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Sunday, March 3, 2024

Biden admin punts major power plant crackdown until after 2024 election

The Biden administration is punting on finalizing the bulk of proposed environmental regulations targeting existing fossil fuel-fired power plants until after the upcoming election.

In an unexpected announcement Thursday evening, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its "new" approach to regulating emissions from fossil fuel plants, which generate more than 60% of the nation's electricity. Under the plan, EPA will move forward with parts of its power plant proposal unveiled in May 2023, but delay any regulations impacting existing natural gas plants until late this year or next year.

"As EPA works towards final standards to cut climate pollution from existing coal and new gas-fired power plants later this spring, the Agency is taking a new, comprehensive approach to cover the entire fleet of natural gas-fired turbines, as well as cover more pollutants including climate, toxic and criteria air pollution," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

"This stronger, more durable approach will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal," he continued.

EPA's sudden shift, first reported by The New York Times, comes amid intense pressure from a wide range of business groups, energy associations, manufacturers, grid operators and lawmakers who have blasted the agency's original proposal as too burdensome.

Critics warned that cracking down on gas plants — the single largest source of electricity in the U.S., providing power to tens of millions of homes annually — would have severe consequences for Americans.

On May 11, 2023, EPA unveiled the original proposal which it said would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 617 million metric tons through 2042. The proposal relies heavily on carbon capture, a nascent and costly technology that removes emissions from the air, essentially forcing plants to adopt such technology or shut down.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the new plan will be a "stronger, more durable approach will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal." (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

While that proposal would have impacted existing and future natural gas and coal power plants, under the new plan announced Thursday, it will exempt existing natural gas plants. All coal-fired plants and future natural gas plants will still be impacted when EPA finalizes the regulations in the coming weeks.

But the agency will now issue an entirely separate proposal covering existing natural gas plants months from now.

"Sierra Club supports the Biden administration’s new strategy to address a broad range of pollutants emitted by gas-fired power plants," Ben Jealous, the executive director of environmental group Sierra Club, said Thursday. "Strong protections against gas plant emissions will help the United States meet its international climate commitments while protecting the most vulnerable communities from the pollution contaminating their air."

"We look forward to working closely with the Biden EPA to quickly implement the building blocks of its new multi-pollutant approach for gas plants to ensure the strongest possible protections for our environment and public health," he added.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-punts-major-power-plant-crackdown-until-after-2024-election

Israel Opts Out Of Gaza Talks In Cairo, Contradicting Prior White House Optimism

It was only on Saturday that the White House issued optimistic statements saying Israel has already "basically accepted" a six week ceasefire proposal in Gaza. But the Biden administration's rosy assessment that a truce is 'near' has once again been utterly contradicted by Israeli actions.

CNN now writes, "On Sunday, Israel decided not to send a delegation to Egypt for talks on a deal for a ceasefire and release of hostages from Gaza, an Israeli official told CNN." It was only days ago that Biden issued his remarks saying a ceasefire is likely "by Monday" - but now as of the weekend Israel isn't so much as even participating in the Cairo talks.

CNN's source says the Israeli delegation has stayed home because time had run out for Hamas to respond to the following two Israeli demands:

a list of hostages, specifying which are alive and which are dead
confirmation of the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages

The Netanyahu government said days ago said that this next round of talks would be conditioned on Hamas verifying ahead of time the names and current condition of all hostages.

Israel has said it believes 130 hostages abducted on Oct.7 remain in captivity, but the tragic reality is that some or many may have already been killed.

While Israel has not sent its negotiators, Hamas has arrived in Cairo Sunday, a senior Hamas official told CNN. Per the same report, Hamas wants the following:

A permanent ceasefire
The withdrawal of what the source called “occupation forces” — that is, Israeli troops — from the Gaza Strip
The return of displaced people from the south to the north of the strip

But Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly called the demand for a complete military withdrawal "delusional".

The Times of Israel and other local sources have also confirmed that Israel is not sending negotiators:

According to Channel 12, the war cabinet and the professional echelon all agreed that there was no point in sending a delegation to Egypt for ongoing talks given Hamas’s response.
Israel has said that 31 of the 130 hostages held since October 7 are dead. The first phase of the mooted deal is reported to provide for the release of 40 of the living hostages, including women, children, the elderly and the sick, in the course of a six-week truce, and in exchange for some 400 Palestinian security prisoners. The outline reportedly provides for negotiations on the further phased release of the remaining hostages, living and dead, in return for longer pauses in the fighting and many more Palestinian prisoner releases.

Meanwhile, just last Tuesday...

All of this means there is a greater likelihood the Israel assault on Rafah will proceed, which many international officials have warned against, given the southern city is packed with well over one million refugees, many of which are living in tents and makeshift structures.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-not-sending-delegation-cairo-gaza-talks-contradicting-prior-white-house

Another One? Trump-Hunter Letitia James Spent Thousands On Luxury Travel, Other Malarkey

While Georgia Trump prosecutor Fani Willis is embroiled in Fanigate - paying her boyfriend nearly $1 million to help her 'get Trump' while he flew the two of them on (allegedly 'cash' reimbursed) lavish vacations, New York AG Letitia James has been spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on all sorts of personal benefits, according to a recent analysis of a recent financial disclosure by X user "Mel" (@Villagecrazylady).

The findings are damning. James spent more than $15,000 on luxury hotels in Puerto Rico, $20,000 per yea rin meals, $7,000 dropped at a NYC nightclub that was billed as an "office," and $84,000 in airfare to fly all over the country.

She also stayed at the Beverly Hills Wilshire, and claimed $65,000 in "reimbursements" to "campaign consultants," which as X user Jim Weed notes, "could literally be anything."

Speaking of campaign consultants, can anyone tell me why a state Attorney General would need to spend over $300,000 in a single year (2023) on campaign consultants when she *just* won re-election the previous November? What could she possibly be consulting on? Furthermore, why do these million-dollar “campaign consultancy firms” always seem to be run out of random 2-bedroom apartments?
To be clear, Ms. James isn’t breaking the law with her expenditures. But considering the high bar she set for Trump in his civil fraud case, it’s more than a little galling that she plays so fast and loose with what she deems to be “legitimate campaign expenses.” -@JimBobW49

James also spent thousands at the '48 Lounge' in NYC as a 'fundraising' expense, a venue which claims to provide a "luxurious and intimate atmosphere."

Continues:

Ghost Donors?

It appears Attorney General Ms. James is wrapped up in the ghost donor scam.
You may think that ghost donor bots were just operating at the federal level, but this investigation revealed how big it is at the state level.
Here’s a list of Ms. James’ total donations and their corresponding receipts by year. Does anything jump out at you?
Obviously, 2022 is off the charts. Over 32,500 receipts, and over 62% are from out of state. Who the heck donates to an Attorney General, running in a totally safe seat in a whole other state?!
Answer: Ghost donors. What are ghost donors? Ghost donors (sometimes called “smurfs”) are sophisticated bot programs that use the names and addresses of real Americans to make donations to political campaigns. This allows the people running the programs to circumvent campaign finance laws. The donations are made in thousands of small-dollar increments that are easily looked over on cursory review. -America Out Loud

As Mel concludes: "So to recap: we’ve got unknown entities funding our state and federal elections and everywhere you turn there’s a sleazy politician using this tainted campaign money to fund their extravagant lifestyles."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/another-one-trump-hunter-letitia-james-spent-thousands-taxpayer-funds-luxury-travel-and

CVS to pay Ohio $1.5 million in penalties over understaffing and other safety issues

CVS Health, one of the nation’s largest operators of retail chain pharmacies, will pay Ohio $1.5 million in penalties for problems largely related to understaffing and make changes that may soon be mandatory for all the state’s retail pharmacies, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy said Thursday.

The penalties, the largest ever imposed by the state board, are part of the settlement of 27 safety cases the board was investigating at 22 CVS pharmacies.

The 27 cases alleged numerous safety concerns and potential legal violations found during a series of inspections of those stores between 2020 and 2023, and found that understaffing contributed significantly to many of the issues. Inspectors identified insufficient staff for the volume of prescriptions, dispensing errors, prescription delays, dirty equipment, trash throughout the pharmacies, expired medications, poor drug security and failure to report losses of controlled substances, among other issues.

“By entering into this settlement agreement, the Board seeks immediate and systemic changes to protect patients and address critical understaffing,” said Steven Schierholt, executive director of the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy. “We believe that this agreement is an acknowledgement by CVS that considerable changes are warranted to ensure the safe practice of pharmacy at their retail stores.”

The agreement included the rare step of placing the eight stores with the biggest staffing issues under “advanced monitoring” by the board, to be funded by CVS, for the next three years. CVS also agreed to voluntarily comply with several not-yet-finalized state rules focused on patient safety. Those include implementing mandatory rest breaks, dispensing prescriptions within three days or less, and instituting a process for staff to notify management of understaffing.

The proposed state rules CVS agreed to follow may soon apply to all pharmacies in the state, as the board expects them to be finalized within the next few months.

CVS Health has more than 9,000 retail locations nationwide and is the largest U.S. pharmacy by revenue. It is the largest operator of retail pharmacies in Ohio. Spokesperson Amy Thibault said that CVS is “pleased to have reached an agreement with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy regarding years-old allegations involving some of our Ohio pharmacies” and that the company looks forward to working with the board, including on “enhancing our positive identification systems, and continuing to provide safe, high-quality pharmacy care to our patients.”

Employees at retail chain pharmacies have been sounding the alarm over patient and workplace safety concerns related to understaffing for years. Profit margins for retail pharmacies began shrinking more than a decade ago, putting a squeeze on the industry. Workers say staffing shortages worsened during the pandemic while job responsibilities increased, leading to medication delays and increasing the likelihood of mistakes, such as miscounting or selecting the wrong medication when filling prescriptions.

In response to staffing concerns, in the past several years CVS and other retail pharmacy chains have made large hiring pushes, increased wages and even done away with some metrics. Outcry from workers — who are largely nonunionized — has continued, including some work stoppages at retail chains in the fall.

“We’re committed to ensuring there are appropriate levels of staffing and resources at our pharmacies and are making targeted investments,” Thibault said. That includes increasing pharmacist wages roughly $1 billion between 2021 and 2024 and awarding roughly $70 million in bonuses this year to “pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other frontline colleagues.”

Pharmacy errors can range from smaller mistakes, like miscounting the number of pills in a bottle, to potentially deadly ones, like missing a dangerous drug interaction. Pharmacy workflows include checks to prevent and catch such errors, but as pharmacists and technicians become more overworked, the more likely they are to make and miss errors, pharmacy experts say, raising concerns from state regulators.

At one Ohio store, state inspectors found the pharmacy would “close intermittently due to understaffing,” preventing patients from receiving their medications. At another, inspectors noted that “although the pharmacy is closed for lunch, staff rarely stop to take a break or eat because they are so far behind.” Both those inspections occurred in 2022.

Several state pharmacy boards, which regulate pharmacies, including that of Ohio, have fined retail chain pharmacies over understaffing issues in recent years. The Ohio board’s Thursday settlement marks the largest number of pharmacies and biggest monetary fine yet related to staffing in the state, possibly nationwide, board spokesperson Cameron McNamee said.

Ohio settled its 27 cases with CVS for a $1.25 million penalty. As part of the agreement, the eight stores where the board found the biggest staffing issues were placed on a three-year probation, and the company will pay an additional $250,000 “to cover the cost of enhanced monitoring by the Board.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cvs-pay-ohio-15-million-penalties-understaffing-safety-issues-pharmaci-rcna141245

Team Biden Braces For More 'Uncommitted' Protest Votes On Super Tuesday

President Biden's path to the Democratic nomination could become one of serial humiliation. As Super Tuesday looms, Team Biden is hoping the embarrassment they endured in Michigan -- where more than 100,000 Democrats voted "uncommitted" as a form of protest -- isn't repeated in contests across the country.

Motivated largely by anger over Biden's handling of the Israel-Gaza war, Michigan's uncommitted drive exceeded organizers' expectations, with a hefty 13.3% of Democratic voters opting to repudiate the incumbent. The tally was large enough that two of the state's 117 delegates at the Democratic national convention will be free to vote as they please, though it seems likely that state party officials will pick Biden loyalists for the slots anyway.

Michigan's significant Muslim population led the effort, but disenchanted progressives and college students also played a key role -- and could do so again in upcoming primaries. “They’re absolutely not some voting bloc to take for granted,” leftist political consultant and former AOC confidante Corbin Trent tells the New York Post. "Biden is a general election threat to Democrats.”

if you live in Minnesota, please join me in voting “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on Tuesday to show Biden he must stop supporting Israel’s war on Gaza pic.twitter.com/uvxyPdGV7f
— Nathan Goldman (@nathangoldman) March 1, 2024

Eight of the 16 Super Tuesday states have either an "uncommitted" or write-in option on the ballot: Alabama, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont, according to the Post. Given it's the home of the country's largest Somali population, Minnesota is a state where uncommitted votes are more likely make waves for the Biden-Harris campaign.

“A majority of us have voted for Biden before, but this time I don’t think we should vote for him,” 26-year-old Minnesotan Abdifatah Abdi told Associated Press. Abdi says he's thinking of voting for Trump, shrugging off the former president's Muslim immigration ban in pursuit of the better of two evils. "Trump may be for a ban. But what is worse, a ban or the killing?”

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than a million forced from their homes amid Israel's massive retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Defying global condemnation, the Biden administration has steadfastly stood by the Israeli government, to include not only arming and funding it, but vetoing United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

Colorado is another state to keep an eye on. Inspired by Tuesday's result in Michigan, the Colorado Palestine Coalition and Democratic Socialists of America launched a "Vote Noncommitted Colorado" drive on Wednesday. That's a very late start compared to Michigan's effort that spanned weeks. "We figured if there's a way to make some waves and let our discontent be known, we might as well," Grace Thorvilson tells Axios Denver.

A New York Times/Siena poll released over the weekend found that only 23% of Democratic voters are enthused about Biden, with 32% either dissatisfied or angry about having him atop the ticket.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/team-biden-braces-more-uncommitted-protest-votes-super-tuesday

‘Madman’ illegal migrant accused of serial assaults on female docs, nurses in Bronx on the lam

An unhinged madman with a long rap sheet is allegedly targeting female doctors and nurses in The Bronx — with at least four attacks over the past five years, The Post has learned.

Edward Johnson, 57, an illegal immigrant believed to be from the Caribbean who came to the United States over a decade ago, has been arrested 23 times on charges that include gun possession, according to sources and records. He has another 42 arrests that have been sealed since he arrived in the US.

He skipped out on supervised release and is on the lam, authorities said — and has a dangerous habit of attacking female healthcare workers who try to treat him.

“Every time he goes to the hospital, he beats up a nurse or a doctor,” said an NYPD source.

He has logged four such assaults at three Bronx hospitals since 2019, sources said, and a repeat victim is Colleen Leahy, an emergency room doctor at St. Barnabas. She told cops she was attacked by him in July 2022 and again last September.

“I’m afraid every day at work — every day,” said Leahy, 28, who has lost 20 pounds since the September beating because of the anxiety she feels over his impending return.

And her mom is terrified, too.

“I’m afraid my daughter will become the next Laken Riley,” said Eileen Leahy, referring to the Georgia nursing student who allegedly was murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, six months after authorities released him following a child-endangered arrest in Queens.

The hospital attacks date back to December 2019, when Johnson was arrested on assault charges for punching a 45-year-old female doctor in the mouth and a 61-year-old female nurse in the chest at Albert Einstein Hospital in Morris Park.

His last arrest was Jan. 13 at Jacobi Medical Center in Pelham Gardens, for allegedly socking a 26-year-old nurse in the eye after she tried to take his blood pressure, police sources said. The unidentified nurse suffered a bruised, swollen eye, and Johnson was slapped with assault charges.

After he skipped authorities by not complying with his supervised release, a warrant for his arrest was issued last month. Patrice O’Shaughnessy, a spokeswoman for Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, said the case is currently being presented to a grand jury to secure an indictment against Johnson.

Johnson first allegedly attacked Leahy at St. Barnabas on July 16, 2022 while the ER doctor – only two months on the job — was trying to care for him. He punched her in the right eye, severely bruising it, according to authorities.

He refused to give his name to cops, but he was ultimately charged with second-degree assault and injuring a healthcare worker. He spent eight months behind bars – but the details of his release remain unclear.

Leahy said an assistant district attorney working for Clark called her in April 2023 and explained the office wouldn’t take the case to trial because it doesn’t want to “hurt [Johnson’s] immigration status” and believes his eight months served as a detainee was enough.

However, O’Shaughnessy insisted Johnson’s immigration status didn’t play a role in the decision.

She said he copped a plea deal to the lesser charge of attempted assault — which meant no additional jail time — only after Leahy declined to pursue the case further in court. She also said Leahy was also granted an order of protection against Johnson that remains in effect.

Yet on Sept. 18, 2023, Johnson returned to St. Barnabas and allegedly kicked Leahy in the head while she and a male co-worker tried to inject a needle in his arm, authorities said. Leahy also claimed he assaulted another female nurse at the hospital hours earlier.

No arrest was made, but Leahy filed a police report two days later documenting her attack, which she said left her with headaches, according to NYPD sources.

“It’s infuriating that he keeps doing this to healthcare workers — especially women — and then is let go,” Leahy said. “They had him in custody multiple times, so why is he being let go to attack other people, other healthcare workers?”

https://nypost.com/2024/03/03/us-news/madman-who-assaults-bronx-female-doctors-and-nurses-on-the-lam/

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