June 2, 2018

Superfund Task Force Led By Lawyer With Ex-Clients Responsible For Toxic Spills

Source: Talking Points Memo/AP



By Michael Biescker | June 2, 2018 4:49 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer tapped to lead a task force at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing cleanups at the nation’s most polluted places worked until recently for a top chemical and plastics manufacturer with a troubled legacy of creating some of those toxic sites.

Steven D. Cook has been named as the new chair of the Superfund Task Force, which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt created last year to revamp how the agency oversees cleanups at the more than 1,300 toxic sites.

Before beginning work in February as deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, Cook served more than 20 years as in-house corporate counsel for LyondellBasell Industries — one of the world’s largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies.

EPA records show that LyondellBasell and its subsidiaries are listed as being potentially responsible for at least three dozen Superfund polluted sites.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/superfund-task-force-led-lawyer-spills

June 2, 2018

Empire state building tower goes orange for gun control

Source: The Hill




BY ARIS FOLLEY - 06/02/18 03:52 PM EDT

The Empire State Building shined orange on Friday night in solidarity with thousands of protesters across the country calling for an end to gun violence.

The city of New York ceremoniously lit the building’s spire with the bright color ahead of preparation for National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2. The move to illuminate the iconic building came as part of this year’s Wear Orange Campaign in remembrance of gun violence victims.

https://twitter.com/LeeGoldbergABC7/status/1002748998220906496

Saturday marks the third annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, when activists wear orange in a symbolic call to end gun violence.

After the ceremonial lighting took place Friday night, thousands of youth activists from all over the country converged Saturday in the “Youth over Guns” march, encouraging others to get involved in the ongoing fight against gun violence.




Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/390413-empire-state-building-tower-goes-orange-for-gun-control

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Thousands of gun control activists flock to Brooklyn Bridge in ‘Youth over Guns’ march

BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 06/02/18 04:16 PM EDT

Thousands of youth gun control activists took over New York's iconic Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday for the “Youth over Guns” march to protest gun violence.

https://twitter.com/MFOLNY/status/1002964953723269121

Activist groups from several of New York City’s boroughs and marchers from other parts of the country converged Saturday for the march.

https://twitter.com/NoRA4USA/status/1002965009612333056

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/390411-thousands-of-gun-control-advocates-take-over-brooklyn-bridge-in

June 2, 2018

Michelle Wolf pounds ABC for hiring 'lady Hitler' Roseanne Barr in the first place

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/watch-comedian-michelle-wolf-brutally-pounds-abc-hiring-lady-hitler-roseanne-barr-first-place/

June 2, 2018

Former fed prosecutor explains why it is too late for Trump to pardon Michael Flynn to save himself

Former federal prosecutor explains why it is too late for Trump to pardon Michael Flynn to save himself



https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/former-federal-prosecutor-explains-late-trump-pardon-michael-flynn-save/

June 2, 2018

Trump's Still Bragging About the Government's Handling of a Hurricane That Killed More Than 4,600...

Trump Is Still Bragging About the Government’s Handling of a Hurricane That Killed More Than 4,600 Americans

INAE OHJUN. 1, 2018 3:25 PM

President Donald Trump has yet to comment on a devastating new study published by Harvard researchers this week estimating that 4,645 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria—more than 72 times what the Trump administration has officially acknowledged. The new death toll marks what may be the country’s deadliest natural disaster in 100 years.

But while Trump remains silent on the study, he’s still bragging about the government’s response.

“Last season during the hurricanes—I was in Texas, I was in Florida, I was in Puerto Rico—I saw the work you did under the most adverse conditions,” Trump said at the change-of-command ceremony for the US Coast Guard on Friday. “I’ve said this to a lot of people: I don’t think any brand has gained more momentum or has gained more of anything than the brand of the United States Coast Guard.”

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1002572304726052864

As my colleague Tim Murphy noted earlier this week, during the hurricane and its aftermath, Trump vacillated between blaming Puerto Rico for an “impossible situation” and demanding that the media shower praise on his emergency response efforts.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/913554705816711168

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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-still-bragging

June 2, 2018

Justin Trudeau Just Slammed "Insulting and Unacceptable" Trump Trade Behavior

Source: Mother Jones




The Canadian PM called Trump’s rationale factually inaccurate.

JAMES WESTJUN. 2, 2018 2:04 PM

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called President Trump’s trade tariffs on aluminium and steel “insulting and unacceptable” in a new video posted on Saturday by NBC’s Meet the Press on Twitter. Canada, Mexico and the European Union had previously been exempt from Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports, but the US snapped them into effect at midnight Thursday. The US cast the decision to include the three trading giants and allies in the tariffs as an urgent matter of national security to defend local markets: “Without a strong economy, you can’t have a strong national security,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last week.

But Trudeau flatly refuted that premise in the video, which previews a longer interview set to air on Sunday, by recalling his country’s deep military relationship with the US. (NBC also made some of the details from the upcoming interview available Friday on its website.)

“The idea that, you know, our soldiers who had fought and died together on the beaches of World War II, and the mountains of Afghanistan and have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world, that are always there for each other, somehow—this is insulting to them,” he told Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd. “Next week we’re hosting the G7 summit of world leaders and the airfield, the military base, that Air Force One is going to land in was put there in World War II to protect an aluminium smelter that was providing to the military effort. The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable.”

“So, what do you feel as if the president wants from you in putting these tariffs up?” Todd asked.

https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1002949120632516608

Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/trudeau-trump-trade-tariffs-interview-nbc-insulting

June 2, 2018

A Courtside View of Scott Pruitt's Cozy Ties With a Billionaire Coal Baron

By Steve Eder, Hiroko Tabuchi and Eric Lipton
June 2, 2018

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was one of the biggest games of the University of Kentucky basketball season, and Scott Pruitt had scored two of the best seats in the arena: a few feet from the action, in a section reserved for season-ticket holders who had donated at least $1 million to the university.

The special access for Mr. Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also included watching from the players’ entrance as the team streamed onto the court, and posing for a photo with a star player in the locker room area. But there was more to the game last December than a superfan experience for Mr. Pruitt and his son, who joined him. They sat in seats belonging to Joseph W. Craft III, a billionaire coal executive who has engaged in an aggressive campaign to reverse the Obama administration’s environmental crackdown on the coal industry. Mr. Craft and his wife donated more than $2 million to support President Trump’s candidacy and inauguration.

Mr. Pruitt’s attendance at the game, the details of which have not been previously reported, followed a year of regulatory victories for Mr. Craft, who maintains close ties to Mr. Pruitt even as he has lobbied the E.P.A. on issues important to his company, Alliance Resource Partners. And unlike other executives with whom Mr. Pruitt is known to have close ties — like the oilman Harold Hamm or the coal mogul Robert E. Murray — Mr. Craft has stayed relatively under the radar.

A major contributor to Mr. Pruitt’s campaigns in Oklahoma when Mr. Pruitt served in state government, Mr. Craft saw Mr. Pruitt at least seven times during his first 14 months at the E.P.A., agency records and emails show, and they were scheduled to appear together on at least two other occasions. That is more than Mr. Pruitt has met with representatives of any environmental group.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/us/scott-pruitt-coal-joseph-craft.html

June 2, 2018

Trump slams 'the resistance' in weekly address

Source: The Hill



BY MAX GREENWOOD - 06/02/18 11:28 AM EDT

President Trump tore into the so-called "resistance" of Democrats opposed to his agenda on Saturday, accusing them of "resisting the will of the American voter."

In his weekly address, Trump blamed Democrats for slow-walking many of his nominees through the confirmation process, saying that Senate Democrats had "shamelessly obstructed" hundreds of qualified picks.

"From day one, Senate Democrats have shamelessly obstructed, stalled, and filibustered the confirmations of hundreds of talented men and women who are eager to come to Washington, D.C., to make a difference," he said. "They want to serve our country."

Trump also blasted the party's opposition to his hardline demands on border security and immigration. He said that Democrats were withholding support for his policies because the party is "afraid it’s going to make me and the Republicans look good."

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/390390-trump-slams-the-resistance-in-weekly-address

June 2, 2018

'The guy's a f---ing yenta': Trump's loose lips draw fire

Even President Donald Trump's supporters concede he can't keep a secret.

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN 06/01/2018 07:05 PM EDT

President Donald Trump has a hard time keeping a secret.

His Friday morning tweet teasing a positive jobs report before its public release was just the latest of many cases where Trump has let slip something he wasn’t supposed to.

As commander in chief, Trump has the power to share any information he wants. But his norm-busting desire to dish details on everything from foreign policy to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to a political rival’s cellphone number has alarmed critics who worry that he could disclose information that moves markets or even risks lives.

Political allies and former advisers concede that Trump has trouble holding his tongue — especially when he can boost his image or clinch an argument. The president’s flair for speaking freely, they say, was formed during his heyday as a New York tabloid fixture, when he straddled the worlds of entertainment and business and learned the power of gossip and illicit truths.

“He’s good at keeping secrets that involve him,” said Sam Nunberg, one of Trump’s earliest 2016 presidential campaign aides. Invoking the Yiddish word for a female gossip, he added of Trump: “On the other hand, the guy’s a fucking yenta.”

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/01/trump-secrets-white-house-security-leaks-617961

June 2, 2018

U.S. listened in on attorney calls with American citizen prisoner in Iraq

By JOSH GERSTEIN 06/01/2018 09:57 PM EDT

The Defense Department recorded at least 18 phone calls intended to allow confidential communication between an American citizen being held prisoner by U.S. forces in Iraq and the prisoner’s attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a court filing late Friday.

In at least two instances, a civilian Defense Department employee listened to the attorney-client calls, government lawyers disclosed.

The surveillance may have run afoul of a federal judge’s order issued in December calling for the Pentagon to give the ACLU “immediate and unmonitored access” to the prisoner by phone or videoconference.

Justice Department attorneys described the monitoring as “an inadvertent breach … of attorney-client communications.”

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/01/aclu-iraq-prisoner-defense-department-recorded-calls-618626