A cup of coffee, a parting kiss, hugs, greetings, lunch table laughter, sighs at the end of the day -- these things change lives
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| DAILY SPECIALS |
Macron and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, arriving back to back, will bring a unified message to
Trump: Save the Iran nuclear deal.
Barring a last-minute change of votes, the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected Monday to reject secretary of
State nominee Mike Pompeo, Tracy Wilkinson
reports.
— Trump vowed Saturday that his personal
lawyer, Michael
Cohen will not "flip" and cooperate against him in the
special counsel investigation, and attacked a
New York Times story as part of a "witch hunt" against him.
A CYBER STORM (EXERCISE) IS BREWING - Next week, the Homeland Security
Department kicks off its massive biennial cybersecurity
exercise, known as Cyber Storm. Each edition offers a new wrinkle. For
instance, the 2016 edition focused on the retail and health care
industries. This year's version, according to DHS, will focus on the
manufacturing and transportation sectors. The idea is to see how those sectors
can integrate with others during a major cyberattack. The three-day event will
involve more than 1,000 representatives from the private sector, the federal
government and international partners, with DHS touting it as the nation's most
extensive such exercise. [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, April 6, 2018]
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| CLIMATE CHANGE |
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| READ |
A LOOK AT STUDENT FRAUD CLAIMS UNDER NEW DEVOS POLICY: A
trove of documents filed in court by the Trump administration is shedding light
on how the Education Department has been carrying out a new policy of
"tiered" debt relief for students who were defrauded by their
colleges. The policy, unveiled by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in December, is
meant to provide defrauded borrowers with debt relief that's commensurate with
the department's estimate of how much harm they suffered.
- Justice Department attorneys are defending the policy against
a class-action legal challenge brought by for-profit college borrowers, who
claim that DeVos is illegally denying them the loan discharges that they're
entitled to under federal law. The Trump administration argues that the
Education Department has broad discretion to determine the amount of loan
forgiveness, including partial debt relief.
- Among the documents filed by the Trump administration is an internal December memo that outlines how Education
Department officials determined the amounts of loan forgiveness for students
who attended campuses owned by the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges. The memo
outlines how the Education Department compared the earnings of more than 60,000
defrauded borrowers, using Social Security Administration data, to the average
earnings of borrowers who attended similar programs. The amount of the loan
forgiveness is tied to the gap between what the department believes that a
borrower is earning and what the department believes graduates of similar
programs are making. The department's documents outline the loan forgiveness
amount, ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent, for each of the dozens of
academic programs run by Corinthian Colleges.
- In total, the Trump administration has approved "more
than 9,000" claims for debt relief since December when the new
"tiered relief" policy was announced, Education
Department officials wrote in court documents. The department, as of April 12,
had approved 8,809 borrowers for partial loan discharges collectively worth
approximately $13.4 million. That's slightly less than 20 percent of the $70.3
million that the borrowers would have received if the department had provided
"full discharges of all related Federal student loans" for those
students, according to the court documents.
- Backlog remains: The Trump administration said
that it's been moving more quickly through the borrower defense claims of
former Corinthian students since it set up the "tiered relief"
system. But the Education Department still has a major backlog of claims. The
department received more than 147,000 overall debt relief claims since 2015-and
more than 99,000 of those claims remained pending as of April 1, according to
the court documents. More than 48,000 of the pending claims were filed by
former Corinthian students.
- Congressional Democrats and consumer advocates have slammed
the Trump administration's approach to processing the debt relief claims,
which are known as "borrower defense to repayment" applications. The
federal judge in California who is overseeing the lawsuit will hold a hearing
April 30 on the former students' request for a preliminary injunction that
blocks DeVos' "tiered relief" policy. [POLITICO's
Morning Education, April 16, 2018]
NO CLASS TODAY: Amtrak has discontinued business class on its Auto Train and
Crescent routes due to "insufficient differentiation" between that
and coach, spokesman Marc Magliari told MT this week. "Amtrak continues to
offer customers a variety of Coach and Sleeping accommodations for travel on
both services and is working to make the customer experience more consistent
across the network," he said. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, April 4,
2018]
WHAT TO DO WITH THIS MONEY: Deloitte
is out with a new survey of business chief financial officers, who - perhaps
not surprisingly - expect last year's tax cut to lead to lots of positive
developments. Almost half projected their companies would invest more in U.S.
operations, around two in five expected more capital investment and to pay
higher wages, and around a third predicted more spending on research and
development and increased hiring.
In a finding similar to other surveys, Deloitte found that - at
least when it comes to cash repatriated from abroad - businesses expect to put
more of their tax windfall into stock buybacks than long-term pay raises for
workers. But the Deloitte survey also found CFOs saying they expected to use
offshore earnings even more for investments in research, mergers and
acquisitions, and to pay down debt. And one more broad takeaway: There's clear
enthusiasm for the new tax cut, but at least some CFOs also appear to have the
same kind of wariness and weariness of Trump as a big chunk of voters - an
issue that Republicans are running into when trying to sell their tax cut ahead
of the midterm elections. "CFOs continued to voice strong concerns about the
impact of Washington turmoil on economic performance-especially around the
future of US trade policy and the effects of potential geopolitical conflicts
on trade, growth, and capital markets," Deloitte wrote. [POLITICO's Morning Tax, April 4, 2018]
BUSINESS GROUPS AGREE ON THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION: U.S.
business groups were all on the same page about the need to address China's
trade policies, but reiterated their misgivings about the tariffs.
"Tariffs are one proposed response, but they are likely to
create new challenges in the form of significant added costs for manufacturers
and American consumers," National Association of Manufacturers President
and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement. "Tariffs also run the risk of
provoking China to take further destructive actions against American
manufacturing workers."
Timmons also publicized for the first time a letter he sent to President Donald Trump in January that
called on the president to consider a "truly modern, innovative and
comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with China that wholly restructures our
economic relationship."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it looks forward "to
working with the administration throughout the comment period to make the
business community's voice heard on the U.S.-China economic relationship."
The Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group for
U.S. technology firms, took a more outwardly dim view of the tariff list.
"If history is any indication, these proposed tariffs will
not work and will be entirely counterproductive," ITIC President and CEO
Dean Garfield said in a statement. "Tariffs penalize U.S. consumers by
increasing prices on technology products and will not change China's
behavior." [POLITICO's Morning Trade, April
4, 2018]
Building a Chinese
wall: Domestic
manufacturing has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance, but the Trump
administration’s latest trade maneuver could upend that success. Isn’t President Trump a nationalist at heart who wants to do what it takes to shield
US manufacturers and their workers? Maybe. But domestic factories could end
up as collateral in this brewing trade war with China. Here’s one reason
why: Many of the 1,300-plus items that would be hit by new Trump
tariffs, ostensibly to punish China for intellectual property thefts, are
machines and components used in US factories.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association was one of the first groups to criticize the Trump administration’s move this week, saying it would hamper members’ efforts to grow domestically. Executive vice president Steve Lamar says these China tariffs, if implemented, would directly inject new costs into the mix while likely encouraging machinery exporters in other countries to raise their prices as well. The group has reason to be concerned: Tariffs would be imposed on Chinese-made machinery used for footwear manufacturing, for example.
Fortunately for Boston-based New Balance, one of the last remaining major domestic shoe manufacturers, these tariffs don’t seem to pose a threat. New Balance’s Matt LeBretton says none of New Balance’s equipment is made in China. His company has been an outspoken leader for domestic manufacturing. Its intense lobbying finally prompted the Pentagon to buyAmerican-made running shoes for recruits, and it was outspoken against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump later exited.
With no clear financial impact on the horizon, New Balance isn’t planning to step into this latest dispute. But other US manufacturers might not be as lucky. [Globe Business, Talking Points, April 4, 2018]
The American Apparel & Footwear Association was one of the first groups to criticize the Trump administration’s move this week, saying it would hamper members’ efforts to grow domestically. Executive vice president Steve Lamar says these China tariffs, if implemented, would directly inject new costs into the mix while likely encouraging machinery exporters in other countries to raise their prices as well. The group has reason to be concerned: Tariffs would be imposed on Chinese-made machinery used for footwear manufacturing, for example.
Fortunately for Boston-based New Balance, one of the last remaining major domestic shoe manufacturers, these tariffs don’t seem to pose a threat. New Balance’s Matt LeBretton says none of New Balance’s equipment is made in China. His company has been an outspoken leader for domestic manufacturing. Its intense lobbying finally prompted the Pentagon to buyAmerican-made running shoes for recruits, and it was outspoken against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump later exited.
With no clear financial impact on the horizon, New Balance isn’t planning to step into this latest dispute. But other US manufacturers might not be as lucky. [Globe Business, Talking Points, April 4, 2018]
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| RACE |
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| HEALTHCARE |
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| WHIMSEY |
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| BUDGET |
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN': U.S. air
marshals, which have played a critical role in America's tightened aviation
security regime in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, is being
downsized as priorities shift and new threats emerge. The omnibus spending bill
President Donald Trump signed into law last month slashed about $24 million
from Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMs) funding, a reduction that Trump also
proposed in his fiscal 2019 budget request. And a House Homeland Security
Committee Republican aide said that lawmakers are looking to
"right-size" the program so that TSA can apply its resources to the
most pressing priorities, our Stephanie Beasley writes.
It was written: Lawmakers may have felt
compelled to make the cuts after DHS' inspector general last year recommended
reducing some of the air marshals' $803 million budget so that the money could
be used more effectively elsewhere. And more changes could be on the way.
Notably on the same day the House approved the FAMs-cutting omnibus bill, it
also passed a bill that would require the air marshals to develop a more
risk-based strategy for staffing flights. The bill's sponsor, Georgia
Republican Jody Hice , is currently seeking senators to co-sponsor and help
move the bill in that chamber, a Hice aide said.
It ain't over til it's over: Despite
being short by more than $20 million compared to last year, the air marshals
will remain a critical component of TSA's overall operation, TSA spokesman
Matthew Leas said. FAMs Deputy Director Eric Sarandrea also told Stephanie
Wednesday evening that the funding cut wasn't wholly unexpected. Appropriators
allocated those dollars to the air marshals when it seemed possible that the
VIPR program for surface transportation would be eliminated (a proposal Trump
has floated). In that case, air marshals from those VIPR teams would have been
absorbed into the aviation division, he said. "That funding was removed
from us because basically Congress, the Hill and the president decided to move
forward and allow VIPR to continue," Sarandrea said. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, April 5, 2018]
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| BORDER WALL |
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| ACTIVISTS |
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| BERNIE SANDERS |
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| BANKING |
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| TRUMPARCANA |
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The words “Pay Trump Bribes Here” projected by a protester
onto a wall above the entrance to the Trump International Hotel in downtown
D.C. (Bell Visuals via Storyful)
|
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| TRUMPATERIA |
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
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