Light News Dump

Hickenlooper announces Senate bid
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/458368-hickenlooper-announces-senate-bid

Inslee announces he's running for third term as governor
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/458415-inslee-announces-hes-running-for-third-term-as-governor

Republican-controlled DoJ eliminated an legal enforcement tool that has been used in the past to get states and localities into compliance with environmental laws. Conservative Republican Pro-Trump Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark announced Wednesday in an internal letter obtained by The Hill that the agency will break the law and not utilize Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in settlements with state and local government polluters.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/458317-trump-admin-erases-key-environmental-enforcement-tool

Democrats, citing GOP-imposed voting restrictions, aim to take over secretary of state offices in five states | The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State hopes to unseat Republicans in Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia and is working to reelect Democratic secretaries in North Carolina and Vermont. Republicans currently have a 25-to-22 advantage among secretaries of state. The office does not exist in Alaska, Hawaii and Utah.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/democrats-citing-voter-suppression-aim-take-over-secretary-state-offices-five-states/

Michigan Republican Party sues to stop court-ordered independent redistricting commission
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/22/michigan-republican-party-sues-stop-independent-redistricting-commission/2082305001/

If Biden were elected, Trump would be gone. Biden would surround himself with competent people who are Democratic. He would actually do something to combat climate change, put Democrats on the supreme court. work on healthcare, immigration, etc. And he wouldn't pick fights with the press or attack foreign leaders on Twitter. Biden doesn't have to be your pick for the primary, but he would be a good president and he would stack the government with Democrats from the ground up and reverse almost all the damage. As would the other top contenders.

House Ways and Means Invokes ‘Centuries’ of Congressional Oversight in Tax Returns Case | In a memorandum filed in support of a motion for summary judgment on Aug. 20, the House Committee on Ways and Means argued that the committee must obtain President Trump’s tax returns in order to continue its oversight of and investigation into Trump’s financial records. The filing argues that the Department of Justice is attempting to limit congressional oversight by not releasing the tax returns to the committee and that sustaining this denial of the tax returns based on these claims is unlawful and would “allow Executive Branch agencies to disregard all manner of Congressional requests for information—requests that, for two centuries, have been regarded as within the heartland of Congress’s legislative and investigatory powers.” The document is available here and below.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/house-ways-and-means-invokes-centuries-congressional-oversight-tax-returns-case
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6310003/House-Trump-Taxes-20190820.pdf

U.S. manufacturing sector contracts for first time since 2009
https://www.axios.com/manufacturing-data-contraction-august-2019-78e06169-8797-416c-b1a1-85a838278114.html

Nepal bans single-use plastics in Everest region
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/nepal-bans-single-use-plastics-in-everest-region/821088.html

Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Pace of Climate Change | Recently, the U.K. Met Office announced a revision to the Hadley Center historical analysis of sea surface temperatures (SST), suggesting that the oceans have warmed about 0.1 degree Celsius more than previously thought. The need for revision arises from the long-recognized problem that in the past sea surface temperatures were measured using a variety of error-prone methods such as using open buckets, lamb’s wool–wrapped thermometers, and canvas bags. It was not until the 1990s that oceanographers developed a network of consistent and reliable measurement buoys.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scientists-have-been-underestimating-the-pace-of-climate-change/

Air pollution linked to bipolar disorder, depression. | Air pollution takes a massive toll on our health. The World Health Organization links it to deadly diseases like lung cancer and stroke, and new research suggests that polluted regions see more cases of neurological disorders like depression and bipolar disorder. | In the United States, scientists found counties with the worst air quality, as indicated by the Environmental Protection Agency, had a 27 percent increase in bipolar disorder and 6 percent increase in depression, when compared to the national average.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/air-pollution-linked-to-bipolar-disorder-depression/
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000353

Leaked documents show Brazil’s Bolsonaro has grave plans for Amazon rainforest
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/leaked-documents-show-brazil-bolsonaro-has-grave-plans-for-amazon-rainforest/

Astronomers discover 3 Earth-sized exoplanets just 12 light-years from Earth, and one of the planets is likely in the star's habitable zone.
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/08/three-earth-sized-exoplanets-found-around-one-of-earths-nearest-neighbors

DailyKos' Beto Diary. Having a slim chance of actually winning the nomination has freed Beto to simply do and say what he wants without worrying about whether it polls well. His is saying everything that needs to be said with pure authenticity, pulling a bulworth, and fuck the consequences. He is doing a ton of good for the overall political debate by running as the scrappy truth-telling underdog, willing to say inconvenient things about Trump and Republicans that gives the media "talking heads" strokes. His words, once out there, are shape and changing how people see the whole race (even if they vote for another dem in the end). The Republican media is obsessed with him and Sanders.
https://m.dailykos.com/news/BetoORourke

Defense secretary says ISIS not in a resurgent state in Syria despite Pentagon report saying ISIS is resurging
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/21/politics/isis-pentagon-syria-surge/index.html

70 US Mayors Issue Scathing Letter Demanding Trump USDA Call Off Effort to Strip Food Stamps From 3 Million People
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/22/70-us-mayors-issue-scathing-letter-demanding-trump-usda-call-effort-strip-food

‘As Many as 20’ Corrections Officers Slapped with Grand Jury Subpoenas in Epstein Death Probe: Report
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/as-many-as-20-corrections-officer-slapped-with-grand-jury-subpoenas-in-epstein-death-probe-report/


Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan's top aide and spokesperson Andrew Meehan' is resigning amid frustration in the White House over the Department of Homeland Security's handling of major policy rollouts and White House distrust of McAleenan and his inner circle, sources familiar with his resignation tell Axios. Why it matters: Andrew Meehan's departure comes amid broader internal tensions between the White House and DHS leadership. President Trump is wary of McAleenan, whom he associates with the Obama administration, and his top aides, several current and former administration officials tell us. These sources say Trump has no intention of formally nominating McAleenan for a permanent position.
https://www.axios.com/scoop-top-homeland-security-aide-resigns-amid-tensions-with-white-house-53e1f433-b3e1-476d-8299-3de2b3efd66f.html

Major League Baseball is prohibiting major league and minor league players from participating in the Venezuelan winter league as a direct response to President Trump's executive order that placed an embargo on the country, sources tell ESPN.
https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/1164631980589441027

An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News. According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent court employees a link to a blog post from VDare, a white nationalist website, in its morning news briefing earlier this week that included anti-Semitic attacks on judges. | “The post features links and content that directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs and the label ‘Kritarch.’ The reference to Kritarch in a negative tone is deeply offensive and Anti-Semitic,” wrote Tabaddor. The VDare post includes pictures of judges with the term “kritarch” preceding their names. | “Publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, anti-semitic website throughout the EOIR is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice,” she wrote. The court, Tabaddor wrote, should immediately withdraw the email and issue an apology to all immigration judges, including those mentioned in the post.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/justice-department-immigration-judges-white-nationalist

The White House has scrapped plans to seek the return to the Treasury of up to $4 billion in unspent foreign aid amid intense pressure from Capitol Hill, according to a senior administration official and others familiar with the decision. The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development this month, notifying them of a temporary freeze on funds that Congress had already approved and the potential cancellation of billions of dollars in foreign aid.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-scraps-plan-to-seek-return-of-unspent-foreign-aid/2019/08/22/808a1294-c507-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html