Hong Kong police move on Polytechnic University protesters, threaten fire – The Washington Post
whoa
Category: Domestic Affairs,
Towns like Mammoth want control of Forest Service recreation
“The Forest Service is overwhelmed,” he said, by 21st century challenges its founders could never have imagined: climate change, budget cuts, electric mountain bikes.
…Called the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership, the project would establish a new economic alliance among the Forest Service and the communities of Mammoth Lakes and Bishop and three counties — Inyo, Mono and Alpine. Local government agencies would take the lead in developing water systems and sewers, roads, campground services, restrooms, trails and signage in some of the Sierra’s most heavily visited corners.
The idea is popular in mountain towns that have struggled with economic development, but it worries some conservationists and local officials who want the region to retain its wild spaces and rustic personality.
Towns like Mammoth want control of Forest Service recreation – Los Angeles Times
hmmmm
EPA to ease rules on waste from coal-fired power plants
The Trump administration’s proposals weaken rules dealing with the residue from burning coal, known as coal ash, as well as the residue rinsed off of filters installed on smoke stacks. Both are often mixed with water and stored in giant pits that could leach into groundwater or be released directly into local waterways.
The rollbacks, which were spurred by a court decision ordering EPA to overhaul the use of unlined ponds, target 2015 Obama administration rules that required power plants to invest in wastewater treatment technology and monitoring of coal ash ponds, measures they estimated would stop some 1.4 billion pounds of coal ash from entering rivers and streams.
sigh…
The NY TIMES Tells US That Buttigieg Annoys His Democratic Rivals
“This is not a contest for who is the most established, it’s a contest for who is the most convincing,” Mr. Buttigieg said during an interview aboard his campaign bus in Waverly. “The better we do, I imagine the more we’ll feel some heat, but that just means we’re doing well.”
…Mr. Buttigieg drew the coveted first speaking slot, when the 16,000-seat arena was mostly full. He used the opportunity to describe Ms. Warren as a divisive character more interested in fighting than in achieving progressive policy outcomes.
Ms. Warren responded minutes later with a line interpreted as a shot back at Mr. Buttigieg and his campaign operation.
“I’m not running some consultant-driven campaign with some vague ideas that are designed not to offend anyone,” she said.
…“He got 9,000 votes in a college town that last voted for a Republican in 1964,” Mr. Bullock said.
Why Pete Buttigieg Annoys His Democratic Rivals – The New York Times
The peanut gallery likes many things about Mayor Pete but the reason it would not support him is abject lack of intersectionality. All other complaints are secondary. The quote in the first paragraph above is just repackaged Trumpism though. [Barf!]
The whole things sounds like the media being dramatic and making a story out of nothing though.
Facebook has shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts this year, but millions likely remain
Nearly all of the bogus accounts were caught before they had a chance to become “active” users of the social network, so they are not counted in the user figures the company reports regularly. Facebook estimates that about 5% of its 2.45 billion user accounts are fake.
The company said in a report Wednesday that it also removed 18.5 million instances of child nudity and sexual exploitation from its main platform in the April-September period, up from 13 million in the previous six months. It said the increase was due to improvements in detection.
In addition, Facebook said it removed 11.4 million instances of hate speech during the period, up from 7.5 million in the previous six months. The company said it is beginning to remove hate speech proactively, the way it does with some extremist content, child-exploitation and other material.
Facebook has shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts this year, but millions likely remain – CNN
hmmmm
The Amount of Money Being Made Ripping Migrant Families Apart Is Staggering
Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing software was “mission critical” for ICE’s operations, as Berkowitz explained to me, and the agency paid Microsoft nearly $20 million for its use.
…Accenture, Boeing, Elbit, G4S, General Dynamics, IBM, L3 Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir (with software provided by Amazon), Raytheon, and UNISYS are among the hundreds of companies who are facilitating the migrant detention and deportation machine—and have been raking in, from 2006 to 2018, more than a combined $45 billion, dispersed among nearly 100,000 separate contracts with CBP and ICE.
…Immigration enforcement budgets have ballooned from $350 million in 1980, to $1.2 billion in 1990, to $9.1 billion in 2003, to a whopping $23.7 billion in 2018. …Those budgets then annually funnel $2.32 billion back to the private sector through federal immigration, corrections, and detention contracts.
…Since 2006, “177 people have gone through the DHS revolving door and 34 have worked both for the House Homeland Security Committee and for a lobbying firm,” the report notes. Just from 2003 to 2017, four CBP commissioners and three DHS secretaries went on to work in homeland security corporations after leaving government.
…John Kelly …joined the board of directors of Caliburn International. …[During] the period Kelly was in office, from July 2017 to December 2018, …the average length of stay for an unaccompanied child migrant in US custody “skyrocketed.” The company that ran Homestead, a subsidiary of Caliburn, also happened to land a contract, in that same period, for a whopping $222 million.
…The border-security corporate giants, especially Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Boeing, are the biggest campaign contributors to members of the House Appropriations Committee—the congressional body that regulates expenditures of the federal government. Between 2006 and 2018, these companies contributed a total of $27.6 million just to members of the committee.
Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, to take just one example, received large campaign contributions from GEO Group and CoreCivic ($55,690), Northrop Grumman ($13,000), Boeing Corporation ($10,000), Caterpillar Inc ($10,000) and Lockheed Martin ($10,000).
The Amount of Money Being Made Ripping Migrant Families Apart Is Staggering | The Nation
hmmm
EPA chief of staff under investigation in document destruction
The IG’s office is asking witnesses whether Jackson has routinely destroyed politically sensitive documents, including schedules and letters from people like lobbyist Richard Smotkin, who helped arrange a trip for then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to Morocco when he was in office, according to one of the sources, a former administration official who told investigators he has seen Jackson do that firsthand.
EPA chief of staff under investigation in document destruction – POLITICO
hmmm
Trump adviser Stephen Miller injected white nationalist agenda into Breitbart, investigation reveals
Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller shaped the 2016 election coverage of the hard right-wing website Breitbart with material drawn from prominent white nationalists, Islamophobes, and far-right websites.
…Emails from Miller to a former Breitbart writer, sent before and after he joined the Trump campaign, show Miller obsessively focused on injecting white nationalist-style talking points on race and crime, Confederate monuments, and Islam into the far-right website’s campaign coverage.
…As Americans demanded the removal of Confederate statues and flags, Miller encouraged McHugh to turn the narrative back on leftists and Latinos.
…Miller used a US government email address during the early part of the correspondence, when he was an aide to senator Jeff Sessions, and then announced his new job on the Trump campaign, and a new email address, to recipients including McHugh.
As well as McHugh, recipients of his emails included others then at Breitbart who subsequently worked in the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon and current Trump aide, Julia Hahn.
hmmmm
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