Year: 2019

UPDATE: Shutdown Impacted Ongoing NTSB Investigation Into Last Year’s Self-Driving Uber Fatality, 2 Arizona Fatal Air Accidents

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Last year’s Grand Canyon helicopter accident – killing 3 – the self-driving Uber vehicle that killed a pedestrian, and a fatal air accident near Kingman two weeks ago. Investigations into all were delayed or damaged by the now-ending government shutdown.

(from Tempe Police via New Times)

The federal government shutdown is finally ending, but the impacts are still being discovered. The NTSB’s Dolline Hatchett tells Arizona’s Politics that the ongoing investigations into last year’s news-making accidents were halted when 367 of the National Transportation Safety Board’s 397 employees were furloughed. The aircraft accident near Kingman on January 13, in which one person was killed and one seriously injured, has not yet been investigated.

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Trump agrees to three week CR without funding for his border wall to end Trump Shutdown

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President Trump caved on Friday saying he will back a short-term funding bill to reopen the government that does not include funds to construct a wall along the southern border, bowing to mounting pressure fueled by growing disruption due to the lengthy shutdown. Trump agrees to end shutdown without getting wall funding:

“I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” Trump said.

The deal, announced by Trump from the Rose Garden of the White House, amounts to a victory for Democrats who have refused the president’s demand for $5.7 billion in wall funding. Trump had said for weeks he would not reopen the government without that money.

Racist polemicist Ann Coulter, who along with Rush Limbaugh was largely responsible for egging Trump into reneging on the spending deal that he had agreed to back in December and launching his Trump Shutdown was her usual hateful self.

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This woman needs to be shoved back into the muck under the rock from which she crawled out from under — and then pile on some more rocks. Enough!

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White House jeopardizes US national security with security clearances

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Earlier this week, Democrats opened an investigation of the White House security clearance process:

House Democrats are opening an investigation of the Trump White House’s security clearance practices and what they are calling “grave breaches” of procedure that allowed potentially compromised people to access the country’s most sensitive secrets.

The investigation, announced Wednesday by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), seeks both to expose why the White House allowed certain people with security clearance issues to continue to access sensitive information and to close those loopholes.

The panel also plans to challenge administration officials on why they have not been more responsive to congressional requests regarding the security clearance process, as required by law.

Among the people whose cases the panel plans to scrutinize are former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials; Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who did not disclose several contacts with foreign officials on his security clearance forms; and former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of spousal abuse.

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White House jeopardizes US national security with security clearances

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Earlier this week, Democrats opened an investigation of the White House security clearance process:

House Democrats are opening an investigation of the Trump White House’s security clearance practices and what they are calling “grave breaches” of procedure that allowed potentially compromised people to access the country’s most sensitive secrets.

The investigation, announced Wednesday by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), seeks both to expose why the White House allowed certain people with security clearance issues to continue to access sensitive information and to close those loopholes.

The panel also plans to challenge administration officials on why they have not been more responsive to congressional requests regarding the security clearance process, as required by law.

Among the people whose cases the panel plans to scrutinize are former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials; Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who did not disclose several contacts with foreign officials on his security clearance forms; and former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of spousal abuse.

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Tucson Peace Center’s Vegetarian Spaghetti Dinner

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Saturday Jan. 26, 2019 6 to 9 p.m. First Christian Church, 740 E. Speedway Blvd, Tucson “Delicious spaghetti dinner! There will be music and a short presentation of the new Tucson Sanctuary City proposal and petitions, as well as a silent auction of exceptional pieces of art, jewelry, etc. The dinner will take place until … Read more