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Obama Creates Group On Intersection Of HIV/AIDS And Violence Against Women

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Recognizing that “there are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS,
including more than 290,000 women,” and that the “domestic epidemic
disproportionately affects women of color, with African Americans
and Latinas constituting over 70 percent of new HIV cases in
women,” today, President Obama announced he has established a Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Violence Against Women and Girls, and Gender-related Health Disparities.

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


 

For Immediate Release

March 30, 2012

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Establishing a Working Group on the Intersection of
HIV/AIDS, Violence Against Women and Girls, and
Gender-related Health Disparities

Throughout our country, the spread of HIV/AIDS has had a
devastating impact on many communities. In the United States,
there are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS,
including more than 290,000 women. Women and girls now account
for 24 percent of all diagnoses of HIV infection among
United States adults and adolescents. The domestic epidemic
disproportionately affects women of color, with African Americans
and Latinas constituting over 70 percent of new HIV cases in
women. The spread of HIV/AIDS is, in and of itself, a primary
concern to my Administration. However, gender-based violence
and gender-related health disparities cannot be ignored when
addressing the domestic public health threat of HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS programs often ignore the biological differences and
the social, economic, and cultural inequities that make women
and girls more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. In our country, women
and girls are all too frequently victimized by domestic violence
and sexual assault, which can lead to greater risk for acquiring
this disease. Teenage girls and young women ages 16-24 face
the highest rates of dating violence and sexual assault.
In addition, challenges in accessing proper health care can
present obstacles to addressing HIV/AIDS. Gender-based violence
continues to be an underreported, common problem that, if
ignored, increases risks for HIV and may prevent women and
girls from seeking prevention, treatment, and health services.

My Administration is committed to improving efforts to understand
and address the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women
and girls, and gender-related health disparities. To do so,
executive departments and agencies (agencies) must build on
their current work addressing the intersection of these issues by
improving data collection, research, intervention strategies, and
training. In order to develop a comprehensive Government-wide
approach to these issues that is data-driven, uses effective
prevention and care interventions, engages families and
communities, supports research and data collection, and mobilizes
both public and private sector resources, I direct the following:
Section 1. Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS,
Violence Against Women and Girls, and Gender-related Health
Disparities. There is established within the Executive Office
of the President a Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS,
Violence Against Women and Girls, and Gender-related Health
Disparities (Working Group), to be co-chaired by the White House
Advisor on Violence Against Women and the Director of the Office
of National AIDS Policy (Co-Chairs). Within 60 days of the date
of this memorandum, the Co-Chairs shall convene the first meeting
of the Working Group.
(a) In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Working Group shall
consist of representatives from:
(i) the Department of Justice;
(ii) the Department of the Interior;
(iii) the Department of Health and Human Services;
(iv) the Department of Education;
(v) the Department of Homeland Security;
(vi) the Department of Veterans Affairs;
(vii) the Department of Housing and Urban
Development; and
(viii) the Office of Management and Budget.
(b) The Working Group shall consult with the Presidential
Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, as appropriate.
(c) The Department of State, the United States Agency for
International Development, and the President’s Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief Gender Technical Working Group shall act in an
advisory capacity to the Working Group, providing information on
lessons learned and evidence-based best practices based on their
global experience addressing issues involving the intersection
between HIV/AIDS and violence against women.
Sec. 2. Mission and Functions of the Working Group. (a)
The Working Group shall coordinate agency efforts to address
issues involving the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against
women and girls, and gender-related health disparities. Such
efforts shall include, but not be limited to:
(i) increasing government and public awareness
of the need to address the intersection of HIV/AIDS,
violence against women and girls, and gender-related
health disparities, including sexual and reproductive
health and access to health care;
(ii) sharing best practices, including demonstration
projects and international work by agencies, as well
as successful gender-specific strategies aimed at
addressing risks that influence women’s and girls’
vulnerability to HIV infection and violence;
(iii) integrating sexual and reproductive health
services, gender-based violence services, and HIV/AIDS
services, where research demonstrates that doing so
will result in improved and sustained health outcomes;

(iv) emphasizing evidence-based prevention
activities that engage men and boys and highlight their
role in the prevention of violence against women and
HIV/AIDS infection;
(v) facilitating opportunities for partnerships
among diverse organizations from the violence against
women and girls, HIV/AIDS, and women’s health
communities to address the intersection of these
issues;
(vi) ensuring that the needs of vulnerable and
underserved groups are considered in any efforts to
address issues involving the intersection of HIV/AIDS,
violence against women and girls, and gender-related
health disparities;
(vii) promoting research to better understand the
intersection of the biological, behavioral, and social
sciences bases for the relationship between increased
HIV/AIDS risk, domestic violence, and gender-related
health disparities; and
(viii) prioritizing, as appropriate, the efforts
described in paragraphs (a)(i)-(vii) of this section
with respect to women and girls of color, who represent
the majority of females living with and at risk for HIV
infection in the United States.
(b) The Working Group shall annually provide the President
recommendations for updating the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
In addition, the Working Group shall provide information on:
(i) coordinated actions taken by the Working Group
to meet its objectives and identify areas where the
Federal Government has achieved integration and
coordination in addressing the intersection of
HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and
gender-related health disparities;
(ii) alternative means of making available
gender-sensitive health care for women and girls
through the integration of HIV/AIDS prevention and
care services with intimate partner violence prevention
and counseling as well as mental health and trauma
services;
(iii) specific, evidence-based goals for addressing
HIV among women, including HIV-related disparities
among women of color, to inform the National HIV/AIDS
Strategy Implementation Plan (for its biannual review);
(iv) research and data collection needs regarding
HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and
gender-related health disparities to help develop more
comprehensive data and targeted research (disaggregated
by sex, gender, and gender identity, where
practicable); and
(v) existing partnerships and potential areas of
collaboration with other public or nongovernmental
actors, taking into consideration the types of
implementation or research objectives that other
public or nongovernmental actors may be particularly
well-situated to accomplish.
Sec. 3. Outreach. Consistent with the objectives of this
memorandum and applicable law, the Working Group, in addition
to regular meetings, shall conduct outreach with representatives
of private and nonprofit organizations, State, tribal, and local
government agencies, elected officials, and other interested
persons to assist the Working Group in developing a detailed
set of recommendations.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) The heads of agencies
shall assist and provide information to the Working Group,
consistent with applicable law, as may be necessary to carry out
the functions of the Working Group. Each agency and office shall
bear its own expense for carrying out activities related to the
Working Group.
(b) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair
or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive
department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(d) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the
United States, its departments, agencies, or entities,
its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(e) The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA
## #


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OPINION

‘Have to Get Back to Law and Order’: Trump Declares at NYPD Officer’s Wake

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Donald Trump attended the wake of the slain New York City police officer who was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop this week. The four-times indicted ex-president demanded America “get back to law and order,” barely days after a New York judge imposed a gag order in the case where the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony counts for “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election,” according to the New York District Attorney.

That damaging information included hush money payments to several women including an adult film actress.

“We have to stop it,” Trump said Thursday, speaking before the cameras about crime as he stood under an umbrella in front of police officers. “We have to stop, we have to get back to law and order. We have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. This is happening too often.”

“Police are the greatest people we have. There’s nothing and there’s nobody like them. And this should never happen,” Trump said as he lamented how repeat offenders “don’t learn because they don’t respect.”

READ MORE: Trump Campaign Says It Will Deploy ‘Soldiers’ to Polling Places

“We’ve got to toughen it up. We’ve got to strengthen it up. It should never be allowed things like they shouldn’t take place and to take place so often,” said Trump, who is out on bail and currently faces 88 felony charges after three were dropped.

The Trump campaign announced that the ex-president had been invited to attend the wake.

“President Trump is moved by the invitation to join NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller’s family and colleagues as they deal with his senseless and tragic death,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, according to The Daily Beast.

The Associated Press added that “Trump has deplored crime in heavily Democratic cities, called for shoplifters to be shot immediately and wants to immunize police officers from lawsuits for potential misconduct. But he’s also demonized local prosecutors, the FBI and the Department of Justice over the criminal prosecutions he faces and the investigation while he was president into his first campaign’s interactions with Russia.”

“He has also embraced those imprisoned for their roles on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of his angry supporters overran police lines and Capitol and local police officers were attacked and beaten.”

Earlier on Thursday NBC News reported on Trump’s mischaracterizations of crime.

“Surging crime levels, out-of-control Democratic cities and ‘migrant crime,'” the network noted. “Former President Donald Trump regularly cites all three at his campaign rallies, in news releases and on Truth Social, often saying President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame.”

READ MORE: ‘Hunger Games at NBC News’: New McDaniel Revelations Have ‘Enraged’ Staffers, Report Says

“But the crime picture Trump paints contrasts sharply with years of police and government data at both the local and national levels,” NBC added. “FBI statistics released this year suggested a steep drop in crime across the country last year. It’s a similar story across major cities, with violent crime down year over year in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.”

Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.

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OPINION

‘Hunger Games at NBC News’: New McDaniel Revelations Have ‘Enraged’ Staffers, Report Says

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The backlash from NBC News’ hiring of Ronna McDaniel is not over. New reporting from Puck, CNN, and The Washington Post reveals the considerable efforts from top NBC and MSNBC brass to recruit, hire, and support the former RNC chair who promoted false election claims, was allegedly involved in helping Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and refused to say Joe Biden had been elected fairly.

Staffers at NBC News and MSNBC were outraged at McDaniel’s hiring, but new details about behind-the-scenes efforts reportedly have increased that outrage.

Some critics are either calling for resignations of NBC News and MSNBC  leadership, or questioning how long they can ride out the mess.

“What is Brian Roberts going to do?” CNN‘s Oliver Darcy asks. “The Comcast boss is watching an unceasing five-alarm fire rage at 30 Rock, scarring the reputation of NBC News and threatening to consume multiple parts of the Cesar Conde-run NBC Universal News Group.”

“Conde has lost control of his organization, prompting industry insiders to wonder how he continues to remain in his role as chairman of the NBC News Group. In the words of one veteran media executive I spoke to Wednesday, ‘It’s inconceivable that he should,'” Darcy writes, saying Conde’s actions and those of his top executives have “hosed gasoline” on the scandal.

READ MORE: Lawmaker Slammed for Claiming College Basketball Players Were Actually ‘Illegal Invaders’

That scandal involves these revelations from Puck’s Dylan Byers, who reports, “bringing McDaniel to 30 Rock had been part of a nearly two-month-long effort that was spearheaded by Budoff Brown and her boss, NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein, with buy-in from Conde and his deputies at both NBC News and MSNBC.”

“Rashida Jones,” he adds, “the president of MSNBC, was very interested in having McDaniel appear as a contributor on her network, as well.”

But this bombshell has drawn a good deal of attention. Noting how Chuck Todd led off the very public pushback against the hiring of McDaniel, Byers reports, “On Sunday, Budoff Brown reached out to McDaniel’s aide and former chief of staff at the R.N.C., Richard Walters, to see if there were any friends or colleagues who could speak up on her behalf.”

“The two sides also discussed having these folks call attention to what they saw as a double standard—after all, this was the same network that was turning Psaki, a former Biden White House Press Secretary, into a Maddow-adjacent prime time star. Walters later assured Budoff Brown that they’d been able to advance conservative pushback on social media against Todd, specifically, and that this might give NBC News some cover, for which Budoff Brown thanked him.”

CNN, pointing to those details, adds, “staffers inside NBC News are enraged at the fact an executive would have engaged in such behavior.”

Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacobs, who now writes about politics and the media, called for the firing of Jones, Blumenstein, and Budoff Brown.

Other critics are expressing concerns on multiple fronts.

READ MORE: Ronna McDaniel Is Just a ‘Normal’ Person Who ‘Never Denied the Election’ Says Hugh Hewitt

“It’s like the hunger games at @NBCNews. Every day new, horrible stories of journalism & corporate malpractice. Every single one of these managers must go,” observed Jennifer Schulze, a media critic who was a Chicago Sun-Times executive producer, WGN news director, and adjunct college professor of journalism.

She also highlights a Washington Post report that ropes NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt into the mess.

“Every @NBCNews exec who thought hiring a reputed liar & phony elector co-[conspirator] needs to resign or be fired,” Schulze says.

“The @NBCNews managers who recruited & signed an election denier should be out the door, too,” she adds. “Not only was it downright offensive to hire Ronna, it was journalism AND corporate malpractice.”

Pointing to his newsletter, former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer writes, “NBC’s ill-fated decision to hire Ronna McDaniel is a story of a media outlet unwilling to accept the ways Trump changed politics, but it’s also one of the best arguments for Dems need to build our media ecosystem ASAP.”

READ MORE: Comer Refuses to Investigate Trump Family Member Over ‘Influence Peddling’ Allegation

He calls McDaniel’s hiring “evidence” the media has “yet to accept the reality that this is not a normal election between a Republican and a Democrat.” And adds, “An [industry] that prizes objectivity above all else, is incapable of accurately covering an election where one candidate is a normal politician and the other is an insurrectionist. Many in the media would rather stumble into autocracy than take a side.”

Veteran journalist and Sirius XM host Michelangelo Signorile observes, “We couldn’t have asked for a better situation to shine a bright light on the corruption of the corporate media—and its impulse to legitimize MAGA extremism and lawbreakers for profit—than NBC’s hiring former RNC chair, election denier, and Trump enabler Ronna McDaniel.”

And he warns, “The forces that made the coup-plotting former RNC chair a paid contributor are still shaping news and information about this pivotal election.”

 

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News

Lawmaker Slammed for Claiming College Basketball Players Were Actually ‘Illegal Invaders’

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Michigan MAGA Republican state Rep. Matt Maddock is under fire after claiming three buses were “loaded up with illegal invaders.” The buses, according to multiple reports, were actually loaded with the Gonzaga University basketball team arriving for March Madness.

“Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?” Rep. Maddock wrote on social media Wednesday evening, tagging far-right former U.S. Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands under Donald Trump and is now the state’s Republican Party chair.

Informed of his error on social media, Rep. Maddock doubled down, and attacked.

READ MORE: Ronna McDaniel Is Just a ‘Normal’ Person Who ‘Never Denied the Election’ Says Hugh Hewitt

“Probably teams for the NCAA Mens Sweet 16 playing at LCA on Friday and Sunday,” a user on X wrote.

“Sure kommie. Good talking point,” Maddock quickly shot back.

ABC affiliate WXYZ executive producer Maxwell White, responding to the Maddock’s original post wrote: “Just to be clear, this was the Gonzaga basketball team. Photos show Gonzaga getting on an Allegiant plane to Detroit for the Sweet 16, and Flight Radar shows a plane from GEG to DTW landed at 7:25 p.m., around the time this photo was posted.”

“This is a wild tweet,” White added, before adding more evidence.

Hoekstra, who was accused of using racism and xenophobia to win his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat (he lost), did not respond directly to Maddock but did repost the apparently false claim.

Michigan State Senate Democratic Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow denounced Maddock’s claim as “dangerous.”

Maddock’s remark also made the national stage when U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell responded.

READ MORE: Trump Campaign Says It Will Deploy ‘Soldiers’ to Polling Places

“Hey Einstein,” the California Democrat wrote, “your state is hosting the Sweet 16. Could it be a team bus? If it is, will you resign for your spectacular stupidity?”

In 2021 The Washington Post reported, “Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock and his wife, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, have repeatedly been called out by fact-checking journalists for promoting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and falsely suggesting that covid-19 is comparable to the flu.”

See the social media posts above 0r at this link.

 

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