http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... mails-show
Career staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) objected to the Trump administration’s plan for a new regulatory approach toward asbestos.
Internal emails obtained by The New York Times show that career staff involved with the development of a key proposal meant to prevent companies from returning to use of the carcinogenic chemical felt that steps being taken by senior officials could allow for some legacy uses to return anew.
http://thehill.com/latino/401128-judge- ... of-migrant
A federal judge on Thursday threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after discovering that the Trump administration attempted to transfer a woman and her daughter out of the country while an appeal hearing for their deportation was underway.
http://thehill.com/latino/401308-aclu-c ... om-lawyers
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than a month purposefully withheld hundreds of migrant parents' contact information from their lawyers. The ACLU made the allegation to HuffPost this week after it said the government finally gave it phone numbers for more than 400 parents who had been separated from their children due to President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... d-daughter
A Colorado couple says their adopted daughter could be deported in the coming weeks after, they say, the Trump administration denied her citizenship application without explanation.
Amy and Marco Becerra, both U.S. citizens, told Denver Fox-affiliate KDVR that they adopted their 4-year-old daughter, Angela, when they were in Peru in 2014. ... The Becerras legally adopted Angela through Peruvian court, and sought to bring her back to the U.S. after the adoption was finalized in 2017.
...The tourist visa that Angela was eventually granted is set to expire at the end of this month, but her immigration case was denied without explanation, according to the couple. It is unlikely they will be able to complete an appeals process before the tourist visa runs out. “We’re both citizens. My husband and I have a full legal binding adoption completed and we have a birth certificate that lists no other parent,” Amy Becerra said, telling KDVR that she and her husband are scared to raise their daughter in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40109 ... pace-force
Vice President Pence on Thursday outlined plans to establish President Trump's proposed “Space Force,” a new military branch slated to be established by 2020.
...Trump in June officially directed the Pentagon to “immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.”
Pence’s speech revealed major changes as to how the Pentagon will run its space operations and “the first stages of our administration’s plan to implement the president’s guidance and turn his vision into a reality.” Congressional action is needed to create an entirely new military branch, but Pence outlined a new Defense Department report that details what the department can do without lawmakers’ approval.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40117 ... t-billions
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday said Pentagon officials do not yet know how much it will cost to establish President Trump’s desired "Space Force" but assume it would cost "billions."
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40150 ... pace-force
Defense Secretary James Mattis on Sunday offered his support for the Trump administration's proposed "Space Force," and defended his stance after having urged lawmakers to oppose it a year ago. Speaking to reporters on board a flight to Brasilia, Mattis insisted he initially opposed the creation of a separate military branch for space because the administration had not yet defined the challenges space posed for the Pentagon.
...Mattis in July 2017 wrote a letter to Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) calling on lawmakers not to go forward with Trump's proposal. “I strongly urge Congress to reconsider the proposal of a separate service Space Corps,” Mattis wrote. “I believe it is premature at add additional organization and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead.”
...On Friday, Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Mattis's initial opposition had to do with budgetary concerns.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -departing
Greg Sheehan, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), is stepping down from his post, the Interior Department confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.
....In the letter he cited a number of achievements he accomplished while at the agency, including "opening more than 380,000 acres of our Refuge System to new hunting, fishing, and other recreational uses."
I assume that "other recreational uses" means things like off-road motorized vehicles.
Trump is starting to impose even higher steel and aluminum tariffs on some countries. There are many reports about how companies in the US are already being affected by the higher prices they must pay for steel and aluminum.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... -on-turkey
Trump tweeted Friday ..“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!,” Trump tweeted.
...Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on imported steel and aluminum, respectively, in March....Key U.S. allies such as Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, which includes Turkey, were exempted from the tariffs until May. Those nations have responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
Turkey is among the nations exporting the most steel to the U.S., but American imports of Turkish steel have dropped 59 percent since 2017, according to federal data from June
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -odd-hours
White House aides must regularly tell President Trump not to call foreign leaders at odd hours due to time zone differences, according to a new Politico report about Trump's multiple "diplomatic faux-pas."
Sources close to Trump told Politico the president often proposes phone calls with world leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at times when they would likely be asleep. "When he wants to call someone, he wants to call someone," one source told Politico. "He’s more impulsive that way. He doesn’t think about what time it is or who it is."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Politico that "foreign leaders appreciate that the president is willing to take their calls day and night."
Updates on some older stories:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/40104 ... t-recruits
The U.S. Army has halted its practice of quietly discharging immigrant recruits, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. Marshal Williams, an assistant secretary of the Army, ordered high-ranking officials to suspend the processing of separations in a July 20 memo, the AP reported.
The news comes one month after the AP reported the Army had discharged dozens of immigrant recruits and reservists, putting their immigration status at risk. "It’s an admission by the Army that they’ve improperly discharged hundreds of soldiers," immigration attorney and former Army Reserve officer Margaret Stock, who helped create the program, told the AP on Wednesday. "The next step should be go back and rescind the people who were improperly discharged."
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -pesticide
A federal appeals court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which former Administrator Scott Pruitt refused to do last year.
The decision is a major win for environmentalists and health advocates. The EPA’s own research, as recently as 2016, linked chlorpyrifos to developmental and neurological disorders, especially in children and infants.
The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the federal law governing pesticides, requires the EPA to ban the allowance of a pesticide on food if it finds any harm from exposure to it. Since the EPA’s research found such harm, the Trump administration violated the law when Pruitt didn’t act to revoke “tolerances” of chlorpyrifos, the regulatory term for amounts of pesticide residue allowed on food.
No doubt court cases like this are the reason that industry-friendly Trump appointees at the EPA are trying to write laws that will limit the types of research that can be used in EPA decision-making. They are also working on ways to prevent environmental organizations from filing lawsuits.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/40 ... fter-court
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday said it will resume grants for groups working to prevent teen pregnancies, a reversal from last year's announcement that it would end funding two years earlier than expected.
An agency spokesperson told The Hill that HHS will continue grant funding this year for groups participating in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. Several federal judges have ruled against HHS for its plan to end the five-year grants, which began in 2015, after three years.
Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ce-he-took
Republicans have spent more than $3.5 million at President Trump’s properties since he was sworn into office in January 2017, according to a new analysis released by McClatchy on Monday. The news outlet found that at least 125 Republican candidate and conservative groups have been spending money at Trump-brand resorts, hotels and restaurants across the country, according to data provided to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
...The $3.5 million spent since Trump’s inauguration is a big increase from the $35,000 political candidates and group spent at Trump businesses during the two-year 2014 election cycle, FEC records indicate, according to McClatchy.
One of the biggest spenders since January 2017 was America First Action, a super PAC dedicated to supporting pro-Trump candidates.
And what appears to be a politically motivated firing. Trump and his supporters are celebrating (loads of gloating by the support-Trump-no-matter-what-he-does contingent - together with occasional cries of "traitor" and "put him in jail" - on political discussion sites):
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ng-finally
Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back!
Can't help wondering what Trump means by "I just fight back!" in his tweet. According to a Fox news story (which seems to be the first to report this ), his lawyer says that the bureau’s deputy director overruled the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility's recommendations on punishment. As far as I know, Strzok's only offense was to use work emails to make disparaging remarks to his FBI friends about Trump, thus revealing his personal political biases.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08 ... ealed.html
If this is revenge, as it looks like it might be, it seems another instance of Trump and his appointees damaging the norms of government by doing what they legally
can, but ethically shouldn't.
Edit: here's a link from a reputable news source
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/us/p ... d-fbi.html The Fox news article looks like straight news, but I prefer to avoid them - Fox gets a poor score for factual reporting, in addition to their right lean, on the media bias checking site I use. The NY Times report is considerably more detailed, as well as being more trustworthy. It includes the complete quote from his lawyer, which says the firing is a departure from usual FBI practice, a description of Strzok's credentials and experience (which the FBI is now losing) and a fuller description of why the IG thought Strzok should be punished - other instances of using work email for personal discussions, uncertainty about a delay in looking into the second batch of Clinton emails, and one instance of sending a sensitive search warrant to his personal email account. Enough to recommend some punishment, but no recommendation that he be fired.
From The Atlantic, a look at the FBI, as well as what Peter Strzok's texts reveal about his opinions:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... lf/552686/
The Real Bias at the FBI
The bureau is an inherently political player, but as its history and texts between two employees show, its allegiance is not to Democrats or Republicans—but to itself.
As far as politicians are concerned, the texts show that he and Lisa Page were uncomplimentary about many of them, including Congress in general, and Clinton. In context, it's pretty clear that Trump supporters are cherry-picking statements to paint a very skewed picture.
Though Strzok seems to have realized that Trump is an idiot and was rightly concerned Trump would destabilize the government.