abcnews--2019-11-06--Prosecutors: Cop charged in shooting had disciplinary flaws

Prosecutors say a former Texas police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a black man during a traffic stop last year had a disciplinary record with his department that showed "bad character."  Bau Tran was fired from the Arlington Police Department after the Sept. 1, 2018, shooting of 24-year-old O'Shae Terry and was indicted for criminally negligent homicide.  Last week, Tarrant County prosecutors filed a document in state district court in Fort Worth that they called evidence of Tran's "extraneous offenses, bad acts and bad character."  Tran was helping another officer who had stopped Terry for a registration violation. Body camera video showed Tran grab the passenger side window as Terry's sport utility vehicle began to roll away, point his gun into the vehicle and fire.


abcnews--2019-11-07--Prosecutors charge man with hate crime in acid attack

A 61-year-old white Milwaukee man accused of throwing acid on a Hispanic man's face will be charged with a hate crime, increasing the possible sentence he may receive if convicted, prosecutors announced Wednesday.  Prosecutors filed one charge against Clifton Blackwell — first-degree reckless injury — but added the sentencing enhancers of hate crime and use of a dangerous weapon. The two enhancers could add 10 years in prison if he's convicted of first-degree reckless injury, which is punishable by up to 25 years.  The victim, Mahud Villalaz, 42, said his attacker approached him near a restaurant Friday night and confronted him about being parked too close to a bus stop, according to charging documents. Prosecutors said Blackwell then asked, "Why did you invade my country?" and "Why don't you respect my laws?"  Villalaz said he moved his car but that Blackwell continued to berate him, calling him "illegal" and telling him to "go back, go back," followed by an expletive. Villalaz said he called Blackwell a racist, also using an expletive. Villalaz said Blackwell threw the acid on him after Villalaz said "everyone come from somewhere first" and that American Indians had been in the country the longest.  Surveillance video from the restaurant recorded the attack, which left Villalaz with second-degree burns on his face.  Villalaz is a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Peru.  Blackwell made his first court appearance Wednesday to be advised of the charges he faces. Bond was set at $20,000 but it's on the condition he wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He's still being held at the Milwaukee County jail and his public defender did not immediately return a call.  The attack on Villalaz comes at a time when the Anti-Defamation League says extreme anti-immigrant views have become part of the political mainstream in recent years through sharp rhetoric by anti-immigration groups and politicians, including President Donald Trump.  White House spokesman Judd Deere said Monday that the Trump administration has repeatedly condemned racism and violence.  Investigators who searched Blackwell's home found among other things four bottles of sulfuric acid, muriatic acid, and two bottles of Kleen-Out drain opener that was 100 % lye, according to the search warrant. Additional conditions for his bond are that he have no contact with acids or large batteries, or possess dangerous weapons or firearms. His next court appearance is Nov. 15.  Before filing the charge, Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm said during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that his office was looking to determine whether the attack was motivated "in whole or in part" based on the victim's race. He said prosecutors would look "very closely first at the underlying offenses and then we'll make a determination whether the facts support the hate crime."  "But it's obviously a concern to many people not just in this community but really around the country right now," he said.  Just as Blackwell was in court, Villalaz spoke briefly to reporters to say he was pleased with the charges and thankful for "the people that have worried about me." He said Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin called him to say she was "very sad" about what happened and offered to help however she can.  His mother, Jacqueline P. Blackwell, of California, told the Journal Sentinel he had sought care with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Milwaukee for post-traumatic stress.  "I was comfortable that he was getting good care with the VA," she told the newspaper.  His brother, Arthur Eugene Blackwell of Evergreen, Colorado, told the AP that Clifton served nearly four years in the U.S. Marines and was stationed at the Panama Canal around the time Manuel Noriega was captured and removed in 1990. A Marine official told AP that the branch doesn't have a record matching Blackwell's name and birthdate.  State court records show Blackwell was convicted in a 2006 Rusk County case of false imprisonment and pointing a gun at a person in a case where he held four hunters at gunpoint because they were on his property.


abcnews--2019-11-11--Lawsuit against flight school over fatal crash is dismissed

A Connecticut judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against a flight school and its owner over a 2016 plane crash that killed a student pilot.  Judge Matthew Budzik in Hartford ruled in favor of Arian Prevalla and his now-defunct American Flight Academy on Friday.  Prevalla survived the small plane crash in East Hartford. He accused the student pilot, Feras Freitekh, of intentionally crashing the plane.  Freitekh's father denied Prevalla's allegations and filed a lawsuit alleging there was a defect with the plane or Prevalla failed to take control of it before it crashed.  Prevalla argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because the lawyer for Freitekh's father, Michael Peck, could not identify expert witnesses who could help prove his case.  Peck said Monday he is deciding whether to appeal.


abcnews--2019-11-13--NYPD kept database of juveniles’ fingerprints, violating law

Until recently, New York City police secretly kept fingerprints of children arrested as juveniles on file permanently in a department database. It’s an illegal practice that raised alarms about the lengths the nation’s largest police force has taken to keep tabs on the city’s youth.  The Legal Aid Society uncovered the years-long practice. The public defender organization pressured the police department to acknowledge it and threatened legal action to make it stop, citing a state law barring local police from stockpiling juveniles’ fingerprints.  Now, after years of wrangling and resistance, the NYPD said Wednesday it has purged all juvenile fingerprints records from the database and will no longer keep them indefinitely.  The Legal Aid Society said the database contained the fingerprints of tens of thousands of New York City youths.


abcnews--2019-11-21--Lawsuit alleges McDonald’s puts employees in physical danger

A group of employees from 13 McDonald’s restaurants in Chicago filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that the company’s drive for profits puts workers at “daily risk” of physical attack by dangerous customers.  In the lawsuit filed in Cook County court, the 17 workers say McDonald’s has failed to protect them from what they say is a “citywide and nationwide” pattern of violence and that police respond to more than 20 911 calls every day regarding Chicago McDonald’s restaurants. They cite several examples of the violence, including an incident in which a customer beat an employee with a sign and another in which a customer urinated on a worker.  “McDonald’s has failed, at a systemic level, to protect its workers from violence in the workplace,” said Danny Rosenthal, an attorney for the workers. “Throughout the country, McDonald’s workers are regularly threatened, assaulted, and injured by customers.”  McDonald’s did not respond to the lawsuit’s specific allegations, but it said in a statement that, “McDonald’s takes seriously its responsibility to provide and foster a safe working environment for our employees, and along with our franchisees, continue to make investments in training programs that uphold safe environments for customers and crew members.”  The lawsuit contends that in its effort to increase profits, McDonald’s has taken steps that have made working at its restaurants more dangerous. For example, it alleges that by lowering and tearing down physical barriers at check-out counters, the company has made it easier for dangerous customers to attack workers. McDonald’s has also ignored the “recommended practice” of designing drive-thru windows so that customers cannot crawl through them, according to the lawsuit.  Because McDonald’s does not allow workers to lock bathroom doors when they are sent there to clean them, the company puts workers at greater risk of sexual violence, the lawsuit asserts. One of the plaintiffs “was cleaning inside the men’s bathroom when men entered and exposed themselves to her in a sexual manner,” it states.  The lawsuit marks the latest in a string of legal problems for the fast food giant. McDonald’s has faced protests and dozens of lawsuits over what workers call sexual harassment at its restaurants and the company’s failure to address their complaints. Earlier this month, a former employee sued McDonald’s and one of its Michigan franchisees, alleging that the general manager did nothing to stop a co-worker from groping and physically assaulting her. And just days before that lawsuit was filed, McDonald’s fired its CEO, Steve Easterbrook, for having a consensual romantic relationship with an employee.


abcnews--2019-11-26--The Latest: NYC lawmakers ban flavored vaping products

The Latest on a New York City measure to ban flavored vaping products (all times local):  New York City lawmakers have voted to ban flavored electronic cigarettes.  The City Council voted Tuesday to ban all e-cigarette and e-liquid flavors except tobacco.  Backers of the ban said they were acting to protect young people whose use of e-cigarettes has surged in recent years. Democratic City Council member Mark Levine said there is “no higher obligation” than protecting the health of kids.  Supporters of the vaping industry jeered and threw dollar bills from the balcony of the City Council chamber after the vote.  Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he supports the ban and will either sign the legislation into law or let it take effect automatically.  This entry has been corrected to show that a vaping group official says the thrown dollar bills were real, not fake.  New York City lawmakers are preparing to ban flavored electronic cigarettes.  The bill before the City Council on Tuesday would ban all e-cigarette and e-liquid flavors except tobacco. More than half of the Council’s 51 members have signed on as co-sponsors.  A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said the Democratic mayor supports the ban and will either sign the legislation into law or let it take effect automatically.  New York state officials had already moved to implement a ban statewide, but that order has been halted by a court challenge.  The move to ban flavored e-cigarettes comes amid nationwide concern about the growth of teenage vaping and fears about health risks.


abcnews--2019-12-04--Judge to hear bid to end John Dillinger exhumation lawsuit

A judge will hear an Indianapolis cemetery's bid Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a relative of 1930s gangster John Dillinger who wants to exhume Dillinger’s gravesite to determine if the notorious criminal is actually buried there.  A Marion County judge scheduled a hearing to consider Crown Hill Cemetery's motion to dismiss the lawsuit Michael Thompson filed in August against the cemetery. Thompson, who is Dillinger’s nephew, is seeking a court order allowing him to proceed with the exhumation.  He obtained a permit in October from the Indiana State Department of Health that calls for the remains to be exhumed on Dec. 31. Thompson has said he has evidence Dillinger's body may not be buried there, and he may not have been the man FBI agents fatally shot outside a Chicago theater in on July 22, 1934.  Attorneys for Crown Hill Cemetery call that “a decades-old conspiracy.” They oppose the exhumation, saying that Indiana’s Legislature has granted cemetery owners the right to “protect its gravesites from unwarranted disturbance.”  They argue that state law specifies that a deceased person cannot be removed from a cemetery without the written consent of that cemetery, as well as a written order from the State Department authorizing the removal and the written consent of certain relatives of the deceased.  In September, The History Channel dropped out of a planned documentary on Dillinger that would have included the exhumation.  Thompson and another relative applied for the state exhumation permit after they obtained an earlier permit calling for a Sept. 16 exhumation.  That exhumation did not occur after cemetery officials objected to the exhumation.


abcnews--2019-12-11--US seeks dismissal of New Mexico's immigration lawsuit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- U.S. lawyers want a judge to dismiss claims by New Mexico that immigration officials shirked their duties earlier this year by quickly releasing thousands of mostly Central American migrants into communities after they crossed into the United States.  New Mexico claimed in a lawsuit filed in June that the practice left Las Cruces, Deming and other communities to pick up the tab for housing and feeding the asylum-seekers until they moved on to find relatives or other hosts elsewhere in the U.S.  In addition to seeking an end to the catch-and-release practice, the state sought reimbursement for humanitarian efforts to temporarily shelter migrants. The state resorted to issuing its own grants to help communities with the costs.  U.S. District Judge James Browning heard arguments Wednesday but he noted that it could take a while before he issues a decision on whether the case will be allowed to move forward. He cited an ongoing backlog of federal cases in New Mexico.  First-year Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and his immigration policies, cited a "derogation of duty" when she announced the lawsuit against then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and top immigration officials. The city of Albuquerque was listed as a co-plaintiff.  The complaint resembled a suit filed by San Diego County in April that challenged the cancellation of a federal program that helped migrants with phone calls and other travel logistics as they sought final destinations across the U.S.  The quick releases in New Mexico came as the border was inundated with migrants seeking asylum. At times, groups of 300 or more people showed up at remote outposts, including the crossings at Antelope Wells and at Sunland Park, closer to El Paso, Texas.  Attorneys for the state and the city told the judge about the hundreds of people who were dropped off in Deming in the middle of summer.  “It's not an option to ignore those people,” said Jonathan Guss, the governor's deputy general counsel.  He pointed to state responsibilities for ensuring public health and safety for all people within its jurisdiction and argued that the federal government's actions forced New Mexico to step up.  Deputy City Attorney Winter Torres said local officials had only 10 to 12 hours of notification before some 300 migrants were released on Easter weekend. She suggested that the federal government was targeting the city because of its immigrant-friendly policies.  Federal officials have denied those claims, and attorneys for the government argued Wednesday that New Mexico and the city had no standing to bring the lawsuit because the previous safe release policy was not something that was ever formally adopted through regulations or statute and thus left to the discretion of immigration officials.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Manuel Lucero told the judge that had Congress intended every discretionary decision an agency makes to be reviewed, government would grind to a halt and the courts would be flooded by complaints every time someone disagreed with a policy change.  While acknowledging that the immigration and asylum system was overwhelmed, Lucero said the federal government never forced the state or city to spend their money on humanitarian efforts.  “It's discretionary spending on their part. It's commendable. It really is,” he said, adding that no existing regulations, codes or statutes require the federal government to provide shelter, food or other humanitarian aid to all asylum-seekers and that it did not do so under the previous policy. Such aid, he said, is provided only on a case-by-case basis — for example if a migrant is ill and needs medical care.  In May, at the height of immigrant apprehensions the El Paso Sector — which includes New Mexico’s stretch of the border — saw nearly 30,000 families come through. The numbers dropped quickly over the summer in the busiest crossing spots, the result of several policies making it nearly impossible to gain asylum in the U.S.  New Mexico's congressional delegation was able to secure $30 million in grants for communities and organizations that aided asylum seekers. The first wave of supplemental funding came in October, but the state said Wednesday that its application for reimbursement from the U.S. government was still pending.  Details on the amount of reimbursement being sought were not immediately available.


abcnews--2019-12-12--Appeals court to rehear arguments in Trump hotel lawsuit

RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal appeals court is set to rehear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit that accuses President Donald Trump of illegally profiting off the presidency through his luxury Washington hotel.  The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia will ask the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling by a three-judge panel that directed a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit.  The two jurisdictions allege that Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting profits through foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel.  Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and District Attorney General Karl Racine have argued that hotels in their jurisdictions suffer “competitive injury” because officials hoping to curry favor with the president are more likely to stay at his hotel.  A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit ruled in July that the two jurisdictions lack standing to pursue their claims against the president. The court later granted a request to hold a rehearing before all 15 judges on the court.  Trump's lawyers have said that Frosh and Racine — both Democrats — lack authority to sue the president in his official capacity. They've also argued that the emoluments clause only bars compensation made in connection with services provided in his official capacity or in "an employment-type relationship" with a foreign or domestic government.  The hotel is just blocks from the White House. The iconic Old Post Office quickly became a hot spot for lobbyists and foreign officials after it reopened in 2016 as the Trump International Hotel shortly before Trump was elected.


21stcenturywire--2019-01-02--White House Lawyer Giuliani Assange Should Not Be Prosecuted

White House Lawyer Giuliani: ‘Assange Should Not Be Prosecuted’

This latest admission by White House legal counsel, Rudy Giuliani, is certain to send shock waves through the corridors of the deep state in both Washington and London. For years, the Anglo-American establishment has been trying to frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for a crime which was nonexistent. Once again, as the Russiagate narrative starts to disintegrate, common sense is beginning to fill the vacuum left by the hemorrhaging credibility of the political media establishment.  Giuliani’s legal analysis will no doubt upset US officials who have repeatedly referred to WikiLeaks as “a non-state hostile intelligence service” This disingenuous claim has been dutifully repeatedly by US officials, and particularly by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who seems to be unable to grasp the basic concept that  Wikileaks is a publisher, and falls squarely under the auspices of press freedom protections.  Could this be that elusive legal daylight that supporters of Julian Assange have been waiting for?  Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, said Monday that WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange had not done “anything wrong” and should not go to jail for disseminating stolen information just as major media does.  “Let’s take the Pentagon Papers,” Giuliani told Fox News. “The Pentagon Papers were stolen property, weren’t they?  It was in The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Nobody went to jail at The New York Times and The Washington Post.”  Giuliani said there were “revelations during the Bush administration” such as Abu Ghraib.  “All of that is stolen property taken from the government, it’s against the law. But once it gets to a media publication, they can publish it,” Giuliani said, “for the purpose of informing people.”  “You can’t put Assange in a different position,” he said. “He was a guy who communicated.”  Giuliani said, “We may not like what [Assange] communicates, but he was a media facility. He was putting that information out,” he said. “Every newspaper and station grabbed it, and published it.”  The U.S. government has admitted that it has indicted Assange for publishing classified information, but it is battling in court to keep the details of the indictment secret. As a lawyer and close advisor to Trump, Giuliani could have influence on the president’s and the Justice Department’s thinking on Assange.  Giuliani also said there was no coordination between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. “I  was with Donald Trump day in and day out during the last four months of the campaign,” he said. “He was as surprised as I was about the WikiLeaks disclosures.  Sometimes surprised to the extent of ‘Oh my god, did they really say that?’ We were wondering if it was true. They [the Clinton campaign] never denied it.”  Giuliani said: “The thing that really got Hillary is not so much that it was revealed, but they were true. They actually had people as bad as that and she really was cheating on the debates. She really was getting from Donna Brazile the questions before hand. She really did completely screw Bernie Sanders.”  “Every bit of that was true,” he went on.  “Just like the Pentagon Papers put a different view on Vietnam, this put a different view on Hillary Clinton.”  Giuliani said, “It was not right to hack. People who did it should go to jail, but no press person or person disseminating that for the purpose of informing did anything wrong.”


21stcenturywire--2019-07-18--CIA Pushes for Expansion of Secrecy Laws to Shutdown Public Criticism

When the CIA and other agencies in the United States government pushed for the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) in 1981, it was crafted to exclude “covert agents” who resided in the U.S.  There was consideration by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of how the legislation might “chill or stifle public criticism of intelligence activities or public debate concerning intelligence policy.”  More than three decades later, the CIA is apparently unsatisfied with the protections the bill granted covert agents.  It has enlisted a select group of senators and representatives to help expand the universe of individuals who are protected, making members of the press who cover intelligence matters more vulnerable to prosecution.  Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, was involved in adding language to expand the IIPA to the Intelligence Authorization Act moving through Congress.  The CIA put their specific request for what language they would like amended in writing and sent it to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Their request was essentially copied and pasted, with no changes, into the intelligence bill.  Schiff supports the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and shares the CIA’s view that WikiLeaks is a “non-state hostile intelligence service,” not a media organization.  In 2018, when Assange was willing to speak with investigators about the Russia probe, he replied,  Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said he is concerned about how the bill expands the IIPA so that it applies indefinitely, including to individuals who have been in the United States for decades and have become senior management or have retired.”  Gina Haspel, the CIA director, likely favors the law because she faced scrutiny over her role in the destruction of torture tapes that showed the waterboarding of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. She was still a “covert agent” when news of this scandal erupted, and the protection of her identity played a role in enabling her ascension to the top of the agency.  Various groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress, Human Rights Watch, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Physicians for Human Rights, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Society of Professional Journalists, wrote a letter objecting to the proposed expansion that was sent to both intelligence committees.  The groups contend it would “harm congressional oversight of the intelligence community, making it much more difficult to obtain information about almost any individual’s relationship to intelligence agencies and allowing the executive branch to avoid oversight through arbitrary classification. Additionally, it would potentially make it more difficult for intelligence community whistleblowers to approach Congress with reports of fraud, waste, and abuse.”  The letter further argues it would be “significantly damaging” because it is an “extremely broad expansion of felony criminal penalties and delegates authority to when those penalties apply to the executive branch.”  When the IIPA was drafted in 1981, the ACLU initially opposed [PDF] it. Yet, as Angus MacKenzie described, ACLU attorney Jerry Berman and Morton Halperin, who became the ACLU director in 1984 after passage of the bill, worked with the CIA on a compromise in July 1981, which offered journalists some small measure of protection.  Nonetheless, before the Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, which was part of the Judiciary Committee, Halperin articulated a case against the IIPA on May 8, 1981.  Halperin suggested it would be better for the government to focus on taking steps to “make it impossible for foreign terrorist groups or American citizens” to “identify covert agents.” Legislation impinging on the First Amendment should not be passed for a “symbolic purpose.” It should pass because it will have some “real effect on protecting lives.”  The ACLU and other organizations believed the legislation, as it was drafted, would make it a crime “for the press to publish information which it lawfully acquires, whether it acquires that information from foreign intelligence sources, from foreign governments, from foreign newspapers, [or] from official publications of the United States government.”  There was nothing in the language that required a “bad purpose” to exist in order for a person to be prosecuted.  It is not like the law has not been abused by the U.S. government.  In 2013, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted former CIA officer John Kiriakou for confirming the name of an officer involved in the CIA’s RDI program to a reporter, even though he did not have a “pattern of activity” which involved trying to out “covert agents.”  Members of Congress specified in the IIPA that a person must be engaged in a “series” of acts or a “pattern of activity” that was intended to “impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States by the fact of such identification and exposure.”  It was viewed as a kind of protection for journalists. However, in Kiriakou’s case, there was enough ambiguity to deploy it against a former officer who had a public record of opposing the agency’s use of waterboarding against detainees in the “war on terrorism.”  The Justice Department did not use the law when CIA officer Valerie Plame had her cover blown by officials in President George W. Bush’s administration. Her outing was retaliation against her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who exposed part of the fabricated case for regime change in Iraq.  Former CIA case officer Philip Agee, who sought to reveal how the CIA was involved in “secretly intervening in country after country to corrupt politicians and to promote political repression,” was the key inspiration for the CIA push to pass the IIPA. Agee published a column, “Naming Names,” that outed agents allegedly involved in the activities he exposed.  In 1975, Agee was blamed by the CIA for the murder of Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Athens, but Agee maintained the publication had nothing to do with the murder of Welch.  Three decades ago, the CIA mobilized to protect itself from radical acts of transparency, and now, with the internet and organizations like WikiLeaks, it hopes to be able to further isolate and criminalize those who directly challenge the agency’s activities.  ***   Author Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “Unauthorized Disclosure.”  This article was originally published at Shadowproof


21stcenturywire--2019-08-31--Adam Schiffs New Law Expands Definition of Domestic Terrorism Promotes FBI Entrapment

Adam Schiff’s New Law Expands Definition of ‘Domestic Terrorism’, Promotes FBI Entrapment

Recently, the US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced a bill which intends to criminalize various new acts under the ever-expanding banner of domestic terrorism. Undoubtedly, this is an attempt by the government to broaden the definition of ‘domestic terrorism’ in order to make the interpretation more arbitrary, and thus qualifying more offenses for terrorism prosecutions.  Schiff’s new law will give the US Attorney General new powers which would potentially charge any threat of violence or damage to property that “creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury” – as an act of domestic terrorism.  Potentially, this might could also include the use of heated political rhetoric during a “planning meeting” (a conversation in person, or in an internet chat room), or even breaking a window during a protest. In theory, the Federal government could them pursue sentences up to 30-years in prison.  Predictably, mainstream partisan pundits are cheering this authoritarian move by Schiff, as they believe that this legislation will give the state more power to crack down on what they perceive as their political enemies, namely ‘white supremacists’ and ‘white nationalists. It’s important to point out that this same reactionary, flawed logic was used by Neconservatives in the wake of 9/11 in order to target and ‘deal with’ the supposed ‘Muslim threat’ by rushing through Patriot Act I and II during the Bush Administration.  Writing for The Hill, Michael German offers a few real-life scenarios, explaining, “If you think this possibility is absurd, keep in mind that in 2012 the Justice Department put two political activists in jail for months for refusing to testify before a grand jury about colleagues who may have participated in a Seattle May Day protest in which a federal courthouse window was broken,” adding that, “In 2017, the Justice Department charged more than 200 protesters at an anti-Trump rally with felony charges for allegedly conspiring to riot because someone broke windows and lit a limousine on fire while they were in the general vicinity. Prosecutors used selectively edited undercover recordings of protest planning meetings in which a speaker threatened to turn the inauguration into a “giant clusterf—” as evidence of a broad conspiracy.”  “The prosecutions failed in these cases, which may partly explain why the Justice Department and FBI have been seeking to expand their domestic terrorism powers. If they were intent on using these new powers to target far-right militants, they could have simply amended current Justice Department policies that de-prioritize the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes,” said German.  Schiff federal power-grab is a bi-partisan effort – because both the Republican and Democratic wings of the Establishment will want to use such broad powers in order to marginalize their perceived political opponents, or worse – use the FBI to fabricate terror plots in order to create and maintain an ongoing crisis through which it can reinforce convenient political and state-power narratives and also justify increasing departmental expenditures.  In short, this breed of new legislation will only give the FBI increased license to continue and expand upon its highly shady practice of using handlers and informants to entrap and arrest unsuspecting dupes, and further boast to the press about the impressive number of “terror busts” it has referred to prosecution.  All the while, short-sighted partisan lawmakers remain oblivious to the long-term consequences of reactionary such policy.


21stcenturywire--2019-09-11--Remain Roadblock Scottish Court Rules PMs Suspension of Parliament Unlawful

Remain Roadblock: Scottish Court Rules PM’s Suspension of Parliament ‘Unlawful’

Scotland’s highest civil court has ruled today that Boris Johnson’s suspension of the UK Parliament is unlawful. A three judge panel at the Court of Session in Ednburgh ruled in favour of a cross-party group of politicians, stating that the Prime Minister’s prorogation is an attempt to ‘prevent Parliament holding the government to account ahead of Brexit.’  Both Labour and Scottish National Party (SNP) are demanding an immediate recall of Parliament.  However, this latest Scottish ruling appears to contradict previous statements made by judges in London, as well as the initial findings by the same Edinburgh court last Wednesday when Lord Doherty stated that PM Johnson’s prorogation was lawful.  In response, Johnson’s government has said it will appeal the ruling in the country’s Supreme Court in London who will make the final decision on the matter. The case will be heard next Tuesday.  As of Wednesday, no final decision has been made to immediately reverse the PM’s suspension of Parliament, but according to the House Speaker’s office, Parliament can only be recalled if the government so chooses.  According earlier reports from The Guardian in London, Sir Ed Davey, the deputy Liberal Democrat leader, this ruling could lead to the resignation of Boris Johnson:  “It could well do. If he has been found to have misled the Queen, I think the whole nation will be deeply shocked and alarmed. This is a prime minister we already know has said he might obey a law in parliament, so he is behaving in the most disgraceful way. Now it may be that the supreme court next week overturns the decision. But that three judges, independent judges, could come to this conclusion today is a real blow to the government, and it also backs what Liberal Democrats and others have been saying, this government should not have silenced parliament.”  Fresh attacks against the Prime Minister are also coming from the Tory rebel’s camp, as Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general (and one of the 21 MPs who had the whip removed last week), said to BBC News that, if Boris Johnson misled the Queen about the reasons for prorogation, then he should resign:  The Guardian added that, “Grieve was also the MP who tabled by standing order 24 motion passed by MPs on Monday demanding the release of private messages from Johnson’s aides relating to the prorogation of parliament. In the debate he said government whistleblowers who had told him what really happened thought the affair “smacked of scandal”.


abcnews--2019-01-03--Law enforcement unions frustrated over members missing pay amid shutdown

The heads of unions representing federal law enforcement have some choice words for President Donald Trump amid the government shutdown.  The chief of the union that represents officers working for the Transportation Security Administration, whose members are responsible for securing airline travelers, expressed strong frustration Thursday at the prospect of missing paychecks if the government shutdown drags on.  "How can you protect people who fly when you're worried about paying your bills?" Hydrick Thomas, TSA Council President, told ABC News.  Thomas said that 45,000 TSA employees aren't getting paid, and there is nothing that they can do about it.  "That is our Christmas gift from our president, not going to get paid," Thomas continued. He added that he hoped the president would "wake up."  While Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker effusively praised the president Wednesday for "giving up" his holiday to deal with the government shutdown, he failed to mention the thousands of federal agents in the Department of Justice were also working -- and not getting paid.  One of those agencies that Whitaker oversees is the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  “We just passed New Year's and New Year's for most of us is when we pay our mortgages, our rents and many people have been expressing through and on social media, that they went to their landlords and their landlords stated they have got to get the bills paid, and if they don’t, they’re going to come and find their stuff out on the front lawn,” Eric Young, the head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Union, told ABC News.  “In prisons, you can’t cut back on services. The results are more violence, unsafe prisons, people being killed -- the inmates and also the staff. So, when you have them being distracted now from not getting paid, worrying about whether they can put their kid in daycare, that brings undue stress on them from what they need to do inside our prisons,” Young said.  The FBI Agents Association is blasting both sides in the shutdown.  “As the country celebrates the New Year, the American public can be assured that the FBIAA’s membership -- which includes nearly 13,000 Special Agents of the FBI -- are on the job 24-hours a day, seven days a week to protect our country from criminal and terrorist threats. These men and women are doing so while facing a confluence of policies and gridlock that are causing financial hardship for Agents and their families," President Tom O'Connor said in a statement.  "FBIAA members and others are currently working without pay or paid leave because of a fourth government shutdown in five years. The FBIAA calls on elected officials to work together to end the shutdown and restore Agents’ pay," O'Connor said.


21stcenturywire--2019-01-31--France Germany UK Launch a New Non-Dollar Mechanism to Trade with Iran But Will it Work

France, Germany, UK Launch a New ‘Non-Dollar’ Mechanism to Trade with Iran, But Will it Work?

Money talks, and no one knows this better than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s how the Trump Administration communicates with its enemies, as well as with its allies – through the application powerful long-range financial instruments. But Europe is moving in for another attempt at breaking Washington’s blockade of Iran.    After ripping up the JCPOA Iran Nuclear Deal in May 2018, the US began constructing a comprehensive global economic blockade designed to starve and break the Iranian economy. Of course, no one is happier about this than Israel (arguably, the architect of the JCPOA sabotage), along with regional rival Saudi Arabia. If Washington choking-off Iran wasn’t enough, it has also also vowed to sanction anyone who dared to trade with Iran. In the fall of 2018, Europe tried to bypass this by devising an alternative clearing mechanism for financial transactions for avoiding using the US dollar, called the “Special Purpose Vehicle” (SPV). When the US nixed it, it seemed any chance for an economic lifeline for Iran was off the table.  Still, Europe seems to be determined to try and bypass the ramparts of American economic statecraft. This week France, Germany and the UK have announced the creation of a new payment system is called INSTEX – short for ‘Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges’, to be based in Paris. This new improved version of the previous ‘SPV’ vehicle, now ready to facilitate “legitimate trade” with Iran by bypassing any US dollar transactions, and with an initial focus on crucial goods like food and medical supplies. Later on, organisers hope to expand its capabilities to cover all goods and services.  In their official joint statement, the working group have indicated that they will seek to expand the number of countries using this new channel.     In light of this week’s INSTEX announcement, the question now remains whether of not Mnuchin’s sanctions armada will pursue European countries attempting to bust Washington’s unilateral measures. While the INSTEX may provide the framework for a viable work-around, it is still yet to be seen just how many companies will want to risk drawing the gaze of Washington’s financial eye of mordor. In other words, a company like Thyssenkrupp could deliver product to Iran via INSTEX, but by doing so they may risk losing their access to the lucrative US market – should Washington decide to punish the German corporation for its insubordination. No doubt firms will be deploying teams of lobbyists to Washington in search of exemption wavers. This same risk applies to small to medium size enterprises too, although smaller players cannot afford Washington’s pay-to-play lobby game.  Immediately after the initial Special Purpose Vehicle, or “SPV” idea was floated in Brussels this past fall, the US immediately began threatening to sanction anyone who defied its decree by continuing to trade with Iran. France, Germany and the EU itself, had vowed to bust Trump’s Iran sanctions through the SPV.  This is an important concept, because it signals the first deliberate move by major state actors to move away from the US dollar as a world reserve currency. The reserve currency issue is paramount because it’s one of the fundamental prerequisites in transitioning from a unipolar world order with America in the cat bird seat, to establishing what many analysts and international relations scholars refer to as a ‘multipolar world order’ with power-sharing arrangements among ‘multiple equals.’ Naturally, the US was having none of it, and proceeded to threatened to sanction the international inter-bank financial messaging clearing system known as SWIFT, based in Belgium. Trump’s éminence grise and master of the coin, the US Treasury Secretary Dept’s resident Little Finger, Steve Mnuchin, then threw down the gauntlet to the Brussels rebellion saying, “We have advised SWIFT that it must disconnect any Iranian financial institutions that we designate as soon as technologically feasible to avoid sanctions exposure.” And that was that. No more SPV for the Europe’s multipolar crusaders.  Will INSTEX meet a similar fate? That depends on whether the European partners have the political will and determination to see this initiative through to the end.  Washington is certain to launch a counter move in order to try and intimidate western corporations from participating in trade with Iran, so onus is really on France, Germany and the UK to prove they have the stones to stand to Trump and be ready to elevate this issue to the UNSC level – and openly challenge the US on principle, and international law, something they have not yet been willing to do, and thus reducing any independent EU actions to remain merely symbolic and ‘good natured’, but never implemented to the point of being effective. They could start by asking Washington and Tel Aviv to present the evidence that they claim to have and which proves that Iran is in breach of the JCPOA by still pursuing a nuclear weapon. To date, no such evidence has been produced, other than a bizarre off-Broadway show and Powerpoint presentation delivered by Bibi Netanyahu. Team Europe has to be ready to tell Trump: put up, or shut up, and we’ll see you in court. If they aren’t, then their status as an offshore outpost of the US will persist.  Worse than that, the EU will continue to be a paper tiger in terms of its federalist foreign policy aspirations. If Brussels and its member states are unable to pursue a foreign policy independent of Washington’s, then it will be another nail in the coffin of the European Project.  ***   Author Patrick Henningsen is an American writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire, and is host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR). He has written for a number of international publications and has done extensive on-the-ground reporting in the Middle East including work in Syria and Iraq.


21stcenturywire--2019-09-06--DISCUSSION Hong Kong China and Trumps Trade War

DISCUSSION: Hong Kong, China and Trump’s Trade War

In the last six months months, China has been re-positioned ahead of Russia by Washington as America’s supposed top existential and geopolitical adversary. What sort of risks does this new unofficial war pose to America’s economy?  SUNDAY WIRE radio host Patrick Henningsen talks with roving correspondent for Culture & Sport, Basil Valentine, about the highly dubious “democracy” protests in Hong Kong, as well as the real underlying problems with Trump’s US vs China trade war. Is Trump trying to engineer and economic boom just in time for the U.S. 2020 election? Listen:


abcnews--2019-01-28--US sanctions Venezuelas state-owned oil firm as Maduro seeks talks with Trump

US sanctions Venezuela's state-owned oil firm as Maduro seeks talks with Trump

The Trump administration announced Monday it is sanctioning Venezuela's state-owned oil company, blocking $7 billion in assets and potentially costing the country $11 billion in oil revenues, according to National Security Adviser John Bolton.  The move is meant to put the squeeze on President Nicolás Maduro after the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president and has tried to force Maduro to exit after what the U.S. says is his political crackdown, consolidation of power, and corrupt mismanagement of the country.  The sanctions block all U.S. persons or businesses from working with Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., known by the acronym PDVSA, and funds from any purchases of Venezuelan oil will now have to go into special accounts Maduro's government is blocked from accessing, according to the Treasury Department.  Some licenses will be granted to continue work with PDVSA, including for Citgo -- the U.S. energy company that PDVSA owns -- but those revenues will be held in a blocked account, too, according to Mnuchin, who said Guaidó should be given access to those funds.  That's a big boost to his fledgling self-declared government, and Mnuchin said these oil sanctions could be completely lifted once Guaidó has full control of PDVSA: "When there is a recognition that the company is the property of, the rightful rulers, the rightful leaders, then indeed that money will be available to Guaido. We will be working with them on the money in the blocked account and whether that can be used for them."  The move is sure to even further disrupt Maduro's government, which maintains the loyalty of Venezuela's military top brass but could be left unable to pay them. While a handful of military and diplomatic officials have sworn allegiance to Guaidó in the last week, losing access to Venezuela's coffers could unleash a wave of defections.  Maduro seemed to be moving to reassert his authority on Monday, offering to meet with President Donald Trump for talks, according to his foreign minister Jorge Arreaza.  In a news conference Monday, Arreaza asserted that the U.S. continues to have diplomatic relations with Maduro's government after recognizing Guaidó, even reading some of the diplomatic notes the U.S. has sent and showing a photo of U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Jimmy Story's meeting with the Vice Chancellor on Saturday.  "Diplomatic relations are not simply about statements," he added, a dismissal of the U.S. recognition of Guaidó.  The White House has not responded yet to that offer to meet.  But Bolton painted a picture of weakening Maduro control on Monday, saying the U.S. knows through "numerous contacts on the ground" that the military's rank and file are "acutely aware of the desperate economic conditions in the country and we think they look for ways to support the National Assembly government."  Even among the top brass, he said, there are high-level contacts between the general officers and the opposition -- including among those that posed with the Defense Minister last week as he reiterated his allegiance to Maduro: "What [the Maduro government] didn't know was how many of them were already talking to the National Assembly," he said of that photo-op.  A handful of senior Venezuelan military and diplomatic officials in the U.S. have already turned. Maduro said he would break diplomatic ties with the U.S. and close the country's embassy and consulates and ordered all diplomats home. But a handful instead defected to join Guaidó's government, which has promised amnesty to anyone in the military who disavows Maduro and even floated it for Maduro himself.  Col. José Luis Silva, the military attaché at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, announced he was breaking with Maduro in an interview with the Miami Herald on Saturday, adding, "My message to all armed forces members, to everyone who carries a gun, is to please let's not attack the people. We are also part of the people, and we've had enough of supporting a government that has betrayed the most basic principles and sold itself to other countries."  On Sunday, another senior official joined him -- the deputy chief of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami, Scarlet Salazar -- posting in a video online where she added, "This decision abides by my democratic principles and values as a career diplomatic officer serving Venezuela for more than 18 uninterrupted years."  The U.S. has maintained its own diplomatic presence in the country, even after Maduro said he would give U.S. diplomats 72 hours to leave.  The State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency staff and families out of concern for their safety, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would not obey the full order because Maduro was the "former" president and his commands were "illegitimate." He left behind a small crew of 25 or so employees, including Chargé d'Affaires Story.  That set up a showdown by Sunday morning, with Bolton threatening action: "Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuela's democratic leader, Juan Guiadó, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response," he tweeted.  But Maduro backed down, suspending his order and giving the U.S. 30 days to negotiate or withdraw its remaining personnel. Arreazza added Monday that all Venezuelan diplomats had left the U.S. and the U.S. should also respect the 30-day deadline, too.  The State Department also announced another staffing change Friday, bringing on Elliott Abrams as a special envoy for Venezuela. Abrams was an Assistant Secretary of State under President Reagan and a Deputy National Security Adviser to President George W. Bush, making him a controversial choice for his role in Reagan's support for Latin American dictatorships, his cover-up of the Iran-Contra affair, and his support for the Iraq War. Abrams pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for withholding evidence to Congress, but was later pardoned by George H.W. Bush.  ABC News's Davi Merchan contributed to this report from Cúcuta, Colombia.


abcnews--2019-01-28--Venezuelas Maduro seeks talks with Trump as US sanctions state-owned oil firm

Venezuela's Maduro seeks talks with Trump as US sanctions state-owned oil firm

The Trump administration announced Monday it is sanctioning Venezuela's state-owned oil company, blocking $7 billion in assets and costing the country $11 billion of oil revenues, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.  The move was meant to put the squeeze on President Nicolás Maduro after the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president.  Maduro is open to talks with President Donald Trump, his foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, said Monday.  There was no immediate public response from the White House to that offer.  While the U.S. has recognized Guaidó as interim president, Maduro's government has tried to reassert its authority and prove that the U.S. is still working with Maduro's faction.  That may become even more difficult in the days to come, as the Trump administration considers giving Guaidó's government access to Venezuela's financial assets overseas.  The administration has declined to comment on any potential future plans, but a Treasury spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the U.S. "will use its economic and diplomatic tools to ensure that commercial transactions by the Venezuelan Government, including those involving its state-owned enterprises and international reserves, are consistent with this recognition" of Guaidó as interim president.  Guaidó has called for this financial move, which would undermine Maduro, who maintains the loyalty of Venezuela's military top brass but could be left unable to pay them. While a handful of military and diplomatic officials have sworn allegiance to Guaidó in the last week, losing access to Venezuela's coffers could unleash a wave of defections.  In a press conference Monday, Arreaza asserted that the U.S. continues to have diplomatic relations with Maduro's government after recognizing Guaidó, even reading some of the diplomatic notes the U.S. has set and showing a photo of U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Jimmy Story's meeting with the Vice Chancellor on Saturday.  "Diplomatic relations are not simply about statements," he added.  Chargé Story is one of a handful of American diplomats still in Venezuela after the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency staff and families out of concern for their safety. Last Wednesday, Maduro had ordered the U.S. to remove all its diplomats within 72 hours, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would not obey the order because Maduro was the "former" president and his commands were "illegitimate."  That set up a showdown by Sunday morning, with National Security Adviser John Bolton threatening action: "Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuela's democratic leader, Juan Guiadó, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response," he tweeted.  But Maduro backed down, suspending his order and giving the U.S. 30 days to negotiate or withdraw its remaining personnel. Arreazza added Monday that all Venezuelan diplomats had left the U.S. and the U.S. should also respect the 30-day deadline, too.  A handful of senior military and diplomatic officials, however, have not departed, instead defecting to join Guaidó's fledgling government, which has promised amnesty to anyone in the military who disavows Maduro and even floated it for Maduro himself.  Col. José Luis Silva, the military attaché at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, announced he was breaking with Maduro in an interview with the Miami Herald on Saturday, adding, "My message to all armed forces members, to everyone who carries a gun, is to please let's not attack the people. We are also part of the people, and we've had enough of supporting a government that has betrayed the most basic principles and sold itself to other countries."  On Sunday, another senior official joined him -- the deputy chief of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami, Scarlet Salazar -- posting in a video online where she added, "This decision abides by my democratic principles and values as a career diplomatic officer serving Venezuela for more than 18 uninterrupted years."  The State Department announced its own staffing changes Friday, bringing on Elliott Abrams as a special envoy for Venezuela. Abrams was an Assistant Secretary of State under President Reagan and a Deputy National Security Adviser to President George W. Bush, making him a controversial choice for his role in Reagan's support for Latin American dictatorships, his cover-up of the Iran-Contra affair, and his support for the Iraq War. Abrams pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for withholding evidence to Congress, but was later pardoned by George H.W. Bush.  ABC News's Davi Merchan contributed to this report from Cúcuta, Colombia.


abcnews--2019-01-29--US sanctions Venezuelas state-owned oil firm as Maduro seeks talks with Trump


abcnews--2019-01-30--High stakes trade negotiations between China and United States underway

High-stakes meetings between the United States and China began Wednesday at the White House as negotiators attempt to beat the clock in a 90-day trade war truce agreed to by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month at the G-20 in Argentina.  The negotiations come just days after a 13-count indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn criminally charging four defendants — Huawei Technologies, two Huawei affiliates -- Huawei Device USA and Skycom Tech -- and Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. The charges include stealing U.S. trade secrets and violating Iran sanctions.  The United States and China have been involved in months of tariff tit-for-tat that has slowed the Chinese economy and has had a serious economic impact on U.S. manufacturing and agriculture. The nearly month-long partial government shutdown left the United States little economic wiggle room.  The negotiations in Washington, led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, kicked off in the Diplomatic Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. They were joined by Chinese diplomats and Trump administration officials including Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, trade adviser Peter Navarro and economic adviser Larry Kudlow.  Mnuchin told Fox Business he expected "significant progress" to trade and market access between the two countries. But he added that the criminal charges brought against Huawei are not a part of negotiations.  Trump has been optimistic about the talks, as pressure builds from Congress to Wall Street for the White House to strike a deal. He said that if no deal is made by March 1st -- the end of the 90-day period -- he will increase the tariffs on Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.  "I think China would like to make a deal," Trump told members of Congress last week. "We'd like to make a deal."  Still, Trump made reinvigorating the manufacturing industry -- largely devastated in many parts of the United States -- a top priority during his presidential campaign.  "We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing," Trump said at a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world."  Trump is expected to meet with the Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Thursday as the talks conclude, according to a White House official.


abcnews--2019-03-11--Agency highlights in the budget proposal from the White House

In his proposed 2020 budget released Monday, President Donald Trump indicated there would be major cuts in domestic programs and boosts to spending at the Department of Defense.  Trump is also calling for 5 percent cuts to non-defense spending. Under the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would see a 31 percent decrease in funding, the Education Department would take a 12 percent cut and the Department of Energy an 11 percent decrease. Here are some highlights from the White House's proposal.  The proposed budget contains massive cuts to the agency overall and various environmental programs.  According to the proposal, the cuts are to "voluntary and lower-priority activities," so that the agency could focus on finalizing replacements to Obama-era policies, improving the agency's toxic chemicals program, cleaning up contaminated sites, helping communities remove hazards at schools like lead and asbestos and providing more money to improve water infrastructure.  The proposal eliminates $650 million in programs, including programs focused on areas the agency says are a priority:  - Multiple programs specifically focused on reducing risks of lead exposure and improving water quality  - The program that researches health risks from endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA, the agency says it will be absorbed into the pesticides program  - A partnership between federal agencies, states, and advocacy groups to improve the Gulf of Mexico  - Locally focused programs including the Long Island Sound, San Francisco Bay, and Everglades and Florida Keys  - A program that addresses indoor pollution and asthma triggers like secondhand smoke, mold, and pests  - $10 million in infrastructure programs to improve waster facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Local programs focused on the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes face 90 percent cuts to their budgets. In previous years Congress has rejected similar cuts and kept EPA's funding mostly consistent or increased funding for some programs.  Trump's budget proposal hits the State Department again with deep cuts, even after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to get the department's "swagger" back and "get the team on the field."  This is the first proposal under Pompeo, but the budget still calls for a nearly 24 percent decrease in funding for State and USAID. The proposal provides an additional $13.6 million for human resources and $11 million for the Foreign Service Institute, which trains diplomats. However, despite the department's empty senior positions and chronic vacancies overseas, as documented in a new government report, the budget proposal largely keeps staff levels even, according to budget director Douglas Pitkin.  The cuts instead would come from U.S. contributions to international organizations like the United Nations, peacekeeping missions overseas in places like Darfur and Haiti, global health and refugee programs and a reorganization of USAID and how it distributes humanitarian assistance.  Those have been part of Trump's foreign policy for two years now, although other positions are contrasted by the budget request: While Trump has threatened to slash aid to Central American countries over immigration, the budget proposal calls for increased economic assistance to enhance "governance and boost local economies to discourage illegal immigration," according to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan. Last month, Trump announced a new initiative to "defeat AIDS in America and beyond," yet his budget calls for major cuts to programs that treat and combat HIV/AIDS overseas.  Congress has rejected these proposed cuts for the past two years when Republicans controlled both chambers. Now, with Democrats in charge of the House, this year's proposal is even less likely to be enacted. Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has already released a statement calling it "dead on arrival."  Trump wants the government to cut some $1.4 trillion in the next 10 years from federal Medicaid spending and shift most of that money to state-run grant programs.  The federal program provides medical assistance to millions of low-income and disabled Americans and the move would essentially wipe out the expansion effort led under President Barack Obama, in favor of limited block grants.  According to the administration, the plan is provide “additional flexibility to states” and put Medicaid “on a path to fiscal stability by restructuring its financing and reducing waste.”  The budget proposal aims to ramp up immigration enforcement on the border and within the U.S.  In addition to $8.6 billion more for the border wall, the plan would fund 5,000 new Border Patrol Agents, allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to add 10,000 officers and investigators and expand detention centers, according to the White House budget office.  When Trump first came into office, ICE facilities held an average of 34,376 people on any given day. Last week that number topped 50,000 and the new proposed budget would allow for further increases.  The proposal also includes proposals aimed at “sanctuary cities.” The measures would allow the administration to withhold funding from cities that don’t “cooperate with specific federal immigration enforcement activities and requests.”  The Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on these jurisdictions have been stopped by appellate courts multiple times.  The proposal would also increase Justice Department funding to grow the number of immigration judges by nearly 20 percent, the budget office says. The judges face a record backlog of cases, made worse by the government shutdown earlier this year.  The Trump administration is looking to cut $7.1 billion from the department compared to what it was given last year.  The cuts would include eliminating 29 programs that "do not address national needs, duplicate other programs, are ineffective, are poorly targeted, or are more appropriately supported by State, local, or private funds."  You can read more about the proposal for the Education Department here.


abcnews--2019-10-16--Workers celebrate deal with GM, show union power in industry

On the picket lines at a General Motors transmission plant in Toledo, Ohio, passing cars honked and striking workers celebrated a tentative contract deal by munching on 10 pizzas dropped off by a supporter.  They had carried signs for 31 days and demonstrated the muscle the United Auto Workers union still has over Detroit's three manufacturers.  Details of the four-year pact weren't released, but GM's latest offer to end the monthlong strike included wage increases and lump-sum payments, top-notch health insurance at little cost to workers, promises of new products for many U.S. factories and a path to full-time work for temporary workers.  That's a big difference from what GM wanted going into the talks: to slash total labor costs at its factories, which are about $13 per hour higher than at foreign automakers in the U.S.  Terry Dittes, the UAW's chief bargainer with GM, said the deal offers "major gains" for 49,000 union workers who have been walking picket lines since Sept. 16. They'll stay off work for at least a couple more days while union committees decide if they will bless the deal. Then workers will have to vote on it.  The deal shows that the union, with less than one-third of the 1.5 million members it had at its peak in 1979, still has a lot of clout with GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.  "I think economically the UAW will do just fine in this agreement," said Art Schwartz, a former GM negotiator who now is a labor consultant in Michigan. "The union certainly still has power in this industry."  President Donald Trump called UAW President Gary Jones on Wednesday night, but union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said he did not know what the men discussed.  The strike immediately brought GM's U.S. factories to a halt, and within a week, started to hamper production in Mexico and Canada. Analysts at KeyBanc investment services estimated the stoppage cut GM vehicle production by 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles. That's too much for the company to make up with overtime or increased assembly line speeds. Analysts say the costs to GM will hit around $2 billion.  Workers, on the other hand, lost north of $3,000 each on average, the difference between their base wages and $250 per week in strike pay from the union.  "It's nice to see there's a deal, but without knowing the details I'm a little skeptical because we don't know the highlights or the lowlights," said worker Nick Kuhlman, who was among the strikers huddled around a burn barrel on a blustery, gray Toledo afternoon.  "I just hope it gets done," said Toledo worker Mark Nichols, who thought the strike would last only a week or two and was ready to get back to work because his savings are running low.  GM apparently was able to close three of four factories that it wanted to shutter to get rid of excess capacity in slow-selling cars and components. The Detroit-Hamtramck plant will get a new electric pickup truck and stay open, but factories in Lordstown, Ohio; Warren, Michigan; and near Baltimore are to be closed. The Lordstown area will get an electric vehicle battery factory, but it won't have nearly as many workers as the assembly plant that for years made compact GM cars.  The deal now will be used as a template for talks with GM's crosstown rivals, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Normally the major provisions carry over to the other two companies and cover about 140,000 auto workers nationwide. It wasn't clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.  Schwartz said depending on the contents, the GM contract could influence wages and benefits in other industries. But he said foreign automakers with U.S. factories, mainly in the South, will give modest pay raises regardless of the GM contract, and shouldn't be affected much.  Clarence Trinity, a worker at GM's engine and transmission plant in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Michigan, said the deal sounds good, "but I have to see it in writing or hear from the leaders."  Trinity said he can't figure out why it took 31 days for the strike to end. "I don't understand what General Motors was expecting to get out of us. Maybe they didn't expect us to strike. Maybe they didn't expect us to strike this long."  If all of the committees bless the deal, it's likely to take several days for GM to get its factories restarted.  Matt Himes, a worker at the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, heard news of the deal in Ohio, where he's trying to help his wife sell their house after the Lordstown GM plant where he used to work was shuttered.  He hopes good news keeps coming. If they can sell their house, his wife can finally move south with him.  "I'm proud that we stuck our ground and everybody stuck together," Himes said of the union workers during a phone interview. "And I'm relieved that hopefully it worked out, got us a good contract and we can move on and get back to work making cars like we should be."  Wall Street investors liked news that the strike could end. GM shares jumped 2.6% just after the news broke, but eased back to close up 1% at $36.65.  GM and the union have been negotiating at a time of troubling uncertainty for the U.S. auto industry. Driven up by the longest economic expansion in American history, auto sales appear to have peaked and are now heading in the other direction. GM and other carmakers are also struggling to make the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles.  Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's trade war with China and his tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have raised costs for auto companies. A revamped North American free trade deal is stalled in Congress, raising doubts about the future of America's trade in autos and auto parts with Canada and Mexico, which last year came to $257 billion.  Amid that uncertainty, GM workers have wanted to lock in as much as they can before things get ugly. They argue that they had given up pay raises and made other concessions to keep GM afloat during its 2009 trip through bankruptcy protection. Now that GM has been nursed back to health — earning $2.42 billion in its latest quarter — they wanted a bigger share.  The union's bargainers have voted to recommend the deal to the UAW International Executive Board, which will vote on the agreement. Union leaders from factories nationwide will travel to Detroit for a vote on Thursday. The earliest workers could return would be after that.  In past years, it's taken a minimum of three or four days and as long as several weeks for the national ratification vote.  This time around — with a federal corruption investigation that has implicated the past two UAW presidents and brought convictions of five union officials — many union members don't trust the leadership. But they're also tired of striking and may return before they vote on the deal themselves.  The strike had shut down 33 GM manufacturing plants in nine states across the U.S., and also took down factories in Canada and Mexico. It was the first national strike by the union since a two-day walkout in 2007, and the longest since a 54-day strike in Flint, Michigan, in 1998 that also halted most of GM's production.  Associated Press writers Mike Householder in Detroit, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.


abcnews--2019-11-06--Supply company accused of diluting spices sold to prisons

A Pennsylvania-based supply company is accused of diluting spices sold to prisons across the country.  The Post and Courier reports federal prosecutors in South Carolina have filed a false claims lawsuit against FlavorPros LLC. It says FlavorPros cut spices with flour, starch and other fillers to underbid competitors for $500,000 in federal procurement contracts.  FlavorPros was owned by Charlene Brach, of New Jersey. She was charged last year with adulterating and misbranding spices sold to 122 prisons nationwide. Brach denied guilt on Tuesday and said her company wouldn't have been responsible if spices were diluted.  Brach later started another supply company, Artisan Foods LLC, allegedly to avoid scrutiny of FlavorPros.  Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com


abcnews--2019-11-12--Navajo leader: Tribe won't back energy company's new mines

The Navajo Nation will not financially back bonds a tribal energy company needs for a trio of newly acquired coal mines off the reservation, the tribal president said Tuesday, explaining that it's too risky and his administration wants the company to move away from coal.  The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. recently bought Montana's largest coal mine and two mines in Wyoming at auction after Cloud Peak Energy declared bankruptcy.  The mines can keep operating for now because more than $370 million in reclamation bonds posted by Cloud Peak remain in place, state officials said.  Tribal President Jonathan Nez said he canceled agreements the energy company might have relied on to seek the Navajo Nation's financial backing for the bonds. He said the company wasn't forthcoming about information related to acquiring and operating the mines, and he wants to protect the tribe's finances as revenues decline from the loss of a coal plant and mine on the reservation. Tribal lawmakers had been considering legislation to do the same thing.  "The Navajo Nation's financial portfolio as well as our resources would be placed in a state of uncertainty if we allowed NTEC to proceed with finalizing the bonds needed to operate these three mines using the (Navajo) Nation's consent ..." Nez wrote in a statement.  The development marks the latest turmoil to hit the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, the nation's largest coal-producing region, where bankruptcies and declining demand have put a pall over a once-vibrant industry. Hundreds of people in the region were put out of work for months after another bankrupt company, Blackjewel, drastically scaled back operations at two of the biggest coal mines in the U.S.  The tribal energy company was created in 2013 to buy a coal mine in New Mexico on the reservation. It also owns a 7 percent stake in the nearby Four Corners Power Plant. While it was organized under the tribal government, it operates somewhat independently.  Nez said the legal documents creating the company gave the tribe's executive branch unilateral authority to administer what are known as general indemnity agreements. He said the bonds in place for the Navajo Mine and the Four Corners power plant won't be affected by his decision.  The energy company has said terminating the indemnity agreements could have serious impacts on the company's operations and increase the costs to secure reclamation and other bonds. It urged tribal lawmakers last week to seek other solutions to support bonds for the Cloud Peak purchases.  "NTEC has always considered these acquisitions to be highly advantageous and profitable," company spokesman Erny Zah wrote Tuesday in response to questions from The Associated Press. "While we understand the president's decision with regard to the indemnity agreements, we continue to see very successful operations and prospects ahead."  The Cloud Peak deal made the Navajo company the third-largest coal producer in the U.S. The deal covers Wyoming's Antelope and Cordero Rojo mines and Montana's Spring Creek mine. About 1,200 people are employed at the mines, which combined produced almost 50 million tons of coal last year.  Antelope is the third-largest coal mine in the U.S., while Spring Creek ranks eighth and Cordero Rojo is 11th.  Lining up bonds on its own could be a challenge for the tribal energy company, given the state of the coal industry, said Joe Aldina, a coal industry analyst at the research firm S&P Global Platts.  A succession of coal company bankruptcies already put state regulators on "high alert" to make sure companies have the financial wherewithal to conduct cleanups, he said. Also, a decade-long wave of coal-fired power plant retirements has decreased demand for the inexpensive but heavily polluting fuel, which could make financial firms hesitant to get involved with reclamation bonds.  "Bonding companies are going to be more skeptical," Aldina said. "They are going to require more collateral or higher interest rates or they're just not going to extend these surety guarantees."  State regulators are unlikely to release the Cloud Peak bonds until the mines' new operator can come up with bonds on its own. That means taxpayers in Montana and Wyoming won't be left on the hook for future reclamation or cleanup costs.  "They can operate like this as long as they like, because Cloud Peak has the permit," said Keith Guille with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. "We cannot review the permit until they show they have bonds in place."  At Spring Creek, NTEC has indicated it will cover for now the fees needed to maintain the existing $109 million reclamation bond that was in place when it bought Cloud Peak's assets, said Montana Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Rebecca Harbage.  Those fees amount to about 1% of the bond total, or about $1 million annually, Harbage said. She did not know if any payments have been made to date.


abcnews--2019-11-13--Sour grapes: Trade war puts cork in US wine sales to China

Caught in the crossfire of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, U.S. vineyards are struggling to sell Syrah in Shanghai and Chardonnay in Shenzhen. They risk losing their foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing wine markets.  The 16-month dispute between the world’s two biggest economies has nothing to do with wine. The Trump administration accuses China of stealing U.S. technology and forcing American companies to hand over trade secrets and has slapped tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports. China disputes the allegations.  When the Chinese hit back with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, they put a bull’s eye on American wine.  Since June, China has been imposing 93% tariffs and taxes on American wine, up from 48% before the hostilities began, according to the Wine Institute, a trade group for 1,000 California wineries and related businesses. Unless the two countries reach a ceasefire — and they’re working on it — the levies on U.S. wine in China will ratchet up to 106% on Dec. 15.  By contrast, Chinese levies amount to 41% on wines from the European Union and 23% on those from Australia, Chile and New Zealand.  "We could no longer compete, especially with countries with free trade agreements like Chile and Australia, our two largest competitors,” said Michael Parr, vice president of international sales at Livermore, California-based Wente Vineyards, one of the first U.S. winemakers to export to China 25 years ago.  Parr said that Wente has “not shipped a single bottle of wine to China’’ since the latest Chinese tariffs took effect in June.  Overall, U.S. wine exports to China fell 25% in 2018, measured by volume, according to the Wine Institute. Calculated by dollars, the picture is just as ugly: U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show that U.S. wine exports to China fell 25% last year to $59.2 million and are down another 48% so far this year compared to January-September 2018.  “China continues to be an important market for California wines, but exceptionally high tariffs put our products at a price disadvantage,” said Robert Koch, president of the Wine Institute.  Over the past 25 years, China’s rapid economic growth has created a middle class with a taste for luxuries and the country has come out of nowhere to become the No. 5 export market for U.S. wine. In 1994, U.S. wine exports to China barely registered at $123,000. From there, they rose mostly steadily, peaking at $81.5 million in 2016, then dipping to $78.7 million in 2017 before plunging last year after the tariff war broke out.  California, home to Napa Valley and other famous wine-growing regions, produces about 95% of U.S. wine exports.  Wente exports wine to more than 70 countries, and China is among its top 10 export markets, Parr said, so the tariffs are hurting overall sales.  "Short term, it amounts to loss of revenues,” Parr said. “But long term it was lost opportunities. All the time, the money that we have spent building that market.”  Chinese wine lovers are also feeling the pinch. Wen Xin, who runs a wine shop in Beijing, said American wines used to sell very well, but sales have fallen steeply because of the tariffs.  “California is great wine country,” Wen said. “But because of recent trade issues, they raised the tariffs. So now American wines are very expensive. They cost one-third to two-thirds more expensive than before. So, sales have fallen a lot.”  Paul Wiseman reported from Washington. Dake Kang and Fu Ting in Beijing contributed to this story.  This story has been updated to correct the value of wine exports to China in 2017. It was $78.7 million, not $78.7 billion.


abcnews--2019-11-14--Nation’s largest utility in long-term deals to sell power

Most of the local companies that receive power generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed long-term partnership agreements, but some larger customers still have not agreed to the 20-year deals, officials said Thursday.  TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash said during a Board of Directors meeting in Memphis that 85% of the 154 local companies that buy TVA power in the South have agreed to the new deals, which carry a 3.1% monthly rebate on wholesale power rates. Lyash said the local companies could pass on those savings to their customers, invest in infrastructure and give companies flexibility to receive some of their power through locally sourced options.  The 20-year deals were rolled out this year. They’ll replace existing agreements of varying lengths, or follow expiring ones, TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said. TVA officials say many smaller utilities have agreed, as have larger ones, including Nashville Electric Service.  But TVA’s biggest customer, Memphis, Light, Gas & Water, has not signed a long-term deal. The Memphis utility is exploring other power generation options, including alternate suppliers. Memphis has been a TVA customer for 85 years and represents about 10% of TVA’s revenue, Lyash said.  Consultant reports provided to the Memphis utility have suggested it could save hundreds of millions of dollars per year than under its current agreement with TVA. The Memphis company has received reports discussing alternate power sources, including the MISO transmission system, which delivers power across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba.  A report by consultant The Brattle Group for the Friends of the Earth environmental organization said a local mix of gas and solar power and battery storage, combined with energy efficiency and other strategies, “would result in wholesale power supply costs substantially below the current TVA rate.”  TVA supports Memphis’ “very broad approach to considering what their energy future looks like,” Lyash said after the meeting. But he said TVA’s reliability, support of economic and community development, risk mitigation and other factors make it the best option.  “Our objective is to keep this public power model intact,” he said. “We think it’s a strategic advantage for the whole Tennessee Valley in the decades to come.”  Memphis, Light, Gas & Water did not immediately comment on the status of its decision-making process Thursday.  Across the state, the Knoxville Utility Board was mulling the deal.  “Moving from a five-year contract to a twenty-year contract is a big decision that KUB does not take lightly,” the east Tennessee city’s utility said in a statement Thursday. “The proposal must be fully vetted before a decision can be reached.”  The Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp., which provides service to Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford, Cannon and surrounding counties, also has not agreed to a long-term deal, TVA officials said.  Critics of TVA’s long-term agreements say they hurt a local company’s ability to seek other power sources.  “TVA wants to limit cities like Memphis' options, even as renewables become cheaper to run than TVA's aging coal fleet,” said Amanda Garcia, managing attorney of the Southern Environmental Law Center, an environmental public interest law firm.  Other issues discussed during the meeting was the removal of coal ash from the retired Allen coal plant in Memphis and the departures of Ron Walter and Virginia Lodge, two directors whose terms are ending.  TVA is the nation's largest public utility, providing power to more than 10 million people in parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.


abcnews--2019-11-15--Louisiana fishing industry hit with $258M in flooding losses

The governor says the Louisiana fishing industry has been hit with $258 million in losses due to historic flooding this year.  In a news release Friday, Gov. John Bel Edwards says the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries conducted an economic impact analysis to determine the flooding impacts.  The analysis was submitted to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help the state qualify for part of the fisheries disaster assistance. Edwards also asked the state’s congressional delegation for help in a letter Friday.  According to the analysis, the private lease oyster industry was the hardest hit with $121 million in losses.  Heavy rains in the Midwest kept the Mississippi River at flood stage for extended periods of time and forced the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway two times.


abcnews--2019-11-22--China’s Xi says Beijing wants trade deal, can ‘fight back’

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday that Beijing wants to work for a trade deal with the United States but is not afraid to “fight back” to protect its own interests.  Echoing the upbeat tone adopted by other Chinese officials in recent days, Xi told a visiting U.S. business delegation that China holds a “positive attitude” toward the trade talks.  “As we always said we don’t want to start the trade war, but we are not afraid,” Xi said. “When necessary we will fight back but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war.”  The U.S. delegation from Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum, a conference held in Beijing this week, included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, former U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman and other dignitaries.  The latest flareup in trade tensions came after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs last year on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese exports to the U.S., seeking to ramp up pressure for changes in Chinese trade and investment policies.  China has retaliated with tariff hikes of its own. Sanctions have gradually escalated and trade talks have made only halting progress. But the two sides are working toward what they say will be a preliminary agreement to pave the way for tackling more complex issues.  During the meeting at Beijing’s ornate Great Hall of the People, Xi reiterated to the group China’s stance that a deal requires “mutual respect and equality.”  “We want to work for a Phase 1 agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality," Xi told the group.  The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that China’s lead negotiator in the talks, Vice Premier Liu He, has invited his U.S. counterparts to Beijing for more talks, suggesting there may be some progress.  However, the prospects even for a more general deal look uncertain, given that China has said it wants a promise from the U.S. side to gradually reduce the tariffs already in place. It’s unclear if the U.S. side would be willing to do that.  Pressure is building as financial markets grow increasingly jittery over prospects for a breakthrough.  Trump agreed to hold off on raising tariffs further last month while the two sides talked. But the Washington is still due to hike tariffs on $160 billion worth of imports from China next month.  That increase would boost prices on smartphones, laptops and many common household goods, right before Christmas.  Ultimately, the U.S. side wants China to scrap a blueprint for state-led development of industrial leadership in advanced technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence. Foreign companies also object to policies and practices they say force them to hand over technology in return for access to the vast Chinese domestic market.  In the meeting Friday, Xi emphasized that Beijing will not yield its own “financial sovereignty,” hinting at limits to China’s flexibility on issues the ruling party considers vital for the country’s future.  He drew from historical references, perhaps mindful of the important role Kissinger played along with the late Premier Zhou Enlai in brokering the rapprochement between Washington and Beijing in the early 1970s after decades of Cold War alienation.  China is finding its way “just like feeling the stones while crossing a river,” Xi said, in an expression famously used by Deng Xiaoping, the revolutionary leader who led the “reform and opening up” era beginning in the late 1970s.  “We are working to realize the Chinese dream of renewal of our nation,” Xi said.


abcnews--2019-11-22--Washington state deals setback to massive methanol plant

Washington state dealt a setback Friday to efforts to build one of the world’s biggest methanol plants on the Columbia River, saying that five years in, its backers had failed to provide enough information about its greenhouse gas emissions and how they would be offset.  The $2 billion Northwest Innovation Works project would take natural gas from Canada and convert it into methanol, which would be shipped to China to make olefins — compounds used in everything from fabrics and contact lenses to iPhones and medical equipment.  Backers, including Cowlitz County and the Port of Kalama, said the project would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by displacing China’s use of coal to make methanol. They provided regulators with a third-party analysis suggesting that over the project’s life it would reduce global emissions by at least 10 million metric tons per year.  They called that the single largest initiative in Washington for reducing emissions — equivalent to removing more than 2 million cars from the road.  But environmental groups said there was no evidence to support that statement and that the project would create huge emissions of its own. In its decision Friday, the Washington Department of Ecology said further review was necessary “to determine the adequacy of the proposed mitigation for the Project.”  The review is expected to take about a year.  “The company continues to rely on this very dubious claim that their methanol is going to replace dirtier methanol made from coal,” said Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper. “There’s just no justification for that. The Department of Ecology is doing its job.”  In emailed statements, Northwest Innovation Works said Friday it was disappointed but “prepared for the long haul” and ready to prove its project will reduce global emissions.  The company, which is backed by the Chinese government, has noted that it offered to mitigate for all greenhouse gas emissions it generates in the state, and that it was investing in technology that would eliminate all water discharge from its facility into the Columbia River.  The company says that because producing methanol from natural gas costs about half what it costs to make from coal, it would have a competitive advantage — as well as an environmental one — over Chinese methanol production.  “If this doesn’t get built, the result will not be less material produced in the world,” Kent Caputo, general counsel of Northwest Innovation Works, said earlier this week. “It will be that those materials will be produced in countries that do not adhere to the environmental and regulatory standards that Washington state has.”  Ecology requested additional information about the emissions in its comments on a draft environmental impact statement last year. The backers then filed a supplemental environmental impact statement in August. Ecology again requested more information in October and gave supporters 30 days to produce it.  They responded on Nov. 4, objecting that some of the information sought had already been provided or was beyond what state law required.  Ecology’s decision Friday came about a week after conservation and public health groups, including Columbia Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, sued in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to invalidate key federal permits for the project.  The groups said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not properly consider the huge amount of greenhouse gases the project would emit — more than 1 million tons per year, an amount that would increase Washington's greenhouse gas emissions by 1%.  They also said federal reviews had failed to properly consider the project's effects on threatened salmon runs and on endangered orcas.  Local officials have supported the project, noting it would bring about 1,000 construction jobs and 190 longer-term positions to the region.  Washington Gov. Jay Inslee used to support it, saying it would help clean up China's plastics industry. He changed his mind last May amid his short-lived presidential run, which centered on combatting climate change. He said that because of the urgency of the threat from global warming, he could no longer support launching massive new fossil-fuel infrastructure in the state.


abcnews--2019-11-25--4 health company executives accused in $1B fraud scheme

Four former executives of a Chicago-based health-information company are accused in a $1 billion fraud scheme.  An indictment unsealed Monday in Chicago federal court says Outcome Health billed clients for full ad campaigns when only some ads were placed. The company allegedly falsified ad performance statements, later using them to help secure millions in loans.  Those charged with mail, wire and bank fraud include 33-year-old CEO Rishi Shah and 34-year-old president Shradha Agarwal, both of Chicago.  Shah and Agarwal co-founded Outcome Health, then ContextMedia, in 2006 when they were Northwestern University students.  Shah’s attorney says Shah “is being scapegoated for the wrongdoing of others.” Agarwal’s lawyer says she’ll “fight to protect her good name.”  Outcome Health mainly works with pharmaceutical companies whose ads appeared on tablets in doctors’ waiting rooms.