“Have fun, everybody,” Trump told them after signing autographs.
I think he told everybody to have a good time when he visited Houston after Hurricane Harvey.
He is such an idiot.
My gut reaction was "he assumes that regardless of what else is going on they'll be on cloud 9 after meeting the great one."
But it's probably that he simply doesn't really know how to relate to people. After all, he's probably the only person elected to office because of an angry, as opposed to personable, persona; at least in the TV era.
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mickeyrat
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Train crew had little warning before Ohio wreck, probe finds
By JOHN SEEWER, MICHAEL RUBINKAM and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Yesterday
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The crew operating a freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, didn't get much warning before dozens of cars went off the tracks, and there is no indication that crew members did anything wrong, federal investigators said Thursday as they released a preliminary report into the fiery wreck that prompted a toxic chemical release and an evacuation.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his first visit to the crash site and took shots at former President Donald Trump, who had visited the day before and criticized the federal response to the train derailment. Their back-and-forth was the latest sign that the East Palestine wreck has become a hot-button political issue, prompting a rebuke from the head of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Enough with the politics. I don’t understand why this has gotten so political,” safety board Chair Jennifer Homendy, clearly exasperated, said at a briefing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “This is a community that is suffering. This is not about politics. This is about addressing their needs, their concerns.”
The NTSB report, which laid out the facts that investigators have gathered to date, said crew members had no indication the train was in trouble until an alarm sounded just before it went off the tracks.
An engineer slowed and stopped the train after getting a “critical audible alarm message" that signaled an overheated axle, according to the report. The three-person crew then saw fire and smoke and alerted dispatch, the report said.
“We have no evidence that the crew did anything wrong,” said Homendy, who announced a rare investigatory field hearing to be conducted in East Palestine this spring as officials seek to get to the bottom of the derailment's cause and build consensus on how to prevent similar wrecks.
Investigators said the temperature of the failed wheel bearing increased by 215 degrees in a span of 30 miles (48 kilometers), but did not reach the temperature threshold that railroad company Norfolk Southern had set for an alarm to go off until just before the wreck.
The train was going about 47 mph (75 kph), under the speed limit of 50 mph (80 kph), according to investigators.
Outside experts who looked at the report said the system appeared to work as designed, from the spacing of the hot bearing detectors along the tracks to the operation of the sensors.
“There’s nothing in the NTSB report that surprises me at all,” said Dave Clarke, the former director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. “I can’t see anything to really criticize about what happened or how the response was made.”
Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois, said the spacing of the sensors that recorded the temperatures of the Norfolk Southern train — 10 and 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) apart — is common in the industry.
He said the detectors would not have notified the train crew of elevated bearing temperatures unless they met the threshold for action.
“I don’t see anything wrong here, but we just don’t know,” Barkan said.
Homendy said investigators would look at whether industry safety standards — including high-temperature alarm thresholds and sensor spacing — will need to change to prevent similar derailments.
Norfolk Southern said the NTSB report showed the heat detectors worked as intended and the train crew operated “within the company's rules." Nevertheless, the company said it would “need to learn as much as we can from this event” and “develop practices and invest in technologies that could help prevent an incident like this in the future.”
The freight cars that derailed on the East Palestine outskirts, near the Pennsylvania state line, included 11 carrying hazardous materials. Villagers evacuated as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
Officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health effects even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
In another sign of the environmental impact, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said Thursday it now estimates spilled contaminants affecting several miles of streams killed nearly 44,000 fish, mostly small ones such as minnows. Its initial estimate was 3,500.
As NTSB released its preliminary findings, Buttigieg — who had been criticized for not coming to East Palestine earlier — went on a tour of the crash site and defended the Biden administration's response to the Feb. 3 derailment, which Trump had portrayed as indifferent and a “betrayal."
Buttigieg told reporters that if the former president — and current Republican presidential candidate — felt strongly about increased rail safety efforts, “one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre excoriated “political stunts that we’re seeing from the other side” but did not say whether a trip by Democratic President Joe Biden was in the works.
Another Biden administration official, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, has been to East Palestine multiple times, most recently Tuesday as the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for the cleanup.
With heavy equipment rumbling behind him, Buttigieg slammed Norfolk Southern and other freight rail companies for fighting regulations he said would “hold them accountable and the other railroad companies accountable for their safety record." He pressed Congress to act.
Heather Bable, who lives two blocks from the derailment site, said she’s relieved the government’s top brass is finally showing up.
“We need that attention because we weren’t getting it. They should have been here all along,” said Bable.
After throngs of residents lined the streets in pouring rain to welcome Trump on Wednesday, the reception for Buttigieg was decidedly more muted, with little fanfare around the village of just under 5,000 residents. Trump won nearly 72% of the vote in this heavily Republican region in 2020.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, whose Pennsylvania district borders the derailment site, asked Norfolk Southern to expand the boundaries of the geographic zone in which it is providing financial assistance and testing. He asserted the current zone excludes many affected Pennsylvania residents and businesses, and said the company should commit to cleaning up soil and water up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) beyond it.
“Norfolk Southern is failing to show any commitment to rebuilding lost trust in our community,” Deluzio wrote in a letter to Norfolk Southern's CEO. Providing additional resources “would help your company restore the sense of security that the Norfolk Southern train derailment and its aftermath destroyed.”
___
Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania and Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Julie Carr Smyth and Patrick Orsagos in Columbus, Ohio, and Chris Megerian and Hope Yen in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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mickeyrat
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
Safety agency opens probe of Norfolk Southern rail accidents
By JOSH FUNK and JOHN SEEWER
Yesterday
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal investigators are opening a wide-ranging investigation into one of the nation’s biggest railroads following a fiery derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last month and several other accidents involving Norfolk Southern, including the death of a train conductor Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday it will begin a broad look at the company's safety culture — the first such investigation within the rail industry since 2014. The board said it has sent investigation teams to look into five significant accidents involving Norfolk Southern since December 2021.
The agency also urged the company to take immediate action to review and assess its safety practices.
The Federal Railroad Administration also announced its own investigation of Norfolk Southern on Tuesday. The administration will issue a public report after conducting a 60-day safety assessment, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In the release, the railroad administration said Norfolk Southern must go beyond the steps it announced Monday and take actions “that match the severity of recent incidents.”
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged to hold a series of companywide safety meetings Wednesday — one day ahead of when he is scheduled to testify in Congress at a hearing on the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment.
“Moving forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up,” he said in a statement. “We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”
In response to the Ohio derailment, the railroad on Monday announced plans to improve the use of detectors placed along railroad tracks to spot overheating bearings and other problems.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said the crew operating the train that derailed Feb. 3 outside East Palestine, Ohio, got a warning from such a detector but couldn’t stop the train before more than three dozen cars came off the tracks and caught fire.
Half of the town of about 5,000 people had to evacuate for days when responders intentionally burned toxic chemicals in some of the derailed cars to prevent an uncontrolled explosion, leaving residents with lingering health concerns. Government officials say tests haven’t found dangerous levels of chemicals in the air or water in the area.
Within the industry, Norfolk Southern has had a strong reputation for being a safe railroad over the years, said Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois.
Federal Railroad Administration statistics show accidents involving Norfolk Southern is down since 2019, but the rate of accidents is up over the past decade. The 119 derailments involving Norfolk Southern last year was the lowest number in the last decade. Industrywide, there were more than 1,000 derailments last year.
But pressure has been mounting on the railroad in the aftermath of the East Palestine disaster.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the nation’s freight railroads in February to immediately act to improve safety while regulators were focusing on strengthening safety rules. Buttigieg said the department will hold the railroad accountable for any safety violations that contributed to the Feb. 3 crash.
President Joe Biden said on Twitter after the derailment that the past pattern of railroads resisting safety regulations must change and that Congress should support the effort to improve safety.
Even though government data shows that derailments have declined in recent years, there were still 1,049 of them last year.
While most don’t cause any major problems, of the five accidents the National Transportation Safety Board pointed to involving Norfolk Southern since the end of 2021, three resulted in the deaths of three workers.
On Saturday, no one was hurt when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Springfield, Ohio.
In the latest incident Tuesday, a train and a dump truck collided at a steel plant in Cleveland, killing the train conductor who was standing on the outside of a car, authorities said. The company said the cause of that accident was not yet known.
Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents the worker who was killed, said the death is a reminder of the need for safety improvements.
“All railroad accidents are avoidable,” Hall said. “This collision underscores the need for significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”
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It's almost like the striking rail workers that were complaining about being underpaid and overworked in unsafe conditions were like the canary in the coal mine here. Too bad we don't listen to labor anymore.
Scio me nihil scire
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks
during a news conference near the site of the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern
train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP
Photo/Matt Freed)
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said
Thursday that the agency is reviewing its definition of a high-hazard
flammable train in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment.
Buttigieg made the remarks in response to questioning from Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) during a hearing on the Transportation Department’s budget request.
“We’ve been here before with crude oil incidents, and I worked with
the administration then… to require comprehensive oil spill response
plans” for railroads, Murray said. “Could you expand those efforts now
for other hazardous materials?”
“The short answer is yes,” Buttigieg replied. “Often what happens is that America learns from experiencing disasters.”
“Questions arose in the wake of East Palestine from those who asked
the very reasonable question, looking at that horrific smoke column
coming out of the vinyl chloride controlled burn, that if this train did
not meet the legal and technical definition of a high-hazard flammable
train [HHFT], what would?” he continued.
The derailment, Buttigieg said, “is compelling us” to review and
revise the department’s HHFT definitions as well as a broader
examination of such definitions, some of which he noted are defined in
law. The transportation secretary added the department “welcomes”
revisions from Congress in those cases, such as larger fines for safety
violations and more specific technical measures.
Buttigieg added that the department is also calling on industry
itself to “not wait” for new requirements but rather voluntarily
implement new safeguards in the meantime.
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mickeyrat
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US readies second attempt at speedy border asylum screenings
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Yesterday
SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version.
Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel.
The decision to use fast-track screenings comes as COVID-19 asylum restrictions are set to expire on May 11 and the U.S. government prepares for an expected increase in illegal crossings from Mexico. The Texas border cities of El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville have declared local states of emergency in recent days to prepare for the anticipated influx.
Normally, about three in four migrants pass credible fear interviews, though far fewer eventually win asylum. But during the five months of the Trump-era program, only 23% passed the initial screening, while 69% failed and 9% withdrew, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Those who get past initial screenings are generally freed in the United States to pursue their cases in immigration court, which typically takes four years. Critics say the court backlog encourages more people to seek asylum.
To pass screenings, migrants must convince an asylum officer they have a “significant possibility” of prevailing before a judge on arguments that they face persecution in their home countries on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
Under the Biden administration's fast-track program, those who don’t qualify will be deported “in a matter of days or just a few weeks,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday.
The expedited screenings will be applied only to single adults, Mayorkas said.
Despite the administration’s assurances that people will have access to legal services, some immigrant advocates who were briefed by the administration are doubtful. Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, noted that advocates were told attorneys would not be allowed inside holding facilities.
The Trump administration used fast-track reviews from October 2019 until March 2020, when it began using a 1944 public health law known as Title 42 to expel immigrants on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The speedy screenings were among Trump-era immigration polices that Biden rolled back in a February 2021 executive order.
Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration won't limit migrants to just one phone call. But it's unclear how many calls U.S. authorities can facilitate, especially if there is no answer and attorneys call back, Hawkins said.
Screenings initially will be limited to Spanish-speaking countries to which the U.S. has regular deportation flights, according to Hawkins and others briefed. The administration began limited screening this month in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, and later expanded to large tents in other border cities, including San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; and El Paso, Texas. Migrants will get a video presentation to explain the interview process.
Mayorkas, a former federal prosecutor, didn't speak in detail about access to legal counsel in remarks Thursday about a broad strategy that, in addition to the screenings, includes processing centers in Guatemala, Colombia and potentially elsewhere for people to come legally to the U.S. through an airport.
“We have expanded our holding capacity and set up equipment and procedures so that individuals have the ability to access counsel,” Mayorkas said.
The Homeland Security Department's inspector general took issue with lack of legal representation under Trump's expedited screening. There were four cordless phones for migrants to share when screenings began in El Paso. Guards took them to a shack to consult attorneys.
Phone booths were later installed but didn't have handsets for safety reasons, forcing migrants to speak loudly and within earshot of people outside, the inspector general said.
Facilities built under Biden are more spacious with plenty of phone booths, according to people who have visited.
“There are rows of cubicles, enclosed," said Paulina Reyes, an attorney at advocacy group ImmDef who visited a San Diego holding facility in March.
The administration has not said how many attorneys have volunteered to represent asylum-seekers. Hawkins said officials told advocates they are reaching out to firms that offer low- or no-cost services to people in immigration detention centers.
Erika Pinheiro, executive director of advocacy group Al Otro Lado, which is active in Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico, said she has not been approached but would decline to represent asylum-seekers in expedited screenings. They arrive exhausted and unfamiliar with asylum law, hindering their abilities to effectively tell their stories.
“We know what the conditions are like. We know people are not going to be mentally prepared,” she said.
The Biden administration aims to complete screenings within 72 hours, the maximum time Border Patrol is supposed to hold migrants under an agency policy that’s routinely ignored.
It’s a tall order. It currently takes about four weeks to complete a screening. Under Trump’s expedited screenings, about 20% of immigrants were in custody for a week or less, according to the GAO. About 86% were held 20 days or less.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has identified 480 former asylum officers or those with training to assist about 800 on the expedited screenings, said Michael Knowles, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents asylum officers. Despite the staffing surge, Knowles said officers worry about the pace of the work, “like an assembly line, ‘hurry up, hurry up,’ when you have lives at stake.”
“All hands will be on this deck for the foreseeable future,” Knowles said. “We don't know how long.”
___
Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, contributed.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
Biden plan to sell land leases for conservation gets pushback
By MATTHEW BROWN
Today
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Biden administration officials on Monday sought to dispel worries they want to exclude oil drilling, livestock grazing and other activities from vast government-owned lands, as they faced pushback from Republicans and ranchers and over a contentious proposal to put conservation on equal footing with industry.
The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Leases also could be bought on behalf of companies such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere.
But more than a century after the U.S. started selling grazing permits and oil and gas leases, the proposal is stirring debate over the best use of public land, primarily in the West. Opponents including Republican lawmakers and agriculture industry representatives are blasting it as a backdoor way to exclude mining, energy development and agriculture.
Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, told The Associated the proposed changes address rising pressure from climate change and development. She said it would make conservation an “equal” to grazing, drilling and other uses while not interfering with them.
The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies for the 380,000 square miles (990,000 square kilometers) it oversees, an area more than twice the size of California. It also regulates publicly owned underground minerals, including oil, coal and lithium for renewable energy across more than 1 million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers).
Those holdings put the agency at the center of arguments over how much development should be allowed.
Senior bureau officials on Monday night hosted the first virtual public meeting about the conservation proposal. There was no opportunity for public comment, and questions for officials were screened by the agency. But officials acknowledged receiving numerous queries about grazing and drilling potentially being excluded.
Brian St. George, acting assistant director for the bureau, said the conservation leases would not “lock up land in perpetuity.”
“It would have a term, and when that restoration goal is met, the term would lapse,” he said.
Earlier this month he berated Interior Secretary Deb Haaland over it during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, saying she was “giving radicals a new tool to shut out the public.”
“The secretary wants to make non-use a use,” said Barrasso, the ranking Republican on the committee. “She is ... turning federal law on its head.”
Stone-Manning told the AP that critics were misreading the rule, and that conservation leases would not usurp existing ones. If grazing is now permitted on a parcel, it could continue. And people could still hunt on the leased property or use it for recreation, she said.
“It makes conservation an equal among the multiple uses that we manage for,” Stone-Manning said. “There are rules around how we do solar development. There are rules around how we do oil and gas. There have not been rules around how we deliver on the portions of (federal law) that say, ‘Manage for fish and wildlife habitat, manage for clean water.’”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — where the federal land bureau controls about two thirds of the land — urged the administration to work with ranchers and farmers before finalizing the proposal, which the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said would “upend” land management in the West.
While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it.
Former President Donald Trump tried to ramp up fossil fuel development on bureau lands, but President Joe Biden suspended new oil and gas leasing when he entered office. Biden later revived the deals to win West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's support for last year's climate law.
Biden remains under intense pressure from Manchin and many Republicans to allow more drilling. Such companies currently hold leases across some 37,500 square miles (97,000 square kilometers) of bureau land.
The pending rule also would promote establishing more areas of “critical environmental concern” due to their historic or cultural significance, or their importance for wildlife conservation. More than 1,000 such sites covering about 33,000 square miles (85,000 square kilometers) have been designated previously.
By comparison, about 242,000 square miles (627,000 square kilometers) of bureau land are open to grazing livestock.
Environmentalists have largely embraced the changes, characterizing the proposal as long overdue.
Joel Webster with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a coalition of conservation groups and hunting and fishing organizations, said the administration's plan would set up a process to ensure landscapes are considered for conservation without forcing restrictions.
He cautioned, however, that administration officials must ensure a final rule doesn't have unintended consequences.
Another virtual event is slated for June 5 and public meetings are planned for May 25 in Denver; May 30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and June 1 in Reno, Nevada.
___
This story was first published on May 15, 2023. It was updated on May 16, 2023, to correct the dates of upcoming meetings about the proposal. They are scheduled for May 30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and June 1 in Reno, Nevada.
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mickeyrat
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mickeyrat
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edited June 25
putting this here because its his to deal with now. hope this spurs more action related to rr companies maintaining their shit much better as well as rethinking how a given train is built.....
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mickeyrat
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Judge limits Biden administration in working with social media companies
By Jim Salter
Yesterday
A judge on Tuesday prohibited several federal agencies and officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies about “protected speech,” a decision called “a blow to censorship” by one of the Republican officials whose lawsuit prompted the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit alleged that the federal government overstepped in its efforts to convince social media companies to address postings that could result in vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or affect elections.
Doughty cited “substantial evidence” of a far-reaching censorship campaign. He wrote that the “evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’ ”
Republican U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, who was the Missouri attorney general when the lawsuit was filed, said on Twitter that the ruling was “a huge win for the First Amendment and a blow to censorship.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the injunction prevents the administration “from censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans” on social media.
“The evidence in our case is shocking and offensive with senior federal officials deciding that they could dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government, and more," Landry said in a statement.
The Justice Department is reviewing the injunction “and will evaluate its options in this case,” said a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections,” the official said. “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present.”
The ruling listed several government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, that are prohibited by the injunction from discussions with social media companies aimed at “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
The order mentions by name several officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others.
Doughty allowed several exceptions, such as informing social media companies of postings involving criminal activity and conspiracies; as well as notifying social media firms of national security threats and other threats posted on platforms.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit also included individuals, including conservative website owner Jim Hoft. The lawsuit accused the administration of using the possibility of favorable or unfavorable regulatory action to coerce social media platforms to squelch what it considered misinformation on masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also touched on other topics, including claims about election integrity and news stories about material on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
Administration lawyers said the government left it up to social media companies to decide what constituted misinformation and how to combat it. In one brief, they likened the lawsuit to an attempt to put a legal gag order on the federal government and “suppress the speech of federal government officials under the guise of protecting the speech rights of others.”
“Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction would significantly hinder the Federal Government’s ability to combat foreign malign influence campaigns, prosecute crimes, protect the national security, and provide accurate information to the public on matters of grave public concern such as health care and election integrity,” the administration says in a May 3 court filing.
___
Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Cal Woodward, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
Scio me nihil scire
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
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can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
Thanks. And I didn't see it on Whitehouse gov. at least the tweets.
Scio me nihil scire
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
Thanks. And I didn't see it on Whitehouse gov. at least the tweets.
oh, well I expected you'd be able to find the info contained in the tweets just the same.
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can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
Thanks. And I didn't see it on Whitehouse gov. at least the tweets.
oh, well I expected you'd be able to find the info contained in the tweets just the same.
To be fair the website sucks and info is usually updated days later.
Scio me nihil scire
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
can you please post the rest of these? I don't have a twitter so I can't even see direct communications from the highest executive office in my country.
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
Thanks. And I didn't see it on Whitehouse gov. at least the tweets.
oh, well I expected you'd be able to find the info contained in the tweets just the same.
To be fair the website sucks and info is usually updated days later.
then I would point you to the dept of ed gov website? thats where the rule making and all that is anyway....
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
Biden picks female admiral to lead Navy. She'd be first woman on Joint Chiefs of Staff
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Yesterday
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has chosen Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, an unprecedented choice that, if she is confirmed, will make her the first woman to be a Pentagon service chief and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden's decision goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the Navy, has broad command and executive experience and was considered by insiders to be the top choice for the job.
In a statement Friday, Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said “throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended that Biden select Adm. Samuel Paparo, the current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, several U.S. officials said last month. But instead, Biden is nominating Paparo to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
A senior administration official said Biden chose Franchetti based on the broad scope of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge in budgeting and running the department.
At the same time, the official acknowledged that Biden understands the historical nature of the nomination and believes that Franchetti will be an inspiration to sailors, both men and women. The official spoke earlier on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not been made public.
Franchetti's nomination will join the list of hundreds of military moves that are being held up by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He is blocking confirmation of military officers in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.
Biden, in his statement, blasted Tuberville for prioritizing his domestic political agenda over military readiness.
“What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said. “He is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.”
Franchetti is slated to serve as the acting Navy chief beginning next month when Adm. Michael Gilday, the current top naval officer, retires as planned.
Several women have served as military service secretaries as political appointees, but never as their top uniformed officer. A woman, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, is currently the commandant of the Coast Guard. She, however, is not a member of the Joint Staff. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Pentagon.
The news last month that the defense chief had recommended Papara stunned many in the Pentagon because it was long believed that Franchetti was in line for the top Navy job.
In a statement Friday, Austin praised the nomination, saying, “I’m very proud that Admiral Franchetti has been nominated to be the first woman Chief of Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where she will continue to inspire all of us.”
A surface warfare officer, she has commanded at all levels, heading U.S. 6th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander.
Paparo, who if confirmed will replace Adm. John Aquilino, is a naval aviator and a TOPGUN graduate with more than 6,000 flight hours in Navy fighter jets and 1,100 landings on aircraft carriers. A Pennsylvania native, he graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned into the Navy in 1987.
Prior to his Pacific tour, he was commander of naval forces in the Middle East, based in Bahrain, and also previously served as director of operations at U.S. Central Command in Florida.
Biden also said he will nominate Vice Adm. James Kilby to be the vice chief of the Navy and tap Vice Adm. Stephen Koehler to head the Pacific Fleet.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 33,753
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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Comments
But it's probably that he simply doesn't really know how to relate to people. After all, he's probably the only person elected to office because of an angry, as opposed to personable, persona; at least in the TV era.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The crew operating a freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, didn't get much warning before dozens of cars went off the tracks, and there is no indication that crew members did anything wrong, federal investigators said Thursday as they released a preliminary report into the fiery wreck that prompted a toxic chemical release and an evacuation.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his first visit to the crash site and took shots at former President Donald Trump, who had visited the day before and criticized the federal response to the train derailment. Their back-and-forth was the latest sign that the East Palestine wreck has become a hot-button political issue, prompting a rebuke from the head of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Enough with the politics. I don’t understand why this has gotten so political,” safety board Chair Jennifer Homendy, clearly exasperated, said at a briefing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “This is a community that is suffering. This is not about politics. This is about addressing their needs, their concerns.”
The NTSB report, which laid out the facts that investigators have gathered to date, said crew members had no indication the train was in trouble until an alarm sounded just before it went off the tracks.
An engineer slowed and stopped the train after getting a “critical audible alarm message" that signaled an overheated axle, according to the report. The three-person crew then saw fire and smoke and alerted dispatch, the report said.
“We have no evidence that the crew did anything wrong,” said Homendy, who announced a rare investigatory field hearing to be conducted in East Palestine this spring as officials seek to get to the bottom of the derailment's cause and build consensus on how to prevent similar wrecks.
Investigators said the temperature of the failed wheel bearing increased by 215 degrees in a span of 30 miles (48 kilometers), but did not reach the temperature threshold that railroad company Norfolk Southern had set for an alarm to go off until just before the wreck.
The train was going about 47 mph (75 kph), under the speed limit of 50 mph (80 kph), according to investigators.
Outside experts who looked at the report said the system appeared to work as designed, from the spacing of the hot bearing detectors along the tracks to the operation of the sensors.
“There’s nothing in the NTSB report that surprises me at all,” said Dave Clarke, the former director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. “I can’t see anything to really criticize about what happened or how the response was made.”
Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois, said the spacing of the sensors that recorded the temperatures of the Norfolk Southern train — 10 and 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) apart — is common in the industry.
He said the detectors would not have notified the train crew of elevated bearing temperatures unless they met the threshold for action.
“I don’t see anything wrong here, but we just don’t know,” Barkan said.
Homendy said investigators would look at whether industry safety standards — including high-temperature alarm thresholds and sensor spacing — will need to change to prevent similar derailments.
Norfolk Southern said the NTSB report showed the heat detectors worked as intended and the train crew operated “within the company's rules." Nevertheless, the company said it would “need to learn as much as we can from this event” and “develop practices and invest in technologies that could help prevent an incident like this in the future.”
The freight cars that derailed on the East Palestine outskirts, near the Pennsylvania state line, included 11 carrying hazardous materials. Villagers evacuated as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
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Officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health effects even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
In another sign of the environmental impact, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said Thursday it now estimates spilled contaminants affecting several miles of streams killed nearly 44,000 fish, mostly small ones such as minnows. Its initial estimate was 3,500.
As NTSB released its preliminary findings, Buttigieg — who had been criticized for not coming to East Palestine earlier — went on a tour of the crash site and defended the Biden administration's response to the Feb. 3 derailment, which Trump had portrayed as indifferent and a “betrayal."
Buttigieg told reporters that if the former president — and current Republican presidential candidate — felt strongly about increased rail safety efforts, “one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre excoriated “political stunts that we’re seeing from the other side” but did not say whether a trip by Democratic President Joe Biden was in the works.
Another Biden administration official, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, has been to East Palestine multiple times, most recently Tuesday as the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for the cleanup.
With heavy equipment rumbling behind him, Buttigieg slammed Norfolk Southern and other freight rail companies for fighting regulations he said would “hold them accountable and the other railroad companies accountable for their safety record." He pressed Congress to act.
Heather Bable, who lives two blocks from the derailment site, said she’s relieved the government’s top brass is finally showing up.
“We need that attention because we weren’t getting it. They should have been here all along,” said Bable.
After throngs of residents lined the streets in pouring rain to welcome Trump on Wednesday, the reception for Buttigieg was decidedly more muted, with little fanfare around the village of just under 5,000 residents. Trump won nearly 72% of the vote in this heavily Republican region in 2020.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, whose Pennsylvania district borders the derailment site, asked Norfolk Southern to expand the boundaries of the geographic zone in which it is providing financial assistance and testing. He asserted the current zone excludes many affected Pennsylvania residents and businesses, and said the company should commit to cleaning up soil and water up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) beyond it.
“Norfolk Southern is failing to show any commitment to rebuilding lost trust in our community,” Deluzio wrote in a letter to Norfolk Southern's CEO. Providing additional resources “would help your company restore the sense of security that the Norfolk Southern train derailment and its aftermath destroyed.”
___
Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania and Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Julie Carr Smyth and Patrick Orsagos in Columbus, Ohio, and Chris Megerian and Hope Yen in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal investigators are opening a wide-ranging investigation into one of the nation’s biggest railroads following a fiery derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last month and several other accidents involving Norfolk Southern, including the death of a train conductor Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday it will begin a broad look at the company's safety culture — the first such investigation within the rail industry since 2014. The board said it has sent investigation teams to look into five significant accidents involving Norfolk Southern since December 2021.
The agency also urged the company to take immediate action to review and assess its safety practices.
The Federal Railroad Administration also announced its own investigation of Norfolk Southern on Tuesday. The administration will issue a public report after conducting a 60-day safety assessment, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In the release, the railroad administration said Norfolk Southern must go beyond the steps it announced Monday and take actions “that match the severity of recent incidents.”
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged to hold a series of companywide safety meetings Wednesday — one day ahead of when he is scheduled to testify in Congress at a hearing on the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment.
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“Moving forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up,” he said in a statement. “We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”
In response to the Ohio derailment, the railroad on Monday announced plans to improve the use of detectors placed along railroad tracks to spot overheating bearings and other problems.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said the crew operating the train that derailed Feb. 3 outside East Palestine, Ohio, got a warning from such a detector but couldn’t stop the train before more than three dozen cars came off the tracks and caught fire.
Half of the town of about 5,000 people had to evacuate for days when responders intentionally burned toxic chemicals in some of the derailed cars to prevent an uncontrolled explosion, leaving residents with lingering health concerns. Government officials say tests haven’t found dangerous levels of chemicals in the air or water in the area.
Within the industry, Norfolk Southern has had a strong reputation for being a safe railroad over the years, said Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois.
Federal Railroad Administration statistics show accidents involving Norfolk Southern is down since 2019, but the rate of accidents is up over the past decade. The 119 derailments involving Norfolk Southern last year was the lowest number in the last decade. Industrywide, there were more than 1,000 derailments last year.
But pressure has been mounting on the railroad in the aftermath of the East Palestine disaster.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the nation’s freight railroads in February to immediately act to improve safety while regulators were focusing on strengthening safety rules. Buttigieg said the department will hold the railroad accountable for any safety violations that contributed to the Feb. 3 crash.
President Joe Biden said on Twitter after the derailment that the past pattern of railroads resisting safety regulations must change and that Congress should support the effort to improve safety.
Even though government data shows that derailments have declined in recent years, there were still 1,049 of them last year.
While most don’t cause any major problems, of the five accidents the National Transportation Safety Board pointed to involving Norfolk Southern since the end of 2021, three resulted in the deaths of three workers.
On Saturday, no one was hurt when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Springfield, Ohio.
In the latest incident Tuesday, a train and a dump truck collided at a steel plant in Cleveland, killing the train conductor who was standing on the outside of a car, authorities said. The company said the cause of that accident was not yet known.
Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents the worker who was killed, said the death is a reminder of the need for safety improvements.
“All railroad accidents are avoidable,” Hall said. “This collision underscores the need for significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”
___
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
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There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Buttigieg: Transportation Department reviewing hazardous material definitions after East Palestine disaster
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday that the agency is reviewing its definition of a high-hazard flammable train in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment.
Buttigieg made the remarks in response to questioning from Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) during a hearing on the Transportation Department’s budget request.
“We’ve been here before with crude oil incidents, and I worked with the administration then… to require comprehensive oil spill response plans” for railroads, Murray said. “Could you expand those efforts now for other hazardous materials?”
“The short answer is yes,” Buttigieg replied. “Often what happens is that America learns from experiencing disasters.”
“Questions arose in the wake of East Palestine from those who asked the very reasonable question, looking at that horrific smoke column coming out of the vinyl chloride controlled burn, that if this train did not meet the legal and technical definition of a high-hazard flammable train [HHFT], what would?” he continued.
The derailment, Buttigieg said, “is compelling us” to review and revise the department’s HHFT definitions as well as a broader examination of such definitions, some of which he noted are defined in law. The transportation secretary added the department “welcomes” revisions from Congress in those cases, such as larger fines for safety violations and more specific technical measures.
Buttigieg added that the department is also calling on industry itself to “not wait” for new requirements but rather voluntarily implement new safeguards in the meantime.
continues......
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SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version.
Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel.
The decision to use fast-track screenings comes as COVID-19 asylum restrictions are set to expire on May 11 and the U.S. government prepares for an expected increase in illegal crossings from Mexico. The Texas border cities of El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville have declared local states of emergency in recent days to prepare for the anticipated influx.
Normally, about three in four migrants pass credible fear interviews, though far fewer eventually win asylum. But during the five months of the Trump-era program, only 23% passed the initial screening, while 69% failed and 9% withdrew, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Those who get past initial screenings are generally freed in the United States to pursue their cases in immigration court, which typically takes four years. Critics say the court backlog encourages more people to seek asylum.
To pass screenings, migrants must convince an asylum officer they have a “significant possibility” of prevailing before a judge on arguments that they face persecution in their home countries on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
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Under the Biden administration's fast-track program, those who don’t qualify will be deported “in a matter of days or just a few weeks,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday.
The expedited screenings will be applied only to single adults, Mayorkas said.
Despite the administration’s assurances that people will have access to legal services, some immigrant advocates who were briefed by the administration are doubtful. Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, noted that advocates were told attorneys would not be allowed inside holding facilities.
The Trump administration used fast-track reviews from October 2019 until March 2020, when it began using a 1944 public health law known as Title 42 to expel immigrants on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The speedy screenings were among Trump-era immigration polices that Biden rolled back in a February 2021 executive order.
Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration won't limit migrants to just one phone call. But it's unclear how many calls U.S. authorities can facilitate, especially if there is no answer and attorneys call back, Hawkins said.
Screenings initially will be limited to Spanish-speaking countries to which the U.S. has regular deportation flights, according to Hawkins and others briefed. The administration began limited screening this month in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, and later expanded to large tents in other border cities, including San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; and El Paso, Texas. Migrants will get a video presentation to explain the interview process.
Mayorkas, a former federal prosecutor, didn't speak in detail about access to legal counsel in remarks Thursday about a broad strategy that, in addition to the screenings, includes processing centers in Guatemala, Colombia and potentially elsewhere for people to come legally to the U.S. through an airport.
“We have expanded our holding capacity and set up equipment and procedures so that individuals have the ability to access counsel,” Mayorkas said.
The Homeland Security Department's inspector general took issue with lack of legal representation under Trump's expedited screening. There were four cordless phones for migrants to share when screenings began in El Paso. Guards took them to a shack to consult attorneys.
Phone booths were later installed but didn't have handsets for safety reasons, forcing migrants to speak loudly and within earshot of people outside, the inspector general said.
Facilities built under Biden are more spacious with plenty of phone booths, according to people who have visited.
“There are rows of cubicles, enclosed," said Paulina Reyes, an attorney at advocacy group ImmDef who visited a San Diego holding facility in March.
The administration has not said how many attorneys have volunteered to represent asylum-seekers. Hawkins said officials told advocates they are reaching out to firms that offer low- or no-cost services to people in immigration detention centers.
Erika Pinheiro, executive director of advocacy group Al Otro Lado, which is active in Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico, said she has not been approached but would decline to represent asylum-seekers in expedited screenings. They arrive exhausted and unfamiliar with asylum law, hindering their abilities to effectively tell their stories.
“We know what the conditions are like. We know people are not going to be mentally prepared,” she said.
The Biden administration aims to complete screenings within 72 hours, the maximum time Border Patrol is supposed to hold migrants under an agency policy that’s routinely ignored.
It’s a tall order. It currently takes about four weeks to complete a screening. Under Trump’s expedited screenings, about 20% of immigrants were in custody for a week or less, according to the GAO. About 86% were held 20 days or less.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has identified 480 former asylum officers or those with training to assist about 800 on the expedited screenings, said Michael Knowles, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents asylum officers. Despite the staffing surge, Knowles said officers worry about the pace of the work, “like an assembly line, ‘hurry up, hurry up,’ when you have lives at stake.”
“All hands will be on this deck for the foreseeable future,” Knowles said. “We don't know how long.”
___
Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, contributed.
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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Biden administration officials on Monday sought to dispel worries they want to exclude oil drilling, livestock grazing and other activities from vast government-owned lands, as they faced pushback from Republicans and ranchers and over a contentious proposal to put conservation on equal footing with industry.
The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Leases also could be bought on behalf of companies such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere.
But more than a century after the U.S. started selling grazing permits and oil and gas leases, the proposal is stirring debate over the best use of public land, primarily in the West. Opponents including Republican lawmakers and agriculture industry representatives are blasting it as a backdoor way to exclude mining, energy development and agriculture.
Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, told The Associated the proposed changes address rising pressure from climate change and development. She said it would make conservation an “equal” to grazing, drilling and other uses while not interfering with them.
The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies for the 380,000 square miles (990,000 square kilometers) it oversees, an area more than twice the size of California. It also regulates publicly owned underground minerals, including oil, coal and lithium for renewable energy across more than 1 million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers).
Those holdings put the agency at the center of arguments over how much development should be allowed.
Senior bureau officials on Monday night hosted the first virtual public meeting about the conservation proposal. There was no opportunity for public comment, and questions for officials were screened by the agency. But officials acknowledged receiving numerous queries about grazing and drilling potentially being excluded.
Brian St. George, acting assistant director for the bureau, said the conservation leases would not “lock up land in perpetuity.”
“It would have a term, and when that restoration goal is met, the term would lapse,” he said.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who tried to block Stone-Manning’s 2021 Senate confirmation, says the proposed rule is illegal.
Earlier this month he berated Interior Secretary Deb Haaland over it during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, saying she was “giving radicals a new tool to shut out the public.”
“The secretary wants to make non-use a use,” said Barrasso, the ranking Republican on the committee. “She is ... turning federal law on its head.”
Stone-Manning told the AP that critics were misreading the rule, and that conservation leases would not usurp existing ones. If grazing is now permitted on a parcel, it could continue. And people could still hunt on the leased property or use it for recreation, she said.
“It makes conservation an equal among the multiple uses that we manage for,” Stone-Manning said. “There are rules around how we do solar development. There are rules around how we do oil and gas. There have not been rules around how we deliver on the portions of (federal law) that say, ‘Manage for fish and wildlife habitat, manage for clean water.’”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — where the federal land bureau controls about two thirds of the land — urged the administration to work with ranchers and farmers before finalizing the proposal, which the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said would “upend” land management in the West.
While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it.
Former President Donald Trump tried to ramp up fossil fuel development on bureau lands, but President Joe Biden suspended new oil and gas leasing when he entered office. Biden later revived the deals to win West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's support for last year's climate law.
Biden remains under intense pressure from Manchin and many Republicans to allow more drilling. Such companies currently hold leases across some 37,500 square miles (97,000 square kilometers) of bureau land.
The pending rule also would promote establishing more areas of “critical environmental concern” due to their historic or cultural significance, or their importance for wildlife conservation. More than 1,000 such sites covering about 33,000 square miles (85,000 square kilometers) have been designated previously.
By comparison, about 242,000 square miles (627,000 square kilometers) of bureau land are open to grazing livestock.
Environmentalists have largely embraced the changes, characterizing the proposal as long overdue.
Joel Webster with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a coalition of conservation groups and hunting and fishing organizations, said the administration's plan would set up a process to ensure landscapes are considered for conservation without forcing restrictions.
He cautioned, however, that administration officials must ensure a final rule doesn't have unintended consequences.
Another virtual event is slated for June 5 and public meetings are planned for May 25 in Denver; May 30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and June 1 in Reno, Nevada.
___
This story was first published on May 15, 2023. It was updated on May 16, 2023, to correct the dates of upcoming meetings about the proposal. They are scheduled for May 30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and June 1 in Reno, Nevada.
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A judge on Tuesday prohibited several federal agencies and officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies about “protected speech,” a decision called “a blow to censorship” by one of the Republican officials whose lawsuit prompted the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit alleged that the federal government overstepped in its efforts to convince social media companies to address postings that could result in vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or affect elections.
Doughty cited “substantial evidence” of a far-reaching censorship campaign. He wrote that the “evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’ ”
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Republican U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, who was the Missouri attorney general when the lawsuit was filed, said on Twitter that the ruling was “a huge win for the First Amendment and a blow to censorship.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the injunction prevents the administration “from censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans” on social media.
“The evidence in our case is shocking and offensive with senior federal officials deciding that they could dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government, and more," Landry said in a statement.
The Justice Department is reviewing the injunction “and will evaluate its options in this case,” said a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections,” the official said. “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present.”
The ruling listed several government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, that are prohibited by the injunction from discussions with social media companies aimed at “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
The order mentions by name several officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others.
Doughty allowed several exceptions, such as informing social media companies of postings involving criminal activity and conspiracies; as well as notifying social media firms of national security threats and other threats posted on platforms.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit also included individuals, including conservative website owner Jim Hoft. The lawsuit accused the administration of using the possibility of favorable or unfavorable regulatory action to coerce social media platforms to squelch what it considered misinformation on masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also touched on other topics, including claims about election integrity and news stories about material on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
Administration lawyers said the government left it up to social media companies to decide what constituted misinformation and how to combat it. In one brief, they likened the lawsuit to an attempt to put a legal gag order on the federal government and “suppress the speech of federal government officials under the guise of protecting the speech rights of others.”
“Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction would significantly hinder the Federal Government’s ability to combat foreign malign influence campaigns, prosecute crimes, protect the national security, and provide accurate information to the public on matters of grave public concern such as health care and election integrity,” the administration says in a May 3 court filing.
___
Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Cal Woodward, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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feels like judicial abuse given his history and the court shopping that happens with some of these gop ag's.....
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I would imagine this stuff could be found on whitehouse.gov
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
oh, well I expected you'd be able to find the info contained in the tweets just the same.
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
then I would point you to the dept of ed gov website? thats where the rule making and all that is anyway....
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has chosen Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, an unprecedented choice that, if she is confirmed, will make her the first woman to be a Pentagon service chief and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden's decision goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the Navy, has broad command and executive experience and was considered by insiders to be the top choice for the job.
In a statement Friday, Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said “throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended that Biden select Adm. Samuel Paparo, the current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, several U.S. officials said last month. But instead, Biden is nominating Paparo to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
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A senior administration official said Biden chose Franchetti based on the broad scope of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge in budgeting and running the department.
At the same time, the official acknowledged that Biden understands the historical nature of the nomination and believes that Franchetti will be an inspiration to sailors, both men and women. The official spoke earlier on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not been made public.
Franchetti's nomination will join the list of hundreds of military moves that are being held up by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He is blocking confirmation of military officers in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.
Biden, in his statement, blasted Tuberville for prioritizing his domestic political agenda over military readiness.
“What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said. “He is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.”
Franchetti is slated to serve as the acting Navy chief beginning next month when Adm. Michael Gilday, the current top naval officer, retires as planned.
Several women have served as military service secretaries as political appointees, but never as their top uniformed officer. A woman, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, is currently the commandant of the Coast Guard. She, however, is not a member of the Joint Staff. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Pentagon.
The news last month that the defense chief had recommended Papara stunned many in the Pentagon because it was long believed that Franchetti was in line for the top Navy job.
In a statement Friday, Austin praised the nomination, saying, “I’m very proud that Admiral Franchetti has been nominated to be the first woman Chief of Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where she will continue to inspire all of us.”
A surface warfare officer, she has commanded at all levels, heading U.S. 6th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander.
Paparo, who if confirmed will replace Adm. John Aquilino, is a naval aviator and a TOPGUN graduate with more than 6,000 flight hours in Navy fighter jets and 1,100 landings on aircraft carriers. A Pennsylvania native, he graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned into the Navy in 1987.
Prior to his Pacific tour, he was commander of naval forces in the Middle East, based in Bahrain, and also previously served as director of operations at U.S. Central Command in Florida.
Biden also said he will nominate Vice Adm. James Kilby to be the vice chief of the Navy and tap Vice Adm. Stephen Koehler to head the Pacific Fleet.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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