First-ever water shortage declared for Lake Mead on Colorado River, prompting cuts
Andrew Freedman
For the first time since its construction in the 1930s, the federal government has formally declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, on the Colorado River.
Why it matters: The declaration, issued by the Bureau of Reclamation, sets in motion a series of water allocation cuts to downstream states along the Colorado River.
It also serves as a stark warning to a rapidly growing Southwest population that drought, heat and climate change are major threats to the region.
Driving the news: Lake Mead is at record low levels, having dropped below 1,075 feet above sea level, or 40% of capacity. The cuts come because the forecast lake level for 2022 is below that level as well.
The West has been mired in the worst drought of this century, and when viewed over several decades, scientists have found that the Southwest is locked in the grip of the first climate change-caused megadrought seen in the past 1,200 years.
The water level of Lake Mead has been on the decline since about 1999.
Hotter temperatures and a reduction to spring snowmelt has reduced the water flowing into the Colorado River from the Rockies, where the river begins, before winding its way into the Gulf of California. So too has burgeoning water demand from increasing populations and thirsty agricultural interests.
A series of agreements governs water use from the river, as well as the cuts to be implemented when the water levels dip below a certain threshold.
Details: Lake Powell’s levels also are on the decline, which poses a threat to the electricity generated by the Glen Canyon Dam, threatening the roughly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity generated each year at the Glen Canyon Dam.
This first round of cuts is going to have the greatest impact on Arizona farmers, as the state will lose 18% of its share from the river, which translates to about 8% of the state’s total water use, or 512,000 acre-feet. (An acre-foot is about enough water to cover an acre in a foot of water.)
Farmers in Arizona are likely to experience the brunt of the water cuts and may be faced with tough choices of letting their fields go fallow or tapping dwindling groundwater supplies or other alternate water sources.
Under the water allocation cuts, Nevada will lose about 7% of its allocation, or 21,000 acre-feet of water.
Mexico will see a reduction of roughly 5%, or 80,000 acre-feet.
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Upper Colorado River Basin experienced an exceptionally dry spring in 2021, with April to July runoff into Lake Powell totaling just 26% of average despite near-average snowfall last winter.
The Interior Department agency predicts the amount of water that would flow into Lake Mead without storage behind the dam is just 32% of average.
What they’re saying: “It’s clear that the scale and pace of climate change in the Colorado River Basin poses a huge threat to the water supplies on which everything depends,” Kevin Moran, who leads the Colorado River program for the Environmental Defense Fund, told Axios.
“The Colorado River is the lifeblood of many Arizona cities, tribal communities, and generations of farmers who depend on it for water,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz). “The announcement by the Bureau of Reclamation is serious, but Arizona has prepared for these initial water curtailments through the Lower Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan.”
Thousands of Californians likely to lose power amid powerful winds, wildfire threat
Tim Stelloh
Tens of thousands of Northern Californians are likely to lose power Tuesday as gusty winds return to the region, potentially sparking more wildfires in a state where the second-largest blaze on record is burning across more than a half-million acres.
Most of the shutoffs will occur in two counties, one of them Butte, one of four counties where the massive Dixie Fire has scorched nearly 570,000 acres, the utility said.
A little over a quarter of the blaze, which ignited more than a month ago and destroyed the historic Sierra Nevada town of Greenville this month, was surrounded by containment lines Monday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Powerful offshore winds are expected to pick up Tuesday night, a potentially devastating event as most of California is experiencing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. The utility said the shutoffs could last as long as two days for some customers.
The utility began using the proactive measure during a wave of devastating wildfires in recent years, including the deadliest in state history, the Camp Fire of 2018. The company pleaded guilty to unlawfully starting the fire, which left at least 84 people dead, after investigators blamed its transmission lines.
Flood knocks down German bridge, sweeps people away
BERLIN (AP) — Dozens of German rescue teams were searching Monday for an unknown number of missing people who witnesses said were tossed into a river in Bavaria’s Valley of Hell when a sudden flood tore down a bridge they were on, the German news agency dpa reported.
Police said rescue operations with about 100 officers were underway and at least four people had been pulled out of the water in the valley known as Höllentalklamm near Germany’s tallest mountain, Zugspitze.
“One has to assume that more people are still missing,” spokesman Stefan Sonntag from the Upper Bavaria police headquarters told dpa.
He said witnesses told them that several people were carried away by the floods when the bridge suddenly collapsed. The sudden flood followed heavy rains in the region
The Höllentalklamm, or Valley of Hell, is a popular destination for hikers from across the country and abroad.
Last month, more than 200 people died in deadly floods in western Germany.
Coronavirus: Hundreds Test Positive In First Week Of School Across Tampa Bay
Kerry Sheridan, WUSF Public Media – WUSF 89.7 August 16, 2021
Coronavirus
News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It’s hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida and WUSF can help. Our responsibility at WUSF News is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.
Pasco County Schools
Actual case counts are almost four times higher than the district’s COVID dashboard shows, according to Sarasota school board chair Shirley Brown.
Even though classes just started last week, schools in the greater Tampa Bay region have already seen hundreds of students and staff test positive for coronavirus, and thousands of people are isolating due to exposure or illness.
The numbers were generally between 10 times to 20 higher than the cases that were counted in the first week of school last year, and in Sarasota, school board chair Shirley Brown said the numbers reflected on district dashboards are far below the actual case count.
“It’s actually worse than what our dashboard shows because we are having trouble keeping up with data entry,” Brown said in an email to WUSF Sunday night.
By Sunday, 261 students in Sarasota County schools had tested positive in the first week. According to the school district’s COVID dashboard, 194 students were in isolation on Sunday.
A case count of 261 is already more than 20 times higher than last year, in a district that contains about 45,000 students. The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported there were just 10 cases of COVID in the county’s schools the first two weeks last year. But Brown said that’s not even the full picture.
“We (have) 818 names on a report but I don’t know if (they are) staff or student or charter school student,” Brown added. “We may actually come close to last year’s numbers before the end of August.”
Brown said she has asked staff to “put a priority on data entry” so that the updated numbers are available before a school board workshop to discuss safety protocols on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, in the nation’s eighth largest school district, Hillsborough County reported 435 students — up from 41 in the first week of school last year — and 228 staff had tested positive for coronavirus.
About 2,900 were in quarantine as of Thursday, with no way to remotely access their classes, school board member Karen Perez said at a meeting that evening.
“How are these 2,000 — almost 3,000 — students receiving their lessons? How are they being contacted to get their reading, their math, their lessons completed?” she asked.
By the weekend, those numbers were higher: nearly 4,500 students were in quarantine, or 2 percent of Hillsborough’s 193,000 students, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Last year, school officials said 10 to 15 percent would have to be out to consider closing a school, superintendent Addison Davis said Thursday.
Bus drivers, who are already in short supply, were also seeing staffing shortages due to sickness.
“We have 18 drivers that are in quarantine. And that’s without any absenteeism. I mean, that’s about more than double what we’re normally at this point of the year,” operations chief Chris Farkas said Thursday.
Pinellas reported 152 cases among students, and 79 among staff.
Manatee County reported 182 students tested positive last week, and announced random temperature checks for students.
Masks remain optional across the region, due to an executive order by Gov. Ron DeSantis that bars schools districts from issuing mandatory mask policies without parental exemptions.
Hillsborough County requires parents to complete an opt-out form so that their children don’t have to wear a face covering. District officials said about 14 percent of students had turned in an opt-out form.
The Manatee County School Board is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting at 9 a.m. Monday to discuss implementing a mask mandate with an opt-out for students.
The Florida Education Association is tracking cases statewide, and said 4,148 Florida Pre-K-12 students and staff have tested positive for coronavirus since Aug. 1.
Three children in Florida and 15 educations have died from COVID-19 since July, according to the Southeast’s largest labor union.
Kerry Sheridan is a reporter and co-host of All Things Considered at WUSF Public Media.
A new UN report on climate change is “a warning for the entire global community,” McArthur said.
Astronauts have a better view of Earth than anybody, but lately it’s a discouraging one.
“We’ve been very saddened to see fires over huge sections of the Earth, not just the United States,” NASA astronaut Megan McArthur told Insider on a recent call from the space station.
Wildfires are raging across the US, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Algeria, and Siberia. McArthur’s crewmate, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, has posted photos of those blazes from above on Twitter.
Wildfires are one of the most visible hallmarks of the climate crisis. This summer, they’ve come alongside historic heat waves and the western US’s worst drought in the 20-year history of the US Drought Monitor.
A new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that “fire weather” will probably increase by 2050 in North America, Central America, parts of South America, the Mediterranean, southern Africa, north Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. That means more days where conditions are warm, dry, and windy enough to trigger and sustain wildfires.
The amount of fuel available to burn in those places – dry vegetation – is also likely to increase as rising temperatures cause the air to absorb more moisture and bring about more droughts.
The IPCC report, released Monday, is the first part of the group’s sixth assessment, which recruits hundreds of experts to analyze years of scientific research on climate change. Those experts determined that global temperatures will almost certainly rise at least 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average by 2040.
That may sound small, but it brings about huge changes across the planet, including further melting of glaciers and polar ice caps. This contributes to sea-level rise, and water expands as it heats up, so it is virtually certain that oceans will continue rising through the end of this century. In the best case scenario, the IPCC authors said, oceans will rise by nearly a foot over the next 80 years.
“Over many years, scientists around the world have been sounding this alarm bell,” McArthur said. “This is a warning for the entire global community. It’s going to take the entire global community to face this and to work through these challenges.”
Astronauts can see the climate crisis unfolding across the planet
A photo of Hurricane Laura taken from the International Space Station on August 25, 2020. Chris Cassidy/NASA
Astronauts can see other signs of the changing climate, too: “Big tropical storms – those are always coming, and potentially the flooding that comes after them,” McArthur said. “We can see all of those effects from up here.”
Future astronauts will probably observe even more of that. The IPCC report found that combinations of extreme events like heavy rainfall and hurricane-caused storm surge, paired with rising seas, will continue to make flooding more likely in coming decades.
“The other thing that we can see, of course, is the very thin lens of atmosphere,” McArthur said. “That is what protects our Earth and everything on it. And we see how fragile that is, and we know how important it is.”
The atmosphere glows above the southeastern African coast, as seen from the International Space Station. NASA
The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil is drastically changing that thin atmosphere by filling it with heat-trapping gas.
In 2019, the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere was higher than at any time in at least 2 million years, according to the IPCC report. Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide – more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide – were higher than at any time in at least 800,000 years.
On August 4, 2021, an astronaut on the International Space Station shot a photo of the Dixie fire’s thick smoke plume. NASA/JSC
As those gases fill the atmosphere, they prevent more and more heat from the sun from bouncing back into space. That’s what’s causing global temperatures to rise and bringing about the extreme weather that astronauts are watching in horror.
“That is the place that we need to be able to live. So it’s important that we take ownership of whatever we can do to help maintain it,” NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei told Insider.
Y-Foundation housing projects in Helsinki, Finland. Y-FOUNDATION
What if homelessness was simply not an option?
That’s the approach that Finland took when it decided to address their homelessness problem, beginning with a comprehensive strategy to provide immediate, permanent housing for those who most needed it.
As a result, Finland has become the leading example of how to drastically reduce homelessness.
Juha Kaakinen is chief executive officer of Finland’s non-profit Y-Foundation, which develops housing and purchases existing housing, and then leases it out to people who’d otherwise be homeless. Mr. Kaakinen, who was at the forefront of Finland’s radical housing transformation, took part in a recent panel discussion on whether Canadian cities were using useless stopgap measures to solve the affordable housing crisis.
The Canadian Urban Institute held the virtual nine-speaker Aug. 4 event. In particular, the panel looked at homeless encampments that had become a feature of the pandemic in the past year, including large tent cities in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria.
“I have always thought that there were a lot of similarities between Canada and Finland, but this seems to be an issue where we also have great differences, because I really can’t recall that we have had any homeless encampments in this century,” Mr. Kaakinen told the panel.
Juha Kaakinen is chief executive officer of Y-Foundation, which develops housing and purchases existing housing, and then leases it out to people who’d otherwise be homeless. KIRSI TUURA
That’s not to say Finland, a small country of around 5 million, has not had its problems. In 1987, Finland had a homeless population of about 20,000 and it became clear that temporary shelters weren’t a solution. They overhauled the system. Since then, Finland’s rate has plummeted to 4,300 single homeless people and an estimated 200 couples or families that are homeless. Most are temporarily living with friends or relatives, Mr. Kaakinen explained in an e-mail.
By comparison, Canada’s homelessness rate is conservatively estimated at around 235,000.
In an interview, Mr. Kaakinen expressed his dismay at the visible reality of Canada’s housing crisis, having seen pictures of people struggling on the streets and in parks.
“I’m not surprised to see pictures like these from the U.S.A., but Canada? These pictures remind me most of some pictures of Finland in the 1960s. For me, there is only one [criterion] for a civilized society: it takes care of all its members, including people experiencing homelessness. “There seems to be countries that regard themselves as highly developed, rich, world-leading countries, but utterly fail in securing basic human rights like housing.”
Vancouver’s homelessness crisis became a bleak reality during the pandemic, when an encampment set up in Oppenheimer Park and then Strathcona Park. The City of Vancouver conducted its last annual homeless count just before the pandemic broke, in early March, 2020. The count found that 2,095 residents in Vancouver identified as homeless. Of those, 547 people lived on the street and 1,548 people were living in shelters, including detox centers, safe houses and hospitals, with no fixed address, according to information provided by the city in an e-mail. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps told the panel that her city saw an increase of people living in the rough go from about 35 at the onset of the pandemic to an estimated 465 people a month later.
Shelters are not an acceptable form of housing, and large encampments have never been a form of shelter in Finland, Mr. Kaakinen told the panel. He saw some homeless people grouped together near Helsinki in the 1980s, but even then there were many shelters and hostel beds.
Homeless advocate Chrissy Brett at a homeless encampment at Strathcona Park, in Vancouver, on Dec. 4, 2020. DARRYL DYCK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
In 2008, the country adopted a national policy based on “Housing First” philosophy, whose advocates say that providing permanent housing is the first priority in solving the crisis. As a result, shelters were converted into comfortable permanent homes, with staff on hand to support those with addictions, or in need of life skills and training and work placement.
Housing First advocates say that research has shown stable housing for all people has proven to be the most effective remedy, both for improving lives and saving money.
One such study from 2009, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, saw costs to Seattle’s public-health system drop by 60 per cent after the first six months, when chronically homeless people with severe alcoholism obtained stable homes.
In Finland, residents have their own apartments with rental contracts, and if necessary, they receive a housing benefit. Former homeless people are involved at the national level in the planning of social housing at the city level, Mr. Kaakinen said.
“The message from homeless people about homelessness has always been that it has to be a permanent housing, a safe place – not a shelter or a hostel. And so, since 2008, our policy has been based on this principle of providing permanent housing on rental contract, and support if that’s needed. … It’s been a partnership between the states, the government, local authorities and NGOs [non-governmental organizations] working at the national and local level.
“Of course, in practice, the greatest responsibility is on the cities … and we have homeless people represented in the national programs, in the steering groups. They are taking part in planning the services in the cities. I think that it has been a very pragmatic and successful way to work.”
The Y-Foundation started to buy private apartments throughout Finland in 1985, with grants obtained from the government-run Finland Slot Machine Association, he says. The grant covered 50 per cent of the price of an apartment, and today they also purchase apartments without grant money.
About 80 per cent of the apartments are subleased to municipalities and NGOs, who rent them out and provide support services, if needed. Revenues cover operating costs. NGOs and municipalities also develop new affordable housing. In Finland’s large urban centers, 25 per cent of all new housing must be for social housing. There’s no visible difference between private and public housing.
“It makes the idea of a more equal society a reality,” says Mr. Kaakinen. “It has obvious social benefits, and it has also a huge psychological importance [because] everybody can have the feeling that they belong to this society.”
Victoria resident Tina Dawson, 52, told the panel about her experience as a first-time homeless person in the past year, moving between shelters and encampments. People in her position need to be empowered and maintain their dignity, she said.
“Being newly homeless, I am gob-smacked at the way things are out of sight, out-of-mind, and the machine that is in place to keep people homeless. How on earth am I going to get out of this position? I’ve managed my entire life. I’ve raised three children. And I have no address. The problem is [putting together] the damage deposit. I’m on permanent disability. That’s hand to mouth.”
Panel member Leilani Farha, lawyer and global director of Ottawa-based affordable housing initiative The Shift, later said in an interview that part of the success of Finland is the national mindset around homelessness. It’s simply not an option.
“People have a right to housing as part of their constitution. They have embraced it. It’s a different culture,” said Ms. Farha, who travelled the world for six years visiting homeless encampments when she worked as the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.
Finland is a smaller country and highly regulated, so it’s more difficult for rents to escalate as they have in Canada, she adds. Helsinki, for example, owns the majority of land within the city limits, and operates an in-house construction company. But Canada, says Ms. Farha, could learn to think boldly and creatively, like the Finns. Why, for example, hasn’t Canada embraced a Housing First approach, she asks.
“I think people are beginning to realize that housing is just completely unaffordable, and we don’t have much social housing in this country – we have very little actually. So I think people are cottoning onto the idea that the average family person working at a minimum wage job could easily end up homeless. I think that’s changing, but I don’t know that we’re there yet.
“What I see in governments around Canada is a timidity around bold creative moves that are value based, and I think now is the time.
“We need some bold creativity, come on. I’m seeing all these things happening in other countries. Where is it in Canada?”
Everything You’ll Want to Know About Donald Trump’s Legal Woes
By Alison Greene
The Disgraced Former Guy Is In Over His Head in Court Cases and Investigations; Here’s Your Definitive Catalogue
Bookmark this article. It’s your scorecard to the trials and tribulations of Donald J. Trump.
DCReport has compiled a list of 21 legal cases, investigations and related matters engulfing Trump, his family and their four-generation criminal enterprise, the Trump Organization.
The items range from the widely reported grand jury investigation by the Manhattan district attorney to an obscure $1 million dispute regarding a Chicago property tax refund; from the congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to two defamation cases brought by women who claim Trump assaulted them.
Principals of the Trump crime family
What you read here is based on our own reporting as well as the ongoing Trump Litigation Tracker maintained by the online forum Just Security at New York University School of Law. We also relied on the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, which created a central database of court records related to the events of the Jan. 6. Capitol insurrection.
We believe our list is complete, but we invite anyone with knowledge of other pending or ongoing legal matters to alert us.
Our takeaway? In reviewing his legal battles, we noticed two common themes: money and lies. Trump’s penchant for lying, particularly his pattern of lying about his finances and the election, is coming back to bite him legally.
Throughout Trump’s presidency the phrase, “No one is above the law,” was heard frequently. But other than his record-setting two impeachments, Trump has effectively evaded legal consequence. That’s changing. Now that Trump is a private citizen, these lawsuits and investigations will determine whether he will be held accountable for his illegal conduct and sedition.
The Money
New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (Ben Fractenberg / THE CITY)
1. Manhattan D.A.’s Criminal Investigations into Trump’s Finances
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has been investigating Trump, the Trump Organization and its officers since at least 2018. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and the former daughter-in-law of Trump’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg are both known to be cooperating with the D.A.’s office, and a grand jury is well under way. Court filings and witnesses have indicated that one of the main components of the investigation is whether the former president and his company falsely inflated the value of their properties for banks and insurers and then undervalued the properties to skimp on taxes. Both the grand jury and Cy Vance’s tenure are set to expire in November so we expect announcements, not to mention indictments, before then.
Where’s the Justice Department?
Attorney General Merrick Garland
While Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is on the periphery of many of these cases and investigations, the department is notably absent from any primary cases directed at Trump himself.
Indeed, in some cases such as the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, Garland and the department actually supported Trump against his accusers. In other matters directly involving the politicization of the department, Garland chose to let its inspector general take the point.
“Sometimes we have to make decisions about the law that we would never have made and that we strongly disagree with as a matter of policy,” he told a Senate committee in June.
In July, the department cleared the way for government officials to testify in the congressional election interference investigation. The department said that it “would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege with respect to communications with former President Trump and his advisers and staff on matters related to the committee’s proposed interviews.”
2. New York Attorney General’s Civil and Criminal Investigations
In a similar vein to the Manhattan D.A.’s office, New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating Trump for altering property values to avoid taxes. Although the case started in civil court, James announced in May that the probe expanded to a criminal investigation.
3. D.C. Civil Suit over Misuse of 2017 Inauguration Funds
For the 2017 inauguration, Trump raised a staggering and record-setting $107 million. The civil suit alleges that Trump used various schemes to siphon money from that inauguration fund and to direct it to the Trump businesses. In one example Trump’s inaugural committee allegedly paid $175,000 for event space at Trump’s own Washington hotel. That same day that same space was rented to a nonprofit for $5,000—in line with the hotel’s standard pricing guidelines. The suit alleges that the Trump nonprofit was used to enrich Trump’s personal businesses.
4. Mary Trump Fraud Litigation
Mary Trump
Michael Cohen once told Congress that in his experience, “Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes.” In niece Mary Trump’s case, however, the daughter of his dead brother Fred Trump Jr. alleges that Trump devalued the family assets to defraud her out of 10s of millions of her grandfather’s inheritance. Mary Trump—a psychologist and author of the bestselling Too Much and Never Enough—alleges that her aunt and uncles presented her with fraudulent valuations to hide the real value of the estate, ty keeping 10s of millions for themselves.
5.Panama Hotel Fraud and Tax Litigation
Ithaca Capital, a real estate holding company, alleges that it purchased a majority share of the Trump Hotel in Panama based on false and misleading information. Ithaca claims that Trump’s company misrepresented the hotel as profitable and artificially deflated the expenses. The company alleges that the Trump Organization failed to report or fully pay Social Security withholding for hotel employees or pay income taxes to the Panama government. Additionally, Trump’s management company paid itself more than what was listed on the financial statements all while the hotel sat virtually empty and went uncleaned for years.
6. Doe vs. The Trump Corporation Class Action
In a class-action suit filed in 2018 by the New York law firm of Kaplan, Hecker & Fink, the plaintiffs allege that from 2005 to 2015 Donald, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump used the Trump brand to promote and endorse various “Secrets of His Success”-style seminars, business opportunities and training programs through companies Trump claimed were independent of him. The suit alleges that the family allowed these companies to use Trump’s brand name and endorsements to defraud thousands of struggling Americans who invested in a range of exorbitantly priced offerings from these companies, knowing that the purchasers’ likelihood of success was minuscule. The family was paid millions by the companies, the suit claims.
The former Trump tower in Chicago (Trump Organization)
7. Chicago State’s Attorney Blocks a $1 Million Tax Refund
The Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx has filed a suit to block a $1 million property tax refund awarded in June by the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. The board found that the Cook County Board of Review overestimated the value of Trump’s Chicago skyscraper and overcharged his firm in 2011. The refund has been controversial after an initial investigation was undertaken in 2020 due to allegations that a Republican state official who was the executive director of the Property Tax Appeal Board pressured his staff to reduce the value of the tax bill to try and obtain the $1 million refund for Trump. That state official was let go in October 2020 and the vote was delayed until after Trump left office, but it still passed unanimously in favor of Trump.
The Lies
8. Atlanta Criminal Election Influence Investigation
On Feb. 10, 2021, the Fulton County district attorney’s office opened an investigation into attempted election interference, based on the widely reported recording of a phone call between Trump and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump was heard pressing the Georgian to overturn the election results saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” The case looked to be stalled until last month when the county provided additional funds to the D.A.’s office to help handle a severe backlog of cases.
Shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, D.C.’s Attorney General Karl Racine said, “I know that I’m looking at a charge under the D.C. code of inciting violence, and that would apply where there is a clear recognition that one’s incitement could lead to foreseeable violence.” Inciting a riot in Washington is a misdemeanor with a very high bar to be able to prove, but related lawsuits and the congressional Jan 6 investigation could help Racine with his case.
10. Incitement Suit for Jan 6 Capitol Attack
Ten Democratic members of Congress are suing Trump, Rudy Giuliani the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Warboys and the head of the Warboys, Enrique Tarrio. The suit says that Trump violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by inciting the rioters with the intent to prevent the members from discharging their official duty of approving the Electoral College vote. The 1871 act allows members of Congress to sue individuals who conspire to violently “molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede” the discharge of a public official’s duties. The suit was originally filed in February by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who later withdrew his name when he was appointed to lead the House select committee investigating the riot.
11. Eric Swalwell Incitement Suit for Jan. 6 Riots
On March 5, 2021, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) brought a suit against Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Like the suit brought by other members of Congress, Swalwell claims Trump violated the Ku Klux Klan Act and that Trump and the other defendants incited the violence in the Capitol. Swalwell’s suit additionally claims that the defendants should be held civilly liable for negligence because they committed criminal incitement under D.C.’s local code. Swalwell’s suit may lay the groundwork for the criminal charges that the D.C. attorney general announced he was pursuing.
12. Capitol Police Suit for Jan. 6 Riots
Two Capitol Police officers who were injured in the Jan. 6 riot have sued Trump, arguing that he was responsible for their physical and emotional injuries. They claim that Trump “inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted” the “insurrectionist mob” to force its way “over and past the plaintiffs and their fellow officers, pursuing and attacking them inside and outside the United States Capitol.”
13. NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund Voting Rights Case
The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and three Michigan voters in November sued Trump and his campaign alleging that Trump falsely spread stories of widespread fraud and pressured election officials to disenfranchise Black voters in Detroit and other cities with large Black populations, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Atlanta. The complaint was amended a month later to include the NAACP as a plaintiff and the Republican National Committee as a defendant.
Trump addressed supporters near the White House on Jan. 6. (Washington Post photo)
14. 572 Federal Cases Against Capitol Insurrectionists
While Trump has not been charged for his role in the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol, individual rioters have been. We are including the Capitol cases here because Trump’s role in the insurrection is at the very center of events. Many rioters have claimed that they went to Washington and marched on the Capitol because Trump told them to—and he may well end up being charged for his incitement of the riot.
Congressional Investigations
15. House Ways and Means Committee
On July 30, the Department of Justice reversed a Bill Barr-era decision, saying that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) had made valid arguments and the IRS must hand over to the committee Trump’s elusive tax returns, two years after Neal’s initial request.
16. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
A federal judge this week ruled that Trump’s accountants must turn over two years’ worth of his tax and financial records to the committee investigating whether Trump and his businesses profited from his service in the White House. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta approved a subpoena for Trump’s records covering 2017 and 2018 but turned down most of the panel’s request for similar information dating back to 2011. The decision is likely to be appealed by Trump’s lawyers and could also be challenged by the House panel.
17. House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees
The House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Deutsche Bank in 2019 seeking years of the president’s personal and business records. In a filing on May 17, the parties said they were “continuing to engage in negotiations intended to narrow or resolve their disputes and believe they are close to an agreement.”
18. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack
Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi established the committee after efforts to form a bipartisan commission were rebuffed by Republicans. She appointed seven Democrats and two Republicans: Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both of whom had voted to impeach Trump in January. Cheney has said the committee must focus on Trump’s role in the insurrection: “We must know what happened here at the Capitol. We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House—every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during, and after the attack.” The committee, led by Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, held its first public testimony on July 27.
19. Senate Judiciary Committee
Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is focusing on the Trump-era politicization of the Department of Justice, starting with the department’s acquisition of metadata related to some members of the House of Representatives—including Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was the chief prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment. The committee has since expanded its areas of interest to include the department’s role in the obstruction of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s investigation and its role in regard to Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election. The committee has taken testimony from former Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and Byung J. Pak, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta who abruptly resigned rather than say there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia.
Sexual Assaults
20. E. Jean Carroll Defamation Case
In 2019, journalist E. Jean Carroll wrote about her experience more than 20 years ago; she says Trump shoved her against the wall of a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room, forced himself on her and raped her. Trump accused Carroll of lying saying he didn’t even know her. Carroll disputed his claim with evidence in the form of a picture showing them together and by filing a defamation suit. Carroll’s civil defamation suit became complicated when William P. Barr’s Justice Department stepped in arguing that Trump was protected from being prosecuted for lying under the Federal Tort Claims Act which provides blanket immunity to federal employees who commit certain torts–including defamation–arising out of their official duties. The Justice Department also argued the case should be moved to federal court as it was a federal case as opposed to a state civil suit. In June, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department filed a reply continuing Barr’s arguments that the president is an employee under the act and that elected officials act within the scope of their employment when they respond to media inquiries.
21. Summer Zervos Defamation Suit
Before and after the 2016 presidential campaign, more than 25 women accused Trump of unwanted sexual conduct. Summer Zervos was one of Trump’s accusers. After Trump claimed she was lying, Zervos responded by filing a suit for defamation which was filed on January 17, 2017, three days before Trump took office. The case faced various delays during Trump’s presidency but on March 30, the New York Court of Appeals denied Trump’s ongoing argument that a state court could not hear a suit against a sitting president. In a one-sentence order, the court stated that the issue of Trump’s presidency was moot, and the case can now go forward.
Alison Greene is a political investigative journalist with a focus on election integrity and national intelligence issues. Follow her on Twitter @GrassrootsSpeak. Send tips to alisoniazoe@yahoo.com.
GOP takes down 2020 page touting Trump’s ‘historic peace agreement with the Taliban’
Peter Weber, Senior editor
One of the few areas of foreign policy President Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed on was ending the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan. With the Taliban’s effective capture of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, it appears the war is over two weeks before Biden’s deadline, with a chaotic final rush to the exit. Biden is standing by his decision to pull out U.S. forces and contractors, but the Republican Party appears to be tiptoeing backward from Trump’s role.
The Republican National Committee has removed a page from the 2020 campaign that says “Biden has had a history of pushing for endless wars” while “Trump has continued to take the lead in peace talks as he signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which would end America’s longest war,” The Washington Post‘s David Weigel noted Sunday.
Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, argued Sunday that the Trump administration had insisted the Taliban meet “a set of conditions” before the U.S. withdrew, and that the Biden administration “has failed.” As the Post‘s Paul Kane pointed out, it’s not clear Trump agrees with that.
In researching his new book, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, Spencer Ackerman spoke in 2020 with retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former Joint Special Operations Command and Afghanistan War commander, and asked him if the War on Terror had been worth it. “It would be impossible to argue that it was,” McChrystal answered, Ackerman writes at The Daily Beast. “The outcome just hasn’t been positive enough to argue that.”
“I think that we can never know a counterfactual, we can never know what would have happened if we’d gone in and done things differently, so I can’t argue it automatically would have been different,” McChrystal continued. “I think the things that were done with good intentions, mostly. But no. We just made so many fundamental mistakes in how we approached it that the question is, which again, you and I can’t answer: Had we gone in with a different mindset, a totally different approach, which would have been more of a counterinsurgency approach, building through the state, would it have worked? I can’t say it would’ve, but I think it would have been a better approach.”
Earth’s hottest month featured extreme heat, drought and wildfires
Andrew Freedman
Reproduced from NOAA; Chart: Connor Rothschild/Axios
July was the hottest month on record worldwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Why it matters: When it comes to establishing new climate milestones, the Earth is on a roll, thanks in large part to the burning of fossil fuels for energy, as well as deforestation.
The monthly temperature record news dropped in the same week as the dire climate report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
That report makes clear that global warming can no longer be viewed as a problem simply for future generations — its effects are already here.
The report was the climate science equivalent of the horror movie trope: “The phone call is coming from inside the house.”
Details: The Northern Hemisphere land-surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for July, at an unprecedented 2.77°F (1.54°C) above average, NOAA found.
The month was the hottest month on record for Asia, and second-hottest for Europe.
During July:
California saw a spate of wildfires worsen, as did Oregon, Montana and other western states. One of the fires that began in July, known as the Dixie Fire, is now California’s second-largest blaze on record.
Brutal heat waves hit Europe and Asia, and vast stretches of Siberia went up in flames, choking population centers with smoke and haze.
Turkey set record highs, which helped set the stage for wildfires that broke out in August. Parts of Japan broke temperature records, and Northern Ireland broke its all-time heat record two days in a row.
Yes, but: Climate scientists don’t pay very close attention to individual calendar months, but rather to long-term, 30-year-plus trends. But in both cases, the trend lines are clear: The world is getting warmer, quickly, as greenhouse gas concentrations in the air climb.
It is nearly certain that 2021 will rank among the top 10 warmest years on record, most likely at number 6 or 7 on NOAA’s list. That is despite the presence of a La Niña event in the tropical Pacific Ocean that helped keep global average temperatures lower for a time.
What they’re saying: “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe,” said NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad.
DeSantis’ Collateral Damage? Floridians and Conservatism.
Matt Lewis
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
Just as the GOP abandoned years of conservative dogma to become the party of porn, Putin, and protectionism, so too has its respect for local authority—once understood to be a foundational principle—become situational.
Take Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order banning local mask requirements and threatening to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members following the CDC’s new Delta variant guidance.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has similarly banned local mask mandates, which may be a lot of things but is not conservative.
For a proper explanation of how this flies in the face of conservatism, you only have to go back a few years ago, when then-Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan explained that “the [Catholic] principle of subsidiarity, which is really federalism” says the “government closest to the people governs best.” Ryan went on to say that this is how we can “advance the common good”—a term which has since been co-opted by the illiberal right to make the exact opposite argument—“by not having big government crowd out civic society, but by having enough space in our communities so that we can interact with each other, and take care of people who are down and out in our communities.”
Of course Ryan (who was then being heralded by the likes of Sarah Palin and Laura Ingraham) was merely advocating preexisting conservative concepts.
First, there is the “knowledge problem” that economist F.A. Hayek warned about. Central planners, he argued, can’t possibly know everything, and the arrogant assumption that they do is a “fatal conceit.” What is more, by imposing one-size-fits-all solutions, central planners deprive us of diversity and experimentation.
There is an argument that a real free market would simply let individuals decide for themselves whether to wear a mask. But that argument doesn’t translate well when you add in a contagious virus that impacts other individuals, including children—the “live and let live” formulation we apply to other circumstances doesn’t fit when “live and let die” may be the closer analogy.
Let’s be honest, the stakes are high. While it is clear that children are less susceptible to COVID than adults, we are seeing numerous reports of kids getting sick and even dying from it. According to The Atlantic, “as the hypertransmissible Delta variant hammers the United States, the greatest hardships are being taken on by the unvaccinated, a population that includes some 50 million children younger than age 12.” It’s too soon to know whether the Delta variant is making kids sicker than other variants, but it’s understandable why some communities want to err on the side of caution.
What we are left with is a prudential public policy decision: what level of government should be making that call?
Second, humans inherently trust their friends and neighbors more than distant bureaucrats. “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections,” wrote Edmund Burke, who many consider to be the founder of conservatism. “It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.”
If members of this first link believe wearing masks is the right thing to do to keep their children safe and alive, then who is DeSantis to tell them otherwise? Can someone 500 miles away in Tallahassee realistically decide what’s best for kids and parents in Miami? Why not allow diverse community leaders who live in the community to exercise autonomy and err on the side of safety?
To be sure, automatic deference to local rule runs into problems when that local government is discriminatory, reactionary, xenophobic, oppressive or corrupt. But requiring masks isn’t the same as Jim Crow, no matter what Marjorie Taylor Greene might say. Although there is much hand-wringing about the physical and psychological toll of wearing masks, the potential downside of allowing local authorities to mandate wearing them is discomfort; the potential downside of DeSantis’ order is sickness, an overloaded medical system and needless deaths.
As Republicans abandon conservative principles—that private businesses can make their own decisions and that a deference to local control is generally prudent—the question may be what lines are left to be crossed. In eschewing localism and conservatism, DeSantis is embracing populism.
DeSantis is a smart politician who’s transparently doing this to advance his own political career. He knows which way the wind is blowing in the GOP and he recognizes that masks have become a culture-war symbol—thus his attempt to double down on his anti-mask, tough-guy image. The only danger is that his bullying nature leaves conservatism, and Floridians, as collateral damage.
Tens of thousands of Northern Californians are likely to lose power Tuesday as gusty winds return to the region, potentially sparking more wildfires in a state where 
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20. E. Jean Carroll Defamation Case
