A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.” ― Edward Abbey

Threatening the largest conservation agreement in American history puts the sagebrush landscape as well as its economy, people and wildlife at risk.

U.S. SUPREME COURT     

How a Supreme Court Decision This Spring Could Cut Union Rolls by 726,000 

Las Vegas loses lock on legalized sports betting

SCREEN

Roman Polanski sues Oscars organisation over his expulsion 

Roseanne Greets Muslim Neighbors With Islamophobia — Until This Happens

Russian interference in the 2016 election  

SENATE INTEL DROPS FIRST SECTION OF RUSSIA REPORT - The Senate Intel Committee on Tuesday evening releasedthe first installment of its report examining Russian election interference. It focuses on the exploitation of election infrastructure and details a series of cyber campaigns coordinated by actors affiliated with the Russian government, who sought to target vulnerabilities in state election systems. "In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data; however, they did not appear to be in a position to manipulate individual votes or aggregate vote totals," the report summary reads.

- About that social media data: Virginia's Mark Warner , the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told MT that the panel is working with outside experts to parse the ads and data that Facebook, Twitter and Google have disclosed after a hearing on Russian-linked election interference last fall. "We've brought in outside experts, we have such a volume - ads, posts, tweets of different things - we want to try to have the experts do an analysis first," he said, adding that he was also still interested in more information on the scope of the problem. "One of the questions I still have that no one from the United States government or Facebook has been able to answer: Did all this just originate out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg or were there other entities?"

- Meanwhile, House Intel ranking member Adam Schiff has said there are plans to release a trove of 3,000 Facebook ads that have been tied to the Russian-linked IRA troll farm. "We have been in ongoing discussions with Facebook and hope to have the final redacted ads in our possession within a matter of days," Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement "As soon as we receive them, it is our intention to share them with the public." [POLITICO's Morning Tech, May 9, 2018]

JUDICIAL MATTERS

Federal Appeals Court Tosses Union ID Reqs 

BARON & BUDD FILES SUIT ON BEHALF OF 30 CALIFORNIA COUNTIES TO HOLD PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING OPIOID EPIDEMIC

Tinder Gets Rejected: Seven Judges Won’t Hear Its Ageism Defense

OPINION IN U.S. V. KOLSUZ, FOURTH CIRCUIT BORDER DEVICE SEARCH CASE

ISIS

Five Top ISIS Officials Captured in U.S.-Iraqi Sting 

USS Truman launches around-the-clock sorties against ISIS

WATCH: At least 13 dead, dozens wounded in ISIS attack on churches in Indonesia

Paris: ISIS terrorist murders 1, injures 4 in stabbing attack

INVESTMENT

• Life House, a new “lifestyle boutique hotel” concept, raised $10 million in new funding from Global Founders Capital and Trinity Ventures. It also secured $30 million in real estate funding led by Henley Investments. www.life-house.com

• Rootility, an Israeli developer of root-focused plant breeding methods, raised $10 million in Series C funding co-led by an ADM Capital affiliate, Middleland Capital and GreenSoil Investments. http://axios.link/VkdE

⛽ Axiom Energy, a Richmond, Calif.-based provider of energy storage solutions for grocery stores and cold storage facilities , raised $7.6 million in new Series A funding. GXP Investments and Shell Ventures co-led, and were joined by WorldQuant Ventures, SV Tech Ventures and Meson Capital. www.axiomenergy.com

🚑 Evelo Biosciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of monoclonal microbials for treating inflammatory diseases, raised $85 million in its IPO. The pre-revenue company priced 5.3 million shares at $16 (middle of range), for a fully-diluted market value of $563 million. It will trade on the Nasdaq (EVLO), while Morgan Stanley was lead underwriter. It has raised over $170 million in VC funding from Flagship Pioneering, GV, Celgene, Alexandria Venture Investments and the Mayo Clinic. www.evelobio.com  [Axios Pro Rata: Wednesday, May 9]

READ

Price of Duty: A Novel (Patrick McLanahan) 

Sub-Sahara FICTION 

Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime 

Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy 

INFRASTRUCTURE

KAINE'S "TOLD YA SO": Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) quipped that the latest round of projected Metro shutdowns were yet another example of the need for more infrastructure investments. "This is what happens when we fall decades behind on maintenance - commuters bear the brunt of the inconvenience when it finally comes time to dig out the backlog." [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, May 8, 2018]

IT'S KIND OF INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK: Close to none of Trump's big-ticket proposals to streamline environmental rules made it into the first major bill infrastructure bill introduced in Congress since his election. America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, as the Senate bill is called, is so far the "most significant step lawmakers have taken to help fulfill the president's marquee campaign promise to revitalize the country's transportation arteries," Pro's Annie Snider writes. The bill's authors purposefully set their sights on bipartisanship in light of the fast-approaching midterm elections. "We focus on the 80 percent where we have general agreement, and we're going to get something done," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the top Democrat on the panel and a cosponsor of the measure. Read more. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, May 9, 2018]

 Senate WRDA bill drafted: Leaders from both parties on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have released their draft 2018 Water Resources Development Act, reports Pro Energy's Annie Snider. The bill is regarded as one of the few pieces of legislation that could move in Congress ahead of the 2018 midterm elections and may end up being lawmakers' biggest action on infrastructure. EPW Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said the bill could be marked up later this month. [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, May9, 2018]

IMMIGRATION

John McCain warns that Republicans are on wrong side of immigration debate 

Youth who fled Taliban held with adults after disputed 'pseudoscience' age test

JUDGE FUNDING IN HOUSE BILL: The federal immigration courts would receive a 25 percent funding boost under a fiscal year 2019 spending bill released Tuesday by the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee. The boost would provide money for an additional 100 immigration judge teams (the same number added in the March omnibus). [POLITICO's Morning Shift, May 9, 2018]

LOST AND FOUND: Your MT host caught up with Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Tuesday for a quick update on the Senate's DHS reauthorization. His committee approved the House-passed DHS bill (H.R. 2825 (115) ) in March, but bringing it to the floor has been sidelined by ongoing friction over the President Donald Trump's immigration policies. "We're trying to find out what objections there are on both sides of the aisle," Johnson said. "I think one of the stumbling points is maybe the insistence to bring up the whole immigration issue, if we were to bring that to the floor, which we wouldn't want to do. We were able to ward that off in our committee, so that we could really concentrate on the areas of agreement to authorize the department. We still have that hurdle to overcome, if we're going to get any kind of time agreement." [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, May 9, 2018]

JUSTICE SYSTEM     

Kushner-backed prisons bill surges ahead 

GOP eyes rare shot at bipartisan win with prison reform

HEALTHCARE

Trump’s 'America First' agenda on drug pricing could backfire around the world 

Andy Slavitt Launches New VC Firm to Aid Affordable Health Care-Focused Companies

CDC helping out on Ebola response. The CDC is among several global health organizations helping respond to the new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an agency spokesperson told Pro's Brianna Ehley. In addition to the CDC, the World Health Organization and UNICEF are coordinating with the central African country's Ministry of Health to combat the virus, after two people there tested positive for Ebola. Seventeen have died so far of suspected viral hemorrhagic fever, which can be caused by Ebola. [PoliticoPulse, May 10, 2018]

GAMES & SPORTS

Cold Beer Not Here: Would professional sports totally collapse in a world without brews? 

How three cities are fighting back against the oldest scam in US sports

ENVIRONMENT

Audubon: Rewriting Sage-Grouse Conservation Plans Is Risky and Unnecessary 

- SAGE GROUSE: Everyone's favorite bird is expected to reemerge as an issue, after HASC members sidestepped it last year. The Trump administration has released a plan that would amend Obama-era protections that set aside federal land to keep oil-and-gas operators from building infrastructure in the birds' habitat. [POLITICO's Morning Defense, May 9, 2018]

Tell Secretary Zinke Not to Dismantle Sage-Grouse Conservation Plans

Take Action The Department of the Interior wants to overturn vital habitat protections for Greater Sage-Grouse, Burrowing Owls, and other wildlife that depend on America’s sagebrush ecosystem. Greater Sage-Grouse once numbered in the millions, but their numbers have declined precipitously due to widespread habitat destruction. Once numbering in the millions, the Greater Sage-Grouse has declined precipitously due to widespread habitat destruction. To help prevent this iconic bird from becoming endangered, many stakeholders—states, ranchers, conservationists, industry, scientists, and federal agencies—collaboratively developed a balanced conservation plan to protect 67 million acres of habitat for the sage-grouse and 350 other species. These landmark plans also ensure sustainable economic growth for communities across the West. Now, the Department of the Interior is trying to overhaul these plans, which will weaken or eliminate their vital habitat protections. The Department of the Interior is accepting public comments on this misguided effort. Send your public comments today. We’ve made it quick and easy to voice your support for sage-grouse, Burrowing Owls, and all of the wildlife that depend on America’s sagebrush ecosystem. From court challenges to backdoor attempts to put harmful language in must-pass Congressional bills, anti-conservation interests have been working to tear apart the conservation plans since they were adopted. Each time, Audubon members have raised their voices and succeeded in defending this historic conservation effort. We need your help today. This new announcement raises concerns that habitat protections could be weakened or eliminated by exploring “creative approaches” that are alternatives to protecting habitat, such as captive breeding and setting population targets state by state. Neither approach is supported by applicable science nor experts in the field. Secretary Zinke has emphasized eliminating burdens on energy development on public lands, even if it comes at the expense of sage-grouse conservation—or long-term predictability for industry interests. However, recent studies have shown that very few of the protected areas overlap with high-potential places for oil and gas or other forms of development. Tell Secretary Zinke that abandoning conservation or relying on scientifically unsupported approaches to conservation would spell disaster for these incredible birds. He needs to let the existing plans work.

Sincerely,

David O'Neill Chief Conservation Officer National Audubon Society

Your Complete Guide to Ramadan, Including the Proper Greeting and When It Starts 

There is no better time to act than right now.

The United Nations has declared the war in Yemen 2018's worst humanitarian crisis.As the conflict enters its fourth year, millions remain without clean drinking water or food, women and girls have little refuge from violence and cholera cases run rampant in crowded camps.

That's why next week is so important. On Monday [May 21], hundreds of CARE Action advocates will gather in the nation's capital at the CARE National Conference, and on Wednesday, we'll meet with Members of Congress on Capitol Hill. Together, we'll amplify the critical work we're doing overseas to deliver lasting change for women, girls and communities in poverty. And that includes you.

No matter where you are next week, your voice makes us that much stronger and louder as we sound the alarm on global poverty issues. Send a message to your representative now ahead of the CARE National Conference and urge them to reject cuts to U.S. foreign assistance and save lives across the globe.

As we continue to witness some of the worst humanitarian crises in history, strong U.S. foreign assistance funding could mean the difference between a mother dying of preventable causes, or safely delivering her baby. A young girl being forced into child marriage, or having the opportunity to go to school.

This year's Conference theme, "Your Voice, A World of Change," underscores the power just one voice can have for a better, more just world. Next week, we'll meet with members of Congress in their offices to ask for strong U.S. investments in the foreign assistance budget for Fiscal Year 2019 despite calls for cuts from the Trump administration.

Congress is paying attention to us! Thanks to advocates like you, we secured $55.9 billion – far more than President Trump's budget included – for lifesaving foreign assistance programs in the final FY18 spending bill. Now we must ensure that the foreign assistance budget is fully funded in the year ahead.

Will you lend your voice today and make us one voice stronger in our fight to protect U.S. foreign assistance from cuts?

Chances like these to make a real impact on Capitol Hill don't come around often. Please, don't let this moment pass you by.

Sincerely,
Rachael Leman
Executive Director, CARE Action! [May 16, 2018]

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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