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Civil penalties for polluters plummeted in Trump’s first two years

Civil penalties for polluters plummeted in Trump’s first two years

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The Washington Post reports: Civil penalties for polluters under the Trump administration plummeted during the past fiscal year to the lowest average level since 1994, according to a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data. In the two decades before President Trump took office, EPA civil fines averaged more than $500 million a year, when adjusted for inflation. Last year’s total was 85 percent below that amount — $72 million, according to the agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online database….

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Skripal poisoning: Trump admin yet to impose new Russia sanctions required by law

Skripal poisoning: Trump admin yet to impose new Russia sanctions required by law

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NBC News reports: Nearly three months after deeming Russia in violation of a chemical weapons law, the Trump administration has yet to impose tough new sanctions on Moscow required by the law and triggered by the poisoning last year of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. Even as the European Union moves ahead, punishing four Russian officials this week in connection with the poisoning, the U.S. has not moved forward with its own penalties. The delay comes as the Trump administration…

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This time it’s Russia’s emails getting leaked

This time it’s Russia’s emails getting leaked

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Kevin Poulsen writes: Russian oligarchs and Kremlin apparatchiks may find the tables turned on them later this week when a new leak site unleashes a compilation of hundreds of thousands of hacked emails and gigabytes of leaked documents. Think of it as WikiLeaks, but without Julian Assange’s aversion to posting Russian secrets. The site, Distributed Denial of Secrets, was founded last month by transparency activists. Co-founder Emma Best said the Russian leaks, slated for release Friday, will bring into one…

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Global WEIRDing is a trend we can’t ignore

Global WEIRDing is a trend we can’t ignore

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By Kensy Cooperrider For centuries, Inuit hunters navigated the Arctic by consulting wind, snow and sky. Now they use GPS. Speakers of the aboriginal language Gurindji, in northern Australia, used to command 28 variants of each cardinal direction. Children there now use the four basic terms, and they don’t use them very well. In the arid heights of the Andes, the Aymara developed an unusual way of understanding time, imagining the past as in front of them, and the future…

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As climate warms, plants will absorb less carbon dioxide

As climate warms, plants will absorb less carbon dioxide

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The New York Times reports: The last time the atmosphere contained as much carbon dioxide as it does now, dinosaurs roamed what was then a verdant landscape. The earth’s lushness was at least partly caused by the abundance of CO₂, which plants use for photosynthesis. That has led to the idea that more CO₂ in the atmosphere could create a literally greener planet. Today, plants and soil around the world absorb roughly a quarter of the greenhouse gases that humans…

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Trump’s top economist says shutdown could stall the economy completely; FBI agents warn of threat to national security

Trump’s top economist says shutdown could stall the economy completely; FBI agents warn of threat to national security

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The Washington Post reports: The White House’s top economist on Wednesday said the economy could completely stall in the first three months of 2019 if the government shutdown does not end, drawing a sharp contrast with the rosy economic picture President Trump has tried to paint during the month-long funding lapse. White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett, in a CNN interview, was asked whether the economy’s growth rate for the first quarter of the year could fall…

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Maduro cuts ties with U.S. after Trump recognizes new leader in Venezuela

Maduro cuts ties with U.S. after Trump recognizes new leader in Venezuela

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The New York Times reports: President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela scrapped all diplomatic ties with the United States on Wednesday and gave American diplomats 72 hours to leave, ordering them out with a derisive “be gone!” and accusing the Trump administration of plotting to overthrow him. Mr. Maduro’s actions came as he faced the most direct challenge yet to his hold on power in Venezuela, a once-prosperous country that has been devastated by years of political repression, economic mismanagement and…

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Three days of chaos bring uncomfortable echoes of the past to Northern Ireland

Three days of chaos bring uncomfortable echoes of the past to Northern Ireland

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The Guardian reports: A fireball outside a courthouse. Hijackings and bomb alerts. Sealed-off streets, evacuations and arrests. Speculation about the next attack. It can seem as if Derry has stepped into a time machine. Television pictures in the past few days have shown images redolent of the Troubles, an era supposedly consigned to the city’s museums and murals. Ice and snow blanketed the scorch marks outside the Bishop Street courthouse on Tuesday as police with body armour and rifles patrolled…

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Biden’s paid speech buoyed the GOP in Midwest battleground

Biden’s paid speech buoyed the GOP in Midwest battleground

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The New York Times reports: Joseph R. Biden Jr. swept into Benton Harbor, Mich., three weeks before the November elections, in the midst of his quest to reclaim the Midwest for Democrats. He took the stage at Lake Michigan College as Representative Fred Upton, a long-serving Republican from the area, faced the toughest race of his career. But Mr. Biden was not there to denounce Mr. Upton. Instead, he was collecting $200,000 from the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan to…

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Record number of Americans are worried about climate change

Record number of Americans are worried about climate change

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The New York Times reports: A record number of Americans understand that climate change is real, according to a new survey, and they are increasingly worried about its effects in their lives today. Some 73 percent of Americans polled late last year said that global warming was happening, the report found, a jump of 10 percentage points from 2015 and three points since last March. The rise in the number of Americans who say global warming is personally important to…

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Corporate America sees opportunities to profit from diseases and disasters caused by climate change

Corporate America sees opportunities to profit from diseases and disasters caused by climate change

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Bloomberg reports: Climate change isn’t all downside for the largest U.S. companies. Many of those that filed reports with CDP [formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project] said they believe climate change can bolster demand for their products. For one thing, more people will get sick. “As the climate changes, there will be expanded markets for products for tropical and weather related diseases including waterborne illness,” wrote Merck & Co. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment. More…

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Trump’s lawyer claimed there were ‘no plans’ for Trump Tower Moscow, but here they are

Trump’s lawyer claimed there were ‘no plans’ for Trump Tower Moscow, but here they are

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BuzzFeed reports: The plan was dazzling: a glass skyscraper that would stretch higher than any other building in Europe, offering ultra-luxury residences and hotel rooms and bearing a famous name. Trump Tower Moscow, conceived as a partnership between Donald Trump’s company and a Russian real estate developer, looked likely to yield profits in excess of $300 million. The tower was never built, but it has become a focal point of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Trump’s relationship…

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Don’t doubt what you saw with your own eyes

Don’t doubt what you saw with your own eyes

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Laura Wagner writes: Two days ago, video was posted online that pretty much everyone who saw immediately recognized for what it was—footage of white teens taunting and harassing a Native American elder named Nathan Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. What was happening was clear and unmistakable, not just resonant but immediately recognizable as iconic. If you wanted to compress the history of relations between the powerful and the powerless in America, or the dynamics of the current…

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The Covington teenage mob that Trump gladly supports

The Covington teenage mob that Trump gladly supports

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Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good – maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019 The New York Times reports: The school last faced negative scrutiny a month ago, when a 2018 graduate…

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