While the White House and Senate races remain undetermined, Democrats have retained control in the House of Representatives. Among election night's winners was New York City Councilman, Ritchie Torres, who will represent the 15th district in the South Bronx.
The victory for Torres marks a historic moment for the United States Congress as he becomes the first openly gay Black representative to serve. His win also signifies a sea change in New York after fellow Democrat José Serrano, who held the seat for 30 years, decided not to run again.
"When he entered Congress in 1990, I was only 2 years old, and so yesterday's election in 2020 represents a passing of the torch. And I'm grateful to the voters of the South Bronx for giving the high honor of representing the next generation of leadership," Torres told Cheddar.
With his election, and the reelection of 'The Squad,' the growing diversity in Congress, according to the councilman, is a microcosm of a diverse society.
"More than 60 percent of the House Democratic Conference are women, people of color, LGBTQ, so the Democratic party in Congress [is] increasingly becoming a miniaturization of America, of multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy. And that's a beautiful thing," he noted.
Putting People First
Torres' first priority as representative is to lobby for essential workers in the South Bronx, which was once one of the epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic, he said. The neighborhood, made up mostly of Black and Latino residents, saw almost twice the amount of hospitalizations and deaths compared to a more densely populated Manhattan.
"We have to put income in the pockets of struggling families because the road to recovery for our country will run through our families. It's their spending that will have the greatest impact in reviving the economy," he explained.
While cases continue to surge nationwide, the bare minimum, Torres said, that the federal government could do to help alleviate the financial burden many are experiencing is provide funds that would expand testing, contact tracing, and a stock of critical supplies.
But for New York in particular, Torres painted a more dire situation, and emphasized the urgent need for federal assistance in the Empire State.
"Economically we need to stabilize our local and state governments. There's never been a point in the history of our country where New York State government and New York City government and the public transit system were all caught in a fiscal death spiral," he said.
For Torres, the fight for such policies remains personal, as he expressed that having a first-hand understanding of how everyday Americans live places him in a unique position to fight for real, effective change.
"The greatest asset that I bring to public life is the wisdom of lived experience. I don't come from a political family. I don't come from privilege. I don't have fancy degrees but I know what it's like to grow up in poverty," Torres said. "Those lived experiences not only inform who I am, but are going to motivate much of what I do in Washington, DC."
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
Millions of Americans with young children have relied on the child tax credit since the federal government began issuing checks in July 2021. The last round of payments was sent out just before the Christmas holiday — at the same time as the omicron variant surged. Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University, joined Cheddar to discuss what the end to the tax credit means as the U.S. sees the end of many relief programs and its highest number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. "It'll become harder for families to meet their basic needs, increasing national childhood poverty rates and the proportion of families who have difficulty putting food on the table, maintaining stable housing, and paying their bills," Hamilton said. She also pointed to research that the credit as a long-term investment in children offsets claims that it contributes to macroeconomic impacts like inflation.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the week-end, just days after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call comes as Washington prepares to meet with Moscow on January 10, as tensions mount over Russia's military build up near its border with Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Mustafa Tameez, a former advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about the issue.
Several Silicon Valley insiders are being accused of contorting a 1990s-era tax break to avoid taxes on millions of dollars of investment profits. The tax break is known as the qualified small business stock exemption, and it allows early investors in certain companies to avoid half of the taxes on up to $10 million in capital gains. A piece recently published in the New York Times says venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz replicated the tax exemption by giving shares of companies to friends and family, who would otherwise face a 23.8% capital gains bill. The CEO of Roblox is also accused of replicating the tax break for his family members at least 12 times. Although the loophole known as 'stacking' is considered to be legal, the Times piece implies that the exemption has been manipulated for the ultra-wealthy to become more wealthy. Greycroft co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Alan Patricof joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chris Sommerfeldt, City Hall reporter for the New York Daily News, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses both the wins and losses of Bill de Blasio's eight years as New York City Mayor.
The push to regulate the gig worker economy is gaining steam as the share of workers who participate in freelancing through businesses like Uber and Lyft have also exponentially grown during the pandemic. Employment attorney Mark Kluger, founding partner at Kluger Healey, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down how the battle to reclassify gig workers will continue in the new year, and why the issue continues to generate conflict. "More and more workers are using gig work as their primary source of income and as a result of that they are not like employees in the sense that they don't have benefits like health insurance," Kluger noted.
2021 saw markets continue to be impacted by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic -most recently in the form of the Omicron variant- in addition to the global supply chain shortage, and increased inflation. But it wasn't all bad news, as crypto soared throughout the year, and meme stocks continued to have a moment. With the year coming to a close, investors are keeping an eye out to see if they should expect more of the same in the new year. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX tells us what market trends to be on the watch for in 2022.
