Author: Reporter

Fears grow in Congress for funding Ukraine’s defense as GOP demands connecting aid with border security

Lawmakers in Congress are trying to forge an agreement on sending a new round of wartime assistance to Ukraine. But to succeed, they will have to find agreement on an issue that has confounded them for decades. Republicans in both chambers of Congress have made clear that they will not support additional aid for Ukraine unless it is paired with border security measures to help manage the influx of migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border. Their demand has injected one of the most contentious issues in American politics into a foreign policy debate that was already difficult. TIME IS SHORT...

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Contaminated drinking water: Why some states reject federal money to replace dangerous lead pipes

As the Biden administration makes billions of dollars available to remove millions of dangerous lead pipes that can contaminate drinking water and damage brain development in children, some states are turning down funds. Washington, Oregon, Maine, and Alaska declined all or most of their federal funds in the first of five years that the mix of grants and loans is available. Some states are less prepared to pay for lead removal projects because, in many cases, the lead must first be found, experts said. And communities are hesitant to take out loans to search for their lead pipes. States...

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Flint included in EPA effort to strengthen lead protections for drinking water after multiple crises

About four decades ago, when the Environmental Protection Agency was first trying to figure out what to do about lead in drinking water, Ronnie Levin quantified its damage: Roughly 40 million people drank water with dangerous levels of lead, degrading the intelligence of thousands of kids. But new regulations were going to be costly and complicated. So, “instead of trying to deal with it substantively, they just tabled it,” Levin, a former EPA researcher, said of some of her colleagues at the agency in the 1980s. One co-worker, though, leaked Levin’s analysis to the press, igniting a public outcry...

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EPA proposes strict requirements forcing most cities to replace harmful lead water pipes within 10 years

Most U.S. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan, and Washington DC. Millions of people consume drinking water from lead pipes and the agency said tighter standards would improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults. It is the strongest overhaul of lead rules in more than three decades, and will cost billions of dollars. Pulling...

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Journalists preview RNC 2024 in Milwaukee but get no guidelines for Trump’s possible felony conviction

Hundreds of journalists were given a preview of the 2024 RNC setup in Milwaukee on November 30 at the Fiserv Forum. But missing from the highly choreographed political presentation was the Republican National Committee’s rules for next year’s nominating contest. The GOP did not address the obvious elephant in the room, regarding Donald Trump. By July of 2024, the disgraced ex-president could be convicted of any number of the multiple criminal charges he faces. Questions remain about if the party’s delegates can vote for a different candidate if the presumptive nominee is convicted of a felony. Trump is under...

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Federal appeals court rules lawsuits can move forward against Trump over January 6 insurrection

Lawsuits against Donald Trump over the U.S. Capitol riot can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled on December 1, rejecting the former president’s bid to dismiss the cases accusing him of inciting the violent mob on January 6, 2021. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit court knocked down Trump’s sweeping claims that presidential immunity shields him from liability in the lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers. But the three-judge panel said the 2024 Republican presidential primary frontrunner can continue to fight, as the cases proceed, to try to prove that his actions were...

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