News Editor’s Roundup: N.Y. State Senate Leader Calls for Cuomo’s Resignation; Manchin Open to Filibuster Reform
 BY JACK CROWE March 08, 2021
Good morning and welcome to the News Editor's Roundup, a weekly newsletter that will ensure you're up to date on the developments in politics, business, and culture that will shape the week's news cycle — as well as those that might escape mainstream attention.  New York State Senate Majority Leader Calls for Cuomo's Resignation New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, is calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign as the third-term governor faces dual scandals over both his alleged inappropriate behavior with women, as well as the coverup of his mishandling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.
"New York is still in the midst of this pandemic and is still facing the societal, health and economic impacts of it. We need to govern without daily distraction. For the good of the state Governor Cuomo must resign," Stewart-Cousins said in a statement on Sunday, shortly after Cuomo said on a press call with reporters that there is "no way" he resigns.  Manchin Open to Filibuster Reform, Says Process 'Should Be Painful' Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) said Sunday that while he opposes eliminating the Senate filibuster, he is open to reforming the practice of imposing a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to make it more "painful" for the minority party to block legislation.
"The filibuster should be painful, it really should be painful and we've made it more comfortable over the years," he said on Fox News Sunday. "Maybe it has to be more painful."
During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, he suggested requiring senators to filibuster by talking on the chamber floor to hold up a bill.
"If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk," Manchin said on NBC's Meet the Press. "I'm willing to look at any way we can, but I'm not willing to take away the involvement of the minority."  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is allowing child-migrant detention facilities to operate at 100 percent capacity, despite the threat of coronavirus spread, multiple outlets reported on Friday.
The agency recommended in an internal memo that the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement open its facilities at the U.S.–Mexico border to full capacity. According to the memo, the HHS facilities are better-equipped to prevent coronavirus spread than U.S. Border Patrol holding centers, so it is preferable that migrant children be housed by HHS.  Pope Francis Meets Top Shiite Cleric during Landmark Visit to Iraq Pope Francis met with a leading Iraqi Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Saturday as part of the first-ever visit by a head of the Catholic Church to the Middle Eastern country.
Francis and al-Sistani spoke for about 40 minutes in the cleric's home in the city of Najaf, where the Shia holy site Imam Ali Shrine is located. The conversation touched on matters concerning Iraq's beleaguered Christian communities, who have faced violence and persecution since the 2003 U.S. invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.  De Blasio Eyeing Run for N.Y. Governor amid Cuomo Scandals New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is eyeing a run for governor amid mounting scandals faced by Andrew Cuomo.
De Blasio has reached out to multiple labor unions to determine levels of support, sources told the Post. The mayor is currently in the last year of his second four-year-term in office, and is prevented by New York City law from serving more than two consecutive terms.  Two More Women Accuse Cuomo of Sexual Misconduct: Reports Two additional women accused New York governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment on Saturday, including a former press aide who detailed an uncomfortable embrace in a dimly lit hotel room and an assistant who said he made her feel like "just a skirt."
Former press aide Karen Hinton told the Washington Post that Cuomo, then head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, forced her into a "very long, too long, too tight, too intimate" embrace in a dimly lit Los Angeles hotel room in December 2000.  Manchin Defends COVID Relief Bill: Republicans Had 'Tremendous Amount of Input' Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) on Sunday defended the COVID-19 relief bill that passed the Senate with no Republican support the day prior, saying the measure does not spell the end of bipartisanship as Republicans "had a tremendous amount of input."
The moderate Democrat's comments came during an appearance on ABC's This Week in response to a question from co-anchor Martha Raddatz about whether bipartisanship seems "like a false hope" after "Biden did not get a single Republican vote for a relief package in the middle of a pandemic."
"Not at all," Manchin responded. "The first group of people that President Biden brought to the White House was ten of my friends and colleagues, ten Republicans to see what their idea was."  Biden Marks Selma Anniversary with Executive Order to Expand Voting Access President Biden on Sunday signed an executive order aimed at increasing voter access as congressional Democrats push for the passage of H.R. 1, a sweeping voting-rights package.
Biden's order was announced during a recorded address on the 56th commemoration of "Bloody Sunday," when state troopers in Selma, Alabama beat some 600 civil rights activists in 1965 as they tried to march for voting rights.
"Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have it counted," Biden said during a speech to Sunday's Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast before signing the order. "If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote."
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