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Tag: Government programs

  • Trump administration moves to revoke permit for Massachusetts offshore wind project

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

    The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.” The plan is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water.

    SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

    The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration in what critics call an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.

    Trump’s administration has stopped construction on major offshore wind farms, revoked wind energy permits and paused permitting, canceled plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopped $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects.

    The moves are a complete reversal from the Biden administration, which approved construction of 11 large offshore wind projects to generate enough clean energy to power more than 6 million homes. The projects now face uncertain futures under Trump.

    Last week, the Interior Department asked a federal judge in Baltimore to cancel a previous approval by BOEM to build an offshore wind project in Maryland. The ocean agency has concluded that its prior weighing of the project’s impacts was “deficient” and intends to reconsider that analysis to make a new decision, the department said.

    Developer U.S. Wind has not yet begun construction, but plans for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project call for up to 114 turbines to power more than 718,000 homes.

    BOEM had approved SouthCoast’s operations plan on Jan. 17, 2025, three days before Trump’s second term began.

    “Based on its review to date, BOEM has determined that the COP approval may not have fully complied with the law” and “may have failed to account for all the impacts that the SouthCoast Wind Project may cause,” Interior said in its legal filing. The agency asked a federal judge to allow reconsideration of the project.

    In a statement, developer Ocean Winds said the company “intends to vigorously defend our permits in federal court.”

    “Stable permitting for American infrastructure projects should be of top concern for anyone who wants to see continued investment in the United States,” the statement said.

    Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental groups, said Trump “is threatening good jobs while he pursues his senseless vendetta against offshore wind.”

    Pulling energy project permits and canceling lease sales isn’t new. Biden revoked the permit to build the long-disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day in office, halting construction. He canceled scheduled oil and gas lease sales.

    But Trump’s efforts to dismantle the offshore wind industry are much more extensive than the way Biden targeted fossil fuels, said Kristoffer Svendsen, assistant dean for energy law at the George Washington University Law School. He thinks offshore wind developers will now see the U.S. as too risky.

    “They have plenty of options. They can invest in Europe and Asia. There are good markets to invest in offshore wind. It’s just the U.S. is not a good market to invest in,” he said.

    The Trump administration has stopped construction on two major offshore wind farms, so far. One of them, the Empire Wind project for New York, was allowed to resume construction. The Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut is paused, and both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts.

    The Danish energy company Orsted is building Revolution Wind. The Danish government owns a majority stake in the company.

    Besides SouthCoast, the Trump administration has said it is reconsidering approvals for another wind farm off the Massachusetts coast, New England Wind. It previously revoked a permit for the Atlantic Shores project in New Jersey.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at ap.org.

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  • Judge blocks USDA from collecting data about SNAP applicants in 21 states

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    A judge has temporarily barred the federal government from collecting personal information about residents enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 21 states and Washington, D.C.

    U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in California issued the temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday, and said a hearing would be held next month to determine if a longer-term prohibition is necessary.

    Chesney found that states were likely to succeed in their argument that the personal data can only be used for things like administering the food assistance program, and that it generally can’t be shared with other entities. The states said they feared that the data would be used to aid mass deportation efforts.

    The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a social safety net that serves more than 42 million people nationwide. Under the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays 100% of the food benefits, while the states determine who is eligible for the benefits and then issue them to enrollees.

    The Trump administration has worked to collect data on millions of U.S. residents through various federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sharing the information with the Department of Homeland Security to support deportation efforts. The USDA warned states in July that if they failed to turn over the information about people enrolled in the federal food assistance program, SNAP funding would be cut off.

    In response, the coalition of states sued, saying they feared the data would be used to aid mass deportations. They told the judge that the federal SNAP Act requires states to safeguard the information they receive from SNAP applicants, only releasing it for limited purposes related to administering or enforcing the food assistance program.

    In Thursday’s ruling, Chesney said the states’ argument was likely to succeed, and that the USDA had already announced it planned to share the data with other entities and use it for purposes not allowed by the SNAP Act.

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 directing agencies to ensure “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs” as part of the administration’s effort to stop “ waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.”

    The case is at least the second lawsuit filed over the USDA’s attempt to collect SNAP information. Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits filed a similar lawsuit in Washington, D.C., in May, but the federal judge in that case declined to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the data collection.

    Some states have already turned over the data. ___ Associated Press reporter Kimberly Kindy contributed.

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  • Trump administration to close Miami organ donation group it calls ‘failing’

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Thursday to shut down a Miami organ donation group, calling it “failing” because of underperformance, unsafe practices and paperwork errors.

    The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, nonprofit agencies around the country that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant waiting list.

    The administration cited an investigation that found a 2024 case where an unspecified mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting surgery.

    In a news briefing, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said problems included would-be donations that went unrecovered, sending some donated organs to the wrong place and a lack of staff.

    Life Alliance, a division of the University of Miami Health System, can appeal the decision. If it is shut down, it would mark the first time the federal government has decertified an OPO.

    Life Alliance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    More than 100,000 Americans are on the transplant list and thousands die waiting because there aren’t enough donations to go around. Last year there were more than 48,000 transplants, a record, the vast majority from deceased donors.

    Changes to the transplant system have been underway for years to increase donations, reduce waste of potentially usable organs and address other concerns. They include some new safeguards after complaints last year that a different OPO didn’t stop donation preparations quickly enough when some patients showed signs of life, prompting some people to opt out of donor registries. Organ donation can proceed only after a hospital has declared someone dead — and by law, OPOs cannot be involved in that decision.

    On Thursday, Oz sought to reassure would-be donors.

    “Congress has thoughtfully and aggressively pursued some horrifying stories that have chilled some Americans’ enthusiasm for donating organs. We are here today to tell you this system is safe. It’s rigorously being addressed,” he said, adding later, “I want to applaud the OPOs that are doing a great job because most are.”

    —-

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Day of strikes in France challenges new prime minister’s budget plans

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    PARIS — Protesters hit France with transport strikes, notably hobbling the Paris Metro, demonstrations and traffic slowdowns and blockades Thursday, pitting the power of the streets against President Emmanuel Macron ‘s government and its proposals to cut funding for public services that underpin the French way of life.

    The first whiffs of police teargas came before daybreak, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris. Nationwide demonstrations, from France’s biggest cities to small towns, were expected to mobilize hundreds of thousands of marchers, voicing anger about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and struggles for low-paid workers and others to make ends meet.

    “We say ‘no’ to the government. We’ve had enough. There’s no more money, a high cost of living,” striking transport worker Nadia Belhoum said at a before-dawn protest targeting a Paris bus depot. She described “people agonizing, being squeezed like a lemon even if there’s no more juice.”

    Labor unions that called strikes are pushing for the abandonment of proposed budget cuts, social welfare freezes and other belt-tightening that opponents contend will further hit the pockets of low-paid and middle-class workers and which triggered the collapse of successive governments that sought to push through savings.

    Opponents of Macron’s business-friendly leadership complain that taxpayer-funded public services — free schools and public hospitals, subsidized health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France — are being eroded. Left-wing parties and their supporters want the wealthy and businesses to pay more, rather than see spending cuts to plug holes in France’s finances and to rein in its debts.

    “Public service is falling apart,” said teacher Claudia Nunez. “It’s always the same people who pay.”

    The day of upheaval — with strikes also impacting schools, industry and other sectors of the European Union’s second-largest economy — aimed to turn up the heat on new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Macron appointed him last week, tasking Lecornu with building parliamentary support for belt-tightening that brought down his predecessors.

    “Bringing in Lecornu doesn’t change anything — he’s just another man in a suit who will follow Macron’s line,” said 22-year-old student Juliette Martin.

    “We want our voices heard. People my age feel like no one in politics is speaking for us,” she said. “It’s always our generation that ends up with the insecurity and the debt.”

    Unions have decried budget proposals by Macron’s minority governments, weakened by their lack of a dependable majority in parliament, as brutal and punitive for workers, retirees and others who are vulnerable.

    “The bourgeoisie of this country have been gorging themselves, they don’t even know what to do with their money anymore. So if there is indeed a crisis, the question is who should pay for it,” said Fabien Villedieu, a leader of the SUD-Rail train workers union. “We are asking that the government’s austerity plan that consists of making the poorest in this country always pay — whether they are employees, retirees, students — ends and that we make the richest in this country pay.”

    Striking rail workers waving flares made a brief foray into the Paris headquarters of the Economics Ministry, leaving trails of smoke in the air before leaving.

    Macron’s opponents also continue to denounce unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, triggering a firestorm of anger and rounds of protest earlier in what is his second and last term as president, which ends in 2027.

    The government said it was deploying police in exceptionally large numbers — about 80,000 in all — to keep order. Police were ordered to break up traffic blockades and other efforts to prevent people who weren’t protesting from going about their business. Paris police used tear gas to disperse a before-dawn blockade of a bus depot. French broadcasters also reported sporadic clashes in the cites of Nantes, in the west, and Lyon in the southeast, with volleys of police tear gas and projectiles targeting officers.

    The Interior Ministry reported 94 arrests nationwide by midday.

    “Every time there’s a protest, it feels like daily life is held hostage,” said office worker Nathalie Laurent, grappling with disruptions on the Paris Metro during her morning commute.

    “You can feel the frustration in the air. People are tired,” she said. “It’s not very democratic when ordinary people can’t even do their jobs. And Lecornu — he’s only just started, but if this is his idea of stability, then he has a long way to go. We don’t need big speeches, we need to feel that someone in government understands what this chaos means for us.”

    The Paris Metro operator said rush-hour services suffered fewer disruptions than anticipated but that traffic largely stopped outside those hours except on three driverless automated lines.

    French national rail company SNCF said “a few disruptions” were expected on high-speed trains to France and Europe, but most will run.

    Regional rail lines, as well as the Paris Metro and commuter trains, will be more severely impacted.

    In airports, only few disruptions are anticipated as the main air traffic controllers union decided to postponed its call for a strike pending the appointment of a new Cabinet.

    Last week, a day of anti-government action across France saw streets choked with smoke, barricades in flames and volleys of tear gas as protesters denounced budget cuts and political turmoil.

    Although falling short of its self-declared intention of total disruption, the “Block Everything” campaign still managed to paralyze parts of daily life and ignite hundreds of hot spots across the country.

    ___

    Associated Press journalists Sylvie Corbet, Michael Euler, Oleg Cetinic and Yesica Brumec in Paris contributed.

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  • Gov. Stein requests $13.5B more from Congress for Hurricane Helene recovery

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    FLAT ROCK, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Monday requested $13.5 billion more from Congress in recovery aid for Hurricane Helene almost a year after the historic storm, saying additional help is needed from Washington to address record amounts of damage and to get funds to the region quicker.

    The proposal also asks the federal government to distribute an additional $9.4 billion in federal funds that the state has already requested or is expecting but first needs additional action from U.S. agencies.

    Stein’s administration says $5.2 billion in federal funds have already been allocated or obligated to western North Carolina for Helene relief, in contrast to the estimated $60 billion damage and costs incurred from the September 2024 storm and related flooding. Officials said there were over 100 storm-related deaths in the state.

    “We are grateful for every federal dollar that we have received because it brings us closer to recovery. But we need more help,” Stein during a news conference at Blue Ridge Community College in Henderson County, about 30 miles south of Asheville. “The next stage of recovery is going to require a new commitment from Congress and from the administration to not forget the people of western North Carolina.”

    Stein, who said he plans to take his request to Washington on Wednesday, has tried to find a balance between building rapport with President Donald Trump’s administration on recovery activities and criticizing delays. On Monday, he cited “extra layers of bureaucratic review” slowing down reimbursements to local governments. More relief money has been permitted for distribution in recent weeks.

    “Recovery costs money, more money than any city or county in western North Carolina can manage even from a cash flow standpoint,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, who co-chairs an Helene recovery advisory commission, said Monday.

    The Democratic governor and his Helene recovery office has often cited a bar chart they say shows relatively meager financial assistance received so far from the federal government as a percentage of total storm-related costs compared to what was provided for other recent U.S. hurricanes.

    “Western North Carolina has not received anywhere near what it needs, nor our fair share,” he said.

    About $8.1 billion of the $13.5 billion that Stein is requesting would go to the state’s already approved disaster recovery block grant program. More than one-third of that portion would help rebuild or replace thousands of homes and businesses, provide rental assistance and perform storm mitigation activities.

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development already has awarded $1.65 billion of these block grants to the state and to Asheville. Other block grant money requested Monday would go to fund forgivable loans for small business, the construction of private and municipal bridges, and support for homeless individuals.

    Other newly requested funds would include nearly $1.6 billion to increase reimbursements to rebuild major roads, including Interstate 40 and I-26; and $1.75 billion toward “Special Community Disaster Loans” to help local governments provide essential services.

    The state legislature and state agencies already have provided another $3.1 billion toward Helene recovery since last fall.

    It’s unclear how Monday’s broad proposal — addressed to Trump and North Carolina’s congressional delegation — will be received by the president and Congress in full. When Stein made a pitch for supplemental recovery funds from the federal government earlier this month, a White House spokesperson said the request was evidence that he is unfit to run a state.”

    Meanwhile, the region’s tourist economy received a boost on Monday when the National Park Service announced that a 27-mile stretch of a popular scenic route has reopened with the completion of two projects that repaired damage from a landslide. The opening also provides transportation access to the adjoining Mount Mitchell State Park that features the tallest peak east of the Mississippi River.

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  • Sugar Coke? Department of War? Where some of Trump’s most jaw-dropping promises stand

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    WASHINGTON — Given just how much President Donald Trump talks in public, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with all of his promises — even his most outlandish ones.

    Once a pledge has been made, though, the president has a way of making notions that once seemed implausible inch toward appearing routine the more he repeats them.

    Sometimes he even fully manages to make them happen. Other times, though, what he says goes nowhere at all.

    A look at a few of Trump’s especially jaw-dropping recent musings and where they stand:

    WHERE IT STANDS: Promise kept — but pending congressional approval.

    BACKSTORY: Trump spent weeks talking up renaming the Defense Department, saying that, back when the U.S. had a War Department, it “just sounded better.” The War Department was created by George Washington in 1789, but abolished as part of the National Security Act of 1947, which created the National Military Establishment instead. Two years later, Congress amended that and changed the name to the Department of Defense. Trump recently sought to change the name himself via an executive order. Lawmakers will still need to approve making that permanent and official, however.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it.

    BACKSTORY: Trump posted in August about a list of people he helped choose for the center’s annual awards: “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS.” He subsequently said, during an Oval Office event, “Some people refer to it as the Trump Kennedy Center, but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so.” A GOP-backed congressional effort would rename the center after Trump and its opera house after first lady Melania Trump. But a full renaming may ultimately prove more likely than Trump’s name simply being added to the existing building alongside Kennedy. The 1964 act that renamed the National Cultural Center in Washington in honor of John F. Kennedy stated that, after Dec. 2, 1983, “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed” — which would seemingly bar just tacking “Trump” up beside the existing namesake in the center’s public spaces.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Faded away.

    BACKSTORY: Trump has been on all sides of the issue. He posted before retaking the White House that the GOP would work to eliminate daylight saving time. In March, he said that setting clocks back and forward was a 50-50 issue, and was therefore too hard for him to take a firm position on. The following month, the president posted online that he actually supported making daylight saving time permanent. The Senate passed a measure do just that in 2022, but it stalled in the House. Legislation reviving that effort has been introduced, but not advanced.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Coming soon — though not quite how it was promised.

    BACKSTORY: Trump is famously a Diet Coke fan. But that made his sudden announcement in July that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its flagship product in the U.S. all the more surprising. The company soon confirmed that such a version was indeed coming, but would be a new product added to the company’s line — not a change encompassing all domestic Cokes. Still, the promised change is notable given that U.S. Coke had been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup since the 1980s, even as Coke from Mexico and some other countries continued to use cane sugar. “This will be a very good move,” Trump said. “You’ll see. It’s just better!”

    WHERE IT STANDS: Faded away.

    BACKGROUND: While threatening to impose steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the globe, Trump said in April that such import tariffs “will be enough to cut all of the income tax.” The president has since championed passage of the sweeping tax legislation. It included around $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich, but fell well short of wiping out federal income taxes entirely. That hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to assert that the country was its wealthiest near the end of the Gilded Age, when the government relied heavily on tariffs for revenue and there was no federal income tax. Still, he’s lately been less quick to suggest the U.S. is on its way back to such policies.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it — but misstating what happened.

    BACKGROUND: Trump and top administration officials have repeatedly suggested that the tax package approved by Congress wipes out taxes paid on Social Security benefits. But it doesn’t. The law has a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and older that applies to all income, not just Social Security. And not all Social Security beneficiaries can claim it. Indeed, Republicans used a congressional process known as budget reconciliation to pass the measure without the 60-vote threshold normally needed to block a filibuster from opponents — and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 restricts budget reconciliation bills from making major changes to Social Security.

    WHERE IT STANDS: In limbo.

    BACKSTORY: Trump has long talked of offering $5 million “ gold cards ” to give “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship” while granting foreigners visas to live and work in the U.S. In April, the president even held up a gold card featuring his name and picture, and said they would be available in “less than two weeks, probably.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick subsequently bragged about having personally sold 1,000 of them. Despite that hype, there has been no major effort by the administration to overhaul the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which Congress created in 1990 to offer U.S. visas to investors who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Political off-ramp found.

    BACKGROUND: Trump promised while campaigning for reelection that he’d ensure in vitro fertilization was fully paid for by either the government or insurance companies. In February, Trump signed an executive order that called for studying ways to reduce the cost of IVF treatment. But the order gave no deadline for when such policy recommendations need to be completed and what might happen once they are ready is even murkier.

    WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it.

    BACKGROUND: Even though Trump boasted while still a candidate that he’d could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in 24 hours, fighting rages on. The president undermined international efforts to isolate Vladimir Putin by hosting him in Alaska on Aug. 15, yet came away with no agreement to ease fighting — and has since been unable to broker a promised meeting between Russia’s leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the meantime, Trump’s face-to-face with Putin appears to have bought Moscow breathing room, since major economic sanctions that Trump had threatened against Russia haven’t materialized. Trump has continued to say since that he’s frustrated with Putin while insisting there may still be “severe consequences” if Russia doesn’t begin showing it’s serious about peace. But, so far, it’s been lots of threats without follow through.

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  • California extends cap-and-trade program to advance state climate goals

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will extend a key climate program under a bill state lawmakers passed Saturday, sending the measure to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has championed it as a crucial tool to respond to the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks.

    The Democrat-dominated Legislature voted to reauthorize the state’s cap-and-trade program, which is set to expire after 2030. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed a law authorizing the program in 2006, and it launched in 2013.

    The program sets a declining limit on total planet-warming emissions in the state from major polluters. Companies must reduce their emissions, buy allowances from the state or other businesses, or fund projects aimed at offsetting their emissions. Money the state receives from the sales funds climate-change mitigation, affordable housing and transportation projects, as well as utility bill credits for Californians.

    Newsom, a Democrat, and legislative leaders, who said months ago they would prioritize reauthorizing the program, almost ran out of time to introduce the proposal before the statehouse wraps for the year.

    “After months of hard work with the Legislature, we have agreed to historic reforms that will save money on your electric bills, stabilize gas supply, and slash toxic air pollution — all while fast-tracking California’s transition to a clean, green job-creating economy,” Newsom said after striking the deal this week.

    The proposal would reauthorize the program through 2045, better align the declining cap on emissions with the state’s climate targets and potentially boost carbon-removal projects. It would also change the name to “cap and invest” to emphasize its funding of climate programs.

    The Legislature approved another bill committing annual funding from the program’s revenues. It includes $1 billion for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project, $800 million for an affordable housing program, $250 million for community air protection programs and $1 billion for the Legislature to decide on annually.

    The votes come as officials contend with balancing the state’s ambitious climate goals and the cost of living. California has some of the highest utility and gas prices in the country. Officials face increased pressure to stabilize the cost and supply of fuel amid the planned closures of two oil refineries that make up roughly 18% of the state’s refining capacity, according to energy regulators.

    Proponents of the extension say it will give companies certainty over the program’s future. The state lost out on $3.6 billion in revenues over the past year and a half, largely due to uncertainty, according to a report from Clean and Prosperous California, a group of economists and lawyers supporting the program. Some environmentalists say the Trump administration’s attacks on climate programs, including the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, added urgency to the reauthorization effort.

    Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said the extension balanced the state’s ambitious emission-reduction and affordability goals. The Democrat called cap and trade “the cornerstone of our climate strategy.”

    But environmental justice advocates opposing the proposal say it doesn’t go far enough and lacks strong air quality protections for low-income Californians and communities of color more likely to live near major polluters.

    “This really continues to allow big oil to reduce their emissions on paper instead of in real life,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

    GOP lawmakers criticized the program, saying it would make living in California more expensive.

    “Cap and trade has become cap and tax,” said James Gallagher, the Assembly Republican minority leader. “It’s going to raise everybody’s costs.”

    Cap and trade has increased gas costs by about 26 cents per gallon, according to a February report from the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, a group of experts that analyzes the program. It has played “a very small role” in increasing electricity prices because the state’s grid isn’t very carbon intensive, the report says.

    Lawmakers and lobbyists criticized the governor and legislative leaders for rushing the deal through with little public input.

    Ben Golombek, executive vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce, said at a hearing this week that the Legislature should have taken more time “to do this right.”

    Democratic state Sen. Caroline Menjivar said it shouldn’t be par for the course for lawmakers to jam through bills without the opportunity for amendments.

    “We’re expected to vote on it,” she said of Democrats. “If not, you’re seen to not be part of the team or not want to be a team player.”

    Menjivar ultimately voted to advance the bill out of committee.

    The cap-and-trade bills are part of a sweeping package lawmakers approved aimed at advancing the state’s energy transition and lowering costs for Californians.

    One of the bills would speed up permitting for oil production in Kern County, which proponents have hailed as a necessary response to planned refinery closures and critics have blasted as a threat to air quality.

    Another bill would increase requirements for air monitoring in areas overburdened by pollution and codify a bureau within the Justice Department created in 2018 to protect communities from environmental injustices.

    The Legislature voted to refill a fund that covers the cost of wildfire damage when utility equipment sparks a blaze. The bill would set up public financing to build electric utility projects.

    Lawmakers also passed a measure allowing the state’s grid operator to partner with a regional group to manage power markets in western states. The bill aims to improve grid reliability. It would save ratepayers money because California would sell power to other states when it generates more than it needs and buy cheaper energy from out of state when necessary, the governor’s office said.

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  • Social Security whistleblower who claims DOGE mishandled sensitive data resigns

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    WASHINGTON — A Social Security official who has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging the Department of Government Efficiency officials mishandled Americans’ sensitive information says he’s resigning his post because of actions taken against him since making his complaint.

    Charles Borges, the agency’s chief data officer, alleged that more than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk by DOGE officials who uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight. His whistleblower disclosure was submitted to the special counsel’s office on Tuesday.

    In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Borges claimed that since filing his whistleblower complaint, the agency’s actions make his duties “impossible to perform legally and ethically” and have caused him “physical, mental and emotional distress.”

    “After reporting internally to management and externally to regulators, serious data and security and integrity concerns impacting our citizens’ most sensitive personal data, I have suffered exclusion, isolation, internal strife, and a culture of fear, creating a hostile work environment and making work conditions intolerable,” Borges added.

    The Project Government Accountability Office, which is representing him in his whistleblower case, posted Borges’ resignation letter on its website Friday evening. Borges declined to comment.

    “He no longer felt that he could continue to work for the Social Security Administration in good conscience, given what he had witnessed,” his attorney Andrea Meza said in a statement. She added that Borges would continue to work with the proper oversight bodies on the matter.

    In his whistleblower’s complaint, Borges said the potentially sensitive information put at risk by DOGE’s actions includes health diagnoses, income, banking information, familial relationships and personal biographic data.

    “Should bad actors gain access to this cloud environment, Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital healthcare and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for re-issuing every American a new Social Security Number at great cost,” said the complaint.

    Borges had served as the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer since January.

    The SSA declined to comment on Borges’ resignation or allegations against the agency in his letter to colleagues.

    President Donald Trump’s DOGE has faced scrutiny as it received unprecedented access from the Republican administration to troves of personal data across the government under the mandate of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.

    Labor and retiree groups sued SSA earlier this year for allowing DOGE to access Americans’ sensitive agency data, though a divided appeals panel decided this month that DOGE could access the information.

    ___

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  • Trump admin cancels $679 million for offshore wind projects as attacks on reeling industry continue

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    WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects, the latest attack by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind industry.

    Funding for projects in 11 states was rescinded, including $435 million for a floating wind farm in Northern California and $47 million to boost an offshore wind project in Maryland that the Interior Department has pledged to cancel.

    “Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little.”

    The Trump administration has stepped up its crusade against wind and other renewable energy sources in recent weeks, cutting federal funding and canceling projects approved by the Biden administration in a sustained attack on clean energy sources that scientists say are crucial to the fight against climate change.

    President Donald Trump has vowed to restore U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market and has pushed to increase U.S. reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.

    California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called Duffy’s action “outrageous” and deeply disappointing.

    Trump and his Cabinet “have a stubborn and mystifying hatred of clean energy,” Huffman said in an interview. “It’s so dogmatic. They are willing to eliminate thousands of jobs and an entire sector that can bring cheap, reliable power to American consumers.”

    The canceled funding will be redirected to upgrade ports and other infrastructure in the U.S., where possible, the Transportation Department said.

    Separately, Trump’s Energy Department said Friday it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee approved by the Biden administration to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure to accommodate a now-threatened offshore wind project in New Jersey.

    The moves come as the administration abruptly halted construction last week of a nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Interior Department said the government needs to review the $4 billion Revolution Wind project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are.

    Democratic governors, lawmakers and union workers in New England have called for Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse course.

    Trump has long expressed disdain for wind power, frequently calling it an ugly and expensive form of energy that “smart” countries don’t use.

    Earlier this month, the Interior Department canceled a major wind farm in Idaho, a project approved late in former President Joe Biden’s term that had drawn criticism for its proximity to a historic site where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

    Last week, with U.S. electricity prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, Trump lashed out, falsely blaming renewable power for skyrocketing energy costs. He called wind and solar energy “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve any wind or solar projects.

    “We’re not allowing any windmills to go up unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

    Energy analysts say renewable sources have little to do with recent price hikes, which are based on increased demand from artificial intelligence and energy-hungry data centers, along with aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events such as wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change.

    Revolution Wind’s developer, Danish energy company Orsted, said it is evaluating the financial impact of stopping construction on the New England project and is considering legal proceedings.

    Revolution Wind was expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. In addition to hampering the states’ climate goals, losing out on all that renewable power could drive up electricity prices throughout the region, Democratic officials say.

    Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Those include reviewing wind and solar energy permits, canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopping work on another offshore wind project for New York, although construction was later allowed to resume.

    Some critics say the steps to cancel projects put Americans’ livelihoods at risk.

    “It’s an attack on our jobs,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said of the move to stop construction of Revolution Wind. “It’s an attack on our energy. It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”

    Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said his union is “going to fight (Trump) every step of the way, no matter how long it takes.”

    Under Biden, the U.S. held the first-ever auction of leases for floating wind farms in December 2022. Deep waters off the West Coast are better suited for floating projects than those that are anchored in the seabed, officials said.

    ___

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  • Employers have used E-Verify for years. ICE’s arrest of a Maine police officer raises new questions

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    OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — The case of a Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities even though he was vetted by a government system called “E-Verify” has raised questions about what employers can do to make sure they’re employing people who can legally work.

    E-Verify is an online system that compares information entered by an employer from an employee’s documents with records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. It’s used to determine the employment eligibility of citizens and noncitizens.

    Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin accused Old Orchard Beach, Maine, of “reckless reliance” on the E-Verify program when it hired Jamaica national Jon Luke Evans, who was later detained and agreed to leave the country earlier this month.

    But it’s the government’s own program. And experts say there’s not a whole lot more employers can do in terms of vetting.

    “I think employers are between a rock and a hard place,” said Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida. “Even an employer who is trying to comply with the law can have difficulty doing it.”

    Before 1986, it was essentially legal for employers to hire people regardless of their immigration status. Then came the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which involved a large-scale immigrant legalization program that was paired with a requirement that employers no longer hire people who weren’t legally authorized to work in the U.S.

    Employers then had to fill out a form called an I-9, which required workers to present documents showing that they were authorized to work. But it was difficult to verify if the documents were valid. As part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the E-Verify system was established to help verify those documents.

    Unlike I-9 forms, which are federally required for every employer, E-Verify is mandated on a state-by-state basis, otherwise it is voluntary. According to an Equifax tally, about 23 states require E-Verify for at least some public and/or private employers.

    Zavodny said the system is generally accurate in terms of matching documents, but there are flaws. For example, if an employee’s right to work is revoked after it has already been verified — perhaps if their visa expires — it doesn’t automatically notify the employer.

    A lack of biometrics also hinders the process. If there’s a photo in the E-Verify system, manual photo matching by the employer helps. But a lot of times, there’s no photo in the system.

    And the system is not without critics. A 2021 review of E-Verify by the Office of the Inspector General concluded that until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services addresses the system’s shortcomings, “it cannot ensure the system provides accurate employment eligibility results.”

    The federal government’s disagreement with Old Orchard Beach over E-Verify’s reliability came despite pushes by President Donald Trump and his allies to bring the system into wider use. Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s second term, calls for it to be mandatory.

    Use of the system is not widespread. Barely a fifth of U.S. employers use it, though some huge businesses do, including Walmart, Starbucks and Home Depot.

    Language calling for mandatory nationwide E-Verify was dropped from budget proposals during the first Trump administration. The system has also faced criticism from some employers.

    An Omaha, Nebraska, food packaging company owner said a raid of his business by immigration officials this year came despite his use of E-Verify for employees. Glenn Valley Foods owner Gary Rohwer said in June that the business “did everything we could possibly do” to hire eligible workers.

    Rohwer didn’t respond to requests for comment this month. Old Orchard Beach officials declined to comment on the town’s recent troubles. DHS officials also didn’t respond.

    Others say they’ve had good experiences with the system. Kyle Sobko, CEO of SonderCare, a Calgary, Alberta-based company that makes hospital beds for the home, has a staff of 50, including 20 in the U.S.

    He uses E-Verify and said he hasn’t had any problems.

    “We trust the system for its reliability and integration with our hiring process,” he said.

    Sobko said the situation in Old Orchard Beach raises some concerns about the system’s limitations. But he doesn’t plan on making any changes since the warning about “reckless reliance” on E-Verify.

    Despite the system’s flaws, characterization of E-Verify use as “reckless” is an “outrageous” claim, said Kathleen Campbell Walker, a Texas attorney who is a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

    Walker described the process as “not a get out of jail free card” for prospective employees, but as one that has evolved over the years and become more robust in its ability to provide accurate background checks.

    Walker said McLaughlin’s description of “reckless reliance” on E-Verify should give employers pause.

    “The whole idea is that I’m supposed to rely on E-Verify to show my good faith and to have a more secure workforce,” she said. “Not that reliance upon it is somehow irresponsible.”

    Advocates for the rights of immigrants have said instances in which employees clear the E-Verify system but end up arrested by immigration officials anyway point to a broken immigration system.

    “We have an immigration system that is not functioning to the extent that a federal system would both clear someone to work and at the same time, they could somehow get onto ICE’s radar,” said Molly Curren Rowles, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Small businesses are in a tough spot since they don’t necessarily have the resources or motivation to do more than what is required to verify employment eligibility status.

    “Businesses should not be in the business of being the paperwork investigator for the federal government,” said Frank Knapp Jr., president & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. “The federal government ought to be doing that.”

    Knapp has pushed back on his state’s mandate for E-Verify because he said it puts too much of the onus on small business owners.

    “It’s an extra layer of administration just to do the E-Verify for small businesses, and the federal government is saying, oh, you do this because you want to verify that somebody is in this country legally,” he said. “But now their own administration is saying, ‘Oh, no, no. That’s not enough.’”

    James M. Cooney, a labor and employment law expert in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations in New Jersey, said it can be tricky to go beyond the basics of what’s required to verify identification without running the risk of a discrimination charge.

    “If an employer tries to do more than what is permitted under the I-9 and E-Verify, that will very often be seen as illegal discrimination,” he said. “And so that really puts employers at a tough spot.”

    ___

    Anderson reported from New York.

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  • New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

    New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

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    NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man who was among seven people charged with smuggling electronic components to aid Russia’s war effort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges, authorities said.

    Vadim Yermolenko, 43, faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive electronics for Russian military and intelligence services, Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

    Yermolenko, who lives in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and has dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, was indicted along with six other people in December 2022.

    Prosecutors said the conspirators worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the U.S. that have civilian uses but can also be used to make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.

    The exporting of the technology violated U.S. sanctions, prosecutors said.

    The prosecution was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency entity dedicated to enforcing sanctions imposed after Russian invaded Ukraine.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said in statement that Yermolenko “joins the nearly two dozen other criminals that our Task Force KleptoCapture has brought to justice in American courtrooms over the past two and a half years for enabling Russia’s military aggression.”

    A message seeking comment was sent to Yermolenko’s attorney with the federal public defender’s office.

    Prosecutors said Yermolenko helped set up shell companies and U.S. bank accounts to move money and export-controlled goods. Money from one of his accounts was used to purchase export-controlled sniper bullets that were intercepted in Estonia before they could be smuggled into Russia, they said.

    One of Yermolenko’s co-defendants, Alexey Brayman of Merrimack, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty previously to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentencing.

    Another, Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the United States. He was later released from U.S. custody as part of a prisoner exchange that included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other individuals.

    The four others named in the indictment are Russian nationals who remain at large, prosecutors said.

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  • House Speaker Johnson says GOP may try to repeal CHIPS Act, then walks it back

    House Speaker Johnson says GOP may try to repeal CHIPS Act, then walks it back

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    WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to walk back by saying he would like to instead “streamline” it.

    Johnson made the initial comment while campaigning for a vulnerable New York GOP congressman in a district that is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant.

    A reporter asked Johnson whether he would try to repeal the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had disparaged last week. “I expect that we probably will, but we haven’t developed that part of the agenda yet,” Johnson replied.

    Democrats quickly jumped on the Republican speaker’s comments, warning that it showed how Johnson and Trump are pursuing an aggressive conservative agenda bent on dismantling even popular government programs. The White House has credited the CHIPS Act for spurring hundreds of billions of dollars of investments as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs. Vice President Kamala Harris has pointed to the legislation on the campaign trail as proof that Democrats can be entrusted with the U.S. economy.

    Johnson, who voted against the legislation, later said in a statement that the CHIPS Act, which poured $54 billion into the semiconductor manufacturing industry, “is not on the agenda for repeal.”

    “To the contrary, there could be legislation to further streamline and improve the primary purpose of the bill—to eliminate its costly regulations and Green New Deal requirements,” the speaker’s statement said.

    It wasn’t the first recent comment Johnson has had to walk back. Earlier this week he had to clean up comments he made saying he wanted to “take a blow torch to the regulatory state” and make “massive” changes to the Affordable Care Act. After facing political blowback, he said that repealing the health care law was “not on the table.”

    The incident was emblematic of Johnson’s struggle working closely with Trump and at the same time campaigning for his House colleagues, especially those locked in tough reelection battles that are crucial to Republicans holding a narrow majority. The speaker was campaigning for Rep. Brandon Williams, a New York Republican who worked in the tech industry before running for Congress and supported the CHIPS Act.

    Williams said in a statement that he spoke privately with Johnson after he suggested that the act could be repealed.

    “He apologized profusely, saying he misheard the question,” Williams said.

    Williams’ district is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant. The company has said it received grants of $6.1 billion from the CHIPS Act to support its plans.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday, “Anyone threatening to repeal the CHIPS & Science Act is threatening more than 50,000 good-paying jobs in Upstate New York and $231 billion worth of economic growth nationwide.”

    Democrats are hoping that the comments give them a late boost as they try to court working class voters in regions that depend on factory jobs. Harris, during a campaign stop in Saginaw, Michigan earlier this week, toured another semiconductor factory to bring attention to the 2022 law.

    In response to Johnson’s comments Friday, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, Ammar Moussa, said, “Harris is running to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and make us competitive globally. The only way to guarantee these Republicans never get a chance to repeal these laws that are creating jobs and saving Americans money is to elect her president.”

    As of August, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the United States to produce 30% of the world’s most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Trump’s presidency.

    Viet Shelton, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “Most politicians usually go to a community promising to create jobs in the town they’re visiting… Mike Johnson, ever the trendsetter, decided to visit a town and promise to kill jobs in that town.”

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  • New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

    New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

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    NEW YORK — A New Jersey man who was among seven people charged with smuggling electronic components to aid Russia’s war effort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges, authorities said.

    Vadim Yermolenko, 43, faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive electronics for Russian military and intelligence services, Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

    Yermolenko, who lives in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and has dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, was indicted along with six other people in December 2022.

    Prosecutors said the conspirators worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the U.S. that have civilian uses but can also be used to make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.

    The exporting of the technology violated U.S. sanctions, prosecutors said.

    The prosecution was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency entity dedicated to enforcing sanctions imposed after Russian invaded Ukraine.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said in statement that Yermolenko “joins the nearly two dozen other criminals that our Task Force KleptoCapture has brought to justice in American courtrooms over the past two and a half years for enabling Russia’s military aggression.”

    A message seeking comment was sent to Yermolenko’s attorney with the federal public defender’s office.

    Prosecutors said Yermolenko helped set up shell companies and U.S. bank accounts to move money and export-controlled goods. Money from one of his accounts was used to purchase export-controlled sniper bullets that were intercepted in Estonia before they could be smuggled into Russia, they said.

    One of Yermolenko’s co-defendants, Alexey Brayman of Merrimack, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty previously to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentencing.

    Another, Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the United States. He was later released from U.S. custody as part of a prisoner exchange that included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other individuals.

    The four others named in the indictment are Russian nationals who remain at large, prosecutors said.

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  • UK Treasury chief admits business tax rise could lead to lower than anticipated wages

    UK Treasury chief admits business tax rise could lead to lower than anticipated wages

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    LONDON — U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves conceded Thursday that wages may rise by less than previously thought as a direct result of her budget decision to increase a tax that businesses pay for their employees.

    On Wednesday, Reeves raised taxes by around 40 billion pounds ($52 billion) and announced more government borrowing to plug a hole she claims to have identified in the public finances, fund cash-starved public services and invest in an array of infrastructure projects, in a budget that could set the political tone for years to come.

    The biggest single measure — worth some 25 billion pounds in five years — was an increase in the national insurance contributions employers pay in addition to the salaries of their workers. The levy, which was originally designed to pay for benefits and help fund the state-owned National Health Service but which is really absorbed into the overall tax take, will also be paid from a lower salary level.

    Reeves admitted that the changes may prompt employers to pass on the additional financial burden by weighing down on wages.

    “I recognize there will be consequences,” Reeves told the BBC. “It will mean that businesses will have to absorb some of this through profit and it is likely to mean that wage increases might be slightly less than they otherwise would have been.”

    Her admission came as a widely respected British economic think tank warned that lower than anticipated wages may mean the tax raises more than thought, adding that Reeves may have to raise taxes again in coming years in order to support public services.

    In its traditional day-after assessment of the budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said some of the projections looked “unrealistic,” particularly on public spending.

    The IFS said the government will potentially need to raise up to another 9 billion pounds the year after next to avoid cutting spending in some departments.

    Although day-to-day spending is set to rise rapidly after Wednesday’s Budget, increasing by 4.3% this year and 2.6% next year, it then slows down to just 1.3% per year from 2026.

    IFS director Paul Johnson said keeping to a 1.3% increase will be “extremely challenging, to put it mildly.”

    There were some visible concerns in the markets that the budget sums don’t add up, and that growth will remain relatively low. On Thursday, the interest rates charged on U.K. bonds increased, while the pound was down against most other currencies, including the U.S. dollar.

    “The quiet optimism that appeared to be spreading during Rachel Reeves’ speech has evaporated and a higher risk premium has returned for U.K. debt,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown. “Bond yields are set to stay volatile, as institutions financing government borrowing keep a more suspicious eye trained on what the swollen investment budget will be spent on.”

    The center-left Labour party won a landslide election victory July 4 after promising to end years of turmoil and scandal under successive Conservative governments, get Britain’s economy growing and restore frayed public services. But the scale of the measures announced on Wednesday by Reeves exceeded Labour’s cautious general election campaign.

    During the election, Labour said it would not raise taxes on “working people” — a loose term whose definition has been hotly debated in the media for weeks. Though Reeves did not increase taxes on income or sales, the Conservatives said hiking taxes on employers was a breach of Labour’s election promise and would lead to lower wages.

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  • Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally

    Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally

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    PHOENIX (AP) — Jocelyn Ruiz remembers when her fifth-grade teacher warned the class about large-scale patrols that would target immigrants in Arizona’s largest metropolitan area. She asked her mom about it — and unearthed a family secret.

    Ruiz’s mother had entered the United States illegally, leaving Mexico a decade earlier in search of a better life.

    Ruiz, who was born in California and raised in the Phoenix area, was overcome by worry at the time that her mother could be deported at any moment, despite having no criminal history. Ruiz, her two younger siblings and her parents quietly persevered, never discussing their mixed immigration status. They lived “as Americans,” she said.

    More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household where at least one occupant is in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That represents nearly 5% of households across the U.S. and 5.5% in Arizona, a battleground state where the Latino vote could be key.

    If Donald Trump is elected and follows through with a campaign promise to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, it could not only upend the lives of the 11 million people who according to the U.S. Census Bureau are living in the United States without authorization — it could devastate the U.S. citizens in their families.

    The issue of immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s platform since he promised to “build a great wall” in 2015 as he announced his first Republican campaign for president. And despite polling that shows the economy as a top concern for voters, Trump remains fixated on the issue, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border as an existential threat to American society as Election Day nears.

    Trump’s plans for a crackdown have motivated some mixed-status families to speak out. America’s success depends on the contributions of immigrants, they argue, and the people doing this work deserve a pathway to legal residency or citizenship.

    Others choose to be silent, hoping to evade attention.

    And there are some who support Trump, even though they themselves could become targets for deportation.

    The political divide over immigration runs deep: 88% of Trump supporters favor mass deportation, according to a recent Pew survey, compared with 27% of the voters who support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president.

    Trump was asked about the impact so many deportations would have on mixed-status families when he visited the Arizona-Mexico border in August.

    “Provisions will be made, but we have to get the criminals out,” Trump responded to NBC News. He didn’t say what the provisions might include, and his campaign did not share more information when The Associated Press asked for specifics.

    Living in a mixed-status family is inherently precarious, as immigration policies and political rhetoric have ripple effects for U.S. citizens and legal residents, said Heide Castañeda, a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida.

    “For most Americans, it’s not a familiar thing to navigate your daily life thinking about somebody in your family possibly being taken,” said Castañeda, author of “Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families.” “But for mixed-status families, of course, that’s always on their minds.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Politicians, she said, “think that they’re targeting a particular group, but these groups live in families and communities and households and neighborhoods.”

    In Nevada, California, New Jersey and Texas, nearly one in 10 households includes people living in the U.S. without legal permission, according to Pew. Many have lived in the country for decades and have U.S. citizens depending on them.

    Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said recent arrivals aren’t representative of the population in Nevada.

    “The vast majority have been here more than 10 years,” Kagan said, warning that their U.S. citizen relatives could inadvertently be swept up.

    Erika Andriola, 37, a longtime advocate for immigrants in Arizona, witnessed her mother and brother being detained by immigration agents in 2013. She waged a successful campaign that led to their release, but she now suffers from PTSD and separation anxiety as a result of that day.

    “It was just this like constant nightmares. I would wake up crying,” Andriola said. She and her brother are now legal residents, but their 66-year-old mother has been challenging her deportation in court since 2017.

    It’s an experience Andriola doesn’t wish upon anyone — and she says the emotional and economic tolls can affect entire communities.

    Betzaida Robinson’s brother was deported to Mexico several years ago despite never having lived there. An integral member of the family in Phoenix, he had helped pay bills and raise her two children.

    Robinson said Trump and his supporters must not be thinking about what it’s like to have a loved one taken away.

    “How about if you were in that position, what would you do and how would you feel?” she said.

    Still, there are people living in the country illegally who do support Trump, said Castañeda, the university professor. Even Andriola says she has family members who do.

    “They’re not necessarily thinking about what can happen to people like my mom,” Andriola said, “but they’re thinking about their own lives and what they think is best for them.”

    Victoria Castro-Corral is a self-described optimist from a mixed-status family in Phoenix who advises students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. She said she has faith that a mass deportation plan will never happen — and credits her Mexican parents, who crossed the border illegally decades ago, for teaching her how to remain positive.

    “We’re here to stay,” she said.

    ___

    Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • North Dakota voters may end most property taxes. Government programs could face huge cuts

    North Dakota voters may end most property taxes. Government programs could face huge cuts

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    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota voters this fall could largely end property taxes by approving a ballot measure that opponents say would drastically slash a variety of state services but supporters argue would provide long-sought relief the state can afford.

    If passed, the constitutional initiative would eliminate property taxes based on assessed value and require the Republican-controlled Legislature to replace the lost revenue. A top legislative panel estimated that total cost to be $3.15 billion every two years — a huge number for a state that passed a $6.1 billion, two-year general fund budget in 2023.

    Opponents wonder what government services and initiatives would be cut to cover the replacement revenue.

    “It would be absolute chaos for the Legislature and for the appropriations process, something that we’ve never done before,” said longtime state Rep. Mike Nathe, a Republican on the House’s budget-writing panel. “We’ll be walking blind, that’s for sure, as far as how to go about doing this.”

    Money for Medicaid expansion, hospitals, nursing homes and education programs could all be on the chopping block, he said. Money for infrastructure projects would also be at risk, Republican House Appropriations Committee Chairman Don Vigesaa said. The Legislature also may have to cut state agencies’ budgets and employees, he said.

    Measure leader Rick Becker countered that it wasn’t practical to identify funding sources in the initiative but that the state has plenty of money to fill any gaps. He said the Legislature could use earnings from the state’s $11 billion oil tax savings as well as millions of dollars he said go to “corporate welfare” for private corporations and special interest groups. The state also has better-than-forecasted revenues coming in, he said.

    “We are such a rich state per capita that we can actually make this conversion and be able to afford it without increasing taxes and without cutting services,” said Becker, a former Republican state representative.

    More than 100 organizations encompassing agricultural, energy, education, health care and other groups formed the Keep It Local coalition to oppose the measure. Chairman Chad Oban described the initiative as taking a sledgehammer to an issue that merits a more thoughtful approach.

    A similar measure failed handily in 2012. Oban said he expects a closer vote margin due to more frustration and political changes in North Dakota since 2012, but added he is confident voters will defeat the measure.

    The measure would set the replacement revenue from the state at the amount of property taxes levied in 2024, but Oban said tax revenue would need to increase in coming years.

    To deal with that, Becker said local governments could tax property in other ways because the measure abolishes only assessed-value taxation on property. Becker has suggested cities could enact an infrastructure maintenance fee partly based on road frontage, giving local governments a means to raise revenue beyond what the state would replace.

    The Legislature could increase income and sales taxes, come up with new or never-before-considered fees, or allow local governments to tax in different ways, Oban said. Sales tax increases might help major cities such as Bismarck and Fargo, but it wouldn’t work for rural communities that don’t have a sales tax base to pay for their schools and law enforcement moving forward, he said.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Property taxes make up about $45 million or one-third of the city of Fargo’s budget, and about 40% of the budget is dedicated to police and fire services, Mayor Tim Mahoney said. North Dakota’s largest city has nearly 200 police officers and 150 firefighters, and it needs to offer competitive pay to retain employees and attract new hires, he said.

    “Even cost of living or things like that that happen every year, in order to stay competitive, if you have a fixed amount of money coming in, you have to make up for that somewhere, and that’s not an easy fix,” Mahoney said.

    Last year, the Legislature passed a package of income tax cuts and property tax credits estimated at $515 million. The state has a glowing financial picture, including strong oil and sales tax revenues.

    The bulk of the measure would take effect Jan. 1, 2025, if passed.

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  • AI is being used to send some households impacted by Helene and Milton $1,000 cash relief payments

    AI is being used to send some households impacted by Helene and Milton $1,000 cash relief payments

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    Nearly 1,000 hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will benefit this week from a new disaster aid program that employs a model not commonly used by philanthropy in the United States: Giving people rapid, direct cash payments.

    The nonprofit GiveDirectly plans to send payments of $1,000 on Friday to some households impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The organization harnesses a Google-developed artificial intelligence tool to pinpoint areas with high concentrations of poverty and storm damage. On Tuesday, it invited people in those areas to enroll in the program through a smartphone app used to manage SNAP and other government benefits. Donations will then be deposited through the app’s debit card.

    The approach is meant to deliver aid “in as streamlined and dignified a way as possible,” said Laura Keen, a senior program manager at GiveDirectly. It removes much of the burden of applying, and is intended to empower people to decide for themselves what their most pressing needs are.

    It won’t capture everyone who needs help — but GiveDirectly hopes the program can be a model that makes disaster aid faster and more effective. “We’re always trying to grow the share of disaster response that is delivered as cash, whether that is by FEMA or private actors,” said Keen.

    The influx of clothing, blankets, and food that typically arrive after a disaster can fill real needs, but in-kind donations can’t cover getting a hotel room during an evacuation, or childcare while schools are closed.

    “There is an elegance to cash that allows individuals in these types of circumstances to resolve their unique needs, which are sure to be very different from the needs of their neighbors,” said Keen. She added that getting money into people’s hands fast can protect them from predatory lending and curb credit card debt.

    The organization employs direct payments for poverty relief around the world, but it first experimented with cash disaster payments in the U.S. in 2017, when it gave money to households impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Back then, GiveDirectly enrolled people in person and handed out debit cards activated later. The process took a few weeks.

    Now that work is done in days — remotely. A Google team uses its SKAI machine-based learning tool to narrow down the worst-hit areas by comparing pre- and post-disaster aerial imagery. GiveDirectly uses another Google-developed tool to compare those findings with poverty data. It sends the target areas to Propel, an electronic benefits transfers app, which invites users in those places to enroll.

    “They don’t have to find a bunch of documentation that proves their eligibility,” Keen said. “We already know they’re eligible.”

    Still, focusing on areas with lots of damaged buildings won’t pick up all low-income households devastated by a disaster. Nor will reaching out to those already signed up for government benefits, as not all poor people enroll in them, and undocumented residents aren’t eligible for them. People without smartphones can’t access the app. Propel serves only 5 million of the 22 million households enrolled in SNAP benefits.

    In North Carolina, where electricity in some communities has still not been restored after Hurricane Helene, having a smartphone makes no difference without a way to power it and a signal to connect to.

    Keen said GiveDirectly is aware of this model’s shortcomings. She said some can be alleviated with a hybrid model that uses both remote and in-person enrollment. But the limitations also come down to funding. So far, GiveDirectly has raised $1.2 million for this campaign, including a $300,000 donation from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

    Despite the pitfalls, GiveDirectly hopes its model sparks ideas for other direct payment programs.

    FEMA overhauled its own cash relief program, called Serious Needs Assistance, in January. The agency increased the payments from $500 to $750 ($770 with the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1) and eliminated the requirement that states request the aid first.

    Across all Helene- and Milton-impacted states, more than 693,000 households have received Serious Needs Assistance as of Oct. 24 for a total spend of more than $522 million, according to a FEMA spokesperson.

    But the program still requires households to apply, which proved problematic when misinformation about the program ran rampant in the weeks after Helene. In places with high costs of living, the $750 might not go very far.

    Technology could help FEMA improve its system, said Chris Smith, who managed FEMA’s Individual Assistance program from 2015 to 2022 and is now director of individual assistance and disaster housing at the consulting firm IEM. “I think that we have to open up our imaginations that maybe there are other ways to quickly identify need and quickly identify eligibility.”

    But Smith cautions that a publicly funded program doesn’t enjoy the same license to experiment as a philanthropic one. “There has to be ultimately an accountability of how any level of government is providing assistance to individuals. People are going to want to know that, and to have that degree of certainty is very important.”

    The government has experimented with other types of unconditional cash assistance, such as when it expanded the child tax credit into a monthly direct deposit payment in 2021. That program briefly cut the child poverty rate almost by half before it expired.

    Research on guaranteed income programs shows recipients spend the money on their needs, said Stacia West, founding director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research. “There is no one who can budget better than a person in poverty,” she said.

    In a study tracking spending across 9,000 participants in more than 30 guaranteed income programs in the U.S., the Center for Guaranteed Income Research has found that the majority of the money is spent on retail goods, food and groceries, and transportation.

    West said one-time cash payments can be a huge help to families recovering from a disaster, but the money can make a more profound difference if it’s given for a sustained time.

    That has happened in two U.S. disasters. In 2016, Dolly Parton funded a program that gave $1,000 per month for six months to people in Tennessee who lost their homes in the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires. The People’s Fund of Maui, a program sponsored by Oprah and Dwayne Johnson, gave 8,100 adults affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires $1,200 month for six months.

    Keen said GiveDirectly would love to implement such a program if it had the funding, especially because long-term assistance could help people build future resilience. “So you’re not only repairing your home, but also fortifying it to a level that is more protected against the next time.”

    ——

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Japan, UK and Italy to speed up joint next-generation fighter jet project to replace F-2, Tempest

    Japan, UK and Italy to speed up joint next-generation fighter jet project to replace F-2, Tempest

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    TOKYO — The defense ministers of Japan, the U.K. and Italy agreed to accelerate the joint development of a next-generation fighter jet, and announced that a trilateral government organization would be established by the end of this year to work with the parties producing the aircraft, Japanese officials said Sunday.

    The three countries agreed in 2022 to jointly produce a new combat aircraft that will be ready for deployment in 2035, under the Global Combat Air Program, or GCAP, to strengthen cooperation in the face of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

    The next generation fighter jet would replace Japan’s retiring F-2s that it jointly developed with the U.S. and Britain’s Tempest.

    On Sunday, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, after meeting with his U.K. and Italian counterparts, John Healey and Guido Crosetto, said a joint body called the GCAP International Government Organization, or GIGO, will be set up by the end of this year to oversee the aircraft’s development.

    The ministers met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven defense ministers meeting in Naples, Italy.

    Several private sector companies, including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Britain’s BAE Systems PLC and Italy’s Leonardo, are taking part in the project.

    GIGO, to be based in the U.K. and headed by a Japanese official, will oversee the aircraft’s development.

    “We now see the launch of GIGO and a joint venture on track” toward signing their first contract next year, Nakatani said.

    Sunday’s agreement addresses concerns over the progress of the project despite changes of leadership in both Japan and the U.K.

    Mitsubishi Heavy and their U.K. and Italian counterparts had a 1/10th model of the joint fighter jet on display at their GCAP booth for the first time in Japan at a major aerospace exhibit in Tokyo last week.

    Akira Sugimoto, MHI’s Japan program senior representative for GCAP, said that the joint fighter jet development will be meaningful for Japanese suppliers and for the country’s industrial base.

    “Our basic position is to bring our strengths together to develop a high quality fighter jet. I believe Japanese suppliers have outstanding technologies and I do hope as many of them as possible would join (GCAP),” Sugimoto said.

    “I think it will also help Japanese suppliers to enhance their capacity to develop equipment and contribute to provide a better outlook and business environment and stability,” he said.

    Japan, which is rapidly building up its military, hopes to have greater capability to counter China’s rising assertiveness, and the joint fighter jet project would help strengthen Japan’s mostly domestic and underdeveloped defense industry.

    Japan has significantly eased its arms export restrictions to allow foreign sales of the future fighter jet and licensing back of weapons, such as surface-to-air PAC-3 missile interceptors produced in Japan to complement U.S. inventory, which has decreased because of its support for Ukraine.

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  • FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made during Trump and Harris’ debate

    FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made during Trump and Harris’ debate

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    In their first and perhaps only debate, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris described the state of the country in distinctly different ways. As the two traded jabs, some old false and misleading claims emerged along with some new ones.

    Here’s a look.

    Trump overstates his economic record

    TRUMP: “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. … They’ve destroyed the economy.”

    THE FACTS: This is an exaggeration. The economy grew much faster under Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan than it did under Trump. The broadest measure of economic growth, gross domestic product, rose 4% a year for four straight years under Clinton. The fastest growth under Trump was 3% in 2018. The economy shrank 2.2% in 2020, at the end of Trump’s presidency. And a higher proportion of American adults had jobs under Clinton than under Trump. During the Biden-Harris administration, the economy expanded 5.8% in 2021, though much of that reflected a bounce-back from COVID.

    Trump’s record on manufacturing jobs examined

    HARRIS: “We have created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs. … Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs.”

    THE FACTS: Those statements are missing context.

    There were 12,188,000 manufacturing employees in the U.S. when Biden took office in January 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Preliminary numbers for August 2024 put that number at 12,927,000. That’s a difference of 739,000 — close to the 800,000 number Harris has cited.

    Also of note is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of manufacturing employees dropped steeply in April 2020, by more than 1.3 million. Discounting that decline, there were only 206,000 more manufacturing employees in August than there were in March 2020, prior to the pandemic.

    Inflation has gone down

    TRUMP: “They had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country, because I’ve never seen a worse period of time.”

    THE FACTS: While praising the strength of the economy under his presidency, Donald Trump misstated the inflation rate under Biden. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020. It’s now seeing a downward trend. The most recent data shows that as of July it had fallen to 2.9%. Other historical periods have seen higher inflation, which hit more than 14% in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.

    Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025

    HARRIS: “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    THE FACTS: Trump has said he doesn’t know about Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for another Republican presidential administration.

    The plan was written up by many of his former aides and allies, but Trump has never said he’ll implement the roughly 900-page guide if he’s elected again. He has said it’s not related to his campaign.

    Trump on abortions ‘after birth’

    TRUMP: “Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is okay.”

    THE FACTS: Walz has said no such thing. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.

    Abortion rights advocates say terms like “late-term abortions” attempt to stigmatize abortions later in pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are exceedingly rare. In 2020, less than 1% of abortions in the United States were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Trump’s taxing and spending plan examined

    HARRIS: “What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump’s plan would actually explode the deficit.”

    THE TRUTH: The Penn-Wharton Budget Model did find that Trump’s tax and spending plans would significantly expand the deficit by $5.8 trillion over ten years. But it also found that Harris’ plans would increase the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the same period.

    Harris’ record on fracking examined

    TRUMP: “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day 1.”

    THE FACTS: Trump’s statement ignores the fact that without a law approved by Congress, a president can only ban fracking on federal lands.

    The federal government owns about 2% of Pennsylvania’s total land, and it is not clear how much of that is suitable for oil or gas drilling.

    Republicans have criticized Harris for “flip-flopping” on the issue, noting that Harris said in the 2020 campaign that she opposed fracking, a drilling technique that is widely used in Pennsylvania and other states.

    Harris has since said repeatedly that she won’t ban fracking if elected, and she reiterated that in Tuesday’s debate.

    Trump shares inflated numbers around migrants and crime

    TRUMP: “When you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly — whereas, I believe, 21 million people, not the 15 people say, and I think it’s a lot higher than the 21 — that’s bigger than New York State … and just look at what they’re doing to our country. They’re criminals, many of these people are criminals, and that’s bad for our economy too.”

    FACTS: Trump’s figures are wildly inflated. The Border Patrol made 56,408 arrests of people crossing the border illegally from Mexico in July, the latest monthly figure available. Since Biden took office, the Border Patrol made about 7.1 million border arrests, though the number of people is considerably lower because many of those arrests were repeat crossers.

    The Biden administration also permitted legal entry for about 765,000 people on an online app called CBP One at land crossings in Mexico through July. It allowed another 520,000 from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come by air with financial sponsors. Additionally, an unknown number of people crossed the border illegally and eluded capture.

    That doesn’t come close to “millions and millions of people” monthly. …. It is also unproven that “many of these people are criminals.”

    There have been high-profile, heinous crimes committed by immigrants. But FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants. In 1931, the Wickersham Commission did not find any evidence supporting a connection between immigration and increased crime, and many studies since then have reached similar conclusions.

    Trump repeats false claims that noncitizens are being sought to vote

    TRUMP: “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

    THE FACTS: In recent months, Trump and other Republicans have been repeating the baseless claim that Democrats want migrants to come into the country illegally so they will vote.

    There’s no evidence for this, nor is there any evidence that noncitizens illegally vote in significant numbers in this country.

    Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens already is illegal in federal elections. It can be punishable by fines, prison time and even deportation. While noncitizens have cast ballots, studies show it’s incredibly rare, and states regularly audit their voter lists to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.

    Trump’s comments suggest that not speaking English is somehow prohibitive for voting in the U.S. — and that’s also not the case. In fact, the Voting Rights Act requires certain states to provide election materials in other languages depending on the voting-age population’s needs.

    Trump misrepresents crime statistics

    TRUMP, criticizing the Biden administration: “Crime is through the roof.”

    THE FACTS: In fact, FBI data has shown a downward trend in violent crime since a coronavirus pandemic spike. Violent crime surged during the pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records

    Violent crime was down 6% in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, according to FBI data released in March. Murders were down 13%. New FBI statistics released in June show the overall violent crime rate declined 15% in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year. One expert has cautioned, however, that those 2024 figures are preliminary and may overstate the actual reduction in crime.

    Trump endorses false rumor about immigrants eating pets

    TRUMP: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats… They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

    THE FACTS: There’s no evidence to support the claim, which Trump and his campaign have used to argue immigrants are committing crimes at a higher rate than others.

    Authorities in Ohio have said there are no credible or detailed reports to support Trump’s claim.

    Jobs created under the Biden administration

    “TRUMP: “Just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.”

    THE FACTS: This is a mischaracterization of the government’s process of counting jobs. Every year the Labor Department issues a revision of the number of jobs added in a 12-month period from April through March in the previous year. The adjustment is made because the government’s initial job counts are based on surveys of businesses. The revision is then based on actual job counts from unemployment insurance files that are compiled later. The revision is compiled by career government employees with little involvement by politically appointed officials.

    National Guard soldiers on Jan. 6

    TRUMP, speaking about the Jan. 6 insurrection: “I said I’d like to give you 10,000 National Guard or soldiers. They rejected me. Nancy Pelosi rejected me.”

    THE FACTS: That’s false. Pelosi does not direct the National Guard.

    Further, as the Capitol came under attack, she and then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell called for military assistance, including from the National Guard.

    The Capitol Police Board makes the decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol. It is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol.

    The board decided not to call the guard ahead of the insurrection but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later.

    There is no evidence that either Pelosi or McConnell directed the security officials not to call the guard beforehand.

    Trump falsely claims China is building ‘massive’ auto plants in Mexico

    TRUMP: “They’re building big auto plants in Mexico, in many cases owned by China.”

    THE FACTS: It’s not the first time Trump has claimed the Biden administration is allowing Chinese automakers to build factories just across the border in Mexico.

    At present, though, industry experts say they know of no such plants under construction, and there’s only one small Chinese auto assembly factory operating in Mexico. It’s run by a company called JAC that builds inexpensive vehicles from kits for sale in that country.

    Trump falsely claims evidence shows he won in 2020

    TRUMP: “There’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it.”

    THE FACTS: The election was not stolen. The authorities who have reviewed the election — including Trump’s own attorney general — have concluded the election was fair.

    Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 was not particularly close. He won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots. Recounts in key states affirmed Biden’s victory, and lawsuits challenging the results were unsuccessful.

    Trump claims Putin endorsed Harris

    TRUMP: “Putin endorsed her last week, said ‘I hope she wins.’”

    THE FACTS: Russian President Vladimir Putin did wryly claim last week that Harris was his preferred candidate, but intelligence officials have dismissed the comment as not serious.

    U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia favors Trump, who has openly praised Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.

    Harris takes Trump’s ‘bloodbath’ comment out of context

    HARRIS: “Donald Trump, the candidate, has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if this and the outcome of this election is not to his liking. Let’s turn the page on that.”

    THE FACTS: Trump delivered the line at a speech in March in Ohio in which he was talking about the impact of offshoring on the American auto industry and his plans to increase tariffs on foreign-made cars. It was in reference to the auto industry that he warned of a “bloodbath” if his proposals aren’t enacted.

    “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump said.

    Trump inflates numbers around new military equipment left in Afghanistan

    TRUMP, on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan: “We wouldn’t have left $85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind.”

    THE FACTS: That number is significantly inflated, according to reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the conflict.

    The $85 billion figure resembles a number from a July 30 quarterly report from SIGAR, which outlined that the U.S. has invested about $83 billion to build, train and equip Afghan security forces since 2001. That funding included troop pay, training, operations and infrastructure along with equipment and transportation over two decades, according to SIGAR reports and Dan Grazier, a defense policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight.

    Only about $18 billion of that sum went toward equipping Afghan forces between 2002 and 2018, a June 2019 SIGAR report showed.

    No one knows the exact value of the U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment the Taliban have secured, defense officials have confirmed it is significant.

    Trump misrepresents key facts of the Central Park Five case

    TRUMP: “They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ’well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately … And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty.”

    THE FACTS: Trump misstated key details of the case while defending a newspaper ad he placed about two weeks after the April 1989 attack in which he called for bringing back the death penalty. Trump wrongly stated that the victim was killed and that the wrongly accused suspects had pleaded guilty.

    Trump appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions that the men — teenagers at the time — said they made to police under duress. They later recanted, pleaded not guilty in court and were convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

    The victim, Trisha Meili, was in a coma for 12 days after the attack but ultimately survived. She testified in court against the wrongly accused suspects, who are now known as the Exonerated Five. In 2002, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime and said he was the lone assailant. DNA testing matched Reyes to the attack, but because of the statute of limitations he could not be charged in connection with it.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin, David Klepper, Ali Swenson, Matthew Daly, Chris Rugaber and Tom Krisher contributed to this story.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Trump’s protests aside, his agenda has plenty of overlap with Project 2025

    Trump’s protests aside, his agenda has plenty of overlap with Project 2025

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    ATLANTA — ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump insists that Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for a hard-right turn in American government and society, does not reflect his priorities for a White House encore.

    “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it — purposefully,” the Republican presidential nominee said Sept. 10 on the debate stage.

    Yet from economics, immigration and education policy to civil rights and foreign affairs, there are common ideas and shared ideology between Project 2025 and Trump’s outline for another term — from his official “Agenda 47” slate, the Republican platform he personally approved and his other statements.

    There are also differences: Project 2025, led by the Heritage Foundation and written by many conservatives who worked in or with Trump’s administration, offers more particulars on some issues than the former president.

    Here’s a look at how Trump’s 2024 campaign and Project 2025 align and deviate:

    TRUMP: His tax policies lean broadly toward corporations and wealthier Americans. That’s mostly due to his promise to extend his 2017 overhaul while lowering the corporate rate to 15% from the current 21%. He also would end Inflation Reduction Act levies that are financing energy measures intended to combat climate change. Those ideas aside, Trump has put more emphasis on his plans aimed at working- and middle-class Americans: exempting earned tips, Social Security payments and overtime wages from income taxes. His proposal on tips, however, could give a back-door tax break to top wage earners by allowing them to reclassify some pay as tip income — a prospect that, at its most extreme, could see hedge-fund managers or top attorneys taking advantage of a provision Trump frames as an aid to restaurant servers, bartenders and other service workers.

    PROJECT 2025: The document goes further than Trump, calling for two federal income tax rates — 15% and 30% — while eliminating most deductions and credits. It envisions a “nearly flat tax on wage income beyond the standard deduction” by adjusting what income is subjected to the payroll taxes that pay for Social Security and Medicare. An effectively flat tax federally would increase the overall share of taxes paid by poorer and middle-class Americans. That’s because many state and local tax codes, anchored by transactional taxes and flatter income taxes, are more regressive than current federal income tax brackets. Project 2025 also calls for requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise corporate or individual income taxes in the future.

    TRUMP: “Build the wall!” from 2016 has become creating “the largest mass deportation program in history.” Trump calls for enlisting National Guard and police, though he’s not said how he’d ensure they target only people in the U.S. illegally. He has pitched “ideological screening” for would-be entrants and ending birthright citizenship (which likely would require a constitutional change). He has also said he’d reinstitute first-term policies such as “Remain in Mexico,” limiting migrants on public health grounds and severely limiting or banning entrants from certain majority-Muslim nations. In full, his approach would not just crack down on illegal migration but also limit immigration altogether.

    PROJECT 2025: There is a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Perhaps the most instructive statement from Project 2025 is its call to reinstate “every rule related to immigration that was issued” during Trump’s 2017-2021 term.

    TRUMP: He frames regulatory cuts as an economic cure-all. He pledges precipitous drops in U.S. households’ utility bills by removing speed bumps for fossil fuel production, including opening all federal lands for exploration. (U.S. energy production and exports are at record highs under President Joe Biden.) Trump promises to boost housing stock by cutting regulations, though most construction rules come from state and local governments.

    Two broad proposals and ideas stand out: The first would make it easier to fire federal workers by classifying thousands more of them as being outside civil service protections. That almost certainly would weaken the government’s power to enforce statutes and rules by reducing the number of employees engaging in the work. The second is Trump’s assertion that the president has exclusive power to control federal spending despite Congress’ appropriations power. Trump argues that lawmakers “set a ceiling” on spending but not a floor — meaning the president’s constitutional duty to “faithfully execute the laws” grants him discretion on whether to spend the money.

    PROJECT 2025: The authors make scores of calls for the president, Cabinet and other political appointees to slash regulations, reclassify federal employees to make them easier to fire, reduce “unaccountable federal spending” and set a course from the West Wing. “The Administrative State is not going anywhere until Congress acts to retrieve its own power from bureaucrats and the White House,” they write. “In the meantime, there are many executive tools a courageous conservative president can use to handcuff the bureaucracy (and) bring the Administrative State to heel.”

    TRUMP: The former president wants to end government diversity programs, using federal funding as leverage, and he would target existing protections for LGBTQ individuals. On transgender rights, he promises to end “boys in girls’ sports,” a practice he insists, without evidence, is rampant. Trump would reverse Biden’s extension of Title IX civil rights protections to transgender students and ask Congress to allow only two gender choices at birth.

    PROJECT 2025: Government should “affirm that children require and deserve both the love and nurturing of a mother and the play and protection of a father.” That philosophy permeates Project 2025, which defines the ideal family — and individual — in narrow, traditionalist terms. Authors envision consolidating federal civil rights efforts within the Justice Department’s civil rights division, with enforcement coming only through litigation. That effectively would concentrate the choice of how and when to enforce civil rights law with the attorney general — and, by extension, the White House.

    TRUMP: The Department of Education would be targeted for elimination. That does not mean Trump wants Washington out of classrooms. Among other maneuvers, he would use federal appropriations as leverage to scrap diversity programs at all levels of education and compel K-12 schools to abolish tenure and adopt merit pay for teachers. He calls for pulling money from “any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

    Trump calls for redirecting universities’ endowment money into an online “ American Academy” offering college credentials to all Americans without charging tuition. “It will be strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed,” Trump said on Nov. 1, 2023.

    PROJECT 2025: Congress should “shutter” the Department of Education and “return control of education to the states,” Project 2025 argues, echoing Trump’s argument that U.S. educational infrastructure imposes progressive indoctrination. The authors propose, among other things, eliminating the Head Start program, turning the Title I program into block grants and eventually phasing out that federal financing, and using the tax code to incentivize at-home child care, something GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance advocates.

    TRUMP: Trump claims falsely that climate change is a “hoax” as he disparages Biden spending on cleaner energy designed to reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels. Trump would anchor energy and transportation policy to fossil fuels: roads, bridges and combustion-engine vehicles. Trump says he does not oppose electric vehicles but promises to end incentives that encourage EV-market development. And he would lower fuel efficiency standards.

    PROJECT 2025: The document criticizes the Biden administration’s “climate fanaticism.” It proposes closing or limiting many programs for environmental protection and regulation, including those many Americans take for granted. Among them: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Project 2025 would eliminate, and the National Weather Service, which the document would steer toward exclusively selling weather data to private forecasters. It would leave the National Hurricane Center in place — though NHC depends on the National Weather Service to make forecasts. The plan would not repeal laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, but its regulatory and bureaucracy cuts would reduce their reach.

    TRUMP: His strategy is more isolationist diplomatically, noninterventionist militarily and protectionist economically than the U.S. has been since World War II. But the details are more complicated. Trump pledges military expansion, promises robust Pentagon spending and proposes a missile defense shield — an idea from the Reagan era. He insists he can end Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel-Hamas fighting, though he has not explained how. He remains openly critical of NATO and top U.S. military brass. “I don’t consider them leaders,” he says. And he repeatedly praises authoritarians like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

    PROJECT 2025: Echoing Trump’s vibe, the document calls for “tough love” in international relations — but with distinctions from Trump. On military preparedness, Project 2025 would curtail the number of generals but expand the number of enlisted personnel, though the authors do not call for reinstituting a draft, as critics have alleged. Project 2025 is perhaps even more aggressive than Trump in its China rhetoric: “Economic engagement with China should be ended, not rethought,” the foreword states.

    On NATO, the blueprint echoes Trump’s emphasis on other member nations paying more for their own defense, but it does not carry the inherent skepticism of NATO alliances that Trump has projected for years. And while Trump steadfastly refuses to criticize Putin for invading Ukraine, Project 2025 states: “Regardless of viewpoints, all sides agree that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is unjust and that the Ukrainian people have a right to defend their homeland.”

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