'It's taken six Asian-American women dying in one day to get people to pay attention'

In the wake of the Atlanta shootings that left eight people dead—six of them women of Asian descent—federal and local law enforcement agencies are under pressure to step up efforts to combat a rising tide of hate crimes against Asian Americans. Women and older Asian Americans have been especially targeted in a wave of incidents ranging from verbal assaults to violent attacks. Asian-American community leaders say the discrimination and harassment faced by their communities has been downplayed. —The Guardian

• — Outrageous. Cherokee Co. Police Capt. Jay Baker, who is working on the Atlanta investigation, has been criticized for downplaying the potential role anti-Asian bias may have played in the shootings. At a press conference, he claimed of the shooter, "Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did." On social media last year, Baker promoted T-shirts calling COVID-19 an "imported virus from CHY-NA." —Forbes
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• — "Congress sees you. We stand with you." On the Hill, prominent Asian-American lawmakers, scholars, and advocates testified on anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination before a House Judiciary subcommittee today. Chair Steve Cohen convened the hearing with a moment of silence for the Atlanta victims. Rep. Chip Roy, acting as ranking member, said that while he wants justice for the victims, he has concerns about the "policing of rhetoric." —ABC News
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• — White House to address. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Asian-American and Pacific-Islander leaders during a visit to Atlanta tomorrow. A scheduled rally to promote the administration's recently signed Covid relief bill has been canceled so that Biden and Harris can speak with state legislators and other advocates about their perspectives on the growing problem. —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

House passes Violence Against Women Act

The House passed legislation yesterday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, a law originally authored by President Biden that lapsed in 2019. The bill, which was reintroduced by Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Jerry Nadler, and Brian Fitzpatrick, provides grants to state and local governments for programs addressing domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Only 29 Republicans voted with all Democrats in support of the measure. GOP critics argue that the bill restricts gun rights, and they also object to additional protections provided for transgender individuals. —The Hill

MORE: House votes to award Congressional Gold Medal to Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department —CNN

Li & Lau: The emerging fight over gerrymandering

"Gerrymandering is one of the hot-button issues of our time. If you look at polling, ending gerrymandering is one of the few things that gets majority support from Democrats, Republicans, and independents. It’s something that people feel strongly about. People understand instinctively that the political process is broken, and they understand that rigged maps are in part to blame." —Michael Li & Tim Lau at the Brennan Center for Justice

Michael Li serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, where his work focuses on redistricting, voting rights, and elections. Tim Lau is a staff writer/editor with the Brennan Center's editorial team.

MORE: David Haynes: A decade ago, Wisconsin Republicans locked in their power through gerrymandering. Open up this secretive process to the public —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ohio sues over Covid relief bill

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday over a provision of the recently signed American Rescue Plan Act. In the complaint, Yost challenges a provision in the legislation that forbids state and local governments from using pandemic aid to offset tax cuts. The stipulation has drawn ire from conservative state officials concerned that it will get in the way of future efforts to cut taxes. The lawsuit was filed against the Treasury Department and its secretary, Janet Yellen. Neither the department nor the White House have commented on the suit. —The Hill

MORE: Republican attorneys general threaten key element of the $1.9 trillion stimulus —The Washington Post

Harford: The danger of doubt

"The events of Jan. 6 showed us that conspiracy thinking can have serious consequences. But this is not just about the conspiracy theorists. The psychological traits that lead one down the conspiracy-theory rabbit hole are to some extent present in most of us. ... Nobody likes to feel that they are being taken for a fool, so doubting early and often can seem like the smart thing to do. And if we want to think clearly about the world, skepticism is a good thing. But it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Indiscriminate belief is worrying, but indiscriminate doubt can be even worse." —Tim Harford in The Atlantic

Tim Harford is a Financial Times columnist and the author of "The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics."

MORE: Louie Gohmert avoids mentioning Jan. 6 riot in bill to award Capitol Police congressional medals —Newsweek

Focus on Russian dark money

Remember Natalia Veselnitskaya? She was the Russian lawyer present at the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump, Jr., and other Trump associates that raised suspicions during the Mueller Investigation. Newly released financial records show that a company newly sanctioned by the U.S. over Alexei Navalny's poisoning attack is tied to the money-laundering network that tried to cover up that infamous meeting.

• — First, some background. In 2007, Sergei Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million fraud on the Russian people. After exposing the massive theft of state money, he was arrested and ended up dead in a Russian prison cell. Legislation was enacted all over the world by governments seeking to clamp down on corruption, including the U.S.'s Magnitsky Act.
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• — How does Veselnitskaya fit in? When the Trump Tower meeting was exposed during the Trump-Russia investigation, she insisted she was not there to sway the election but to make a case against the Magnitsky Act and related investigations. She used promises of providing dirt on Hillary Clinton in order to convene the meeting.
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• — Despite Veselnitskaya's interventions, the Magnitsky anti-corruption probes have continued, exposing a complex international dark money network that leads right to Russia's murderous chemical-weapons program. The new findings explain why Vladimir Putin was so desperate to stop those investigations. —The Daily Beast

Rubin: The economic benefits of voting reform

"Faith in democracy and faith in markets go hand in hand. People support pro-growth policies when they believe they will share in the benefits of growth. For these benefits to be widely shared, we need an inclusive growth policy agenda. This can be achieved only if elected officials feel accountable to the broader public. And there is broad accountability only if voting is widespread." —Robert Rubin in The Washington Post

Robert Rubin, co-chair emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, was secretary of the Treasury from 1995 to 1999.

Regarding the Atlanta shooting, people keep talking as if it's a "hate crime" only if it was racially motivated. A crime doesn't have to be racial to be a hate crime. A hate crime targets people because of who they are (demographic traits). The shooter has said he shot the women because they were women and a "temptation" to him. That IS a hate crime. —Vivian B., Texas

Whenever I hear that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a "scorched earth" response that would be a "disaster that Democrats would create" it reminds me of a toddler who just learned that he will not get his way. A tantrum will ensue. But if we want to get the Senate back to work—and it did not work under McConnell's lead—we will have to endure this tantrum that he promises as a patient parent does. Let him get his feelings and frustrations out but mostly just ignore him until he's ready to engage in an actual conversation. He is not the Senate majority leader anymore. I voted the way I did in Georgia to make that happen. It's time for him to learn that "elections have consequences." —Kimberly D., Georgia

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