Tips, Comments, Complaints, Etc!

Video of Bernie’s College For All rally can be seen in @Magsview‘s liveblog just under this roundup.(thanks mags!).

Bernie Sanders: One thing needs to change in order to make America ‘great’

In an opinion piece for Vice Impact, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) discusses what he believes America actually needs to become “great”: High-quality higher education delivered to citizens for free.

What would help is “not spending tens of billions more on weapons systems or providing trillions in tax breaks for the rich,” he writes. “It is having a well-educated population that can compete in the global economy, and making it possible that every American, regardless of income, has the opportunity to get the education they need to thrive.”

However, he writes, “we are moving further and further away from that goal,” thanks to the high cost of college.

More than 44 million Americans have taken out student loans to pay for school, with their debt totaling $1.4 trillion. The average debt for 20-year-olds is $22,135. For 30-year-olds, it’s $34,033.

And while wages aren’t rising much, the cost of tuition is. That could explain why the number of loan defaults has reached a new high.blockquote>

Ben Jealous wants tuition-free college in Maryland. His plan is like Sanders’ ‘College For All’ bill

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous wants Maryland to become the second state after New York to provide public higher education free of charge.

Jealous told a group of students and progressive activists gathered Tuesday night at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, that he would help pay for the plan by ending mass incarceration. “College is as important in the 21st century as high school was in the 20th century,” the former NAACP president and tech investor said.

He spoke after the students participated in a virtual town hall hosted by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, who endorsed Jealous’s gubernatorial bid in July, outlined his plan for tuition-free college nationwide in a speech that was broadcast to hundreds of campuses.

Jealous has not estimated how much a Maryland tuition-free state program would cost, how many students would benefit or what type of income-eligibility requirements would be required. “We’re still looking at those numbers,” he said.

Still, the proposal is likely to help set the tone on college-affordability issues as the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign gets underway.

Everyone can of course feel as they wish, but I for one am no longer spending any time on Randy Bryce. If an article pops up, I’ll post it, but that’s pretty much it.

Remember this?

Randy Bryce Dodges Forum with Democratic Primary Challenger, Cathy Myers

well @Ironstache who ive tweeted to for weeks about this and have been ignored (but who I mentioned positively in a post yesterday and got a like from) apparently just does not want a forum with his opponent, but has time to tweet about:

Thank you @RubenGallego for having a real public #townhall with me in #WI01
It's one more than @SpeakerRyan has had in over two years.

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) October 10, 2017

Iron? That stache is made of glass.

A Bernie Sanders campaign veteran advises a surging opposition movement in Russia

Vitali Shkliarov, a 41-year-old political operative born in Belarus, speaks the gospel of Bernie Sanders in the style of a Silicon Valley executive. Technology, he says, is a key to access, and his dream is a “political Uber” designed to pick up potential candidates and get them around the barriers keeping them from office.

The idea got a test drive in Moscow’s recent municipal elections, but the veteran of the Sanders and Barack Obama campaigns sees it as part of a worldwide movement.

“Obama made politics in America — but also worldwide — cool and sexy,” Shkliarov said in energetic, accented English during a recent interview at a Moscow cocktail bar. “Next, and I was part of it, was Sanders making politics like a Woodstock festival. It was about education, not partisanship.”

The next step, he said, is to ensure that anyone can become a candidate.

“This is the new era of politics, not just in Russia, but in America, too,” he said.

Democrats, please primary Dianne Feinstein — just avoid pitfalls of Clinton vs. Sanders

Feinstein should run for re-election — and she should be challenged from the left. Half of likely California voters said Feinstein should not seek a sixth term, according to a poll released late last month. That likely reflects the way the state has changed during her years in politics; a centrist, hawkish Democrat is no longer a perfect fit for California, a deep blue state.

Hillary Clinton carried the state in November by a margin of 3.4 million votes, which was more than her overall national advantage. So Donald Trump’s claim that he won the popular vote would be true, if he could subtract California from the nation.

As the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein did little or nothing to resist Trump’s most significant accomplishment thus far: Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. The day before she announced her re-election bid, Feinstein sounded tone deaf on the issue of the moment, refusing to commit to returning contributions she might have received from disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

“I don’t know that I’ve received any. I’ll certainly take a look, and then I’ll make a decision,” Feinstein said on “Meet the Press,” after decades’ worth of sexual harassment complaints against Weinstein emerged.

Feinstein shouldn’t get a free ride here. She may well face a challenge from the Democratic left flank, largely on the theory that safe Democratic seats — and California’s are the safest — should be reserved for those who represent the base. Feinstein no longer does. When California’s other veteran female senator, Barbara Boxer, retired in 2015, her exit allowed for the election of the state’s first Asian-American and African-American senator, Kamala Harris. While Harris is herself a controversial figure to many progressives, she is still inarguably representative of the base of her party in the state — women of color. Harris’ immediate endorsement of Feinstein’s re-election bid felt to many like short-order betrayal of the activist spirit that swept the younger senator into the national spotlight.

CA120: Bernie voters stay angry at Dem establishment

Throughout the 2016 election cycle, Capitol Weekly conducted several statewide polls. Two of them, one during the primary and the other during the general election, targeted voters right after they had mailed in their ballots.

In total, more than 80,000 Californians participated in these surveys.

Now, we’ve gone back to some of those same respondents to ask them how they feel about the candidates they backed, about the issues and about their perceptions of the political climate since the election. We also asked them this: Would they like to see their preferred 2016 candidate run again in 2020?

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The survey, which can be seen in a fully-interactive infographic, polled 851 voters who cast ballots in the Democratic primary election and who in an exit poll told us they had voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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–When looking at specifics, Bernie Sanders voters have negative takes on the Democratic Party establishment, with 82% saying the party is too focused on political money and the needs of contributors. Three-fourths say the Democratic Party rigged the primary election for Hillary Clinton and two-thirds say that the establishment Democratic Party figures continue to fight Bernie today.

–In looking back at the 2016 general election, Sanders’ voters by a 3-to-1 margin believe that he would have defeated Trump, and 89% of Sanders supporters disagree that Sanders’ primary election attacks on Clinton contributed to her loss to Trump in the General Election.

‘An Inferno Like You’ve Never Seen’: Deadly Wildfires Ravage California

More than ten people have been killed, thousands have been left without power, and tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate as more than a dozen wildfires tore through Northern California overnight Monday, forcing Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in eight counties.

“Presently, these fires continue their path of destruction,” Brown said in a statement late Monday. “Many residents had little time to flee due to the fires’ rapid and erratic rate of spread through the rural terrain. Tragically, these fires have already taken lives and emergency responders anticipate the number of fatalities could grow.”

Brown also asked President Donald Trump—who spent his morning tweeting insults at ESPN host Jemele Hill and the NFL—to issue a disaster declaration.

At least eighteen total wildfires have been counted, and firefighters have struggled to contain the inferno as powerful winds Monday night rapidly pushed the flames from rural areas into cities. As the Wall Street Journal reports, at least 2,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed, along with schools, grocery stores, and community centers.

Puerto Rico: US officials privately acknowledge serious food shortage

Federal officials privately admit there is a massive shortage of meals in Puerto Rico three weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) say that the government and its partners are only providing 200,000 meals a day to meet the needs of more than 2 million people. That is a daily shortfall of between 1.8m and 5.8m meals each day.

The scale of the food crisis dwarfs the more widely publicized challenges of restoring power and communications. More than a third of Puerto Ricans are still struggling to live without drinking water.

However, Fema provides no details on food deliveries, keeping its public statements to the most general terms. On its website, Fema says it has provided “millions of meals and millions of liters of water.”

In fact many of those meals are military ready-to-eat meals that civilians find hard to digest if consumed for more than a few days.

Now the biggest provider of cooked meals says Fema is putting its operations at risk of closure.

Harvey Weinstein allegations mount as wife condemns ‘unforgivable actions’

Sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein continue to mount after his wife announced she was leaving him and his most powerful allies, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, expressed disgust at his actions.

Georgina Chapman, co-founder of the Marchesa luxury brand and the mother of two of Weinstein’s children, said she was ending her 10-year marriage to the disgraced producer.

“My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions,” she said after three women accused her husband of rape and more stars including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow said he had sexually harassed them.

Half of police killings not attributed to officers, says study using Guardian data

Over half of all police killings in 2015 were wrongly classified as not having been the result of interaction with officers, a new Harvard study based on Guardian data has found.

The finding is just the latest to show government databases seriously undercounting the number of people killed by police.

“Right now the data quality is bad and unacceptable,” said lead researcher Justin Feldman. “To effectively address the problem of law enforcement-related deaths, the public needs better data about who is being killed, where, and under what circumstances.”

Feldman used data from the Guardian’s 2015 investigation into police killings, The Counted, and compared it with data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). That dataset, which is kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was found to have misclassified 55.2% of all police killings, with the errors occurring disproportionately in low-income jurisdictions.

Donald Trump to visit no-man’s-land of Korean border – reports

Donald Trump could soon find himself confronting North Korean soldiers on the world’s most heavily armed border, amid reports that the president is considering a visit to the demilitarised zone (DMZ) during his forthcoming trip to South Korea.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the DMZ, which has separated the two Koreas since the end of their 1950-53 war, was among the candidate sites for Trump’s tour of Asia. He will also visit Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The report coincided with another US show of aerial strength in the region.

Two supersonic B-1B bombers flew over the Korean peninsula on Wednesday night, according to the US military. Two South Korean F-15K fighters, along with Japanese fighters, joined the drill after the bombers took off from Andersen airbase in Guam, the statement said. It was the first time Japan and South Korea had both joined US bombers on a nighttime combined exercise, it added.

The bombers carried out air-to-ground missile drills in waters off the east coast of South Korea, then repeated the drill over waters separating the South and China, the South Korean joint chiefs of staff said.

Despite GOP Dereliction, Warren Vows to Fight for Program That Insures 9 Million Kids

“September 30th was the deadline for a whole bunch of healthcare programs and the Republicans basically just blew through the deadlines,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a video about a program that provides affordable healthcare to 9 million children and 370,000 pregnant women annually.

The senator published her video about the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to Twitter on Tuesday. Watch:

Congress needs to step up and do its job so doctors and nurses and health centers can do theirs. pic.twitter.com/0y1DjwsKLE

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October 10, 2017

Judge Denies Bail to Alleged NSA Leaker Reality Winner, Citing Her Admiration for Snowden & Assange

Last Thursday, a federal judge denied a second request for bail from Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency contractor who is accused of violating the Espionage Act. Winner allegedly passed a top-secret document to The Intercept that claimed Russian military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software company just days before the 2016 election. Federal Judge Brian Epps of Augusta, Georgia, said his decision to deny bail was based in part on social media comments by Winner that she “admires Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.”

Full Transcript @ Link above

2017 on course to be deadliest on record for land defenders

The number of people killed this year while defending their community’s land, natural resources or wildlife has passed 150 – meaning 2017 is on course to be the deadliest year on record.

Environmental activists, wildlife rangers and indigenous leaders are locked in fierce conflicts with mining, logging and agricultural companies in hundreds of places around the world. The Guardian is working with watchdog Global Witness to record all the deaths in 2017, and this week that figure reached 153 with a spate of killings across three continents.

These included Ruben Arzaga, a village leader and environmental officer shot while arresting suspected illegal loggers in the Philippines; Elías Gamonal Mozombite, one of six farmers shot dead in a land rights battle reportedly linked to palm oil trade in Peru, and Wayne Lotter, a leading elephant conservationist and head of an anti-poaching NGO shot dead in Tanzania.

Billy Kyte of Global Witness said the latest deaths underlined the scale of the crisis facing those seeking to protect their land and environment from global corporations and governments.

“These stark statistics show 2017 looks like being the deadliest yet for those on the frontline to protect our environment and their land rights.”

World will need ‘carbon sucking’ technology by 2030s, scientists warn

As efforts to cut planet-warming emissions fall short, large-scale projects to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will be needed by the 2030s to hold the line against climate change, scientists have said.

Many new technologies that aim to capture and store carbon emissions, thereby delivering “negative emissions”, are costly, controversial and in the early phase of testing.

But “if you’re really concerned about coral reefs, biodiversity [and] food production in very poor regions, we’re going to have to deploy negative emission technology at scale,” said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, a science and policy institute.

CTU Illinois Gubernatorial Candidate Forum Heats Up

On Sunday, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) hosted the Our Revolution Illinois gubernatorial candidate forum at CTU Union Center on the near Westside. Our Revolution is an advocacy group based on the mission of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in building a new generation of progressive leaders.

Attended by CTU union members and several community organizations—the room was packed and the event was free to the public. Knowing the importance of presenting their platform to one of the biggest unions in the state, all eight Democratic candidates were present, which included Daniel Biss, Bob Daiber, Tio Hardiman, Chris Kennedy, Alex Paterakis, Ameya Pawar and J.B. Pritzker.

Moderated by NBC-5 political reporter and veteran journalist Mary Ann Ahern, there were several topics of discussion which allowed each candidate 1-minute to present their platform.

On free college, “We need to put ourselves on a path to free college for every child in Illinois who cannot afford to go to college. I do not think free college should be offered to my children—let’s be clear,” said JB Pritzker. “It is important, that we get the funding for it because it will be a part of the progressive income tax.”

“Making sure you’re not strapped with debt for the rest of your life—that’s what we should be looking for and making sure there is vocational training for those kids who choose to not go to college.”

Approval Given to Thirty Meter Telescope on Sacred Mountain

In what its chairperson deemed “one of the most difficult decisions the board has ever made,” the Hawai’i Board of Land and Natural Resources last week approved construction of the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of Mauna a Wakea (Mauna Kea).

The decision has been met with fierce criticism.

For the Kanaka Maoli Peoples, Mauna a Wakea is a sacred center, as much an ancestor as it is a home of deities. Created by their forbearers, the sky god Wakea and the Earth mother Papa, the 4,000-meter mountain is a place of unique spiritual connection between the Kanaka Maoli and their ancestors. It is in many ways a living temple, a site of numerous shrines and ceremonies and an important burial ground.

The Kanaka Maoli also believe the Mauna a Wakea mountain plays an integral role in Hawaii’s water cycle, and use the water collected at its summit for healing and ceremonial practices. They fear these practices could be disrupted by the construction of the TMT and the concomitant possibility it brings of water pollution.

Twelve other telescopes have already been constructed on Mauna a Wakea, which has led to “substantial, significant and adverse” effects on local biodiversity as well as on the Kanaka Maoli cultural, archaeological and historic resources on the mountain.

Conservationists Sound Alarm on Plummeting Giraffe Numbers

Picture an animal enrobed in a fiery, jigsaw-patterned coat. A creature of such majestic height that it towers amongst the trees. As your eyes make their way up its long neck that appears to defy gravity, you find crowned atop its head two Seussian, horn-like protrusions framing dark, curious eyes fanned by lashes. In its truest sense, the giraffe fits the description of a creature plucked from the pages of a fantastical story. Even its species name, Giraffa camelopardalis, comes from the ancient Greek belief that the giraffe is a peculiar camel wearing the coat of a leopard. Meanwhile, the Japanese word for giraffe and unicorn are one and the same.

Today, we continue to walk the Earth with these awe-inspiring creatures, which range across much of Africa. But giraffes are facing what many are calling a “silent extinction.” Public awareness and global action is critically due. “These gentle giants have been overlooked,” appeals Sir David Attenborough in BBC’s Story of Life documentary series aired in late 2016, urging that “time is running out.”

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As word begins to get out about the difficulty giraffes are facing, a small, committed cohort are fighting for the species. They are working diligently in the field to learn more about the animals and their populations, cooperating with governments to preserve land giraffes depend on, and collaborating with communities to conserve their wildlife. Meanwhile, others are championing for giraffes on the legal frontlines, advocating for further protections. In particular, wildlife advocates have called for great protections at the international level, as well as domestic restrictions on trade in giraffe parts in the U.S.

Yay Ben & Jerry’s

Ben & Jerry’s to Introduce Glyphosate-Free Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry’s announced it will stop using ingredients made with crops that are chemically dried with glyphosate—the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s widely used Roundup weedkiller—and will source 100 percent organic dairy following reports that several of its flavors tested positive for the controversial chemical.

In a statement, the company said it was “disappointed” to learn of the test results even though only very low and “safe levels” were detected.

“We were disappointed to learn that recent testing in the United States and Europe revealed trace levels of the commonly-used herbicide glyphosate in several of our flavors. Disappointed, but not totally surprised,” the company said. “Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in agriculture and is everywhere—from mainstream food, to natural and organic food, and even rainwater—and that’s the issue.”

Glyphosate, the most widely applied herbicide worldwide, has been found in everyday foods such as cookies, crackers, popular cold cereals and chips.

For those who have asked about how youtube monetization works.. well Rational National has been hit by the ‘algorithm’ (aka: the pro establishment, anti content creator) $ killer. Heres his take:

Birmingham Mayor-Elect Woodfin announces transition team, top priorities

Birmingham City Hall is on a countdown to what some believe will be a major transformation.

Mayor-Elect Randall Woodfin takes office November 28th.

Woodfin’s transition team already is on the ground working to make this change of power as smooth as possible. He selected two highly respected leaders to head his team, General Charles Krulak and Retired Alabama Power Executive Bobbie Knight.

They stood by the mayor-elect as he outlined the first four priorities for his term.

Woodfin said first he must restore trust at city hall, creating transparency and demanding ethics.

Second, Woodfin stuck to a major campaign promise, vowing to work to restore all the city’s 99 neighborhoods.

Sen. Collins to reveal plan for her political future Friday

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins will make her much-anticipated announcement about whether she’ll run for governor on Friday, according to her spokeswoman.

The time and location of Collins’ announcement was not disclosed, but the Republican senator is in Maine this week while the Senate is in recess

The only public event she has scheduled Friday is the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly business breakfast at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, where she will be the featured speaker.

Collins’ decision will have a major impact, not just on the 2018 race for governor in her home state but in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

If she runs, she should be the front-runner based on experience and name-recognition. If she chooses to stay in the Senate, where her influence and moderate leanings have made her powerful, the Republican gubernatorial primary field will be wide open.

Congressional candidates debate gun control, health care, partisan politics

The three top candidates running for the vacant 3rd Congressional District seat largely stuck to the issues Tuesday in the race’s first general election debate.

There were still sharp differences among Republican John Curtis, the mayor of Provo; Democrat Kathie Allen, a Cottonwood Heights physician; and new United Utah Party candidate Jim Bennett during the debate in the KSL Newsradio studios.

On gun control, Allen said any device that converts semiautomatic weapons into “mass killings machines” such as the “bump stock” modification used in the deadly Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas should be illegal.

Allen said she supports the Second Amendment, but as a doctor who has seen patients die from fatal gunshot wounds, “we really need to do things to prevent this kind of violence from occurring over and over again in our country.”

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When it came to health care, Allen was the candidate furthest from her opponents.

She called the nation’s for-profit health care system an “abomination” and touted her core campaign issue, support for universal health care, while Curtis and Bennett suggested various smaller changes.

Issaquah Councilman Marts Backing Kim Schrier For Congress

– The election isn’t for more than a year, but Democrats aiming to grab retiring Congressman Dave Reichert’s seat are well into campaign mode. On Tuesday, Issaquah Councilman Tola Marts announced he’s backing Dr. Kim Schrier in the 8th Congressional District race.

Marts was one of the six Democrats running for the seat, but he dropped out earlier this month. Candidates still in the race include Renton businesswoman Mona Das; Jason Rittereiser, a prosecutor for King County; Toby Whitney, who worked for Jim McDermott in the Legislature; and Tom Cramer, who ran for the 9th Congressional District seat in the 2012 primary, but lost.

On the Republican side, only state Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Redmond, has stepped up to keep the district red.

In endorsing Schrier, Marts highlighted her experience as a doctor.

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“Dr. Schrier’s experience as a pediatrician makes her uniquely qualified to fight for improved access to quality healthcare in Congress, and she will be a sharp check on Donald Trump and the harmful policies of the Republican party,” Marts said in the endorsement. “Dr. Schrier is the clear Democratic frontrunner and the best candidate to take on Republican extremist and perennial candidate Dino Rossi in the general election.”

The Death of Che Guevara Declassified

A top-secret CIA memo shows that US officials considered his execution a crucial victory—but they were mistaken in believing Che’s ideas could be buried along with his body.

Here’s Where Your Tax Dollars for ‘Defense’ Are Really Going

Here’s a question for you: How do you spell boondoggle?

The answer (in case you didn’t already know): P-e-n-t-a-g-o-n.

Hawks on Capitol Hill and in the US military routinely justify increases in the Defense Department’s already munificent budget by arguing that yet more money is needed to “support the troops.” If you’re already nodding in agreement, let me explain just where a huge chunk of the Pentagon budget—hundreds of billions of dollars—really goes. Keep in mind that it’s your money we’re talking about.

The answer couldn’t be more straightforward: It goes directly to private corporations and much of it is then wasted on useless overhead, fat executive salaries, and startling (yet commonplace) cost overruns on weapons systems and other military hardware that, in the end, won’t even perform as promised. Too often the result is weapons that aren’t needed at prices we can’t afford. If anyone truly wanted to help the troops, loosening the corporate grip on the Pentagon budget would be an excellent place to start.

Can Local Food Help Appalachia Build a Post-Coal Future?

Appalachia is where the white trash lives, or so the stereotype goes. Ask the average outsider what Appalachians eat, and they may deliver a similar answer: trash. McNuggets, maybe, or lots of bacon and gravy. Heart-attack food. People choose the stories that they want to believe, and the myth of the dumb, fat hillbilly is an old and popular one. “The term ‘white trash’ is class disparagement due to economics,” the author and East Kentucky native Chris Offutt wrote in a 2015 essay for the Oxford American. “I am trash because of where I’m from. I am trash because of where I shop. I am trash because of what I eat.” If people are trash, their food must be, too.

But the story of Appalachian food, like Appalachia itself, is a complicated one. Advocates say that both are entering a new, more optimistic era; that a resurgence in local farming, coupled with renewed interest in traditional Appalachian foodways, could help steer the region toward an environmentally and economically sustainable post-coal future. And unlike the historical attempts to develop Appalachia—imposed principally by external actors, both public and private—food and farming are located well within the region’s own history of political resistance.

“When the company thugs came in to throw an agitating or striking coal miner out of their house, they destroyed the gardens and confiscated or killed the animals that provide food,” notes Ronni Lundy, the author of Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, With Recipes. “You know, they got it—the ability to grow food is power in the hands of people they wanted to make powerless.”

Look at the Junk Science About Contraception in the Health Department’s New Manifesto

Late last month, the department of Health and Human Services published its 2018-2022 draft strategic plan, opening it up for comment through the end of October.

The document contains a number of changes to the last plan, which spanned 2014-2018. But one in particular stands out: In the “Organizational Structure” section from current draft’s introduction, the department has added language asserting that life begins at conception.

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On her blog, Ob/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter, first noted that the phrase “beginning at conception,” has been appended to the first sentence of this section. But what does that mean? What are the implications?

This added language “doesn’t have legal force,” says Mara Gandal-Powers, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, “but it gives us a clear road map of where HHS is going.” It reflects the thinking of the “personhood” movement, a branch of the anti-abortion movement that has long sought laws granting legal rights to fetuses by defining life as beginning when an egg is fertilized. If such proposals became law, all abortion would become illegal, as might some forms of contraception.

Court can’t suspend Keystone XL pipeline decision, Trump administration says

Attorneys for the Trump administration said a federal judge has no authority to second-guess a presidential permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline as they seek to stop a lawsuit that would block the project.

Justice Department attorneys are due in U.S. District Court in Montana on Wednesday to defend the administration’s March approval of the 1,179-mile pipeline — a lightning rod in the debate over what to do about climate change.

The TransCanada proposal would transport Canadian crude oil through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with an existing system of lines to carry oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

The Obama administration rejected the project before the proposal was revived in March by President Donald Trump, who said it would create jobs and lead to greater energy independence.

Conservation groups and Native American organizations that sued over the project argue that an environmental review completed in 2014 was inadequate. They’ve asked U.S. District Judge Brian Morris to revoke its permit.

Government attorneys said in their motion to throw out the case that Morris can’t interfere because the Constitution gives Trump authority over matters of foreign affairs and national security.

Duke Energy Wants to Build a $5 Billion Pipeline Through Eastern North Carolina. They’ll Have to Go Through Marvin Winstead First.

If you look closely, you can see the signs scattered throughout Nash County, poking out from sprawling fields and sun-scorched patches of grass. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are bright yellow with just one word: DANGER. Others are square and white with a circle and a slash. All of them have the same message, peppering a sleepy, rural stretch of land with a small yelp of protest: No Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

On a hot afternoon in September, Marvin Winstead strides confidently to his sign, propped up against a pile of overgrown grass.

“This is where it’s scheduled to go,” he says, gesturing to the ground and then pointing across the street, to a dense forest brimming with bushes. “What they’ll do is come through here and just knock all these trees down. They don’t have any concern for the impact …” he trails off, shaking his head.

When Winstead talks about the pipeline, he gets angry. Occasionally, he’ll launch into a ten-minute diatribe, barely taking a breath. The whippet-thin farmer is sixty-six years old, with kind eyes and a gray mess of hair that juts out from a black baseball cap. Just behind him stretches the seventy-acre farm that has been in his family for generations. It’s currently growing soybeans; at other times of the year, it sprouts corn, cotton, and wheat.

Winstead is one of about a thousand landowners in North Carolina who would be affected by the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion joint venture by Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Southern Company Gas. Forty-two inches in diameter, the pipeline would cross six hundred miles of the Southeast, transporting fracked natural gas from West Virginia through the verdant Shenandoah National Park and into eight eastern North Carolina counties: Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Sampson, Cumberland, and Robeson.

Pipeline drilling fluid spilled for third time in same area in East Goshen

While performing horizontal directional drilling, Sunoco Pipeline has spilled drilling fluid three times since Saturday at nearly the same site.

Three sets of sand bags were in place Tuesday afternoon at the Boot Road and Enterprise Drive intersection in a bid to contain tainted mud from work on the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline.

Sunoco Communications Manager Jeff Shields said drilling was stopped at the site following the two “small inadvertent returns,” Monday, and another on Saturday, with drilling mud seeping through cracks in the soil. More than a dozen pipeline workers were gathered at the site Tuesday afternoon.

After stopping drilling, the drilling fluid was contained, with cleanup usually accomplished with a vacuum truck, according to Shields. He said no water resources were affected.

Activist Melissa DiBernardino is mother of two students at Ss. Peter and Paul Elementary School, which is less than 100 feet from the prospective pipeline route.

“Sunoco is absolutely not safe,” DiBernardino said. ”I feel bad that people are inconvenienced by spills, but I can’t help but get a little happier because they’re making it easier to shut it down.”

Indigenous communities embracing clean energy, creating thousands of jobs

An increasing number of Indigenous communities are becoming partners in renewable energy projects in Canada and creating thousands of jobs as they do it.

A new national survey shows nearly one fifth of the country’s power is provided by facilities fully or partly owned and run by Indigenous communities.

It represents a dramatic increase in the last decade in renewable energy projects like hydro, wind and solar power.

The author of the report, Chris Henderson, says the real surprise for him is the amount of employment that clean power is creating — 15,300 direct jobs for Indigenous workers who have earned $842 million in employment income in the last eight years.

“That is a huge number, because if you have a job you are contributing to the economy, it’s a real job, it’s honest work,” he said in an interview with CBC News. “The number of jobs created is the story of how our country is changing and how Indigenous people are part of a clean energy future.”

There are now 152 medium to large renewable energy projects with Indigenous involvement. That’s up from approximately 20 projects in 2008.

Fighting for working and middle class families here in TX-26. And I'll never stop. https://t.co/d5quJpv8hx https://t.co/HVI6NnjKWw

— Will Fisher 🇺🇸 (@WillFisherTX) October 11, 2017

I donated to @mdevitojr for US Congress #NY11 and you can to voa act blue:https://t.co/qCNW0aY7FR#LetsRunTogether

— TheProgressiveWing (@ProgressiveWing) October 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/918134851185754112?s=03

Senate Democrats worry Russia could jeopardize reelection bids

Democratic senators fighting to hold on to their seats next year are increasingly worried about a troubling reality: Russia appears set to mess with U.S. elections — again.

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned last week that Russia’s second straight attempt to upend a major election appears certain. They pointed to hacked emails, fake news stories and other evidence of interference in France, Montenegro and elsewhere over the past year as signs Moscow remains determined to monkey with voting.

Democratic senators such as Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jon Tester of Montana — who hail from states President Donald Trump won in 2016 — know they’re already facing stiff reelection challenges.

Now they’re concerned the Trump administration is dragging its feet on thwarting sophisticated Russian cyber operations that could have significant impact on their races — and could even sway which party wins control of the Senate. The red- and purple-state Democratic seats are top targets for Republicans hoping to expand their two-seat majority in the Senate; Democrats likely would have to hold all of them if they are to have any hope of retaking the chamber.

“If there isn’t some effort to take steps against Russian interference, every campaign is going to have to be on guard and working against it,” said Casey, describing himself as “very concerned.”

US warship sails near islands claimed by China, angering Beijing: report

A U.S. Navy destroyer reportedly sailed near Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea on Tuesday.

Three U.S. military officials told Reuters the USS Chafee, a guided-missile destroyer, carried out normal maneuvering operations to challenge “excessive maritime claims” in the Paracel archipelago, which is claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it sent a warship, two fighter jets and a helicopter to warn the U.S. destroyer away, calling the move a “provocation.”

“We demand the U.S. side earnestly take steps to correct its mistakes,” the ministry said in a statement.

The United States does not recognize China’s sovereignty claim over the islands and sees it as an effort to limit freedom of navigation. In the last year, the Navy has conducted several operations to challenge Beijing’s stance.

Pro-Trump energy group blasts plan to help coal, nuclear

An energy policy think tank whose political arm endorsed President Trump is panning the administration’s proposal to mandate higher payments to coal and nuclear power plants.

The Institute for Energy Research’s (IER) Director of Policy Kenny Stein wrote Wednesday that the Department of Energy’s proposal is “excessive and unnecessarily distortive.”

..

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the policy is needed for grid resilience, since coal and nuclear plants are closing down due to economics.

Stein said grid resilience is a real concern, but Perry’s proposal is far from the best solution.

“Like using a sledgehammer to swat a fly, this rule would end up causing enormous destruction even if it also managed to provide more resilient baseload capacity,” he wrote. “Guaranteeing cost recovery for certain types of generation would destroy electricity markets.”

Stein’s criticism comes in addition to objections from numerous groups that could be hurt by the planning, including those representing renewables, some utilities and natural gas.