SOLIDARITY ONTARIO
Show of support for striking VON nurses with talks at standstill
Striking VON Sarnia-Lambton employees don superhero capes on the picket lines. 5 May 2021. (Photo from LiUNA! Local 3000's Twitter page)

By Colin Gowdy May 5, 2021 


There was a show of support for striking VON Sarnia-Lambton employees Wednesday morning.

Dozens of protestors gathered near the VON office on London Line in solidarity with 24 employees who walked off the job at 8 a.m. Saturday.

LiUNA 3000 Union Steward and Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) Kat Prevost said contract talks with the employer are at a standstill.

“We have not heard from them since Saturday. They have refused to come back to the negotiating table, and as of their last offer, it required us to take concessions — it would have resulted in us giving up two paid holidays and some of our mileage compensation.”

Prevost said VON’s offer is a 0.5 per cent lump sum payment, representing a $170 payout for the year for some of the full-time nurses.

She said they’re asking for a one per cent yearly wage increase.

“We’re not asking for much, but to be called valued employees and to be working in a pandemic, the worst healthcare crisis that we’ve ever faced, to have so many changes to our jobs — the risks that we’re taking, the workload that’s been put on us — and to be offered a lump sum payment as well as concessions, feels completely disrespectful to us,” she said. “Our job has changed significantly, we are working overtime every day and these nurses are not being compensated for that overtime.”

Prevost said they have not had any trouble with police preventing them from protesting, and that picketers are following the social distancing guidelines that are in place.

The VON’s only statement so far in the dispute said the not-for-profit agency is committed to the bargaining process and looks forward to a timely resolution of the matter.

Evergy coal shutdowns; environmental groups say it's not fast enough

Posted May 05, 2021

Lawrence Energy Center Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service

By BRIAN GRIMMETT
Kansas News Service

Scientists say that if we’re going to stop rising global temperatures, the world will need to greatly reduce the amount of carbon it’s emitting into the air.

Electricity production is one of the largest culprits and transitioning away from fossil fuels is seen as a key step in stopping climate change.

Under mounting pressure to ditch fossil fuels and amid shifting economics that make coal increasingly less competitive, the largest utility in Kansas pledges to close nearly all of its coal-burning plants in the next 20 years.

In the meantime, it’s moving to harvest more energy from the wind and the sun.

Environmental groups remain unimpressed. They say Evergy could abandon coal for renewable energy far more quickly.

The update comes from the latest long-term planning document Evergy is required to file with state regulators in Missouri. Kansas regulators are also asking for a state-specific plan for the first time. That’s not due for another month.

“We are ahead of the national average and ahead of most utilities in the amount of carbon reduction that we’ll be able to do,” Evergy spokesman Chuck Caisley said.

The plan calls for retiring about 20% of its coal power generating capacity in the next ten years. Evergy would retire its last three coal plants in 2039.

The first plant scheduled for retirement is Lawrence Energy Center in 2023. A plant near St. Joseph, Missouri would close in 2024, followed by a unit north of Topeka in 2030 and a unit near La Cygne, Kansas in 2032.

“That falls way short of what’s needed in order to stop the climate crisis,” said Andy Knott, a deputy regional director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.

But Caisley said Evergy can’t shift to renewable energy until it has the capacity to generate enough electricity to replace it. And even though it’ll keep some coal-burning plants open until 2039, they likely won’t be operating at full capacity. Instead, they’ll be run seasonally to meet peak demands.

The plan would reduce Evergy’s carbon emissions by 70% from 2005 levels by 2030. The Biden administration would like to see the electricity generation sector have net-zero emissions by 2035. Evergy’s current plan wouldn’t get there until 2045.

Beto Lugo is the executive director of Clean Air Now, an environmental justice organization in Kansas City. He said the closure of the coal plants is a big win for communities of color that are often more impacted by pollution than other groups.

“That’s why the communities need to be a part of those discussions,” he said. “They need to be at the table guiding a lot of these projects.”

Lugo said it’s particularly important that those communities benefit in some way from the renewable energy projects planned.

Evergy says it plans to build 3,200 megawatts of renewable energy in the next decade, nearly doubling its renewable capacity. Most of the new development will be in large-scale solar energy farms. The first project would be completed as early as 2023.

The Sierra Club’s Knott and other environmental advocates also worry that the plan calls for potentially building several new natural gas power plants after 2035. They would provide always-ready power to replace some of the lost coal. (Wind and solar lack the on-demand convenience of coal and gas.) While natural gas releases fewer carbon emissions than coal, it’s still a fossil fuel built on a supply chain that emits large amounts of greenhouse gases.

“Building new gas would continue the climate disaster,” Knott said. “That is not the right direction to go.”

But Caisley said the analysis for the plan was done using today’s technology at today’s prices. He said the further the plan gets into the future, changes are nearly inevitable.

“Our hope is that over that time period the technology exists in order to not have to make an investment in carbon,” he said. “But we’re not there yet.”

The plan was also made without considering newly approved financial tools that would make it easier and more financially appealing for Evergy to retire older coal plants earlier than expected.

Ashok Gupta is an energy economist with the National Resource Defense Council. He said the plan is definitely a step in the right direction, but it needs to do more of what is proposed, and quicker.

He said the new financial tool will play a key role in making that happen.

“This is not the end of the process,” Gupta said. “And we expect a lot to change even in the annual update by next year.”

80% Of U.S. Coal Plants Are Uneconomic As Renewables Costs Drop

By Charles Kennedy - May 05, 2021,



As much as 80 percent of the coal-fired power plants in the United States are already uneconomic compared to new wind and solar projects, energy and climate policy think tank Energy Innovation said in new research this week.

The combined costs for fuel, maintenance, and other costs at most operating coal power plants in the U.S are higher than the all-in costs of new solar and wind projects because of the cost declines of wind and solar generation, Energy Innovation said.

The think tank’s report, The Coal Cost Crossover 2.0, compares the economics of each U.S. coal-fired power plant against the expected economics of potential new wind and solar plants nearby, using publicly available data.


“Out of the 235 plants in the U.S. coal fleet, 182 plants, or 80 percent, are uneconomic or already retiring,” Energy Innovation said.

The key findings of the report show that of existing U.S. coal capacity, 72 percent is either more costly to operate than new nearby wind and solar or is slated to retire by 2025. Of the existing U.S. coal-fired plants, 80 percent are more costly to operate than new nearby wind and solar plants or are slated to retire by 2025.

Coal-fired power generation has been on a decline for a decade, as cheap natural gas from the U.S. shale plays first started competing with coal for power plants, and then falling wind and solar costs started to make new renewable energy projects more competitive than coal.

Renewables—mostly solar and wind—are set to account for more than two-thirds of the new electricity generation capacity that the United States will install in 2021, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a forecast early this year.

At the same time, due to higher natural gas production and increased natural gas-powered generation, coal-fired electricity generation capacity continues to retire in the United States.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE RUN PROVINCE

COVID didn't break Manitoba hospitals but long-term effects unclear, chief nurse tells court

Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa testified at 3rd day of challenge to Manitoba's pandemic health orders


Ian Froese · CBC News · Posted: May 05, 2021 

Shared Health Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa testified Wednesday as part of a hearing launched by seven rural churches and three individuals, who are challenging the public health restrictions imposed by the province of Manitoba in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)


Manitoba's chief nursing officer acknowledged in court Wednesday that hospitals adapted to the increased demand of COVID-19, but cautioned the full consequences of that are still unknown.

Under cross-examination, Lanette Siragusa, who serves as co-incident commander of Manitoba's COVID-19 response, agreed with the assessment of lawyer Jared Brown, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, that the health-care system "did not break" under the strain of the novel coronavirus.

"Yes, we were able to accommodate the people who came in, and we also made some sacrifices … the elective procedures, some people that didn't come to the hospital that maybe should have," Siragusa said. "There's a trade-off."

Siragusa testified Wednesday as part of a hearing launched by seven rural churches and three individuals who are challenging the public health restrictions imposed by the province of Manitoba in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brown presented Siragusa with what he called "eye-popping numbers" from provincial statistics, which he said show alcohol-related hospitalizations spiked by 112 per cent from April to August of 2020, and opioid-related visits to an emergency department or urgent care centre increased by 240 per cent in the same time.

Brown said the number of Manitobans hospitalized with "intentional injuries" grew by 109 per cent during the same time period, according to the provincial statistics, which are part of a future witness's affidavit.
Health-care system handled it: lawyer

"Even though the system was well-used by both COVID [patients] and the sudden increase in these non-COVID matters, the system did not break," Brown told the court. "The system was able to accommodate the presentations that came to it."

The group of churches and individuals he represents argue the pandemic public health orders are excessive and have violated the Charter freedoms of conscience, religion, expression and peaceful assembly.

Jay Bhattacharya, a key witness for the plaintiffs who testified on Tuesday, said the various lockdowns are harming the health outcomes of non-infected individuals.

The province's lawyers say the restrictions are reasonable measures in the face of the pandemic, which has so far led to 40,085 COVID-19 cases in Manitoba and 982 deaths from the illness.

Siragusa told the court Wednesday she isn't responsible for creating Manitoba's public health orders but provides feedback based on her role in assessing the health-care system's capacity.

Siragusa said Manitoba had the beds to accommodate more COVID-19 patients in critical care, but not necessarily enough staff. (Mikaela MacKenzie/The Canadian Press)

When asked if she "broadly supports" Manitoba's pandemic restrictions so far, she said she does.

In court Wednesday, Siragusa disputed Brown's contention the province's intensive care units could have supported dozens of additional patients.

He referred to last November's announcement that Manitoba could expand ICU capacity — during the pandemic's second wave — to 173 beds. Siragusa wrote in a March affidavit that 129 patients were in intensive care at the time.

Lockdowns only delay COVID-19 cases, witness testifies at hearing on Manitoba's restrictions

Manitoba pastor who openly defies pandemic restrictions tells court he has no authority to enforce rules

Brown suggested the vacancies show Manitoba's health-care system could accommodate more patients, but Siragusa disputed that argument.

"With COVID and the outbreaks, we had hundreds of staff that were off sick," she said.

"What we put on paper as a plan was not necessarily actionable when staff were getting sick, or having to isolate."

She added health-care staff felt like they were working at full capacity with 129 patients. Other staff were moving into critical care to support existing workers.

Manitoba had the capacity to make space for more intensive care beds last fall, but the chief nursing officer questioned whether the province had enough staff. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

"The fact that we could identify 173 spaces in ICU, and we had equipment and supplies, did not necessarily mean we have the people power to place patients in those beds," Siragusa said.

As of April, she said 16,000 elective surgeries have been delayed due to the pandemic. The public health orders have not mandated cancellations, but medical experts decided themselves to delay surgeries based on what was happening in hospitals, she said.


Siragusa, who testified on the third day of the hearing at Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, is well known to many Manitobans for providing a calm presence in the face of often grim news at daily COVID-19 briefings earlier in the pandemic.

While Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin delivered news about case counts, Siragusa typically made an effort to convey positive news, sharing anecdotes about people helping their neighbours and occasionally showing drawings made by children for health-care workers. Her news conference appearances are now infrequent.

Chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa delivers hard COVID-19 news with a dose of optimism

Court also heard testimony from microbiologist Jason Kindrachuk, a University of Manitoba associate professor and the Canada research chair in emerging viruses.

He testified that vaccines will offer more sustained immunity from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than exposure or infection.

Chief Justice Glenn Joyal is presiding over the hearing, which is expected to run for nine days.

He began Wednesday by condemning members of the public trying to watch the hearing who have been rude to staff in the clerk's office.

Joyal said he would not tolerate such behaviour, when the 55 members of the public allowed to watch the virtual hearing online is more people than would normally be permitted in most courtrooms.

Public access must be capped due to technological limitations, he said.

WATCH | Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa testifies at hearing on public health orders challenge:

Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa testifies at 3rd day of challenge to Manitoba's pandemic health orders
1:39
Manitoba's chief nursing officer acknowledged in court Wednesday that hospitals adapted to the increased demand of COVID-19, but cautioned the full consequences of that are still unknown.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian Froese
Reporter
Ian Froese is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. He has previously worked for newspapers in Brandon and Steinbach. 

Braid: UCP launches new enforcement as defiance of COVID rules deepens

The fact that the politicians needed to come out with this framework explains why enforcement has been so haphazard

Author of the article:Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date:May 05, 2021 • 

 •

Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu joins other provincial minister as they speak from Edmonton and Calgary on Wednesday, May 5, 2021, a recap of the new COVID-19 health measures being implemented in Alberta. PHOTO BY CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA

Wednesday was quite the day at the Whistle Stop Cafe in the little hamlet of Mirror, northeast of Red Deer.

First, the Mounties and Alberta Health Services padlocked the chronic health rules violator, which has defied AHS since January.

Then, the owner, Chris Scott, launched a real-time Facebook tirade alleging his constitutional rights were violated. He shouted accusations at AHS officials and Mounties.

On Facebook, his allies applauded his defiance, while opponents vilified this guy who for months has broken the rules others choose to obey.

It was no accident that a new provincial enforcement protocol came into effect shortly before officials arrived at the Whistle Stop.

Theirs was the first move in the tougher enforcement promised later Wednesday morning by Premier Jason Kenney and Kaycee Madu, the justice minister.

They said fines for chronic violators will be raised from $1,000 to $2,000. They then went into a cabinet meeting. An hour later, an order-in-council with the fine increase was published.

Madu’s office also released a three-page “COVID-19 Compliance/Enforcement Framework for Repeat Offenders.”

It’s dense and bureaucratic stuff, mainly because the politicians can’t seem to be telling the police and other enforcement officials what to do, or who to target.

But the point is clear — enforcement agencies will back each other, and in turn be backed by the government.

The fact that the politicians needed to come out with this framework explains why enforcement has been so haphazard.

Often, nobody wanted to take the first step. There were so many complexities that the agencies themselves asked for a formal protocol.

The jumble of players included AHS, the RCMP, Gaming and Liquor, city police, Blood Tribe Police and several others.

One approved action on the first day was “ordering closure and blocking access to premises.” The Whistle Stop got to see that in real life.

The rules defined conditions that should lead to repeat offenders being charged.

“Continuing to defy requirements despite repeated attempts to generate compliance, including being non-responsive . . . or when a single organization has escalated to fines, orders or other penalties and it has not been effective.

“Publicly inciting others towards civil disobedience (e.g., attracting significant media and public attention or calling for others to disobey requirements.)

“Creating opportunities for super spreader events or situations where actions or inactions have the potential to significantly spread COVID-19.

“Have been aggressive, threatening or obstructive to lawful inspection or enforcement activities.”

To some this kind of enforcement is oppression. One guy went right over the top by saying on Facebook: “We need another Marythorpe.”

The town is Mayerthorpe, not Marythorpe. It’s where four Mounties were ambushed and murdered on March 3, 2005. The Alberta RCMP noted that sickening post on their own Twitter feed.

The atmosphere is as toxic and dangerous as I’ve ever seen it in Alberta.

Tuesday evening, Premier Jason Kenney told UCP members on Facebook that he and his mother, who is 83, have both been threatened.

He read out messages, according to a CBC report. “You will be executed for your crimes against humanity.” And, “we know where your mother lives.”

Asked about this at a news conference Wednesday morning, Kenney wouldn’t go into detail, saying he leaves security to the sheriffs and doesn’t want to see threats.

But maybe he needs to talk about this publicly. Albertans should be aware of how ugly the mood has become.

Premier Jason Kenney joined other provincial ministers from Edmonton and Calgary on Wednesday, May 5, 2021, during a recap of the new COVID-19 health measures being implemented in Alberta. PHOTO BY CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA

The big question, still unanswered, is how the authorities will enforce the big anti-mask rallies.

They certainly “create opportunities for superspreader events” and fit the definition of “inciting others toward civil disobedience.”

For most people, it’s exasperating to see the protests continue even as the majority begins to comply with yet another set of tough rules.

Police have so far handled these events delicately. Nobody wants riots, especially with young children present.

But the public, and the demonstrators, can expect a tougher response from now on.

Kenney under fire during Commons emergency debate on Alberta's COVID-19 crisis

“Jason Kenney has been an unmitigated disaster for Alberta.”

Author of the article:

The Canadian Press
Joan Bryden
Publishing date: May 05, 2021 

OTTAWA — Alberta’s legislature may have been silenced but its partisan warfare relocated Wednesday to the House of Commons as MPs held an emergency debate on the province’s soaring number of COVID-19 cases.

Edmonton New Democrat MP Heather McPherson requested the debate and used it to blast Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s handling of the health crisis, which she said has resulted in the highest infection rate in North America and left the province’s health-care system on the “verge of collapse.”

“If you want to know why it is so bad in Alberta, why other provinces have withstood the third wave better than my province, the answer is clear: It is Jason Kenney,” McPherson said in a speech launching the late-night debate.

Kenney, in McPherson’s estimation, has failed every step of the way, taking a “Donald Trump-like” approach to the pandemic.

He ignored the evidence of science and the pleas of doctors, downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, “belittled” efforts to control the spread and, even as the crisis deepened, took only “half measures” to impose public health restrictions while blaming everyone but himself for the problem, she said.

“Thanks to the bumbling, stumbling joke that our provincial government has become, we have the single, greatest health crisis that Alberta has ever seen,” McPherson said, her voice breaking at times with emotion.

“Jason Kenney has been an unmitigated disaster for Alberta.”

She argued that Alberta has become a “Petri dish” for more deadly and contagious mutations of the COVID-19 virus that will spread across the country if nothing is done to stamp out the fire in the province.

McPherson appealed to the federal Liberal government to step in and help Albertans by directing more vaccines to the province’s hot zones, enhancing sick leave benefits and introducing national pharmacare.

But she didn’t spare Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from criticism.

“He has watched this happening in Alberta and he has done nothing because he would rather watch Alberta burn than help Jason Kenney.”

She later agreed to “rephrase” that accusation, after being chided by a Liberal MP, saying that the federal government has been “missing in action” during Alberta’s crisis.

As the debate was raging, Trudeau was talking to Kenney. The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement about the phone call that Trudeau “offered the federal government’s support to assist Alberta in responding to the rising number of COVID-19 cases” as well as the “partnership between both governments to quickly deliver safe and effective vaccines to Albertans.”

Alberta Conservative MPs, some of whom used to serve with Kenney when he was in federal politics, pushed back against McPherson’s accusations of the premier’s incompetence.

“Let’s talk about the federal failures and we can leave the provincial debates to the provincial legislatures instead of using this seat to attack provincial politicians who aren’t even here to defend themselves,” said Garnett Genuis.

Kenney’s government abruptly suspended Alberta’s legislature earlier this week.

Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservatives’ health critic, said other Canadians need to understand that Alberta was in a severe economic downturn before the pandemic hit and that lockdowns made matters much worse.

It’s not that Albertans don’t want to follow public health orders, she argued, it’s that “people need to eat.”

“It’s very paternalistic to say just that people who might not be following restrictions are doing so from a place of just sort of like bourgeois contempt for the law … Lockdown is a luxury for a lot of people in my community. That’s just the reality.”

WOW BOURGEOIS USED BY A TORY

Health Minister Patty Hajdu said she shares McPherson’s worry about what’s happening in Alberta. She said Ottawa has been offering Kenney support, as it has done in other provinces, and will be there for Albertans.

Still, she pointed out that 80 per cent of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on pandemic relief measures have come from the federal government.

Alberta Conservative MPs laid the blame for their province’s woes squarely on the federal government’s failure to provide a stable supply of vaccines back in February and March, when production problems repeatedly delayed anticipated deliveries.

But Hajdu noted that 17.2 million doses of vaccines have now been delivered across the country, putting Canada third in the G20 in terms of vaccination rates, and deliveries of vaccines are steadily increasing.

As for directing more vaccines to hot zones within the province, Hajdu said it’s strictly within Alberta’s jurisdiction to decide how to allocate its share of vaccines. It could, as Ontario has done, choose to give priority access to people in the hardest-hit areas, she said.

Conservative MPs repeatedly referenced the fact that the United Kingdom, which led the world in vaccinations during the winter, is now reopening whereas Canada is struggling to cope with a third wave of COVID-19.

But Hajdu said vaccines are only part of the answer. She noted that the U.K. imposed public health restrictions that were much more stringent than those imposed in Alberta and some other provinces.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.

NOVA SCOTIA

Proposed road for LNG project draws commenters for and against megaproject


Wed., May 5, 2021

The $10-billion LNG project would require a section of highway to be moved. (The Canadian Press - image credit)

The proposed road to a liquefied natural gas project on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore is paved with conflicting opinions about whether the highway change — and the $10-billion development it is a part of — should even go ahead.

Pieridae Energy received environmental approval in 2014 to build a natural gas liquefaction plant at Goldboro, a tanker terminal, marine facilities and power plant.

For the project to proceed, the company needs to move a 3.5-kilometre section of Highway 316, a secondary highway that hugs the coastline. The proposed realignment would divert vehicles inland and around the proposed LNG facility.

Public submissions to the provincial government about moving the highway, also known as Marine Drive, are sharply divided.

Everyday people, a tourism group, an energy industry association, environmentalists and Indigenous groups have all made submissions to the Environment Department.

There were comments in support of the road project, saying the existing road is in need of improvement.

Pieridae Energy needs to move a 3.5-kilometre section of Highway 316, a secondary highway that hugs the coastline.(Pieridae Energy)

A local tourism group said the project must ensure that a massive industrial site does not obstruct view planes, and that signage is provided to notify travellers that they're still on Marine Drive.

Others said a road would be a path to new jobs.

The Maritimes Energy Association, a trade group, said it supports the project because it will create approximately 3,500 jobs during construction and up to 200 permanent positions.

"This project will bring significant investment to Nova Scotia and aid the province in its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic," the association said, adding that the highway realignment would increase public safety.

One commenter from Antigonish said the work "needs to happen" in Nova Scotia, especially one with "so many positive spinoffs."

Another person from Quebec said they know the area well and do not see an issue with moving the highway.

"Please do not let this project die. Nova Scotia needs good paying jobs," they said.

Some Indigenous groups, however, slammed Pieridae for a lack of consultation.

The Native Council of Nova Scotia said its offer to meet virtually with Pieridae was "brusquely denied, and we are cavalierly told to seek out information regarding the project from a third party."

The council raised several questions in its written submission, including plans for the water course, the blue felt lichen and Atlantic salmon in the area, and whether the wetland alteration plan had been approved.

Pieridae is proposing to liquefy natural gas from the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline at a plant to be built in Goldboro, Guysborough County, and ship it by sea.(Pieridae Energy)

The Maritime Aboriginal People's Council, an intergovernmental leaders group, pointed out the highway realignment project would be on traditional ancestral homeland. It also criticized Pieridae's failure to meet with the Native Council of Nova Scotia.

In a joint submission, the Ecology Action Centre, the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance and the Sierra Club Foundation recommended scrapping the project.

They said approving the project would increase Nova Scotia's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, instead of cutting them. The submission also raised concerns about the presence of old gold mine shafts, and the safety and contamination risks they pose.

Pierdae's proposal is to build the new six-kilometre road, and upon completion, ownership and maintenance would be the responsibility of the province.

The company has said it does not anticipate any major adverse environmental effects from the road project, and expects to start construction this fall.

A federal judge ordered the DOJ to release a memo that Bill Barr used to clear Trump of obstruction of justice, saying 'it is time for the public to see' it

Sonam Sheth
Tue., May 4, 2021

Former Attorney General William Barr. Drew Angerer/Getty Images


A federal judge ordered the DOJ to turn over an internal memo related to the Mueller investigation.

Bill Barr cited the memo as the basis for his decision to clear Trump of obstruction of justice.

"It is time for the public to see that, too," the judge said in the ruling.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Justice Department to turn over an internal memo that Attorney General Bill Barr cited in 2019 as justification for clearing President Donald Trump of obstructing justice.

Barr said at the time that he'd come to his decision "in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers," but he did not publicize the OLC's memo. In response, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain the memo.

In Monday's ruling, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the unreleased OLC memo that Barr used to clear Trump of obstruction contradicted his claim that the decision to charge the president was under his purview because the special counsel Robert Mueller "did not resolve the question of whether the evidence would support a prosecution."

Barr announced the decision in a four-page letter to Congress in March 2019 summarizing Mueller's findings in the FBI's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

"The letter asserted that the Special Counsel 'did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other - as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction,' and it went on to announce the Attorney General's own opinion that 'the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,'" Jackson wrote.

However, the OLC's memo "calls into question the accuracy of Attorney General Barr's March 24 representation to Congress" and "raises serious questions about how the Department of Justice could make this series of representations to a court," the ruling said.

Jackson pointed out that Mueller himself criticized Barr's handling of the public release of the report and his description of the special counsel's conclusions.

On April 18, 2019, Barr "appeared before Congress to deliver the report," Jackson wrote. "He asserted that he and the Deputy Attorney General reached the conclusion he had announced in the March 24 letter 'in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department lawyers.'"

"What remains at issue today is a memorandum to the Attorney General dated March 24, 2019, that specifically addresses the subject matter of the letter transmitted to Congress," she added, referring to the OLC memo.

She continued: "It is time for the public to see that, too."

Mueller's findings in the obstruction investigation were widely discussed when his final report was released in April 2019. He laid out 11 potential instances of obstruction by Trump but declined to make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment."

Barr told reporters that Mueller's decision was not influenced by long-standing Justice Department guidelines that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. He said that in fact, Mueller's determination - or lack thereof - was prompted by the inconclusive nature of the evidence.

But in his report, Mueller did not cite the nature, or absence, of evidence as the reason he did not come to a decision on obstruction. He did, however, cite the OLC's 1973 memo saying that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.

Moreover, the special counsel's team said that "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state." The team continued: "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment."

Dominion bashes the election firm running the Trump-supported recount in Arizona, saying it's already 'committed serious errors'

Jacob Shamsian
Wed., May 5, 2021,

A contractor working for Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona State Senate, works to recount ballots from the 2020 general election on May 1. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images 

Dominion criticized the firm recounting votes in Arizona as having "committed serious errors."

The CEO of the company, called Cyber Ninjas, previously tweeted conspiracy theories about the election.

The recount has been promoted by Donald Trump, who falsely believes he won the 2020 election.


Dominion Voting Systems sharply criticized the election firm conducting a recount of ballots in Arizona, saying that auditors have "already committed serious errors" and "demonstrated incompetence" during the audit.

The recount, which is expected to take weeks, is being overseen by an obscure firm called Cyber Ninjas hired by Republicans in the Arizona state legislature.

The company's CEO, Doug Logan, promoted conspiracy theories about the integrity of the 2020 election on Twitter in January, as the Arizona Republic first reported.

Dominion, an election technology company, supplied technology to a number of polling locations in Arizona and has been a target of false and convoluted right-wing conspiracy theories alleging it helped "flip" votes from then-President Donald Trump to now-President Joe Biden.

In a statement Tuesday, the company said Cyber Ninjas wasn't qualified to conduct a recount and that its leader was operating with "a false, pre-determined conclusion" that votes were altered in the first place.

"The firms conducting this so-called audit are not federally-accredited Voting Systems Test Labs," Dominion said in the statement. "The lead firm, Cyber Ninjas, has no election experience, and publicly available information shows its leader has helped spread debunked lies about election fraud."

A representative for Cyber Ninjas didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Trump has supported the audit and asks for updates about it multiples times a day, according to the Washington Post. He has demanded that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey - a Republican he criticized for not supporting attempts to overturn Biden's victory - deploy the National Guard to protect the recount process, even though there have been no publicly reported threats on it. Trump advisers told the Post he's also asked about using UV light to analyze the ballots, which experts say may destroy information on them.

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas examine and recount ballots from the 2020 general election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

Trump has falsely claimed he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election, including winning the state of Arizona, which he lost to Biden. His lies about the election led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, when a mob of his supporters sought to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.

Trump's campaign brought two lawsuits in Arizona seeking to overturn the state's election results, as did Arizona state GOP chair Kelli Ward, a driving force behind the Cyber Ninjas audit. The cases were among the 40 Trump-linked election lawsuits that failed.

Maricopa County, the largest county in the state and where the Republican recount is taking place, has already conducted two separate audits of its 2020 election results. Both found that the results were correct and Dominion machines had produced accurate results.

In its statement, Dominion said it had numerous security measures in place for its election machines, including creating a voter-verified paper trail for each vote, using two-factor authentication that requires a physical key, and putting measures in place to ensure the machines don't connect to the internet.

A Cyber Ninjas contractor. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

"Local election officials securely store and monitor the machines at all times," the company said. "Thousands of poll workers, party officials, and election officials across Arizona watch over precincts on election day and guard tabulation sites in the days following."

Cyber Ninjas' insistence on secrecy during the recount process has alarmed independent election experts. On Wednesday afternoon, the company reportedly reached a settlement with the state's Democratic party to offer more transparency.

Dominion has launched a raft of defamation lawsuits against individuals and companies that promoted election conspiracy theories. Its lead defamation attorney, Tom Clare, previously told Insider the company is weighing filing a lawsuit against One America News, a far-right media organization that pushed false claims about Dominion.

The media organization had quietly deleted stories about Dominion from its website even as it publicly pushed false theories, as Insider previously reported. OAN is also a force behind the recount, helping finance the venture even as Arizona Republicans named the network an independent observer of the effort.

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Venezuela's Maduro receives samurai sword gift from actor Steven Seagal

OBESE PUTIN PUPPET

Wed., May 5, 2021,



Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro receives a samurai sword as a gift from actor Steven Seagal, in Caracas

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro received a samurai sword as a gift from actor Steven Seagal, who was visiting the South American country as a representative of Russia, state television images showed on Tuesday evening.

Maduro, wearing a white facemask and a traditional Venezuelan black long sleeve shirt known as a liqui liqui, positioned the sword over his shoulder as Seagal nodded and pointed in affirmation, the images broadcast from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas showed.

"The Venezuelan head of state maneuvers after drawing the sword," a state television narrator said, calling the weapon a "symbol of leadership."

"I had a very friendly, affectionate encounter with Steven Seagal," Maduro said on Wednesday in a broadcast on television in which he referred to the U.S. actor as "my brother."

"We talked about mutual friends like the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, because of his interest in protecting forests," he said.

Maduro added that Seagal was in Canaima on Wednesday, a national park in the country's southern Bolivar state, accompanied by Venezuela's minister of indigenous peoples.

"We are going to shoot a movie together that will be called 'Nico Ma Duro de tumbar,' a wordplay on his name meaning 'Nico Ma is hard to knock down,'" Maduro continued.

"It is the new Steven Seagal film. We are going to fight the demons, the bad guys. I am 'Nico.'"

Seagal, a U.S.-born martial artist, is best known for producing and starring in action movies.

He has long been a public admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a fan of martial arts.

In 2016, Putin granted Seagal Russian citizenship and presented him with a passport, and in 2018 Russia tasked him with improving ties between Moscow and Washington.

Maduro is labeled a dictator by the United States and many other western nations, which accuse him of violating human rights and rigging his 2018 re-election. But he has remained in power in part thanks to ongoing support from Russia, which has called on Washington not to meddle in Caracas' internal affairs.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas; Editing by Richard Chang and Himani Sarkar)