The Washington Post
Supreme Court says North Carolina does not have to immediately redraw congressional maps that a lower court ruled unconstitutional
The Supreme Court said late Thursday that North Carolina does not immediately have to redraw its congressional district maps, meaning that the 2018 elections will likely be held in districts that a lower court found unconstitutional.
The court granted a request from North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders to put the lower court’s ruling on hold. The decision was not unexpected, because the Supreme Court generally is reluctant to require the drawing of new districts before it has had a chance to review a lower court’s ruling that such an action is warranted, especially in an election year. […]
The practical effect is that this year’s elections will almost surely be conducted under the 2016 boundaries, in which Republicans hold 10 of the 13 congressional seats. The GOP domination’s of the congressional delegation belies North Carolina’s recent history as a battleground state. It has a Democratic governor and attorney general, who have declined to defend the maps.
Looming shutdown raises a fundamental question: Can the GOP govern?
The Republican Party’s struggle to forge a plan to keep the government open exposes deep, intractable rifts that raise questions about its ability to govern, with GOP leaders handcuffed by party divisions and whipsawed by President Trump’s outbursts on how to proceed.
The poisonous dynamic has now pushed Washington to the brink of a partial government shutdown, which will occur after midnight Friday if a one-month spending bill fails to pass Congress.
A funding lapse would mark the first time in U.S. history that there has been a government shutdown, with federal employees furloughed, when one party controlled both Congress and the White House.
Trump officials weigh keeping national parks open even if government shuts down
As a Friday deadline for a government shutdown approached, the Trump administration began setting plans in motion to halt scores of federal functions — even as it scrambled to keep hundreds of national parks and monuments open to the public to minimize anger over the disruption of services.
With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was still working out details of a plan to permit the parks to function without rangers or other staff on site. With many parks in peak season, drawing thousands of visitors, the lack of finality was causing wide confusion across the park system. Officials from three sites said Thursday they were unsure how to proceed.
McClatchy Newspapers
FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump
The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.
FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.
It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.
Trump deals Haiti another blow, ending participation in guest worker program
The Trump administration has slapped Haiti again.
As of Thursday, Haitian farmers and other laborers seeking to come to the United States as temporary, seasonal workers under the federal H-2A and H-2B guest worker program, will no longer be eligible.
The temporary workers’ visa has for decades allowed hundreds of U.S. farmers, hoteliers and other business owners to hire thousands of foreign seasonal workers.
The Guardian
World's confidence in US leadership under Trump at new low, poll finds
Global confidence in US leadership has fallen to a new low, and the country now ranks below China in worldwide approval ratings, according to a new Gallup poll.
The survey of opinion in 134 countries showed a record collapse in approval for the US role in the world, from 48% under Obama to 30% after one year of Donald Trump – the lowest level Gallup has recorded since beginning its global leadership poll over a decade ago.
The result comes after a separate Gallup survey found that Trump reaches the first anniversary of his inauguration with the lowest average approval rating of any elected president in his first year.
New Trump office will help medical providers deny treatment on religious grounds
The Trump administration is creating an office to protect the religious rights of medical providers, including those who may oppose abortion or transgender rights, in a decision that is likely to be a lightning rod for controversy.
The new “division for conscience and religious freedom” in the US Health and Human Services Agency will defend healthcare workers who, on religious grounds, refuse to treat patients or take part in procedures. The division will be part of the agency’s Office for Civil Rights.
Trump contradicts his chief of staff over Mexico border wall plans
Donald Trump has contradicted his chief of staff over proposals for a wall along the southern US border with Mexico, tweeting that his opinion on a wall “has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it”.
On Wednesday evening, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, said the US president’s views on immigration and a border wall had “very definitely changed” after Trump had been briefed on the subjects.However, in the early hours of Thursday morning, Trump tweeted: “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it.”
Los Angeles Times
One year in, Trump's environmental agenda is already taking a measurable toll
A massive coal ash spill near Knoxville, Tenn., in 2008 forever changed life for Janie Clark’s family and left her husband with crippling health problems. So Clark was astounded late last year when she heard what the Environmental Protection Agency had done.
In September, at the behest of power companies, the agency shelved a requirement that coal plants remove some of the most toxic chemicals from their wastewater. The infamous Kingston power plant that released millions of cubic yards of toxic coal ash into area rivers was among some 50 plants given a reprieve.
After the EPA’s action, the plant’s owners delayed new wastewater treatment technology for at least two years.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Clark said. “It is like a slap in the face. It is like everything that has happened is just being ignored.”
California attorney general threatens $10,000 fine for businesses that share employee information with immigration agents
Concerned about “rumors” of an imminent immigration enforcement sweep in California, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Thursday warned employers he is prepared to seek fines if they violate a new state law that prohibits them from giving information on employees to federal authorities.
Becerra said rumblings of possible sweeps compelled him to remind Californians that there are new laws restricting local law enforcement cooperation with federal agents and that bar businesses from voluntarily allowing immigration officers to access or obtain employee records without a court order or subpoena. […]
He said employers who violate the new law face fines of up to $10,000.
TransCanada says it has secured enough customers to proceed with Keystone XL pipeline
The Canadian pipeline company that set out a decade ago to build the $8-billion Keystone XL oil pipeline across the Great Plains said Thursday it had secured enough shipping orders to proceed with construction.
A statement released by TransCanada stopped short of making a commitment to construct the 1,189-mile pipeline from Hardisty, Canada, to Steele City, Neb. […]
Trump and the fossil energy industry see the Keystone XL protest as an essential political struggle they can win to secure continued production and high consumption of oil and natural gas.
The Seattle Times
Amazon names 20 finalists in search for HQ2
Amazon on Thursday narrowed the field in its search for a second headquarters city, plucking 20 finalists from the 238 proposals the retail giant received in October. […]
Los Angeles is the only West Coast representative on the shortlist, a group of mostly large cities along the Eastern Seaboard and Rust Belt.
The 20 finalists are Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville; Newark, N.J.; New York; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, N.C.; Toronto; and Washington, D.C.
The Denver Post
With DACA and looming shutdown intertwined, Bennet and Gardner in a last-ditch effort to save immigration deal
It may be a long shot, but Colorado’s two U.S. senators said Thursday that they still were trying to marshal support on Capitol Hill for a bipartisan immigration deal that could help avert a looming government shutdown.
Speaking to a roomful of reporters, Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner said they have reached out to dozens of lawmakers in the House and Senate this week to make a case for a proposal they crafted with four other senators. […]
Gardner said he’s tried… to understand Trump’s opposition.
“We hear there are objections. What are they?” is what Gardner said he’s asked White House staff in recent days.
Esquire
Why Is the Trump Administration Withholding $1 Billion in Funding from Puerto Rico?
A billion-dollar emergency loan approved by Congress to help Puerto Rico’s ongoing recovery efforts is being withheld by U.S. officials who say Puerto Rico is not strapped for cash. (Puerto Rico is still strapped for cash.)
In a letter first published on Wednesday by El Nuevo Dia, FEMA and U.S. Treasury officials told the director of Puerto Rico’s fiscal agency that the U.S. territory has a cash balance over $1.5 billion and that, essentially, the island has no need for a $1 billion emergency loan that’s already been approved by Congress. Only when the central cash balance goes down to a level decided upon by the federal government will they release the funds, they said.
“Because the Commonwealth’s central cash balance, as publicly reported, has consistently exceeded $1.5 billion in the months following [Hurricane Maria]…the Federal Government will institute, as a matter of policy, a Cash Balance Policy,” officials wrote. “Funds will be provided through the CDL Program when the Commonwealth’s central cash balance decreases to a certain level.”
Reuters
Senate passes bill renewing internet surveillance program
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bill to renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program for six years with minimal changes, overcoming objections from civil liberties advocates that it undermined the privacy of Americans. […]
Thursday’s 65-34 passage in the Senate was largely a foregone conclusion, after senators earlier this week cleared a 60-vote procedural hurdle, which split party lines and came within one vote of failing.
U.S. lawmakers may soon be liable for sexual harassment payouts
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives could no longer use public funds for awards or settlements in sexual harassment cases under bipartisan legislation unveiled on Thursday that updates a 20-year law governing the rights of congressional employees.
Leaders from both parties, including Speaker Paul Ryan, the most powerful lawmaker in the chamber, support the bill, indicating it should pass quickly and easily in a Congress frequently frozen by partisan standoffs.
Concern over climate change linked to depression, anxiety: study
Depression and anxiety afflict Americans who are concerned with the fate of the environment, according to a study of the mental health effects of climate change.
Most hard-hit are women and people with low incomes who worry about the planet’s long-term health, said the study published this week in the journal Global Environmental Change.
Symptoms include restless nights, feelings of loneliness and lethargy.
“Climate change is a persistent global stressor,” said Sabrina Helm, lead author of the paper and professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona.
CBS News
Most say Trump should allow Russia investigation to continue - CBS News poll
Eight in 10 Americans, including large majorities across partisan lines, think that Donald Trump should cooperate if he is asked to be interviewed as part of the Russian investigation. Most also think the president should allow the investigation to continue rather than take steps to end it, including more than half of Republicans.
More than six in 10 Americans think it's at least somewhat likely that senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, though the percentage that thinks it's very likely has dropped – from 44 percent in December to 37 percent today.
Science
Cuba embarks on a 100-year plan to protect itself from climate change
On its deadly run through the Caribbean last September, Hurricane Irma lashed northern Cuba, inundating coastal settlements and scouring away vegetation. The powerful storm dealt Havana only a glancing blow; even so, 10-meter waves pummeled El Malecón, the city’s seaside promenade, and ravaged stately but decrepit buildings in the capital’s historic district. “There was great destruction,” says Dalia Salabarría Fernández, a marine biologist here at the National Center for Protected Areas (CNAP).
As the flood waters receded, she says, “Cuba learned a very important lesson.” With thousands of kilometers of low-lying coast and a location right in the path of Caribbean hurricanes, which many believe are intensifying because of climate change, the island nation must act fast to gird against future disasters.
Irma lent new urgency to a plan, called Tarea Vida, or Project Life, adopted last spring by Cuba’s Council of Ministers. A decade in the making, the program bans construction of new homes in threatened coastal areas, mandates relocating people from communities doomed by rising sea levels, calls for an overhaul of the country’s agricultural system to shift crop production away from saltwater-contaminated areas, and spells out the need to shore up coastal defenses, including by restoring degraded habitat. “The overarching idea,” says Salabarría Fernández, “is to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities.
The Globe and Mail
Cape Town at risk of becoming first major city in the world to run out of water
Cape Town, one of the biggest cities in South Africa and a famed tourist attraction, is warning its residents that they will soon have to queue for water.
The drought-stricken city announced on Thursday that it will begin marking 200 collection points where its 3.7 million residents will be required to queue for a rationed supply of water on "Day Zero" – currently forecast to be April 21.
If it happens, Cape Town would become the first major city in the world to shut down entirely the supply of running water in all of its homes.
"We have reached a point of no return," Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille told a press briefing on Thursday.
Bloomberg
340 Billion Gallons of Sludge Spur Environmental Fears in Canada
Amid the bogs and forests of northern Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian oil patch, lie some of the largest waste dumps of the global energy business.
In the shadow of the pipes and smokestacks that turn oil sands into flowing crude, earthen dams as long as 11 miles encircle lakes of toxic sludge, the byproduct of decades of extraction.
These waste pools -- known as tailings ponds -- represent perhaps the most serious environmental challenge facing the oil-sands industry. Now, the battle over how quickly to clean them up -- and fears about who will pay -- are escalating anew.
JPMorgan Boosts Dimon's Pay 5.4% to $29.5 Million for 2017
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon received $29.5 million in total compensation for his work in 2017, an increase of 5.4 percent from a year earlier.
Dimon’s pay included $23 million of restricted stock tied to performance, a $5 million cash bonus and $1.5 million salary, the New York-based bank said Thursday in a regulatory filing. It was the second-biggest package the 61-year-old billionaire banker has received since he became CEO in 2005, only trailing his $49.9 million of reported compensation for 2007.
NPR
China Reports Its Fastest Economic Growth In 7 Years
China is reporting its fastest economic growth in seven years, saying its gross domestic product grew by 6.9 percent in 2017. It's the first time since 2010 that the speed of China's economic growth went up rather than edging down.
In releasing the number Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics of China said, "The economy has achieved stable and healthy development."
The statistics agency reports that the value of China's exports grew by nearly 11 percent from 2016, while the combined value of imports and exports rose by 14.2 percent. China's trade surplus was reported at more than 2.87 trillion yuan — around $447 billion.
More States Turning To Toll Roads To Raise Cash For Infrastructure
Attention Drivers: Many of those those freeways you're using may not be free for long. Several states are opening new toll roads this year and rates on many existing turnpikes and tollways are going up.
And the number of toll roads is likely to increase, as the Trump administration's infrastructure plan may force many more states to use them to fund long-standing transportation needs. […]
The reason for this surge? Many states' transportation budgets are tight and highway funding from Washington is lacking: the federal highway trust fund is nearly insolvent, as the federal gas tax hasn't been increased in 24 years.
This past year, 2017, was among the warmest years on record, according to new data released by NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
The planet's global surface temperature last year was the second highest since 1880, NASA says. NOAA calls it the third warmest year on record, because of slight variations in the ways that they analyze temperatures.
Both put 2017 behind 2016's record temperatures. And "both analyses show that the five warmest years on record have all taken place since 2010," NASA said in a press release.
The trend is seen most dramatically in the Arctic, NASA says, as sea ice continues to melt.