The Trump administration has not yet given Puerto Rico $600 million in food stamp aid more than two weeks after the president signed the emergency funding into law, according to federal and territory officials. Puerto Rico does not expect to be able to spend the emergency food stamp funding until September, most likely, six months after food stamp cuts began for the more than 1 million island residents who rely on the program, said Glorimar Andújar Matos, executive director of the Departamento de la Familia, the Puerto Rico government agency that administers the program.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/24/despite-new-law-trump-administration-has-not-given-puerto-rico-emergency-food-stamp-aid/
The federal government’s first study of the nearly 15-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico estimates that up to 108 barrels per day — more than 4,500 gallons — is flowing from a site where an oil company’s platform and wells were destroyed during a hurricane. Monday’s report, by two scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a Florida State University professor, joined several others in disputing the company’s claim that only one drop of oil per minute is being released from a small area covered in mud, amounting to less than three gallons each day. “The results of this study contradict these conclusions by the Taylor Energy Company,” the authors said. The government’s findings also differ from those of three studies last year that said the flow of oil from the site was substantially higher. Geoscientist Oscar Garcia-Pineda estimated that between 250 and 700 barrels per day — up to 29,000 gallons — are flowing into the gulf. University of South Florida marine scientist Shaojie Sun determined that between 50 and 1,700 barrels per day — up to 71,400 gallons — were pouring from the site.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/24/fourteen-years-after-it-started-federal-government-has-studied-longest-oil-spill-history/
Government moves migrant kids after AP exposes bad treatment
https://news.yahoo.com/government-moves-migrant-kids-poor-171006601.html
Two Infants, A Toddler, And A 20-Year Old Woman Were Found Dead In Boiling Heat At The US Border. “It’s an incredibly heartbreaking situation, which seems to happen far too often.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/infants-toddler-woman-dead-heat-border-texas-immigrants
Bernie Sanders to propose canceling entire $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loan debt, escalating Democratic policy battle
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sanders-to-propose-canceling-entire-16-trillion-in-us-student-loan-debt-escalating-democratic-policy-battle/2019/06/23/1eed053a-9561-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html
@BetoORourke to visit the Homestead, FL facility where thousands are being held. He's the first presidential candidate who has announced he'll visit.
https://twitter.com/GeoffBurgan/status/1142921660191989761
China says it will not allow Hong Kong issue to be discussed at G20 summit
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-summit-china-hongkong/china-says-will-not-allow-hong-kong-issue-to-be-discussed-at-g20-summit-idUSKCN1TP05L?il=0
A member of an armed group known for stopping migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has been arrested after authorities charged him with impersonating a U.S. Border Patrol agent, according to court documents. Jim Benvie, spokesman for the Guardian Patriots, who have been camped at the border near Sunland Park, New Mexico, was arrested on Friday in Oklahoma after a warrant was issued on Wednesday in southern New Mexico.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-militia/militia-member-arrested-for-impersonating-us-border-patrol-agent-idUSKCN1TO0Y9
German locals purchase town's entire beer supply ahead of far-right music festival: "We wanted to dry the Nazis out"
https://www.newsweek.com/germany-nazi-festival-beer-ostritz-1445534
Chris Hayes
Verified account @chrislhayes
6h6 hours ago
People who think having their email hacked is no big deal should post their entire inbox.
https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1143149031230779392
Chris Hayes Retweeted Robert Costa
Robert Costa
Verified account @costareports
“We didn’t have a real hacking problem” with Russia, former speaker Ryan said tonight at @aspenideas. He instead said interference was more about “bots” and social media.
Pingree: “I remember when Sara went toe-to-toe w/ Gov. LePage and brought members of both parties together to override his veto and pass legislation to combat the opioid epidemic. Her ... commitment to solving problems will serve us well ... and I am happy to support her.”
https://twitter.com/dagerber/status/1143220864558780417
Sara Gideon
Verified account @SaraGideonME
Unbelievably honored to have the endorsement of so many Mainers as I launch my campaign for U.S. Senate to defeat Susan Collins. I will always put Maine first and I'm proud to have the support of these dedicated public servants. #MESen #MEpolitics
https://twitter.com/SaraGideonME/status/1143219431327313921
Senate Democrats want you to forget about Stacey Abrams, Steve Bullock and Beto O’Rourke. Instead, they’re hoping voters can get pumped about Theresa Greenfield, Cal Cunningham and Sara Gideon. After their highest-profile recruits passed on Senate campaigns, Democrats are relying on a collection of relatively unknown and untested candidates to retake the Senate in 2020 — a challenging task given a map tilted toward Republican territory. But what the recruits lack in name ID, party leaders say, they compensate for with their profiles: Several are women and military veterans, boasting the type of resumes that Democrats rode to the House majority last year. “These are sort of on the 2018 House model,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in an interview of recently announced candidates. “Most of them are not traditional, old-time politicians. They are new, fresh-faced.” Democrats need to net three Senate seats to win control of the chamber — four if they fail to win back the White House. But they’re competing in only two states that President Donald Trump lost in 2016, while also defending a seat in deep-red Alabama that will be difficult to win back unless controversial Republican Roy Moore wins the nomination again. “They’re struggling for direction and a message,” said Sen. Todd Young, the NRSC chairman. But Democrats argue that with Trump’s approval underwater in battleground states like Colorado, Arizona and Iowa, and a GOP primary brewing in North Carolina, they’re in position to take advantage of a potentially favorable environment. Democrats are touting this as a fresh approach for 2020. For years they’ve relied on high-profile candidates with previous statewide victories and built-in fundraising networks — only to watch many of them blow winnable races. Yet their latest recruiting strategy is as much out of necessity as by design. The party has been spurned by a number of coveted, would-be candidates, as it seeks to dislodge a Republican Senate that’s stymied House Democrats’ legislative agenda and installed a raft of Trump’s judicial picks. “We're at the beginning stages of these races,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “We have until the end of this year to get folks into these Senate races and be formidable and take on these Republican incumbents who are unfavorable in their states. I've never had a concern about it.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/24/democrats-senate-takeover-strategy-2020-1376414
Melania Trump announces Be Best ambassadors to "improve lives of children" while migrant kids face "inhumane" conditions
https://www.newsweek.com/melania-trump-best-ambassadors-migrant-children-1445581
GOP to launch new fundraising site as Dems crush the online money game. The long-delayed, much-anticipated 'WinRed' — the Republican Party's answer to ActBlue — is set to go live Monday.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/republicans-win-red-2020-1377058
Bird-Singing Contests in New York Fuel Illegal Smuggling of Finches. The songbirds, often smuggled from Guyana, can fetch between $3,000 and $5,000 each, federal authorities said. All 34 of the finches discovered last week in hair rollers inside luggage at Kennedy Airport survived the trip from Guyana, officials said. | He’s the fourth man arrested in New York on similar charges since April 2018, in what officials said is indicative of the persistent illegal smuggling of the tiny songbirds that can sell for $3,000 in New York City. The value of a champion finch can increase to as much as $5,000, prosecutors said. The man charged last Monday, Francis Gurahoo, of East Hartford, expected to earn about $100,000 from the sale of the birds, prosecutors said. Mr. Gurahoo was freed on a $25,000 bond, posted by his uncle, who lives in Queens and told the judge he is originally from Guyana. Mr. Gurahoo’s lawyer, Eric Pack, had no comment. Many of the birds are captured in the wild in Guyana, experts said, lured into traps with birdsong and seeds. So far this year, agents have discovered 326 songbirds being smuggled through 16 major airports across the nation, according to the United States Customs and Border Protection. Last year, agents confiscated 2,117, records show. | All 34 birds discovered last week were alive, and placed in the custody of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which has regulations that allow for their return, if feasible, to Guyana. The manner in which the finches are often smuggled — with no protection from high or low temperatures, no food or water and limited ability to move — creates stress, making the animals more susceptible to shedding any virus or parasite they might be carrying. | Though chestnut-bellied seed finches, with obsidian-colored wings and rusty breasts like robins, are not a threatened species, their illegal importation also poses ecological risks. The finches’ robust numbers in their native region could decline to the point of collapse, as happened around the turn of the 20th century in North America with the once-ubiquitous, now-extinct passenger pigeon, said Susan Elbin, director of conservation and science at New York City Audubon. Or, just as European starlings were introduced with good intentions into Central Park in the 1890s, only to quickly spread across the continent, displacing multitudes of native birds, exotic animals run the risk of establishing themselves and becoming a harmful invasive species. “The problem is: They could die out, or they could do well,” Ms. Elbin said. Donald Bruning, an ornithologist who worked at the Bronx Zoo for decades, said smuggling undermines the businesses of legitimate breeders. And the mortality rate for animals brought into the country illegally is abnormally high, he said.
He also noted that the practice may be completely unnecessary: There are far better ways, he said, to groom a champion finch than by plundering wild populations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/nyregion/finches-smuggled-jfk-airport.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/nyregion/15about.html
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/50/12.34
The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Quietly Undermining Global Climate Talks | Giants such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are maintaining an outsized presence at global climate discussions, working to undermine scientific consensus and slow policy progress, according to findings released Wednesday
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-24/the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-quietly-undermining-global-climate-talks
BBC Weather
✔
@bbcweather
June national temperature records could tumble in France and Germany this week!
Current records stand at 41.5C in France and 38.5C in Germany. #heatwave
Matt
270
3:41 PM - Jun 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1142880329893646337
White House Republicans illegal move to illegally bar Kellyanne Conway from legally testifying to Congress about violations of Hatch Act
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kellyanne-conway-says-democrats-seeking-testimony-on-hatch-act-violations-are-retaliating-against-her-politically/2019/06/24/9398d3ea-9689-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html?utm_term=.ce1209cf1d94
79 House members favor starting Trump impeachment inquiry
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/full-list-house-members-who-favor-starting-trump-impeachment-inquiry-n1011981
People want to donate diapers and toys to children at Border Patrol facilities in Texas. They're being turned away.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/24/texas-border-facility-donations-turned-away/
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