Seth Meyers: FCC Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality, Walmart's Marijuana Christmas Tree- Monologue 12/14

Stephen Colbert - Monologue and Opening - 12/14/17

Wandering bovine returned to Philly nativity scene

Philadelphia — A cow in Philadelphia apparently wanted to be away from the manger, as it escaped twice Thursday morning from a church’s live nativity scene.

Stormy, the 7-year-old brown and white Hereford, was back munching hay at Old First Reformed Church of Christ by 7:15 a.m. after two sets of adventures on snowy downtown streets.

Police first got reports of a cow near an Interstate 95 on-ramp around 2 a.m. Thursday.

One of the state police troopers who responded has a cattle ranch in New Jersey and knew how to handle the situation, WPVI-TV reports . Officers put a lead rope on the cow and walked her to a nearby parking lot with police vehicles helping shepherd Stormy back to church. Some lanes of the highway had to be shut down as the cow was wrangled.


More: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/14/cow-wanders-interstate/108594164/

US considers weakening offshore safety rules to promote more drilling

The Trump administration is considering easing offshore oil and natural gas safety regulations, including eliminating certain requirements for Arctic drilling put in place by the Obama administration, and cutting testing requirements for rules developed in response to BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, an Interior Department document showed Thursday.

In addition, the administration is considering giving operators access to Arctic waters for longer periods than currently allowed, a rule change regulators claim could boost interest in exploration.

Details of the administration's plans of offshore rules were outlined in the Interior Department's latest statement of regulatory priorities, which was released Thursday.

That plan calls for Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to rollback or weaken offshore safety regulations put in place by the Obama administration in order to promote additional oil and natural gas drilling in federal waters.


Much more: https://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/houston/us-considers-weakening-offshore-safety-rules-21831093

The Daily Show: Conservative Outrage Grows Over the Mueller Probe

Seth Meyers - FCC Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality; Omarosa Drama Continues: A Closer Look

Seth Meyers - Alabama Election Results, Trump's Approval Rating - Monologue - 12/13/17

US House panel passes bill repealing oil, gas transparency law

The House Committee on Financial Services passed a bill Wednesday that would permanently repeal a federal rule requiring US-traded oil and natural gas companies to disclose payments to foreign governments.

If ultimately approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Trump, the bill would prevent the anti-corruption transparency rule mandated in 2010's Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act from taking effect.

The bill, HR 4519, was introduced in the House by Michigan Representative Bill Huizenga, a Republican, on December 1. The 114-word bill, which has no co-sponsors, simply repeals section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank law. Section 1504 requires all companies traded on US exchanges and involved in the commercial development of oil, gas or minerals to disclose payments made to any government and file annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The law was opposed by the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's leading trade group, which sued the SEC in a case that ultimately led the US District Court for the District of Columbia to vacate an earlier payment-transparency rule finalized by the agency in 2012.

In February, after Senate and House approval, Trump signed a resolution which repealed the transparency rule as finalized by the SEC in 2016, but it did not change the underlying law within Dodd-Frank.


More: https://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/washington/us-house-panel-passes-bill-repealing-oil-gas-21817895

France names winners of anti-Trump climate change grants

PARIS — Eighteen climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere hit the jackpot Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron awarded them millions of euros in grants to relocate to France for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term.

The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants — a nod to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — are part of Macron’s efforts to counter Trump on the climate change front. Macron announced a contest for the projects in June, hours after Trump declared he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

More than 5,000 people from about 100 countries expressed interest in the grants. A majority of the applicants — and 13 of the 18 winners — were U.S.-based researchers.

Macron’s appeal “gave me such a psychological boost, to have that kind of support, to have the head of state saying I value what you do,” said winner Camille Parmesan, of the University of Texas at Austin. She will be working at an experimental ecology station in the Pyrenees on how human-made climate change is affecting wildlife.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Parmesan described funding challenges for climate science in the U.S. and a feeling that “you are having to hide what you do.”


More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/france-to-name-winners-of-anti-trump-climate-change-grants/2017/12/11/98ce181e-de4f-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.122ed4c1a239

Stephen Colbert: What Do (Guest) Dennis Rodman And Kim Jong-Un Talk About?