U.S. News

FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday said federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge on obstruction charges in a message Patel posted on X and later deleted. In the post, which Reuters saw before it was deleted, Patel said there was evidence of the judge "obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, was arrested at a courthouse this morning.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2560557

Chairman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on China sent a letter to JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan demanding the banks withdraw from their role in the upcoming Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL). The Department of Defense has designated CATL as a “Chinese military company” under Section 1260H of the National Defense Authorization Act.

The letters outline growing concern that JPMorgan and Bank of America’s involvement in the CATL IPO directly aids the Chinese Communist Party’s military buildup and ongoing human rights abuses. Specifically, the Committee cites CATL’s ties to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)—a sanctioned paramilitary entity involved in the genocide of Uyghur Muslims—and its role in modernizing China’s submarine fleet with advanced lithium-ion batteries.

According to the Committee, there is rising concern that JPMorgan and Bank of America's participation in the CATL IPO directly supports the Chinese Communist Party's continued violations of human rights and military buildup.

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On Saturday morning, downtown residents awoke to a grisly murder scene. A dozen trees had been massacred in the dark of night. The damage was widespread and indiscriminate. A grove of majestic Ficus microcarpa that had cooled a busy bus stop for decades were all sawed cleanly in half. A row of Chinese elms that created a canopy for street vendors were lopped off parallel to the street, draping a gruesome pattern of leafy right triangles along the sidewalk. Entire blocks of shade had been eliminated overnight. It was, literally, a tree emergency.

I know the term because I've filed more than a few such requests on the city's 311 app. (Yes, there's a new app, and I'll be writing about it soon; I've been inputting some more challenging service requests to test how well it works.) In the last few weeks, I've reported a dead purple orchid tree shedding limbs on the sidewalk, a block of freshly planted desert willows that were leaning precariously after their stabilizing stakes had been removed, and perhaps most troubling, a set of three ficuses with their trunks layered in graffiti. I honestly don't even know how you triage that type of tree emergency. But I may not get to find out. So far, none of these tree emergencies have been addressed by city workers.

And then, on Monday, the mayor dropped her 2025 budget that included dramatic reductions in tree funding. The entire city's urban canopy is facing deep cuts.

In its attempt to close a $1 billion deficit, the mayor's budget is bleak, recommending the layoffs of 1,647 workers and the closure of entire departments. As Frank Stolze reported at LAist: "It's the most austere budget since the city was wracked by the 2008 recession." If you talk to anyone who works with trees in our city, they'll talk about how the 2008 recession decimated LA's urban forest. As budgets tighten, tree planting is reduced, but so is tree maintenance: watering, trimming, and pruning roots so they don't turn sidewalks into rubble. And that's exactly what happened after 2008. The situation got so bad that the city planned to cut down 12,000 trees so the ruptured sidewalks below them could be repaired — until a judge ordered the city to keep the trees and find a better way to fix the sidewalks.

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It’s a rare thing to shoot yourself in the foot and win a marathon. For years, Elon Musk has managed to do something like that with Tesla, achieving monumental success in spite of a series of self-inflicted disasters. There was the time he heavily promoted the company’s automated factory, only to later admit that its “crazy, complex network of conveyor belts” had thrown production of the Model 3 off track; and the time a tweet led him to be sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission; and the time he said that the Tesla team had “dug our own grave” with the massively delayed and overhyped Cybertruck. Tesla is nonetheless the most valuable car company in the world by a wide margin.

But luck runs out. Yesterday evening, Tesla reported first-quarter earnings for 2025, and they were abysmal: Profits dropped 71 percent from the same time last year. Musk sounded bitter on the call with investors that followed, blaming the company’s misfortune on protesters who have raged at Tesla dealerships around the world over his role running DOGE and his ardent support of far-right politicians. “The protests that you’ll see out there, they’re very organized. They’re paid for,” he said, without evidence.

I'm in Austin. I used to live a stone's throw from the Tesla dealership on Pond Springs.

These are not paid people. They're upset at a number of things, not the least of which have been the environmental disasters Musk's companies have caused locally. Actions have consequences, even if you're rich. (Unless you're Trump, apparently.)

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who has been in immigration detention in Louisiana for more than a month, was barred from attending the birth of his firstborn child Monday, after immigration officials denied him permission to attend the birth in person, according to emails reviewed by CNN.

On Sunday morning, attorneys for Khalil wrote to Melissa Harper, director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in New Orleans, requesting that Khalil be released from detention for two weeks so he could travel to New York and be with his wife when she delivered their son.

Khalil’s case has sparked a firestorm of controversy since he was arrested outside his Columbia University residence where he was living with his then-pregnant wife, a US citizen. ...

I just read this and thought... Jesus Christ, that's fucking ice cold.

I feel like they could've agreed to a 48 hour suspension in his detention just to be at the hospital and then carted him back to a remote swamp prison and still retained 99% of their Nazi cred. Hell, letting him hug his child and then disappearing him again is still ruthless as fuck. But no. That was still too much kindness for these sadists. Okay, noted.

• Protect Utah Workers coalition exceeded its goal, submitting over 320,000 signatures supporting referendum against HB267.
• If enough signatures are verified, a referendum to repeal HB267 will go on the ballot in 2026.
• A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed that 34% of Utahns support the law and 38% are against it.

During a press conference after the signatures were submitted to the Salt Lake County clerk, John Arthur, a sixth grade teacher in Salt Lake City and a member of the Utah Education Association, shared that the coalition had collected over 320,000 signatures in support of the referendum.

“We are on track to becoming not only the most successful citizen led referendum in Utah history, but one of the most successful in our nation’s history. I’m used to teaching history, but today we’re out here making it because we turn frustration into action and action into results,” Arthur said.

If the group has gathered enough signatures, it can get a referendum on the ballot in 2026 allowing Utahns to vote on whether to repeal HB267, a law which bans public sector collective bargaining. The law was passed by the Legislature earlier this year and was one of the first bills signed by the governor during the session.

GUANGZHOU, China — From blenders to bicycles, it could get tough for Americans to buy made-in-China products soon.

That's the message from manufacturers and exporters this week at China's oldest and biggest trade fair — the Canton Expo. Soaring U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have sown chaos in China's manufacturing heartland. Exporters told NPR that orders to America had been halted, and many are scrambling to find revenue elsewhere.

Mini-oven maker Foshan Zero Point Intelligent Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., got hit hard. It sells 90% of its products in America, according to sales manager Steven Zhang. Escalating tit-for-tat tariffs this month brought everything to a screeching halt.

"We told our suppliers not to deliver raw materials. Our workers were put on leave," Zhang said. "There was nothing else we could do."

I don't remember any time in my life that "brought ... to a screeching halt" has been so prevalent across industries. The billionaires will be fine; the rest of us are fucked.

The Pa. laboratory that certifies all of the country’s NIOSH-approved respirators is on the chopping block. HHS is stonewalling employees who raise questions.

While Western forestry experts accept some wildfire as redemption for the landscape, they’ve also learned that out-of-control megafires can do more harm than good. Now a new study puts a spotlight on the small, cartoon-cute creatures ready to serve as a stalwart defense against raging, 100,000-acre firestorms: the humble, hardworking beaver.

River segments hosting beaver-created dams fared far better during and after megafires than riverscapes without beaver activity, leaving pockets of intact habitat crucial for wildlife, and protecting waterways from runaway erosion, a study published in The Geological Society of America in January found.

Using a combination of infrared and optical satellite imagery, as well as field observations, a team of nine scientists assessed the burn severity along streams within the fire scars. They then compared reaches of stream that had beaver dams to stretches without, and to the surrounding forest.

“Beaver-modified riverscapes are resistant to megafire-scale disturbance,” the authors wrote. “This resilience is directly attributable to beaver dam- and canal-building activity.”

The Geriatric and Medical Parole Reform bill allows some incarcerated people who are older or sick to apply for early release.

The bill will change how the Maryland Parole Commission evaluates requests for medical parole, and add a meeting between the incarcerated person and the commission.

Under the bill, the commission is required to consider the age of an incarcerated person when determining if they should be granted parole.

Lawmakers also passed the Second Look Act, a bill that allows courts to review long prison sentences for people who were convicted of a crime that occurred when they were between the ages of 18 and 25.

The Restorative Practices in Public Schools bill requires the Maryland Department of Education to create a guide to establish restorative practices in daily school activities.

The restorative approach is proactive in setting behavioral expectations that contribute to the well-being of students. The practices focus on holding students accountable for harmful behavior.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32891326

Archived

The State Department has shut down its office that sought to deal with misinformation and disinformation that Russia, China and Iran have been accused of spreading.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday that he had closed what had been known as the Global Engagement Center because it had taken actions to restrict freedom of speech in the United States and elsewhere.

The center has been a frequent target of criticism from conservatives for calling out media and online reports that it said are biased or untruthful. At times, it has identified U.S. websites and social media accounts that it argued were amplifying misinformation, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine war.

[...]

Congress had supported the center’s work, as had previous State Department leadership.

[...]

• McMahon convicted for acting as Chinese agent without notifying U.S. attorney general
• Biden administration targeted transnational repression by authoritarian adversaries
• Republican lawmakers supported McMahon, urging leniency in sentencing

Property owners and landlords in New York City can now be fined $25 or more if residents are found throwing a banana peel in the trash. As of April 1, all New Yorkers must separate organic waste — that includes food scraps, food-soiled paper (like empty pizza boxes), and leaf and yard waste — from the rest of their trash, similar to how metal, glass, paper, and plastic is set aside for recycling.

This is how the city is encouraging — or indeed, mandating — participation in its curbside composting program, where food waste is collected weekly by the sanitation department, same as the trash and recycling. Mandatory curbside composting is still relatively new in New York City; the program only rolled out in all five boroughs late last year.

The best use of food, of course, is to feed people. When it can’t do that, composting is one tool to help reduce emissions from organic waste — the methane released as food decays in landfills is a major driver of global warming. As a whole, the United States wastes as much food as it did nearly 10 years ago, despite setting an ambitious goal to cut food waste in half.

US Sen. Chris Van Hollen told reporters in El Salvador Wednesday that he was unable to visit Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in the maximum-security mega-prison where he is being held.

Van Hollen said he specifically asked Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa if he could meet with Abrego Garcia or at least speak with him over the phone or via video conferencing. Again, Van Hollen said the request was denied.

Pressed on whether he had concerns about the man’s health, Van Hollen said: “I don’t know about his health status which is why I wanted to meet with him directly.”

The senator’s trip swiftly drew the ire of the White House.

Communications director Steven Cheung called Van Hollen “a complete disgrace” and the Office of Communications accused the senator in a statement of a lack of concern regarding crimes they say were committed by undocumented immigrants against his constituents. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with any crimes in the United States, according to his lawyers.

OP editorializing here: Homie is definitely dead.

A federal judge has ruled that there is “probable cause” to hold the Trump administration in contempt over its removal of hundreds of migrants from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite an order to halt their deportation.

On Wednesday, D.C. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Trump administration’s “willful and knowing” actions — and their stonewalling during subsequent hearings — constitute “probable cause for a finding of contempt.”

Arch asked her insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, for approval to go to the center for her care, and the company granted it, a process known as prior authorization. Then, a week or so before her surgery, Arch was wrangling child care and meal plans when she got a call from the insurer. The representative on the line was trying to persuade her to have the surgery elsewhere. She urged Arch to seek a hospital that, unlike the center, was in network and charged less. “Do you realize how much this is going to cost?” Arch remembered the agent asking. Arch did not need more stress, but here it was — from her own health plan. “I feel very comfortable with my decision,” she replied. “My doctor teaches other doctors around the world how to do this.” Over the next year, Arch underwent five operations to rid herself of cancer and reconstruct her breasts.

It's unnecessary to point out the glaring issues with U.S. health insurance.

The president of El Salvador said in a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Monday that he would not order the return of a Maryland man who was deported in error to a Salvadoran mega-prison.

“The question is preposterous,” Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office on Monday, where he was welcomed by Trump and spoke with the president and members of his cabinet. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it.”

He added: “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” and said he would not release the man, Kilmar Abrego García, into El Salvador either. “I’m not very fond of releasing terrorists into the country.”

The comments came a day after the Trump administration claimed it is not legally obligated to secure the return of the Abrego García, despite the US supreme court ruling that the administration should “facilitate” bringing him back.

Well, fuck. This is such petty bullshit when these two guys could easily get him home to his wife. Once again, the cruelty is the whole point. Not law, not safety, just Snidely Whiplash on steroids.

More than 50 people stood outside the Enoch Pratt Library’s Southeast Anchor branch on a recent spring morning in Baltimore. Parents with small children, teenagers, and senior citizens clustered outside the door and waited to hear their ticket numbers called.

They weren’t there for books—at least, not at that moment. They came to shop for groceries.

Connected to the library, the brightly painted market space is small but doesn’t feel cramped. Massive windows drench it in sunshine. In a previous life, it was a café. Now, shelves, tables, counters, and a refrigerator are spread out across the room, holding a mix of produce and shelf-stable goods.

That day, as staff and volunteers took their stations, shoppers walked in and filled their bags with what was in stock. On any given day, there’s a range of produce, like collard greens, apples, onions, radishes, potatoes, and cherry tomatoes, plus eggs, orange juice, rice, bread, and treats like cookies and peanut butter crackers. As they exited, shoppers did not need to pull out their wallets: No one pays at Pratt Free Market.

Launched in the fall of 2024, Pratt Free Market opens its doors every Wednesday and Friday and serves around 200 people per day. Anyone can pick up food at the store without providing identification or meeting income requirements. The library-based free grocery store was pitched by M’balu “Lu” Bangura when she started her role as Enoch Pratt Library’s chief of equity and fair practices. The idea stemmed from the food insecurity she saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal scientists responsible for monitoring the health of West Coast fisheries are cleaning office bathrooms and reconsidering critical experiments after the Department of Commerce failed to renew their lab’s contracts for hazardous waste disposal, janitorial services, IT and building maintenance.

Trash is piling up at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers told ProPublica. Ecologists, chemists and biologists at Montlake Laboratory, the center’s headquarters in Seattle, are taking turns hauling garbage to the dumpster and discussing whether they should create a sign-up sheet to scrub toilets.

The scientists — who conduct genetic sampling of endangered salmon to check the species’ stock status and survival — routinely work with chemicals that can burn skin, erupt into flames and cause cancer. At least one said they’d have to delay mission-critical research if hazardous waste removal isn’t restored.