The Guardian
US bosses now earn 312 times the average worker's wage, figures show
The chief executives of America’s top 350 companies earned 312 times more than their workers on average last year, according to a new report published Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute.
The rise came after the bosses of America’s largest companies got an average pay rise of 17.6% in 2017, taking home an average of $18.9m in compensation while their employees’ wages stalled, rising just 0.3% over the year.
The pay gap has risen dramatically, with some fluctuations, since the 1990s. In 1965 the ratio of CEO to worker pay was 20 to one; that figure had risen to 58 to one by in 1989 and peaked in 2000 when CEOs earned 344 times the wage of their average worker.
US poised to allow more mining on land Trump removed from monuments
US officials have announced plans to allow increased mining on land that once belonged to two national monuments Donald Trump shrank, and to sell off some of the land despite pledges not to do so.
The two monuments, now significantly smaller in size, are both in Utah. The draft management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument includes a 98-page minerals report that outlines deposits of coal, oil and gas, tar sands and other minerals under the whole of the monument’s original 1.9m acres.
It also targets 1,600 acres for selling to neighboring property owners, although the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, said on his second day on the job: “You can hear it from my lips: we will not sell off public lands.”
Humans are pushing the Earth closer to a climate cliff
A new paper, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has received a lot of media attention. The attention is justified because the paper paints a very grim picture of the climate and what humans may be doing to it. In particular, the authors of this study tried to determine the trajectory that the Earth is on so we can predict what the future climate will be.
There are many really important insights from this paper. The authors wanted to know how feedbacks in the Earth’s climate will play a role in shaping the climate in the future. By feedbacks, we mean a change in one part of the climate that then causes another change, which in turn may cause another change, and so on, potentially setting up chain reactions.
Feedbacks are really important because they are changes that the natural system makes without being caused directly by humans.
The Washington Post
Manafort jury sends judge four questions, asks him to define ‘reasonable doubt’
Jurors weighing the fate of President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its first day of deliberations Thursday with a set of questions for the judge, asking for further explanation of legal points the defense made in closing arguments.
Just before 4:50 p.m., there was a knock at one of the doors to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis’ courtroom, behind which jurors are deliberating. The court security officer emerged minutes later with a note.
Jurors had four questions, some of which centered around defense arguments made by Manafort’s lawyers.
The night Aretha Franklin brought the nation’s first black president to tears
He’d made history as the country’s first black president. She’d made history as the Queen of Soul.
Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday at 76, sang “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. She’d stood on the steps in freezing cold in a gray hat, her voice sailing over the huge crowd that stretched back to the Reflecting Pool.
Now six years later, the president was sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center in Washington when Franklin took the stage. She was making a surprise appearance to honor Carole King at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors.
Opinion: Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President
William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Dear Mr. President:
Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.
Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.
Reuters
Pentagon says China military 'likely training for strikes' on U.S. targets
China’s military has expanded its bomber operations in recent years while “likely training for strikes” against the United States and its allies, a Pentagon report released on Thursday said.
The assessment, which comes at a time of heightened U.S.-China tensions over trade, was contained in an annual report that highlighted China’s efforts to increase its global influence, with defense spending that the Pentagon estimates exceeded $190 billion in 2017.
“Over the last three years, the PLA has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against U.S. and allied targets,” the report said, using an acronym for China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases as hazards go ignored
Army Colonel J. Cale Brown put his life on the line in two tours of duty in Afghanistan, earning a pair of Bronze Stars for his service. In between those deployments, Brown received orders to report to Fort Benning, the sprawling Georgia base that proudly describes itself as the century-old home of the U.S. infantry.
He was pleased. His wife, Darlena, was pregnant with their second child, and the Browns owned a home in the area. Their 10-month-old son, John Cale Jr, was a precocious baby, babbling a dozen words and exploring solid foods. […]
Like most family housing on U.S. bases today, the home wasn’t owned and operated by the military. It was managed by Villages of Benning, a partnership between two private companies and the U.S. Army, whose website beckons families to “enjoy the luxuries of on-post living.”
The symptoms began suddenly. At 18 months, JC would awake screaming. He began refusing food, stopped responding to his name and lost most of his words.
Senate Democrats threaten to sue for info on Supreme Court nominee
Democrats in the U.S. Senate said on Thursday they were prepared to sue the National Archives if it does not honor their request for information on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The threat ratcheted up the Democrats’ fight with Republicans over documents on the conservative federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters he plans to meet with Kavanaugh next week.
Democrats are seeking documents from Kavanaugh’s service while working in the White House under Republican former President George W. Bush. Last week, several Democratic senators filed requests under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to try and compel the government to release the records.
Los Angeles Times
AP: $92 million is new estimate for Trump military parade
A U.S. official says the Veterans Day military parade ordered by President Trump would cost about $92 million — more than three times the maximum initial estimate.
The official — who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that haven't been released yet — says about $50 million would cover Pentagon costs for equipment, personnel and other support for the November parade in Washington. The remainder would be borne by other agencies and would include security costs.
Why California’s largest fire in history is so difficult to contain
Each day on the front lines of California’s largest wildfire, firefighters start their shifts noting their safety zones and escape routes. Flames from the Mendocino Complex are still ripping through thousands of acres a day of steep, mountainous terrain packed with dead oak trees — standing and fallen — and littered with leaves and pine needles.
Crews are on especially high alert this week after a firefighter who traveled from Draper City, Utah, to help battle the blaze died Monday while working on an active stretch. Every five or 10 minutes, they’re encouraged to “look up, look around and make a sound.”
“We always talk about having our head on a swivel when we’re out on the fire line, because things could change — it could happen right there, in a snap of your fingers,” said Trevor Pappas, a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “You have to have plan A, B, C, D — and sometimes E, F, G.”
A rich scientific harvest is in: Long, complex bread wheat genome is finally sequenced
It has been called the Mt. Everest of the genome world, and it has just been scaled.
This week a consortium of more than 200 scientists from 20 countries published the first fully annotated sequence of the massive wheat genome, a feat they hope will eventually reduce the risk of food scarcity on our planet.
Experts said the new, publicly available research will help breeders improve the nutritional value and disease resistance of the grain, which is the most widely grown crop in the world, contributing about 20% of the total calories consumed by humans across the globe.
“For the first time, we have coordinates for all the genes that tell us where they are on the chromosomes,” said Jorge Dubcovsky, a wheat geneticist at UC Davis, who was not involved with the work. “There are a lot of things we can do a lot faster now that we have this genome.”
Bloomberg
Trump and Putin Agreed That Iran Should Exit Syria, Official Says
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s July summit in Helsinki was largely dominated by discussion of the crisis in Syria and Iran’s role in the conflict, according to a U.S. administration official familiar with the meeting.
The two leaders agreed in principle that Iran should exit Syria, according to the person, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity. Russian leadership, however, said accomplishing Iran’s withdrawal would be difficult.
Trump and Putin also discussed the campaign against the Islamic State, disputes over Golan Heights, and the humanitarian situation in Syria, which has suffered years of civil war, the official said. Trump briefed his chief of staff, John Kelly; National Security Adviser John Bolton; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman for 15 minutes immediately after meeting one-on-one with Putin, the official said.
Vox
Mexico’s new president has a radical plan to end the drug war
[…] Mexico’s next president, a leftist named Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has promised national reconciliation and peace and an end to more than a decade of the drug war.
López Obrador (who is usually referred to by his initials, AMLO) was elected on July 1 with the biggest margin of victory for a president in Mexico’s modern democratic history. “The failed crime and violence strategy will change,” he proclaimed during his victory speech on election night. “We will address the root causes of crime and violence.”
AMLO and his advisers have proposed sending drug war-fighting soldiers back to their barracks, pardoning nonviolent drug offenders, and boosting social programs, repeating slogans like, “Hugs, not gunshots,” on the campaign trail.
If the incoming president gets his way, this will be Mexico’s first major split from the US on crime-fighting and drugs in decades. But the obstacles are many, and it remains to be seen if the new president has the lasting support and the resources to end the drug war.
The EPA refuted its own bizarre justification for rolling back fuel efficiency standards
The Environmental Protection Agency is starting to roll back one of the most important Obama-era policies for fighting climate change: fuel efficiency standards. At the same time, the agency is also picking a knock-down, drag-out legal fight with states that want tougher car emission rules.
The EPA justified this proposal by invoking safety, arguing that higher efficiency standards make it harder to buy safer cars. But emails revealed this week that the EPA’s strange rationale didn’t hold up under the agency’s own analysis. In fact, the proposed changes would increase fatalities, as Ellen Knickmeyer reported for the Associated Press:
In announcing the mileage proposal earlier this month, officials with the EPA and Department of Transportation contended the mileage freeze would save about 1,000 lives a year. But in a June email, senior EPA staffers told the Office of Management and Budget — the White House office charged with evaluating regulatory changes — that it would slightly increase highway deaths, by 17 annually.
The “proposed standards are detrimental to safety, rather than beneficial,” William Charmley, director of the assessments and standards division of the EPA’s office of transportation and air quality, said in a June 18 interagency email, released Tuesday.
The Seattle Times
Environmentalists sue federal government in Seattle to protect endangered orcas
An environmental conservation group has sued the federal government, alleging it failed to meet its obligation to protect the habitat of endangered southern-resident killer whales on the West Coast.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to hold the government accountable for allegedly violating the Endangered Species Act by not acting on a 2014 petition filed by CBD that sought to expand “critical habitat” areas for the orcas from Puget Sound waters to include the coastline down to near San Francisco. The organization has filed 82 other lawsuits against the Trump administration, demanding action to protect species from a type of giant fly native to California to the grizzly bear, but this is the first regarding orcas.
The lawsuit comes after the death of a newborn calf last month, drawing international attention to the plight of southern-resident killer whales. The total population of the mammals, whose diets rely almost exclusively on chinook salmon, has dwindled to 75, the lowest in more than three decades, according to the lawsuit. By expanding the protection zone, CBD wants to limit water pollution and boat traffic around the animals, helping their survival chances in light of the shortage of chinook.
AP: Not just land heat waves: Oceans are in hot water, too
Even the oceans are breaking temperature records in this summer of heat waves.
Off the San Diego coast, scientists earlier this month recorded all-time high seawater temperatures since daily measurements began in 1916.
“Just like we have heat waves on land, we also have heat waves in the ocean,” said Art Miller of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Between 1982 and 2016, the number of “marine heat waves” roughly doubled, and likely will become more common and intense as the planet warms, a study released Wednesday found. Prolonged periods of extreme heat in the oceans can damage kelp forests and coral reefs, and harm fish and other marine life.
Ars Technica
Polls show little support for Trump’s Space Force
Donald Trump's enthusiasm for a new military branch focused on space is apparently not widely shared. Two polls released today show that a majority—and in one poll, a plurality—of respondents said that the Space Force is a bad idea. […]
In a poll conducted by CNN and SSRS on a broad range of policy issues, 37 percent of respondents said that the US should create a Space Force, while 55 percent said that the US should not. The CNN/SSRS poll was based on a sample of 1,002 Americans reached by phone.
An Economist/YouGov poll of 19,487 US adults worded the question a little differently and found that only 29 percent of responding Americans thought the Space Force was a good idea; 42 percent thought it was a bad idea, while 29 percent were on the fence or expressed some other opinion.
Ajit Pai knew DDoS claim was false in January, says he couldn’t tell Congress
The Federal Communications Commission chairman has known that his agency's claims about being hit by DDoS attacks were false for more than six months, but he says he could not correct the record publicly because of an internal investigation that didn't wrap up until this month.
The FCC Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued its report on the matter last week, finding that the FCC lied to Congress when it claimed that DDoS attacks caused a May 2017 outage that temporarily prevented net neutrality supporters from filing comments opposing Pai's plan to kill net neutrality rules. The false claims were made primarily by former Chief Information Officer David Bray, and Bray's false statements were sent to Congress in attachments to letters that Pai wrote to lawmakers. [...]
Making false statements to Congress can be punished with fines or imprisonment, but the US Attorney's Office declined to prosecute any FCC employees, according to the IG report.
DNA reveals ancient parrot breeder supplied US Southwest peoples
Lots of macaw parrot skeletons and feathers have turned up at human settlements in the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico dating back to at least 900 CE. Given that these sites are at least 1,000 kilometers north of the bird’s natural range, it has long been clear that there was an interesting story here. How were macaws traded between cultures and over such long distances, long before the arrival of the Spanish and their horses?
Between 1250 and 1450, a settlement discovered at Paquimé in Mexico seems to have hosted a macaw-breeding program that must have met the demand for this culturally significant bird in the region. But what about before Paquimé? Archaeologists have debated the possibilities: that traders frequently traveled the long route to bring back macaws, that birds were haphazardly traded between settlements, or that there was an earlier breeding post.
A study led by Penn State’s Richard George sought to answer this question using DNA from scarlet macaw skeletons found at New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon and Mimbres settlements. Techniques to recover fairly complete DNA sequences from archaeological specimens have advanced in recent years, allowing researchers to test hypotheses with much more confidence.