Did the Mayor of Minneapolis Cancel 4th of July Fireworks But Allow a Muslim Animal Sacrifice at Vikings Stadium?
In August 2018, a bit of Islamophobic copypasta started making its way around social media, asserting that the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota had canceled a 4th of July city fireworks display but allowed "Muslim animal sacrifice" to be held in the city's U.S. Bank Stadium (home of the Minnesota Vikings football team) the following month: copypasta   This copypasta was based on a bit of fake news, a fear-mongering report about the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, and a misreading of two genuine news reports. Fake News On 10 June 2018, the Last Line of Defense web site published an article positing that the Muslim mayor of Minneapolis had "canceled the 4th of July": article Mayor Ahneid al Ahmed of Haskentot, Minnesota has done the unthinkable and canceled the 4th of July. According to his office, the city has no desire to spend money on something so frivolous. Muslim spokesman Art Tubolls said: This city elected our mayor to do what is best. We dont hink buying a bunch of flags and fireworks and spending a day celebrating nationalism like nazis is a good idea. This was not a genuine news story about the mayor of Minneapolis, who is neither named "Ahneid al Ahmed" nor a Muslim. (The city's actual mayor is Jacob Frey.) The Last Line of Defense is part of a network of sites that engages in political trolling under the guise of proffering "satire." Jacob Frey This junk news piece may have prompted some confusion, as it resembled a genuine news story about a nearby Minnesota city. The mayor of St. Paul did cancel the city's Independence Day firework show due to budgetary concerns: cancel St. Paul will go without the rockets red glare on Independence Day this year. Mayor Melvin Carter announced that the city wont hold a Fourth of July fireworks event. The cancellation may foreshadow of what could be a difficult budget season. Carters announcement, posted to Facebook, cited concerns about the citys budget climate. Minneapolis, on the other hand, hosted multiple firework shows on July 4th. multiple firework shows Fear-Mongering Reports About Eid al-Adha The Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha is also referred to as the "Feast of Sacrifice." The holiday, which honors Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son at God's command, is celebrated by Muslims around the world. In many places, Muslims observe that holiday by  sacrificing an animal and then sharing its meat with the poor: sacrificing To commemorate God's test of Ibrahim, many Muslim families sacrifice an animal and share the meat with the poor. They also are required to donate to charities that benefit the poor. Muslims also routinely exchange presents during the holiday. When it was announced that U.S. Bank Stadium would be hosting a Eid al-Adha festival, the Islamophobic web site "Bare Naked Islam" published an article about the upcoming event imploring readers to "imagine" 50,000 Muslims at the stadium and displaying various photographs and videos of animal sacrifices from around the world. article The following photograph, for instance, was taken in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2008: taken   These photographs led many readers to mistakenly believe that the "Super EID" festival at U.S. Bank Stadium would also feature animal sacrifices, but that wasn't the case. Ahmed Anshur, executive director of Masjid Al-Ihsan Islamic Center in St. Paul and one of the organizers of "Super EID," attempted to quell these fears, telling Minnesota Public Radio that no animal sacrifices would take place at the event: Minnesota Public Radio Eid Al-Adha, the second Muslim holiday of the year, comes at the end of the pilgrimage. Its name in Arabic means the "festival of sacrifice." Muslims celebrate by sacrificing animals and donating meat to charity. But Ahmed Anshur, executive director of Masjid Al-Ihsan Islamic Center in St. Paul and one of the organizers, wants to be clear: The actual ritual will not take place at U.S. Bank Stadium. "Nobody is going to sacrifice an animal, or nobody is going to slaughter an animal in that field," he said. "I can assure you that, 100 percent." The Minneapolis Star Tribune filed a report after the 21 August 2018 celebration on  which stated that in fact no animal sacrifices had taken place at the stadium during the EID celebration: report The holiday honors the prophet Ibrahim, also known as Abraham in Judaism and Christianity, and his willingness to sacrifice his son for God. It comes at the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage. It is one of the holiest days of the year for Muslims, who celebrate with prayer, shared meals and gifts. In some places, families who can afford it slaughter an animal and share the meat with family and charities. No animals were sacrificed at the stadium Tuesday. Bowling, Chris.  "Thousands Join in 'Super Eid' Celebration at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis."
  [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.  21 August 2018. Feshir, Riham.  "Thousands Expected for 'Super Eid' in Downtown Minneapolis."
  MPR News.  20 August 2018. CNN.  "5 Things to Know About the Muslim Holiday Eid al-Adha."
  21 August 2018. The Current.  "Fourth of July 2018: Where to See Fireworks in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Beyond."
  26 June 2018. Melo, Frederick.  "St. Paul Mayor Cancels July 4 Fireworks, Cites Budget Concerns."
  TwinCities.com.  27 June 2018.
Dennis Kucinich became a lame-duck member of Congress after the 10th District he has represented since 1997 was redrawn out of existence and he lost a primary contest to another sitting Democrat, Marcy Kaptur, in the new Ohio 9th District.But Kucinich has not stopped working on the issues that have engaged him.He issued a news release and video on Nov. 2 supporting HR 4310, the bill he introduced to end the childhood obesity subsidy.Congress -- with your tax dollars -- subsidizes the marketing efforts of fast food and junk food companies by as much as $19 billion over 10 years, thereby subsidizing the childhood obesity epidemic, he said.Do fast food and junk food companies really enjoy an advertising subsidy? PolitiFact Ohio decided to dig in.Kucinich builds his case first by noting that childhood obesity -- which has more than tripled in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- has been linked to the influence of targeted marketing, though partial blame does lie with a more sedentary lifestyle and a worsening diet.He cites several prominent studies in support, with the most recent study coming from the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. It says: Aggressive marketing of high-calorie foods to children and adolescents has been identified as one of the major contributors to childhood obesity. (Others with the same conclusion included the American Heart Association, the American Journal of Public Health and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.) Kucinich's bill would prohibit any company from claiming a tax deduction for the expense of marketing that is directed at children to promote the consumption of food at fast food restaurants or of food of poor nutritional quality.Under current law, fast food marketers get the same break that other businesses do. The federal tax code allows companies to deduct reasonable and necessary expenses of marketing and advertising from their income taxes.How is that a subsidy?The way the federal funding system works, Kucinich said, is that if we give a tax break in one place, we need to replace that lost income from somewhere else, like with higher taxes from the rest of us. In other words, this tax break is a massive subsidy for the junk food and fast food industry.The question then is how much the deduction, or tax break, is worth.According to a report to Congress from the Federal Trade Commission, the most recent we could find, the fast food industry spent nearly $2 billion in 2006 on marketing and advertising specifically aimed at children. That would yield about $700 million in tax revenue at the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent.A report in the New England Journal of Medicine put the marketing budgets for kids' foods at $10 billion annually -- which would yield $3.5 billion in revenue.A study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity said it It is unclear how much money is spent on food advertising specifically directed at children and adolescents, but put the total for advertising, youth-targeted promotions and public relations and packaging especially designed for children at $10.5 billion.The Economic Policy Institute estimated 10-year tax savings of $15 billion through legislation to end subsidies for junk and fast food advertising to children to promote health.Kucinich relied on Congress nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which estimated on a very preliminary basis that his legislation could raise $15 billion to $19 billion in additional federal revenue over the 10-year budget period.That is as much as $19 billion, as Kucinich asserted, though the committee also noted that unsettled issues surrounding his bill would affect its impact and the revenue it would raise. Those issues primarily include defining fast food and determining what advertising is primarily directed at children.What's our take-home?PolitiFact examined Kucinich's legislation two years ago, when he made a statement about it that we found relied too firmly on a high-end estimate of its potential tax saving and implied a direct cash payout by taxpayers to the food industry. He chose his words more carefully this time.His assertion that the tax code provides a subsidy of as much as $19 billion needs additional information for clarification, but it is well supported.On the Truth-O-Meter, his claim rates Mostly True. Claim:  Bovine Unite is a viral marketing campaign for a chain of chicken restaurants.    . Example:  [Collected on the Internet, 2005] I had just left my friends downtown when apparently a van pulled up and cows jumped out and started handing out bells with BovineUnite.com printed on them. I'm not sure what to make of the website.  Apparently C-Day is on May 5th. I'm not sure if it's a clever campagin from Chick-Fil-A or what. But the whole thing is kinda funny. Origins:   In April 2005, reports began flowing out of Maryland regarding innocent bystanders being cowed by groups of roaming bovines.  These bovines were not rampaging bulls let loose on city streets ( la  Pamplona), however, but humans in cow suits who traveled in vans and trucks and handed out free goodies such as bells, all emblazoned with the words "Bovine Unite" and/or the domain name BovineUnite.com. Pamplona Intrigued visitors who surf the BovineUnite.com web site (Cows only!  Humans get kicked out.) are greeted with a manifesto of bovine revolt, presented to the strains of martial music layered with moos: manifesto My fellow bovines.  Every day the humans chase us with horses, rope us, and milk us for all they're worth.  Quite frankly, I've had it up to my udders. All work and no play makes Buttercup a mad cow. So, we must take action.  And we must take action now.  The time has come to rise up and take destiny into our own hooves.  The time has come to claim our right to play in greener pastures.   It's time to live, cows.  Oh yes.  It's time to live. The interior of the site includes links for "Propaganda" (downloads), a hangman game, a Bovine Blog, and a "Talk to the Herd" message board. Bovine Blog Talk to the Herd What's it all about?  The only hint is a notice informing fellow bovines: "The plan goes into effect on C-Day 05.05.05 Tune into the networks between 8:45 and 9:00 PM for further instructions." There seems little doubt that BovineUnite.com is a viral marketing campaign being conducted on behalf of some corporate client, but who that client might be remains a mystery.  A couple of creative agencies have been fingered for possible involvement:  A poster at Ask Metafilter reported that a classified ad run in the Baltimore section of Craigslist seeking to employ cow-suit wearers in Baltimore included a  Ask Metafilter  contact e-mail address at RedPeg Marketing, so one presumption is that RedPeg is handling the campaign (especially since they've created viral efforts for other major corporate clients).   RedPeg Marketing  The registrant of the BovineUnite.com domain name (Will Davis) is Vice President, Director of Operations of Eisner Interactive, so that firm might also be involved. Eisner Interactive, Guesses about the type of business engaged in by the mystery client include chicken restaurants (such as KFC or Chick-fil-A), cow-derived food products (e.g., milk), or animal rights campaigns.   (We'd venture that the campaign seems a little too obvious to be connected with the food or restaurant industry, and too whimsical to be the effort of an animal rights group.) The restriction (so far) of the BovineUnite campaign to Maryland indicates it may be advertising something of regional rather than national interest, such as the Maryland state lottery  an outfit which appears in Eisner Interactive's list of clients.  (Cash cows, anyone?) clients We'll just have to wait and watch to see if any more clues slip out before C-Day. Update:  Looks like we guessed right: Bovine Unite was an ad campaign for the Maryland Lottery. Maryland Lottery Last updated:  5 May 2005 Voting in the 2020 U.S. Election may be over, but the misinformation keeps on ticking. Never stop fact-checking. Follow our post-election coverage here. here On Inauguration Day, Kamala Harris made history several times over. In being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021, the outgoing California senator became the first Black person, first woman, and first person of South Asian heritage to be elevated to the vice presidency.  Inauguration Day The historic nature of her achievement was placed in stark context in a viral meme that showed Harris, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India and Jamaica, respectively, juxtaposed with a long list of official portraits of white men. (Charles Curtis, who served with Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933, had some Native American heritage and was therefore the first person of color to hold the office of vice president). Charles Curtis The meme also highlighted several purported landmarks in the slow progress of women's rights and racial desegregation in the United States, as follows: Dont understand why its a big deal that Kamala Harris is VP? Until Red box? She would have been enslaved. Until Blue box? She couldnt vote. Until Yellow box? She had to attend a segregated school. Until Green one? She couldnt have her own bank account.   The following screenshot shows a selection of instances of the meme on Facebook and demonstrates its popularity on social media in January 2021: popularity   The vice presidents highlighted in various colors were as follows (along with the dates of their tenure as vice president): Red: Andrew Johnson, March 4 to April 15,1865 Andrew Johnson Blue: Calvin Coolidge, March 4, 1921, to Aug. 3, 1923 Calvin Coolidge Yellow: Richard Nixon, Jan. 20, 1953, to Jan. 20, 1961 Richard Nixon Green: Spiro Agnew, Jan. 20, 1969, to Oct. 10, 1973 Spiro Agnew The claims made in the meme were therefore that: until Johnson's tenure as vice president (in 1865), Harris would have been enslaved due to her racial heritage; until Coolidge's tenure as vice president (1921 to 1923), she would have been denied the right to vote due to her gender; until Nixon's tenure as vice president (1953 to 1961), she would have been forced to attend a segregated school due to her racial heritage; and until Agnew's tenure as vice president (1969 to 1973), she would have been denied the right to her own bank account, due to her status as a married woman.  On the whole, the claims contained a high degree of historical accuracy, though in some cases they over-simplified certain discriminatory practices and made some relatively minor errors in identifying the vice president in office during certain major reforms. As a result, we're issuing a rating of "true." The following is our assessment of each of those claims.   The creator of the meme appears to have chosen the year 1865, and therefore the tenure of Johnson, because that is the year in which the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, was passed. The text of the amendment reads as follows:  text Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress passed the amendment in January 1865, while Johnson was vice president-elect to President-elect Abraham Lincoln, but it was not ratified by the states until December 1865, by which time Johnson had ascended to the presidency after Lincoln's assassination, leaving the vice presidency vacant for the duration of his presidency. So the sequence of events is a bit muddled, but it is certainly reasonable to place the 13th Amendment, and the abolition of slavery, during the Johnson era.  Until the passing of the 13th Amendment, Black people in the United States lacked legal protection against enslavement. That doesn't mean that all Black people before 1865 were slaves, but the vast majority were. Based on figures included in the 1860 U.S. Census (page 14), some 89% of Black people in the country at that time were slaves. page 14 Slavery was far more prevalent in the southern states, but on average, a Black woman in the U.S. shortly before the 13th Amendment had close to a 90% likelihood of being enslaved. From a human rights perspective, Black people had no legal or constitutional protection from slavery, which is likely the thrust of the point made in the meme.   The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was passed by Congress in June 1919 and ratified by the states in August 1920. The text of the amendment read: text The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. On both those dates, Thomas Riley Marshall was vice president, under President Woodrow Wilson. So the meme was incorrect in stating that women could not vote until the vice presidency of Calvin Coolidge. In fact, women voted for the first time in the November 1920 election, which saw Warren Harding and his running mate Coolidge elected president and vice president, respectively.  Thomas Riley Marshall That inaccuracy does not impinge upon the truth of the broader point being made in the meme, namely that Harris, as a woman, would not have been able to vote in the United States until the early 1920s. However, the meme does miss an important additional barrier to voting rights that Harris, as a Black woman, could have faced even after the passage of the 19th Amendment.  While the 15th Amendment in principle gave Black men the right to vote, and the 19th Amendment gave all women the right to vote, states continued to discriminate against Black voters by imposing obstacles such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and "grandfather clauses"  all of which were designed to suppress Black voters. 15th Amendment obstacles It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that such practices were prohibited by federal law, although many activists argue that present-day voter-ID rules continue the legacy of electoral restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on voters of color. Voting Rights Act argue   The creator of the meme appears to have selected the vice presidency of Nixon (1953 to 1961) because that was the period during which the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools constituted a violation of the Equal Protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, in the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education. In a follow-up ruling in 1955, the court ordered school districts to arrange for the desegregation of public schools "with all deliberate speed."  declared follow-up ruling Most, though not all, schools were racially segregated in the 19th and early-20th centuries in the United States. So a Black student, such as Harris, would very likely have been forced to "attend a segregated school," as the meme claims. Brown vs. the Board of Education marked the beginning of the end of school segregation, but it did not bring about integration overnight. Over the course of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, state lawmakers and local authorities fought protracted and often bitter battles to resist the Supreme Court's clear mandate. battles So while the meme was right to point out that Black students would be very likely forced to attend segregated schools before the decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, it's also the case that many Black students were forced to attend segregated schools for many years after the ruling, as well. What changed in 1954 was that the nation's highest court clearly declared that system of racial segregation to be unconstitutional.   The meme appears to refer to the enactment of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in the early 1970s, which made it illegal for financial services companies to discriminate against customers on the basis of anything other than their creditworthiness. The legislation stated that: stated It shall be unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction(1) on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract)... However, the law wasn't enacted until October 1974, when the office of vice president was vacant. Spiro Agnew resigned in late 1973, after he was charged with bribery and tax fraud, and his replacement, Gerald Ford, ascended to the presidency in August 1974, after Nixon resigned. So the meme is again mistaken on the precise sequence of events. While Agnew was vice president, banks could (and did) legally deny credit to a woman on the basis of extraneous considerations such as her marital status, her husband's income and credit history, and so on. and did The meme also somewhat overstated the restrictions in place before 1974. Women, including married women, could open their own bank accounts before the ECOA was passed, but often faced difficulty and discrimination in doing so. It was particularly difficult for women to obtain a line of credit or a credit card, in her own name. In 1972, the National Commission on Consumer Finance published a report that found the following common discriminatory practices in lending: report What the ECOA changed in 1974, and what the meme appears to allude to, is that banks and lenders could no longer legally engage in such discriminatory practices. The general election for one of Wisconsins U.S. Senate seats may still be months away, but Democrats have been gearing up to defeat Ron Johnson for much longer. Johnson, an Oshkosh Republican and Wisconsins senior senator, has held the seat since 2011. Earlier this year, he announced hedbreak with his initial pledge to only serve two termsand run for a third. In a news release, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin honed in on an action Johnson took at the beginning of his second term: He withheld his yes vote on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act unless the bill included a tax break for companies calledpass-throughs those that pass all their income on to the owners or investors. Companies structured this way (often small, family owned businesses) are not subject to corporate income tax. And it worked. Once that tax break was added, Johnson voted yes and the bill passed. But Wisconsin Democrats argue it wasnt those small, family-owned businesses that reaped the bulk of the benefits. Multiple independent studies found that the tax carve out Johnson spearheaded overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, over small businesses, theApril 29, 2022, releasesaid. Is that correct? Lets break it down. When asked to back up the claim, Philip Shulman, Senate communications advisor for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, sent a list of analyses of the tax law from news outlets and research organizations. Well start with anApril 2021 studyfrom Treasury economists for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study found that the top 1% of Americans by income have received nearly 60% of the tax savings created by the provision. Most of that amount went to the top 0.1%. Thats because even though there are many American small businesses that also function as pass-throughs, most pass-through profits flow to the wealthy owners of a small group of large companies, according to an Aug. 11, 2021,ProPublica analysisof the tax law. That small group of the ultrawealthy  made up of Republicans like Dick and Liz Uihlein, whose shipping supply company Uline is headquartered in Wisconsin, and Democrats like former presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg  received close to $25 billion in total tax savings in 2018 as a result of the pass-through tax break benefits, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research study. The rest of the top 10% of Americans by income received a little over $12 billion in total, and everyone else in the country, about $6 billion. An April 23, 2018,congressional reportforecast the same breakdown. In 2018, the Joint Committee on Taxationestimatedthat roughly 53% of the pass-through deduction benefit, or about $21 billion, would go to a few hundred thousand Americans earning $500,000 or more a year. For comparison, the average salary for an American small business owner is about $61,000 per year,according to the salary comparison company Payscale. By 2024, just under $4 billion of the pass-through deduction benefit would go to Americans making less than $100,000 per year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation Report. More than $31 billion would go to those making over a million dollars a year. To be sure, any broad-based tax cut willmostly benefit the wealthybecause they already pay a large share of income taxes, something Johnson has acknowledged. In an April 28, 2022, interview withCBS 58-TV, Johnson said his efforts were for the many, not the few becausemost businessesfunction as pass-throughs, and that when you start talking about taxation, if you cut taxes for everybody  people who make more money get more dollars cut, but thats our tax system. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin claimed that the pass-through tax break Johnson advocated for in 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, over small businesses. Multiple analyses show Americas millionaires and billionaires are receiving large chunks of those benefits. We rate their claim True. On 4 July 2015, the Facebook page "What the 'F' Facts" shared a photograph along with a claim that a Kentucky man named Larry Rutman had sued himself and won $300,000 (paid by his insurance company) after he hit himself in the head with a boomerang:  The "What the 'F' Facts" post renewed interest in the story of Larry Rutman, which was nothing more than a fictional tale that has been floating around the online world since it was first published in the Weekly World News back in 1996: published "A Kentucky man who threw a boomerang that flew back and clobbered him in the head promptly filed a $300,000 lawsuit against himself  and incredibly, he was awarded the money! But most amazing of all is the fact that the guy will get the money from his insurance company  and he personally won't have to pay a cent. "The accident occurred on my property so my homeowners insurance was liable for it," Rutman said of the April 18 accident. "Some of my neighbors say this is crazy but it's perfectly logical when you think about it. I paid that insurance for a long time just in case something unforseen like this ever happened. And now all those years of paying premiums have turned out to be worthwhile."  The Weekly World News is, of course, a former supermarket tabloid (now operating in online form only) known for its fantastically fictional stories about subjects such as a zookeeper's being killed by elephant feces, a scientist's plot to blow up the sun, and a tree that grows meat. This fake news item received some additional unwarranted credibility when it was reported by the South China Morning Post in August 1996. elephant feces plot tree reported In December 2017, an image purportedly showing an oddly spaced and strangely punctuated message posted to Twitter by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, expressing disgust with President Donald Trump's stance on a recently passed (and highly controversial) tax reform bill, received viral attention: passed controversial I am disgusted with "President" Trump allowing people to keep more of the money they earn. It is this type of wide spread theft of public resources that keeps America from being great "Mr. President".   This tweet did not appear on Pelosi's Twitter timeline. Although some critics may argue that this only shows that the message was posted and then quickly deleted, that assumption would also be false. timeline For one thing, we could not find a single tweet linking to the original message. More tellingly, however, is the watermark in the bottom right corner of this image. Tweeterino.com is a fake tweet generator that lets users attribute any fictional phrase to any Twitter user. According to the site, hundreds of fake tweets from Nancy Pelosi already exist: fake tweet tweets   The House Minority Leader did legitimately post criticism of the tax reform bill, repeatedly calling it a "GOP Tax Scam" and saying that that the bill would explode the deficit, and noted that 86 million middle class families would see a tax hike: There are few things more disturbing than hearing the swell of cheers from the @HouseGOP as they raise taxes on 86 million middle class families. #GOPTaxScam @HouseGOP #GOPTaxScam  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 19, 2017 December 19, 2017  -86 million middle class families get a tax hike-83% of benefits go to the top 1 percent-13 million Americans will be added to the rolls of the uninsured Thats the real story of the #GOPTaxScam. #GOPTaxScam  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 20, 2017 December 20, 2017  The House Minority Leader also appeared to take as much issue with how the legislation was passed as she did with was what it contained, since the following message was pinned to the top of her Twitter timeline: No hearing. No expert testimony. No listening to the American people. That has been the story of the #GOPTaxScam. #GOPTaxScam  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) December 20, 2017 December 20, 2017  The criticisms levied by Pelosi were backed by reports from nonpartisan organizations such as the Tax Policy Center and Congress's own Joint Committee on Taxation. We wrote about these claims (and several others) in an explainer about the bill. explainer In May and June 2019, a misleading but widely seen meme about immigrants and Medicare benefits continued to circulate on Facebook:   Although the trope that undocumented immigrants are cashing in on U.S. government-funded public benefits for free is a common one, it's generally misleading. common one generally misleading Contrary to what the meme asserts, undocumented persons do not qualify to receive Medicare. Additionally, because many undocumented persons acquire fake Social Security numbers so that they can work, they pay billions of dollars into the system but never reap those benefits, said Steven Wallace, professor of public health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and associate director of UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research."In reality, undocumented immigrants paying into these programs actually are helping to subsidize them," Wallace told us by phone. "So its the other way around -- its not that they're draining the system. They're actually subsidizing it."The impacts of immigration on the economy and public benefits are political flashpoints in a larger national debate. For example, in September 2017 the Trump administration was criticized for rejecting a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that concluded refugees have an overall positive effect on government revenue.A 2017 study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reported that immigration "has an overall positive impact on the long-run economic growth in the U.S. In the short term and on the local and state government levels, new immigrants do have a negative revenue impact largely due to costs associated with educating children, health care and law enforcement. But in the long term, they are a net positive on revenue due to higher incomes of their descendants who are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S.PBS News Hour reported that "In general, more people working means more taxes  and thats true overall with undocumented immigrants as well. Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $11.6 billion a year in taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy. Immigrants are also less likely to take public benefits than the native-born population for two reasons."Those two reasons, according to PBS, are that undocumented persons aren't eligible to receive federal public benefits, and many of the ones who are authorized to be here aren't eligible because they earn too much money.  Contrary to what the meme asserts, undocumented persons do not qualify to receive Medicare. Additionally, because many undocumented persons acquire fake Social Security numbers so that they can work, they pay billions of dollars into the system but never reap those benefits, said Steven Wallace, professor of public health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and associate director of UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research. undocumented persons "In reality, undocumented immigrants paying into these programs actually are helping to subsidize them," Wallace told us by phone. "So its the other way around -- its not that they're draining the system. They're actually subsidizing it." The impacts of immigration on the economy and public benefits are political flashpoints in a larger national debate. For example, in September 2017 the Trump administration was criticized for rejecting a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that concluded refugees have an overall positive effect on government revenue. rejecting A 2017 study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reported that immigration "has an overall positive impact on the long-run economic growth in the U.S. In the short term and on the local and state government levels, new immigrants do have a negative revenue impact largely due to costs associated with educating children, health care and law enforcement. But in the long term, they are a net positive on revenue due to higher incomes of their descendants who are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S. 2017 study PBS News Hour reported that "In general, more people working means more taxes  and thats true overall with undocumented immigrants as well. Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $11.6 billion a year in taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy. Immigrants are also less likely to take public benefits than the native-born population for two reasons." Those two reasons, according to PBS, are that undocumented persons aren't eligible to receive federal public benefits, and many of the ones who are authorized to be here aren't eligible because they earn too much money. Frazee, Gretchen.  "4 Myths About How Immigrants Affect the U.S. Economy."
  PBS News Hour.  2 November 2018. Hirschfeld Davis, Julie, and Somini Sengupta. "Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees."
  The New York Times.  18 September 2017. Congressional Budget Office.  "The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments."
  December 2007. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine.  "The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration."
  2017. One of the most heated exchanges between Rick Scott and Alex Sink at their third and final gubernatorial debate on Oct. 25, 2010, centered on fraud.But it was Sink, not Scott, in the hot seat.After Sink brought up Scott's time running Columbia/HCA and the hospital company's convictions and $1.7 billion in fines for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, Scott turned the tables on the former bank executive.Look, you want to talk about fraud. Let's talk about your job at NationsBank, Scott said. Your tellers were paid kickbacks, your tellers in your bank were paid kickbacks for directing elderly consumers from ...Scott stopped in mid-thought because he saw Sink smiling.You want to smile about it? Scott asked.Am I going to have an opportunity to respond? Sink turned and asked the moderators, CNN's John King and theSt. Petersburg Times'Adam C. Smith. But before King or Smith could answer, Scott pressed on.Let me finish and make sure you understand what the issue is. Your tellers were paid kickbacks -- OK. Your tellers were paid kickbacks for -- OK, you think it's funny for these seniors that you sent from safe deposits to risky ones, Scott said. All right, you were sued -- your bank was sued and you paid fines. That's called fraud. So I have a whole list -- you want to talk about fraud, I can give you a list of them.We've examined in detail Scott's time and role in the fraud investigation at Columbia/HCA, so we thought it fair to delve into Sink's banking background, and the allegations of fraud at NationsBank -- which is now Bank of America.Sink, the state chief financial officer, is a banker by profession. She came to Florida in 1989 and became president of NationsBank Florida in November 1993. She served in that role until early 1998, when she became president of the bank's private client group. In 2000, NationsBank merged with Bank of America. Sink left Bank of America that same year in an executive shake-up.The roots of the allegations Scott is talking about stretch back to 1994 and originate in Florida.That year, a stockbroker with a NationsBank subsidiary, NationsSecurities, went public with what he described as an orchestrated nationwide scheme to get bank customers to move investments from safe, federally insured accounts to more risky brokerage and mutual funds.Florida-based NationsSecurities broker David Cray said the bank and its securities arm intentionally blurred the lines between its traditional banking business and its securities business and misled customers into thinking those securities investments were protected by the bank or the federal government. The scheme permeated the entire bank, Cray, and later others, said. Brokers were given sales scripts to try to convince bank customers to move their money into more risky securities.A NationsSecurities senior manager said employees should use the phrase SPR which stood for safety, predictability and return when discussing the mutual funds, according to the findings of a subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. A sales script the company used said the investments provided certainty in an uncertain world, and NationsSecurities branch managers also encouraged employees to use fear to sell securities. In one orientation sales meeting, a manager suggested that a broker could ask customers: Is this your risky money or safe money? If this is risky, I know a guy at Merrill or Dean Witter.NationsBank helped NationsSecurities by providing brokers lists of customers with Certificates of Deposit about to mature, according to the SEC's findings.Why was the bank pushing the mutual fund investments and its securities side business? According to Cray and others, NationsBank received lucrative fees for the mutual funds its subsidiary managed.The allegations led to a class-action lawsuit against NationsBank of Florida, NationsSecurities and others, from investors who lost money by unknowingly making the risky investments, which in the end lost money. Along with the SEC, the Department of Justice also opened an investigation. The results of those investigations support Scott's claim that bank tellers were being paid for referring customers to the securities side of the business.The SEC concluded that NationsBank tellers were provided incentives to refer customers to NationsSecurities stock brokers. If the NationsSecurities broker got a customer to buy into the mutual fund, the teller who made the referral would receive a 5 percent commission. In some instances, bank employees substantially increased their monthly compensation during this period by making referrals to NationsSecurities, the SEC found.The SEC fined NationsSecurities$4 millionin 1998 for its role in misleading bank customers.NationsBank ended up paying civil fines of $6.4 million and $6.75 million to the federal government in 2000 and 2002, and another $8.1 million to 2,230 investors nationwide. No criminal charges in the case were filed, according to theSt. Petersburg Times.We should note, that despite Scott's suggestion, the scheme wasn't crafted solely for elderly customers. The investments were sold as being safe for anyone, including the elderly, brokers were told to say. The Securities and Exchange Commission did find, however, that more than half of the eventual investors were over 60.Sink said she had nothing to do with the mutual fund scheme. The companies NationsBank and NationsSecurities were managed separately, though NationsBank allowed NationsSecurities representatives to sit in desks at bank lobbies where they would appear to look like bank employees. Sink also says the lawyer who brought the class-action lawsuit would back up her story. We explored that claim in another item, which you can readhere.But in this case, we're drilling down on what Scott said.He said that Sink's tellers were paid kickbacks for directing elderly consumers from ... safe deposits to risky ones. While Sink was state president of NationsBank, bank tellers in Florida were being paid a 5 percent commission for directing bank customers to bank-related stock brokers. The stock brokers were then selling riskier investments under the guise that they were protected either by the bank or the federal government. We rate this claim is True. In April 2022, a picture was circulated on social media that supposedly showed U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., making a "white power" gesture during a Senate hearing or vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court. This example was shared on Twitter:  While the photograph is real, it was not taken during a hearing or vote on Jackson's confirmation, and there's no evidence that Blackburn was intentionally "throwing a white power sign" with her hand.   The picture appears to have been taken from video footage of an April 7, 2022, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley. Blackburn posted a video of herself questioning these officials to her own Twitter account. The hand position above can be seen around the 1:30 mark of the following video.   While what is more generally known in the U.S. as the "OK" hand symbol has truly been adopted (or co-opted) by some white supremacists, not every instance of this gesture is necessarily related to a hateful ideology. In most cases, the OK symbol simply means "OK." The same gesture has also been used as part of a game and by Kappa Alpha Psi, a Black fraternity that was formed in 1911. In other cases, someone might rest their hand in this position without any thought or meaning behind it.  "OK" hand symbol adopted (or co-opted) by some white supremacists, used as part of a game Kappa Alpha Psi, a Black fraternity that was formed in 1911 When we watched the entirety of the six-minute-long video of Blackburn's questioning, it seemed most plausible that Blackburn's hand position falls into the latter category: a random, momentary hand movement without any meaning behind it. Blackburn's questioning Washington Post reported But as the first Black woman nominated to the high court, Jackson also bears certain burdens that have become evident during her confirmation hearings. She has been subjected to questioning from some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee that has been explicitly or implicitly all about race. She has been asked about critical race theory and the history of Americas slaveholding past and whether she has been too lenient in her sentencing as a trial judge  issues that are cultural flash points in todays caustic political debate but the first two of which have little to do with the actual work of the Supreme Court. During Jackson's hearing, Blackburn asked the judge to define the word "woman" and accused Jackson of being an advocate for judges to consider critical race theory when considering sentencing. Blackburn voted against Jackson's nomination along with all but three of her Republican colleagues. woman judges to consider critical race theory When this image was shared with the false claim that it showed Blackburn during Jackson's hearing, some social media users may have been primed to believe that Blackburn was acting out of some sort of racial malice. This, in turn, made it seem plausible, to some, that Blackburn was flashing a white power sign. But the image shown above was taken at an entirely different Senate hearing, one that was far less racially charged.  The claim that Blackburn made a white power gesture at Jackson's confirmation hearing (or vote) is false. While this is a real image of Blackburn, it comes from a different Senate hearing and no evidence has been provided to suggest that this was anything other than an inadvertent hand position.  Analysis | Jackson Endures Questioning with Racial Overtones from GOP Senators. Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/23/jackson-endures-questioning-with-racial-overtones-gop-senators/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022. Democrats Dilemma: Back Bidens Pentagon Budget or Supersize It. POLITICO, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/05/biden-pentagon-defense-budget-00022928. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022. Fact Check-Photo of Sen. Marsha Blackburn Was Not Captured at Justices Brown Confirmation. Reuters, 11 Apr. 2022. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-blackburn-miscaptioned-idUSL2N2W913W. Phillips, Steve. Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing Reveals Republicans Racist Fears. The Guardian, 25 Mar. 2022. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/25/ketanji-brown-jackson-hearing-reveals-republicans-racist-fears. Remarks by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Senates Historic, Bipartisan Confirmation of Judge Jackson to Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The White House, 8 Apr. 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/08/remarks-by-president-biden-vice-president-harris-and-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-on-the-senates-historic-bipartisan-confirmation-of-judge-jackson-to-be-an-associate-justice-of-the-supreme-court/. Top Biden Defense Officials Admit Administration Was Wrong To Share Intelligence With Chinese. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, 7 Apr. 2022, https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2022/4/top-biden-defense-officials-admit-administration-was-wrong-to-share-intelligence-with-chinese. Austin MayorSteve Adler, who seeks a second term this November, reacted to a game-show moment with a swaggering claim. In anApril 25, 2018, tweet, Adler responded to this clue fromthat nights episodeof Jeopardy: Per Rick Perry, its the blueberry in the tomato soup. Perry, the Republican former governor,often offers the blueberry characterization of the Democrat-dominant capital. On the program, a contestant correctly answered Austin for $600. Next, Adler said in his tweet, accompanied by a photo of the Jeopardy clue: What is the safest big city in Texas with an unemployment rate under 3% that has been named the best place to live in the entire United States two years running? Is all of that true about Austin? Not all: In 2017,we found Half Truean Adler reference to Austin as the state's safest big city. Not for the first time, we noted then that theFBI advises againstusing crime data it collects to declare one city safer than another. That said, such statistics at the time suggested both that the five-county Austin region in 2015 had a lower violent-crime rate than other Texas regions and that El Paso had a lower violent-crime rate than Austin in the first half of 2016. Seeking mayors factual backup The morning after Adler posted his comment, which was retweeted more than 200 times, we reached mayoral spokesman Jason Stanford. Stanford advised by phone that Adler didnt have fresh information to offer in support of his 2018 safest big city in Texas statement. He suggested we check federal statistics to confirm Austins jobless rate and told us that U.S. News had consecutively named Austin the nations best place to live. Checking Austins unemployment Our search for Austins jobless rate on the Texas Workforce Commission website showed that from January through March 2018, the latest month of available data, the city's jobless rate ran shy of 3 percent. We also fetched a longer view showing the citys jobless rate mostly staying below 3 percent from January 2017 on (all the rates not seasonally adjusted). Austin's unemployment rate was last above 3 percent, according to the TWC, when it was 3.1 percent in August 2017. The Austin rate's 15-month low, 2.5 percent, occurred in December 2017:          SOURCE:Website,Unemployment,Texas Labor Market Information, Texas Workforce Commission (search completed April 26, 2018) Austin ranked best place to live two times in a row On April 10, 2018, U.S. Newsannouncedthat for the second straight year, the online publication found Austin the best place to live in the United States among the country's 125 largest metropolitan areas;Colorado Springs, Colo.,placed second. The rankings were based on affordability, job prospects and quality of life, U.S. News said, and on surveying thousands of U.S. residents to find out what qualities they consider important in a home town. The methodology, U.S. News said, also factored in data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI and the Bureau of Labor Statistics--plus U.S. News rankings of the countrys high schools and hospitals. Austin, the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the planet,earneda score of 7.7 out of 10 for the 2018 rankings, U.S. News said, with even its few downsides having upsides. The story says: The median sale price for a single-family home in Austin is well above the national median. Then again, the story says, Austinites' pocketbooks benefit from no personal or corporate income tax, and a low state and local tax rate. Another semi-warning in the story: Summers in Austin take some getting used to, with temperatures often scorching. Though, the story says, the metro area experiences mild weather throughout the rest of the year, though temperatures have been known to drop in the winter. The story also notes: Austin is among the nation's worst metro areas for traffic congestion. But, the story says, that can be addressed with flexible work schedules, due diligence when choosing a neighborhood and, for those wanting to get in some exercise while commuting, using public transportation, walking and biking. Our ruling Adler referred to Austin as the safest big city in Texas with an unemployment rate under 3% that has been named the best place to live in the entire United States two years running. Hizzonerwas right about Austins jobless rate of late and Austin getting named the citys best place to live two years in a row though its worth clarifying that the rankings considered only the countrys 125 largest metro areas. Whether Austin is the safest big Texas city rests on interpreting crime data the FBI counsels against using to compare communities. This said, we previously found that the five-county Austin region in 2015 had a lower violent-crime rate than other Texas regions while in the first half of 2016, El Paso had a lower violent-crime rate than Austin. On balance, we rate this Adler claim Mostly True. MOSTLY TRUE The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here formoreon the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.