Biden signs proclamation establishing Springfield 1908 Race Riot Monument
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed a proclamation establishing the Springfield 1908 Race Riot Monument, located on the site of a deadly attack on a Black community by a white mob 116 years ago.
By establishing the monument, the White House said in a statement, the president is “recognizing the significance of these events and the broader history of Black community resilience in the face of violent oppression.”
Biden was joined by civil rights leaders, community members and elected officials in the Oval Office.
“What I’m excited about, beyond the specifics of this, we’re rewriting history,” Biden said. “So our children, our grandchildren – everybody understands what happened, and what can still happen.”
Just before signing the proclamation, he explained how “a mob not far from Lincoln’s home unleashed a race riot in Springfield.”
Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin elaborated on what he called the “national significance” of the attack’s ties to Abraham Lincoln.
“It was the connection with Lincoln that really drove home the point that racism has to end in America,” he said at the signing ceremony. “And we’re still fighting that battle now.”
The monument will protect 1.57 acres of federal land in Springfield, Illinois, and will include the foundations of five houses that were destroyed in the violence.
“I know this may not seem significant to you, to most Americans, but it’s important. It’s important, important, important,” Biden said.
The White House added that this incident was representative of the “racism, intimidation, and violence that Black Americans experienced across the country.”
Biden emphasized the need for generations of Americans to understand such history. “As a matter of fact something happened here similar, recently,” he said.
He also noted how the horrific attack “sparked the creation of the NAACP,” which he views as “one of the most important organizations” in America.
“I’m so proud that Springfield, Illinois, is home to the beginning of the NAACP,” Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth added. “Good things can come out of bad things, as long as you don’t forget what happened.”
Lawmakers have been calling on Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the site as a national monument.
Although legislation had been introduced seeking to advance this goal, Duckworth explained how “it’s been stuck in the House.”
As a result, they believed executive action was the “best chance to protect this area and mark this part of our history.”
This effort marks the eighth addition to the national park system during the Biden-Harris administration.
(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden bids the Democratic National Convention a bittersweet farewell Monday night, he will be introduced by one of his closest champions, his youngest daughter, Ashley.
Although she has remained mostly out of the spotlight compared to her siblings and mother, she has helped promote and advocate on behalf of her father as far back as her childhood.
Ashley Biden, 43, was born in June 1981, the only child of the then-Delaware senator and his second wife, Jill Biden. Ashley’s older half-brothers, Beau and Hunter, quickly developed a strong bond with her, her mother told Delaware Today magazine in 2018.
“Her brothers looked after her. And, she always looked up to them. Wherever they went, she wanted to go, and they took her,” she told the magazine.
At an early age, Ashley Biden was vocal about animal rights, and talked to her father about the issues facing dolphins being caught in tuna fishing nets. Then-Sen. Biden would go on to introduce the 1990 Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act, which required tuna manufacturers to label their products as dolphin free, and he worked with then-California Democratic Rep. Barbara Boxer to help get it passed.
She would go on to earn a degree in cultural anthropology from Tulane University in 2003 and worked as a social worker in Philadelphia and at the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families.
She earned a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice in 2010. Two years later, she married physician Dr. Howard Krein.
Ashley Biden would frequently be seen on the campaign trail with her father in 2008 and after he was elected would be seen with him during major events in Washington, D.C., and around the world. Among those trips was a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.
In 2012, she joined the Delaware Center for Justice and where she worked on programs to combat gun violence and teenage gang activity. She would eventually be promoted to serve as the non-profit’s executive director.
She stepped down from her position at the non-profit in 2019 to help with her father’s presidential campaign. Throughout the campaign season, Ashley Biden made visits to several stops and touted her father’s work and policies to voters.
She was also active on social media encouraging voters to support her father.
It was also during this time that Ashley Biden became a victim of identity theft by two Florida residents.
Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander stole a diary she left behind at one of her former residences in September 2020 and then sold it to right-wing activist group Project Veritas, according to federal prosecutors.
Harris and Kurlander pleaded guilty in August 2022 to “to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property involving the theft of personal belongings of an immediate family member of a then-former government official who was a candidate for national political office,” according to the Justice Department.
Harris was sentenced in April to one month in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and Kurlander’s sentencing is slated for the fall. Ashley Biden did not attend the sentencing hearing, “because it would only increase my pain,” she said in a letter to the judge.
“The point of the theft, I assume, was to be able to peddle grotesque lies by distorting my stream-of-consciousness thoughts,” she said.
She asked the judge to impose prison time on Harris in the letter that was unsealed after the sentencing.
“My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a term of incarceration is to ensure that another woman isn’t bullied and shamed like this ever again. The despair I have often felt will never truly go away,” she wrote. “But I ask Your Honor to hold Ms. Harris accountable so that she thinks twice before doing it to someone else.”
After her father was elected to the White House, Ashley Biden continued to be at her family’s side and accompanied them on several trips including June’s visit to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
When the president delivered his speech declaring that he would not seek reelection last month, Ashley Biden was among the family members who was in the Oval Office. She was seen teary-eyed and hugging her father after the speech was done.
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate passed two key pieces of legislation aimed at keeping children safe on the internet Tuesday afternoon, marking a major step in Congress’ ongoing effort to regulate massive tech companies.
The two bills, which beef up privacy protection for children and limit targeted advertisements toward them, passed with overwhelming support by senators from both sides of the aisle, 91-3.
The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act have been years in the making as advocates — including parents who have lost their children to suicide, drug use, viral challenges and more — have argued there needs to be more guardrails for children and teens on social media.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives where it will face further consideration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet committed to bringing it up for a vote but has signaled a willingness to consider it.
“I am looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate. Parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House,” Johnson said in a statement to ABC News.
The package, if signed into law, would create a “duty of care” that mandates that companies must take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate harms to children and teens, and gives parents and guardians more control over how their children use social media platforms. They also create privacy protections for those under 17, prohibit targeted advertising for young people and allow parents the power to erase content.
It has been more than a decade since Congress enacted meaningful legislation to protect children on the internet. Federal laws on the books were written before Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok were even invented.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bills “perhaps the most important updates in decades to federal laws that protect kids on the internet” during floor remarks on Monday afternoon.
“Too many kids experience relentless online bullying. Too many kids have their personal data collected and then used nefariously,” Schumer said. “And sadly, sadly, too many families have lost kids because of what happened to them on social media.”
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., have championed the legislation in the Senate and have been fighting for its passage for years. At a press conference last week, the two were flanked by parents holding photos of their children who have lost their lives due to interactions they had via social media.
One mother, Julianna Arnold, shared the story of her daughter passing after an Instagram drug dealer sold her counterfeit drugs. Another parent, Todd Minor, shared the story of his son who died while participating in a viral challenge he saw on TikTok. Both parents are advocates with ParentsSOS, an organization that advocates for safety for kids and teens online.
Blackburn was in tears addressing parents, telling them she is “happy to be a part” of changing the outcome for families like theirs.
Blumenthal, who has helmed a number of hearings about regulating tech, said the legislation is necessary in part because large tech companies have shown that their products cause harm.
“We’ve seen from their own documents, their own files, their own evidence that their business model is to get more eyeballs for longer periods of time, so they get more advertisers and more dollars knowing that those profits are derived from destroying lives, destroying lives of your children,” he said.
Leading tech companies such as Snap, X and Microsoft have all publicly endorsed the legislation.
“The safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is a top priority. That’s why Snap has been a long-time supporter of the Kids Online Safety Act. We applaud Senators Blackburn, Blumenthal and the 68 other co-sponsors of this critical legislation for their leadership and commitment to the privacy and safety of young people,” Snap said in a statement.
Several tech lobbying groups, however, chastised the bill.
NetChoice called the Kids Online Safety Act “unconstitutional.”
“Parents need solutions that are legal and meaningful, but KOSA is neither. KOSA’s data privacy, cybersecurity, censorship, and constitutional risks remain unaddressed. NetChoice hopes to work with lawmakers in the House to protect minors and families from KOSA’s many issues,” Carl Szabo, NetChoice’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
Internet lobbying group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) echoed concerns the legislation could result in tech companies implementing policies that restrict free speech.
“The Senate just passed a bill that will let the federal and state governments investigate and sue websites that they claim cause kids mental distress. It’s a terrible idea to let politicians and bureaucrats decide what people should read and view online,” Joe Mullin, EFF’s senior policy analyst, said in a statement.
Google, which owns YouTube, declined to comment to ABC News. It has said it supports “several important bipartisan bills focused on online child safety,” but not specifically KOSA.
And while Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement, “We support the development of age-appropriate standards for teens online, and appreciate KOSA’s attempt to create a consistent set of rules for the industry to follow.”
“However, we think there’s a better way to help parents oversee their teens’ online experiences: federal legislation should require app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps,” Meta added.
TikTok declined to comment to ABC News.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who voted against the bill, also gave a speech on the floor before the vote, during which he raised concerns about the bill potentially limiting freedom of speech.
“The bill they’ve written promises to be Pandora’s box of unintended consequences,” Paul said. “It is perhaps understandable that those who sit in this body might seek a government solution to protecting children from any harms that may result in spending too much time on the internet. But before we impose a drastic first-of-its-kind legal duty on online platforms, we should ensure that the positive aspects of the internet are preserved. That means we have to ensure that the first amendment rights are protected,” Paul said.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also said voting against the legislation, citing concerns that the bill could restrict certain kinds of speech.
“Unfortunately, KOSA’s improvements, while constructive, remain insufficient. I fear this bill could be used to sue services that offer privacy-enhancing technologies like encryption or anonymity features that are essential to young people’s ability to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online. I also take seriously concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, and LGBTQ+ teens and advocates that a future MAGA administration could still use this bill to pressure companies to censor gay, trans and reproductive health information,” Wyden said in a statement.
Advocates for the legislation challenge those concerns.
“There are endless myths and misconceptions that have been spread,” Blumenthal said. “There’s no censorship in this bill, it is about product design. There is no invasion of privacy in this bill, we have chosen not to collect information from kids.”
(WASHINGTON) — Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is set to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in the Hamptons next weekend, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by ABC News.
The event is set to be hosted by a number of big-name Trump donors, including billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson and Omeed Malik, the president of the investment firm 1789 Capital.
Trump’s former secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, is also listed as a host for the fundraiser, which is billed as an “afternoon event with next Vice President of the United States.”
The fundraiser is set to be held in Southampton, New York, next Sunday, the invite said. Tickets to the roundtable event cost $25,000, with an “attendee” ticket going for $5,000. Inclusion in the host committee costs $50,000 per person, the invite said.
A person familiar with the event said it is expected to raise somewhere in the millions.
Notably, the event is also set to be cohosted by two former George W. Bush appointees. Cliff Sobel was the ambassador to the Netherlands under Bush, as well as ambassador to Brazil under the Bush and Obama administrations. Jeffrey served as Under Secretary, Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs after being nominated by Bush in 2007.
The event comes as both Trump and Vance have been on an aggressive fundraising blitz in recent weeks, with under three months to go until the election. Vance has been crisscrossing the country, raising money in California, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Minnesota.
Trump’s fundraiser at the home of billionaire financier Howard Lutnick’s home in Bridgehampton, New York, earlier this month was similarly backed by wealthy allies including Malik, Paulson and Richard Kurtz. Lutnick said that event brought in $15 million for the campaign and the Republican Party.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee’s joint fundraising operation together raised a total of $138.7 million in the month of July — an uptick from their June fundraising total — and entered August with $327 million in cash on hand, the campaign said.
It trailed the $310 million the Harris campaign said it raised in July, as they entered August with $377 million cash on hand. That haul was buoyed by the $200 million the campaign said it raised within a week of President Joe Biden dropping out of the race.
It’s unclear how much the operation had raised before Harris took over the campaign. The money was raised by the Biden and Harris campaigns, the Democratic National Committee, and their joint fundraising committees.