Watchdog sues gov't for info about controversial Trump adviser

Adviser Stephen Miller attends a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on November 19, 2019. File Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A government ethics watchdog filed a lawsuit against several federal agencies Wednesday to obtain information about the involvement of White House adviser Stephen Miller in the Trump administration's "public charge" immigration rule.

American Oversight said the suit seeks information from communications, including emails, between Miller and the Departments of Labor, Housing and Agriculture and the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services.

The watchdog said Miller is the architect of the "public charge" rule, which allows the government to restrict immigration based on how likely it is any given migrant would apply for food stamps, Medicaid or other domestic services while living in the United States. American Oversight, and other critics of the rule, say it amounts to a "wealth test."

Miller has been an outspoken critic of unlawful immigration and in the past has been accused of having a white supremacist ideology. He is widely believed to have led President Donald Trump's tougher immigration policies. Federal lawmakers introduced legislation this month that called for Miller's condemnation.

"Stephen Miller has remained one of President Donald Trump's most influential aides," American Oversight said in a statement. "He has been the architect of the administration's Muslim-country travel ban, the defender of zero-tolerance family separation, the advocate of reducing refugee admissions and the promoter of rules that would allow the government to deny green cards to immigrants considered likely to use public assistance."

The "public charge" rule, which took effect Monday, restricts legal immigrants from receiving government assistance. After it was introduced last year, the rule was challenged in federal court until the U.S. Supreme Court voted to affirm it in a 5-4 vote Friday.

The lawsuit is part of American Oversight's overall investigation of Miller

Japan lifts last remaining ban on Fukushima fish

Fish caught off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, are safe for consumption, Japan's nuclear authorities say. File Photo courtesy of Air Photo Service Co. Ltd. | License Photo

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Japan has lifted a ban against all Fukushima seafood shipments for the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster, after restrictions against the last remaining species of fish, skate, were lifted on Tuesday.

Tokyo's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said all species of fish caught in waters off Fukushima Prefecture meet safety standards, Jiji Press and Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

There are a total of 43 species of Fukushima fish, according to authorities.

Japan placed a ban on shipments of fish with more than 100 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, which is considered unsafe for consumption, following the 2011 nuclear accident. A becquerel is a measurement of radioactive consumption

According to reports, skate was deemed safe after 1,008 skate specimens were tested for radiation. All specimens were found to be safe.

Japan's decision to lift restrictions on all Fukushima fish comes at a time when nuclear reactors damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami could restart after a period of decommissioning.

Kyodo News reported Wednesday the No. 2 unit of Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture has been approved for operations after clearing a nuclear watchdog safety screening.

In March 2011, reactors at Onagawa were shut down in response to the earthquake. The underground floors of the No. 2 nuclear unit were flooded, according to the report.

The plant was spared thanks in part to the cooling system. At Fukushima Daiichi plant, a nuclear meltdown resulted in the daily production of nuclear wastewater.

Japan recently said it has no choice but to release tainted water from Fukushima, and plans to go forward with the discharge despite protests from neighboring South Korea.

About 170 tons of water is contaminated every day at the Fukushima plant. Tokyo has said the water is being purified, using an advanced liquid-processing system. The process does not remove tritium and leaves traces of radioactive elements.

BEYOND PETROLEUM (BP)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill was bigger than previously thought, study finds


The Deepwater Horizon disaster was the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster spread well beyond the spill footprint established by satellites, according to new analysis by scientists at the University of Miami.

To determine the true size of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers supplied oil-transport models with water sampling results and remote sensing data. The simulations confirmed that a portion of the oil spilled in the wake of the deadly explosion remained invisible to satellites, but proved toxic to marine wildlife.

"We found that there was a substantial fraction of oil invisible to satellites and aerial imaging," Igal Berenshtein, lead author of the new study and a postdoctoral researcher at Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said in a news release. "The spill was only visible to satellites above a certain oil concentration at the surface leaving a portion unaccounted for."

Over the course of three months in the spring of 2010, following the late-April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, some 210 million gallons of crude oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

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In the wake of the spill, scientists used satellite images to measure the size of the oil slick created by the disaster. The spilled oil created an oil slick covering 57,000 square miles.

But the latest research, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, suggests the spill's true footprint was significantly larger.

According to the new models, the oil and its toxins reached the shores of Texas, the West Florida shelf and the Florida Keys. Oil was even carried by the Gulf Stream to the East Florida shelf.

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"Our results change established perceptions about the consequences of oil spills by showing that toxic and invisible oil can extend beyond the satellite footprint at potentially lethal and sub-lethal concentrations to a wide range of wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico," said senior study author Claire Paris, professor of ocean sciences at the Rosenstiel School.

"This work added a third dimension to what was previously seen as just surface slicks," Paris said. "This additional dimension has been visualized with more realistic and accurate oil spill models developed with a team of chemical engineers and more efficient computing resources."

Previous studies of the spill suggest as much as half of the oil spewed during the disaster may have ended up on the floor of the Gulf. One study showed an oil dispersant used during the cleanup, called concoction, actually prevents microbes from naturally breaking down the oil.

Massachusetts gas company to pay $53M fine for deadly 2018 blasts

An 18-year-old was killed while sitting in a car in the driveway 

of a home in Lawrence, Mass., on September 13, 2018. 

File Photo by CJ Gunter/EPA-EFE

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts gas company responsible for a series of explosions that killed one person in 2018 has agreed to pay a $53 million criminal fine, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

As part of the settlement, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts pleaded guilty to violating the national Pipeline Safety Act for failing to prevent the over-pressurization of its gas system.

The explosions in September 2018 destroyed 80 structures and also injured at least 25 people in the towns of Andover, Lawrence and North Andover.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said the fine represents twice Columbia Gas' profits between 2015 and 2018 from a pipeline infrastructure program. In addition to the fine, the company will be subject to monitoring for three years to ensure its compliance with state and federal regulations.

Federal prosecutors also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with Columbia Gas' parent company, NiSource, which agreed to "undertake their best reasonable efforts" to sell the gas company. Once sold, both Columbia Gas and NiSource will agree to stop all gas pipeline operations in Massachusetts.

NiSource also agreed to forfeit any profit from the sale of Columbia Gas.

In May, Columbia Gas reached an $80 million settlement with the communities of the blast, agreeing to pay 50 percent of the total to Lawrence, 30 percent to Andover and 20 percent to North Andover.

The funds were expected to go toward repairing roads and sidewalks damaged by the blasts, and other losses and expenses incurred by the towns. Workers dug up some 50 miles of roadways to repair gas lines in the region.

Lawmakers criticize Pentagon plan to divert defense funds for border wall

Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrives to testify on the Defense Department's fiscal 2021 budget request Wednesday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Members of Congress from both parties cautioned Pentagon leaders Wednesday against diverting money designated for the defense budget to construct more sections of a wall along the southern border of the United States.

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2021, Republicans and Democrats both expressed concern that the Pentagon would dip into funds earmarked for projects like counter-drug operations and military construction projects.

Earlier this month the Pentagon submitted a reprogramming request to divert $3.8 billion -- $2.02 billion from fiscal 2020 funds and $1.6 billion in fiscal 2020 overseas contingency operations -- to fund sections of the border wall.

The Pentagon legally has the power to reprogram up to $6 billion per year at its discretion. Last year it pulled $1 billion from excess Army personnel funds.

"This year is very different," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the committee's ranking member. 

"This is not taking excess funds, this is substituting the judgment of the department -- and actually the administration. I think, my opinion is, this is not totally at the discretion of the secretary. It is substituting the judgment of the administration for the judgment of Congress. I am deeply concerned about where we're headed with the constitutional issue."

Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., blasted the reprogramming request when it was first made public Feb. 13, and was heavily critical at Wednesday's hearing.

"This is an enormous problem. The message it sends is that the Pentagon has plenty of money. It undercuts the congressional process. This basically says that Congress doesn't spend the money, the president does," Smith said.

Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss., said he was supportive of President Donald Trump's policy on the border, but "we have to be careful about how we re-program."

"I think we risk a whole lot with the $3.8 billion reprogramming to fund a border wall without consulting with Congress," he said.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives has repeatedly declined to fund efforts to construct more sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting the president to seek money from the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the move Wednesday, telling lawmkers, "The president has decided there's a national emergency on the border," likening the shift in priorities to a natural disaster response.

Esper also said the $705.4 billion fiscal 2021 budget -- which is 0.1 percent higher than that for fiscal 2020 -- is not sufficient for keeping up with inflation.

"Given this flattened funding level, we made many tough decisions to ensure our highest priorities were adequately funded," Esper said.

80-year-old man dies in North Dakota grain bin accident
LACK OF HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES ON THE FARM


An 80 year old North Dakota man died in what is at least the sixth fatal grain bin accident of the year. Photo courtesy of Pixabay

EVANSVILLE, Ind., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Authorities have identified an 80-year-old man who died this week in a North Dakota grain bin.

Richard Volk was working atop a bin of wheat on his family farm near Devils Lake, N.D., on Wednesday afternoon when officials believe he fell in. It is unclear exactly what happened.

"It's the simple fact that nobody saw what happened," said deputy Ben Myrum of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, which responded to the call.

When other farmworkers realized they could not find Volk, the called for help, Myrum said.

The Devil's Lake Rural Fire Department eventually removed Volk's body from the silo after cutting holes in the sides to remove the grain.

Volk is at least the sixth farmer to die in a grain bin accident in the United States this year.

Dozens of farmers die in grain bins every year. The accidents happen most often at farms with few employees, which are not required to follow the same Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety regulations as larger commercial facilities.

Facial recognition firm's entire client list exposed in data breach
Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Clearview AI, a New York-based facial-recognition software company, said Wednesday that its entire database was exposed in a data breach.

The company sent a notification to its customers saying that an intruder gained unauthorized access to its list of customers, the number of user accounts those customers had set up and how many searches they conducted.

Clearview added that the company's servers were not breached and that there was no compromise of its systems or network.

The company said it fixed the vulnerability and the intruder didn't obtain search histories of law enforcement agencies that use the service.

Tor Ekeland, an attorney for Clearview, said that security is the company's top priority.

"Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw and continue to work to strengthen our security," Ekeland said.

Clearview's client base is mostly made up of law enforcement agencies including police departments in Toronto, Atlanta and Florida.

It has a database of 3 billion photos it collected from websites including YouTube, Facebook, Venmo and LinkedIn.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-My said the company poses "chilling privacy risks" condemned the company'sass., who has previousl inability to prevent the breach.

"Clearview's statement that security is its 'top priority' would be laughable if the company's failure to safeguard its information wasn't so disturbing and threatening to the public's privacy," Markey said. "This is a company whose entire business model relies on collecting incredibly sensitive and personal information and this breach is yet another sign that the potential benefits of Clearview's technology do not outweigh the grave privacy risks it poses."

24 states consider bills to ban natural hair discrimination
(WILL ALSO STOP WHITE PEOPLE CUTTING NATIVE YOUTHS BRAIDS OR PONY TAILS)


Three states have passed laws protecting natural hairstyles, and 24 more state legislatures are considering such bills. Photo courtesy of Erik Jacobs/Wikimedia Commons

EVANSVILLE, Ind., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Nearly half of state legislatures will consider bills in the near future to protect a person's right to wear hair naturally.

The bills -- introduced in 24 states -- are modeled after a California law put into effect Jan. 1 that bans discrimination based on hairstyle.

Proponents say employers, and even schools districts, often ban hairstyles historically worn by racial minorities -- like braids, dreadlocks and twists.

"Our hairstyles influence the way employers and teachers treat us," said Courtney McKinney, a spokeswoman for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which advocated for the California law along with several other organizations.

"It can impact your education and your ability to get a job. That's why we need laws to protect our right to wear our hair the way it grows out of our heads," McKinney said.

Hair discrimination against black people has a long history in the United States.

Before the Civil War, enslaved people from Africa, for whom long hair was culturally important, were forced to shave their heads, said Wisconsin state Rep. LaKeshia Myers, a Democrat who introduced legislation to protect natural hairstyles.

After the Civil War, newly freed black women began to straighten their hair to wear it in styles popular among white women of the time. That tradition continues to this day, Myers said. Across the country, black women use chemicals and heat to "relax" and straighten their hair to blend in at schools and workplaces.

"It's all for African Americans to fit into the workplace," Myers said. "Today, an African American trying to get a job is faced with the dilemma of do I straighten my hair for the interview to get the job? Why is my natural hair not considered professional?"

Black men are not immune, Myers said. In December 2018 in New Jersey, a black high school wrestler was forced by a referee to cut his dreadlocks to compete. This year, a school district in Texas attempted to expel a black student who refused to cut his dreadlocks.

"No child should be stopped from learning because of their hair," said Jade Magnus Ogunnaike, the campaign director for Color of Change, an online racial justice organization.

The push to pass such legislation is being spearheaded by a group called the CROWN Coalition, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair.

Color of Change is a CROWN Coalition founding member, Ogunnaike said. Other founders are are Dove, the Western Center on Law & Poverty and the National Urban League.

The coalition, which formed about two years ago, chose to begin in California.

"What happens in California can easily spread across the country," said Leah Barros, a lobbyist hired by the CROWN Coalition to advocate for the bill's passage in California. "It was passed in California with zero 'no' votes and bipartisan support. That was really important to set the foundation for this law to spread to other state legislatures."

Since then, New York and New Jersey have passed similar laws. The coalition continues to push for action in other states and in Congress.

"Hopefully, we will soon have federal legislation," Ogunnaike said.

The coalition is working with several federal lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who unveiled in December a bill to ban discrimination based on hair textures and hairstyles commonly associated with people of a particular race or national origin.

South Koreans sue Shincheonji for embezzlement, violation of law


A South Korean group is suing the religious sect Shincheonji 

for disclosing false data to the government. 

File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo



Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A South Korean civic group is suing Shincheonji, the secretive religious group in the country that is being widely blamed for the massive outbreak of the new strain of coronavirus.

The National Shincheonji Victims Coalition said Thursday outside the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul they are filing a lawsuit against Lee Man-hee, 88, the founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, on charges of embezzlement and for his violation of South Korea's Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, Yonhap reported.

The case, which is to be assigned to the prosecutors' office in the city of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, comes at a time when local critics of the church, sometimes referred to as a cult, is being held responsible for about half of all COVID-19 cases in Korea, where 1,766 cases and 13 deaths have been reported.

According to the South Korean victims coalition, Shincheonji reported lower-than-actual numbers, when the government requested a complete list of members after hundreds of people were infected in the city of Daegu.

Congregants have said they were not allowed to keep their masks on during services.

South Korean plaintiffs say the church's disclosure of a list of about 210,000 members is incomplete. Citing "Doomsday Office," a YouTube channel, the coalition said Shincheonji has 239,353 members and another 70,000 people waiting for admission into the church.

Shincheonji has 12 branches in South Korea that symbolize "12 tribes." Each group is named after a disciple of Jesus, according to South Korean press reports.

On Thursday the coalition said Lee had embezzled $8.25 million of real estate from Kim Nam-hee, a former church member and chairwoman of Mannam Volunteer Association. The coalition claimed Kim was Lee's former mistress.

Speculation is rising among South Korean government officials the church is not disclosing its full list of members. Lee Jae-myung, governor of Gyeonggi Province, said the list is short of 2,000 people, according to government estimates, Maeil Business reported Thursday.

SF court rejects lawsuit that said YouTube violates First Amendment

YouTube is a private company that is not subject to constitutional guarantees supporting freedom of speech and expression, the court ruled.

File Photo by Twin Design/UPI


Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court has ruled against a conservative nonprofit that accused YouTube and its owner Google of violating its right to freedom of speech.

The San Francisco court declined to reinstate a lawsuit by Prager University that accused YouTube of breaching its First Amendment rights by placing some of its videos in "restricted mode" because they promote a conservative point of view.

The court reasoned that YouTube is a private company and isn't bound by the First Amendment to ensure PragerU's freedom of expression.

"PragerU's attempt to foist a 'public forum' label on YouTube by claiming that YouTube declared itself a public forum ... fails," the 16-page ruling states. "YouTube's representation that it is committed to freedom of expression ... cannot somehow convert private property into a public forum.

"Whether a property is a public forum is not a matter of election by a private entity. We decline to subscribe to PragerU's novel opt-in theory of the First Amendment."

Prager University said YouTube also violated federal law against deceptive advertising, which the court also rejected.

"YouTube's braggadocio about its commitment to free speech constitutes opinions," it said.

Conservative groups have long complained that social media Internet platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are trying to shut down conservative points of view and should be held legally liable.