Author: NYMHM team

#newsyoumayhavemissed for September 30, 2018 keeps track of the news that has slipped by us while the extraordinary Judiciary Committee hearings have captured our attention. Thanks to our tireless activist colleagues, we also offer you numerous ways to comment on what is and what should not be. See the links under “Resources.” And note our hopeful news in Science & Tech.

Resources

• This is an excellent week to revisit the Americans of Conscience checklist. Jen Hofmann offers categories of ways you can engage, including in support of sexual assault survivors and against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. She provides some much needed good news as well, occasions when activism worked.
• Once again, Sarah-Hope of whatifknits provides a summary of multiple action items—ways to fight the Muslim ban, challenge family separation, support raspberry workers and people with disabilities—along with addresses. A link on her pages lets you locate your representatives if you are not from California.
• Want to comment on the denial of green cards to legal immigrants who receive any kind of public assistance? Want to object to the rollback of EPA standards on methane. Have something to say about Kavanaugh? Martha will tell you how.
• And Chrysostom has a new round-up of election returns. With the midterms creeping closer, it’s a good time to tune in.

NEWS

1. LGBTQ employees of NGOs may only bring families to the US if married

The LGBTQ partners and dependents of diplomats and employees of NGOs may no longer be able to receive visas to the U.S. unless the partners are legally married, under a new policy that appears to have been released by the Trump administration. Some of these employees come from countries that do not recognize gay marriage—or even impose the death penalty on LGBTQ people. For these employees, their work in the U.S. is a haven. Since the policy has not been formally released, only sent to some U.N. organizations, many issues surrounding it remain unknown, e.g., whether marriages contracted in the U.S. will be recognized. (The “Dorf” of the source is Michael Dorf, a law professor at Cornell, whose blog has important pieces by various credible authors.) [Dorf on Law, UN Globe]

2. Tariffs raising Walmart’s prices by 25%

Walmart has submitted a letter to the Office of the US Trade Representative noting that tariffs on Chinese goods and component parts will force them to raise their prices by as much as 25%. [Regulations.gov]

3. Trump can be sued for payments by foreign governments

A lawsuit brought by 200 congressional Democrats against Trump alleging violations of the emoluments clause for his dealings with foreign governments will go forward by a federal judge, who ruled that they have legal standing to sue. Trump argues that these deals were business-related, not payments. [Washington Post]

4. Children stealthily relocated to tent city by border

Children being held by ICE in shelters across the country have been quietly moved to a tent city on the Texas border, where the Weather Network says it will be in the mid- to high-eighties this week. Until now, they have been in small groups in foster care, where they have been able to attend school. The tent shelters are unregulated, offer no access to schooling, and provide extremely limited legal services. The children are given no notice about the moves and tend to be moved in the middle of the night for fear they will run away. Advocates for these children worry about the trauma to them, as well as the possibility that children in need of assistance will fall through the cracks, given the size of the facility. NYMHM wonders whether the main attraction of the tent shelter—which ICE says is needed to relieve overcrowding—is its proximity to the border, 35 miles away; is the shelter just a step away from deportation? [NY Times]

5. Nielsen lied about family separation policy

On June 17, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted, “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.” Danielle Brian of Project on Government Oversight has located a DHS family separation policy through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request: “The memo states that DHS could ‘permissibly direct the separation of parents or legal guardians and minors held in immigration detention so that the parent or legal guardian can be prosecuted.’ It outlines three options for implementing ‘zero tolerance,’ the policy of increased prosecution of immigration violations. Of these, it recommends ‘Option 3,’ referring for prosecution all adults crossing the border without authorization, ‘including those presenting with a family unit,’ as the ‘most effective.’” [Open the Government, government memo]

6. Who profits from immigrant detention? And who is fighting it?

In These Times has a comprehensive story about the corporations who profit from immigrant detention. The names will sound familiar, involved as they are in everything we do. ITT’s story includes the history of ICE and an inspirational discussion of which advocacy groups are targeting which corporations. It’s a great orientation to what’s happening and what’s possible. Their story is based on part on research done by the Urban Justice Center—also worth checking out. [In These Times, Corrections Accountability]

7. Huge tax cuts passed in the House during the Kavanaugh hearing

While all of us were distracted—with good reason—by the Kavanaugh hearings, the House passed a 3.1 trillion dollar tax cut, which would take effect in 2025. According to Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center, the cuts would mainly favor upper-income taxpayers—those in the 95-99th percentile—and “would add almost 3.8 trillion to the federal budget deficit from 2026-2038.” The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate but still warrants watching. [Fortune]

8. More news stories under the radar

While we were watching the Kavanaugh debacle, the news cycle raged on. The Free Thought project suggests five stories that we take note of: Other reasons Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court; increased cannabis arrests despite legalization in a number of states; warrantless spying; and the Rite-Aid mass shooting. The fifth story is related to 9/11 conspiracy stories and is about how those posting about it were “quarantined” by Reddit. NYMHM is interested in the free-speech implications here but urges caution on the rest of the assertions. Still, the other four stories are important to note. [Free Thought Project]

9. Environmental non-profits targeted as “foreign agents”

Republicans are using the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) against US-based environmental non-profits. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Bruce Westerman (R-AZ), both recipients of “more than $50,000 apiece in oil and gas industry campaign contributions in this election cycle, ” are accusing the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for Biological Diversity, and the World Resources Institute of being foreign agents. As the American Prospect explains, “Repressive regimes in Hungary and Russia have also used FARA to justify cracking down on civil society groups, the International Center for Not-for-Profit law has warned.” [The American Prospect; ICNL (pdf)]

10. The safety rules set up after the Deepwater Horizon disaster are being dismantled

In response to requests by the oil industry, all of the off-shore drilling regulations put in place following the Deepwater Horizon disaster are being dismantled by the Trump administration. No longer will drilling operations have to have independent safety assessments, have their equipment certified by professionals as safe, or have equipment that will function in extreme weather conditions.

In 2010, 11 people were killed and a million seabirds died when an oil rig malfunctioned, dumping 4.9 billion gallons of oil into the sea. BP paid 18.7 billion in penalties, but the environmental and economic costs to coastal communities were catastrophic. To see these costs close-up, read Connie May Fowler’s devastating memoir, A Million Fragile Bones. [NYT]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

11. Newest estimates show more flu deaths but flu shots worked better than expected.

The Centers for Disease Control released the newest mathematical model estimates for the death toll during the 2017/2018 flu season, finding that the highly contagious illness was responsible for about 80,000 deaths and 900,000 hospitalizations—the worst outbreak in over a decade. The numbers have to be modeled because adult flu deaths are not reported by every state and can be difficult to pin down as flu often presages a weakened immune system which subsequently fails to stop subsequent illnesses such as pneumonia.

In a bit of a bright lining, the model predicted that the flu vaccine—which had been feared to have a success rate of around 10%—ended up being around 40% effective, which made it an important factor in keeping deaths lower than they otherwise would have been. This is despite a dismal rate of immunization across several key populations; only 38.5% of adults were vaccinated and only 58% of children, actually lower than the previous year. 180 children died of the flu during the 2017/2018 season, breaking the previous record held by the 2012/2013 season; of the children who died, 80% were not vaccinated. [Ars Technica]

12. In a medical breakthrough, implants allow paralyzed man to walk

For the first time ever, implanted electrodes were used to stimulate a paralyzed person’s spinal nerves, bypassing the injured section of the spinal cord, and allowed him to stand and walk with minor assistance. The text subject lost his ability to walk in a snowmobile accident and had undergone the procedure to place electrodes in his epidural region as well as a battery pack in his abdomen. After weeks of calibration, he has managed to go from standing in a harness to walking the length of a football field using a wheel walker, raising hopes that the technology may someday be able to restore significant mobility to spinal injury patients. [Independent]

13. New material offers a possible solution to beat the heat in a warming world

As global temperatures climb, methods of passive cooling become more and more important, especially in the developing world as most active cooling measures used today are energy intensive and expensive to maintain. A class of materials described as PDRCs (Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling) may be a key to meet the growing need, as they are surfaces that manage to shed heat even in direct sunlight. For centuries, white paints have been used to obtain some of these qualities as they are a cheap and easy method to reflect light, and therefore heat, away from buildings. But most white paints fail to reflect UV light and any cooling they might provide varies widely on the substrate.

Researchers at Columbia University have produced a high performance polymer coating riddled with microscopic air voids making it extremely porous; these extremely small cavities increase surface area and most importantly scatter more light, making the polymer appear white. The end result is a material that manages to be consistently cooler than the ambient air surrounding it, across a wide array of climate types. It produced a 6 c drop in temperature in Arizona type climates and 3 c in a hot and humid climate such as Bangladesh. [Phys.org]

14. Fetal tissue research put on hold

Health and Human Services (HHS) cancelled one contract involving fetal tissue and will audit all others, in a move celebrated by anti-abortion activists, who used the phrase “baby body parts” to describe the research. Buzzfeed notes that this debate is being raised again just ahead of the midterm elections. The project being cancelled would have used fetal tissue which otherwise would have been discarded to make a mouse’s immune system more like a human’s, an extremely valuable tool for research into immunity and disease. [Buzzfeed]

#newsyoumayhavemissed for September 23, 2018: We know it’s easy to get paralyzed in the current atmosphere. The cure is to take a few focused actions: 1) Urge your friends/colleagues/students to register to vote. See the overview on voting issues in the Daily Kos. 2) And write a comment or a letter on something that matters to you. See the opportunities to comment or write a letter.

RESOURCES

• Do you care about coal ash? Lead in drinking water? Methane emissions? Christine Blasey Ford? Refugees? The evacuation of prisoners, which we reported on last week? See Sarah-Hope’s site for summaries of the issues and places to write.
• Have something to say about EPA policies, Brett Kavanaugh, or Trump’s tariffs? See Martha’s list for invitations to comment.
• Chrysostom has a comprehensive summary of election news—along with a batch of polling information.

DOMESTIC NEWS

1. Why people don’t report

If you had any questions about why people don’t report sexual assaults, you can read through the twitter hashtag #WhyIDidntReport, for as long as you can stand it. Or read Amber Wyatt’s story in the Washington Post and note how the assault was compounded by the brutal harassment she received when she did report. The story has not gotten the play it should have; we can honor her survival by reading it. [Washington Post, Twitter]

2. Russia & the election overview

You may feel you’ve heard all you can stand to hear about Russian involvement in the 2016. Still, given the difficulty of tracking the many moving parts, you might want to read the overview the New York Times has put together. The piece has gotten peculiarly little attention—perhaps it’s been swamped by the Brett Kavanaugh debacle. It’s comprehensive (though not complete)—really worth reading as we head into the mid-terms.

If you want more backstory, some months ago (as we noted then) Frontline posted 64 interviews they had done with a variety of sources on the Russian interference issue; not only was the reporting formidable but the move toward transparency in posting the background reporting was stunning. [NY Times, PBS]

3. Limits on refugees

The Trump Administration has announced its intention to limit refugee admittance to the U.S. next year to just 30,000 individuals, by far the lowest number since the current refugee program was put in place in 1980. This decision comes at a time when the world is experiencing huge growth in refugee populations, including many individuals fleeing regions in which the U.S. had been supporting military conflicts—such as those in Yemen and Syria.

Sarah-Hope on Whatifknits. See her blog if you want to write decision-makers. [Whatifknits, NPR]

4. Immigrants suspected of someday needing public assistance to be denied green cards

A new policy targeting legal immigrants would deny green cards to anyone using Section 8 vouchers, Medicaid or other government assistance programs—or suspected of being likely to need them at any point in the future. Previously drafts of the policy, as we noted when we posted this story earlier, would have excluded anyone who received health insurance under the Affordable Care Act; this provision has been dropped.

Still at issue is whether immigrants will be permitted to use CHIP, the health care program for children—even citizens—whose families make too much money to receive Medicaid. Without green cards, of course, it is difficult for immigrants to find work, and so this policy is clearly aimed at keeping immigrants who are not independently wealthy in a permanently marginal status. [Politico, Washington Post, NY Times]

If you want to speak up about this, see Martha’s list of places to comment. Your comment will be included in the Federal Register.

5. Follow the money: Trump supporters involved in companies detaining children

The enthusiasm of the Trump administration for detaining immigrant children comes into perspective when we learn that contractors who runs these facilities have over a billion dollars in contracts—and two of the largest contractors are significant donors to Republican candidates.

“From 2015 to 2018 the average daily number of immigrants in detention went from 28,449 to 41,836,” wrote the Center for Public Integrity, which has a detailed investigative piece on its site identifying how much the two key companies involved in immigrant detention contributed to the Trump inauguration, how one of them threatened detainees with solitary confinement if they did not agree to work at the facility for a dollar a day, how detainees’ medical care was denied or delayed, resulting in several deaths—and more. [NY Times, Center for Public Integrity]

6. Due for deportation: Vietnamese immigrants

Among those the Trump administration has targeted for deportation are about 8,000 immigrants from Vietnam, including those who were children of servicemen. Following the American/Vietnam war, many thousands of Vietnamese were permitted to immigrate, in an arrangement solidified by an agreement with Vietnam in 2008.. Not all of them had the education or financial means to go through the citizenship process. Now, any non-citizen Vietnamese-Americans who arrived through that program and have since had any criminal conviction, including misdemeanors, are subject to deportation to a country they have not seen since they were small children, a country which does not, in fact, want them back. [Washington Post]

7. Policy whiplash on people claiming children

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been arresting parents and other undocumented adults coming forward to claim children in ICE or HHS custody, regardless of criminal activity or lack thereof, a reversal of the agency’s previous policy. In addition to its other inhumane element, this policy is one of the reasons that the number of children in custody is increasing, stretching federal resources beyond their limit. As Bob Carey, who oversaw child detention under the Obama administration, told CNN, “These are kids who fled some of the most violent countries in the world. Many have experienced trauma… rape, robbery, all kinds of exploitation.” [CNN]

8. Robbing cancer patients to pay for detaining immigrants

Following up on our story last week about transfers to ICE from other government programs, Newsweek is reporting that the Trump administration is reallocating 266 million dollars from programs for cancer research, substance abuse, domestic violence, and refugee services to pay for the detention of immigrants, especially children. This sum is in addition to $200 million already diverted last week. [Newsweek, Think Progress]

9. Mennonites caught in immigration raid

About 100 Mennonites were arrested during a recent ICE raid at a Texas trailer factory. With Mexican or Canadian citizenship—or in some cases no citizenship at all, these Mennonites tend to come into the U.S. for brief periods to work. Their only access to citizenship is through their American children, once they are old enough to sponsor them. [Mennonite World Review]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

10: FCC ordered by court to turn over data regarding net neutrality commenting

The ongoing criticism of the FCC commenting period for their controversial decision to reverse Obama era net neutrality protections has reached the US District Court for the District of Columbia, which has ordered the FCC to turn over all data for comments left in support of the repeal. This decision comes after an ISP funded study found that millions of potentially fraudulent comments were submitted using throw-away email addresses and in 10 million cases, duplicate home addresses and names.

FCC commenting periods are supposed to weigh heavily into regulatory decisions; however, FCC chairman Ajit Pai had been clear on his intent to remove regulations from content providers and ISPs identifying them as “common carriers” similar to other utilities, which meant they could not favor any content over another but must deliver all data to consumers on an equal basis. [Countable]

11. PayPal latest internet service to ban Alex Jones

PayPal has joined the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Apple and Spotify in blocking Alex Jones and his media company Infowars from utilizing their services. In a statement to the New York Times, PayPal said via spokesperson “We undertook an extensive review of the Infowars sites and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance.”

The payment processing giant provided Mr. Jones with 10 days to find another payment processing site for his business. Infowars has gained notoriety for promulgating bizarre conspiracy theories such as “Pizzagate,” which claimed a pedophilia ring run by powerful figures in the Democratic party was being run out of a DC area pizza parlor, and that the Sandy Hook school shooting which ended the lives of 26 people—including 20 children ages six and seven—was a government sponsored hoax. [Ars Technica]

12. Environmental concerns mount in wake of Hurricane Florence flooding

Coal giant Duke Energy confirmed on Friday that in a developing situation, coal ash has been released into the Cape Fear River, which supplies drinking water to the city of Wilmington North Carolina. Coal ash is the waste product of burning coal to generate electricity and contains several toxic substances including mercury and arsenic. The coal ash had been stored on site at the L.V. Sutton power plant that has been converted to run on natural gas but was formerly coal burning. Flood waters over-topped the retaining walls holding the coal ash; streams of gray runoff can be seen in aerial photographs. The coal ash joins chemical pollution that has long been a problem in the Cape Fear River from a legacy of chemical manufacturing located along its shores as well as biological contamination from livestock waste holding ponds. [Gizmodo]

If you want to speak up about this, whatifknits has contact info for the EPA.

#newsyoumayhavemissed for September 16, 2018: We’re reflecting on how (un)natural disasters illuminate political faultlines—inequality, toxicity, criminal (in)justice. See our hurricane roundup below. And see, at last, a bit of good news for asylum seekers as well as some truly surreal science & tech stories.

RESOURCES

• Want to be heard? See Sarah-Hope’s September list of people and places to write—on voting rights, the environment, family separation—she names it.
• Martha’s list of invitations from federal agencies to comment on a wide variety of critical issues is on a google doc.
• And see Chrysostom’s extensive tally of election news.

NEWS

1. Prisoners not evacuated—again

South Carolina is choosing not to evacuate prisoners in the path of Hurricane Florence, particularly those in higher-security institutions, claiming that historically it has been safer to shelter prisoners in place than to move them. In the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, Texas inmates braved flooding, lack of clean drinking water, and sewer flooding.

During Hurricane Katrina, guards simply walked away from prisons, leaving prisoners locked in cells while water contaminated with sewage rose. Some spent several days in chest-high water, according to a report by the ACLU. A suit by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of thousands of prisoners led to a consent decree mandating reforms in New Orleans.

It is worth noting that events at South Carolina prisons were at the center of the recent national prison strike. [Weather Channel, Vice]

2. Trump funding ICE with cuts to FEMA, Coast Guard

According to budget documents provided by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) to Rachel Maddow, the Department of Homeland Security transferred 10 million dollars from FEMA to ICE, just in advance of Hurricane Florence. In addition, 29 million was transferred from the Coast Guard to ICE. The DHS denied that any of the transfers came from disaster recovery funds, saying that it came from administrative accounts instead. If you have something to say about this, the ACLU has a petition you might like to consider. And see the link to whatifknits in Resources for other ways to weigh in. [MSNBC, ACLU, NY Times, USA Today]

3. Hurricane dangers you may have missed

Coal ash ponds, pig manure “lagoons,” 11 Superfund sites, one thousand sites with tanks of toxic waste, nuclear reactors: all these are in the path of Hurricane Florence, which is expected to spew toxic soup all around the area. [NY Times]

4. The most powerful storm of the year

At least 59 people died when Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines and many more have disappeared in landslides. Next, it headed for Hong Kong and Macau, where it led to cancelled flights, power outages, submerged vehicles, and a virtual halt to ordinary life. Called the most powerful storm of 2018, Mangkhut then headed for southern China on Sunday night. [NY Times]

5. Zinke: leaving us with the wreckage

If you didn’t see Rolling Stone’s piece last summer on Ryan Zinke, the United States Secretary of the Interior, look at it now. His war on the environment is devastating: shrinking national monuments, eviscerating the Endangered Species Act, opening the coastlines to oil drilling, permitting fracking on public land. (The New Yorker covered some of this same ground last April.)

Now, as Outside Magazine reports, Zinke is proposing to open three million acres of public lands for oil and gas extraction. The leases are going for very little money and, due to the chaotic and inattentive ways in which parcels are chosen, can do maximum damage for very little return. Senior attorney for the Wilderness Society Nada Culver puts it this way: “We’re risking this heritage so that the Secretary of the Interior can have a messaging moment. And his moment will pass, and we will be left with the wreckage.” [Outside, Rolling Stone, New Yorker]

6. Children still separated from their parents

Seven children under five are still separated from their parents because of their parents’ alleged crimes. The ACLU has challenged these separations, pointing out that American parents accused of crimes do not automatically lose custody of their kids. 390 older children have yet to be reunited with their families as well, some who have already been deported.

Meanwhile, the number of migrant children in federal custody reached 12,800 this month. Most of these are children who crossed the border alone, predominately teenagers from Central America. The fourfold increase in the number of children in federal shelters is not due to an increase in the number coming into the country but to a decrease in the number being released to family members in the US. [NY Times, Vice]

7. Asylum seekers get a second chance

As many as a thousand asylum seekers, some already deported, who were rejected based on interviews done after their children were taken away from them will have their cases reconsidered, according to a settlement won by Muslim Advocates and the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center. The trauma of losing their children had made these applicants unable to articulate their stories to immigration officials. [NY Times] As Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, said in a statement:

Our government forcibly ripped children from the arms of asylum-seeking parents, and then asked them, debilitated by trauma, all by themselves, unrepresented by lawyers, to articulate complex legal claims without any support or accommodation.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

8. Still no explanation for closure of solar observatory by federal agents.

The National Solar Observatory in tiny Sunspot, New Mexico located within the Lincoln National Forest has been ordered vacated by federal authorities and is now guarded by a private security firm since September 6th with no explanation given to the public. The National Solar Observatory is hardly a secret installation; they provide regular guided tours to the public and have educational outreach programs frequently. Conjecture about why such a facility would be subject to such a serious ‘security threat’ or what that threat might be varies widely.

Reports of the FBI on the premises and a Blackhawk helicopter have raised eyebrows, as there is some proximity to sensitive military installations but no clear link. Large quantities of mercury are used in the observatory apparatus and it’s possible the issue could be a contamination issue. There is no communication about when the facility might be reopened and research into our host star resumed. [Washington Post]

9. Another day, another Shkreli

The CEO of a small pharmaceutical company has garnered headlines for himself and his company by dramatically raising the price of an antibiotic listed among ‘essential’ medicines by the World Health Organization. The price for nitrofurantoin has gone from $474.75 for a dose to $2392, an increase of 400% for the legacy drug that has been used for decades to treat specific urinary tract infections by gram negative bacteria. The CEO, a Mr. Nirmal Mulye defended his actions, and referenced infamous “pharma-bro” Martin Shkreli when asked by the Financial Times saying that it was a “moral requirement” to sell the drug at the highest possible price and that similar actions by Martin Shkreli (who is now in prison for unrelated fraud charges) were absolutely correct.

In addition to the rapacious pricing of necessary drugs that these companies paid no part in developing, Mr. Mulye went after FDA regulatory fees calling them ‘highway robbery’. The FDA in response issued a statement saying that there is no moral imperative to price gouge. [Ars Technica]

10. New ‘Presidential Alert’ system to be tested September 20th.

A new unified emergency alert system will go live and test the first use of a ‘Presidential Alert’ created during the George W. Bush administration. The new system will combine the preexisting Emergency Alert System (the tone you hear on your radio and televisions as a test) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts System (which use text message notifications throughout wireless networks, such as Amber Alerts) into the Integrated Emergency Alerts System. Concern has naturally been raised about misuse of the system by a sitting President very fond of directly communicating with the public through services like Twitter. FEMA, which runs the system, has made assurances that it is unlikely to be abused; however. such alerts are at the discretion of the President. [The Verge]

#newsyoumayhavemissed for September 9, 2018, is of course interested in who said what and why, and whether the butler did it in the library. We doubt that we have anything to add, except to say that we need to think like rhetoricians. What were the real audiences for the op-ed? What were its purposes? Is the message what it seems to be? Etc. Meanwhile: Venezuela. Yemen. Syria. South Texas.

RESOURCES

• Martha has a new list of agencies inviting comment. In particular, note Trump’s proposal to end the Flores rule and thereby to permit children and families to be kept in indefinite detention. This could a nightmare; in Canada, where indefinite detention is permitted, people have been kept in detention for years.
• In contrast, Kamala Harris introduced the DONE Act (Detention Oversight, Not Expansion), S.2849, which would provide more oversight of detention facilities and prohibit construction of new ones. See Sarah-Hope’s to-do list on whatifknits to find out how to support it.
• Jen Hofmann, who puts out the Americans of Conscience checklist, is looking for social media volunteers. Her page also suggests they could use research volunteers as well.
• Elections news can be found at Chrysostom’s site—the most current results as of September 8.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. Gay sex decriminalized in India

For 150 years, gay sex has been illegal in India, a vestige of colonialism. Though in recent years the law was rarely enforced, violations were punishable with a life sentence and it was used to justify harassment of and violence against LGBTQ people. After years of political organizing by activists from a variety of political and religious backgrounds, India’s Supreme Court struck down the law. [CNN]

2. Latin American history redux; Venezuela refugees

In an episode reminiscent of the US intrusions into Latin America in the ‘70s and ‘80s, American officials met several times last year with members of the Venezuelan military planning a coup against Venezuelan president Maduro but decided not to support it, according to CNN.

Among those officials was one already identified as a security risk by the United States, accused of “a wide range of serious crimes, including torturing critics, jailing hundreds of political prisoners, wounding thousands of civilians, trafficking drugs and collaborating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States,” according to the NY Times. Maduro survived a drone attack last month; last August (2017), Trump said he had not ruled out “a military option.” [CNN, NY Times]

About 200 Venezuelans a day leave the country on foot, fleeing lack of food and medical care, a government crackdown and crime. They walk as many as sixteen hours a day for two weeks to reach Medellín, Colombia, through mountainous, freezing country, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Red Cross and other organizations have set up way stations with food and shelter but these are insufficient. And they are by no means guaranteed support in the countries that take them in. Venezuelans are the largest population of asylum seekers coming to the U.S. [FPIF]

3. Asia realigning

The erratic behavior of the Trump administration has led to a complex web of shifting alliances among China, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Iran, and other key countries. The Taliban went for peace talks in Moscow September 4, while Turkey and Russian are discussing trade. Foreign Policy in Focus has a detailed description of these possible realignments; however they land, alliances in the rest of the world will not be the same, even once the carousel in Washington stops spinning. [FPIF, NY Times]

4. Funding for Palestinian hospitals frozen by Trump

In addition to cutting funding for several humanitarian organizations serving Palestinians, Trump has now cut funding for the east Jerusalem Hospital Network, apparently in retaliation for the Palestinians’ refusing to communicate with the White House after Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. [Jerusalem Post, Reuters]

5. Russian and Syrian air campaign against rebel bastion

Idlib, the last area of Syria held by rebels, is being intensely targeted with air strikes, hitting rebel fighters and civilians indiscriminately. 68 air raids have been launched since August, according to the CBC. Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could not take in any more refugees from Syria; Turkey has absorbed at least 3.5 million. Towns under siege have pleaded with Erdogan to broker a cease fire. [CBC]

6. Civilians dead in Yemen

A month after a US-made bomb dropped by the Saudi-led coalition hit a school bus in Yemen, killing 29 students and at least three teachers, the families of those injured and killed are in despair over the silence from the international community, according to the BBC.

A United Nations reports proposes that the US-supported coalition is guilty of war crimes, noting that the air strikes “have hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and even medical facilities,” according to the High Commissioner on Human Rights. Thus far, 6,660 civilians have died and 10,563 have been injured in the conflict between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government, according to the U.N. See the link to the High Commissioner’s report and an explainer from Al Jazeera in the comments.

Meanwhile, one Saudi prince says he may go into exile after comments he made critical of the war became public. [BBC, OHCHR, Al Jazeera (1, 2)]

7. Mexican students demonstrate for safety in/from their university

Thousands of students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), demonstrated last week against the “porros”—paramilitary shock troops who for years have assaulted student protesters. They are hired by interest groups, politicians, and the university itself to suppress dissent. The immediate protest was sparked by the beating of high school students and the kidnapping of two young women, one of whom was killed, the other still missing. [TelesurTV, AnimalPolitico]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

8. Florida Red Tide

Hundreds of thousands of fish in the Tampa Bay region have died from the “red tide,” a toxic algae that has plagued Florida for the last ten months. While the red tide is often described as a natural phenomenon, in fact it is intensified by pesticide runoff and other pollutants. In addition, it is more intense in warmer, oxygen-rich waters. [Washington Post]

9. An app gives notice of air strikes in Syria

Sentry, an app developed by John Jaeger, CEO and co-founder of Hala Systems, gives civilians in Syria eight minutes of warning of impending bombs. In areas where it has been used successfully, it has reduced fatalities by 27 per cent, says Jaeger. Data is either manually entered from internet sources or produced by audio sensors and then predictions are forwarded to social media. [CBC]

Citizens along the border denied passports. See our story #3 below (September 2)—and this New York Times piece.

#newsyoumayhavemissed for September 2, 2018. It’s another crazy day in the neighborhood: Mr. Rogers would be appalled. News You May Have Missed tries to help you stay oriented with some labor stories below, as well as more critical news of the border and Trump’s machinations around Canada and NAFTA—so ironic, given the vehement opposition to NAFTA in Canada when it was first negotiated. A couple of the science stories will cheer you up.

RESOURCES

• How much hotter is it? If you were born after 1960, somewhere where there were at least occasional days over 90 degrees, the NY Times has a calculator that will tell you how many more of those days there are now and how many there are projected to be by the end of the century.
• Amy Siskind’s weekly list is worth watching (can you believe we’re in week 93?) to keep your finger on the pulse of events.
• Jen Hofmann provides the Americans of Conscience checklist, which offers a series of small, useful things you can do toward change.
• Martha provides a list of opportunities for public comment.
• And Sarah-Hope offers a list of public officials and agencies to write about a variety of issues, all carefully summarized, at whatifknits.

DOMESTIC NEWS

1. Labor Day round-up

Victory for Unions

A large section of the Trump administration’s new policy to restrict the role of federal employee unions was struck down by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In particular, Trump had tried to eliminate “official time,” the right of union representatives to handle grievances during their regular work hours, reduce the scope of issues over which unions could bargain, and to cut back the rights of workers to appeal poor performance evaluations. The judge found that the policies would have interfered with collective bargaining. As she put it, “the collective bargaining process is not a cutthroat death match.”

Federal Workers pay freeze

Raising concerns about “our nation’s fiscal situation,” Trump cancelled 2.1% pay raises for almost two million federal workers. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that the pay cuts undermines employees’ right to collectively bargain. [Politico]

Days later, Common Dreams points out, Trump proposed another $100 billion (with a “b”) tax cut for the rich, indexing capital gains to inflation—a cut which would benefit the richest of the rich.

2. Parents were “coerced” to waive rights to reunification

Immigrant parents were manipulated into signing forms relinquishing their right to reunite with their children, using methods that were unethical and abusive, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association. Initially, the forms were only in English. Some officials refused to tell parents that they had a right to an attorney. Still others brought families into a room, gave them the forms, and took away the children of those who refused to sign. Some parents report having been told that they would never see their children again if they did not sign the forms. [NPR]

3. Citizenship on the border

Hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of citizens along the US southern border are having their passports questioned or revoked; they are being accused of having fraudulent birth certificates as a result of having been delivered by midwives, as is common in Latina communities. (A midwife in the 1990s admitted to having provided false documentation in two cases.) Some have been jailed under deportation proceedings; others have been stuck in Mexico, their passports revoked. Legal fees to have their passports restored and their citizenship affirmed are prohibitive for many people

The State Department has denied that passport revocations are increasing, but as Snopes points out, both the Washington Post investigation and interviews with immigration attorneys confirm the surge. The ACLU is considering a lawsuit. [Snopes, Washington Post]

4. Children’s right to eat a fatty, sugary school lunch

Free or low-cost lunches for poor children became healthier as a result of Michelle Obama’s advocacy; lunches were required to be under particular calorie and sodium limits, and had to have a percentage of whole grains. The “Local Control of School Lunch Act” would eliminate these restrictions; advocates argue that fewer children participated in the program because nutrition requirements led to price increases. 18.5% of children and adolescents are obese, opponents of the measure point out.

5. Betsy DeVos: No bathroom access for transgender students

Betsy DeVos has refused to permit investigations into instances in which transgender students have been denied bathrooms, and has rejected complaints brought by five students. [Politico]

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

6. Trump to dump NAFTA if Congress insists on including Canada

The Trump administration developed a preliminary trade agreement with Mexico, leaving out Canada. While negotiations to include Canada have begun, they may well not succeed by Trump’s deadline. Congressional leaders have said they will not agree to a trade agreement that does not include Canada, but Trump has said he will dismantle NAFTA entirely if they block it. It is not clear that he has the legal authority to do so.

Meanwhile, Trump apparently made disparaging remarks about Canada in an off-the-record moment to a Bloomberg reporter. A Toronto Star reporter got ahold of the remarks and published them, to Trump’s chagrin. Trump said that any deal with Canada would be on his own terms and that he would not compromise; he said that he regularly threatened Canada with imposing tariffs on Canadian-made cars. Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland declined to comment, as is their wont. [The Star, Slate, New Yorker, WaPo]

7. Ending aid to Palestinians, promoting terror.

Last week, the Trump administration cut $200 million in development aid to Palestinians; on Friday, Trump cut an additional $300 million from aid to Palestinian refugees, aid administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The UNRWA accuses the U.S. of making the cuts in support of Israel’s position that the UNRWA advocates for Palestinians’ “right of return.” Spokespeople for the Palestinian authority point out that the American decision will strengthen the hand of terrorists. [The Star]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

8. California to pass most aggressive laws in country mandating carbon free energy.

California Senate Bill 100 passed on Wednesday, August 29th and is now heading for the Governor’s desk; it is expected to be signed into law. The bill requires that all electrical utilities supplying power in the state obtain their energy via carbon-neutral means by 2045, and that 60% of all electricity be carbon neutral by 2030. In addition lawmakers cut out a huge potential loophole and mandated that all energy supplied to California from other states also be carbon neutral, eliminating the possibility of essentially pushing the state’s pollution onto neighboring states with less regulation. [Ars Technica]

9. CRISPR gene therapy holds promise to cure one form of muscular dystrophy

A researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern medical center has been working with CRISPR gene editing techniques to combat mutations in a type of segment of DNA (called an exon) in mice and human heart cells, specifically mutations linked to the disease muscular dystrophy. Of the nine types of muscular dystrophy, one, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy or DMD, afflicts approximately 300,000 people worldwide and strikes during childhood, leading to catastrophic loss of muscle tissue resulting in death.

Dogs also get a form of this type of muscular dystrophy; researcher Eric Olsen selected a line of dogs whose male line often develops the disease, giving four beagles a modified virus engineered to deliver the CRISPR editing enzyme to correct the disease-causing mutation in the dog’s DNA. The results have been dramatic: the method restored 92% of function to the dogs’ heart tissue and 58% to diaphragm muscles; indeed every muscle group saw significant improvement with the exception of the tongue. While this is early in development, it looks to be among the most promising avenues for treatment of this terrible disease. [Smithsonian]

10. Medical researchers alarmed by China withholding necessary flu samples

For years researchers all over the world have operated under an agreement under the World Health Organization to share biological samples of emerging diseases so as to facilitate the development of new treatments and monitor outbreaks. For the last year, however, China has refused to supply samples of a deadly strain of bird flu called H7N9 to U.S. labs, potentially leaving the world less prepared for a global outbreak. Cooperation appears to have stopped as trade tensions between the two countries rose under the Trump administration, and this sort of brinkmanship has been criticized as being very dangerous, as influenza strains mutate quickly and can cause huge loss of life in a pandemic. [Ars Technica]

#newsyoumayhavemissed for August 26, 2018 knows about NAFTA, about Cohen, and about McCain. But remember that we try to bring you less well-known stories—or fresh angles on the headlines. To that end, note our roundup of work requirements for Medicaid recipients. We don’t have a lot of good news for you, but Santa Cruzans Martha Mendoza and Garance Burke have been reporting the story on immigrants discharged from the armed forces: the tide is turning. See their AP story below.

RESOURCES

• The Americans of Conscience checklist has a pledge to vote—and not just to vote, but to take a series of steps to make it possible for others to do so.
• Our colleague Crysostom has a roundup of election news at his website.
• Active Measures has a history of the involvement Trump and his associates have had with the Russian government and wealthy Russians—if you need a refresher. Compare to the Reality Winner sentencing, below.
• Martha, the maven of public comment, suggest two important actions for this week: call your Senators and/ or comment on Kavanaugh and comment on the auto-emissions. Martha’s list is now available on a google doc from Rogan’s list.

DOMESTIC NEWS

1. No Safe Haven

Officials from the Pentagon are concerned about the U.S.’s failure to provide safe haven to Iraqi interpreters and others who have helped American forces. Locals may be more hesitant to cooperate when they notice that we don’t keep our promises. In 2016, we admitted over 5,100 Iraqi refugees who had helped our government, and in 2017, over 3,000. So far in 2018, we have admitted only 48. [Reuters/Huffpost reporter]

2. No Climate Research, Zinke’s hallucinations

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has appointed his high school football buddy Steve Howke to oversee a new grant review process for all grants over $50,000. Howke was formerly the Chief Financial Officer at several credit unions. He has no experience in climate research, but scientists at the host universities for eight Climate Adaptation Science Centers say he is crippling their efforts by holding up research funding. [Guardian]

Meanwhile, Zinke is blaming non-existent “environmental terrorist groups” for California wildfires, even though the two known arsonists are Forrest Gordon Clark, a believer in the QAnon right-wing conspiracy phenomenon who started a fire to get back at a neighbor, and Brandon McGlover, whose motive is unknown. [Reuters/LA Times (1, 2)]

3. Tariff contradictions

On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says his department is delaying their recommendations on potential car tariffs in light of ongoing trade negotiations, but later the same day, Trump said at a campaign rally that, “We’re going to put a 25% tax on every car that comes into the United States from the European Union.” [Fortune, WSJ]

4. Does she care?

First Lady Melania Trump is planning an October trip through parts of Africa to learn about issues that African children face. Her husband, who so famously referred to “shithole countries” in Africa earlier this year, won’t be going with her. [AP]

5. Who is behind the “Space Force”?

Trump’s support for a “Space Force” follows lobbying by people with ties to the aerospace industry. Public support for the “Space Force” is low. [LA Times/Ars Technica]

6. Medicaid work requirement round-up

(a) Arkansas

Arkansas was the first state to implement work and reporting requirements for Medicaid recipients, with the 80-hours-per-month work requirements taking effect on June 1, 2018 for some beneficiaries (the plan is being phased in, so some beneficiaries aren’t required to meet it yet; additionally, some people are exempt). The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that only 2% of the people subject to the requirements had successfully reported their hours. 69% are exempt, and the remaining 29% risk losing coverage if they fail to report, or report but fail to meet the requirements, for another two months. Many of these people are working but not reporting their hours, and may not be aware they have to. Of the 844 people in the 2% that reported, more than three-quarters (76%) were already meeting the Medicaid requirements by meeting similar pre-existing SNAP requirements. Nearly 13,000 people may lose their coverage for the remainder of the year, although a new lawsuit against the work requirements may help. [Politico/Reuters/KFF]

(b) Mississippi

Mississippi hopes to become the first state to impose work requirements for “able-bodied” beneficiaries without expanding Medicaid under the ACA. To be covered, The Hill notes, “a single parent has to earn less than $3,300 a year. For a family of three, it’s less than $6,000 a year. If those individuals are required to work, they’ll likely earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, even though the jobs likely won’t offer insurance.” Mississippi plans a two-year transitional period for people who lose coverage this way. Mississippi Health Advocacy Program executive director Roy Mitchell says, “We anticipate a lot of people falling through the cracks.” [The Hill]

(c) Kentucky

About a half million Kentuckians use Medicaid under the ACA’s 2014 Medicaid expansion. Gov. Matt Bevin wants to require Medicaid recipients to work at least 20 hours per week. The Trump administration likes Bevin’s plan, but a federal judge struck it down in June, noting that 95,000 people would lose coverage (or about 1 in 5 of the people added in 2014), and criticizing the government’s lack of consideration of public comments. Coverage of a group comprised of hospital executives in the Louisville Courier Journal includes a quote from state auditor Adam Edelen that the Affordable Care Act has been the “salvation” of rural hospitals.

(d) Arizona, Maine, and Wisconsin

The Trump administration plans to extend Medicaid work requirements to Arizona, Maine, and Wisconsin. [Politico]

7. Reality Winner sentenced for revealing Russian involvement in election

On August 23, Reality Winner received the 63 month sentence she had agreed to in a plea deal; she had been charged for violating the Espionage Act by releasing documents that revealed Russian involvement in the 2018 election to The Intercept. In a tweet, Trump called the sentence “unfair.” [Augusta Chronicle]

8. ICE: Random Cruelties

a) No Humanitarian Parole

ICE officials refuse to let Gloria de la Rosa visit her dying husband Arsenio in Tucson, even though a provision called “Humanitarian Parole” should allow her to come back into the country from Mexico to do so. She is only a year away from being allowed to apply for legal entry to rejoin her husband and four children, who are citizens. A 2015 documentary about their lives, separated by the border is at the second link for this story. [Latino USA with the Arizona Daily Star]

b) Handcuffed at 18

At least 14 young people appealing for asylum in Florida have been handcuffed on their 18th birthday and thrown in a jail with adults. This practice violates agreements established under three legal settlements and has been challenged in lawsuits filed by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Americans for Immigrant Justice. If you want to read about the horrific conditions these young people were fleeing and about what happened to them when they came to the US asking for help, see the story in the Miami New Times.

9. Army reinstates immigrants 

The AP reports that at least 36 immigrants discharged from the armed forces have been reinstated, and the cases of more than a hundred others are under review.

10. Released to work—and get injured. 

At least 24 prisoners on work release programs have been seriously injured in industrial accidents and one has died, according to an investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Projects. In Alabama, over a thousand prisoners work in poultry processing plants, where working conditions are dangerous and the pay is minimal. The programs, common in George and North Carolina as well, are supposed to prepare prisoners to enter the workforce when they are released, but they also face safety issues and appropriation of their compensation. [The Marshall Project]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

11. Vaccinations: Both Sides Now

The internet debate on vaccination was fueled during the run-up to the 2016 election by Russian internet trolls, who posted caustic statements on both sides, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The posts were published from accounts known to be used to interfere in the election. Vaccination is not a debate in Russia, where nearly 100 per cent of children are vaccinated. The comments were posted purely to keep the electorate preoccupied and angry. [NY Times]

12. Net neutrality and public safety

During the Mendocino Complex Fire, Verizon throttled internet speeds down to one two-hundredths of the usual speed just as firefighters needed all the data they could get to quickly track data about the fire along with firefighting resources and firefighters themselves. When firefighters reached out to Verizon, the company simply acknowledged that the data was being throttled and urged them to subscribe to a larger plan instead of immediately restoring speed on an emergency basis. It insists that this issue has nothing to do with net neutrality. [Ars Technica, NY Times]

#newsyoumayhavemissed for August 19 has an extensive immigration round-up and some important science news. In case you’re new to this page, our mission (impossible) is to track significant stories that have gotten insufficient coverage and to bring context to stories that have been reduced to headlines. We appreciate all those who write these significant stories—e.g., the Center for Public Integrity, below.  

RESOURCES

• Jen Hofmann’s Americans of Conscience checklist is up.
• Sarah-Hope’s list of people to write to hector and praise for August 10 is still viable; a new list will be posted next week.
• Chrysostom is also away this week; we’ll post his page in the resource links once he updates election news. 
• Take a look at Martha’s list of places to comment—on Reality Winner’s sentencing, endangered species, fracking, for-profit colleges, and more.

DOMESTIC NEWS

1. Accountable Capitalism

Elizabeth Warren has proposed The Accountable Capitalism Act, which would require corporations making more than $1 billion in revenue per year to change their primary focus from maximizing profit to considering the public good. One of her requirements would be “co-determination,” that a percentage of seats on boards of directors be elected by employees rather than shareholders. [WSJ]

Vox states her rationale:

if corporations are going to have the legal rights of persons, they should be expected to act like decent citizens who uphold their fair share of the social contract and not act like sociopaths whose sole obligation is profitability — as is currently conventional in American business thinking.

NYMHM observes that a Republican-led Congress would never pass such a bill, but this may become a talking point for Democrats in 2020.

2. Trump’s “advisors” on veterans’ issues

For the past two years, President Trump has been forcing the head of Veterans Affairs to listen to the ideas of three members of his Mar-a-Lago golf resort. They have no relevant experience or official title. Marvel Entertainment Chair Isaac Perlmutter, his doctor Bruce Moskowitz, and Moskowitz’s squash partner Marc Sherman, have been instrumental in the push for privatization of veteran health care, and in David Shulkin’s dismissal from his position as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. [ProPublica/WaPo/NYMag]

3. Dept. of Agriculture, Institute of Food and Agriculture reorganizing: impact on employees and policy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture are being reorganized, forcing hundreds of federal employees to decide between relocating and taking a buyout, in the next year. The ERS will also report to Agriculture Secretary Perdue’s office. Government Executive notes, “The White House proposed slashing the Economic Research Service budget nearly in half in the president’s fiscal 2019 budget. It proposed cutting the National Institute of Food and Agriculture budget a comparatively modest 8 percent.” The USDA’s ERS says their mission is to “anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision making.” [Union of Concerned Scientists]

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been ordered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide which can damage human nervous systems. The EPA was working on a ban under Obama, but that work was reversed when Trump took office. [Sacramento Bee]

NYMHM notes that studying the impact of Trump’s tariff war and environmentally-destructive policies on agriculture will be much more difficult with these organizations in disarray.

4. Immigration news round-up

(a) ICE intimidating reporters

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is intimidating reporters and using bureaucracy to deny them access to detainees, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

(b) DACA in danger

Federal courts in California, New York, and Washington, D.C. have issued injunctions requiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to remain in place, despite the Trump administration’s decision to end the program. DACA currently has about 704,000 enrollees.

A Texas judge and George W. Bush appointee, District Judge Andrew Hanen, who has previously ruled against a similar program for immigrant parents, is hearing arguments from 10 states saying DACA is unconstitutional. Hanen is expected to order the government to shut down DACA, in defiance of the opposing court orders from other courts. The Supreme Court may be asked to come back from its summer recess to rule on the case, and with eight justices, a tie is probable.

Meanwhile, a DC judge ruled on August 17 that the government had to continue accepting and processing DACA renewals but did not have to accept new applications. [Buzzfeed, Center for American Progress, Vox, Chicago Sun-Times, memorandum, order]

(c) Rule change for legal immigrants

Putting the lie to their claims that the crackdown on immigration is only about legality, the Trump administration is changing the rules so that legal immigrants who have participated in government programs like Obamacare may no longer be eligible for citizenship. [NBC]

(d) Federal arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record have tripled under Trump

In contrast to previous policies to focus enforcement efforts on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, under the Trump administration, law-abiding but undocumented immigrants are being arrested while going about their daily lives, an NBC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data showed. Arrests of immigrants without criminal records have increased 203% while arrests of those with criminal records have increased only 18%. [NYMag]

(e) Arrests at the border indicate that splitting up families had not had the deterrent effect expected.

No fewer families crossed the border in July, despite Trump’s policy of separating families; conditions in their homelands must lead them to conclude that the attempt is worth the risk. Fewer families presented themselves at crossings where they could request asylum without illegally entering the country, perhaps because many had been turned away. [WaPo]

(f) Van of separated mothers crashed

ICE is now admitting that one of their vans crashed while full of mothers separated from their children, after twice denying to journalists that the crash had occurred. The van was towed, and nobody was taken to the hospital, though the Texas Observer notes:

The mothers said they refused to go to the hospital because they feared it would delay or prevent them from being reunified with their children.

(g) CEOs want immigration policies eased

On August 8, Politico reported that Trump met with CEOs who pressured him to soften immigration policies. “Trump yelled over to Chris Liddell, a deputy chief of staff in attendance, and told him to prepare an executive order for Monday that would allow top performers in schools, who he called ‘first in their class,’ to stay in the country for at least five years on a visa.” Monday would have been August 13, but as of August 17, the White House website lists no executive orders for the week.

(h) Immigration raids target workers and employers

Immigration raids in Minnesota and Nebraska on August 8th resulted in more than 130 immigration arrests and “17 business owners and managers indicted for fraud, wire fraud and money laundering,” according to the Star Tribune. NYMHM notes that arresting undocumented immigrants does not stop shady businesses from mistreating their workers, which was the rationale for these raids, but only allows those shady businesses to threaten their workers with deportation if they complain. Amnesty for the workers would be a more effective solution. [Star Tribune, Buzzfeed]

(i) Tying kids to chairs is not abuse

The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice has concluded that the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center is not legally guilty of neglect or abuse of their detainee residents, despite strapping the teenagers to chairs and putting mesh bags over their heads. [AP]

(j) Hurry up, says Sessions

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered immigration judges to speed up their handling of deportation cases to reduce the backlog. Judges should issue continuances only for “just cause,” he decreed. [VOA]

(k) Keeping immigrant children safe from traffickers and ICE

Who is responsible for unaccompanied immigrant children after the Office of Refugee Resettlement places them into homes with sponsors? HHS says they’re not responsible. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations started an investigation in 2015 after they learned that HHS had given eight children to sponsors who turned out to be human traffickers. [ABC (1, 2)] NYMHM notes that we may actually not want federal authorities to track immigrant children closely, which can put whole communities at risk, but their care might be formally turned over to state-level agencies, who currently don’t appear to be kept in the loop.

(l) Plan to reunite children

The ACLU and the government are developing a plan to reunite children with their parents. 541 children are still separated from their parents in addition to 24 under age five. Some of these children had crossed illegally with their parents while the parents of others had requested asylum, a legal process. A new element of the plan would require the government to arrange transportation for the children to their parents, once located; however, the government has refused to allow parents to return to the U.S. to collect their children and continue with their asylum claims. [Reuters]

(m) Invasive body searches challenged in lawsuits

The Center for Public Integrity is tracking 11 lawsuits in which women—and two minor girls—legally entering the country allege that they were subjected to invasive body searches—including pelvic exams in front of others, xrays, and hospitalizations for which they were billed–by border patrol officials. [WaPo]

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

(5) US implicated in Saudi bombing of children in Yemen

The U.S. may have refueled the plane, and provided the munitions for an August 9th Saudi bombing in Yemen which killed 44 children. The U.S. does sell weapons worth billions of dollars, and provides intelligence as well as refueling to bombers, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. On August 13, President Trump signed a defense policy bill requiring Secretary of State Pompeo to certify that the two countries are making efforts to prevent civilian deaths; if he can’t, then the U.S. will stop refueling Saudi and Emirati aircraft.

Later that night, the White House issued a signing statement claiming that 51 of the bill’s statutes, including the Yemen requirement, are, according to the NYT, “unconstitutional intrusions on his presidential powers, meaning that the executive branch need not enforce or obey them as written.” Also included in the statutes he claims he can ignore: a ban on spending money on recognition of “the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over Crimea” and a requirement to maintain the number of active-duty troops in South Korea. [NYT (1, 2)/WaPo/Defense News]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

(6) Complete genome for wheat finally unraveled.

The long running project to map the genetic code of wheat has been completed, paving the way for tailored crops to cope with changing environmental conditions. Lagging far behind corn and rice, which were deciphered in 2009 and 2002, wheat’s genome is famously complicated, owing to ancient interbreeding among three different species of grasses in its 500,000 year history. These three ancestors of bread wheat each contributed two chromosomes resulting in wheat being hexaploid, containing six copies of its chromosomes, and with a pool of genetic information five times larger than human DNA. It will take many more years to comb through the information to find which sequences are repetitive duplicates and which contribute to desirable traits like pest and salt resistance. One fifth of all calories consumed by human beings comes from wheat, and it is the single largest protein source. [Ars Technica]

(7) US Telecoms are NOT utilities, unless subsidies are involved

In an argument breathtaking in its gall, two trade organizations representing broadband providers ranging in size from AT&T to small rural carriers have made a case that broadband service is a necessary service in line with water, electricity and sewer utility services and should therefore be subsidized by taxpayers. This is astounding as all major ISPs have for years fought back, recently successfully, the idea that they should be governed as utilities and regulated as common carriers as they were under the Obama FCC. Regulating ISPs as common carriers was the legal mechanism that allowed the FCC to enforce immensely popular net neutrality rules. The only conclusion one can come to is that ISPs want all the benefits of being a public utility without any of the compromises in the interest of the public good. [Ars Technica]

(8) Decline in copper prices could be canary in the coal mine for global economy

World copper prices have dropped 20% since June, alarming many economists who follow the commodity as a leading indicator of the health of the global economy. Copper is a useful index because unlike gold, whose pricing is based more on speculative, psychological and marketing pressures, copper is used across several industries as a necessary material. It’s hard to imagine automobiles, heavy equipment, electronics or construction trades growing without a corresponding increase in use (and therefore higher price) of copper. The reverse is also true; if industries are buying less copper because they anticipate or are getting fewer orders for goods, the price of the metal falls. Copper joins a variety of indicators warning that the global economy may be heading for a significant downturn. [phys.org]

#newsyoumayhavemissed (August 12) editors were relieved to find a few scraps of good news on the horizon—see our story on campaign financing and our immigration round-up (as well as the lawsuit against Monsanto, speaking of Roundup!). Then our friend Sarah-Hope, source of multiple opportunities for activism, alerted us to a site which focuses on good news, much of it originating in the judiciary. She has also posted a new list of people to write and call, if you are inclined to make change. And Martha has another great list of public entities inviting comment; you can weigh in on Reality Winner’s sentencing, the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, clean water, transgender rights…be heard! Finally, you’ll want to read about the earthquake in Indonesia and see the list of ways to help—see the news links.

DOMESTIC NEWS

1. Immigration roundup

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has prohibited the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from two Sanctuary Cities, as a result of a lawsuit filed by San Francisco and Santa Clara. The 2/1 decision held that withholding funds violated the principle of separation of powers. [Curbed SF]

Some weeks ago, we reported that the army had systematically discharged hundreds of legal immigrant recruits; over 10,000 of them are serving in the armed forces under a naturalization program set up after 9/11 and 110,000 have received citizenship through that process. The AP, who broke that story, reports that for now, the Army has stopped discharging immigrants.

A federal judge in D.C., upon hearing that a woman and her daughter were being deported to El Salvador at the very moment that their case was being heard, required that the plane bring them back, under threat of contempt against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. [NY Times]

As a result of the ACLU lawsuit, the government now has a plan to reunite deported parents with their children, and they have contact information for all but 26 of them. They do not have the option to reunite in the U.S., however; they must either receive their children in their home countries or relinquish them to stay in the U.S. [Mother Jones]

The government has apparently had these phone numbers for over a month and declined to turn them over to the ACLU, which could have been in contact with the parents and worked on arranging for reunification all this time. [Yahoo]

The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that children separated from their parents were sent to a youth detention center where three children already had died under poor conditions. Children were sexually and physically abused by caretakers. [Reveal]

Meanwhile, twenty million legal immigrants would be unable to obtain citizenship under new policies being developed by the Trump administration. Any immigrant who has used any public benefit, including healthcare under the Affordable Care Act, would be ineligible. In addition, any Green Card holder who had committed any kind of offense, could have their immigration status revoked. Some immigration attorneys are advising those with Green Cards not to apply for citizenship, in case a background check should reveal a problem. [NBC]

2. Corruption follow-up

In our corruption roundup of July 15, we reported on commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and his partial ownership of Chinese state-owned enterprises, a shipping company tied to Russian oligarchs, and an auto parts player with a stake in Commerce’s trade policy decisions.

Forbes now reports that private equity manager David Storper brought a lawsuit against Ross (who was Storper’s former boss) three years ago in New York State regarding $4 million he says Ross stole from him. Two weeks ago, they came to a private settlement, so now there will be no court judgment and no publicized details about whether or not Ross is guilty of this particular theft. Forbes dug around, and found over $120 million in further lawsuits and reimbursements, plus an SEC fine. They state:

If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.

3. Water for firefighting: the real agenda

In other Wilbur Ross news, he ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to “facilitate access to the water” for firefighting, instead of using it to protect endangered species, even though the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says they don’t need any more water, since the wildfires are next to existing reservoirs. A 2016 McClatchy article indicates this weird water directive may be a roundabout way of delivering to Devin Nunes water he promised California farmers. [Axios, NBC, McClatchy]

4. Investigations into Ryan Zinke—14 of them

In more corruption news, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) outlines 14 federal investigations into Ryan Zinke’s behavior since he became Interior Secretary in March 2017.

5. Chris Collins—indicted, campaign suspended

GOP incumbent Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY-27) is being indicted on charges of insider trading. [CNBC] Collins is on the board of directors of an Australian pharmaceutical company. The indictment states that he replied to an email from the CEO about a failed drug trial, and his phone records show that six minutes later he spoke to his son, who sold his shares and passed the information along to family who also sold their shares, all before the information was made public. There’s archival footage of him on his cell phone at the June 2017 White House Congressional Picnic at the time records show him talking to his son. [CBS] His son’s fiancée and her mother have settled with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) [Buffalo News].

Collins has said he will serve out the remainder of his term but has suspended his election campaign.[ABC] New York already held their federal primary, so he may not be able to be replaced on the ballot due to New York’s arcane election regulations. The Democrat running against him is Nate McMurray [Mother Jones profile].

6. Campaign financing victory

Some good news in campaign financing: U.S. District Court judge Beryl A. Howell has ruled against a Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulation which allows anonymous donations to dark-money groups. “The challenged regulation facilitates such financial ‘routing,’ blatantly undercuts the congressional goal of fully disclosing the sources of money flowing into federal political campaigns,” Howell wrote. The FEC has 45 days to come up with interim regulations which force these groups to disclose donors, and 30 days to reconsider a previous decision in which they dismissed a complaint against Crossroads GPS. Crossroads may file an appeal, and if their commissioners are unanimous in doing so, so could the FEC. [Politico]

7. Election round-up

See our friend Chrysosmon’s election round-up, newly updated.

INTERNATIONAL

8. Hundreds dead, hundreds of thousands displaced in Indonesian earthquake

At least 321 people have died and 270,000 are displaced following a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia; a 6.2 magnitude aftershook followed. Relief agencies warn of an impending humanitarian crisis, as food, medicine and assistance cannot be gotten to remote areas and many children have been orphaned, according to Denise Graab, the Californian wife of an indigenous Sasak man originally from Praya, Lombok”; 75 per cent of buildings in northern Lombok, where the quake was centered, were destroyed. In addition, tourism, on which the economies of some of the islands away from the epicenter depend, is at risk. [CNN, Guardian, Reuters]

If you want to help, Graab tells us that the Red Cross is getting supplies in but that local organizations are more nimble. Project Karma, which focuses on child trafficking, is now doing relief work as well, and the Jakarta Post has a list of recommended local organizations. See the comments. Graab writes: “Project Karma has Western sophistication blended with local/grassroots connections and respect for local villages/people/culture without allowing injustice from ‘tradition’ or ‘the way it’s been.’” She recommends one crowd-funding site in particular; see “justgiving.”

Good Earth Global recommends strategies for rebuilding inexpensive earthquake-safe one-story homes in earthquake zones: see Engineering for Change.

9. Saudi Arabia and Canada dispute over human rights

Canada raised questions about Saudi Arabia’s detention of human rights activists and asked advocated for the release of arrested women’s rights activists. Saudi Arabia is responding by suspending new investment and trade with Canada, ordering banks to sell their Canadian assets, recalling their ambassador and asking Canada’s ambassador to leave, canceling scholarships for thousands of Saudi students currently studying in Canada and insisting that patients receiving medical treatment in Canada come home. The damage to Canadian hospitals could be considerable, once new residents are scheduled to start work September 1. [Business Insider, CNBC, Newsweek] Putin has sided with Saudi Arabia, according to a Saudi news source, while the US has declined to take a side. [Al Arabiya, AFP, CNBC]

10. 383,000 people displaced due to flooding in the Philippines

Metro Manila, nearby Rizal province, and other areas of the Philippines’ Luzon Island have flooded due to days of heavy rainfall, displacing about 383,000 people. The rain is expected to continue until Monday, and to be enhanced by tropical cyclone Karding/Yagi. So far no deaths have been reported. This is after widespread monsoon-related flooding in July. Authorities are warning of possible flash floods and landslides in the rest of the Philippines on Monday. [Rappler, Xinhua, PhilStar]

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

11. Ojibwe bands challenge Enbridge pipeline

On July 15, we wrote about the Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline in Minnesota, which still has months of regulatory scrutiny to undergo.

An update: four Ojibwe bands (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and White Earth Band of Ojibwe) filed a challenge this past week with the Minnesota Court of Appeals. The environmental groups Honor the Earth and Friends of the Headwaters also filed appeals. The appeals say the state utility’s environmental impact statement minimized indigenous peoples’ concerns, ignored alternatives, and didn’t study the impact of an oil spill in Lake Superior.

A fifth tribe, the Leech Lake band, prefers a new pipeline over continued use of the old pipeline, which is corroding.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune states:

Line 3, along with five other Enbridge pipelines, cross both the Leech Lake and Fond du Lac reservations on the way to Superior, Wis. As currently proposed, Enbridge’s new Line 3 wouldn’t cross any reservations, but it would traverse land where the tribes claim treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather.

12. EPA permitting asbestos in products

As of June 1st, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is allowing asbestos into new products. About 40,000 people die every year from asbestos-related ailments. Russian mining company Uralasbestis IS stamping pallets of its asbestos products with Donald Trump’s face. [The Architect’s Newspaper/The Guardian]

13. Monsanto ordered to pay 289 million in damages for cancer causing herbicide

Global agri-chemical giant Monsanto produces the popular herbicide ‘Roundup’ which contains chemicals called glyphosates, linked in some studies to cancer. A California jury on Friday awarded 289 million in damageS, the vast majority of it punitive damages, to a former school groundskeeper suffering from terminal cancer. The verdict avoided the conflicting studies regarding glyphosates and instead asserted that his illness was caused by the interactions between the glycophates’ active ingredient and other chemicals contained within the herbicide. There are very few studies examining these complicated chemical interactions; Monsanto as well as its parent company Bayer have said they will appeal the verdict and that their product is safe. [Ars Technica, Common Dreams]

14. Blue light such as from phone and computer displays contributes to blindness

A study by the University of Toledo has found that blue wavelength light–which is commonly radiated from flat screen displays on computer monitors and smart phones, as well as contained in natural sunlight–contributes to photoreceptor cell death via a chemical reaction with a substance necessary for vision. Retinal is a compound produced by the human eye that is necessary for photoreceptors to detect light and send visual signals to the brain; however, when retinal is exposed to blue light, it breaks down into a toxic mix that leads to cell death. Once photoreceptor cells are dead, they cannot be replaced or repaired. The reaction is such that shining blue light on a photoreceptor cell without retinal present did not damage the cell, nor did retinal without blue light lead to damage: it requires both. Cell death is not unique to photoreceptor cells, as a large number of other cell types were supplied with retinal and exposed to blue light and they too died. It’s hoped that better understanding of this interaction can lead to treatment options to slow down age-related macular degeneration. Blue light blockers can be obtained on-line for your computer and built in to your prescription glasses.

A placeholder while we flesh out our archives: the original Facebook post.