Open Newswire

Three people have put their hats in the ring for a Kern County Water Agency board seat that was left vacant when that board member was hired as the agency’s […]

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department says it has upgraded its investigation into Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over a video where he and other members of Congress told members of the military they didn’t need to follow illegal orders.  “The Office of the Secretary of War, in conjunction with the Department of War’s Office of […]

After persistent complaints about poor water service from residents of the North Star subdivision outside Helena, the Montana Public Service Commission approved Tuesday a settlement with the utility that imposes monetary penalties and sets other requirements. However, the Public Service Commission backed off of an $86,700 fine it preliminarily adopted in August in favor of […]

As a long-awaited jobs report reinforced concerns about the economy Tuesday, Vice President J.D. Vance worked to rally a group of supporters in the Lehigh Valley with claims the nation is on the brink of an economic comeback.  “It takes a little bit of time to fix something that was so fundamentally broken,” Vance said […]

Arizona’s Senate Republican leaders say in the coming year they’ll be focused on lowering costs, making communities safer and keeping the state’s economy competitive.  In a lengthy list of priorities for the state legislative session that begins Jan. 12, Senate Republicans heaped praise on President Donald Trump and heavily criticized Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, […]

Gov. Greg Gianforte on Tuesday requested President Donald Trump issue a presidential major disaster declaration due to flooding in northwestern Montana, saying “immediate federal assistance is essential.” The governor’s request is for Lincoln and Sanders counties and the Blackfeet Nation. Rain and warm temperatures in a system that started Dec. 8 led to widespread flooding […]

Testimony from federal agents continued into the second day of Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s federal trial, where Dugan faces charges of obstructing immigration officers and concealing a man they were trying to arrest outside her courtroom in April. Prosecutors repeatedly asked agents about Dugan’s tone when she spoke with them, which they described as […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he will not allow a floor vote this week on a bipartisan amendment supported by moderate Republicans that would extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits.  Johnson was confident that blocking the amendment would not lead centrist GOP lawmakers to oppose the Republican health care […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators left a closed-door meeting Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio split over the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug-running vessels near Venezuela, particularly an early September follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to boat wreckage. Hegseth and Rubio delivered the all-member briefings to […]

(The Center Square) – California’s litigation has resulted in $168 billion of federal funds staying in the state, Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters Tuesday as he announced California’s 50th lawsuit this year against the Trump administration. For every dollar spent on litigation, California gets back $33,000, a rate of return that would excite Wall Street investors, Bonta said during a virtual news conference that also included Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser said Tuesday’s lawsuit was Colorado’s 47th against the federal government. Bonta, Weiser and Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown are co-leading the coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general and Pennsylvania in the latest suit. Bonta and Weiser said they were suing the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funding that Congress allocated for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. They said states were guaranteed federal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. During a question-and-answer period with reporters, The Center Square asked Bonta and Weiser about other issues ranging from education to a settlement with manufacturers of cars that allegedly lacked anti-theft technology, as well as the growing litigation against the Trump administration. Bonta told The Center Square that he didn’t know the number of hours his staff had devoted to its 50 lawsuits against President Donald Trump's administration. “I don’t have that off the top of my head, but we only sue when Trump breaks the law. We won’t sue if he follows the law. Every time he breaks the law, he hurts our people, and we’re going to sue him. That’s our duty. That’s our obligation.” The Center Square reached out Tuesday to the White House, which commented on the large number of lawsuits. “Instead of filing frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration, left-wing politicians should focus on themselves and the problems they’ve created for millions of patriotic Americans," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Center Square. Bonta noted California is winning 80% of its lawsuits against Trump. “The returns on investment are orders of magnitude larger than the investment,” Bonta told The Center Square. “For a modest investment of attorneys who know the law and can gather and prepare the facets, we are literally securing billions of dollars. … “Taxpayers should be very proud of their modest investments turning into huge returns,” Bonta said. Bonta noted the results for California and Colorado represent the success that the 23 states in the broader Democratic coalition are seeing against Trump. The Center Square asked Bonta if the litigation against Trump was distracting his office from other lawsuits and criminal prosecutions. “Absolutely not,” Bonta said. “This is all additive, in addition to, on top of the work we always do. We continue to do the steady, important work of our office.” Bonta said his office continues to work to protect civil rights as well as the rights of consumers and workers. He said his office also focuses on promoting housing, gun safety and ways to tackle the climate crisis. “That work is not impacted. We continue to do that and deliver for Californians in every way,” Bonta said, noting his office received additional money for the Trump litigation. Earlier during the news conference, he said his office spent $5 million of $25 million that the Legislature allocated during last fall's special session for potential litigation against Trump and later received several millions of additional dollars. "I don't have an exact number for you." Answering a question from The Center Square, Weiser said Colorado has secured over $1 billion in federal funds during its litigation against Trump. He noted the state managed that with “only three additional FTEs, full-time equivalents.” “Colorado faced all sorts of threats to our funding, and we’ve been able to secure it, get access to it in face of illegal restrictions,” Weiser said. “It’s been very meaningful, very impactful stuff.” “I’ve talked to people who are miracle workers who have their jobs because we took this action,” Weiser said, noting they included public health officials doing important work. He said the Trump administration is acting outside the law in a way that is “egregious” and noted the administration is doing so to a worse extent than the first Trump term. “During President Trump’s first term, I ran 11 cases overall, including cases from before I took office,” Weiser said. “My standards haven’t changed. Their behavior has.” On another matter, The Center Square asked Bonta for more information on a settlement on a lawsuit with Kia America and Hyundai Motor Co. for allegedly lacking anti-theft technology in their cars. Thirty-five states, including California and Colorado, sued the manufacturers. “Going forward, all of the cars made by Kia and Hyundai in the United States will have the appropriate anti-theft technology,” Bonta told The Center Square. “And there is a $4.5 million restitution to help drivers who had vehicles that were damaged by thieves.” The settlement also pays $4.5 million to the states to cover their costs of investigating Kia and Hyundai. And the companies have agreed to offer free zinc-reinforced ignition cylinder protectors to owners or lessees of eligible vehicles, including vehicles that earlier were eligible only for software updates. Consumers can find more information at www.HKMultistateimmobilizersettlement.com. On another topic, The Center Square asked Bonta about Democratic attorneys general’s efforts to fight federal requirements for data collection on diversity, equity and inclusion policies at colleges and universities. “We think it’s an unnecessary intrusion into the privacy of Californians and is not an appropriate request,” Bonta said. “They’re not enforcing civil rights,” he continued. “Their vision of civil rights is to undermine civil rights protection, to try to dismantle the key provisions that promote the civil rights of the American people.”

Democratic candidates Angie Craig and Peggy Flanagan are among those trolled by Tafoya on X as she weighs a bid to run against them. The post Michele Tafoya isn’t in the Senate race yet, but she’s been busy politicking on social media appeared first on MinnPost.

(The Center Square) – As Tuesday afternoon fell across Western Washington, the skies darkened and heavy rain again poured down on a saturated landscape unable to handle even more precipitation that had already resulted in historic flooding throughout the region. Large swaths of low-lying river valleys ended up buried under feet of water, including much of the Auburn and Kent valleys, where homes, businesses, industrial areas, and farmland were rendered unrecognizable. The Center Square toured the flooded region on Tuesday and spoke with a man who came to check if his car hauler truck, parked at a lot off of South 277th Street – where new vehicles are stored before being transported to dealers – was still dry. He said his rig appeared to have been spared, but others were not so lucky. “I wish the manager had given us more warning to move our rigs,” the man, who declined to identify himself, told The Center Square, noting the fast-rising water from Saturday. A nearby gas station was inundated with several feet of water, and several surrounding homes and agricultural properties were submerged or partially submerged. And while the debate over the impacts of climate change on flooding will undoubtedly continue, some people suggest that the focus should be on flood mitigation, or the lack thereof. Todd Myers, vice president for research at the free-market Washington Policy Center think tank, spoke with The Center Square on Tuesday. “When the Climate Commitment Act passed – in the very first paragraph, they were talking about why we need to have this CO2 tax – and it specifically mentions flooding,” he said. “Flooding is one of the things you hear all the time, and flooding is going to get worse because of climate change. There is some merit to that as warmer air holds more water, so there's going to be more moisture, more rain, and so obviously the potential for more floods.” Myers noted more than $1.5 billion was spent in the first two years from the CO2 tax on various programs, with a very tiny fraction dedicated to flood mitigation. “Since we're blaming these floods on climate change, did we use the money to fight climate change, to prevent flooding?” he asked. “Out of that $1.5 billion, just over $7 million was spent-which is about one half of 1% [on flood mitigation]. “I looked at some other things that we spent more on during the first two years, and we actually spent more than double that, $15 million for bicycle education programs for elementary and middle school students.” In a recent article on the subject, Myers highlighted specific CCA flood mitigation spending. “The largest single expenditure on flooding listed in the state’s spending list is $1.5 million to the Whatcom County Public Works Department for their Floodplain Integrated Planning process,” he wrote. Another $406,797 went to training “young adults to implement ecological restoration and flood prevention projects in the south Puget Sound region.” And another $900,000 went to “staff costs to administer the Transboundary Flooding grant program… Flood control projects can take many years to complete, so some projects funded by CCA money now will be completed in the future.” The Center Square spoke with Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, who is the ranking minority member on the House Environment & Energy Committee, about the lack of prioritizing flood concerns when it comes to CCA priorities. “We are not directing the CCA dollars towards actual policies that would help that,” she said. “We claim that there are these terrible public risks of fire and floods and droughts, and we have not spent anything since we have been bringing revenues in. And so, we need to think about what our priorities are. We know that there have been places where the levees are not adequate. Fix the levees.” Dye noted the number of lower-income families living in flood-prone areas. “We have a very high flood risk that disproportionately affects local income areas,” she said. “So, you know, it's the way we're spending the money that's making the trauma in these communities worse.” The Center Square reached out to the Department of Ecology for comment on the CCA and flood mitigation. “It’s up to the Legislature to decide how to spend CCA dollars,” Caroline Halter, communications manager with the Department of Ecology’s Climate Pollution Reduction Program, replied via email. “Ecology’s only role is to account for how the revenue has been spent each year.” Myers' article suggests the state Legislature should reconsider how it prioritizes CCA spending. “We have consistently recommended a concept introduced by Jay Inslee in his first climate legislation in 2013, ESSB 5802, which said climate expenditures ‘must be prioritized to ensure the greatest amount of environmental benefit for each dollar spent and based on measures of environmental effectiveness,’” he wrote. “That is not being done. The result is that even as political leaders point to flooding and other weather events as evidence of climate change and the need for the CCA, there is little spent to address those risks.”

Președintele României, Nicușor Dan, a avut cuvinte de laudă pentru Diaspora românească din Marea Britanie. Aflat în vizită la Londra, președintele Dan a fost prezent la recepția dată de Ambasadoarea României în Regatul Unit, Laura Popescu, cu prilejul Zilei Naționale a României.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Controversial academic standards for social studies are unenforceable because Oklahoma’s top school board violated state open meeting laws when approving them, the state Supreme Court decided Tuesday. Five of the Court’s nine justices decided to permanently nullify the social studies standards, which had sought to require public schools to teach Bible stories […]

House budget chief takes aim at ‘irresponsible’ proposal to slash income tax rate

With the Affordable Care Act subsidies on the chopping block in the Republican-controlled Congress, it’s no surprise the Lee newspapers did an interview with Montana’s former senator Max Baucus.  As the chairman of the Senate’s powerful Finance Committee, Baucus “was chief architect of the Affordable Care Act known as “Obamacare.” According to Baucus: “For 15 […]

No dia 17 de fevereiro de 2016, ocorreu o primeiro giro mecânico da Usina Hidrelétrica de Belo Monte, entre os municípios de Altamira e Vitória do Xingu, no estado do Pará. Meses depois, em abril, a usina já entrava em operação comercial. Naquele mesmo ano, o pesquisador Jansen Zuanon esteve na Volta Grande do Xingu, […] The post Peixes deformados expõem o colapso do pulso do Xingu após Belo Monte appeared first on Notícias ambientais.

دونالد ترامپ، رئیس‌جمهوری آمریکا، در بیانیه‌ای اعلام کرد ونزوئلا «به‌طور کامل در محاصره بزرگ‌ترین ناوگانی که تاکنون در تاریخ آمریکای جنوبی گرد آمده قرار گرفته است» و تأکید کرد این ناوگان «فقط بزرگ‌تر خواهد شد.»

La Orquesta Marga Marga cierra su Temporada de Música de Cámara 2025 del Centro para las Artes Zoco con un programa de estrenos de compositores chilenos. La cita es el próximo lunes 22 de diciembre en el Centro para las Artes de Lo Barnechea. The post Con estrenos chilenos Orquesta Marga Marga cierra Temporada de Música de Cámara 2025 de Teatro Zoco appeared first on BioBioChile.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted ongoing efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the Department of Education, including plans to shift several of its responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies.   Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono hosted a forum on the issue with several Democratic colleagues. The lawmakers, joined by education leaders, advocates and leading […]