The tax credit was later extended, but companies had rushed to install panels before the credit was supposed to lapse. Then they pulled back in 2017.
Employers were also worried that the Trump administration would put high tariffs […]
Sunday, February 11th, 2018
Oliver Milman, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Under the Trump administration the Federal regulation system has been deliberately and blatantly rigged to favor the uber-rich who own the Republican Party, to the explicit detriment of the peasants. Once again, here is the proof.
And yet with most trends being negative, hard as it may be to believe, according to Nat Silvers' Five Thirty Eight across all polls Trump has an overall 40.8% approval rating -- it's actually up several points over the past two weeks -- and 91% of Republicans still approve and support him.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement activity against polluters has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the first year of the Trump administration seeing a sharp drop in fines for companies that break environmental rules.
Figures released by the EPA show that 115 environmental crime cases were opened in the 2017 financial year, down from a peak of nearly 400 in the 2009 financial year, which was largely under the Obama administration.
A total of $1.6bn in new penalties were levied against polluters in 2017, in the fiscal year that ended 30 September. This was around a fifth of the $5.9bn instigated by the Obama administration in 2016 but still higher than any other year stretching back to 2007.
The EPA pointed to the $1.2bn it secured from private entities to clean up superfund sites, toxic areas that have been abandoned by polluting industries, and said that a total of $2.98bn had been levied in criminal fines, restitution and court-ordered projects. These cases, the EPA said, reduced or eliminated 217m pounds of air pollution and 412m cubic yards of contaminated water.
“A strong enforcement program is essential to achieving positive health and environmental outcomes,” said Susan Bodine, […]
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Saturday, February 10th, 2018
Ben Collins, - Reader Support News/Daily Beast
Stephan: Well, this is Trump's fascist America. The next time you get on a plane or train, or bus, you better have your passport to prove you're an American citizen; a driver's license won't be enough as the Customs and Border agents come down the aisle. Otherwise, if your skin is brown or black and you don't have the right papers, you may be pulled off the plane, train, and bus and detained. Am I exaggerating? Read this report.
Even in the Soviet Union I never saw that happen, but I have been told about it by people who were in countries controlled by the Nazis.
Border Patrol Officer at an Amtrak station.
Credit: Brendan Smialowski
Far from the border, passengers aboard Amtrak trains are now being asked for their status—and Amtrak is not saying whether a rider can be ejected for failure to produce papers.
Corey El was on an Amtrak train from Penn Station to Niagara Falls last Thursday when he says a Border Patrol officer approached his seat.
“He asked me, ‘Are you an American citizen?’” he said. “I scoffed at him and said, ‘Yeah.’”
El quickly got out his phone and took a video of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers questioning another Amtrak customer, which has since gone viral, receiving over 6,800 retweets.
The train was stopped in Syracuse, about 160 miles away from El’s destination, for about 20 minutes, he said. El remembers the officers asking two other riders for their citizenship status, and none of them were white. One passenger, who he said was “possibly Middle Eastern,” produced a burgundy passport during questioning.
“I originally wanted to tell him […]
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