advance the economic interests of blue-collar workers. Two major opportunities for party leaders to showcase their priorities have unfolded recently without a nod to working Americans. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times In Washington, as Democrats advance a nearly $2 trillion economic stimulus bill, they are facing universal opposition from congressional Republicans to the package, which is chock-full of measures to benefit struggling workers a full year into the coronavirus pandemic. The bill includes $1,400 checks to middle-income Americans and extended unemployment benefits, which are set to lapse on March 14. And at a high-profile, high-decibel gathering of conservatives in Florida last weekend, potential 2024 presidential candidates, including Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, scarcely mentioned a blue-collar agenda. They used their turns in the national spotlight to fan grievances about “cancel culture,” to bash the tech industry and to reinforce Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. Inside and outside the party, critics see a familiar pattern: Republican officials, following Trump’s own example, are exploiting the cultural anger and racial resentment of a sizable segment of the white working class, but have not made a concerted effort to help these Americans economically. “This is the identity conundrum that Republicans have,” said Carlos Curbelo, a Republican former congressman from Florida, pointing to the universal opposition by House Republicans to the stimulus bill drawn up by President Biden and congressional Democrats. “This is a package that Donald Trump would have very likely supported as president.” “Here is the question for the Rubios and the Hawleys and the Cruzes and anyone else who wants to capitalize on this potential new Republican coalition,” Curbelo added. “Eventually, if you don’t take action to improve people’s quality of life, they will abandon you.” Some Republicans have sought to address the strategic problem. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah put forward one of the most ambitious GOP initiatives aimed at struggling Americans, a measure to fight child poverty by sending parents up to $350 a month per child. But fellow Republicans rebuffed the plan as “welfare.” Hawley has matched a Democratic proposal for a $15 minimum wage, but with the caveat that it applies only to businesses with annual revenues above $1 billion. Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster whose clients have included Rubio, was critical of Democrats for not seeking a compromise on the stimulus after a group of GOP senators offered a smaller package. “Seven Republican senators voted to convict a president of their own party,” he said, referring to Trump’s impeachment. “If you can’t get any of them on a COVID program, you’re not trying real hard.” As the COVID-19 relief package, which every House Republican voted down, makes its way through the Senate this week, Republicans are expected to offer further proposals aimed at struggling Americans. Ayres said that the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, last weekend, the first major party gathering since Trump left office, had been a spectacularly missed opportunity in its failure to include meaningful discussion of policies for blue-collar voters. Instead, the former president advanced an intraparty civil war by naming in his speech on Sunday a hit list of every Republican who voted to impeach him. “You’d better be spending a lot more time developing an economic agenda that benefits working people than re-litigating a lost presidential election,” Ayres said. “The question is, how long will it take the Republicans to figure out that driving out heretics rather than winning new converts is a losing strategy right now?” Separately, one of the highest-profile efforts to lift blue-collar workers in the country was underway this week in Alabama, where nearly 6,000 workers at an Amazon warehouse are voting on whether to unionize. On Sunday, the pro-union workers got a boost in a video from Biden. Representatives for Hawley — who has been one of the leading Republican champions of a working-class realignment — did not respond to a request for comment about where he stands on the issue. The 2020 election continued a long-term trend in which the parties have essentially swapped voters, with Republicans gaining with blue-collar workers, while white-collar suburbanites moved toward the Democrats. The idea of “Sam’s Club conservatives,” which was floated about 15 years ago by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, recognized a constituency of populist Republicans who favored a higher minimum wage and government help for struggling families. Trump turned out historic levels of support for a Republican among white working-class voters. But once in office, his biggest legislative achievement was a tax cut in which most benefits went to corporations and the wealthy. Oceans of ink have been spilled over whether the white working class’ devotion to Trump had more to do with economic anxiety or with anger toward “elites” and racial minorities, especially immigrants. For many analysts, the answer is that it had to do with both. His advancement of policies to benefit working-class Americans was frequently chaotic and left unresolved. Manufacturing jobs, which had continued their slow recovery since the 2009 financial crisis, flatlined under Trump in the year before the pandemic hit. The former president’s bellicose trade war with China hit American farmers so hard economically that they received large bailouts from taxpayers. “There was never a program to deal with the types of displacements going on,” said John Russo, a former co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio. He projects that once the economy snaps back to pre-pandemic levels, blue-collar Americans will be worse off, because employers will have accelerated automation and will continue workforce reductions adopted during the pandemic. “Neither party is talking about that,” Russo said. “I think that by 2024, that’s going to be a key issue.” It’s possible that Republicans who are not prioritizing economic issues are accurately reading their base. A survey last month by the GOP pollster Echelon Insights found that the top concerns of Republican voters were mainly cultural ones: illegal immigration, lack of support for the police, high taxes and “liberal bias in mainstream media.” Despite Biden’s campaign framing him as “middle-class Joe” from Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a candidate he made only slight inroads into Trump’s support with white voters without college degrees, which disappointed Democratic strategists and party activists. In exit polls, these voters preferred Trump over Biden by 35 percentage points. Among voters of color without a college degree, Trump won one out of four votes, an improvement from 2016, when he won one in five of their votes. His inroads with Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas especially shocked many Democrats, and it spurred Rubio to tweet that the future of the GOP was “a party built on a multi-ethnic multi-racial coalition of working AMERICANS.” After the Trump presidency, it is an open question whether any other Republican candidates can win the same intensity of blue-collar support. “Whatever your criticisms are of Trump — and I have a lot — clearly he was able to connect to those people and they voted for him,” said Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, a Democrat from the Youngstown area. Ryan is gearing up to run in 2022 for an open Senate seat in Ohio. He agrees with Trump about taking on China, but faults him for not following up his tough language with sustained policies. “I think there’s an opportunity to have a similar message but a real agenda,” he said. As for Republican presidential candidates aspiring to inherit Trump’s working-class followers, Ryan saw only dim prospects for them, especially if they continued to reject the Biden stimulus package, which passed the House and is now before the Senate. “The COVID-19 relief bill was directly aimed at the struggles of working-class people,” Ryan said, adding that Republicans voting against the package were “in for a rude awakening.” Perhaps. A Monmouth University poll on Wednesday found that 6 in 10 Americans supported the $1.9 trillion package in its current form, especially the $1,400 checks to people at certain income levels. But Republicans who vote it down may not pay a political price, said Patrick Murray, the poll’s director. “They know that the checks will reach their base regardless, and they can continue to rail against Democratic excesses,” he said. “There would only be a problem if they somehow managed to sink the bill,” he added. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

  • Adesanya aims to join UFC's exclusive "champ champ" club

    Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya could join an elite group at UFC 259 in Las Vegas on Saturday by holding two belts simultaneously in different weight classes, but to do so he will have to overcome the power and size of light-heavyweight incumbent Jan Blachowicz. Adesanya will make a considerable step-up in weight from 185 to 205 pounds to take on Poland's Blachowicz in the main event on Saturday. In the co-main event, Amanda Nunes puts her featherweight title on the line against Megan Anderson while bantamweight champion Petr Yan defends his belt against Aljamain Sterling.

  • Boeing unveils new executive performance metrics tied to product safety

    The planemaker said its Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun had a take-home pay of $269,231 in 2020 after he agreed to forgo his pay and incentive bonus in March last year as the COVID-19 pandemic set in, according to a proxy filing. When Calhoun took over as Boeing's CEO in January 2020, he was also entitled to two supplemental equity awards worth $17 million, but they were not eligible to be vested last year, according to the company. The disbursal of a portion of the equity awards is linked to the safe return to service of the 737 MAX jets, and the successful entry into service of the 777X aircraft, among other conditions, Boeing said.

  • Tax Season is Late and Refunds are Slow to Come

    Tax season started later than usual this year, and the IRS released data at the end of February showing that the flow of refunds is much slower than usual. See: When Will You Get Your Tax Refund?...

  • Compromises being made to pass $1.9 trillion COVID bill

    After nearly 11 hours, Senate clerks early Friday finished reading every word of President Biden’s 628-page COVID relief bill - out loud.On Friday, Senators began debating the $1.9 trillion aid package -- rejecting an amendment to more than double the federal minimum wage over five years from $7.25 an hour to $15…a proposal offered up by Senator Bernie Sanders.[SANDERS] “when the Senator says why are we spending all this money, the answer is that we are living in the most difficult moment in the modern history of this country. Maybe even a more difficult moment since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.”That measure fell far short of the 60 votes needed - and was the first in what is expected to be a lengthy series of amendments on the bill that could extend into the weekend.Liberal and moderate Democrats did strike a deal to offer an amendment that would scale back federal unemployment benefits in the COVID bill to $300 per week, down from the proposed $400.A compromise made to extend coverage...Meanwhile, Republicans have not been shy about their opposition to Biden’s $1.9 trillion aid package.Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called the legislation "a poorly-targeted rush job." [MCCONNELL] “We're about to watch one party ram through a partisan package on the thinnest of margins. Our country is already set for a roaring recovery. We are already on track to bounce back from the crisis.”The relief legislation includes funding for vaccines and medical supplies, extends jobless assistance and provides a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments. Opinion polls indicate broad public support.If the Senate approves the bill, it will have to be sent back to the Democratic-controlled House for final passage.Democrats hope Biden can sign the bill into law before March 14, when some of the current benefits run out.With no votes to spare, Senate Democrats have tweaked the measure to ensure all 50 of their members would support it, which would then allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote if no Republicans support it.

  • Barrett writes first majority Supreme Court opinion in FOIA dispute

    The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against the Sierra Club in the public records fight.

  • Father Beheads Daughter in One of the Most Dangerous Places for Women

    Photo by Sam PANTHAKY / AFPIn India, women continue to be killed for daring to assert their sexual freedom or their freedom to choose their own partners.The video of a father holding the severed head of his daughter as he nonchalantly walks down the street has sent shockwaves around India on Thursday, a mere four days before International Women’s Day.I Was a Victim of Sexual Harassment in India, Today I RejoiceSarvesh Kumar, from Hardoi’s Pandetara village in Uttar Pradesh, had thought it fit to behead his 17-year-old daughter over an alleged love affair she had with a man he disapproved of. In the video, he is matter of fact. There is no guilt or grief, just a practical narration of the events.After catching his daughter in a compromising position with a man two days earlier, he had vowed not to touch food or water until he could kill the two. In the video, he explains that he couldn’t find the man, managing only to kill his daughter. “I locked the door and got it done,” he says in Hindi.The clip has largely been removed from social media platforms due to its graphic content.At a certain point in the video, he sets the severed head down on the ground. The ponytail on the girl’s head hangs limply; her eyes are closed. “I left the body in the house,” Kumar tells the man filming the video. He gives out the name of his daughter and the name of the man she was allegedly in a relationship with. He proudly explains how he killed her, and why. The man interrupts the narration twice to answer phone calls. He cooperates with the police when they search him, assuring them that “there’s no weapon on me.”Incidents like this one are all too common in India, especially in patriarchal heartlands like Uttar Pradesh. Many women who choose to pursue relationships against their family’s wishes or outside of their religion or community risk fatal consequences from their male relatives. Honor, in this society, is linked to a woman’s chastity, and any deviation is punished severely.In January, a 17-year-old girl and her 19-year-old boyfriend were allegedly murdered by the girl’s relatives in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh. The following month, the IANS news agency had reported that another woman was burned alive in the state in Gorakhpur for her relationship with a Muslim man. A few days later, a man stabbed his brother-in-law for marrying the assailant's sister in Meerut.And while their partners bear some of the brunt, too, studies have found that it is the women and girls who bear the maximum penalty from their families.A 2016 report by the International Journal of Recent Scientific Research analyzed 50 honor killing cases in Uttar Pradesh and found that girls and women were killed in more than half the cases. In contrast, boys and men were killed in less than a quarter of the cases. It also found that most of the killings targeted younger females between the ages of 11-20 years old.“To combat the epidemic of honor killings requires understanding what makes these murders unique. They differ from plain and psychopathic homicides, serial killings, crimes of passion, revenge killings, and domestic violence,” the study found, adding that these acts of violence were owing to predefined norms and cultures in a patriarchal society, where honor is equated with the way women behave.The U.S. State Department’s 2019 Report on Human Rights Practices found that honor killings are "a problem, especially in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.” Uttar Pradesh, in particular, has topped the list of Indian states with the highest number of crimes against women in 2019, according to the most recent report by the National Crime Records Bureau.But, in general, honor killings are grossly underreported in India.According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to honor killings every year, though some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) estimate the figure may be as high as 20,000.While these crimes are treated as homicides in India, for too many that hasn’t been much of a deterrent. Honor killings often involve the silent complicity of family members and surrounding communities, and now, the Hardoi case serves as a stark and sobering reminder of why India continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for women.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • A proposal to raise the minimum wage was killed in the Senate after 8 Democrats voted against the bill

    The proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders was abandoned in the Senate on Friday after eight Democrats voted against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.