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Former Supermodel Janice Dickinson Just Gave Powerful Testimony Against Bill Cosby


Reality TV star and former supermodel Janice Dickinson took the stand before a jury in Pennsylvania on Thursday on the fourth day of comedian Bill Cosby‘s retrial on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. (The first trial was declared a mistrial last summer after a jury failed to reach a verdict.)

On the stand, Dickinson described an incident in which she alleges comedian Bill Cosby raped her in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 1982.

Dickinson, who is now 63, has spoken publicly about her allegations against Cosby in the past, saying that he drugged and raped her when she was 27 years old. According to The New York Times, Dickinson described what she remembered from that encounter to the jury, claiming that Cosby sexually assaulted her after giving her a pill that she believed to be for menstrual cramps. “He smelled like cigar and espresso and his body odor,” she described.

According to CNN, Dickinson said she passed out and woke up feeling sore. On the stand, she said she confronted Cosby and told him, “Do you want to explain what happened last night, because that wasn’t cool.” CNN reports she said in her testimony, “I wanted to hit him; I wanted to punch him in the face.”

The New York Times reports that Cosby’s defense attorney Tom Mesereau cross-examined Dickinson and asked about passages from her 2002 book, which don’t include details about the alleged assault. “You told a tale to the jury today that is completely different from the book,” he said, according to The New York Times. “You made things up to get a paycheck.”

Dickinson testified that her publishers advised her to leave the assault out for legal reasons, explaining, “You take poetic license in what you do. Today I am on a sworn Bible.”

Dickinson is one of the most high-profile women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault; 35 women previously shared stories with New York magazine in 2015. The charges in this current trial were brought by a woman named Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her in January 2004. Several media outlets have noted that unlike the first trial, the retrial has started in a post-#metoo environment, as the country reckons with widespread accusations of sexual assault in Hollywood.



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The Senate Passed a Major Tax Bill So Hurriedly Some Senators Couldn't Even Read It All


In the early hours of Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate voted on a new, highly contentious tax bill known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The $1.5-trillion tax bill is set to give massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans alongside uncertain benefits for the middle class, according to the Washington Post. However, some Democrats are crying foul over the process by which the bill was passed: When amendments to the Republican-led bill surfaced, the information didn’t go directly to the Democratic senators, according to the New York Times. Instead, those senators got wind of changes from K Street lobbyists.

Senators turned to social media to express their anger at how they had to catch wind of changes, the state the 479-page bill was in when they eventually received it, and the fact that they had just a few short hours to read the missive before the vote.

“This is so bad. We have just gotten list of amendments to be included in bill NOT from our R colleagues, but from lobbyists downtown,” Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri tweeted, “None of us have seen this list, but lobbyists have it. Need I say more? Disgusting. And we probably will not even be given time to read them.”

Six hours after her initial tweet, McCaskill posted a photo of a page of the bill, which she and her Democratic colleagues had by then obtained—according to USA Today, major changes were unveiled around 7 P.M. Friday evening. The nearly 500-word text was filled with sometimes-illegible handwritten amendments in the margins.

“I defy any member of the Senate to stand here and take an oath that they have read this and understand what in the world it means to businesses and families and individuals,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said.

McCaskill also tweeted saying that Democratic senators had asked if they could adjourn on Monday so everyone could study the bill, but the request was denied.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts posted a video of herself trying to decipher the handwriting on one of the pages. The Massachusetts Democrat was unable to read everything. “I just want to give you an idea of how the Republican leadership thinks we’re supposed to make laws in the United States Senate,” she said.

Other senators also posted images of the scrawl-filled bill on Twitter, explaining their disappointment in the process.

The bill eventually passed 51 to 49, with a winning margin of one vote (Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee voted against the bill due to concerns over its effect on the deficit). However, the saga isn’t over yet: Because of all the differences between this bill and the version that passed in the House of Representatives about two weeks ago, it’s being sent back to a joint committee, who will “iron out an agreement” between the two versions, according to USA Today. From there, both the House and the Senate will have to vote on identical copies of the bill.

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Here's How to Send Donald Trump Your Birth Control Bill


Following the repeated failures to officially repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump has taken the task of unraveling his predecessor’s signature legislation into his own hands—and has been looking for ways to incrementally undermine health care for millions of Americans.

One of the most drastic measures came earlier this month when the President took action to roll back the ACA’s birth control mandate and make it easier for employers to exempt contraception from their health insurance offerings on the grounds of religious or moral exemption. In their quest to make make birth control less accessible, the administration has said that it’s unsure if birth control decreases unplanned pregnancies (it does), it’s concerned that BC promotes “riskier” sex (it doesn’t), and warned of the negative side effects of certain contraception (which have been greatly exaggerated).

Through this murky reasoning, the White House has put coverage for the 55 million women who depend on the birth control mandate in jeopardy. Ninety-nine percent of women have used at least one type of contraception in their life, but out-of-pocket costs can prove to be a major financial burden. According to a 2010 study completed by Planned Parenthood, about a third of women struggled with covering these co-pays.

If you, like millions of other women, realize just how detrimental Trump’s actions could be, all hope is not lost. Before Trump’s proposed plan can go into effect, the Department of Health and Human Services is required to have an open comment period and give the public a chance to share their thoughts on the new rule. And this is where you (with some help from the Women’s Equality Center) come in.

WEC just launched their Keep Birth Control Copay Free campaign to flood HHS with plenty of opposition to Trump’s rule. Not only can you send the department a pointed, pre-written note outlining how bad this proposal would be, you can send Donald Trump the bill for your own birth control with a handy invoice generator. The tool automatically pulls in the average cost of whatever birth control you use—there are seven options to choose from, including the pill and IUDs—and gives you a chance to send it along to the President along with a message telling HHS not to go forward with the plan.

Right now, the teen pregnancy rate is at an all-time low. Unintended pregnancies are at a 30-year low. Abortion rates have hit a 40-year low and are continuing to decline. All of these stats can be linked to more accessible birth control—and these trends will likely reverse if contraception is made less attainable.

Beyond this, Trump’s actions could have wide-reaching socioeconomic ramifications. When women have more control over their own reproductive health care–including having access to birth control—they take better care of themselves and their families. They can pursue higher education. They can advance in their careers. They can be more active participants in the economy. If they’re denied access to affordable birth control, the effects could be overwhelming.

“Women are tired of footing the bill for male politicians’ attacks on essential reproductive health care,” Amy Runyon-Harms, the Keep Birth Control Copay Free campaign coordinator, told Glamour in a statement. “Together, we are pushing back against President Trump’s dangerous political decision to reduce access to birth control and today we are sending him the bill. Copay-free birth control saves Americans at least $1.4 billion each year. And we figure, with Donald Trump’s frequent proclamations that he’s ‘very rich,’ he shouldn’t have a problem absorbing the cost.”

Comments will be accepted until December 5, so go ahead, send Trump your thoughts—and make sure to send him your bill, too.



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The Harriet Tubman $20 Bill Might Be in Jeopardy


Flashback: It’s April 2016, and the Treasury Department is gearing up for a major announcement. When it does drop, it’s huge news. Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will become the first woman to appear on the front of U.S. currency, replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

Now, welcome back to 2017. Harriet Tubman’s place on the $20 is now in jeopardy, and it’s all thanks to the Trump administration.

In an appearance on CNBC Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was asked for his thoughts on the currency makeover—and his response was anything but enthusiastic.

“It’s not something that I’m focused on at the moment,” he said.

Mnuchin explained that the Treasury’s main concern in creating new bills is preventing counterfeiting. But even with the Obama administration’s plans to make sure the new bills wouldn’t be easy to forge, Mnuchin certainly isn’t rushing to put the iconic abolitionist on the $20 bill.

“People have been on the bills for a long period of time,” he said. “This is something we’ll consider. Right now, we have a lot more important issues to focus on.”

The $20 bill wasn’t the only piece of currency in line for a modern-day makeover. The backs of both the $10 and $5 bills would be redesigned to include tributes to the women’s suffrage movement and the civil rights movement, respectively. Mnuchin didn’t bring up those changes in the interview, so it’s unclear where they stand.

Considering how then-candidate Donald Trump responded to the new $20 when it was first announced, it’s almost a given that Mnuchin wouldn’t commit to updating the bill. After former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew presented the revised currency to the public, Trump dismissed the news as “pure political correctness.” He praised Andrew Jackson for his “history of tremendous success” and told NBC’s Matt Lauer that he would “love to leave Andrew Jackson and see if we can maybe come up with another denomination.”

“Maybe we do the $2 bill or we do another bill,” Trump said at the time.

Considering the White House’s track record on women, Tubman’s future on the $20 bill could be in trouble. Can we return to that flashback now?



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