National 988 crisis hotline readied for rollout
WASHINGTON — The long-awaited three-digit crisis hotline known as 988 rolls out nationally Saturday, a win for mental health advocates who see the simplified number as the first step on a path toward building out crisis care.
But how ready states and advocates feel about the next steps to improve mental health is more complicated.
The implementation of 988, which will direct callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, is the first of the federal government’s three-step process to building better mental health care. The steps include the crisis call center number, which will take calls and dispatch support; mobile crisis response, which will send teams to the crisis; and crisis stabilization services, or facilities to receive and serve those undergoing a crisis on a short-term basis.
Experts said that’s not unusual — the implementation, funding and widespread adoption of 911 in the late 1960s and 1970s took years to achieve, for example.
—CQ-Roll Call
Ocasio-Cortez threatens to punch man who accosted her on steps of Capitol
Enough is enough. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., says she threatened to slug a ‘disgusting’ right-wing troll who tried to accost her on the steps of the Capitol.
The progressive firebrand posted a video of the Wednesday afternoon confrontation in which she walked over to the man as he taped himself making racist and sexist comments about her body.
“I was actually walking over to deck him,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “If no one will protect us then I’ll do it myself.” She admitted being undecided about whether to post anything or try to ignore the jibes.
“It’s just a bummer to work in an institution that openly allowed this, but talking about it only invites more,” she wrote. “Just really sad.”
Ocasio-Cortez is a lightning rod for right-wingers because of her outspoken progressive views. She has been accosted previously by MAGA lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., seeking to engage her on the Green New Deal, abortion rights, gun violence and other issues.
—New York Daily News
1 million pills with fentanyl seized by DEA in LA area during record-breaking bust
LOS ANGELES — Federal agents seized about 1 million pills containing fentanyl during a raid in Inglewood earlier this month, the largest bust of fentanyl pills in the state, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced Thursday.
The drugs were found after agents served a search warrant on July 5 at an Inglewood home that investigators believe was a stash house used by a trafficking organization linked to the Sinaloa cartel.
“This massive seizure disrupted the flow of dangerous amounts of fentanyl into our streets and probably saved many lives,” Bill Bodner, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement.
—Los Angeles Times
Sri Lanka president reaches Singapore after fleeing protests
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore Thursday after fleeing months of anti-government protests that forced him to pledge to resign.
Rajapaksa flew to Singapore’s Changi Airport from the Maldives, where he had made a brief stop after leaving Sri Lanka Wednesday aboard a military aircraft. The island nation’s Security Council agreed to his request for safe passage out.
“It is confirmed that Mr Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum.”
The now in-exile leader has yet to formally resign his post, something he had vowed to do by Wednesday.
Anger against the powerful Rajapaksas — with Gotabaya the remaining family member left in government — has been mounting for months as Sri Lanka battles Asia’s highest inflation rate and shortages of everything from food to fuel.
—Bloomberg News
