Timothy Puko of The Washington Post reports that one of the Democratic compromises in the Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling agreement will permit the building of a controversial gas pipeline.
President Biden and House Republicans have agreed to expedite permitting for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that is key to the West Virginia delegation as the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) seek to woo lawmakers across the capital.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). has previously demanded White House support for the project in exchange for his vote, and other Republicans, including West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, praised the pipeline provisions included in the legislation.
It is another White House concession to Manchin, who has long championed the 303-mile pipeline, which would carry West Virginia shale gas to the East Coast but has been tripped up by dozens of environmental violations and a slew of court fights. Environmentalists have fought the project since its inception, and the new provisions aims to block them from challenging almost all government approvals for the line to cut across federal forests and dozens of waterways in Appalachia’s hilly, wet terrain.
More on the environmental issues involving the Mountain Valley Pipeline from Jake Bolster of Inside Climate News.
On May 15, the U.S. Forest Service issued its “record of decision” to allow the construction of the pipeline, a much contested 303.5-mile project which, if completed, would transport fracked gas from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, through a 3.5-mile corridor of the forest. […]
For the last eight years, many local landowners along the pipeline’s route in Virginia and West Virginia have expressed concerns about the construction on the grounds that it is dangerous, infringes on the environmental justice rights of several low-income and majority-minority communities in both states and would impede the region’s transition to renewable energy.
“The most impacted people are already dealing with a number of environmental hazards across the route,” said Chisholm.
He referenced, as one example, a map made by one of the organizations under POWHR’s umbrella of the “blast zones” along the pipeline; it shows parcels of land at risk of being impacted by an explosion should, for instance, materials that make up the pipeline degrade due to prolonged exposure to the elements. Several of these regions fall in environmental justice communities in southern Virginia.
Adam Liptak of The New York Times says that the U.S. Supreme Court might choose to hear a case involving affirmative action in elite high school admissions.
In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is very likely to forbid colleges and universities to use race as a factor in admissions decisions. Indeed, when the cases challenging the admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were argued in October, some justices were already looking at the next question on the horizon: whether admissions officers may promote racial diversity by using race-neutral criteria.
“Your position,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh told a lawyer for the challengers, “will put a lot of pressure going forward, if it’s accepted, on what qualifies as race neutral in the first place.”
That question grew more concrete last week, when a divided three-judge panel of a federal appeals court allowed an elite public high school in Alexandria, Va., to revise its admissions policy by, among other things, eliminating standardized tests and setting aside spots for the top students at every public middle school in the area.
[…]It is a decent bet that the Supreme Court will agree to hear an appeal in that case and use it to answer questions left open in its coming decisions on the admissions practices of Harvard and U.N.C.
Kate McGee and Matthew Watkins of Texas Tribune cover much of the Texas Republican infighting that culminated, in part, with the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
When Patrick laid out his 30 legislative priorities in the Senate before the start of the session, he called them the “strongest, most conservative agenda ever.” On it were bills that would prevent transgender college students from playing on sports teams that correspond to their gender identities, ban gender-affirming medical care for trans youth and prohibit minors from attending drag shows.
Phelan offered a different set of priorities, such as expanding Medicaid for new mothers and exempting sales tax for items like diapers and tampons. He threw support behind bills that required tech companies to give parents access to a minor’s privacy and account settings and would limit the collection of a minor’s data. He sought to bolster school safety and overhaul how the state funds its community colleges.
[…]House Republicans wanted to lower by half the state’s cap on how much a home’s taxable value can grow each year and extend that benefit to businesses — an idea Senate Republicans rejected. The banner idea Senate GOP tax-cut writers proposed was to boost the state’s homestead exemption on school district taxes — or the chunk of a home’s value that can’t be taxed to pay for public schools.
Disagreements started to play out on television and social media.
Oh please, spare me the Dade Phelan [EXPLETIVE DELETED]; Phelan may be more “moderate” on a few issues but he never met a voter suppression bill that he didn’t like and I would assume that also includes the bill which would allow theTexas Secretary of State to take over Harris County elections.
Patrick Marley/The Washington Post
Texas Republicans wound down their regular legislative session Sunday by changing election policies for a single populous Democratic stronghold but not other parts of the state.
The measure gives the secretary of state under certain conditions the power to run elections in Harris County, home to Houston and 4.8 million residents. It follows a bill approved days earlier that shifts the oversight of elections from its appointed elections administrator to the county clerk and county assessor.
Patrick Svitek and Renzo Downey, also of The Texas Tribune, report that the articles of impeachment against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have been delivered to the Texas State Senate, impeachment managers have been chosen, and the Senate trial of Paxton will begin no later than August 28.
The Texas Senate agreed Monday to start its trial of impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton no later than Aug. 28, shortly after the House named 12 members to prosecute the case. […]
On Monday evening, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution that laid out an initial timeline for the next steps. The Senate appointed a seven-member committee that will prepare recommendations on the rules of procedure for the trial and then present them to the full Senate on June 20. And then Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick can pick a date “not later than” Aug. 28 on which the chamber will convene as a court of impeachment. […]
Earlier Monday, the House announced a Republican-majority board of managers to handle the prosecution, made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats. The group immediately left the House chamber to deliver the 20 articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Samuel Okiror of the Guardian reports that Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has signed the “harshest anti-LGBTQ bill” in the world into law.
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.
The move immediately drew condemnation from many Ugandans as well as widespread international outrage. The UK government said it was appalled by the “deeply discriminatory” bill, which it said will “damage Uganda’s international reputation”.
US President Joe Biden decried the act as “shameful” and “tragic violation of universal human rights”. He said Washington was considering “sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses” – a suggestion that Ugandan officials may face repercussions.
Sure, American evangelicals are partly responsible. I’m not excusing the people who are in power in Uganda, though.
Guy Delauney and Kathryn Armstrong of BBC News report that NATO peacekeepers were injured in a clash involving Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians in northern Kosovo.
The crisis dates back to April when Kosovo Serbs boycotted local elections, allowing ethnic Albanians to take control of local councils with a turnout of less than four per cent.
Both the EU and US have criticised the Kosovan authorities for destabilising the situation in north Kosovo, and warned against any actions that could inflame ethnic tensions there.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, after years of strained relations between its Serb and mainly Albanian inhabitants.
While ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, Serbs form the majority of the population in the northern region.
Ragip Soylu of Middle East Eye says that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may have won reelection but quite a few serious problems remain.
With his win secure, Erdogan addressed some of the things he plans to do in the near future. Yet, amid the celebrations, he nonetheless faces significant challenges, including: addressing the economic crisis, finding solutions for the refugee crisis, and securing victory in the upcoming municipal elections in 10 months’ time.
That’s just on the domestic front. As for foreign policy, Turkey’s western allies are urging Erdogan to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership before a summit in Vilnius on 11 July, an issue linked to Turkey’s need for F-16 warplanes.
Middle East Eye takes a look at five of Erdogan’s most pressing challenges…
Finally today, we have a pair of dueling editorials that function as the latest salvos fired in the eternal war between Michigan and Ohio.
First, Nancy Kaffer of The Detroit Free Press reports on the regrettable sighting of Ohio tourism signage in downtown Detroit!
This latest encroachment seems particularly aggressive and disrespectful, which, frankly, is about what you expect from Ohio. But the more I learned about this ad campaign, the more I wondered — is there more to this story?
The Buckeyes want it to seem like we fired the first shot. Classic Ohio, right? An article in the Columbus Dispatch points to a 2022 column by my colleague Carol Cain describing the latest round of Pure Michigan advertising, displayed in places like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo. This is a thin rationale, Ohio, and one I am prepared to quickly dismiss. At the Detroit Free Press, we don’t blame the victim. […]
We talk a lot here in Michigan about our state’s population loss, but Ohio experiences the same phenomenon — and Michigan, it turns out, is a popular destination for Buckeyes.
Amelia Robinson, representing that state to the south, responds in The Columbus Dispatch.
If only Ohio lawmakers would stop proposing and passing laws that make this wonderful state more dangerous and less attractive and inclusive.
That would prove that we are in fact the heart of it all as our new/ old tourism slogan claims.
We would need far fewer billboards if that happened, and Gov. Gretchen (Big Gretch if you’re nasty) would finally have to start paying rent.
And there you have it…the war continues…
Have the best possible day, everyone!
Chitown Kev
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