The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Biden’s plan to combat rising food prices

by Cate Martel - 05/11/22 12:45 PM ET

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–> A midday take on what’s happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.*

*Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha–breaks down crying hysterically.

TALK OF THE MORNING

This sounds like an anxiety dream that would wake me up in the middle of the night:

A passenger with no experience flying planes successfully landed an aircraft in Florida yesterday after the pilot lost consciousness. (CNN)

From the audio — the passenger told air traffic control: “I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”

The air traffic controller’s instructions to the passenger: “Try to hold the wings level and see if you can start descending for me. Push forward on the controls and descend at a very slow rate. Try to follow the coast either north or southbound. We’re trying to locate you.”

➤SIGHTS AND SOUNDS:

Here is video of the landing, from WPBF News: It is wildly impressive.

Watch the air traffic controller tell the story: In an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” air traffic controller Robert Morgan explained what happened and how he guided the passenger to successfully land a plane. Watch the segment

^ My heart rate is drastically higher after watching the interview.

Tidbit — air traffic controller told other planes: “You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane.” Reaction from an American Airlines pilot: “Did you say the passengers landed the airplane? Oh, my God. Great job.” CNN

IT’S WEDNESDAY. I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.

News this morning

A little deceleration — and we’re looking for any small bits of good news:

Via The Hill’s Sylvan Lane, “Inflation cooled off slightly in April as the pace of both yearly and monthly price growth dropped, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.”

Some pricing details: “Gasoline prices dropped 6.7 percent in April and energy prices on the whole dropped 2.7 percent last month after double-digit gains in March. Gas prices are still up 44.7 percent over the past 12 months, and energy prices remain 30.3 percent higher than they were in April 2021.” More on the prices changes

Inflation is still very high: Via CNBC, The consumer price index … increased 8.3% from a year ago, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for an 8.1% gain. That represented a slight ease from March’s peak but was still close to the highest level since the summer of 1982.”

➤HAPPENING TODAY — BIDEN VISITS A FARM NEAR CHICAGO:
Via Bloomberg’s Justin Sink and Mike Dorning, “President Joe Biden will announce steps intended to combat food inflation on a visit to a family farm outside Chicago Wednesday.” https://bloom.bg/3L6riPE

🏛 The latest with Roe

Has Congress overridden the Supreme Court before?:

The Senate is forcing a vote today to codify federal abortion rights.

Could this bill pass?: No, it would need 60 votes and Senate Democrats don’t have enough votes.

The Hill’s John Kruzel has an interesting list of five times Congress overrode a major Supreme Court decision.

Op-ed on what Congress can and cannot do

🍼 The formula shortage

This is pretty scary:

Via The New York Times’s Edgar Sandoval, Amanda Morris and Madeleine Ngo, “A Baby Formula Shortage Leaves Desperate Parents Searching for Food: Some parents are driving hours at a time in search of supplies. Others are watering down formula or rationing it, hoping for an end to the shortage.”

What started the shortages?: “The shortage became acute with a recall of a defective brand this year after at least four babies were hospitalized with bacterial infection and at least two babies died. But the recall has been exacerbated by relentless supply-chain woes and labor shortages.”

How bad are the shortages?: “The Datasembly research found that the national out-of-stock rate for baby formula reached 43 percent for the week ending Sunday, up 10 percent from last month’s average.” What is being done to help the supply

🗳 On the campaign trail

The gist of Trump’s night — Nebraska = bad, West Virginia = good:

Yesterday’s primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia, which served as major tests for former President Trump’s lingering influence among GOP voters, resulted in mixed outcomes.

Nebraska was a big loss for Trump: University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen beat businessman Charles Herbster, whom Trump had endorsed.

^ Keep in mind: “[Pillen’s victory] was in part due to a late wave of accusations by eight women accusing Herbster of sexual misconduct. Of the women, two came forward publicly to say that Herbster groped them at a political event in 2019. Herbster repeatedly denied the claims.”

But Trump’s sway is still powerful to some degree: Trump-backed candidate Rep. Alex Mooney (R) won last night by an 18-point margin.

Three more takeaways from yesterday’s primaries, via The Hill’s Tal Axelrod.

➤TIDBIT — TRUMP HAD A BIG WEEK LAST WEEK:

Via Politico’s Marissa Martinez, “All 22 of Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates in Indiana and Ohio came away with the Republican nomination last week. While his May 3 win-loss record looked impressive on paper, it was artificially inflated — the former president backed lots of incumbents who had no opposition and counted them as victories.” How that compares to this week’s riskier endorsements

🦠 Latest on COVID

➤ BY THE NUMBERS

Cases to date: 81.8 million

Death toll: 995,371

Current hospitalizations: 13,457

Shots administered: 579 million

Fully vaccinated: 66.3 percent of Americans

CDC data here.

🐥Notable tweets

Bahahaha, this is extremely relatable:

Overheard District tweeted, “Man walking his puppy, sees that they have less than 10 seconds to get across a four lane intersection: Man whispers to puppy: ‘We can do this.’ ” https://bit.ly/3FDebnW

That puppy understood the assignment.

⏱On tap

The House and Senate are in. President Biden is in Chicago today. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C., with no public events.

10 a.m. EDT: Biden left for Chicago.
11 a.m. EDT: Two Senate roll call votes. The Senate’s agenda
1:45 p.m. EDT: Biden visits a family farm to discuss the food supply and prices.
2:30 p.m. EDT: Two more Senate votes.
2:45 – 6:15 p.m. EDT: First and last votes in the House. The House’s agenda
9:55 p.m. EDT: Biden returns to the White House.

📺What to watch

10 a.m. EDT: White House adviser Anthony Fauci testified on the National Institutes of Health’s 2023 budget request. Livestream
11:15 a.m. EDT: White House deputy principal press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One. Livestream
2:15 p.m. EDT: Biden delivers remarks on the impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine has on food prices. Livestream
5 p.m. EDT: Biden addresses the 40th International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) International Convention. Livestream
6:30 p.m. EDT: Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, appears on “NBC Nightly News.”