Light News Dump

White House Republicans administration bans educational and recreational travel to Cuba
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-administration-bans-educational-and-recreational-travel-to-cuba

Floods and storms are altering American attitudes to climate change
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/05/30/floods-and-storms-are-altering-american-attitudes-to-climate-change

Hope Hicks agrees to give House Democrats some documents after White House tells her not to comply with subpoena
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/white-house-tells-ex-staffers-not-to-comply-with-democrats-subpoenas.html

Paul Manafort to Be Sent to Rikers, Where He Faces Solitary Confinement
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/nyregion/manafort-rikers-island-solitary-confinement.html?partner=IFTTT

Iceland men cut off shark’s tail and released it. Now face possible criminal charges.  Greenland Sharks have the longest known lifespan of all vertebrates. They're known to live as long as 392 ± 120 years. Everything about them is fascinating. The Shark was probably chilling for the last 2 centuries only to encounter these butchers.
https://greenworldwarriors.com/2019/05/30/iceland-men-cut-off-sharks-tail-and-release-it-now-face-possible-criminal-charges/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark

U.S. EPA is sued for ousting scientists from advisory committees. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was sued on Monday by a nonprofit over a recent directive banning many scientists from panels that advise the agency on scientific matters.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-epa-lawsuit/us-epa-is-sued-for-ousting-scientists-from-advisory-committees-idUSKCN1T42H8

Trump Administration Illegal Proposal Threatens Pipeline Protesters With Up to 20 Years in Prison
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/04/blatant-attempt-intimidate-trump-administration-proposal-threatens-pipeline

Trump administration is responsible for the largest reduction in protected land in US history, study finds.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/31/health/protected-land-conservation-study/index.html

Trump+Republicans to eliminate wildfire firefighting jobs with largest federal cut in a decade
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-takes-aim-at-wildfire-fighting-jobs-and-funding-as-west-prepares-for-brutal-season-6cab40ae85b4/

NY could become first state to ban cat declawing
https://www.apnews.com/34c581f6a2114a8399a2a187ab8163f6

A wealthy televangelist explains his fleet of private jets: ‘It’s a biblical thing’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/06/04/wealthy-televangelist-explains-his-fleet-private-jets-its-biblical-thing/

58 Senate Republicans vote against disaster aid bill for American citizens. Most of the people needing aid are REPUBLICANS.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/446762-58-gop-lawmakers-vote-against-disaster-aid-bill

FAA nominee OK'd retaliation against pilot whistleblower, lawsuit says
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/politics/faa-nominee-delta-alleged-whistleblower/index.html
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Report suggests climate change could end human civilization by 2050 - The report cautions that “planetary and human systems [are] reaching a ‘point of no return’ by mid-century, in which the prospect of a largely uninhabitable Earth leads to the breakdown of nations and the international order
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/think-tank-report-suggests-climate-change-could-end-human-civilization-by-2050

Elizabeth Warren Adds $2 Trillion And A Green Marshall Plan To Climate Vision - The senator with a plan for everything is fleshing out what could be her Green New Deal.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5cf5b117e4b0a1997b6f86e3

Wooden beer bottles and paper straws -- Japan shifts from plastic: Transition creates opportunities for the nation's declining paper industry
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Environment/Wooden-beer-bottles-and-paper-straws-Japan-shifts-from-plastic2

China begins blocking CNN & Reuters articles about Tiananmen Square
https://norbutech.com/china-begins-blocking-cnn-reuters-articles-about-tiananmen-square/

[Houston Chronicle Editorial Board] Houston knows Beto O’Rourke is right: Environmental racism is real here and throughout America
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Houston-knows-Beto-O-Rourke-is-right-13925987.php

This is Beto's climate policy coming out of Pete's mouth on @hardball - "There's another solution that's not being talked about much & that's through better soil mgmt soil can capture a level of carbon...and if we let rural America know they could be part of the solution..."
https://twitter.com/Valgb1961/status/1135702737700737024

UK PM candidate Boris Johnson turns down chance to meet Trump:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-britain-johnson/uk-pm-candidate-boris-johnson-turns-down-chance-to-meet-trump-itv-idUSKCN1T51GZ?il=0

Biden unveils $1.7 trillion climate plan, paid for by reversing Trump corporate tax cuts
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/joe-biden-unveils-climate-plan-funded-by-reversing-trump-tax-cuts.html

Virginia College students sue DeVos for reinstating controversial for-profit college accreditor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/06/03/virginia-college-students-sue-devos-reinstating-controversial-for-profit-college-accreditor/

Mainers Gave Money To LePage To Prevent Domestic Violence. He Spent It Elsewhere.
https://www.mainepublic.org/post/mainers-gave-money-lepage-prevent-domestic-violence-he-spent-it-elsewhere

Mexico City drops gender-specific school uniforms."Boys can wear skirts if they want and girls can wear trousers if they want," Mayor Sheinbaum said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48511416

Waitrose will allow customers to fill their own containers with products ranging from pasta to washing-up liquid in an effort to cut waste. The UK supermarket chain said the ideas have the potential to save thousands of tonnes of unnecessary plastic and packaging.
https://news.sky.com/story/waitrose-says-bring-your-own-containers-in-trial-to-cut-plastic-and-packaging-11734416

A teacher asked Trump to round up ‘illegal students’ — in tweets she says she thought were private
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/06/04/fort-worth-teacher-georgia-clark-asked-trump-tweets-round-up-illegal-students/

Former Parkland school deputy arrested on 11 charges tied to shooting. Former Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, who hid for 48 minutes while a gunman fired on Parkland students and teachers, was arrested Tuesday and will face criminal charges for failing to act during the school shooting. Peterson, 56, was charged with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury after a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, authorities said. Peterson was the sole school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the 2018 shooting, which left 17 people dead and 17 more injured.
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2019/06/04/former-parkland-school-deputy-arrested-on-11-charges-tied-to-shooting-1041191

Carnival slapped with a $20 million fine after it was caught dumping trash into the ocean, again
https://www.businessinsider.com/carnival-pay-20-million-after-admitting-violating-settlement-2019-6

Trump Administration Approved U.S. Companies to Work on Saudi Nuclear Projects Days After Khashoggi Murder
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-approved-us-companies-to-work-on-saudi-nuclear-projects-days-after-khashoggi-murder

Alabama mayor recommends "killing" LGBTQ community in a now-deleted Facebook post
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carbon-hill-alabama-mayor-mark-chambers-recommends-killing-lgbtq-community-facebook-post-2019-06-04/

Fort Worth teacher who tweeted to Trump that she wanted her school's Latin American students deported said she thought her tweets were private messages to President Trump
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/education/article231130713.html

Emails show Texas governor requested the voter purge that used flawed data
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/Emails-show-Texas-governor-requested-the-voter-13936493.php

Amazon tapped a lobbying firm run by an ally of President Donald Trump to push for government action against vendors selling counterfeit goods. It is an issue that has come under greater scrutiny during the U.S. trade battle with China.. From July 2018 until March 2019, Amazon has been paying Ballard Partners up to $70,000 each quarter for, in part, lobbying on issues related to “trade and tariff policy,” according to disclosure reports.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/amazon-paid-a-trump-fundraiser-to-lobby-against-counterfeit-sellers.html

Shanahan has declined to punish senior officers in the Niger ambush that killed four soldiers following a review that one source called a "glorified book report"
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/04/shanahan-niger-punishment-1499960

Eric Swalwell has called for "immediately impeaching" A.G. Barr and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin
https://ijr.com/eric-swalwell-impeach-barr-mnuchin/

The Pentagon is defying Donald Trump to protect its bases from climate change
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-05/how-the-pentagon-is-adapting-to-climate-change-in-the-trump-era/11089134

Reminder: Republicans banned US cruise ships, yachts, and private planes from traveling to Cuba
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-bans-cruise-ships-yachts-traveling-cuba-2019-6

How Guns Literally Go to Men's Heads: Guns can be thought of as a drug—an intoxicating, mind-altering, power-conferring drug that leads to aggression and, in the United States, to around 40,000 deaths a year
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/04/how-guns-literally-go-mens-heads

A German circus is using Holograms instead of live animals for a cruelty-free magical experience. And it's cool.
https://i.redd.it/4yaldq59ad231.jpg

The Padres Killed A Lot Of Bees For Absolutely No Reason
https://deadspin.com/the-padres-killed-a-lot-of-bees-for-absolutely-no-reaso-1835239408

Customs and Border Protection is buying 2.2 million baby diapers for its new migrant tent city
https://qz.com/1632690/cbp-buying-2-2-million-pairs-of-diapers-for-tent-city/

Russia Confirms Military Forces Remain in Venezuela After Donald Trump Said They Were Removed
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-military-forces-remain-venezuela-1442063