February 27, 2022

'Major questions' loom over climate change as Supreme Court hears WV-led case against EPA

Monday will bring the release of a report crafted by 270 scientists from 67 countries for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It will outline how to adapt to the rapidly growing threat to global health as greenhouse gas emissions blanket Earth.

Monday also will bring a showdown that could make it significantly harder for the United States to adapt if West Virginia’s top legal officer wins.

The faceoff is a scheduled oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has led against the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/major-questions-loom-over-climate-change-as-supreme-court-hears-wv-led-case-against-epa/article_ca844bd0-ed02-5c29-a7e4-d05666589386.html

February 27, 2022

'Major questions' loom over climate change as Supreme Court hears WV-led case against EPA

Monday will bring the release of a report crafted by 270 scientists from 67 countries for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It will outline how to adapt to the rapidly growing threat to global health as greenhouse gas emissions blanket Earth.

Monday also will bring a showdown that could make it significantly harder for the United States to adapt if West Virginia’s top legal officer wins.

The faceoff is a scheduled oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has led against the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/major-questions-loom-over-climate-change-as-supreme-court-hears-wv-led-case-against-epa/article_ca844bd0-ed02-5c29-a7e4-d05666589386.html

February 26, 2022

UT-Austin can't call its new think tank The Liberty Institute. Another group already owns the rights

by Kate McGee, Texas Tribune


For the past five months, University of Texas at Austin leaders have repeatedly stated that they have not yet officially chosen a name for a new teaching and research center publicly referred to by state leaders, and in state and university system documents, as The Liberty Institute.

One possible reason: Another Texas group has already trademarked the name.

First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative legal organization in Plano that is known for representing clients in high-profile religious freedom cases, owns the trademark for the name “Liberty Institute,” according to Jeff Mateer, the group’s chief legal officer.

“We have raised our objections to UT’s counsel regarding any use of these marks,” Mateer said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “UT has communicated that it respects our concerns and has not adopted the term Liberty Institute or started to use that term in its operations.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/25/ut-austin-liberty-institute-name/

February 26, 2022

Conservative students sue University of Houston over anti-harassment policy

Three University of Houston students who identify as conservative have sued the university, the university system and several university leaders over an anti-harassment policy they claim stifles their free speech.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the three students, who aren’t named in the lawsuit, are members of a nonprofit organization called Speech First, which has sued several universities across the country over the same issue, including the University of Texas Austin.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs “want to engage in speech that is arguably covered by the University’s policy, but they credibly fear that the expression of their deeply held views will be considered ‘intimidating,’ ‘denigrating,’ ‘negative stereotyp[es].’”

The university’s policy states the following about harassment:

"Harassment – – Subjecting an individual on the basis of her or his membership in a Protected Class to unlawful severe, pervasive, or persistent treatment that constitutes:

• Humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct or behavior that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group;
• An intimidating, hostile or abusive learning, living or working environment, or an environment that alters the conditions of learning, living or working; or
• An unreasonable interference with an individual’s academic or work performance.

Read more: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2022/02/25/conservative-students-sue-university-of-houston-over-anti-harassment-policy-

February 26, 2022

Nicaragua convicts 7 more opposition leaders of "conspiracy"

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan judges on Wednesday convicted seven opposition leaders, including former high-level Sandinistas and three former presidential contenders, of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”

A spokesperson for the Civic Alliance opposition coalition said the seven included Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and the Central American country's former ambassador to the United States, Arturo Cruz Sequeira.

All three had been planning to run in the Nov. 7 presidential elections before the government of President Daniel Ortega arrested them and around 40 other opponents.

With all of them in custody, Ortega cruised to winning a fourth consecutive presidential term in November elections widely criticized by the international community.

Read more: https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Nicaragua-convicts-7-more-opposition-leaders-of-16942653.php
(Laredo Morning Times)

February 26, 2022

T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Vista Ranch is up for sale. Here's everything the property includes

Oil and business Tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ gigantic Texas Panhandle ranch featuring mansions, a golf course and airport could be yours.

The storied Mesa Vista ranch recently hit the market for $170 million, according to a nationwide real-estate site and the Lubbock-based listing agent.

The ranch, often listed as one of America’s most interesting homes, was showcased last week by TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, which offered more details about the property.

Located 85 miles northeast of Amarillo, the vast property known as the Mesa Vista Ranch features a 6,000-square-foot family home, 12,000-square-foot lake house, a 33,000-square-foot lodge, a chapel, pub, vet lab, airplane runway and hangar, golf course, tennis courts and the Oklahoma white-frame home where Pickens grew up, according Globe-News and Avalanche-Journal archives.

Read more: https://www.amarillo.com/story/business/2022/02/23/t-boone-pickens-panhandle-mesa-vista-ranch-for-sale/6847871001/

February 26, 2022

Following bomb threats, Youngkin will ask for emergency funding for security at historically Black c

RICHMOND — After a series of bomb threats made against historically Black colleges, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday night he will request the General Assembly provide emergency funding to HBCUs to increase their security and campus safety.

"I am angry and deeply concerned by the recent pattern of bomb threats plaguing our historically Black colleges and universities," Youngkin said in a statement. "I am committed to harnessing state resources to support these institutions and will work together with them on a continued coordinated response that ensures the safety of our HBCU students and faculty."

A threat was made against Hampton University on Wednesday, and on Friday threats were made against Norfolk State University and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.

Virginia Union University and Virginia State University in greater Richmond did not receive threats.

Read more: https://roanoke.com/news/state-and-regional/following-bomb-threats-youngkin-will-ask-for-emergency-funding-for-security-at-historically-black-colleges/article_8b4b4b3d-c50a-5eba-aac7-1d60703fb900.html

February 25, 2022

Censured Virginia senator says AG's office took her election fraud claims 'very seriously'

Fifteen months after the 2020 election, Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, is taking her still-unproven claims of election fraud to the office of new Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican with the power to pursue alleged violations of election law.

In a Facebook post Tuesday afternoon, Chase published photos of what she said was a meeting with the attorney general’s office to discuss “gross election irregularities.”

In an interview Wednesday night, Chase, who was censured by the state Senate last year for repeating baseless election conspiracy theories and expressing support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, called the meeting “very productive.”

“I would say it was very eye-opening to the people that were in the room,” Chase said. “I think they took it very seriously. They’re very interested.”

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/02/23/censured-virginia-senator-says-ags-office-took-her-election-fraud-claims-very-seriously/

February 25, 2022

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes bill with student opt-out for masks

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed legislation Thursday that would allow K-12 students — with their parents’ permission — to opt out of mask-wearing mandates in school that a dwindling number of districts still have in place for COVID-19, questioning its efficacy for public health.

The legislation was approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly last week as the Democratic governor held a news conference encouraging boards of education to end broad indoor mask requirements amid falling COVID-19 transmission rates and rising vaccination numbers.

Republicans who advanced the bill said the opt-out measure was needed to affirm the rights of parents to make health-related decisions for their children and lamented the obstacles masks have caused for learning and social formation in classrooms.

But Cooper, in his veto message, said a 2021 law that left mask-mandate decisions to local school boards received bipartisan support, and “that is still the right course.”

Read more: https://www.pilotonline.com/news/education/vp-nw-virus-outbreak-schools-20220224-qz5ozg7f3ndqnp73mq7tdriu7y-story.html

February 25, 2022

What could be Virginia's first on-shore wind farm again looking for a buyer of its renewable energy

Once again, what could be the state’s first on-shore wind farm is searching for a buyer of the renewable energy it will produce.

Apex Clean Energy, which plans to build 14 giant wind turbines atop North Mountain in Botetourt County, signed a power purchase agreement with Dominion Energy in late 2019. Dominion had intended to buy the electricity and then sell it to Virginia to help the state meet its clean energy goals.

But the agreement expired Dec. 31, 2021, and Apex says it is now looking for a new buyer.

A decision not to renew the contract was a “mutual agreement” between Apex and Dominion, according to Patrick Chilton, a spokesman for the Charlottesville-based renewable energy company.

Development of the Rocky Forge Wind facility is proceeding. “Rocky Forge has drawn significant market interest and Apex is confident that the project will fully contract in the next few months,” Chilton wrote in an email.

Read more: https://heraldcourier.com/business/what-could-be-virginia-s-first-on-shore-wind-farm-again-looking-for-a-buyer/article_f10fb40f-83ee-54c8-b16d-f405c7c747ce.html
(Bristol Herald Courier)