Cooperation for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Save the Children Action Network, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation anted up $9509.35 for Sara Jacobs’ travel.

Sara’s care package

It was off to Kenya for a week starting April 8 for House Democrat Sara Jacobs, who hasn’t been wasting any time catching up with her predecessor Susan Davis in the free road trip category. Cooperation for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Save the Children Action Network, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation anted up $9509.35 for Jacobs’ travel, plus $1250 worth of lodging, $417.49 in meals, and $741.62 to cover miscellaneous costs, including those of interpreters, security, airport services, travel insurance, and a medic, according to her May 9 filing with the Clerk of the House disclosing her excursion to Nairobi, Kenya and Burao, Somalia. She was part of a party of six House members.

“This trip will inform my work as a member of the [House Foreign Affairs Commission],” says the congresswoman’s filing. “Flights within Africa will be by chartered plane to expedite travel, avoid long drives over difficult roads, and maximize time spent at program sites.” Guests on the free ride were put up at the posh Villa Rosa Kempinski Nairobi, which describes itself online as a “luxury five-star hotel,” touting “a rich culinary experience accentuated with Italian classics, Arabian flavors, and international cuisine,” and Somalia’s five-star Hotel Mansoor. Between gourmet meals, Jacobs and House colleagues embarked on a tour featuring “the successes and the challenges of [the] hunger crisis in Kenya and Somalia.”

Sara Jacobs: seeing Somalia’s suffering, up close and personal.

A letter to Jacobs from CARE and Save the Children Action Network, which bills itself as “the political advocacy arm of Save the Children,” adds, “Somalia currently teeters on the brink of famine. The record-breaking drought, compounded by the Ukraine conflict, has affected half the population, and the United Nations predicts Somaliland could suffer its worst famine in half a century without urgent intervention. Kenya also sits on the front lines of the hunger crisis, experiencing both chronic food insecurity and acute humanitarian need. More than a quarter of young children in Kenya are stunted, an indication that they have had too little to eat over a long period of time.”

Known as SCAN for short, Save the Children Action Network was started by Mark Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver, according to a January 2016 profile by The Hill. The group also lobbies regarding border issues, as exemplified by a March 20 Washington Post letter by SCAN executive director Christy Gleason, panning the Border Patrol’s newly released mobile phone application. “The U.S. government is again causing family separations, this time because of the improper rollout of this app, causing children and families to become victims of extortion and abuse.”

Gleason also attacked the December 2023 Supreme Court ruling to uphold so-called Title 42 expulsions of migrants. “We condemn this ruling, which is a disingenuous affront to our nation’s legal and moral responsibility to provide asylum protections to those seeking refuge within our borders,” said her December 28 statement. “Seeking asylum is a basic human right, and many of the children and families looking to exercise this right are fleeing unimaginable violence and disasters in their home countries. Yet, Title 42 has denied them their right to safety for nearly three years.” According to OpenSecrets.org, Save the Children and its SCAN affiliate spent a total of $230,000 in lobbying expenses last year, and employees came up with $13,057 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Soon-Shiong’s U-T bell unrung

As advertisers continue to flee the San Diego Union-Tribune, keeping it on track to go online-only when the lease runs out at the paper’s Los Angeles printing plant at the end of this year, U-T owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has run into big trouble in the biotech industry that made him a billionaire in the first place. “Soon-Shiong sold Abraxis Bioscience to Celgene back in 2010, but since then he can’t catch a break,” reports Wall Street website Evaluate Vantage.

Patrick Soon-Shiong’s ImmunityBio is looking unhealthy.

NHS Confederation

“His latest venture, ImmunityBio — the rebranded Nantkwest with a reduced focus on NK cell therapies — just fell flat, failing to get the IL-15 superagonist Anktiva approved for BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.” Adds the May 11 post: “The FDA’s complete response letter, citing manufacturing deficiencies and CMC problems, came two days ago, but ImmunityBio only slipped the news out today via an SEC filing, causing its stock to plummet 56%.

Even after the fall, ImmunityBio carries a $1.2 [billion] market cap -- remarkable considering its dire financial situation. ImmunitBbio has so far burned through $2.5 [billion] of investor funds, and carries $91 [million] of cash against $717 [million] in debt — $471 [million] falling due in the next year — owed to entities controlled by Soon-Shiong, its chairman and main shareholder. Anktiva’s failure comes amid growing interest in pre-metastatic bladder cancer, where Ferring’s Adstiladrin saw a surprise U.S. approval in December.”

Although ImmunityBio is headquartered in San Diego, the U-T failed to report the company’s setback. The stock’s plunge has already enticed a New York law firm to announce an “investigation” of ImmunityBio’s management. “Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide,” says a May 11 news release.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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