“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ― Daniel J. Boorstin

DAILY SPECIALS

• THE ‘SECRET SCIENCE’ FIGHT

The Environmental Protection Agency took aim on Tuesday at the science behind many of the nation's clean air and clean water rules. The proposal that was announced would effectively prevent regulators from considering a wide range of health studies when they look at new regulations, prohibiting what Administrator Scott Pruitt and industry advocates call “secret science” — studies that make use of data that are kept confidential, often for privacy reasons. [LA TIMES, Essential Politics, April 25, 2018]

• North Korea’s Nuclear Test Site Has ‘Collapsed’ 

• Mick Mulvaney tells bankers he only spoke with paying lobbyists 

• Democrats reviewing allegations against VA nominee Ronny Jackson

• Emmanuel Macron's Address to Congress Was Full of Criticism for President Trump

• A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It. 

EDUCATION

Kentucky Lawmakers Override Budget Veto in Win for Teachers 

California's plan for Every Student Succeeds Act heads to Betsy DeVos for approval

The Higher Education Act of 1965

ENVIRONMENT

Cuomo's Proposed Plastic Bag Ban Doesn't Go Far Enough, Critics Say

By Jen Chung The day after Earth Day, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a bill to ban single-use plastic bags, declaring, "The blight of plastic bags takes a devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources, and we need to take action to protect our environment."  It's a sentiment with which many agree, but some advocates and legislators who have previously tried to outlaw plastic bags in New York remain deeply skeptical about whether the governor's plan will actually be effective.  "It's a flawed solution," says Eric Goldstein, NYC Environment Director of the National Resources Defense Council, an influential environmental non-profit. "Experience elsewhere has shown that a simple ban on plastic bags leads to much greater use of paper bags—or thicker plastic bags—and doesn’t accomplish the primary objective of triggering a shift to reusables." Goldstein is in favor of more "sophisticated" ways to discourage plastic bag use. California, for example, bans plastic bags and charges a fee for recycled paper bags. A year after that ban went into effect, an LA Times editorial crowed "the world didn't end." The other model is one that Chicago has adopted: Charging fees for using either plastic or paper bags, which one study said reduced usage by 42%. City Council Member Brad Lander, a Democrat whose district includes Park Slope, was more blunt in his assessment, issuing a lengthy statement yesterday declaring, "If Governor Cuomo has actually gotten serious about reducing the billions of plastic bags that New Yorkers send to landfills each month, it would be great news. But this looks like election-year Earth Day politics." Lander has slammed Cuomo over this issue before. In 2016, the New York City Council passed a plastic bag surcharge bill, which Lander championed, but Cuomo and the state legislature killed the legislation last year. The City Council's bill would have required a five cent fee per bag (applied to plastic or paper bags), which would have gone directly to store owners—it was explicitly not a tax, because the City Council lacks the authority to levy taxes without state approval. Cuomo maintained the fee would be an "unjustifiable and unnecessary" imposition on low income New Yorkers and a windfall for businesses owners, and launched his own "Plastic Bag Task Force" a month later. In response, Lander called Cuomo's justification for blocking the bill "the height of chutzpah." This year, the state task force's report (PDF) included findings from various municipalities who have enacted methods to reduce single bag usage. Lander cited the cons listed for a single-use bag ban, like "No reduction in waste generation of single-use paper bags, which have their own environmental impacts" and "Does not incentivize reducing single-use paper bag use."  Goldstein sees another flaw in Cuomo's proposal: municipalities would no longer be able to pass their own more progressive bag laws. Long Beach and Suffolk County now both charge fees for carryout plastic or paper bag. "Those experiments ought to be given a chance to play out fully," Goldstein maintains. In February, Democratic State Senators Brad Hoylman and Liz Krueger introduced a bill proposing to ban plastic bans and charge a fee for other bags. Asked yesterday about Cuomo's bag plan, Hoylman hedged, saying, "It's a start, it’s better than nothing, and I’m hopeful that we can improve on it." "Clearly we have to reduce plastic. I don’t think this is the most effective way to reduce plastic bags, but as with a lot of things that happen on Albany, sometimes you take what you can get," he added. Cuomo's announcement came two days after his Democratic primary challenger, Cynthia Nixon, released her clean energy and "climate justice" platform, which calls on New York to move to 100% renewable energy by 2050, and hours after Nixon told an environmental rally that Cuomo's commitment to environmental issues was "lacking." A spokesman for Cuomo told the NY Times that the timing of the bill's announcement was "governed by the facts and the process." Cuomo's proposal is expected to meet resistance in the state Senate, which remains under Republican control. Brooklyn State Senator Simcha Felder, who was a fierce opponent of the City Council's five cent bag fee last year, has yet to comment on Cuomo's bag ban bill. Lander's statement noted that with Felder in "the catbird seat in the State Senate... there’s no reason to believe it will go anywhere." [Gothamist Daily, April 24, 2018]

GOP lawmaker says he has enough support to force immigration votes 

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE TO CONGRESS: PROTECT DREAMERS: "A coalition of 51 state and local chambers of commerce today sent a letter to congressional leaders calling on them to pass a bipartisan bill that protects DACA enrollees and bolsters border security," POLITICO's Ted Hesson reports. "'While federal court injunctions are keeping DACA on life support, the uncertainty around the program's future is preventing our immigrant youth from realizing their potential - as future doctors, teachers, engineers, or entrepreneurs - to everyone's detriment,' said the letter, organized by the pro-immigration New American Economy. The Senate debated immigration legislation in February, but several bipartisan proposals failed to advance. The groups urged Congress to deal with DACA immediately, adding that such legislation 'will also lay the groundwork for the type of broader, common-sense reforms to our immigration system that we need to compete globally.'" [POLITICO Influence, April 12, 2018]

Cyber Storm VI: National Cyber Exercise 

DHS Is Falling Short on Securing Its Classified Intelligence Systems

Nielsen at budget hearing: DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will make the case for the administration's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal at a hearing today before a House Appropriations subcommittee. The March spending bill gave the department a 13 percent funding boost over the previous year's enacted levels, including $1.6 billion for 95 miles of new and replacement border barriers. But that didn't satisfy Trump, who threatened to veto the measure over a lack of adequate funding for a wall. The president withdrew his veto threat hours after he floated the idea on Twitter, but vowed to "never sign another bill like this again."

Nielsen will be tasked with defending the administration's latest border request. In its fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, the White House asked for another $1.6 billion, plus an additional $18 billion tied to a February congressional deal to raise spending caps. Democrats and some budget-conscious Republicans will balk at the sticker price and likely note that border arrests last fiscal year reached the lowest point since 1971. Nielsen will likely argue that a new wave of migration could be underway, since arrests started to climb back up in March. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, April 11, 2018]

DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Hoyer plays Florida kingmaker 

Joe Kennedy to headline N.H. event favored by potential presidents

Colorado Democrats overwhelmingly reject Democrats for Education Reform at state assembly

STAFFING UP - DSCC names Lauren Brainerd field director: Brainerd previously worked as campaign director for the Virginia Democratic Party. In 2016, she was the Florida Democratic Party's coordinated campaign director. She also worked as a regional organizing director for Hillary for America and as a field director for the coordinated campaign in North Carolina in 2014.[ POLITICO's Morning Score, April 10, 2018]

CANDIDATES

GREENS NOT FANS OF SCOTT'S SENATE RUN: Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday he's running for Sen. Bill Nelson 's seat - drawing the immediate condemnation of environmentalists who say the two-term governor has refused to acknowledge climate change, among other issues, Pro Florida's Bruce Ritchie reports. They instead accused Scott of "greenwashing" his record in the state. "I think he will try to put everything he can out there to say he is an environmental champion," Frank Jackalone, the Sierra Club's Florida chapter director, told Bruce. "But we look at the bigger record and he is not [an environmental champion]." [POLITICO's Morning Energy, April 10, 2018]

GUN VIOLENCE/GUN CONTROL

Gun Violence Affects Us All — Black And White, Rich And Poor, Young And Old

Portraits of Schoolkids Learning Firearm Safety in Rural Indiana, 1956

An HHS official is a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist who said “African-Americans are way more racist than” whites and Islam is a “fucking cult" 

HHS official shared post saying 'forefathers' would have 'hung' Obama, Clinton for treason

Top health Dems warn HHS on short-term plans. The ranking members of five Senate and House committees, led by House Energy & Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, are urging HHS Secretary Alex Azar and other Trump officials to halt efforts to encourage the use of short-term health plans.

The Trump administration in February proposed a rule that would reverse the Obama administration's efforts to limit short-term plans. For instance, Trump officials are seeking to restore the previous 12-month limit on short-term plans, which Obama officials had limited to just three months.

"We are dismayed that the Administration is taking this step in the wrong direction," Pallone and Reps. Richard Neal and Bobby Scott and Sens. Patty Murray and Ron Wyden write. "Instead of finalizing this proposed rule, the Departments should apply all Federal consumer protections to short-term plans and make them truly short-term in nature." [POLITICO Pulse, April 13, 2018]

READ

The Secret History of Wonder Woman 

Miserable Adventure Stories FICTION

Birdology: Adventures with Hip Hop Parrots, Cantankerous Cassowaries, Crabby Crows, Peripatetic Pigeons, Hens, Hawks, and Hummingbirds

The Mercy of Time and Chance FICTION

'Hail Mary' Budget Move Could Throw Federal Education Spending Into Question 

Betsy DeVos Says Federal Government Has Failed to Improve Education

Betsy DeVos Has Been Scarce on Capitol Hill; Why Is That?

CYBERSECURITY

Cities Held For Ransom — Lessons From Atlanta’s Cyber Extortion 

How an embarrassing breach became a master class in cybersecurity

EXITING LAWMAKER WORKED ON CYBER - Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold, who resigned on Friday after the opening of an ethics inquiry into accusations of sexual harassment, was on the forefront of cybersecurity during his time in Congress. Perhaps most notably, last year he was one of the chief House sponsors of legislation (H.R. 2481) to codify and strengthen oversight of the government's process for publicly disclosing software vulnerabilities it discovers. In 2016, he was also a leading cosponsor of legislation to prevent states from banning or weakening the most strongly encrypted smartphones. The year before, he offered amendments on cyber threat information sharing legislation designed to limit how private information was used. Farenthold was a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, April 9, 2012]

CLIMATE CHANGE

Trump Says “Climate Change Nuts” Are Using The Wind To Attack Him 

BBC Radio 4 broke accuracy rules in Nigel Lawson climate change interview

Climate Change Will Disrupt the Way Big Agriculture Is Done

BIGOTRY

People Are Molding Their Responses to Nasim Aghdam to Fit the Shape of Their Bigotry 

New England Fishing Families Evolve to Stay Afloat 

Smucker to Buy Rachael Ray Dog Food Brand in $1.9 Billion Deal

TIME TO TWEAK: Don't look now, but some of the business and conservative groups that teamed up with the White House to push for the GOP tax cut are starting to more publicly call out policies they don't like from the president.

First case in point: Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, part of the Koch political network, released a statement on Wednesday lashing out that Trump's trade agenda would merely hand back lots of the gains just won from the tax bill. "Tariffs punish those Americans with higher costs, which undermines tax reform, destroys jobs and weakens the economy," he said. "It's hard to imagine a more counterproductive and self-destructive policy."

Second case in point: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pushed back on Trump's extended focus on Amazon - if somewhat gently, given that it was without mentioning the president by name. "It's inappropriate for government officials to use their position to attack an American company," the Chamber's Neil Bradley told The New York Times for a piece on the extensive number of American businesses that have found themselves on the other end of Trump's barbs.[ POLITICO's Morning Tax, April 5, 2018]

MORE NEW BUSINESS: The Qatari government has hired Ballard Partners as its newest Washington lobbying firm. But Ballard will advocate for Qatar in Florida, where the firm is based, according to the contract: "Issues and objectives may include, but are not limited to, enhancing US-Qatar bilateral relations, developing trade, investment and business opportunities." The contact lasts a year and is worth $175,000 a month.

- Potomac International Partners has signed Taiwan's government as a client. The firm will lobby the Trump administration "with the objective of gaining the support of the President's key inside advisors, agency leadership and then the President himself to launch trade negotiations through his appointees," according to the contract. Lobbyists plan to urge Trump to "push back on [Chinese] water/air/land grabs as a matter of national security. (Thanks to the Center for Public Integrity's Carrie Levine for spotting the filing.) The contract lasts a year and is worth $30,000 a month.

- Nathanson+Hauck has signed Guardian Life Insurance. And Nevada's 2nd Judicial District Court has hired District Strategies' Ryan McGinness to lobby on criminal justice and Department of Health and Human Services grant funding, according to a disclosure filing. It's rare for a court to hire a Washington lobbyist, although Arizona's Supreme Court hired former Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) of Steptoe & Johnson to lobby back in 2015. "The Reno area is growing quite a bit and they're in the process of constructing a new courthouse," McGinness said in an interview. He'll be lobbying for federal funding to help with increased security costs. [POLITICO Influence, April 5, 2018]

BORDER WALL

MISSION: BORDER DUTY

“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said during a lunchtime meeting on Tuesday with leaders of three Baltic nations.

The announcement, which came without many details, was seen as a sign of his growing frustration as allies criticize him for failing to fully fund construction of a new border wall. And it comes on the heels of his Twitter critique of a caravan of Central American migrants.

Trump’s threat to Honduras on Tuesday over the issue marked an about-face after his administration has sought close ties with the Central American nation, and illustrates how his tweets can send confusing signals to allies.

And that wasn’t all on the topic of illegal immigration, as the Trump administration announced it will pressure U.S. immigration judges to process cases faster by establishing a quota system tied to their annual performance reviews.

[Los Angeles Times,Essential Politics, April 4, 2018]

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