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National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini has also broken with NOAA leadership

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting chief scientist said in an email to colleagues Sunday that he is investigating whether the agency’s response to President Trump’s Hurricane Dorian tweets constituted a violation of NOAA policies and ethics. Also on Monday, the director of the National Weather Service broke with NOAA leadership over its handling of Trump’s Dorian tweets and statements.

In an email to NOAA staff that was obtained by The Washington Post, NOAA’s Craig McLean, called the agency’s response “political” and a “danger to public health and safety.” Continue reading “NOAA’s chief scientist will investigate why agency backed Trump over its experts on Dorian, email shows”

In a piece by the Washinton Post editorial board — usually a source for analysis and opinion, not new bombshell facts — the paper dropped a stunning allegation about President Donald Trump that would undoubtedly constitute an impeachable offense.

View the complete September 7 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that European nations should consider funding projects in their countries after the Pentagon diverted money to pay for a border wall with Mexico.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would pull funding from 127 Defense Department projects abroad and at home, including schools and daycare centers for military families, as it diverts $3.6 billion to pay for President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S. border.

Trump has made immigration a signature issue of his presidency. He declared a national emergency over the issue earlier this year in an effort to redirect funding from Congress to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, which he originally said would be paid for by Mexico.

View the complete September 5 article by Idrees Ali on the Reuters website here.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence departed his hotel overlooking stunning vistas of the Atlantic Ocean just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday for his official visit with Michael D. Higgins, the president of Ireland. It would be quite some time before he got there.

There was the hourlong motorcade to the airport in Shannon, where he arrived at 9:30 a.m. Then the flight to Dublin, where Air Force Two landed at 10:29 a.m., and finally a short drive to Aras an Uachtarain, the presidential residence, and his meet-and-greet with Mr. Higgins, which started at 11:11 a.m.

The lengthy commute was necessary because of Mr. Pence’s choice of hotel: Rather than spending Monday night in Dublin, the vice president stayed 181 miles away by car on the other side of Ireland — at the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg. The person who suggested he stay there was the hotel’s owner himself, President Trump.

View the complete September 3 article by Maggie Haberman and Eric Lipton on The New York Times website here.

Valuing education in every community is what every student deserves, and it determines our future.

As a former public school teacher and a dad, the back-to-school season is a meaningful time of year for me. This year, it’s also full of change. My daughter, Hope, starts her first year of college at the University of Minnesota, and my son, Gus, heads back to middle school. This also will be the first year in nearly 30 years that neither my wife, Gwen, nor I will be starting September in a school.

While I am not setting up my classroom or getting my lessons planned this year, I approach every day in my job as a “teacher-governor.” That’s because the education of our children determines the future of our state. Every student in Minnesota deserves the opportunity to learn in the best schools in the country with caring, qualified teachers.

But as I travel around the state, I see how the quality of a student’s education is too often dependent on their race or ZIP code. I recently met a grandmother who lives with a deep anxiety. Her fear is that her grandchild in La Crescent won’t receive the same opportunities or have as bright of a future as her grandchild in Woodbury. Disparities in our educational system based on geography, race or economic status hold back not only our students, but our entire state from reaching its full potential.

View the complete September 3 commentary by Gov. Tim Walz on The StarTribune website here.

President Trump tweeted more than 100 times over the three-day weekend as Hurricane Dorian approached and then battered the Bahamas.

Many of the presidential tweets were focused on the dangerous storm, though the president, who split his time at the White House, his Virginia golf club and Camp David, also focused his ire on the media and some celebrity critics.

Trump tweeted Sunday that South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama were likely to be hit by Dorian — a message that might have caused some confusion since the storm was too far east to affect Alabama. The National Weather Service in Birmingham quickly refuted the president’s tweet with one of its own.

View the complete September 3 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Donald Trump is determined to get some of his border wall built before the 2020 election and, according to Nick Mirhoff and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post, he is prepared to illegally seize land from private citizens and disregard environmental laws.

When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said. He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying “take the land,” according to officials who attended the meetings.

View the complete August 28 article by Nancy LeTourneau from Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

At the G7, climate change takes a backseat for Trump.

Leaders representing the world’s seven biggest economies struck a deal on Monday to bring badly needed aid to the fire-stricken Amazon, following global uproar over the growing threat to the critical natural resource.

But the announcement will likely do little to fix a deep divide on climate issues between several world powers. While European leaders have expressed ongoing concern about the Amazon’s fires, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing government has empowered the business interests linked to the fires, prioritizing agriculture over the environment. And Bolsonaro has an ally in President Donald Trump, who himself missed a G7 climate change meeting earlier in the day, citing “scheduled meetings.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that G7 powers would commit $20 million to assist Brazil and its neighbors in their efforts to protect the Amazon. That group — consisting of France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Germany, and the United States — meets annually to discuss global economics and policy. Macron said that the initiative had U.S. support, but noted that Trump missed Monday morning’s climate meeting.

View the complete August 26 article by E.A. Crunden on the ThinkProgress website here.

House Natural Resources chairman calls the move ‘a shameless giveaway campaign’

The Bureau of Land Management acknowledged Friday it plans to open a large portion of land in Utah — which the federal government until recently considered a national monument — to future oil, gas and mining projects.

At the urging of local and state officials as well as industry groups, President Donald Trump in 2017 shrank the size of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 1 million acres from the 1.9 million acres it was when President Bill Clinton established it.

Planning documents released by the agency Friday said that of the acreage cut from the original monument, roughly 211,000 acres would be exempt from fossil fuel leasing, while the remaining land would be available for future leases. None of the land would be exempt from mining.

View the complete August 26 article by Jacob Holzman on The Roll Call website here.