May 1, 2018

Tick and Mosquito Infections Spreading Rapidly, C.D.C. Finds

Source: The New York Times



Global Health

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. MAY 1, 2018

The number of people who get diseases transmitted by mosquito, tick and flea bites has more than tripled in the United States in recent years, federal health officials reported on Tuesday. Since 2004, at least nine such diseases have been newly discovered or introduced into the United States.

Warmer weather is an important cause of the surge in cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the lead author of a study in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. But the author, Dr. Lyle R. Petersen, the agency’s director of vector-borne diseases, repeatedly declined to connect the increase to the politically fraught issue of climate change, and the report does not mention either climate change or global warming.

Many other factors are at work, he emphasized, while noting that “the numbers on some of these diseases have gone to astronomical levels.”

C.D.C. officials called for more support for state and local health departments. Local agencies “are our first line of defense,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, the C.D.C.’s new director. “We must enhance our investment in their ability to fight these diseases.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/health/ticks-mosquitoes-diseases.html

May 1, 2018

California, 17 other states sue Trump administration to defend Obama-era climate rules for vehicles

Source: The Washington Post




By Chris Mooney May 1 at 1:17 PM

Eighteen states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its push to “reconsider” greenhouse gas emissions rules for the nation’s auto fleet, launching a legal battle over one of the Obama administration’s most significant efforts to address climate change.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt in April said he would revisit the Obama-era rules, which aim to raise efficiency requirements to about 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Pruitt’s agency argued the standards are “based on outdated information” and that new data suggest “the current standards may be too stringent.”

But in the lawsuit, the states contend the EPA acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in changing course on the greenhouse gas regulations.

“This phalanx of states will defend the nation’s clean car standards to boost gas mileage and curb toxic air pollution,” California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) said in a statement announcing the suit, which was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/01/california-17-other-states-sue-trump-administration-to-defend-obama-era-vehicle-efficiency-rules/

May 1, 2018

UPDATED: Scott Pruitt's Embattled Security Chief Resigns

Source: Talking Points Memo

By Matt Shuham May 1, 2018 11:28 am

The former Secret Service agent who led EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's multimillion-dollar, 24/7 security detail while also leading his own private security firm resigned Monday,
he told ABC News.

"All of this press is taking a toll on my family. I decided to move on and it's been an honor to serve," Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta told ABC News. He told the network he would "fully cooperate" with lawmakers probing the EPA, starting with an interview with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. And so ended the bizarre and twisting narrative of perhaps Pruitt's most mysterious aide.

Before leading the administrator's detail, Perrotta worked on the side for the Trump-friendly publisher American Media Inc. during the 2016 election. Led by David J. Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher is now known for the tabloid practice of "catch and kill" -- that is, buying and burying stories which Trump, it so happens, benefitted from having buried. Perrotta also published a memoir in 2016 detailing his "battle with the New York Mafia!"

CBS News reported last month that Perrotta replaced Pruitt's existing chief of security, Eric Weese, two weeks after Weese advised Pruitt that his motorcade's sirens should only be used in emergencies, rather than to cut through Washington, D.C. traffic, as Pruitt wanted.


Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-pruitts-embattled-security-chief-resigns

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UPDATE:

MAY 1, 2018 / 11:51 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Two top U.S. EPA staffers resign amid ethics probes

Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two high-level Environmental Protection Agency employees whose names have come up in investigations of Administrator Scott Pruitt's ethics and travel have resigned from the agency, the EPA confirmed on Tuesday.

Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who served as the head of Pruitt's security team, resigned on Monday but said he will continue to cooperate in a U.S. House of Representatives investigation of his role in costly decisions around Pruitt's security. ABC News first reported the resignation on Tuesday.

Albert "Kell" Kelly, who ran the agency's Superfund cleanup program, also announced his resignation, the EPA confirmed. Kelly was barred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from working at any U.S. financial institution after unspecified violations while working at a bank in Oklahoma.

Lawmakers last week grilled Pruitt in back-to-back hearings on reports of ethics violations, excessive spending on travel and security, close industry ties and the reassignment of agency whistleblowers who flagged concerns about high spending.

more
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-ethics/two-top-us-epa-staffers-resign-amid-ongoing-ethics-probes-idUSKBN1I23Y0

May 1, 2018

The Professor At The Center Of The Trump-Russia Probe Was In Moscow Just Weeks Before Court...

Source: Buzzfeed News

The Professor At The Center Of The Trump-Russia Probe Was In Moscow Just Weeks Before Court Documents Were Unsealed

Joseph Mifsud's trip to Moscow coincided with an official visit by the king of Saudi Arabia.

Posted on May 1, 2018, at 12:18 p.m.

Alberto Nardelli
BuzzFeed News Europe Editor
London

Reporting From
London

Joseph Mifsud, the enigmatic Maltese professor at the center of the Trump-Russia probe, was in Moscow just weeks before special counsel Robert Mueller unsealed court documents alleging that Mifsud had told a Trump campaign adviser that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, BuzzFeed News has learned. The trip, which hasn’t been previously reported, is the last time Mifsud is known to have been in Russia.

Three weeks after his Russia trip, Mifsud was identified as the unnamed “overseas professor” who allegedly told foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos in April 2016 that Russia had thousands of emails from the Democrats. That was weeks before the Democrats themselves were aware that their computer systems had been hacked.

Mifsud was last seen in public Oct. 31, 2017, in Rome. His current whereabouts are unknown. The precise nature of Mifsud's place, if any, in Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election remains unclear and unexplained.

Still, the new information on Mifsud's travels indicates that even after he'd been questioned by the FBI, and as US investigators were about to make his role public, he remained in contact with Russian government circles.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/the-professor-at-the-center-of-the-trump-russia-probe?utm_term=.uk1Oee6gw#.qg8LDDAzO

May 1, 2018

Small Step For Mankind? Trump Says 'We're Getting Very Big In Space'

Source: Talking Points Memo




By Nicole Lafond | May 1, 2018 1:07 pm

President Donald Trump again suggested forming a sixth branch of the military — the “space force” — during an event at the White House with West Point students on Tuesday, arguing the new branch may be necessary because the U.S. is “getting very big in space.”

“We’re getting very big in space both militarily and for other reasons,” he said, addressing the West Point Military Academy football team as he presented them with the Commander in Chief trophy Tuesday. “We are seriously thinking of the space force and you’ll join the greatest force for peace and justice the world has ever known. You will keep us safe, you will keep up strong, you will keep us free, and thank you for your service.”

Trump has floated the idea of a “space force” in the past. While addressing members of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in March, he said the idea started as a joke, but then he changed his mind.

“Space is a war-fighting domain, just like land, air and sea,” he said earlier this spring. “I said, ‘maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force,’ and I was not really serious. Then I said, ‘what a great idea,’ maybe we’ll have to do that.”

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Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-getting-big-space

May 1, 2018

Tom Price: Individual Mandate Repeal Will 'Harm' Insurance Exchanges

Source: Talking Points Memo



By Matt Shuham | May 1, 2018 12:52 pm

Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, now safely out of power, said Tuesday that Republicans’ repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate will “harm” the individual insurance marketplace.

“That may help, but it still is nibbling at the side,” Price told this year’s World Heath Care Congress in Washington, D.C., according to audio of Price’s speech shared with TPM by event organizers. The Washington Times first reported Price’s remarks. “And there are many, and I’m one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals that are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market,” he added.

Price is making a mundane point to most health care policy experts: If, beginning in 2019, individuals on the non-group market are allowed to avoid choosing between paying for insurance or paying a penalty, many healthy people will simply drop their insurance. As a result, prices for individuals remaining in Obamacare’s individual insurance marketplaces will go up. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2016, and again in 2017, that repealing the individual mandate would increase the number of uninsured people in the United States.

Yet when held a powerful position in the federal government, as secretary of Health and Human Services, Price was noncommittal on the future of the individual mandate and its policy value.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-price-individual-mandate-repeal-will-harm-insurance-exchanges

May 1, 2018

Exclusive: Border patrol violence: US paid $60m to cover claims against the agency

Source: The Guardian

Exclusive: analysis of more than a decade of official data reveals government paid settlements after deaths, alleged assaults and wrongful detention

Sarah Macaraeg

Tue 1 May 2018 09.19 EDT

The US government has paid out more than $60m in legal settlements where border agents were involved in deaths, driving injuries, alleged assaults and wrongful detention, an analysis of more than a decade of official data reveals.

Since taking office, Donald Trump has been pushing to expand the patrol force at the southern border, insisting recently on Twitter: “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws.” But while Trump has ordered national guard troops to be deployed to provide agents with extra support, the review of settlement data and details found in related court records raises concerns about the agency’s history of interactions with civilians, both native-born and immigrant.

Cases uncovered by examination of treasury payment records spanning October 2005 to July 2017, court documents and media reports reveal:

The federal government has settled at least 20 wrongful death claims on behalf of CBP, paying more than $9m to the families of people killed since 2003, in incidents including shooting, beating, use of Tasers and collisions with vehicles.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/01/border-patrol-violence-us-paid-60m-to-cover-claims-against-the-agency

May 1, 2018

Cohen responds to message sent by National Enquirer cover

Source: CNN


By Jim Acosta, CNN

Updated 7:19 AM ET, Tue May 1, 2018

Washington (CNN) - A National Enquirer cover story targeting Michael Cohen could be a strong sign President Donald Trump is upset with his personal lawyer and turning against the man known for years as his "fixer," a source close to Trump said.

According to the source, Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who is a longtime friend of Trump's, would not have allowed the publication of the story -- which featured a headline including the phrase "Trump's Fixer's Secrets & Lies" -- without the President's blessing.

When asked whether he thought a message was being sent by the story's publication, Cohen told CNN: "What do you think?"

The Justice Department announced earlier this month that Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months in New York over his business dealings. The announcement followed a raid of his office and home by federal investigators and Trump's and Cohen's legal teams attempting to block the courts from using some of the information seized during the raid.

###

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/30/politics/michael-cohen-national-enquirer/index.html

May 1, 2018

1,000 drag queens will 'welcome' Trump to London when he visits

By Ron Johnson · Tuesday, May 1, 2018



Queen Elizabeth won’t the only queen greeting Donald Trump when he visits the U.K. in July.

A thousand people have signed onto a Facebook invitation for a drag-queen protest to greet the president in London on July 13. Another nearly 7,000 people are interested in attending.

Manchester drag performer Cheddar Gorgeous and four other performers have issued the call to all drag kings, queens, queers and our allies.

“Due to the appalling way the Trump administration has regarded the rights and welfare of the LGBTQI communities in the U.S., the idea of a Trump visit to the U.K. is unacceptable,” the invitation says. “Let’s get visible, stand with our sisters, brothers and others in America.”

Gorgeous also spread the word through an April 30 guest column in the Guardian newspaper. She and her group — Violet Blonde, Liquorice Black, Anna Phylactic and Jonny Banks — are making plans to meet in a central location and join the main protest against Trump.

more
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/05/1000-drag-queens-will-welcome-trump-london-visits/?utm_source=notification&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=onesignal

May 1, 2018

Democrats launch net neutrality fight to energize midterm voters

By JOHN HENDEL 04/30/2018 12:55 PM EDT

Senate Democrats are preparing to force a floor vote next month on restoring net neutrality rules repealed by President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission, creating a public clash they hope will help them in the midterm elections.

Democrats are planning to take the procedural step May 9 to compel the vote, a Senate Democratic aide told POLITICO. That could set up the vote as soon as the following week.

Senate Democrats have 50 votes lined up — more than enough to force a vote under the Congressional Review Act, but one shy of the 51 required for passage. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is the only Republican to have pledged support for the effort so far.

Even with Senate passage, the Democrats’ proposal would be unlikely to get through the House or earn Trump’s signature. But their plans for a floor fight would still add visibility to an issue that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has suggested will resonate with younger, internet-savvy voters.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/30/democrats-net-neutrality-midterm-voters-508425