thedailycaller--2019-06-28--Deadly Airbags Force Honda To Recall 16 Million Vehicles

Deadly Airbags Force Honda To Recall 1.6 Million Vehicles

Honda announced Friday it is recalling 1.6 million vehicles due to potentially deadly Takata airbag inflators.  The move puts Honda six months ahead of schedule to finish its total recall of the 22.6 million problematic airbags in 12.9 million vehicles, The Associated Press reported.  “Honda is announcing this recall to encourage each owner of an affected vehicle to schedule repair at an authorized dealer as soon as possible,” the company said in a statement.  “Replacement parts are available, all from alternate suppliers, to begin free recall repairs immediately, and a free rental car is available to the vehicle owner for the day of the recall repair or longer if a replacement part is temporarily unavailable,” it added.  The recall also affects Acura and Honda models from 2003 through 2015 that have already received replacement inflators manufactured by Takata in February 2017 or earlier and were scheduled for a second recall.  Honda was forced to recall the cars equipped with Takata inflators because they have exploded with too much force and sent metal shrapnel into drivers, injuring hundreds and killing 24 people.  About 70 million Takata inflators have been recalled in the cars of 19 automakers overall, necessitating the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to schedule their timing.  For Honda, whose recalled vehicle total was one of the highest, repairs or replacements have been completed for 83% of the cars. (RELATED: Honda Recalls 772,000 Vehicles In The US Because Some Air Bags Eject Metal Shrapnel)  Cars impacted include the following models from Honda: 2001-2012 Accord, 2010-2015 Crosstour, 2001-2011 Civic, 2002-2011 CR-V, 011-2015 CR-Z, 2003-2011 Element, 2007-2014 Fit, 2010-2014 Insight, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2015 Pilot and 2006-2014 Ridgeline. Models from Acura include: 2003 3.2CL, 2013 ILX, 2003-2006 MDX, 2015 RDX, 2005-2012 RL, 2002-2003 3.2TL, 2009-2014 TL, 2009-2014 TSX and 2010-2013 ZDX.  The automaker is urging car owners, who will be notified by letter beginning around Aug. 15, to schedule repairs as soon as possible.  Problems with the airbags have forced the Japanese automaker into bankruptcy, according to USA Today.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


theepochtimes--2019-10-04--California Takes Steps to Strengthen Wildfire Prevention and Control

California is well into wildfire season, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) is always open to trying new technology to prevent and fight fires, while working with local fire departments to manage specific incidents, Scott McLean, CalFire deputy chief of communications, told The Epoch Times in an interview.  “We’re always coming up with new ideas to control fires,” McLean said.  On Oct. 2, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill modifying the state’s regulations on utility power shutoffs during severe wildfire conditions. The new law requires electric companies to mitigate the impact of shutoffs for customers with certain medical needs and even provide financial assistance for backup electricity to those customers.  The largest utility in California, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., shut off power in a large area of Northern California in September amidst dangerous weather conditions, impacting tens of thousands of customers.  According to Scientific American, CalFire is also now working on 35 high-priority fire prevention projects, including clearing brush and dead trees near homes and roadways. The projects are reportedly exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires environmental impact analyses for such projects, due to a declared state of emergency by the governor in March.  “These 35 priority projects were identified by geographic areas with populations that are particularly at risk during natural disasters,” stated the governor’s office at the time.  The Walker Fire, California’s biggest fire to date in 2019, burned a total of 54,608 acres after starting on Sept. 4 in the Plumas National Forest. It cost an estimated $35.6 million to fight. There are at least a dozen major fires now burning across the state, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group InciWeb site.  “Good weather, a cooling trend and rain in the northern part of the state are helping us to make progress with these fires,” McLean explained.  With the need to respond to 225 fires per week and guide fire departments throughout the state, CalFire relies heavily on technology to gain maximum advantage over weather, brush, and other elements that make fires difficult to fight. Additional state funding has enabled CalFire to obtain 400 seasonal firefighters, 13 new engines and crews to run them and a new Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopter, the first of 12 replacement firefighting helicopters.  CalFire’s fire history maps — which are incorporating new technology that gives a more detailed view on small, isolated wind events and other weather factors — are being compiled by a team that updates various aspects of the fire after each incident, including causes, containment, evacuation zones and damage, according to McLean.  The maps combine detailed data about weather, topography, vegetation and the placement of roads and homes with fire hazard security zones, providing a more accurate look at the different zones in real time.  The maps are now being linked with apps that can be accessed on CalFire’s website. The website itself is being redesigned to incorporate new technology and make it easier to enable people to interact with the system.  “We always incorporate fire maps with historical data into our fire behavior prediction processes so that we can effectively deploy limited resources in the most efficient manner possible,” said Captain Tony Imbrenda, public information officer at the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which just received two Canadian firefighting aircraft known as “super scoopers.”  Los Angeles County has been leasing the aircraft from Quebec, Canada during each fire season for the last 26 years, reported the Los Angeles Times.  According to Imbrenda, “These aircraft will be used as part of a first alarm brush assignment if incident commanders feel that their capabilities will be appropriate for the given incident. Their 1600-gallon capacity and fast turnaround time help us to accomplish the goal of preventing small fires from growing into large incidents that extend into multiple operational periods.”  Imbrenda reported that Los Angeles County is placing two new Firehawk helicopters into service this season, bringing its air fleet to five Firehawks and five Bell 412s. He described it as “the largest, most robust initial air attack in the world.”  Supported by helicopters and fixed wing air tankers from Cal Fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department can “pour a lot of resources on fires while they are still small, greatly increasing overall efficiency,” he said.  As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Imbrenda believes that the timing of the equipment could not be better because of “offshore weather patterns” that “bring hotter, drier and windier conditions to the area, drying out fuels and increasing the probability of ignition.”  While the conditions that cause such fires have not yet materialized in 2019, authorities want to be ready. According to Imbrenda, “The weather is such that it could support that type of fire season, so whether or not it’s going to happen, it remains to be seen, but we always prepare for the worst.”

disaster, accident and emergency incident


theepochtimes--2019-11-06--Stanford Scientists Invent Fire Prevention Gel

California scientists have developed a weather-resistant gel that lasts for months and can be sprayed on vegetation to prevent deadly and destructive wildfires.  Unlike traditional fire retardants, the gel-like fluid is water and wind resistant, so it can be sprayed on grasses and other vegetation and remain effective for months at a time—long enough to last an entire wildfire season in California. It’s also non-toxic and biodegradable.  The gel was invented in a lab at Stanford University by assistant professor of materials science and engineering Eric Appel and a team of students following about three years of research and development. The substance contains the same safe, active ingredient found in the red-colored fire retardant that most Californians have seen cascading down from aircraft during fire season.  The groundbreaking discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could change how California—and maybe the world—approaches fire prevention.  “It gives people an opportunity for the first time to work on proactive fire prevention,” Appel told The Epoch Times.  Still, Appel wants to be clear about what the new gel can and can’t do.  “There’s a common misconception that we’ve created a magic retardant that can stop catastrophic fires as they’re burning, and that’s not true,” he said. “That’s just impossible.”  Raging wildfires spew burning embers high into the air. Carried in the wind, embers can travel up to a mile away. When they land, these red-hot firebrands can easily ignite other blazes, making fires extremely difficult to contain.  “They’re throwing embers a mile down the road, and every new ember can start a new fire,” Appel said. “So, the whole point of our work was to create a new tool to stop the fires from starting in the first place.”  Traditional fire retardants, such as inorganic salt ammonium polyphosphate (APP), stick to the surface of plants and bind to carbon, creating a layer that is fire resistant, according to the study.  When APP burns, it produces water which helps to extinguish the fire. But because APP itself doesn’t adhere well to vegetation in damp or windy conditions, it’s only useful for fighting fires in specific conditions and does not play a role in preventing them.  It’s not that APP doesn’t work; it’s that it doesn’t stick to the vegetation long enough, Appel said.  The Stanford scientists mixed APP with the new gel and discovered that the combined substance formed a fireproof prophylactic coating that sticks to plants much longer. About 50 percent more of the APP stuck to the vegetation when it was mixed with the new gel. Further tests showed that grass treated with the gel would not ignite, even after a rainstorm.  “So, we came up with a new class of performance additives that get more of the retardant onto the vegetation and keep it there for the duration of the peak [wildfire] season,” he said.  The additives consist of cellulose polymers that are derived from plants and used as viscosity modifiers (agents that determine how thick fluids are) in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical drugs, as well as colloidal silica, which is chemically identical to sand or silicon dioxide.  The new gel is safe to use and biodegrades without consuming oxygen, Appel said.  “We tested them with an environmental toxicologist here at Stanford and all of the components are already used in food and beverage manufacturing,” Appel said.  “We specifically investigated the toxicity to both mammalian cells and to bacteria of different sorts, so we were specifically evaluating the new performance enhancers that we were utilizing and we showed that they biodegrade slowly anaerobically. They don’t degrade aerobically but they also don’t inhibit aerobic degradation so that is actually something that we wanted from an environmental perspective.”  A rainstorm in Northern California about a month ago, just before the first major red flag warnings would have been enough to wash away traditional non-proactive fire retardants, which cannot withstand precipitation, heavy dew, fog, or even high winds.  “That’s why we designed the material to persist through all that kind of weathering and environmental exposure. Only when there is a major rainfall of two or three inches when the season is over—and nobody is worried about fires anymore—would the materials wash off into the soils and then biodegrade,” Appel said. “It stays on until we have a big rain.”  The research team is currently conducting tests with the California Department of Transportation and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).  “They are actually using it to pre-treat roadsides in a couple of high-risk areas in Southern California, in areas that are notorious for having many ignitions every year,” Appel said. And, so far, no fires have started in any of the areas that have been treated.  According to the study, about 84 per cent of the 300,624 wildfires in California over the last decade occurred in high-risk areas. About 75 percent were started on roadsides, and nine percent at the sites of power utility structures.  “The point is that if you can put a protective barrier over these areas, then you could stop the fires at their source,” Appel said. “We’re not talking about just drawing fire lines to combat an actively burning fire. What we’re trying to do is stop them before they start.”  The gel, recently branded as a product called Fortify, shows promise of commercial success with more than 50,000 gallons already sold.  The best way to apply the product is by using agricultural equipment to spray it on vegetation near high-risk areas. It could also be sprayed from planes or dropped from helicopter buckets, though that has not yet been tried, Appel said.  The field tests also found that cutting grass in high risk areas does little, if anything, to slow the spread of wildfires.  “We showed in the paper that mowed grass burns just as fast as unmowed grass, so even if you mow grass along the roadsides, it’s not preventing fires from starting,” Appel said.  Removing all the vegetation from roadsides doesn’t work either because it destabilizes the soil, triggering mudslides. Using the new gel, is the best of both worlds, because the vegetation stays in place.  “Just treating standing grass was completely effective in preventing ignitions whereas mowing or whatever else obviously wasn’t at all,” Appel said.  The idea to create the gel sprang from a casual conversation Appel had had with his brother-in-law, Jesse Acosta, who had worked as a fire prevention forester for the state of Hawaii, and is now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The two were talking about how wildfires often occur in the same problem areas, and they began to toss back and forth “what if” scenarios about how to prevent them.  The challenge stuck with him, setting the gears of his mind in motion. The more he thought about it, the more he began to connect the dots between the wildfire puzzle and his work at Stanford.  “My research lab is mostly focused on biomedical problems, and so we are—I guess you could call us—a drug delivery lab. We don’t make the active drug molecules. We don’t engineer new proteins or make new molecules, but we engineer materials that get those molecules where they need to be when they need to be there,” Appel said.  “One of our biggest research areas in in sustained or prolonged delivery so what we’re doing is developing technology that allows you to have a single injection once every six months instead of needing to take a pill or an injection every day. So, it encapsulates the drug and very slowly delivers it over a very long period of time.”  “You can see the connection. A lot of the engineering design criteria for this fire-retardant system is very similar to what is needed to keep a drug in the body for a long period of time, because you need to encapsulate the active ingredient and make sure the active ingredient still does what it is supposed to do but keep it where it needs to be,” Appel said.  Soon after, Appel set to work with grad students and postdocs in his lab to develop the new gel.  Anthony Yu, a fifth-year materials scientist grad student, and Hector Lopez Hernandez, a mechanical engineering postdoc, led most of the research and development.  “Those two together really figured out why these materials work together the way that they do and all of the nitty-gritty nerdy science stuff that’s in the actual publication,” said Appel, the study’s senior author.  “We don’t have a tool that’s comparable to this,” said Alan Peters, a CalFire division chief in San Luis Obispo who monitored some of the tests, in a statement. “It has the potential to definitely reduce the number of fires.”


drudgereport--2019-05-04--California Dispatches Goats to Prevent Wildfires

California Dispatches Goats to Prevent Wildfires...

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newsweek--2019-01-14--Californians Start Goat Fund Me Campaign in Effort to Bring Animal Farmers to City Prevent Wildfi

Californians Start 'Goat Fund Me' Campaign in Effort to Bring Animal Farmers to City, Prevent Wildfires

Officials in Nevada City, California—population 3,100—have launched a “Goat Fund Me” campaign in a bid to prevent deadly wildfires spreading in the small Gold Rush community, tucked away in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  The crowdfunding initiative is seeking $30,000 for a controlled, or “prescriptive,” grazing program which will involve the deployment of a small army of goats and sheep on city land. The idea is that the animals will eat overgrown vegetation, minimizing the amount of flammable material.  “There is little need to stress how important it is to the safety and wellbeing of Nevada City citizens and neighboring residents that we reduce the fire load in our surrounding forests and neighborhoods,” the project's GoFundMe page states. “The unprecedented fires in California, particularly in Paradise, have hit all too close to home and have become the ultimate Cautionary Tale.”  “Our city staff, fire and police departments, as well as city council members realize how important it is that we take proactive steps NOW,” the statement continued. “This is why we have been working for weeks with local ranchers to launch a goat/sheep prescriptive grazing on city-owned land including the over 450 acres of city-owned greenbelt.”  Time is of the essence for city officials, who created the fundraiser because local goat and sheep ranchers are only available in the city on a large scale this winter (the herds have been rented out for the rest of next year,) and it usually takes weeks or months to secure funding for this type of project through traditional means.  The project will use goats to eat bushes, trees and shrubs, while the sheep will feed on grass. According to the GoFundMe page, prescriptive grazing can cost anywhere between $500 and $1,000 per acre, which is a relatively affordable way to manage overgrown vegetation. Furthermore, a herd of 200 goats can clear about acre per day.  The campaign was launched last month by Nevada City Vice Mayor Reinette Senum and has now raised nearly $12,000. The funds will go directly to the city to be overseen by financial director Loree McCay.  Senum said the community—which lies around 47 miles southeast of the town of Paradise that was destroyed in November by the deadly Camp Fire—is particularly vulnerable to wildfires.  “We’re an outdoorsy community, she told the Los Angeles Times. “We spend a lot of time in nature and we’re packed with brush that turns into tinder that needs to be cleared. “Why not do something—and as soon as we can?  If we’re not proactive, if we don’t help ourselves, no one else is going to step up.”  “These goats, they’re easy on the land, they’ve got little hooves and have a low impact compared to heavy machinery," Senum said.


npr--2019-02-07--Millions Could Lose Power Under PGEs Plan To Prevent Wildfires

Millions Could Lose Power Under PG&E's Plan To Prevent Wildfires  Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It's an expansion of the company's previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers.  Several power companies submitted their required "wildfire mitigation plans" to California regulators this week. But PG&E's plan may be especially consequential, given that its power lines have been blamed for several northern California fires over the past few years. The company filed for bankruptcy last month in the wake of billions of dollars in potential liability for two years of wildfires.  The company told the state's public utilities commission that to address wildfire risk, "shutting off power will likely be necessary and may need to be performed more frequently due to the extreme weather events and dry vegetation conditions."  "We understand the urgency of the situation, that lives could be at stake and that we need to move more quickly," the company said.  In 2018, the company's "public safety power shutoff" program affected up to 570,000 customers. This year, the company plans to include its entire 5.4 million electric customer base in the shutoff program. PG&E said it would try to alert customers within 48 hours of a power shutoff.  PG&E will only turn off power "as a last resort," a company official told The San Francisco Chronicle. And the company stressed it wouldn't consider shutting off power to all customers at once, the Chronicle reported.  PG&E also plans to trim or remove an additional 375,000 trees in 2019, to clear leaves and branches from around distribution lines. And it plans to conduct many more "enhanced" inspections of distribution poles and transmission structures, it said.  The California Public Utilities Commission will need to review and approve the proposal. PG&E cautioned that its bankruptcy could impact the company's ability to successfully implement its plan.  Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group, told the Chronicle that PG&E's plan is a sign of mismanagement of the power grid and failure to properly keep trees trimmed. "We're paying them to keep the power on," Toney said. "Now we're paying them to shut us off. There's an irony in that."  Of the seven other utilities that submitted plans to regulators, "none included the significant reforms PG&E was proposing," the Associated Press aid.


theblaze--2019-05-03--Californians deploy goats to help prevent wildfires

'We're trying to be practical and strategic'


theirishtimes--2019-02-14--What is California doing to prevent the next major wildfire

What is California doing to prevent the next major wildfire?

Douglas Mac Donald has lived in the Alpine Oaks Estate mobile home park for the past 10 years. At about 11am on July 6th last year, in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave, the smell of smoke began seeping into his home 30 minutes east of San Diego.  “I looked outside and saw black smoke. It [the wildfire] had got to the ranch behind us,” he says. “I started banging on [neighbours’] doors. We had about five minutes to get out.” A scrub-covered hill directly behind the ranch was alight with windswept flames. Mac Donald (67) and his wife quickly jumped in their car and drove to a supermarket car park several miles away, where they took refuge and watched the fire spread. “We’re talking about all this happening in 15 or 20 minutes,” he says.  Dubbed the West Fire, Mac Donald estimates the blaze reduced nine neighbouring mobile homes to ash; his own was spared. The flames moved so fast that the fire didn’t burn all the vegetation in its path, instead skipping less flammable trees and foliage. Within a few hours, the flames spread across Alpine, destroying or damaging 49 homes, dozens of barns and sheds and scorching 505 acres.  Six months on, the adjacent hill and trees around the mobile home park are still blackened. The stench of charred roadside vegetation lingers. Along Alpine boulevard are signs of the fire’s path jumping back and forth across the tarmac road.  “We were out of our house for 26 days before we were allowed move back in,” says MacDonald. “When you live in California you live with fires.”  November’s devastating Camp and Woolsey fires in north and central California resulted in dozens of deaths and cost tens of millions of dollars in property damage, bringing into sharp focus the huge task facing California and how it should deal with the growing wildfire threat.  The southern reaches of California are at considerable risk, too. San Diego’s 88,000 wildfire at-risk structures is the highest number in the state outside of Los Angeles. Until December 2017, the Cedar Fire, which broke out 25km north of Alpine in 2003, was the largest in the state’s history and left a searing mark in the collective consciousness of San Diego residents.  More recently, a small canyon fire last March in the central University Heights district hit home for many that with the right conditions, wildfire can strike almost anywhere. Experts say the city of 1.42 million people is particularly susceptible to urban fires due to the hilly, vertical topography of many of its suburban districts; oftentimes in such areas burning embers need only fall downwards to reach an adjacent home.  In the absence of sufficient autumn rainfall, Santa Ana winds – the so-called “fire weather” that fuelled such damage in the towns of Paradise and Malibu last autumn – can contribute to blaze-friendly conditions in southern California and western Mexico throughout winter until February. What’s more, according to a 2016 study, when wildfire intervals are shorter than 10 to 20 years, native flora is often replaced with weeds and grasses that are more flammable. All this is worsened by the fact that bark beetles are thought to have attacked and killed 129 million drought-stricken trees in California, turning them into dry lumber.  To help counter these threats, San Diego’s latest development blueprint has fire prevention as a centrepiece issue. Homeowners are encouraged to build fire breaks and defensible space around their homes, and at-risk properties are individually inspected by fire agents. Across San Diego, 35 fire-safety councils have been involved in offering free smoke alarms and installations to seniors and residents in high-risk areas through a partnership with the Red Cross, the Burn Institute, San Diego County Fire and the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County. The Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index generates six-day forecasts and threat ratings for four heavily-population California regions, including San Diego.  Traditional fire prevention measures have focused on controlled vegetation burning or “prescribed fires”. Last year, the California’s department of forestry and fire protection vowed to triple the number of prescribed fires it conducts on state-controlled land. But some argue it’s a method that’s costly and ineffective.  A huge range of conditions must first be met before one can be signed off, including: positive environmental impact assessments, correct wind speed and temperature variations, local air-quality levels and the availability of firefighters. They are also unpopular: residents are rarely happy to have to deal with the associated smoke, while conservationists fear they hurt wildlife unnecessarily.  With suburban communities and the wilderness increasingly entwined as San Diego’s population expands ever deeper into the eastern hills, efforts to counter the fire threat have fuelled much experimentation and investigation.  Researchers at UC Berkeley and elsewhere generated 20-year simulated models to try to predict where local municipalities should purchase property that could be left as fallow, conservation land in order to reduce the likelihood of wildfires coming in contact with people.  “Integrating private-land conservation decision-making with wildfire risk reduction is potentially a new and innovative approach to more cost-effective conservation planning,” the resulting research, published in Landscape and Urban Planning in 2017, found. “Typically, what we’ve seen is that areas with homes closer together are less likely to burn,” says Prof Van Butsic, a co-author of the report.  However, the modelling also found that inexpensive land parcels, the very property that municipalities and conservationist land trusts can afford to buy, are often found where the threat of fire is low. Above all, the modelling found that purchasing land with the goal of putting as much distance as possible between people and the flames needs to be highly strategic.  For many Californians, their concerns lie elsewhere. For the wealthy, the demand for large residential lots adorned with mature trees and other easy-burning foliage remains as strong as ever. For others, the cost of everyday life means that conservation is often little more than a passing concern. In January, Californians were angered by proposals from utility provider Pacific Gas and Electric Company to introduce a $10 monthly rate hike to help it pay for improved wildfire monitoring systems. By January 29th, however, the company had declared bankruptcy and now faces a pending legal maelstrom associated with November’s wildfires in Paradise and Malibu.  On top of that, the fact that the federal government owns almost 60 per cent of the forestland that covers a third of California means that putting in place a state-level plan to combat wildfires is additionally complicated. Conservationists and fire-control authorities have historically been on opposing sides of the debate around how to stop wildfires. The latter regularly favours using controlled burnings while environmentalists oppose that in part because San Diego county is home to more threatened and endangered species than any other county in the continental United States.  Monitoring groups say the broader challenges are varied. “Funding for fire hazard reduction activities such as creating defensible space, chipping and the removal of hazardous fuel materials such as dead and dying trees,” is the biggest street-level issue says Sheryl Landrum, vice-president of the fire safe council of San Diego county.  Some problems emerge months, even years, after a fire strikes. When Pacific storms soaked California in January, places afflicted by last autumn’s wildfires quickly became landslide-threat zones, which resulted in mass evacuations.  What’s clear is that just as the debate over how to keep wildfires at bay informed by science goes on, so too do the many ways they can damage lives.


thepoliticalinsider--2019-06-13--Trump Proposes Actions To Help Prevent Catastrophic Forest Fires

Michael Bastasch on June 12, 2019  The Trump administration proposed changes to a landmark environmental law that officials say would cut through unnecessary red tape hampering federal forest management.  These rule changes would help officials better manage forests and prevent catastrophic wildfires, according to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).  “We have pored over 10 years of environmental data and have found that in many cases, we do redundant analyses, slowing down important work to protect communities, livelihoods and resources,” USFS Chief Vicki Christiansen said in a [statement](https://www.fs.fed.us/news/releases/usda-proposes-bold-moves- improve-forests-management-grasslands) Wednesday.  President Donald Trump [took executive actions](https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/24/trump-catastrophic-forest-fires- logging/) to encourage more active management of federally controlled forests, including increased logging, in the wake of 2018’s devastating California wildfires.  The 2018 farm bill also contained provisions allowing foresters to [more quickly remove dead trees and debris](https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/20 /trump-farm-bill-wildfires/) from USFS-managed regions. Trump signed that $867 billion bill in December.  USFS proposed Wednesday exempting more activities, called “categorical exclusions,” from time-consuming environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was enacted in 1970.  Categorical exclusions exempt certain activities from lengthy NEPA reviews if USFS officials determined said activity would have no significant environmental impact. USFS wants to expand categorical exclusions to keep foresters from getting bogged down in bureaucracy and litigation.  “We now have an opportunity to use that information to our advantage, and we want to hear from the people we serve to improve these proposed updates,” Christiansen said.  For example, officials would be able to more quickly relocate campsites to improve safety, USFS said. Also, USFS officials could use NEPA rule changes to improve infrastructure, like forest roads, necessary to fight wildfires.  “Originally intended as a tool for environmental protection, NEPA has been hijacked by serial litigants and wielded as a means of obstruction,” Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, chairman of the Western Caucus, said in a statement.  Environmental assessments take 687 days to complete on average, USFS said, while determining a categorical exclusion takes about 206 days. USFS last updated its NEPA regulations in 2008.  NEPA reviews are also subject to [litigation from environmental groups](https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/14/ryan-zinke-wildfire-global- warming/). Environmentalists generally oppose logging and other forest management techniques.  A 2014 [study](http://forestpolicypub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Twenty- Years-of-Forest-Service-Land-Management-Litigation-JoF-Jan.-2014.pdf) on environmental litigation published in the Journal of Forestry found “[v]egetative management, or logging projects” represented “nearly three times more cases than any other type of management activity.”  The Forest Service was found more likely to lose cases “where plaintiffs advocated for less resource use,” particularly in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where the agency won less than half its cases.  “The new rule will allow for increased active forest management and help prevent catastrophic wildfires,” Gosar said.  _[Follow Michael on Twitter](https://twitter.com/MikeBastasch)_


theseattletimes--2019-05-31--California approves wide power outages to prevent wildfires

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators on Thursday approved allowing utilities to cut off electricity to possibly hundreds of thousands of customers to avoid catastrophic wildfires like the one sparked by power lines last year that killed 85 people and largely destroyed the city of Paradise.  Utilities’ liability can reach billions of dollars, and after several years of devastating wildfires, they asked regulators to allow them to pull the plug when fire risk is extremely high. That’s mainly during periods of excessive winds and low humidity when vegetation is dried out and can easily ignite.  The California Public Utilities Commission gave the green light but said utilities must do a better job educating and notifying the public, particularly those with disabilities and others who are vulnerable, and ramp up preventive efforts, such as clearing brush and installing fire-resistant poles.  The plans could inconvenience hundreds of thousands of customers while endangering some who depend on electricity to keep them alive, like 56-year-old Kallithea Miller.  Although she lives far from wildfire danger near a shopping mall in Stockton, south of Sacramento, she relies on a refrigerator to cool her insulin and a machine to keep her breathing at night.  “I could die in my sleep,” she said. “It’s scaring the hell out of me.”  The precautionary outages could mean multiday blackouts for cities as large as San Francisco and San Jose, Northern California’s major power provider warned in a recent filing with the utilities commission.  Pacific Gas & Electric anticipates cutting the power only in “truly extreme fire danger weather” while recognizing that there “are safety risks on both sides of this issue,” vice president Aaron Johnson said.  PG&E initially planned to de-energize power lines in at-risk rural areas but has since expanded its plans to include high-voltage transmission lines like the one that sparked the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century. The blaze last November killed 85 people while wiping out nearly 15,000 homes in and around Paradise.  “I know it inconveniences people, but it’s a small price to pay for not having the kind of devastation that we had in Paradise,” Mayor Jody Jones said. “Everyone I know in Paradise knew that PG&E might cut the power off. I didn’t see that as a problem. The problem was that they didn’t actually shut it off.”  Utility equipment has been blamed for many of California’s most destructive and deadly wildfires in recent years.  Other major California utilities have similar plans that commissioners unanimously approved Thursday, also warning that outages could extend into cities under some conditions.  “We’re worried about it because we could see people’s power shut off not for a day or two but potentially a week,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said as he recently called for California to spend $75 million to help communities prepare. “This is high winds, severe weather, turn off the electricity so it doesn’t ignite a fire. It’s a good thing — unless you’re impacted.”  California’s three largest investor-owned utilities serve more than 150,000 customers who rely on life-support equipment, many of whom are considered low income, state Sen. Bill Dodd said. The Democrat from Napa wants utilities to provide backup electricity or financial assistance so high-risk customers can buy generators or batteries.  The elderly, people with disabilities and language barriers, and poorer residents in remote areas with limited transportation or communication are also at greater risk. Cellphone networks can fail, computers and internet phone lines won’t work, traffic signals go dark and there can be problems with communication systems, water treatment facilities and emergency services.  Utility representatives said they are doing their best to work with emergency responders and community groups to warn vulnerable customers, as the Public Utilities Commission required.  “What the PUC can do is basically lay out the expectations for what the utilities need to do. Where the rubber meets the road is how the utilities operationalize, particularly on the notification,” said Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network.  The option to pull the plug isn’t new, though state officials expect it to be used much more frequently.  San Diego Gas & Electric won permission to cut off power during high-risk conditions after its equipment ignited three big fires in 2007. State regulators expanded the shut-off requirements to other investor-owned utilities last year, after devastating fires in 2017.  Once power is shut off, the utilities must inspect every de-energized line before they restore power, a process that can keep the lights out for days even after conditions improve.  Both PG&E and Southern California Edison used their new authority last fall, with many residents and local officials upset that stores, businesses and schools had to close for lack of electricity.  Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning said his city of 5,200 residents in the Napa Valley was the first to experience a PG&E power outage, “so we learned firsthand how that goes — not well.”  He cited poor communication, which utility representatives said they are working to improve, but praised PG&E for now trying to keep makeshift power flowing to key areas of town in the next outage.  “They’re damned if they do, and damned if they don’t,” Canning said. “There’s only so much we can do as a city to protect you. Individual residents have to be prepared.”  Miller said her backup plan is a cat named Mojo who instinctively paws at her face whenever she stops breathing.  “It puts us in a dangerous situation and a stressful situation,” she said. “If they have a blackout that lasts for five days, I’m screwed.”


sottnet--2019-09-24--US prevent plantings in 2019 at 20 million acres more than double the previous record

US prevent plantings in 2019 at 20 million acres, more than double the previous record

Historic flooding in the early spring and record rainfall across portions of the Corn Belt led many in the industry to expect the failure to plant an insured crop , to reach record highs in 2019, and the latest crop report bears that out. Prevented planting payments provide crop insurance benefits to policyholders to compensate for pre-planting costs incurred in preparation for planting the crop. For some farmers, these indemnity payments may exceed the economic returns associated with a late-planted and poor-yielding crop.The previous prevent plantings record, set in 2011, was just shy of 10 million acres for the eight principle crops ( Prevent Planting Implications for 2017 ). Recently released Farm Service Agency crop acreage data revealed that as of late AugustPrevented planting across all major crops was the highest in South Dakota at 3.9 million acres. Following South Dakota was Ohio at 1.6 million acres and Illinois at 1.5 million acres. Prevent plant acreage exceed 1 million acres in six states, across which prevent plantings totaled nearly 11 million acres, more than 50% of all filings in 2019. Figure 1 highlights total prevent plantings by state as of August 22. These totals are preliminary as FSA will continue to update crop acreage data through January 2020. Totals will likely increase but are not expected to increase substantially.At the county level, prevent plantings were the highest across portions of eastern South Dakota, northwest Ohio, northeast Illinois, southwest Minnesota and along the Mississippi. More than 200 counties had more than 25,000 acres in prevent plant. Of those counties, more than 80 had more than 50,000 prevent plant acres and 17 counties had more than 100,000 acres in prevent plant. Figure 2 details preliminary county-level prevent plant acreage.The previous record for corn prevent plants was set in 2013 when 3.6 million acres were prevented from being planted. Over the last decade the average prevent plantings was 1.8 million acres. In 2019, corn acres prevented from being planted soared past the previous record by nearly 8 million acres to reach a new record of 11.4 million acres, 215% higher than the previous record. South Dakota led the nation with more than 2.9 million prevent plant corn acres and was followed by Illinois and Minnesota at more than 1 million acres each. Figure 3 highlights preliminary state-level corn prevent plantings in 2019 and Figure 4 identifies county-level corn prevent plantings.For soybeans, the previous record for prevent plantings was set in 2015 when 2.2 million acres were unplanted. Over the last decade prevent plantings have averaged just over 950,000 acres. In 2019, soybean prevent plantings totaled a record-high 4.5 million acres, 99% higher than the previous record. As it did with corn, South Dakota led the nation for the most soybean prevent plantings at 867 thousand acres, followed by Ohio at 628 thousand acres. Figure 5 highlights preliminary state-level soybean prevent plantings in 2019 and Figure 6 identifies county-level soybean prevent plantings.In many counties across the U.S. prevent plantings exceed 25% of total acreage, Figure 7. The concentrations were in South Dakota, along the Great Lakes, throughout Missouri and down the Mississippi River into Texas.To assist farmers who were unable to plant an insurable crop, not only does USDA's Risk Management Agency provide crop insurance benefits, but the department also provided an opportunity for farmers to plant a cover crop on these acres and not lose crop insurance benefits and also qualify for trade assistance payments of $15 per acre. Of the 20 million acres of prevent plant, more than 4 million acres have currently been planted to a cover crop, Figure 8.


prisonplanet--2019-03-25--200 Million People At Risk National Weather Service Warns Apocalyptic Midwest Floods Are A Preview

200 Million People At Risk: National Weather Service Warns Apocalyptic Midwest Floods Are “A Preview Of What We Expect Throughout The Rest Of The Spring”

The flooding that just struck the middle part of the country was the worst blow to U.S. farmers in decades, but now the National Weather Service is telling us that it was just “a preview of what we expect throughout the rest of the spring”.  Can that possibly be true?  After the immense devastation that we have already witnessed, how much worse can the flooding possibly get?  Already we have seen thousands of homes and farms be completely destroyed, and we are being told that the total economic damage is in the billions of dollars.  Sadly, the truth is that a lot worse is still yet to come.  Thanks to a very snowy winter, a massive amount of snow is going to melt during the next several weeks, and that alone would produce tremendous flooding.  But on top of all of that melting snow, forecasters are telling us that it will be a very rainy spring.  In fact, the Weather Channel is warning that there will be “above-average precipitation across much of the Lower 48” over the next three months, and one meteorologist is forecasting that it is “not looking like we are going to see any dry stretches anytime soon”.  And this is on top of all of the very heavy rainfall that has been falling in recent weeks.  At this point, the Mississippi River basin has already gotten “three times as much rainfall as in a normal year”.  Even without any additional flooding, U.S. food production would be way down this year.  The recent flooding is going to keep thousands of farmers from planting crops on time, and thousands of others are not going to be able to use their fields at all.  But when you factor in what is going to happen over the next three months, we are talking about an agricultural disaster of unprecedented magnitude in modern American history.  At this moment, some areas in the Upper Midwest still have “more than 20 inches of snow” on the ground…  All of that water has to go somewhere, and authorities are warning that 200 million people are at risk…  A lot of people out there seem to think that the flooding will just be isolated to the major rivers, but that is simply not true.  Yes, all-time flooding records will continue to be shattered along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, but the National Weather Service is telling us that nearly “the entire eastern two-thirds of the nation” will be dealing with flooding this spring…  Almost the entire eastern two-thirds of the nation should see flooding this spring, National Weather Service deputy director Mary Erickson said at a news conference on Thursday. Some 25 states are forecast to see “moderate” to “major” flooding, the weather service said. The Midwest floods are “a preview of what we expect throughout the rest of the spring,” she said. “The flooding this year could be worse than what we have seen in previous years … even worse than the historic floods we saw in 1993 and 2011,” Erickson added.  Are you starting to get the picture?  This is the worst case scenario for U.S. flooding that surpasses all previous worst case scenarios.  Thousands more farms will be destroyed.  Billions of dollars worth of additional damage will be done to our agricultural industry.  Food production is going to come up way short, and we are all going to experience tremendous pain at the supermarket as food prices skyrocket.  If you live in any of the following areas, you need to have your emergency plan ready, because things are about to get really, really bad…  U.S. farmers have already lost millions upon millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans to the flooding that has already happened.  As I have repeatedly stressed, our planet is changing, weather patterns are becoming more severe, and even if they understood what is happening there is absolutely nothing that the radical environmentalists can do to stop it.  Just look at what is happening on the other side of the world.  Australia was just hit by a “severe category 3 cyclone”, and this came exactly one day after it was hit by a category 4 cyclone…  We are witnessing things that we have never seen before, and “the new normal” is just going to keep getting stranger and stranger.  If you live anywhere in the middle portion of the country, please take this flooding very seriously.  Authorities are using apocalyptic language to describe this crisis, and they are not exaggerating the potential threat one bit.  This article was posted: Monday, March 25, 2019 at 6:12 am


theindependent--2019-12-21--UK weather news - live: More than 100 flood warnings issued as millions expected to travel for Chris

UK weather news - live: More than 100 flood warnings issued as millions expected to travel for Christmas

More than 100 flood warnings have been put in place across the UK today as millions are expected to travel for Christmas.  Drivers have been warned to expect long tailbacks and delays on busy roads, such as the M1, M5, M6 and M25, while rail passengers have been advised to plan ahead due to engineering works and strikes.  On Friday, many travellers suffered chaos on one of the busiest days of the winter after the London-Gatwick-Brighton main railway line was closed near Gatwick airport due to flooding.  Please allow a moment for our live blog to load


theirishtimes--2019-10-03--Storm Lorenzo 400km off coast as high winds flooding expected

Storm Lorenzo 400km off coast as high winds, flooding expected

Storm Lorenzo some 400km of the west coast as the country prepares for storm-force winds, flooding and high tides before it makes landfall on Thursday evening.  “#StormLorenzo has passed buoy M6, approximately 400 km off the west coast of Ireland, with mean wind speeds of 67km/h gusting 102 km/h,” Met Éireann said in a tweet at about midday. (Follow live updates here)  The National Emergency Coordination Group is meeting this morning to review the developing situation.  The effects of the approaching storm started to take affect on Thursday morning in the west and the weather system is expected to move across Ireland over the course of the day and evening.  The storm, originating from the most northern and easterly hurricane on record, was “rapidly approaching” western Europe and “in particular Ireland”, Met Éireann said . The likelihood of landfall was “high probability”, it said.  Met Éireann head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack told The Irish Times on Thursday morning heavy rainfall is still expected in most parts of the country, but Munster is likely to stay dry.  She said Storm Lorenzo is now “100 per cent crossing Ireland”, but the severity of the winds may not be as bad as was originally feared.  However, she cautioned that there is still the prospect of coastal flooding and structural damage in many places.  “Rivers are still high and the ground is still saturated so there is the risk of some coastal flooding in the west and near some rivers,” she said.  An orange weather alert is in place for counties Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway and Mayo from 6pm on Thursday to 6am on Friday. Cork was removed from the orange alert area by forecasters on Thursday morning while forecast wind gusts were reduced from 130km/h to 120km/h.  A yellow wind alert is in place for the rest of the country from 9am on Thursday to 6am on Friday with gusts of 100km/h expected in most places.  A rainfall warning for Connacht, Leinster, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal from 9am on Thursday until 6am on Friday.  Ms Cusack has advised the public to be prepared for some wet and windy weather, with a risk of some fallen trees and coastal flooding and perhaps some damage along the west coast.  “The storm is approaching, the pressure is falling rapidly. It looks as if it won’t be as bad as it could be given its tropical origin.  “But we still expect significant winds on the west coast with a risk of some coastal flooding and damage, very high waves coinciding with low pressure and also high tides,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.  “Because the ground is saturated, the ground is very wet so the trees are in full leaf, and that’s why we’re giving more impacts from this level of winds than if the storm were happening in January.  “There is certainly a high risk of trees down.”  Storm Lorenzo “is a different beast from Ophelia,” she said. “Of course every storm is different, both were hurricanes. Lorenzo lost its hurricane status 1,000 kms from the south west of Ireland yesterday afternoon, while Ophelia remained a hurricane very close to Ireland, within 500kms.”  A combination of high tide, very low atmospheric pressure and high winds gusting at up to 120km/h are likely to lead to flooding, particularly around the Shannon estuary area. Further flooding in parts of the midwest and midlands is possible.  Storm force 10 winds will be accompanied by torrential rain, especially in western counties, with 50mm expected to fall in less than 18 hours  Local authorities have activated their crisis management teams and local co-ordination groups. Drains and gullies have been cleared by the teams and sandbags have been prepared.  The Irish Coast Guard has appealed to the public to stay away from coastal areas during this period.  “Stay back, stay high and stay dry,” it said.  Schools in orange arert counties are being advised to “err on the side of caution” and close on Friday if they feel there is a risk to students from the impact of the storm.  The National Emergency Co-ordination Group issued a statement on Wednesday warning of the risk posed by trees in high-wind events.  “The most widespread and potentially dangerous consequence of high wind is the risk of trees breaking/falling, possibly bringing down live power lines, posing a danger to motorists and pedestrians in the vicinity,” it said.  The Health and Safety Authority has urged workers to pay particular attention to the risk posed by trees as the storm passed on Thursday evening.  “Many workers particularly those involved in storm repair, construction, farming and transportation will be facing increased hazards.  “Unfortunately, two people lost their lives during Storm Ophelia while cutting and clearing windblown trees. The HSA has issued a warning to anyone planning on using a chainsaw to cut down fallen trees,” it said in a statement.  The Health Service Executive has warned those with private wells or who are on shared water schemes to note that during severe weather events their water supply may become restricted or reduced.  In Galway, Salthill Road and the Seapoint Promenade will be closed from 5pm on Thursday for the duration of the storm, the city council has said.  Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed urged farmers to wait until the storm had abated before checking on animals.  “Priority is obviously the safety of people and I would reiterate the advice that care should be taken,” he said.


themoscowtimes--2019-09-16--Authorities Failed to Prevent Repeat of Historic 2013 Floods in Far East Russia Residents Say

Authorities Failed to Prevent Repeat of ‘Historic’ 2013 Floods in Far East Russia, Residents Say

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and more than 100,000 were affected overall in the mid-2013 flash flooding across five Russian regions that meteorologists said was the worst in 120 years. This month, the Amur River has reached dangerous levels and flooded hundreds of homes months after heavy floods paralyzed the Pacific city of Vladivostok and the Irkutsk region in Siberia.  Residents of three Far East Russian regions are accusing the authorities of failing to improve flood control systems in the six years since the area was hit with biggest floods in more than a century, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper has reported.  Authorities in the Amur region, the Khabarovsk region and the Jewish autonomous region have failed to rebuild levees or reopen storm drains since the 2013 floods, Novaya Gazeta cited residents and local officials as saying Friday.  “[The 2013 relief effort volunteers are] outraged because six years was enough to fix everything. Nothing’s been fully completed. That causes a serious negative [reaction] among people,” said Alexei Larin, a journalist based in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Khabarovsk region.  The Amur River in Komsomolsk-on-Amur has reached a peak of 8 meters and 29 centimeters, Novaya Gazeta reported, and forecasters predict the water will recede at a rate of 5 centimeters per day until mid-October. Emergency officials warn that the Amur River’s water levels there could still rise after receding late last week.  Oleg Belozerov, a deputy in the urban settlement of Nikolayevka, said he had asked the governor of the Jewish autonomous district last year to check the condition of local storm drains.  “The governor sent my letter back to our district and the district sent it to the head of our village. Nothing’s been done and now we're flooded,” Belozerov told Novaya Gazeta.  President Vladimir Putin plans to visit the Emergency Situations Ministry crisis center to discuss flood relief efforts in Far East Russia, the Kremlin said Monday.


fortune--2019-10-04--Ukraine is Auditing Cases on Biden and Burisma Gas Company

Ukraine is ‘Auditing’ Cases on Biden and Burisma Gas Company

President Trump Keeps Tweeting About Mitt Romney—and Even Called for His Impeachment


sputnik--2019-01-08--Czech Agencies Companies to Face Audit Over Use of Huawei Products - Babis

Czech Agencies, Companies to Face Audit Over Use of Huawei Products - Babis

"On Monday, the government instructed the relevant competent agencies to analyze risks related to the use of computer software of Chinese company Huawei, as well as those of ZTE. The audit will concern about 160 leading agencies, firms and enterprises, both public and private, with whom the NCISA will be closely cooperating", Babis said at a press conference.  He specified that the list of those subjected to the audit will include "power plants, power and water supply systems, telecommunications and information systems, medical facilities and the like".  READ MORE: India Believes West is Not Altruistic About China's Huawei — Official  The United States and several other countries have also raised security questions with regard to the Chinese telecommunications giants. The company, however, refuted the allegations. In particular, in response to NCISA claims, the representative of Huawei in the Czech Republic, Magda Teresa Partyka, said that there were no laws in China that would force Huawei or any other company to build so-called back doors into their products.


thedailycaller--2019-07-05--Facebook Reveals Extent Of Companys Audit Into Accusations Of Anti-Conservative Bias

Facebook Reveals Extent Of Company’s Audit Into Accusations Of Anti-Conservative Bias

Facebook is slowly revealing the extent of former Republican Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s audit into accusations that the company discriminates against conservatives.  Kyl has talked to more than 130 of the country’s top conservative groups to determine how Facebook’s policies are affecting them, company spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Republican’s audit was slowed after he was appointed to serve out the remainder of former Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s term.  “The team is now meeting with people from Facebook’s policy and product teams to gain a better understanding of Facebook’s internal and external policies as well as our products and services,” Stone added. Kyl’s committee has not yet released a public report, nor has it made any recommendations.  Kyl’s office has not responded to the DCNF’s request for comment.  Facebook’s apparent foot-dragging on publishing the results of the audit comes as President Donald Trump and other conservatives consider whether big tech needs more scrutiny. (RELATED: Facebook Stays Mum On Accusations Of Conservative Bias As Trump Bears Down)  The audit is more than a year in the making. A Facebook representative told Politico reporters in 2018 that the company would complete the audit and publish findings “early next year.” Meanwhile, the company published an update on June 30 to a parallel civil rights audit, which contained some eye-brow raising recommendations.  Auditors with more than 90 civil rights groups suggested Facebook’s current ban of explicit white nationalism should be expanded to include content that supports the ideology even if the term white nationalism is not used. Facebook banned explicit expressions of white nationalism in March, marking a significant change in policy.  Trump and Republican lawmakers are fleshing out ways to reign in Facebook, Google and Twitter before they become too big to regulate. The president invited a slew of conservative activists to the White House to discuss how social media companies are affecting their livelihoods.  PragerU, the Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Center (MRC) were among a handful of groups invited to the July 11 social media summit. PragerU previously filed suit against Google, YouTube’s parent company, in federal court, claiming the Silicon Valley giant’s restrictions on its content violates California law governing freedom of speech.  That suit lost at the district level and is currently pending on appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Brent Bozell, the co-founder of MRC, for his part, previously asked the Department of Justice to investigate Facebook, Google and Twitter.  “I applaud the DOJ for heeding our call. Online giants Google, Facebook and Twitter wield unprecedented power to shape public opinion and even directly influence elections,” Bozell said in June following reports suggesting the DOJ is considering ways to open antitrust probes against Google.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


theindependent--2019-04-02--Big Four accountancy firms should be broken up to restore faith in company audits say MPs

Big Four accountancy firms should be broken up to restore faith in company audits, say MPs

The big four accountancy firms should be broken up to improve the auditing of public companies in the wake of high-profile collapses like Carillion and BHS, MPs have argued.  The House of Commons Business Committee told the competition watchdog to aim for a “full structural break-up” of PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY after the firms have been accused of missing signs of distress at several large companies.  In a hard-hitting report the Business Committee said conflicts of interest should be tackled by splitting the big four up into audit firms that check companies’ books and consultancy firms that provide advice on other areas.  The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to release its final recommendations on reforming the audit market shortly. It’s initial assessment recommended a functional split between accountants’ auditing and consultancy arms but the MPs recommendations go further.  Committee chairwoman Rachel Reeves said: "For the big firms, audits seem too often to be the route to milking the cash-cow of consultancy business.  "The client relationship, and the conflicts of interest which abound, undermine the professional scepticism needed to deliver reliable, high-quality audits. Splitting audit from non-audit business would be a big step to boosting the culture of challenge needed to deliver high-quality audits.  "We must not wait for the next corporate collapse. Government and regulators need to get on and legislate to deliver these reforms and ensure that audits deliver what businesses, investors, pension-holders and the public expect."  Auditors have come in for criticism after a number of large companies have gone bust without the accountants who checked their books highlighting problems.  The business committee also raised questions about the dominance of the big four which check the books of 97 per cent of Britain’s largest listed firms.  The Business Committee recommends using joint audits for the most complicated cases. This would mean multiple accountants sharing work on a single company’s accounts.  In addition, it wants to reduce the number of consecutive years a company can stay with the same auditor from 20 years to seven. After this there would be a cooling-off period of three years during which the auditor cannot offer consultancy services to the client.  Some auditors have been accused of developing “cosy” relationships with certain clients that hampered their ability to properly scrutinise the management’s accounts.  The committee also took aim at Britain’s fifth-largest accountancy firm Grant Thornton which audited cake chain Patisserie Valerie.  Chief executive David Dunckley informed the Business Committee that it was not part of Grant Thornton’s role to look for fraud during its audit of the company.  A £40m hole in Patisserie Valerie’s accounts was subsequently uncovered by forensic accountancy work carried out by a different firm.  Ms Reeves said that “change in the audit market is long overdue”.  "The 'Big Four's' dominance has fostered a precarious market which shuts out challengers and delivers audits which investors and the public cannot rely on.  "Our report proposes a range of measures to boost competition, improve the audit product, and ensure that the UK continues to be a world leader in corporate governance."  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.  At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.


thetelegraph--2019-10-04--Ukraine prosecutor to audit old cases involving gas company that employed Joe Bidens son

Ukraine prosecutor to audit old cases involving gas company that employed Joe Biden's son

Ukraine's new prosecutor general has said he is reviewing cases involving the gas company where Joe Biden's son sat on the board following president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's promises to Donald Trump that the prosecutor would look into the situation.  Ruslan Ryaboshapka told journalists in Kiev that his office was conducting an audit of previous investigations by the prosecutor general, including cases against Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the Burisma gas company, and US-sanctioned gas magnate Serhiy Kurchenko.  “There are 15 cases where Zlochevsky, Kurchenko and other people and companies could be involved or could be targets for investigation,” Mr Ryaboshapka said. “We are now looking again at all cases that were closed or broken up or were investigated earlier to make a decision to reconsider those instances where illegal procedural decisions were made.”  At the same time, he said no foreign or Ukrainian politicians had tried to influence his decisions on criminal cases.  Mr Zelenskiy said he was “not involved” in the audit of the investigations when asked by ABC News on Friday.  Mr Giuliani and Mr Trump have claimed that leading Democratic presidential candidate Mr Biden got then-prosecutor general Viktor Shokin fired in 2016 for his supposed attempts to investigate Burisma.


fortune--2019-01-05--California Wildfire Liability May Cause PGE To Sell Off Part of Company to Avoid Bankruptcy

California Wildfire Liability May Cause PG&E To Sell Off Part of Company to Avoid Bankruptcy

The California wildfires that scorched millions of acres across the Golden State in late 2018 caused widespread devastation, with loss of human life and property damage just some of the ways that the fires touched the lives of thousands of Californians.  And according to a new report by National Public Radio, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the parent company of California’s largest utility, is exploring whether to sell off a major part of the company in order to cope with the cascading costs that continue to impact the energy company. Former PG&E employees who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity said that the company was considering selling its natural gas division in order to avoid bankruptcy as it works to cover liability costs.  For its part, PG&E released a statement to NPR in which it said that the company “does not comment on market rumors or speculation.” In response to a request for a comment from Fortune, PG&E emailed: “[T]he PG&E Board is reviewing structural options to best position PG&E to implement necessary changes while meeting customer and operational needs. Safety is and will continue to be our top priority as we work to determine the best path forward for all of our stakeholders. PG&E remains fully committed to helping our customers and the affected communities recover and rebuild—and to doing everything we can to reduce the risk of future wildfires.” The spokesman did not address the sale rumor.  The fires that impacted communities all over the state have already hurt several utility companies in real dollars as well as public perception. Stocks for PG&E and Edison International fell dramatically back in November as the fires worsened, and 35 families from the town of Paradise have sued PG&E over the Camp Fire. Additionally, several insurance companies including Allstate, State Farm, and USAA are suing PG&E over wildfire damages, according to Marketwatch.


naturalnews--2019-10-09--The collapse of Wall Street lunacy: WeWork company founded by delusional hype artist may soon have t

The collapse of Wall Street lunacy: WeWork company founded by delusional hype artist may soon have to file for bankruptcy

(Natural News) Nine years ago, the founder of the WeWork Company promised to “elevate the world’s consciousness.”The delusional hype artist, Adam Neumann, has been abruptly terminated, as the company’s initial public offering continues to implode. The failure of this company is a microcosm of the disaster waiting to happen with Wall Street.  With a successful IPO, WeWork would have magically secured billions in new capital, while gaining access to billions more in credit lines. In other words, with enough hype and inflated promises, a stupid idea can become infinitely funded by imaginary money. Losing millions of dollars a day, WeWork continues to operate in the red, with no consequences for its rapidly failing business model. Companies like this operate outside of the laws of supply and demand, and are not accountable to realistic economic principles. WeWork can spend into oblivion while never turning a profit. The delusion is propped up by a bubble of never-ending debt and investment.  Now, after blasting through other’s people’s money and contributing to inflation of the public’s money, WeWork is looking at bankruptcy. Bloomberg warns that WeWork “may be shut out of the public stock and bond markets to raise new money.”  WeWork lost $690 million in its first six months of operation. To date, the hype-machine has burned through $3 billion, with tens of millions in cash being lost with each passing day. Projected to burn through another $2.5 billion by mid-2020, WeWork is the epitome of Wall Street lunacy.  Sponsored solution from the Health Ranger Store: The Big Berkey water filter removes almost 100% of all contaminants using only the power of gravity (no electricity needed, works completely off-grid). Widely consider the ultimate "survival" water filter, the Big Berkey is made of stainless steel and has been laboratory verified for high-efficiency removal of heavy metals by CWC Labs, with tests personally conducted by Mike Adams. Explore more here.  This is the same company that was once valued at $47 billion. The valuation is a façade of wealth because the company never made a profit. As the company’s revenue increased, its losses grew with even greater intensity. The company is being run by people who do not know the fundamentals of budgeting and profit/loss. They only know how to convince others to hand them money. Their success is a fake bubble, ready to burst.  Neumann’s fake bubble is about to burst and that means thousands of jobs will be lost, as families fall victim to a con artist, who has been empowered by Wall Street lunacy. Neumann’s $60 million private jet, the Gulfstream G650, is currently up for sale to recoup some of the money that was wasted away. Meanwhile, the new CEOs are warning employees to “anticipate difficult decisions ahead” to protect WeWork’s “long-term interests and health.”  Even if WeWork were to convince Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to guarantee a $3 billion loan, which they were currently working on; the deal won’t be had if the company can’t get a successful IPO. The two new CEOs, Gunningham and Minson may have no choice but to accept that the company is a façade. They may have to turn over the keys to their initial investor SoftBank — the Japanese company that invested $10 billion into their bubble.  Yet, the collapse of WeWork is so immense; it could even threaten the existence of its Japanese investor. This is why SoftBank is currently working to guarantee WeWork another $1.5 billion investment, in hopes, that this time, they can move the company out of the red. With no clear plan of profitability to go by, SoftBank doesn’t know when to stop adding fuel to the fire. Are they willing to burn their entire telecoms-to-technology firm down to the ground just to make sure that WeWork lives up to its hype? What a facade.  For more on the lunacy of Wall Street, visit Collapse.News.


slate--2019-10-01--Trumps Tariffs May Have Just Forced an American Steel Company Into Bankruptcy

Trump’s Tariffs May Have Just Forced an American Steel Company Into Bankruptcy

Donald Trump likes to brag that his tariffs have saved the U.S. steel industry from collapse. “Steel was dead,” he told a crowd of Pennsylvania workers in August. “Your business was dead. Okay? I don’t want to be overly crude. Your business was dead. And I put a little thing called ‘a 25 percent tariff’ on all of the dumped steel all over the country. And now your business is thriving.”  Back in the real world, however, it has become increasingly clear that the tariffs have done little to lift the industry’s fortunes overall, and have outright backfired for some manufacturers. On Tuesday, for instance, the Bayou Steel Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced that it would shut down its plant near New Orleans. Nearly 400 workers there stand to lose their jobs. A smaller plant in Tennessee, with 72 employees, will also close.  The company has not offered a detailed explanation for its bankruptcy. (It cited a “severe lack of liquidity,” meaning it lacked the cash to keep operating.) But as Bloomberg reports, Louisiana’s Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards fingered Trump’s trade war as a likely culprit. “While Bayou Steel has not given any specific reason for the closure, we know that this company, which uses recycled scrap metal that is largely imported, is particularly vulnerable to tariffs,” he said in a statement. “Louisiana is among the most dependent states on tariffed metals, which is why we continue to be hopeful for a speedy resolution to the uncertainty of the future of tariffs.”  This is a slight variation on a problem that plenty of critics saw coming when Trump announced his tariffs last year. While many American steel companies manufacture the raw metal from scratch, a number of them don’t. Instead, they specialize in making steel products out of cheap, semi-finished slabs of the material that they buy from abroad. The levies posed a serious threat to that segment’s business model. The administration has tried to skirt around this issue by granting companies waivers allowing them to import steel from countries like China and Japan duty-free, but the process has been contentious and has sometimes led to funny results, such as when one steel company that had spent a year praising Trump’s tariffs later sued the administration after it was denied an exemption from them.  This brings us to the broader point: Trump’s trade war hasn’t so much brought the steel industry back to life as it has reshuffled its winners and losers. In the wake of the tariffs, steel prices rose significantly, which led to a boom in production. But as domestic steel quickly flooded the market, prices tumbled back down to earth. As Bloomberg has reported, that’s created a split in the industry. Companies like Nucor, which can compete effectively on price because its electric mills are relatively cheap to run, have fared pretty well. But U.S. Steel, with its old-school blast furnaces, has gotten socked; its stock value is down by about 75 percent since March of last year, and the company has had to idle plants. Amid all this turmoil, the industry has only added a few thousand jobs, which have come at a severe cost to companies like car makers that use U.S. steel as an input.  We’ll likely learn more about exactly what happened at Bayou Steel in the coming weeks. But for now, it seems like an example that rather than saving some steel companies from death, Trump’s tariffs may be sentencing them to it.


sputnik--2019-06-18--Notorious Brazil Construction Company Odebrecht Files for Bankruptcy Reports

Notorious Brazil Construction Company Odebrecht Files for Bankruptcy – Reports

The scandal involving Odebrecht has rocked various South American countries, as corruption practices used by the company and officials from these states for years, have been revealed.  Odebrecht, the largest construction and development company in Latin America, admitted in 2016 that it had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on bribes in 12 countries in the region to win government contracts.  According to local media reports, Odebrecht gave at least $439 million in bribes to senior officials in several Latin American countries between 2001-2016 in order to win contracts.  The US Department of Justice claimed, however, that Odebrecht paid approximately $788 million in bribes to foreign government officials to win contracts in 12 countries. The bribes were facilitated through the use of off-shore bank accounts, shell companies, and secret transactions, and, according to reports, the scheme resulted in payments and profits of around $3.3 billion. Parts of the scheme also took place in the United States, according to Justice Department.  The Odebrecht probe, one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin America, has triggered investigations in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, and Ecuador.  The situation resulted in the dismissals of many high-ranking officials across the continent.  In July 2018, the Brazilian-based construction company reportedly agreed to pay some $700 million in compensation to the nation's government as a fine in the corruption case.


thehill--2019-07-02--Major US coal company files for bankruptcy putting over 1000 jobs at risk

Major US coal company files for bankruptcy, putting over 1,000 jobs at risk

A major U.S. coal company filed for bankruptcy Monday, putting more than 1,000 jobs across three states at risk.  West Virginia-based Revelation Energy LLC and its affiliate Blackjewel LLC filed for bankruptcy, making it the second major coal company to declare bankruptcy in as many weeks, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.  The bankruptcy impacts the employees who are working at coal mines located in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Hundreds of workers at two coal mines in Wyoming were also reportedly impacted by the bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy and risk of ensuing job losses underscore the dwindling number of jobs in the industry since 2012 as a result of a sharp decline in coal production.  Workers at mines near Cumberland, Ky., were reportedly told Monday not to come to the mines for their evening shifts and that the shutdown could last at least two weeks.  “It’s devastating for the community,” Charles Raleigh, mayor of Cumberland, told the Herald Leader. “It’s a sad situation. I hate it for the miners.”  Jeff Hoops, owner of Revelation Energy and its affiliate Blackjewel, in an affidavit filed in court, attributed the bankruptcy to the state of the coal market nationally.  “The entire industry either has gone through, or is currently going through, a period of financial distress and reorganization,” he wrote, according to the Herald Leader.  He also cited increased competition from natural gas and renewable energy.  Blackjewel and Revelation reportedly owe tens of millions in state and federal taxes, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy.  In 2017, Revelation Energy accounted for nearly 6 percent of the United States's coal production, making it the sixth largest company in terms of total production.


theintercept--2019-05-16--A Major Coal Company Went Bust Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denia

A Major Coal Company Went Bust. Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denialism.

one of the largest domestic coal producers in the country has revealed that the company maintains financial ties to many of the leading groups that have sowed doubt over the human causes of global warming.  The disclosures are from Cloud Peak Energy, a Wyoming-based coal mining corporation that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 10. The company had been battered by low coal prices, including in international markets cultivated by the firm.  The documents in the court docket show that the coal giant gave contributions to leading think tanks that have attacked the link between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change, as well as to several conservative advocacy groups that have attempted to undermine policies intended to shift the economy toward renewable energy. The documents do not include information on the size of the contributions, yet, taken as a whole, the list of groups Cloud Peak Energy helped fund are indicative of how the company prioritized pushing climate denialism. The company did not respond to a request for comment.  The contributions are revealed in a filing that lists recipients of grants, creditors, and contractors. The document shows that Cloud Peak Energy helped fund the Institute of Energy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has dismissed the “so-called scientific consensus” on climate change and regularly criticizes investments in renewable energy as a “waste” of resources.  Several of the groups that receive funding from Cloud Peak Energy have used aggressive tactics to attempt to discredit environmentalists. The Center for Consumer Freedom, one of the groups listed in the coal company’s filing, is part of a sprawling network of front groups set up by a lobbyist named Rick Berman geared toward attacking green groups such as the Sierra Club and Food & Water Watch as dangerous radicals.  Other organizations quietly bankrolled by Cloud Peak Energy have directly shaped state policy. The company provided funding to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that provides template legislation to state lawmakers. The model bills promote the fossil fuel agenda. One model bill declares that there is a “great deal of scientific uncertainty” around climate change; others are designed to repeal environmental regulations on coal-burning power plants.  The Montana Policy Institute — a local libertarian think tank that promotes a discredited claim that world temperatures are falling, not rising, and questions whether humans cause climate change — also received funding from the firm.  Cloud Peak Energy, the filing shows, funded Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-backed group that mobilizes political opposition to Democratic politicians and climate regulations. The mining firm also financed Crossroads GPS, a “dark-money” group that funneled millions of undisclosed dollars into Senate races in support of GOP politicians during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. The Western Caucus Foundation, which supports congressional efforts to deregulate the mining sector and sell off public lands for energy development, received funding as well.  Many of the political dollars listed in the filing appear routine among coal industry firms. The Wyoming coal firm provided financing to an array of trade groups, including the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the National Mining Association, and the American Coal Council, that lobby legislators on mine industry priorities.


theonion--2019-10-30--Largest U.S. Coal Mining Company Files For Bankruptcy

Murray Energy, the largest private coal miner in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection due to its $1.7 billion in liabilities, a testament to the rapid decline of coal in the energy sector and the rise of renewables. What do you think?  “Always a shame getting blindsided by something inevitable like that.”  “Who will exploit the next three generations of my family now?”  “Damn! Then I’ll just have to find someone else to help get this steamship across Lake Michigan in time for the World’s Fair.”


theverge--2019-04-23--The company behind the 16000 AI-powered laundry-folding robot has filed for bankruptcy

The company behind the $16,000 AI-powered laundry-folding robot has filed for bankruptcy

Seven Dreamers, the Japanese company behind the AI-powered laundry-folding robot Laundroid, has filed for bankruptcy. The company is now in the process of selling and transferring its business, it announced on its website today, which was spotted by Bloomberg editor Gearoid Reidy.  Backed by companies like Panasonic and Daiwa House, Laundroid had ambitious dreams to be the ultimate wardrobe organizer for the entire household. It had multiple cameras and robotic arms to scan a load of laundry, and used Wi-Fi to connect to a server that would analyze the clothing using AI to figure out the best way to fold it. A companion app was supposed to be able to track every piece of clothing that went through Laundroid, and categorize the clothes by household member. One load of laundry would take a couple hours to be folded, as each T-shirt took about five to ten minutes.  That’s how it was supposed to work in theory, anyway — when I tested it out at CES 2018 with my own T-shirt, the machine ate it up and Laundroid engineers had to work for about 15 minutes to pry it out. The explanation was that its cameras couldn’t recognize my black shirt, only the brightly colored demo shirts they’d prepared on hand.  I suspected something might be wrong when the company was conspicuously absent at this year’s CES. Meanwhile, rival laundry-folding robot company Foldimate was back for a second year, enjoying large crowds gathered around its prominent booth and giving nonstop demonstrations with a fully working prototype.  When I spoke to Seven Dreamers CEO Shin Sakane at CES 2018, he told me that he hoped to eventually bring the $16,000 product down to under $2,000. But according to credit research agency Teikoku Databank, the company racked up over $20 million in debt to 200 creditors while trying to get its product to market. It never actually shipped.  It’s sad news for everyone involved, but maybe we don’t need an expensive Wi-Fi-connected machine to do our simple chores for us. After all, now we have Marie Kondo to teach us how to fold fitted sheets.


thinkprogress--2019-02-21--Coal companys bankruptcy heightens pressure on Green New Deals just transition component

Coal company’s bankruptcy heightens pressure on Green New Deal’s ‘just transition’ component

Retired coal miners stand to lose their benefits following a company’s bankruptcy, leaving the future of union contracts at other mines across the country in doubt as the industry continues to falter.  One of the oldest coal mine operators in the United States, Westmoreland Coal Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October, and in the process has sought to terminate medical benefits for retirees in addition to walking away from union contracts with United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). On Tuesday, a judge allowed Westmoreland to move forward with its plans.  Texas Judge David R. Jones granted the long-struggling coal company a victory last Friday, allowing it to end retiree benefits along with union contracts at two of its mines in Wyoming and North Dakota. Representatives of both Westmoreland and the UMWA were given until Feb. 19 before Jones’ ruling went into effect, in order to give both parties time to negotiate.  The blow to benefits and pensions comes amid a growing push to decarbonize the economy and shift away from fossil fuels, a goal espoused by backers of the Green New Deal — a plan to rapidly decarbonize the U.S. economy within 10 years. Environmental justice advocates have called for any final legislation on such a plan to include a “just transition” for communities like former and current coal miners.  And Westmoreland’s bankruptcy highlights why such conversations are likely to continue. More coal plants shut down during President Donald Trump’s first two years in office than in the entire first term of the Obama administration. As that trend continues, questions about the fate of workers are mounting.  The UMWA’s director of communications and governmental affairs, Phil Smith, told ThinkProgress that discussions are still ongoing between UMWA and Westmoreland until the end of the month as the union fights to protect members. But morale is running low and the union is worried for its members, many of whom are sick and unable to work, leaving them largely reliant on benefits.  “They’re scared [and] they can’t go back to work,” Smith said. “After you work in the coal industry for 30, 40 years, you’re pretty beat up.”  Prior to Jones’ ruling, Westmoreland was obligated under the union contract to pay several million dollars in post-retirement medical benefits, pension obligations, and payments relating to black lung, a disease caused by long-term exposure to coal dust.  According to the Sierra Club, more than 250 active Westmoreland employees will be impacted by the Feb. 15 bankruptcy ruling, along with more than a thousand retirees and the spouses of deceased miners. The total retiree benefits scrapped come to around $329 million.  “The decision itself is not hard for me. The impact of what my decision does is what’s hard for me,” Jones said of his ruling, which largely allowed bankruptcy law to trump labor law.  When the company filed for bankruptcy, Westmoreland notably asked that managerial and executive staff still be allowed bonuses totaling up to $1.5 million a quarter, a move UMWA slammed as “appalling” at the time.  Meanwhile, former miners with black lung in particular have expressed concern about the bankruptcy’s impacts. Westmoreland largely operates in Wyoming and North Dakota, but the company historically had a sizable presence in Appalachia and the South and many retirees still live in Virginia and the wider area.  Bethel Brock, a former Westmoreland employee and UMWA member who has black lung, wrote a letter to Jones expressing concern about the company’s ability to pay for his health needs. “It is a shame these corporate executives are still expecting large paychecks in this bankruptcy while miners with black lung will…potentially lose their benefits,” Brock said, according to Appalachian Voices. “This is how corporate greed works.”  Some politicians, however, are trying to find solutions and provide protections for coal miners.  Under the proposed American Miners Act of 2019, black lung benefits would be extended, and both pension funds and health care benefits would be expanded. That bill is backed by Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Bob Casey (D-PA). But the act isn’t a reality yet and advocates are looking to longer-term solutions regardless.  Protections for coal miners as the world transitions away from fossil fuels also features in the Green New Deal, introduced two weeks ago by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).  “We must be as ambitious and innovative in our solution as possible,” said Ocasio-Cortez at the time, arguing that “frontline communities, coal communities” would be major players in any final pieces of legislation associated with the Green New Deal.  Still, it’s unclear what that prioritization actually means. Those who have worked closely on such issues for years say any effort will be incredibly complicated and will need input from impacted communities. And situations like Westmoreland’s clash with UMWA are only one small component of the larger issue.  “One thing that people don’t understand about Wyoming coal is that it’s largely non-union,” said Shannon Anderson, who works with the Powder River Basin Resource Council (PRBRC), a Wyoming-based community-driven nonprofit promoting sustainable practices in the state.  Anderson told ThinkProgress that the union presence in Wyoming coal is only likely to shrink after Westmoreland’s bankruptcy. All the while, coal companies are continuing to shutter across the country as the industry declines.  The closure of coal companies ultimately means more positive things for efforts to fight climate change and protect the health of miners, but, Anderson emphasized, “those decisions… do impact workers.”  Organizations like the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA), a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations, have pushed for creating jobs through infrastructure projects, something the Green New Deal aims to do. But protecting retired coal miners and others is critical for many communities and their support for any final legislation likely hinges on that.  “This has been happening in the coal industry [for years],” said Smith of UMWA, referring to mass-closures of coal companies. Westmoreland, he says, marks the “continuation of a trend” that has seen many sick and elderly former miners left without support. Alpha Natural Resources, Peabody Energy, and Arch Coal are among other companies that have filed for bankruptcy over the past few years.  Anderson noted that solutions are available for those looking to both encourage a transition away from fossil fuels and protect workers at the same time. She referenced efforts by the Obama administration to convert money for cleaning up abandoned coal mines to promoting other business sectors and retraining current miners. Coupled with legislation like the proposed American Miners Act, such efforts could make the Green New Deal’s “just transition” a reality.  Ultimately, the question remains the same for communities at the mercy of the coal industry but interested in decarbonization, Anderson said: “How do you responsibly get coal mines reclaimed… but don’t leave communities high and dry?”


truepundit--2019-06-12--Major Firearms Company That Banked On Hillary Winning Files For Bankruptcy

United Sporting Companies Chief Executive Officer Bradley Johnson admitted in a court filing that USC, which was founded in 1933 as Ellett Brothers before merging with Jerry’s Sports, Inc. in 2009 and formally changing its name to United Sporting Companies, Inc. in 2010, hiked its inventory before the election of Donald Trump. They figured that once a Democrat was elected, gun sales would soar because of the Democrats’ typical hostility for guns and avowed determination to restrict gun sales.  In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, the Debtors anticipated an uptick in firearms sales historically attributable to the election of a Democratic presidential nominee. The Debtors increased their inventory to account for anticipated sales increases. In the aftermath of the unexpected Republican victory, the Debtors realized lower than expected sales figures for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, with higher than expected carrying costs due to the Debtors’ increased inventory. These factors contributed to the Debtors tightening liquidity and an industry-wide glut of inventory. An over-supply of firearms following the 2016 presidential election and the financial distress of certain market participants led to industry-wide sales discounts. The Debtors were forced to lower prices to remain competitive and maintain sales figures, which further eroded the Debtors’ slim margins and contributed to the Debtors’ tightening liquidity.  The Daily Mail reported of Johnson, “ … he said the Republican Trump’s unexpected win over Democrat Hillary Clinton was a factor in net sales falling to $557 million in 2018 from an average $885.3 million from 2012 to 2016, with an accompanying glut of inventory.” – READ MORE