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WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 05: U.S. President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Malia (L) and Sasha (R) pose for a family portrait with their pets Bo and Sunny in the Rose Garden of the White House on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images)

In an episode of their shared podcast, Renegades: Born in the USA, Barack Obama spoke with Bruce Springsteen about his early days of parenthood and what having children has taught him. According to the former president - who met his wife, Michelle Obama, when they were in law school - having children was always a part of their long-term plan.

"We had this nice stretch of about three years where she was doing her thing in her career and I was doing mine," he told Bruce. "Then we started trying to have kids. Took a while. Michelle had a couple miscarriages and we had to kind of work at it. When Malia was finally born, we were more than ready to be parents, right? 'Cause there had been this six-year stretch in which probably for about half of it, we had been trying, so there was no surprise to it."

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He reflected on the time he first laid eyes on his oldest daughter, Malia, when she was born in 1998. "I had no doubt the minute I saw that little creature with those big eyes looking up at me, I said, 'My goodness. I will do anything for you.'"

Of course, Barack felt the very same magic when Sasha was born three years later. "The love of being a father was not something I had to work on," he said. "It was physical, it was emotional, spiritual, you know. The attachment to my children I felt entirely and completely. I thought to myself: 'OK. If the baseline is unconditional love, I've got that.'"

"The love of being a father was not something I had to work on."

Barack shared that he was more than happy to take the night shift when his kiddos were babies, alternating between feeding them, changing them, and talking to them. "This is one place where I do think the idea of what it means to be a man changed in a real way," he said. "By the time I had Malia, it wasn't just that I was completely absorbed and fascinated and in love with this bundle of joy, and this woman who had gone through everything to give me this joy. There was, I think, a sense that, 'Oh, dads should want to spend time with their kids and should want to burp 'em and change diapers.'"

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Barack shared that, because he and Michelle welcomed both of their daughters within three years, juggling fatherhood with his career was incredibly difficult at times, especially once he began his run for president.

"We have kids, and within the span of two or three years, I am suddenly being catapulted - I mean, look, Sasha was, when I ran for the US Senate, Sasha [was] only 3 years old," he said. "When I'm sworn in as a US senator, Sasha is 4 and Malia is 8. Something like that. Three years later, I'm president of the United States, and in the interim, for a year and a half I've been on the road. Not for three-week spans, but for big chunks of time."

He continued, noting how incredibly supportive Michelle was of his ambitions: "The first six months of me running for president, I was miserable because I was missing that family bad. And we got through that only by virtue of Michelle's heroic ability to manage everything back home and the incredible gift of my daughters loving their daddy anyway."

"Michelle figured out much earlier than I did that kids are like plants."

Oddly enough, he had more time for his girls once he was sworn into office. "What I didn't anticipate was the fact that I get to spend much more time with my kids once I'm president," he said. "Because now, I'm living above the store. I have a 30-second commute. And so I just set up a rule: I'm having dinner with my crew at 6:30 every night unless I'm traveling. But my travel schedule [was] very different [then] because people [came] to see you."

But it wasn't just dinner, Barack made sure he spent quality time with his girls after the meal. "I'm gonna be sitting there and I'm gonna be entirely absorbed with stories about the annoying boys and the weird teacher and the drama in the cafeteria, reading Harry Potter and tucking them in and listening to whatever music they're now listening to," he said.

Being able to spend time with his family was incredibly meaningful to Barack, as it helped him navigate the stress of his job. "That actually was my lifeline," he shared. "In an occupation in which I'm dealing daily with mayhem, chaos, crises, death, destruction, natural disasters, right? And so I always say that the degree to which Michelle and those girls sacrificed and lifted me up kept me going, prevented me from either getting cynical or despairing, reminded me why I was doing what I was doing, and spurred me on."

Toward the end of the conversation, Bruce asked what being a father has taught him. "Michelle figured out much earlier than I did that kids are like plants," Barack said. "They need sun, soil, water, but some of 'em are oaks, and some of 'em are pines, and some of 'em are willows, and some are bamboo."

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He shared that, like plants, kids need love and care to truly thrive. "Those seeds of who they are and the pace and ways in which they're gonna unfold are just uniquely theirs. I think I had a notion with Malia and Sasha, there was sort of a way of doing things - and what Michelle figured out earlier than I did, but I also ended up learning, was each one is just magical in their own ways. A branch is gonna sprout when it's gonna sprout. A flower's gonna pop when it's gonna pop. You just roll with that unfolding, that unfurling of who they are, being comfortable just discovering them as opposed to feeling as if it's a project."

Ultimately, Michelle and Barack set out to instill positive values in their daughters from the beginning. Things like, "We're not going to give you a hard time about making a mistake, but we will give you a hard time if you're lying about making a mistake, or if you mistreated somebody," he explained.

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Barack Obama Said That He Had Family Dinners Every Night at 6:30 While Serving as President - Yahoo Lifestyle

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the Center designed by Tod Williams & Billie Tsien Architects in collaboration with Interactive Design Architects (IDEA) as Associate Architect. Image courtesy of Obama Foundation

With pre-construction underway, the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) announced more details of its construction costs and economic impact for Chicago.In February, the Obama Foundation shared that in addition to breaking ground in 2021, they expressed their commitment to providing subcontracting opportunities to a more diverse workforce.

"We believe the Obama Presidential Center should be built by a team that looks like the Center's surrounding community, and we're working hard to make sure that happens."

WBEZ Chicago's Natalie Moore reports on the Foundation's promise and provides more details on the Center's workforce initiative progress. OnMarch 10th, the Foundation statedworkforce goals would prioritize South and West Side residents. "The OPC Construction Workforce Initiative will create an inclusive construction workforce trained with skills to build the OPC, and create a diverse pipeline of talent that can be funneled to construction projects across the city."

Acknowledging their "ambitious goals," a designated jobs resource section of the Foundation's site provides ways individuals can explore how they can participate. The Foundation shares, "50 percent of our work will be done with minority-, women-, or veteran-owned businesses."

The OPC Construction Workforce Initiative builds off of the following three pillars:

Diversifying workforce goals also include recruiting women, young people, and the formerly incarcerated. Moore connected with Sharon Latson, program director at the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT), who is partnering with the Obama Foundation on this effort. "This is definitely about the Obama Center at this time, but it's about how we can change the workforce and diversify it for people who have been locked out," shared Latson.

Community engagement to facilitate follow thru with this effort will consist of virtual job training across the South and West Sides in partnership with the CWIT andfour other organizations. Moore also connected with Chynna Hampton, director of workforce development at HIRE360, another organization collaborating with the Foundation. "I think the construction industry already is pushing toward that diversity initiative," shared Hampton, "but this sticks the pin in it to make sure we're pushing it forward and say it doesn't stop here."

The Obama Foundation announced Lakeside Alliance as general contractor for the project to ensure, "South Side, Black-owned construction firms profited directly from the project and were part of the decision-making team."

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The Obama Presidential Center continues to follow thru with diversifying its construction workforce and 'create a diverse pipeline of talent' -...

Weve just really been working together, said Rep. Carl Sherman, D-DeSoto. "It was really just about hearing one another, and I think thats missing in politics.

DALLAS State Representative Carl Sherman, Sr. said he thinks politics are dangerously close to the point of no return, with lawmakers on different teams no longer trying to work together for a common good.

So, hes trying to pull politics back from the brink, one meal at a time.

The Dallas County Democrat contacted state Representative Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, and asked him to start having breakfast and lunch together. The Dallas Morning News first reported the friendship that both men nurtured outside the House chamber.

Rep. Sherman said his colleague from across the ideological aisle was more than willing to sit down and get to know one another better. In fact, their friendship has led directly to co-authoring legislation.

Weve just really been working together, Rep. Sherman said on Sundays Inside Texas Politics. From a political perspective, we have joint authored two bills together and Im really excited about that. And that wasnt the aim. It was really just about hearing one another, and I think thats missing in politics.

One of those bills is House Bill 929, also known as The Botham Jean Act or Bos Law, recently introduced in the House.

I am extremely optimistic that the bill will pass, the Democrat said on the television program.

The bill number itself [929] is significant, Sherman explained, as it is actually Botham Jeans birthday.

The young accountant and worship leader was killed in his own home by former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger in September 2018.

Guyger claimed she thought she was entering her own apartment at the time when she shot him. She was convicted of murder in 2019 but is currently appealing the verdict.

Under Texas law, the Castle Doctrine allows someone to use deadly force to protect their home, car or business. Guyger's attorneys argued her actions should have been covered under it since she believed she was in her home.

Rep. Sherman said his legislation would strengthen and clarify the Castle Doctrine and make it an offense for police officers to turn off body cameras during an investigation.

It is important to me, it was also important to my joint authors like Matt Krause and Representative Jacey Jetton, both Republicans, that we ensure that law enforcement maintains the integrity that we should have and have the unedited, unredacted full investigation of what actually transpired.

That is critically important, Rep. Sherman said, to strengthening the bond between community and police.

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How a meeting for lunch led to legislation between a Texas Democrat and Republican - WFAA.com

Its bold, yes, and we can get it done. So declared President Joe Biden launching his $2tn plan last week to overhaul US infrastructure ranging from fixing 20,000 miles of roads to remaking bridges, ports, water systems and the care economy, care now defined as part of the countrys infrastructure. Also included is a vast uplift in research spending on eliminating carbon emissions and on artificial intelligence. And up to another $2tn is to follow on childcare, education and healthcare, all hot on the heels of the $1.9tn American Rescue Plan, passed just three weeks ago.

Cumulatively, the scale is head-spinning. Historians and politicians are already comparing the ambition with Roosevelts New Deal or Lyndon Johnsons Great Society programme. In British terms, its as though an incoming Labour government pledged to spend 500bn over the next decade with a focus on left-behind Britain in all its manifestations real commitments to levelling up, racial equity, net zero and becoming a scientific superpower.

Mainstream and left-of-centre Democrats are as incredulous as they are joyful. Bernie Sanders, congratulating Biden, declared that the American Rescue Plan is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades. It was the moment when Democrats recovered their soul, writes Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the progressive magazine the American Prospect, ending a 45-year embrace of Wall Street neoliberalism. He concludes: I am not especially religious, but I am reminded of my favourite Jewish prayer, the Shehecheyanu, which gives thanks to the Almighty for allowing us to reach this day.

What amazes the party and commentators alike is why a 78-year-old moderate stalwart such as Biden has suddenly become so audacious. After all, he backed Bill Clintons Third Way and was a cheerleader for fiscal responsibility under both him and Barack Obama, when the stock of federal debt was two-thirds of what it is today.

Now, the debt is no longer to be a veto to delivering crucial economic and social aims. If Trump and the Republicans can disregard it in their quest to cut taxes for the super-rich, Democrats can disregard it to give every American child $3,000 a year.

It is not, in truth, a complete disregard. Under pressure from centrist Democrats, the infrastructure proposals over the next 15 years are to be paid for by tax rises, even if in the first stages they are financed by borrowing. Corporation tax will be raised progressively to 28%, a minimum tax is to be levied on all worldwide company profits, along with assaults on tax loopholes and tax havens.

If others have better ideas, says Biden, come forward, but there must be no additional taxing of individual Americans whose income is below $400,000 a year. Its an expansive definition of the middle class, witness to the breadth of the coalition he is building. But even these are tax hikes that Democrats would have shunned a decade ago.

It is high risk, especially given the wafer-thin majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate. With implacable Republican opposition, it requires a united Democratic party, which Biden is orchestrating with some brilliance, his long years in Washington having taught him how to cut deals, when and with whom. He judiciously pays tribute to Sanders, on the left, for laying the foundations of the programme and flatters a conservative Democrat centrist such as West Virginias Joe Manchin, who insists on tax rises to pay for the infrastructure bill. What will be truly radical is getting the programme into law.

Yet, still: why, and why now? The answer is the man, the people round him, the gift of Donald Trump and, above all, the moment the challenge of recovering from Covid. Bidens roots are working class; beset by personal tragedies, charged by his Catholicism, his politics are driven by a profound empathy for the lot of ordinary people. He may have surrounded himself with superb economists the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, Cecilia Rouse and Jared Bernstein at the Council of Economic Advisers, Brian Deese at the National Economic Council, Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission who are the intellectual driving forces, but he himself will have been influenced as much by the Catholic churchs increasingly radical social policy, represented by Pope Benedict XVIs revision of the famous encyclical Rerum Novarum.

What makes the politics work so well is Trumps legacy in uniting Democrats as never before while dividing Republicans. Biden knows the danger of the midterm elections in 2022, having seen his Democrat predecessors lose control of the Senate, House or both, so introducing gridlock. His bet is that his popular programme, proving that big government works for the mass of Americans, rather than wayward government by tweet, will keep divided Republicans at bay. Better that than betting, like Clinton and Obama, on the merits of fiscal responsibility, which Republicans, if they win power, will torch to serve their own constituency.

But the overriding driver is the pandemic and the way it has exposed the precariousness of many Americans lives. It has re-legitimised the very idea of government: it is government that has procured and delivered mass vaccination and government that is supporting the incomes of ordinary Americans. Unconstrained US capitalism has become too monopolistic; too keen on promoting fortunes for insiders; too neglectful of the interests, incomes and hopes of most of the people. An astute politician, Biden has read the runes and acted to launch a monumental reset. Expect more to come on trade, company and finance reform and the promotion of trade unions.

The chances are he will get his programmes through and they will substantially work. The lessons for the British left are clear. Left firebrands, however good their programmes, may appeal to the party faithful. But it takes a Biden to win elections and then deliver. With that lesson learned, we, too, may one day be able to invoke the Shehecheyanu.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist

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With Joe Bidens own audacious New Deal, the democratic left rediscovers its soul - The Guardian

Last month, the Census Bureau announced that it won't be delivering data that state lawmakers and redistricting commissions use to redraw legislative districts until the end of September 2021.

Threadgill-Matthews is a board member for her local branch of the Alabama New South Coalition, an organization that works to mobilize Black voters in Alabama. Her concerns come as her home state's neighbor, Georgia, is the center of the national conversation over voting rights after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed SB 202, which voting rights groups have said would target Black residents and other voters of color in the state.

"If this is enacted in Alabama, you can probably come back and cover the story because I'm going to jail," Threadgill-Matthews told CNN. "I've been thinking of going to Georgia to offer (voters) some water because I feel like it's ridiculous," she said, referring to a provision in the law that makes it illegal to hand out food or water to people standing in line to vote.

Georgia's SB 202 offers a glimpse into how certain laws can reduce voting accessibility for communities of color across the Southeast, some experts say. It also serves as a warning for what could come next. Many advocates currently have their eyes on the chance for decreased transparency due to the possibility of a shorter redistricting process because of the data delay.

"Unfortunately, a pattern we have seen over and over again, is that when incumbents view a community as a threat to their maintenance of political power, they will use their own power to push back against that threat," said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School.

Redistricting data, originally due at the end of 2020, is late due to complications stemming from the coronavirus pandemic as well as the Trump administration's push to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted.

For Chavi Khanna Koneru, this has everything to do with how much influence the state's Asian American vote will have. As the executive director of North Carolina Asian Americans Together, she works with organizations to increase the political participation of the state's AAPI community.

"The time crunch is going to make everyone use that as a justification for having to move faster and not being as transparent. Because the community has grown, it really does impact our ability to have an impact on who gets elected and what that representation looks like."

The ripple effects

Threadgill-Matthews worries that the delay in redistricting data will lead to voter apathy in some cases.

"Questions about redistricting and not knowing who's going to be the representative or what district voters might be in would cause some apathy. When voters get used to representation from one person they are familiar with it's easy," she said. "If someone got thrown into a district with an unknown candidate or someone that's been in office that's not known to us, that may cause some apathy and some low voter turnout."

However, Alabama state Sen. Linda Coleman Madison is hopeful that voter apathy in the Black community will not be an issue, but she said that above all, she wants an accurate count.

"I don't think a delay will cause further voter apathy. We in the Black community are always concerned with gerrymandering, stacking and packing. My district is 32% White and 65% Black," she said. "When lines were redrawn after the last census I picked up areas that were traditionally White and I've worked to represent all areas fairly and get to know local leaders. I think people are beginning to look at what the person can bring and their commitment to overall good government."

As in the previous decade, Republicans are set to control the redistricting process in Alabama and North Carolina, something that worries Democrats regarding the implications of how maps could be drawn.

Threadgill-Matthews worries splitting up congressional districts in Alabama's "Black Belt" would lead to vote dilution and disruption in relationships between representatives and constituents that have been years in the making.

Black voters in Alabama tend to vote Democratic. And although it hasn't posed a serious long-term threat to the "hegemony of the Republican Party" in the state, there have been repeated concerns with incumbents using "the mechanisms of rules for how ballots are cast and counted ... and drawing lines in order to diminish the voices of groups they disfavor for whatever reason," Levitt, the law professor, said.

Threadgill-Matthews lives in the state's 7th Congressional District, which is 62% Black, with 45% of active voters self-reporting as Black in 2020, according to data from the Alabama secretary of state.

In 2019, federal trials were held over claims that Alabama's 2011 congressional redistricting map packed one-third of the state's African American population into the 7th District, instead of creating two majority African American districts. The current maps remain unchanged and the way in which they will be drawn this time around will greatly impact constituents.

"When it comes to the questions of redistricting, the linking thread, whether it's suffrage restriction, or polling place restrictions, or redistricting questions, what they all come down to are questions of democracy, anti-democracy, and anti-democratic tendencies," said R. Volney Riser, a history professor at the University of West Alabama.

"In American politics, because political partisanship tends to be so closely aligned with race, anything that involves one partisan seeking advantage over another partisan has the potential to introduce race into the equation," Riser added.

In North Carolina, the Asian American and Pacific Islander electorate shares similar concerns over redistricting. Koneru said she has witnessed the rapid increase of the Asian American population in the past decade, which has grown by 154% since 2000.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders accounted for 3.5% of the state's electorate in the 2020 elections, according to data provided by non-profit APIA Vote.

This means that close to 88,000 Asian Americans voted in the 2020 general election, Koneru said.

Much of the state's Asian American population are concentrated in three counties that encompass North Carolina's primary metro areas. Koneru says that if districts are drawn fairly, Asian Americans have the potential to sizably impact the vote in these areas.

Despite the growth in Asian American voters, gerrymandering threatens to reduce the political impact they can have.

"We're finally in a place where we have a seat at the table, are getting our voices heard. Politicians or elected officials who aren't happy with that turnout will certainly push for gerrymandered districts," Koneru said.

The Covid-19 pandemic motivated Asian American voters in North Carolina to become more politically engaged to combat the uptick in discrimination, Koneru said. The turnout of the AAPI voting-eligible population in North Carolina in 2020 was 62%, compared to 39% in 2016.

"We talked to a lot of people who were first-time voters, even though they had been registered for a while. It was really about wanting to have their voices heard because discrimination was impacting them economically," Koneru said.

It can be difficult to address redistricting concerns

Not everyone believes that these concerns surrounding redistricting are warranted.

Patrick Ryan, a spokesperson from the office of state Sen. Phil Berger, president pro tempore of the North Carolina General Assembly, issued a statement on behalf of North Carolina Senate Republicans saying that in 2019, "The legislature conducted all map-drawing in a committee room fully open to the public, and the computers used to draw the maps were livestreamed for any and all to observe."

"It's difficult to specifically address anonymous criticisms of a process that hasn't even begun, and it would seem that those lodging complaints are unaware of the widely praised model employed just two years ago," he said.

North Carolina state Sen. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat, disagrees.

"The issue of fair maps is especially important at a time when Asian Americans are facing increased discrimination and xenophobia across the country because of false COVID-19 related claims."

The 2020 election produced a more conservative state Supreme Court that is likely to influence redistricting this time around, Nickel and others fear.

State Sen. Ben Clark has been leading the effort in the Senate's Democratic caucus to monitor the redistricting process and the census data in North Carolina.

"The delay in receiving census data coupled with the adverse impact of extreme partisan gerrymandering should be of great concern to all North Carolinians," he said. "It is my hope that the condensed timeline will not be used as justification to obscure the redistricting process from engaged citizens who deserve an opportunity to choose their representatives, rather than allowing representatives to 'choose their voters.'"

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Democrats fear a delay in redistricting threatens Black and Asian residents in two southern states - CNN