corruption – Page 29 – Desdemona Despair

Immigration Customs and Enforcement dropped off more than 100 migrants mostly from Guatemala at the Phoenix Greyhound bus station at 2115 E. Buckeye Road. Roberto Ramirez, 6, was in ICE custody with his father, Gaspa Ramirez. He claims that treatment by officers was bad and children were getting sick because of cold weather. Photo: Nick Oza / The Arizona Republic

June 23, 2019

Flu, lice, and open toilets: What attorneys saw at migrant child processing centers in Texas – “In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity”

By Gaby del Valle 22 June 2019 (Vice News) – Attorneys who work with migrant children recently visited two Border Patrol processing centers along the U.S.-Mexico border — and what they saw paints a bleak picture of the Trump administration’s treatment of child migrants. [It seems Desdemona’s worst fears are being realized: Children of Men, […]

A truck moves around the Oregon state Capitol during a protest against climate bills that truckers say will put them out of business, in Salem, Oregon on 12 June 2019. Photo: Sarah Zimmerman / AP Photo

June 22, 2019

Threats from militia groups shut down Oregon capitol a day after GOP lawmakers fled over climate bill: “safety of legislators, staff, and citizen visitors could be compromised”

By Nicole Einbinder 22 June 2019 (Insider) – Oregon lawmakers have shut down the state capitol after receiving threats from militia groups who are vowing to protect Republican senators who bolted earlier this week to prevent the passage of climate change legislation. Conflict first arose on Thursday when 11 GOP senators went into hiding to block the […]

Conoce tus derechos si te encuentras frente a ICE. Know your rights if you encounter ICE, 21 June 2019. Graphic: FIRM

June 22, 2019

#TrumpRaids are coming: ICE raids and mass deportations as early as Sunday in 10 U.S. cities – Los Angeles and New York City to resist “immoral and unconscionable act by a president hellbent on dividing our country”

By Xeni Jardin 21 June 2019 (BoingBoing) – Here are the 10 U.S. cities where ICE, CBP, DHS, and other agencies plan to execute mass raids. Immigration agents will target Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco this weekend, congressional and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sources […]

Student leaders with the lobbying group Renew Oregon, which helped craft landmark climate change legislation currently under debate in Oregon, pose to show their T-shirts after a news conference in Salem, Oregon, on 20 June 2019. Minority Republican senators walked out Thursday to block a vote on the proposal, which would be the second of its kind in the nation. That prompted Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, to activate the state police to bring absentee senators back against their will. Photo: Gillian Flaccus / AP Photo

June 21, 2019

Oregon governor sends police after Republican senators who fled Capitol over climate legislation

By Sarah Zimmerman and Gillian Flaccus 20 June 2019 SALEM, Oregon (Associated Press) – Republican senators in Oregon engaged in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship Friday with Democratic lawmakers and prepared to remain absent from the Capitol for a second day to block a vote on a landmark climate plan that would be the second […]

Map of the 105,000 square miles of coal-rich outback land known as the Galilee Basin in Queensland, Australia. Graphic: The Times

June 20, 2019

Australia approves vast coal mine near Great Barrier Reef – “An act of climate vandalism that represents everything that has gone wrong with politics in Australia”

By Andrew Beatty 13 June 2019 (AFP) – Australia approved Thursday the construction of a controversial coal mine near the Great Barrier Reef, paving the way for a dramatic and unfashionable increase in coal exports. Queensland’s government said it had accepted a groundwater management plan for the Indian-owned Adani Carmichael mine—the last major legal hurdle […]

June 19, 2019

The shadow cabinet: How a group of powerful business leaders drove Trump’s agenda – “Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale”

By Andy Krol 19 June 2019 (Rolling Stone) – It could have been an episode of The Apprentice. On a summer day in 2016, a group of businessmen and women descended on Trump Tower in Manhattan. They exited their black SUVs and rode the golden elevators to the 26th floor, where they assembled in a […]

The U.S. national debt on 17 June 2019. Trump’s budget estimates show that Republican policies will increase the U.S. debt to $29 trillion. Graphic: U.S. Debt Clock

June 17, 2019

Instead of eliminating the U.S. debt, Trump will add $8.3 trillion

By Kimberly Amadeo 3 June 2019 (The Balance) – During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump promised he would eliminate the nation’s debt in eight years. Instead, his budgets would add $9.1 trillion during that time. It would increase the U.S. debt to $29 trillion according to Trump’s budget estimates. […] Trump has a cavalier attitude about the […]

Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on the administration's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on 12 June 2019 in Washington, DC. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

June 17, 2019

Trump directs agencies to cut science advisory boards by “at least” one-third – “It’s no longer death by a thousand cuts. It’s taking a knife to the jugular.”

By Miranda Green and Rebecca Beitsch 14 June 19 (The Hill) – President Trump is directing all agencies to cut their advisory boards by “at least” one third. The executive order issued Friday evening directs all federal agencies to “evaluate the need” for each of their current advisory committees. The order gives agencies until 30 […]

New York State Attorney General Letitia James holds a press conference at the Office of the Attorney General in New York, 28 March 2019. The New York attorney general's office did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct in investigating Exxon for climate fraud, a judge ruled on Wednesday 12 June 2019. Photo: Timothy A. Clary / Getty Images

June 15, 2019

Judge rejects Exxon challenges to New York’s climate fraud suit – No prosecutorial misconduct in Exxon climate fraud investigation

By Karen Savage 12 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A judge dismissed several claims by Exxon to stop New York State’s lawsuit against the oil giant for alleged climate fraud, including charges of prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest. New York Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager on Wednesday rejected claims by Exxon that the New York attorney general’s […]

List environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, updated on 7 June 2019. Graphic: The New York Times

June 14, 2019

83 environmental rules being rolled back under Trump

By Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis 7 June 2019 (The New York Times) – President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses. [cf. Trump regulation rollbacks will […]