Daily Archives
November 21, 2017
25 posts · Tuesday
Trump’s Science Office Is a Ghost Town
“In its 41-year-old history as the White House hub of innovation, the Office of Science and Technology Policy has never gone this long without a leader or official mandate,” CBS News reports.
“But nine months into his administration, there’s no clear indication that the president is close to naming a science adviser who will inform his policymaking, though that’s the mission that the OSTP has played since its founding in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. From climate change to space to education, the office has served as an in-house incubator for research, data, and crisis management that drove policy under seven presidents.”
Judge Permanently Blocks Trump’s Sanctuary Cities Order
A federal judge permanently blocked President Trump’s executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, the AP reports.
“U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick rejected the administration’s argument that the executive order applies only to a relatively small pot of money and said Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress. The judge had previously made the same arguments in a ruling that put a temporary hold on the executive order targeting so-called sanctuary cities. The Trump administration has appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Leading Trump Pick for Census Causes Alarm
“The Trump administration is leaning toward naming Thomas Brunell, a Texas professor with no government experience, to the top operational job at the U.S. Census Bureau,” Politico reports.
“Brunell, a political science professor, has testified more than half a dozen times on behalf of Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts, and is the author of a 2008 book titled Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America. The choice would mark the administration’s first major effort to shape the 2020 Census, the nationwide count that determines which states lose and gain electoral votes and seats in the House of Representatives.”
Conyers Settled Sexual Harassment Complaint
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged she was fired because she would not “succumb to his sexual advances,” BuzzFeed News reports.
The Book Scaramucci Wanted to Write
Business Insider: “In the months after getting ousted from the White House, Scaramucci sought a publisher to put out a book, which at one point was titled I Did It My Way, about his 10 days as Trump’s communications director. A proposal for the book that was circulated to several major publishers earlier this summer and shared with Business Insider promised a ‘tell-all’ to dish on his bizarre ouster from the White House as well as his ‘countless other interactions involving Sean Spicer, General McMaster, Sarah Huckabee and even the Vice President.’”
“But in a text message to Business Insider on Monday, Scaramucci … said he was no longer interested in publishing a book, saying he was not willing to write the kind of tell-all that would create buzz but damage his standing with the president and the White House.”
Immigration Showdown Set for December
Politico: “Concern is growing in both parties that a clash over the fate of Dreamers will trigger a government shutdown this December. House conservatives have warned Speaker Paul Ryan against lumping a fix for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as minors into a year-end spending deal. They want him to keep the two issues separate and delay immigration negotiations into 2018 to increase their leverage — which both Ryan and the White House consider reasonable.”
“But many liberal Democrats have already vowed to withhold votes from the spending bill should it not address Dreamers, putting Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in an awkward spot if they don’t go along.”
