“After Katrina, countries around the globe offered to help the U.S. After Harvey, only a few — Mexico and troubled Venezuela among them — have volunteered aid.” More …
Month: September 2017
Dept of Justice: “No evidence to support Trump’s claim that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower”
“In a filing made public Friday, lawyers for the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote that the department has no records supporting President Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama ordered wiretaps of Trump Tower. Both [the Federal Bureau of Investigation] and [National Security Division] confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” the DOJ said in the filing, referring to Mr. Trump’s tweets.” More …
Trump Gets Millions from Golf Members. CEOs and Lobbyists Get Access to President
“Dozens of lobbyists, contractors and others who make their living influencing the government pay President Trump’s companies for membership in his private golf clubs, a status that can put them in close contact with the president, a USA TODAY investigation found.” More …
I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy.
“After two minutes of training, I was talking to people desperate for help.” More …
6 Rules for Rebuilding Infrastructure in an Era of ‘Unprecedented’ Weather Events
“With more very powerful storms forming in the Atlantic this hurricane season, we should know better. We must listen to those telling a more complicated story, one that involves decades of land use planning and poor urban design that has generated impervious surfaces at a fantastic pace.As the Houston region turns its attention to rebuilding and other cities consider ramping up efforts to make their infrastructure more resilient, it is this story that can provide valuable lessons for policymakers, planners, engineers, developers and the public. These lessons are all the more important against the backdrop of a Trump administration that has stripped requirements for infrastructure projects to consider impacts and may try to offer an infrastructure investment package.” More …
Jeff Bezos: “Bring me the next ‘Game of Thrones’ for Amazon”
“The mandate from Jeff Bezos is clear: Bring me “Game of Thrones.” That’s the word that has the creative community buzzing this week about a major strategy shift underway for Amazon Studios’ original series efforts.” More …
Why RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News
“It’s faster, more efficient, and you won’t have to worry as much about accidentally leaking your news reading habit to all your Facebook friends. One of the main reasons RSS is so beloved of news gatherers is that it catches everything a site publishes—not just the articles that have proved popular with other users, not just the articles from today, not just the articles that happened to be tweeted out while you were actually staring at Twitter. Everything.” More …
How Facebook Changed the Spy Game
“Any doubt that Russia has been running a strategically targeted disinformation campaign in the United States was erased on Wednesday, when Facebook revealed that it had deleted 470 ‘inauthentic’ accounts that were based in Russia and had paid $100,000 to promote divisive ads during the 2016 presidential election.” More …
Texas Chemical Plant Sued For Millions, First Responders Charge Gross Negligence
“Seven first responders filed a lawsuit Thursday against a chemical company whose Houston-area facility exploded after Hurricane Harvey. The lawsuit against Arkema and three of the company’s executives is seeking over $1 million in monetary relief, and alleges that the company did not adequately warn law enforcement and public health agencies about hazardous materials at the chemical plant. Those allegations come after Arkema and its lobbying group, the American Chemistry Council, lobbied to kill a federal rule designed to require companies to better coordinate and inform first responders about the toxic compounds at chemical plants. The rule would have taken effect in March.” More …
Here’s Why Florida Is so Much More Vulnerable to a Hurricane Like Irma Right Now
“Florida’s vulnerability to a catastrophic storm has been obvious for years. Poor development planning, storm amnesia, a faulty insurance system, and a strong dose of climate-change denial have made coastal Florida, especially Miami and Tampa, much more vulnerable to Irma. In a 2013 World Bank and OECD analysis of 136 cities with the most property at risk to wind and storm surge, both Tampa and Miami were in the top ten, and sea level rise from climate change was not even included as a risk factor.” More …