An internal US Army survey illustrates the challenges the military is facing to combat extremism in the ranks even after the Pentagon made it a top priority at the beginning of the Biden administration.

The internal survey, carried out last year and obtained by the Project on Government Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, found that nearly half of the respondents incorrectly identified how to report extremist behavior. Meanwhile, a third of those who responded weren’t sure how to report such behavior.

In addition, one in five didn’t realize that donating money to an organization that advocated the superiority of a racial group is banned. Perhaps more worryingly, one in ten didn’t identify using force, violence or unlawful means to deprive individuals of their rights as prohibited.

The survey was conducted as part of an audit into how Army leaders were incorporating extremism awareness and prevention into day-to-day operations. It was carried out by the US Army Audit Agency and completed in June 2023, but it was not made public.
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Vice President Kamala Harris visits Pittsburgh to announce nearly $6 billion for clean drinking water infrastructure Nationwide

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Vice President Kamala Harris visited Pittsburgh on Tuesday to announce nearly $6 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure nationwide.

At the Kingsley Association Community Center on Tuesday afternoon, Harris joined EPA Administrator Michael Regan to announce $5.8 billion worth of funding for every state in the country. The vice president said Pennsylvania will get about $200 million.

Over 2 million Americans live without running water and tens of millions lack access to safe and reliable drinking water and sanitation, the Biden administration said.

"Can you believe that in the United States of America that is still not necessarily guaranteed to all people, to access clean water?" Harris said.

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BREAKING: The Teamsters just gave $45,000 to the RNC.

This is like the mouse hiring his own exterminator.

There is no greater threat to organized labor than the Republican Party and their corporate donors.

Hell, they want to get rid of the National Labor Relations Board! 🤦🏻?♂️

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This flow of payments, ultimately to Moscow’s benefit, comes from India increasing its purchases of Russian crude by over 13 times its pre-war amounts, according to the analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), exclusively shared with CNN. It amounts to US strategic partner New Delhi stepping in to replace crude purchases by Western buyers, reduced by sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the analysis said.

While Russian crude sales to India are not subject to sanctions and are entirely legitimate, an examination of shipping routes by experts suggests this huge volume of shipments might involve the so-called “shadow fleet” of crude tankers, specially created by Moscow to try to disguise who it is trading with and how, and maximize the Kremlin’s profits.

CNN witnessed what is a likely part of that complex trade off the Greek port of Gythio earlier this month. Two oil tankers – one massive, the other smaller – sidled up next to each other for a ship-to-ship transfer, which involves passing crude oil between vessels, sometimes with the aim of disguising its origin and ultimate destination.

The two tankers have colorful histories. Both embarked from Russia weeks earlier. One is owned by an Indian-based company accused of involvement in sanctions violations, and the other was previously owned by an individual subject to separate US sanctions, according to shipping monitoring firm Pole Star Global.
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Police in Moscow were called to investigate alleged LGBTQ+ propaganda at a fan event dedicated to the cartoon series “My Little Pony,” organizers said Sunday.

The Mi Amore convention was closed by organizers early Saturday after officers arrived at the venue in the Russian capital, despite police being unable to find evidence of illegal activity.
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Russian movie database Kinopoisk changed its rating for the animated series to an adult-only “18+” in December 2023, local news outlets reported, not long after a Russian court declared the “global LGBTQ+ movement” to be an extremist organization. Although no reason was given for the change, viewers speculated that the decision could be linked to the character Rainbow Dash, whose multicolored mane and tail are similar to the LGBTQ+ pride flag. The show also released an episode that featured a same-sex couple in 2019.
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Russian laws prohibit public displays of symbols of extremist organizations, and at least three people who displayed rainbow-colored items have received jail time or fines since the ruling.

A new Harvard University study found that half of U.S. renters are paying nearly a third of their income on rent
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The latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier.

Those factors contributed to a dramatic rise in eviction filings and a record number of people becoming homeless.
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After failing to make a significant dent in the problem over the last decade, state and federal lawmakers across the U.S. are making housing a priority in 2024 and throwing the kitchen sink at the issue — including proposals to enact eviction protections, institute zoning reforms, cap annual rent increases and dedicate tens of billions of dollars toward building more housing.
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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Migrants who've crossed the southern border into the U.S. are on the move, sometimes by choice, often not. Now Denver, Colo., Mayor Mike Johnston says he has to cut some city services to pay for programs to help the new arrivals. Johnston, a Democrat, told us the challenge really began last year when a type of protected status for Venezuelan immigrants expired.

MIKE JOHNSTON: Almost all of our migrants arriving are fleeing crisis in Venezuela. And more and more, the Venezuelans who arrived came to the country in October or November. They were not eligible for work authorization, so all they could do is try to file for asylum. And as you know, the asylum courts are so backed up that folks come to the city who I talk to and their court date is for 2029. So that's when we kept telling Biden and the secretary, you know, the biggest issues for us are, can you get us a real path to expanded work authorization, and can you get more federal dollars and federal support?

They heard us and fought to put those things into the bipartisan Senate package that was introduced that would have really solved this problem for us and for cities around the country. And that's why it was such a heartbreak to see a candidate for president in Donald Trump coming in and saying, I want this bill dead, not because it won't solve the problem but because I know it actually will solve the problem. And if it alleviates Americans' suffering and alleviates a humanitarian crisis, might hurt my chances at reelection. I just never thought we would have seen that moment, but that's what happened.
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Small farms and Black farmers are going out of business, while corporate-controlled farms are booming, raking in subsidies

Record numbers of US farms are going out of business with small farms and Black farmers the hardest hit – again, according to the 2022 agriculture census, a comprehensive snapshot of the state of America’s farms and farmers published every five years by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Yet industrial factory farms rearing thousands of livestock in confinement have further expanded into rural America, acquiring smaller farms, raking in taxpayer subsidies and generating environmental harms.
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Climate smart agriculture and conservation remain rare among American farmers – despite government programs
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Large farms and corporations benefit most from taxpayer dollars
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Navalny’s death sends a “critical message” to global leaders gathering in Munch for an annual defense conference this weekend that a “horrendously destructive tyrant remains in charge of a significant government in the world.”
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Many of those who fell out of Putin’s favor died under mysterious circumstances. The ambassador made a list: Businessman Boris Berezovsky was found dead in his home in 2013, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov was shot dead near the Kremlin in 2015, former Russian press minister Mikhail Lesin died from blunt-force trauma in 2015, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in an elevator in 2006 and secret service defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned to death with polonium the same year.

More recently, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group who attempted and failed at a coup, died in a jet plane crash near Moscow.

“It’s astonishing the number of people who have been killed,” Rae said “It’s incredible. This is a regime that murders its opponents.

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