Monday,
July 10
á Donald
Trump Jr, who
met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer to get compromising information
about Hillary Clinton, was informed that the material was part of a Russian
government effort to aid his fatherÕs candidacy. http://tinyurl.com/yam7p8pu
á The Intercept reported that Jared
Kushner and his father reportedly tried and failed to secure a $500
million loan from Qatari billionaire businessman in 2015. It has been alleged
that Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, was integral in Trump's
push for the crackdown on Qatar. http://tinyurl.com/ybcd2w3m
á Former
Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who accidentally released millions of
voter Social Security numbers and was alleged to suppress votes in Ohio, was
appointed to TrumpÕs voter fraud commission. http://tinyurl.com/y8w6wjge
á A
study released by the International Journal for Communication said chairman
Ajit PaiÕs justification for rolling back net neutrality is riddled with
factual errors and unsubstantiated claims. http://tinyurl.com/ycmm35q5
Tuesday,
July 11
á According
to the New York Times, the email invitation to meet with a Russian lawyer sent
to Donald Trump Jr was sent by one of his fatherÕs former Russian business
partners who had been contacted by a senior Russian official and offered to
provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton. http://tinyurl.com/y7k5hf8n
á The New
York Times reported that 71 Trump appointees are reviewing rules their
previous employers sought to weaken or kill, and at least two may be positioned
to profit if certain regulations are undone. http://tinyurl.com/ycsrltwa
á According
to the New York Times, Steve Bannon, TrumpÕs chief strategist, and Jared
Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, recruited two businessmen, who
profit from military contracting, to devise alternatives to Pentagon plans
about sending thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan. The alternative
plans propose contractors instead of American troops. http://tinyurl.com/y6vdrtrq
á The ACLU
filed suit against TrumpÕs vote fraud commission charging that it isnÕt
following federal law requiring it to be open to the public. http://tinyurl.com/y94wx3c3
á Freedom
Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows vowed to shut down the government unless
Congress passes a budget that funds TrumpÕs border wall. http://tinyurl.com/y974khkz
á 2.7
million people have flooded the government comment website urging protection
for national monuments. http://tinyurl.com/y8u58lup
á According
to TalkingPointsMemo, an under-the-radar letter sent by the DOJ in June to most
states asked states to hand over to the feds all information including
Òstatutes, regulations, written guidance, internal policies, or database user
manualsÓ that determine when a state removes from its rolls voters believed to
be dead or have changed address. It appears that the focus of DOJ is going to
be on pushing states to take more and more people off the rolls, instead of
enforcing the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act that assist
voters in getting registered and staying on the rolls. http://tinyurl.com/yd77rljy
Wednesday,
July 12
á Fifteen states and the District of Columbia
joined Hawaii's renewed effort to broaden the scope of exceptions to Trump's
executive order on travel. http://tinyurl.com/yddscsv2
á Trump
personally signed off on a statement by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.,
explaining his meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney promising dirt on Hillary
Clinton. http://tinyurl.com/yb4ntwhb
á Trump
nominated Christopher Wray, the former assistant attorney general in the
Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration, to be the next FBI
director. http://tinyurl.com/y7kkzy5o
á Twitter
users sued Trump for violating their constitutional rights by blocking them
from TrumpÕs personal Twitter account after they criticized the president. http://tinyurl.com/ycafn9ec
á Representative
Steve King said heÕd like to slash food assistance for low-income Americans and
Planned Parenthood funding to free up money for TrumpÕs border wall. http://tinyurl.com/ybxypdgt
á Since
taking office, environmental groups and state attorneys general have filed more
than four dozen lawsuits challenging his executive orders and decisions by the US
Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department and other agencies. http://tinyurl.com/yao65yuj
á Truthout
reported that the US Navy has introduced toxic chemicals into Washington
State's Whidbey Island's public and private wells. The Navy warned residents
not to drink, cook or water their vegetable gardens. http://tinyurl.com/yach5n2q
á Rolling
Stone and the Washington Examiner reported that the Trump Justice
Department, after dismissing former US Attorney Preet Bharara, subsequently
[and mysteriously] settled a case for [Natalia] Veselnitskaya's Russian client
[Prevezon Holdings] very much in their favor. Veselnitskaya is the Russian
lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. on the premise to expose dirt about Hilary
Clinton. The Obama administration's Justice Department accused the company of
laundering "some proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax refund fraud
scheme involving corrupt Russian officials." http://tinyurl.com/y6ud2p5e and http://tinyurl.com/yan2ovhk
Thursday,
July 13
á The largest
health insurers blasted a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz to exempt health
policies from consumer protections and to sell cheaper policies with skimpier
benefits. http://tinyurl.com/y88msh93
á Technica
reported that if the FCC overturns net neutrality rules, it will remove
consumer protections that protect them from profit-motivated ISPs. http://tinyurl.com/y72pkz3k
á Legal
groups sued Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Border Patrol saying border
officials have systemically blocked asylum seekers from accessing the asylum
process in violation of US and international law. http://tinyurl.com/yaushu93
á Senator
Mitch McConnell released a new healthcare proposal to allow insurers to lower
premiums for some services and to direct billions of dollars to help lower and
middle-income Americans buy plans on the private market. It still has deep
proposed cuts to Medicaid. http://tinyurl.com/y79mjvkj
á Presidents
of six national medical associations voiced opposition to the GOPs latest
healthcare proposal. http://tinyurl.com/y839r5te
á Assistant
secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, Candice Jackson,
apologized for saying 90%of campus rape accusations were not rape. http://tinyurl.com/ya839ghx
á The
Trump administration decided for the second time since January to re-certify
Iranian compliance with the nuclear agreement although Trump has called it a
Òdisastrous deal.Ó http://tinyurl.com/yc246z4h
á Trump
reportedly said he would consider quotas and tariffs on steel imports into the US.
http://tinyurl.com/y8hb8676
á The
Justice Department complied with a federal court order and released part of a
security clearance form about Attorney General Sessions' contacts with foreign
governments. http://tinyurl.com/ydbzw2a9
á The
Guardian UK reported that the Trump administration is backing away from its
extraordinary attempt to gather voters' personal information, following a
barrage of legal challenges, an outcry from state officials, and a rash of
voter registration cancellations by people concerned about their privacy. http://tinyurl.com/y9ztzu4j
á A
new ruling by the US Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment protects
our right to use electronic devices to record on-duty police officers. http://tinyurl.com/ydfyo433
á Alex
Fitzsimmons, a veteran of Koch brothers advocacy groups for advancing fossil
fuels, was hired as head of the Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, a department the Koch brothers have wanted to eliminate. http://tinyurl.com/y8f3s6kf
á The White
House released emails to the public that were received from voters commenting
on its Election Integrity Commission. In some cases, the emails contain not
only names, but email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and places of
employment of people worried about such information being made available to the
public, according to the Washington Post. http://tinyurl.com/y7vvcbfk
á The
House approved two amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that
would prohibit US participation in the catastrophic Saudi-United Arab Emirate
war against Yemen. http://tinyurl.com/ybqqqgg6
á The Middle East Eye writes that US
arms sales to Saudi Arabia are ÒprohibitedÓ under US laws due to Òcredible
allegationsÓ of illegal actions during the kingdomÕs bombing campaign in Yemen.
Yet this did not prevent the US Senate from narrowly backing the sale of $500m
worth of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia in mid-June. http://tinyurl.com/ychomory
á The
ÒResilient Forest Act of 2017Ó, a gift to the timber industry, was recently
introduced in Congress and approved by the House Natural Resources Committee.
It would promote timber production on federal lands and undermine citizensÕ
ability to enforce environmental law. http://tinyurl.com/ybsxp3cg
Friday,
July 14
á A Hawaii
judge ordered loosening of Trump travel ban saying the administrationÕs strict
approach contradicted a recent Supreme Court ruling. http://tinyurl.com/y99jwcjr
á The Justice DepartmentÕs Office of
Inspector General reported that federal prisons are violating the law by
keeping mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement. http://tinyurl.com/yc2aekfm
á A
Russian-American lobbyist said he attended a June 2016 meeting with TrumpÕs son
marking another shift in the effort to help the TrumpÕs election campaign. http://tinyurl.com/y8l7hzf9
á A
man emailed TrumpÕs personal attorney for the Russia case, Marc Kasowitz,
urging him to resign. Kasowitz emailed the man with threats and profanity. http://tinyurl.com/y8bqs2kx
á A
D.C. judge dismissed the guilty verdict of a 61-year old protester who laughed
during Attorney General Sessions Senate Confirmation hearing saying the
government made improper arguments. http://tinyurl.com/yatozn9e
á The
Washington Post reported that the White House launched an aggressive
drive to persuade key Republican governors to stop criticizing the Senate GOPÕs
proposal to overhaul the nationÕs health-care system. http://tinyurl.com/y7zd6sov
á According
to Bloomberg News, the Trump administration considered using a UN
climate change fund to pay for the construction of coal plants instead. http://tinyurl.com/y74dwqkp
á TrumpÕs
2018 budget proposal would reduce or eliminate 40 US Geological Survey programs
involved in climate change data gathering programs and cooperative studies. http://tinyurl.com/yd5aw8rw
á Clean
Technica reported that there are signs the monolithic Republican opposition to
anything and everything having to do with climate change is beginning to
crumble. The House voted down an amendment to block a requirement in the
pending National Defense Authorization Act for the armed services to study the
impact of climate change on the military over the next 20 years. http://tinyurl.com/y8qhzxfb
á The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took steps to ban forced consumer
arbitration requirements often included in consumer agreements for credit
cards, loans and other products offered by banks and financial institutions that
made it difficult for consumers to recover fraudulently obtained funds. http://tinyurl.com/yayfazct
á The
Federalist reported that Attorney General Sessions told the Alliance Defending
Freedom, known for comparing homosexuality to bestiality, that religion in the
US is under attack and that the US was not intended to Òget between God and
man.Ó http://tinyurl.com/ycocnkdn
á The
Department of Justice appealed a federal judgeÕs loosening of TrumpÕs Muslim
travel ban to the Supreme Court. http://tinyurl.com/yakw9cnl
á The
Trump administration eliminated $213.6 million in grants for teen pregnancy
prevention programs and research. http://tinyurl.com/ycvyw5pl
Saturday,
July 15
á The Trump
administration considered a new policy to expand the DHSÕs powers to expedite
deportation of illegal immigrants anywhere in the US who have lived in the
country continuously for more than 90 days. http://tinyurl.com/yc794v2u
á White
House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon failed to properly disclose more than $2
million in mortgage debt on his required financial disclosure form. http://tinyurl.com/y9zyvqll
á In
its Annual Greenhouse Gas Index report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, in an unprecedented move, erased any reference to Òhuman
activityÓ or fossil fuels. http://tinyurl.com/ya2bsqyh
á According
to the Washington Post, French President Emmanuel
Macron invited Trump to Paris to position himself as TrumpÕs principal
interlocutor in Western Europe, which has shown the White House mostly disdain.
http://tinyurl.com/y9ltbf9y
á The New
York Times reported that TrumpÕs re-election campaign spent nearly $700,000 on
legal fees over the past few months to handle the presidentÕs Russia election
investigations.
á According
to the Guardian UK, senior [tobacco industry] figures have been put in
place within the Trump administration who have deep ties to tobacco, and
lobbying activity has increased significantly. Officials with deep ties to the
tobacco industry now head the US health department. http://tinyurl.com/ycmgtwsk
á ThinkProgress reported that there is growing
calls in Congress to revoke Jared KushnerÕs security clearance given past and
recent revelations of his contacts with foreign nationals. http://tinyurl.com/ycnjcpdn
á Senator
Mitch McConnell postponed a vote on the GOPÕs healthcare bill until Senator
John McCain recovers from surgery. http://tinyurl.com/yc3nxhmz
Sunday,
July 16
á Moyers
& Company quoted an interview with author Kristin Miller saying ÒTrump
is surrounded by people who are veterans of this Koch apparatus. So, I saw by
one report, 70 percent of his top senior appointees are coming from that
network, and that includes of course his vice president, Mike Pence. It also
includes the White House liaison to Congress, Mark Short. It includes Scott
Pruitt at the EPA.Ó http://tinyurl.com/ybdls2rp
á The
Trump reelection campaign paid $50,000 to Trump Jr.Õs attorneys two weeks
before the email scandal and has steered millions of dollars to Trump companies
including payment for legal services. http://tinyurl.com/yd8l9v85
á The New
York Daily News reported [Senator] McConnell is rushing the Energy and
Natural Resources Act of 2017 to the floor as early as next week, foregoing
committees and hearings. The bill includes much of the fossil fuel industryÕs
wish list including new coal projects, mining and drilling on public lands,
approval of pipelines, and permitting of massive offshore Liquefied Natural Gas
export terminals that would increase demand for fracking. http://tinyurl.com/y9mrlkj9
á In
an effort to examine programs on campus rape, Secretary of Education DeVos
planned meetings with survivors of sexual assault and support
organizations. She also planned meetings with anti-feminist groups that claim
rape statistics are overblown and that women regularly lie about assault. http://tinyurl.com/y9zfwgu7
á A
Pentagon program, which has naturalized 10,400 troops since 2009, was
cancelled leaving 1,800 recruitsÕ immigration status in question. Many are
fleeing the US for other countries to avoid deportation. http://tinyurl.com/y77754cl
á A
federal judge ruled that Utah's law making it illegal to film what happens at
farms and slaughterhouses is unconstitutional. http://tinyurl.com/yaf6zzza