We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.
Rudyard Kipling
FLORIDA AG LOOKS TO CONGRESS FOR DISASTER RELIEF: Florida
Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam will be on Capitol
Hill today to meet with members of the state's congressional delegation, to
bolster a push for appropriators to include in any disaster relief package more
resources and authorities for USDA to help Sunshine State farmers recover from
Hurricane Irma. Getting funding now is crucial, officials say, in order to help
farmers rebuild quickly. Feeling the
squeeze: Of particular concern is Florida citrus, which suffered $760
million out of $2.5 billion in total damages to agriculture in the state. Many
groves were ready to be harvested when the storm came through, knocking fruit
off trees, and, in many cases, inundating groves in floodwater. The Florida
Fruit and Vegetable Association predicts that between 30 and 70 percent of the
harvest was lost due to Irma - which could be a crippling hit when considered
in tandem with the decade of damage from citrus greening disease. A group of
Florida's congressmen made that point in a letter to USDA late last week,
urging Secretary Sonny Perdue to make the case to appropriators for more
funding. "As we work together to
adequately respond to this disaster, please know that if the federal government
doesn't do something immediately - Florida orange juice as we know it could
cease to exist," wrote the lawmakers, led by GOP Rep. Tom Rooney.
[POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, October 11,
2017]
CAMPAIGN FOR 702 BILL UNDERWAY - The
House Judiciary Committee late last week formally introduced its long-awaited
bill to extend and overhaul warrantless surveillance tools. Now the rubber
meets the road, with the panel's senior leaders looking to get their
colleagues, particularly members of the House Intelligence Committee, onboard
with the Uniting and Strengthening American, or USA, Liberty Act (H.R. 3989). Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and
others have stumped hard for their measure and are
keen to avoid a split that would lead Intelligence to draft a second bill to
renew the spying programs - which are slated to expire at the end of year - and
potentially muddy the waters.
And there is work to do on potential
reauthorization of so-called Section 702 authority under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. "The difference between
Judiciary and Intelligence committee needs to be rectified because I think it's
too far apart," Rep. Tom Rooney, who chairs the House Intelligence
Committee's NSA and Cybersecurity subpanel, told Martin late last week. The
Florida Republican said he planned to consult with his committee's staff about
the Judiciary bill. "We can't have two bills," according to Rooney,
who added that he wants the leader of both panels to spearhead an eventual bill
but isn't sure that will happen. "If not, 702's in deep trouble," he
said.
The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat isn't
ready to sound the alarm. "I think there are additional changes that we
want to be made and those will be the subject of discussion and
negotiation," Rep. Adam Schiff said. "I think that part of the reform
issue will go to the circumstances in which you can query the database through
using U.S. person identifiers. All of the other issues I think are relatively
easy to resolve," he added, before emphasizing that the search issue
"has the greatest impact on the capabilities of the program, so that's
where we're going to have to really work together to come up with a solution
that makes sense."
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| READ |
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| ADDICTION |
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|
The
only way to win is not to play. The World Health Organization has released a
draft of its updated classification of diseases, and it now includes video games on a list of
recognized addictions. “Gaming Disorder,” as it’s known, theoretically occurs
when gamers can’t function properly, lack control of their playing habits and
can’t stop even when negative consequences result. The U.S. version of the
list calls for further study of the unofficial disorder, while the final WHO
guidelines might still exclude it upon their expected 2018 release. [OZY
News, Your
Presidential Daily Brief, December 28, 2017]
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The opioid
crisis rages on
|
|
The opioid crisis
is so bad, nationwide, that Americans' life expectancy is going down, despite myriad advances in medical technology.
Yes,
but: There's no coordinated national strategy
to try to get this crisis under control, much less reverse the rising tide of
addiction, overdoses and death.
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| UNIONS |
BOSTON COLLEGE ADMIN WON'T BACK DOWN: Boston
College administrators refused to drop an appeal to the NLRB over a graduate
student employee election held last month, after more than 400 students on
Thursday delivered a petition that urged them to back down.
"Our position remains that our
graduate students are best characterized as students - not employees - and that
the collegial relationship that exists between our faculty and students would
be irreparably altered through graduate student unionization," university
spokesman Jack Dunn said in a statement to Morning Shift. "In addition, as
a faith-based institution, we assert that Boston College should be exempt from
the jurisdiction of the NLRB in accordance with the 1979 Supreme Court
decision NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago."
In the petition, the students accused
administrators of seeking to retry the case before the new
conservative-majority NLRB - which could result in the board overturning the
2016 Columbia University decision
that ruled graduate students could join unions. "We are deeply
disappointed that, instead of following those examples and instead of honoring
the long and rich history of Catholic social teachings advocating for workers
and the right to bargain collectively, your administration has asked Trump NLRB
appointees to reverse the very rights of graduate student workers to
unionize," the students wrote. (POLITICO's Morning Shift, October 27,2017)
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| SCREEN |
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| ISIS |
"'This is more like the end of the
beginning rather than the beginning of the end in the struggle against the
Islamic State,' said Jim Phillips, a senior research fellow at The Heritage
Foundation, following reports that U.S. allies in Syria had taken control of
ISIS' capital of Raqqa. 'They're likely to go underground and put down deep
roots and bide their time to wait for another violent eruption.'"
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| EDUCATION |
TRUMP ADMIN SIGNALS OPPOSITION TO BANNING MANDATORY
ARBITRATION: The Trump administration has signaled to members of an Education
Department rulemaking panel that the administration opposes a complete ban on
colleges' use of mandatory arbitration agreements. The department's
negotiated-rulemaking committee is slated to meet next week for the
first time to begin hammering out the Trump administration's replacement for an
Obama-era regulatory package known as borrower defense to repayment.
- One component of the 2016 regulations would have prohibited
colleges that receive federal aid from requiring students to resolve complaints
against them through arbitration proceedings rather than in
court. The rule also barred institutions from having their students sign away
their right to bring a class-action lawsuit against the college. DeVos has
halted those regulations as her department prepares to write new ones.
- Department officials this week suggested that completely
banning arbitration agreements is off the table for the negotiations over the
new rules. The committee, they wrote in an "issue paper ," should consider
potential regulatory changes "[a]part from an outright prohibition on the
use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements and class action waivers." The
department argued that banning mandatory arbitration agreements and
class-action waivers violates the Federal Arbitration Act and suggested that
the Higher Education Act doesn't empower the government to create such a ban.
Officials also pointed to a resolution Trump signed last week that overturned the Consumer Finance Protection
Bureau's mandatory arbitration rule. [POLITICO's
Morning Education, November 9, 2017]
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| NEWS ITEMS "lost in the jungle" |
Last night, fifteen diverse DSA members across
the country won their elections. They dealt a major ideological blow to the
billionaire class, who thought that status-quo capitalist politics would allow
them to coast to victory. Thanks to all of you, we proved them wrong. Fifteen victories. And a dozen more
incredible races where our members campaigned earnestly, honestly, and ran on
an unapologetic democratic-socialist platform. That’s what the political
revolution is all about. I quickly want
to congratulate Lee Carter (VA), Vanessa Agudelo (NY), Charles Decker (CT),
Scott Alberts (PA), Ben Ewen-Campen (MA), Kara Gloe (MN), Ross Grooters (IA), Denise
Joy (MT), Kristin LaLonde (MI), Brian Nowak (NY), Anita Prizio (PA), Tristan
Rader (OH), Carlina Rivera (NY), JT Scott (MA), Seema Singh Perez (TN), and
many more on their victories last night.
I also want to acknowledge all the other amazing DSA members who put
together amazing, issues-driven campaigns. Regardless of the outcome, your
effort is proof that our movement is growing.
[Maria Svart, Democratic Socialists of America]
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.
Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
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