dear colleagues, your subcommittee could become part of a proud history of serious, bipartisan oversight, stretching from the teapot dome investigation to the boeing investigation to the watergate hearings to the tobacco hearings to the select committee on the january 6th attack. or you could take oversight down a very dark alley, filled with conspiracy theories and disinformation. a place where facts are the enemy and partisan destruction is the overriding goal. appears house republicans are going to go with the dark alley path. the first hearing for the subcommittee to investigate the, quote, weaponization of the federal government was nothing but grievance politics. meanwhile, in the senate, minority leader mitch mcconnell is trying to distance the party from a fellow republican senator. who could that be? it comes as president joe biden takes his post state of the union message to florida, keeping the focus on the fate of social security and medicare. and the admi
today. first, here we go again. gas prices on the rise. the white house appears powerless to stop it. don t say we didn t warn you. i m bill hemmer. dana has the day off. big welcome back to sandra. sandra: couldn t think of a better way to start my tuesday with william hemmer. here we go. i m sandra smith, this is america s newsroom. enter the president s strategy of tapping the strategic oil reserves appears to be falling flat. we re watching gas prices up to $3.80 at the national average. if you live out west, that probably sounds like a steal. bill: california gets the worst, $6.41 a gallon ahead of an opec meeting tomorrow that could make prices higher. this hurts the poor people of california. california has the highest poverty rate in the nation. poor people in california are not the ones driving electric cars. they are in gas-powered gars and paying through the nose. this all started on day one of the administration when he ended america s energy independence.
i was terrified. i couldn t breathe. i couldn t think. reporter: the mother who accused ramser declined to speak with nbc news. but the child and her father say the allegations were false, that the child already identified as transgender. the district cleared ramser, but never made a statement for her to the public. the district declined to respond to nbc news about this specific case, but acknowledged it has more openings this year than last year, saying many other school districts, not only in texas but across the nation are also experiencing this declining retention rate of teachers and other employees. it s like almost like we re in a battle against the school board when the school board should be on our side. reporter: students described emily ramser s classroom as one of the most welcoming spaces at school. i think ms. ramser was one of the places in general, you could feel accepted, no matter your race, gender, sexuality. reporter: do you feel safe at school right no
last year, ramser s district saw a 40% jump in resignations and retirements after new conservative school board members pushed to remove hundreds of books and restrict lessons about race and lgbtq identities. i have taught these kids for years to write and to grow their voices. and i m not going to let my actions say something different. reporter: ramser, who identifies as queer, says she was asked to change some of her lessons and to remove classroom artwork and rainbow stickers. then one afternoon last year, a parent told a local news sight that ramser encouraged her child to become transgender by lending her a book called the prince and the dressmaker. all i did is give a kid a book. reporter: what went through your mind? i was terrified. i couldn t breathe. i couldn t think. reporter: the mother who accused ramser declined to speak with nbc news, but the child and her father say the allegations were false, that the child already identified as transgender.
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