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n2doc's JournalUS Presidential Race: For Meet the Press, Bernie Sanders Is He Who Must Not Be Named
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination last week–but Meet the Press‘s Chuck Todd, who’s “obsessed with elections,” didn’t seem to notice. (cc photo: Paul Morigi/Brookings)
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd can’t seem to get enough of the 2016 presidential race. Yet the one major candidate who announced he was running last week–Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who declared on April 30 he was running for the Democratic nomination–was strikingly ignored on Meet the Press‘s May 2 broadcast.
It’s not that the broadcast didn’t have time to talk about the 2016 race. One of the show’s guest was Martin O’Malley, brought on to talk about the Baltimore protests as former mayor of Baltimore and former Maryland governor, but also as someone “weighing a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination”: “Do you think you can still run on your record, as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland,” Todd asked him. “Do you think this is a positive thing that voters will look at…?”
Todd closed his interview by saying: “We’ll see you, you’ll probably announce in Baltimore.” But we didn’t see anything about the candidate who actually announced that week in Washington, DC.
more
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-presidential-race-for-meet-the-press-bernie-sanders-is-he-who-must-not-be-named/5447378
GOP getting bolder in trying to eliminate the EPA
There are anti-Environmental Protection Agency bills and then there is Congressman Sam Johnson’s (R-Texas) anti-EPA bill.
Known as the Wasteful EPA Programs Elimination Act (H.R. 2111), the legislation would kill off all EPA grant programs, force the agency to sell off all underutilized properties, end all environmental justice programs and fully eliminate federal funding for 13 other programs, among other provisions.
Johnson’s bill would further bar the agency from regulating greenhouse gases from the nation’s fleet of power plants and vehicles, as well as prohibit the use of federal funds to develop a new national ozone standard.
“In recent years we have seen the EPA – under this President – overstep its bounds by putting out one regulation after another that is harming U.S. economic competitiveness, killing American jobs, and threatening electric reliability,” Johnson said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. “The fact is individual states are best placed when it comes to protecting the environment because they have a better understanding of their own local conditions – unlike the out-of-touch and out-of-control federal bureaucrats in Washington!”
According to an estimate from the Heritage Foundation, the bill would generate savings of more than $7.5 billion over ten years.
Also killed under Johnson’s approach would be the greenhouse gas reporting program, climate research efforts, the clean diesel campaign and green infrastructure programs to help prepare communities for the impacts of climate change.
more
http://www.bna.com/heres-antiepa-bill-b17179926103/
Western towns hard-hit by climate change unite, target coal for funds
Ten Western mountain towns feeling the effects of climate change are launching a campaign that targets the coal industry, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars a year from companies to help communities adapt.
The "Mountain Pact" towns in Colorado and neighboring states contend that, because coal is a major source of heat-trapping greenhouse gases linked to climate change, the industry should pay more to help deal with the impact.
In a letter being sent this week to federal officials, lawmakers and the White House, the towns demand changes in the federal government's system for collecting royalties from coal companies, half of which flow back to states for local distribution.
The federal program already is under internal review.
Colorado Mining Association president Stuart Sanderson bristled at the push, saying the industry pays "a very fair chunk" and also is facing increased regulatory burdens.
more
http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_28042037/western-towns-hard-hit-by-climate-change-unite
Obama’s Retirement Plan: Help Black Kids
After he leaves the White House, friends say the president will return to his passion: helping African Americans through his My Brother's Keeper Alliance.
What is in Barack Obama’s heart? Underneath that cool exterior, it can be hard to tell. When he leaves office in 2017, he will be a fit 55-year-old with decades of productive life likely ahead of him. How will he use them?
I went to the Bronx on Monday with a hunch that Obama was about to tell us; and I wasn’t disappointed.
At the risk of emphasizing his status as a lame duck, Obama announced the establishment of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit outgrowth of the My Brother’s Keeper program in the White House that the president announced more than a year ago, with little fanfare from a jaded press and public.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/05/how-obama-will-spend-the-rest-of-his-life.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page
Why Elizabeth Warren Makes Bankers So Uneasy, and So Quiet
The rollback of financial regulation is stalled. Income inequality is a campaign issue. Americans are still angry about the financial crisis. Things aren’t shaping up the way the big banks expected, and an important reason is one laser-focused senator from Massachusetts.by Katrina Brooker
Let’s assume that when he woke up on the morning of Dec. 12, Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, was feeling pretty good. The day before, the House of Representatives had passed a bill that would save his bank and others lots of money and headaches.
The trouble was, Elizabeth Warren, the senior senator from Massachusetts, was getting ready to speak on the Senate floor. She had his bank on her mind.
What Warren wanted to talk about was an item tucked into page 615 of a 1,603-page spending package: the repeal of section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Known as the swaps push-out rule, section 716 required banks to set up separate subsidiaries, not backed by the government, to trade certain derivatives. If the rule stood, it would generate huge administrative costs for the big banks.
Citi had fought hard on this. The bank’s lobbyists had worked on lawmakers and helped draft language for the repeal. Getting it into a big spending package Congress was sure to pass was a coup. In the ongoing wars between Wall Street and the forces of government regulation, this repeal was a big win for the banks.
more
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-05/why-elizabeth-warren-makes-wall-street-tremble
US Trade Deficit Swells to 6-Year High of $51.4 Billion in March, Reflecting Flood of Imports
Source: ABC News
The U.S. trade deficit in March jumped to the highest level in more than six years as a small increase in exports was swamped by a flood of imports from autos to cellphones.
The deficit rose to $51.4 billion, the largest trade gap since October 2008 and more than 43 percent higher than the February imbalance, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
Exports were up 0.9 percent to $187.8 billion, while imports increased 7.7 percent to $239.2 billion. The trade deficit is the short-fall between exports and imports.
Economists had expected the March deficit to expand, reflecting the resolution of labor disputes which had slowed shipments at West Coast ports. But the deficit was bigger than expected and will likely shrink an already anemic first quarter of economic growth.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/us-trade-deficit-jumps-year-high-514-billion-30810109
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