As the first in-person voters of the 2022 election cycle head to the polls on Monday, not only is this year's early voting period expected to set the political tone for candidates ahead of the March 1 primary election, it will also put a renewed spotlight on Senate Bill 1, the state's recently revised election law. The law officially went into effect in December following nearly a year of debates in the Texas legislature over its possible impact on voting rights. Some of the most contentious floor debates were rooted in state Democrats' claims that the law would limit voters' ballot access through complicated voter identification requirements. Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates also took aim at the expanded access poll watchers would have within polling places under the new law. New regulations surrounding voter identification appeared to create immediate ripple effects in election administration as early as January. In some of the state's biggest counties, like Harris and Tarrant counties, hundreds of Texans eligible to vote by mail initially saw their mail ballot applications rejected due to the heightened proof of identity requirements. Some counties had trouble matching original voter registration records to the information provided by voters on their mail ballot applications and, in some cases, voters appeared to have their applications rejected because they failed to include all of the newly required information. In the middle of January, Harris County -- which includes Houston -- reported up to 30% of its mail-in ballots being rejected or flagged for rejection. The county is obligated to tell voters if their ballot was rejected, giving them a chance to fix it, which is bringing the numbers down. Now, Harris County is reporting to ABC News it is seeing a 13.45% rejection rate due to the new law. MORE: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs GOP-backed voting restrictions into lawOther counties are also reporting rejected ballots. Travis County -- which includes Austin -- told ABC News it is seeing a 7% rejection rate. Tarrant County -- which includes Fort Worth -- is reporting to ABC News an 8% rejection rate of its mail-in ballots. "Every time there's changes in the law, whether it's ID requirements, new requirements for mail-in ballots, it takes some time for voters to get used to," Texas' Assistant Secretary of State for Communications Sam Taylor told ABC News in January. Critics of the new law are also bracing for another potential change with the start of early, in-person voting -- the possible effects poll watchers could have on voters, especially voters of color. According to the Texas Poll Watcher's Guide, which is issued by the secretary of state's office, a poll watcher is a person appointed to observe the conduct of an election on behalf of a candidate, a political party, or the proponents or opponents of a measure. Poll watchers must first successfully complete a training course administered by the state and are limited in where they can serve. Although there are some limitations to who can serve as a poll watcher, partisans associated with campaigns or political parties are not exempt. Under SB 1, poll watchers are given broad access to observe activities within polling places, as well as any instances of curbside voting, and situations in which a voter could be getting help with casting their ballot. According to the Texas election code, watchers are also "entitled to sit or stand near enough to a member of a counting team who is announcing the votes to verify that the ballots are read correctly." SB 1 stipulates that watchers are supposed to observe the happenings inside a polling place "without obstructing the conduct of an election," and an election administrator can call for a law enforcement official to remove a poll watcher if that watcher "commits a breach of the peace or a violation of law." But the presence of people within polling places whose roles do not involve assisting voters could cause confusion, or even dissuade first-time voters from casting their ballots, according to Cesar Espinoza, executive director of the immigrant-led civil rights organization Fiel Houston. "One thing is what you say on paper, but the other thing is what your actions portray or what your demeanor is -- who really is going to be out there monitoring these people?" he said. "Even if everything is done, right…we feel this is a waste of resources. This is a waste of people power. We should be all working to make more people want to go vote instead of trying to police those people who are already showing up to vote," Espinoza added.
MORE: Texas House advances restrictive voting bill after late-night voteJim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said empowering poll watchers through the new law could lead to a heightened partisan environment, putting voters of color on alert about interactions with poll watchers when voting in person. "The push on empowering poll watchers, while increasing regulations around voting, have raised questions about voter intimidation, particularly from people of color, and in Texas – [voters] historically have an experience of voter intimidation during the period of Jim Crow – and… beyond that, during the period in which voting rights were not uniformly extended, particularly to African Americans, to Black voters and to Mexican American voters," Henson said. Although election administrators like Travis County Administrator Rebecca Guerreo tell ABC News they welcome trained poll watchers to be a part of the election process, despite concerns that some individuals "may be overzealous and overstep their authority," voters could feel differently. "Historical context is pretty clear, and I think historically, context is pretty hard to ignore for a lot of voters, and again, particularly voters that are people of color," Henson said. - ABC News
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MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday suggested to President Vladimir Putin that Moscow continue along the diplomatic path in its efforts to extract security guarantees from the West, as tensions soar over Ukraine.
Lavrov told Putin the United States had put forward concrete proposals on reducing military risks, but said responses from the European Union and NATO military alliance had not been satisfactory. In a televised exchange, Putin was shown asking Lavrov whether there was a chance of reaching an agreement to address Russia's security concerns, or whether it was just being dragged into tortuous negotiations. Lavrov replied: "We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today." But as foreign minister, he said, "I must say there are always chances." He added: "It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted... At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up." The comments appeared to signal a reduced likelihood of imminent Russian military action after repeated warnings from the United States that Russia could attack Ukraine at any time. Moscow, which has massed more than 100,000 troops near Russia's border with Ukraine, has repeatedly denied any plans to invade, and has accused the United States and its allies of hysteria. Lavrov said he had received "unsatisfactory" responses to a letter he sent to dozens of European Union and NATO members on the issue of "indivisible security" - a reference to Russia's complaint that Ukraine and Western countries are strengthening their security at Russia's expense and that this is in breach of international agreements. "I received unsatisfactory answers, none of my fellow ministers responded to my direct message," he said. "Therefore we will continue to seek a concrete reaction from each country." - Reuters In a dramatic shift, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will announce Monday a timeline to end the state's school mask mandate, with a new policy to take effect in the second week of March, his office told CNN.
Murphy first spoke to the New York Times about his planned announcement. The governor and officials are scheduled to hold a 1 p.m. coronavirus briefing Monday.The policy will allow students and school officials to be unmasked as of March, two years after the pandemic gripped the country and the region. In November last year Murphy became the first Democratic governor in more than four decades to win reelection in New Jersey.Murphy's narrow victory was seen by some as a verdict on his and other Democratic leaders' commitments to mask and vaccine mandates, which the governor championed. - CNN Boris Johnson has been handed an update from Sue Gray's inquiry into Downing Street parties, ahead of its public release later.
The civil servant's investigation has examined gatherings in government buildings during Covid restrictions. But it is not clear what the published report will contain, after police requested "minimal reference" to events it is investigating. Opposition MPs are demanding all findings are released in full. The Cabinet Office, where Ms Gray's team is based, said she had "provided an update on her investigations to the prime minister". The House of Commons has confirmed the prime minister will make a statement to MPs on the report at 15.30 GMT The wait is over, sort of. This morning's Cabinet Office statement was very carefully worded. It said an "update" has been handed to Boris Johnson. Sources have indicated that this means a version of the report has been given to Downing Street but one that takes account of the Met's request for "minimal reference" to be made to certain events. Therefore, this appears to be something of an initial report rather than the full thing. After the long wait for Sue Gray, that may cause some serious frustration. But nevertheless, this whole saga is taking a step forward. But we won't know, until the findings are published, how significant a development this will be. Downing Street said it would "publish what we have received" from Ms Gray's inquiry team on Monday afternoon. The PM's spokesman told reporters it was "not clear" how the police investigation will "interact with any ongoing work". Asked whether a further version would be published after the police probe, he replied: "We will consider what will be appropriate in due course." Speaking earlier, Mr Johnson refused to be drawn on whether Ms Gray's report would be a "whitewash", when answering questions. The process was thrown into confusion last week, when the Metropolitan Police announced their own inquiry into an unspecified number of gatherings. The force has asked for only "minimal reference" to be made to events they are looking at, in order to "avoid any prejudice to our investigation". BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the Cabinet Office's reference to an "update" suggested Monday's report won't represent Ms Gray's full findings. She added that the prime minister is likely to be asked whether the full findings will be published at a later date. The report is crucial to Mr Johnson's premiership, which has been rocked by weeks of damaging headlines about No 10 parties. Many Conservative MPs have said they are waiting for its findings to decide whether to try to oust him from office. At least 54 of them can set up a vote on his position if they submit letters of no confidence to a backbench committee representing Tory MPs. - BBC News Conservative and liberal female figures came to varying conclusions on the validity of Vice President Kamala Harris's reported belief that she's treated worse by the press because of her race and gender. A recent report by The New York Times suggested Harris, who is the first Black, South Asian female vice president, has been privately complaining to her allies that the media's coverage of her would be better if she were any of her 48 White male predecessors. "Ms. Harris has privately told her allies that the news coverage of her would be different if she were any of her 48 predecessors, all of whom were white and male," the report read. Liberal radio host and Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall found truth in those claims, arguing that race and gender likely leave the VP vulnerable to "extra scrutiny." "Yes. I do believe that…Women are definitely held to a different standard," Marshall said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I don’t think it’s whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican though I think it happens whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. So when you have the first woman, and the first woman of color also, who happens to be the vice president, I do think that those things…lead to extra scrutiny." Yet conservative female leaders all pointed to policy. The New York Times report read that Harris had been reaching out to her predecessors about "the difficulties she is facing with the intractable issues in her portfolio, such as voting rights and the root causes of migration." Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., argued it was that latter assignment, as Biden's border czar, that can account for any untoward media representations about the vice president, and less about her background or appearance. Last year, it took Harris 90 days to make a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since being appointed as lead on the border crisis. Tens of thousands of migrants, including thousands of unaccompanied minors, have streamed across the border in recent months. When NBC's Lester Holt pressed Harris about the delay and why she had never been to the border as vice president, Harris laughed and responded, "I haven't been to Europe." "There is nothing sexist or racist stating the fact that Kamala Harris has been an absolute disaster on every policy issue in her portfolio - especially the border crisis," Stefanik told Fox News Digital. "There is nothing sexist or racist about the fact that if you put Kamala Harris on the congressional ballot in any district across America, she would lose because she can’t conduct a basic interview without embarrassing herself and Joe Biden." Harris has also faced historic low approval ratings in recent months, numbers which liberal late night host Jimmy Kimmel first and foremost blamed on "sexism and racism." But like Stefanik, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., evoked Harris's failure to secure the border as a likely reason for any negative coverage or poor approval ratings. "Conservative women trailblazers have been mocked and maligned by the liberal press for years," Blackburn said. "You learn to deal with it and not make excuses. When Vice President Kamala Harris took office, she knew she was charting a new path and would have to prove herself at every step along the way. She could have used her platform to protect the women and girls in Afghanistan, secure the southern border, or reduce crime in our cities. Instead, she tossed aside the historic opportunity she had been given to criticize the tough media environment conservative women have been successfully navigating for decades." Her gender, Blackburn added, "is no excuse for her disastrous performance." Felecia Killings, founder and CEO of FeleciaKillings.org and the Conscious Conservative Movement, also expressed her disappointment in how Harris has responded to any perceived challenges. Killings said it would be "reckless" to think that women from all backgrounds do not experience hardships throughout their careers - something she says she knows from personal experience. But it's how women respond to those challenges, she suggested, that matters just as much. "Many women have taken these challenges and converted these obstacles into stepping stones towards greatness," Killings told Fox News Digital. "In other words, our results speak for themselves. Vice President Harris, like any other politician, has something to prove to the American people. She is not exempt from any scrutiny. Her work must align with the bill of goods she sold to her voters." "Citizens have every right to hold her accountable," she added. "If she's not doing her job, it has nothing to do with her race or gender. It has everything to do with her ineptitude. Other critics have taken issue with Harris's reported complaint to argue that she has received much better media treatment than some of her predecessors or conservative female lawmakers. She been placed on the cover of Vogue Magazine and sometimes enjoyed an assist from the press in fueling the narrative that Harris's naysayers are sexist and racist. NBC's Peter Alexander was criticized for asking Harris's husband Doug Emhoff if race and gender had played into criticism of the vice president. "You’re a husband. When you see the attacks, when you see the criticism, what do you think?" Alexander asked. "As the first woman, black, South Asian vice president, do you think that your wife is treated differently because she’s a woman and a woman of color?" he asked in a follow-up. Journalist Anushay Hossain penned a USA Today piece defending Harris, writing, "as the first black and first Asian and first woman to hold the second most powerful job in the country, she can't keep anybody happy. It's not possible." She expanded on that assumption during an appearance on MSNBC.
"Women and men aren't assessed through the same lens, and that's one thing we have to keep in mind whenever we're talking about the vice president," Houssain said, later adding, "But because she is a woman and a woman of color, the level of scrutiny that she is getting from both the left and the right is really off the charts." Harris' political allies have also suggested she's been victim to a double standard. "I know, and we all knew, that she would have a difficult time because anytime you’re a ‘first,’ you do,’" Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said. "And to be the first woman vice president, to be the first Black, Asian woman, that’s a triple. So we knew it was going to be rough, but it has been relentless, and I think extremely unfair." Harris has not only been burdened with poor polling numbers. In recent weeks, high profile members of her staff have announced their departures, fueling speculation that the vice president oversees a toxic work environment. - Fox News Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized on Monday with an intestinal blockage and may need to undergo surgery in the latest complication from a 2018 stabbing. Bolsonaro said he started feeling unwell on Sunday afternoon after lunch, and doctors have inserted a nasogastric tube. "More tests will be conducted for a potential surgery on an internal obstruction in the abdominal region," Bolsonaro posted on Twitter, along with a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up in his hospital bed. Bolsonaro said it was the second hospitalization "with the same symptoms" since he was stabbed during a September 2018 campaign event and underwent a series of emergency operations. President in 'stable condition'Vila Nova Star hospital confirmed in a medical note that Bolsonaro has been admitted to the hospital in the early hours of Monday with an intestinal blockage.
"He is in stable condition, undergoing treatment and will be re-evaluated this morning by Doctor Antonio Luiz de Vasconcellos Macedo's team. At the moment, there is no forecast for him being discharged," it said. TV network Globo showed images of Bolsonaro, who had been vacationing in the southern state of Santa Catarina, walking down the stairs of the presidential plane after landing in Sao Paulo around 1:30 a.m. local time. In July 2021, he was taken to the Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo due to an intestinal blockage after suffering from chronic hiccups. The far-right politician has been in power since 2019 and plans to stand for re-election as president in a vote scheduled for October of this year. - CBC Wilmington, Delaware — President Joe Biden reiterated his statements that the U.S. and allies will act "decisively" if Russia further invades Ukraine to President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call Sunday, as Russia masses troops along the border between the nations.
It's the second call on the subject within a week for Mr. Biden, who spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Mr. Biden and President Volodymyr Zelensky's call came as the U.S. and Western allies prepared for a series of diplomatic meetings to try to de-escalate a crisis that Moscow said could rupture ties with Washington. "President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement following the call. Psaki added that Biden underscored his commitment to the principle of "nothing about you without you," the tenet that it won't negotiate policy that impacts Europe without its allies' input. Biden has spoken of hitting Russia with economy-jarring sanctions if it moves on Ukraine's territory, but he said last month that U.S. military action is not on the table. The Kremlin has demanded that any further expansion of NATO exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries. The Russians have also demanded that the military alliance remove offensive weaponry from countries in the region. "If the obviously aggressive line of our Western colleagues continues, we will take adequate, retaliatory military-technical measures [and] react toughly to unfriendly steps," Putin told senior military officials during a meeting in remarks carried by Russian state TV last week. "I want to emphasize that we have every right to do so." The White House has dismissed Russia's demands on NATO as a non-starter. A key principle of the NATO alliance is that membership is open to any qualifying country. And no outsider has membership veto power. While there's little prospect that Ukraine would be invited into the alliance anytime soon, the U.S. and its allies won't rule it out. Zelensky said in a Twitter posting after Sunday's call that "keeping peace in Europe, preventing further escalation, reforms, deoligarchization were discussed." "We appreciate the unwavering support," Zelensky said. Senior U.S. and Russian officials are scheduled to meet January 9-10 in Geneva to discuss the situation. Those talks are to be followed by meetings at the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Biden spoke with Putin for nearly an hour on Thursday. He told reporters the next day that he warned Putin that his economy would pay a "heavy price" if Russia, which has massed some 100,000 troops near the border, made further moves against Ukraine. "I'm not going to negotiate here in public, but we made it clear that he cannot — I emphasize cannot — move on Ukraine," Biden said Friday. Biden said he told Putin it was important for the Russians to take steps before those meetings toward easing the crisis. Putin's foreign affairs adviser, in describing the presidents' conversation this past week, said Biden's pursuit of sanctions "could lead to a complete rupture of relations between our countries and Russia-West relations will be severely damaged." U.S. intelligence findings indicate Russia has made preparations for a potential invasion in early 2022. But White House officials say it remains unclear whether Putin has already made a decision to move forward with military action. Still, Biden said he remained hopeful for the upcoming talks. White House officials say they will consult closely with Western allies. "I always expect if you negotiate you make progress, but we'll see," he said Friday. "We'll see." Past military incursions by Putin loom large as Mr. Biden weighs his next steps. In 2014, Russian troops marched into the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and seized the territory from Ukraine. Russia's annexation of Crimea was one of the darker moments for President Barack Obama on the international stage. The U.S.-Russia relationship was badly damaged near the end of President George W. Bush's administration after Russia's 2008 invasion of its neighbor Georgia after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his troops into the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he feared that Putin was intent on invading Ukraine and "nothing other than a level of sanctions that Russia has never seen will deter him." "Russia needs to understand we are united in this," Schiff told "Face the Nation" on CBS. "I also think that a powerful deterrent is the understanding that if they do invade, it is going to bring (NATO) closer to Russia, not push it farther away. - CBS News LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures and European stocks fell and oil slid 3% on Monday as surging Omicron COVID-19 cases triggered tighter curbs in Europe and a $1.75 trillion U.S. domestic investment bill suffered a potentially fatal blow. The spread of the Omicron variant saw the Netherlands go into lockdown this weekend and put pressure on others to tighten restrictions. Britain's cabinet will meet later on Monday as the country faces record cases, while the World Economic Forum postponed until mid-2022 its annual meeting which had been due to take place in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos in January. read more Goldman Sachs cut its U.S. real GDP forecast for the first quarter of 2022, meanwhile, after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden's hopes of passing the investment bill, said on Sunday he would not support the package. read more "Senator Manchin not supporting the President's fiscal package and Omicron spreading fast between them have lowered the tone for the start of the week and we have weaker equities, lower oil prices, lower bond yields and a stronger yen, dollar, and euro," said Kit Juckes, head of FX strategy at Societe Generale in London. Thin pre-Christmas trading was likely to exacerbate market moves, he added. S&P and Nasdaq futures fell 1%, pointing to a lower Wall Street open, European (.STOXX) and UK (.FTSE) stocks hit two-week lows, and were down 1.3% and 1% respectively. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 1.7% to its lowest in a year and the world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) hit its lowest in nearly two weeks. Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) also hit their lowest in a year. Beijing lightened the mood a little by cutting one-year loan rates for the first time in 20 months, though some had hoped for an easing in five-year rates as well. read more The timing of the cut ahead of the Jan 1 interest rate resetting date for corporate loans was positive for corporate borrowers, JPMorgan analysts said. Chinese blue chips still fell 1.5% (.CSI300), while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) dropped 2.1%. Oil prices dropped amid concerns the spread of the Omicron variant would crimp demand for fuel.
Brent was down 2.6% at $71.58 a barrel, while U.S. crude lost 3.1% to $68.66 per barrel. While coronavirus restrictions cloud the outlook for economic growth, they also risk keeping inflation elevated, prompting central banks to consider raising rates. It was notable that Federal Reserve officials were openly talking of hiking rates as soon as March and of starting to run down the central bank's balance sheet in mid-2022. read more That is earlier than implied by futures , which had been well ahead of Fed intentions until now. The market has only priced in a 40% chance of a hike in March, with June still the favoured month for lift off. The Fed's hints of faster tightening, combined with safe-haven flows, underpinned the U.S. dollar index near its best for the year at 96.544 , following a 0.7% jump on Friday. The euro rose 0.27% to $1.1271 , having shed 0.8% on Friday to threaten its low for the year. The dollar was steady at 113.62 yen . Sterling fell 0.28% to $1.32 as Omicron worries erased all the gains made following the Bank of England's surprise rate rise last week. Yields on U.S. 10-year notes were down at 1.387%, well below their 2021 top of 1.776%. Ten-year German government bond yields fell to their lowest in nearly two weeks and were trading at -0.38%. The Turkish lira hit a record low and was trading at 17.73 to the dollar on concerns over President Tayyip Erdogan's low interest rates economic policy and soaring inflation. read more Chile's peso currency fell over 3% on Monday in pre-opening, after leftist Gabriel Boric comprehensively won the Andean country's presidential election on Sunday. read more Gold was steady at $1,798 an ounce , having broken a five-week losing streak last week as equities slipped. - Reuters A Danish politician behind some of Europe’s strictest immigration policies will be jailed after she was found guilty of breaching her duties by illegally separating refugee couples.
Former immigration minister Inger Stojberg, 48, was sentenced to 60 days of unconditional imprisonment, Denmark’s impeachment court ruled on Monday. Lawmakers will now decide if Stojberg, currently serving as an independent member of parliament, is unfit to hold her seat until the next election, due to be held no later than June 2023. Inger Stojberg Source: AFP/Getty ImagesThe verdict highlights changes in the Nordic nation which was ahead of much of the rest of Europe when it embraced anti-immigration policies at the beginning of the 2000s. In 2016, Denmark separated 23 refugee couples upon arrival on Stojeberg’s order which was later deemed unlawful by the parliament’s ombudsman as it failed to acknowledge that couples have the right for individual assessments. Stojberg, who was forced to quit as deputy leader of Denmark’s main opposition party earlier this year, argued that she was trying to protect girls from being forced into marriage before they’re adults. “Danish values lost today, not just me,” she told reporters immediately after the ruling, in which 25 out of 26 judges said she acted with intent. She said she doesn’t regret her actions. A favorite to become the next head of the country’s once powerful far right party, Stojberg’s sentencing could mean more hardship for the ailing political force. The support for the far right has dried up partly as other parties including the ruling Social Democrats have adopted some of its anti-immigration agenda. The impeachment trial, the country’s first in almost three decades, was launched by parliament this year after a legal probe identified Stojberg as the sole responsible minister. Prosecution had sought a 4-month conditional jail term. Stojberg’s reunification policies have drawn harsh criticism from the United Nation’s refugee agency among others. During her tenure as a minister, she was also responsible for the so-called jewelry law, which forces refugees to hand over valuables when seeking asylum. - Bloomberg This year's Kennedy Center honorees Joni Mitchell, Bette Mider, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels and Justino Díaz were celebrated this weekend with a reception at The White House, a medallion ceremony at The Library of Congress and a splashy, black-tie event at the performing arts center's Opera House. The tributes and performances were filmed for a special broadcast to air on CBS on Dec. 22. President Joe Biden and the First Lady attended the gala event Sunday night, a return to tradition that did not go unnoticed by host David Letterman. "It is very nice to see the presidential box once again being occupied," Letterman said. In President Trump's four years in office, neither he nor Melania Trump attended the Kennedy Center Honors. Joni Mitchell was honored for her timeless, emotional songs on such albums as Court and Spark -- and Blue. "Poetically expansive" is how pianist and composer Herbie Hancock described Mitchell's classic song Both Sides Now, which she wrote when she was in her early 20s. When Mitchell was nine years old, she contracted polio. The disease weakened her left hand. When Mitchell started playing ukulele and guitar, Hancock explained, she "devised her own tunings so she could access the emotionally complex chords that she was hearing in her mind." In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm that nearly killed her.
"I think the polio was a rehearsal for the rest of my life," she said after receiving her Kennedy Center Honor medallion. "I've had to come back several times, for one thing, and this last one was a real whopper. But you know, I'm hobbling along there. I'm doing all right," she said to a hearty round of applause. This year marks the Kennedy Center's 50th anniversary. Honoree Justino Díaz sang in the inaugural performance at the Kennedy Center's Opera House as the leading male role in Alberto Ginastera's Beatrix Cenci. The Puerto Rican native has shared the world's most famous stages with such renowned singers as Leontyne Price and Joan Sutherland. Best known for performing villains, Díaz was Iago in Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film version of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo. Among those paying homage to Díaz were Chita Rivera, Denyce Graves and Grace Bumbry. The fact that Kennedy Center Honors are lifetime achievement awards in the performing arts provided fodder for Saturday Night Live cast members past and present. They couldn't resist asking why their boss, SNL creator, producer and writer Lorne Michaels was getting one. In a mock version of Weekend Update, Kevin Nealon reported, "This evening in Washington, D.C., Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, who shall remain nameless, was presented with a Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of his incredibly generous contribution." Only after a long pause for laughter did Nealon add, "to American culture." Honoree Bette Midler has done it all: comedy, musicals, stage and screen. Her friend and The First Wives Club costar Goldie Hawn said Midler simply, "did not pay any attention to rejection." She added: "She sang. She danced. She shook her assets. She created The Divine Miss M." Billy Porter performed a Bette Midler medley and Kelli O'Hara sang Wind Beneath My Wings. Boxer turned songwriter and entrepreneur Berry Gordy turned an $800 loan from his family into a multimedia empire. The Motown hit machine brought the soul of Detroit to the rest of the world with artists like Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five and numerous others. Stevie Wonder recalled his first meeting with Gordy. "I was 11 years old and you said 'Ok, I heard you're good. What do you do?' And I said 'I play harmonica and I sing.' I said, 'As a matter of fact, I can sing better than Smokey Robinson.'" The Kennedy Center Honors is as much about artistic camaraderie as it is about celebrating creative excellence. After receiving his medallion, an emotional Berry Gordy told the audience, "I am so blessed to be in the company of the other honorees, this particular group of honorees whom I have known and admired for a long, long time." Gordy continued, "to get to meet them and talk to them and let them know how much I appreciate them has been a wonderful feeling for me tonight." - NPR |
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