Nov 28, 2017

Former GOP congresswoman said she rejected sexual harassment settlements

Rep. John Conyers. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP

Former Republican Congresswoman Candice Miller said that when she served as chair of the Office of Compliance, she believes she rejected all requests to settle sexual harassment claims, BuzzFeed reports.

Why it matters: Miller said she remembers rejecting a request for $27,000 to settle a harassment claim, which "appears to match" the settlement by Rep. John Conyers in 2015.

  • "I just wanted to make clear that somehow I did not approve this thing...I was not going to approve spending taxpayer dollars to protect members of Congress who were behaving like dogs," she told BuzzFeed.
  • Conyers' attorney Arnold Reed called Miller's statement "too vague" to comment on, but that Conyers' settlement was "run through the proper chains."
  • The Office of Compliance said they couldn't offer additional information on rejected settlements, and "maintain the confidentiality of contacts and claims filed...that do not result in a final decision."

Go deeper

Axios
Updated 6 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 12,220,166 — Total deaths: 553,438 — Total recoveries — 6,696,632 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 3,111,902 — Total deaths: 133,195 — Total recoveries: 969,111 — Total tested: 38,032,966 — Map.
  3. Public health: More young people are spreading the virus — Cases rise in 33 states — Florida reports highest single-day death toll since pandemic began.
  4. Science: World Health Organization acknowledges airborne transmission of coronavirus.
  5. 1 🐂 thing: How the world could monitor for potential pandemic animal viruses.
Go deeper (<1 min. read)Arrow
Axios
8 hours ago - Podcasts

Inside Joe Biden's economic plan

Joe Biden on Thursday returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to give his first major speech on economic policy since becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Axios Re:Cap digs into Biden's plans, how they developed and how they may change, with former U.S. Commerce secretary and campaign surrogate Penny Pritzker.

Dave Lawler
8 hours ago - World

Countries grapple with whether to lock back down as hotspots emerge

Tokyo in the time of coronavirus. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty

Many politicians and public health officials sounded a similar lockdown refrain in the spring: let’s do this right so we only have to do it once.

Reality check: While some countries have thus far managed to keep cases under control after opening up, dozens of countries that had initially turned a corner are now seeing a worrying rebound. They have to decide if and how to return to lockdown — and whether their populations will stand for it.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow