In an escalating dispute over the death penalty cases in Florida, Governor Rick Scott has removed Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala from 21 more cases from District 9 to a special prosecutor. The governor’s spokeswoman said in a statement “State Attorney Ayala’s complete refusal to consider capital punishment for the entirety of her term sends an unacceptable message that she is not interested in considering every available option in the fight for justice,” Ayala’s office, in response, is saying Scott blindsided her and is calling the decision an abuse of power.
All of the cases removed from Ayala have been reassigned to State Attorney Brad King. Ayala has filed a motion in state circuit court indicating her intent to challenge Scott’s decision and disputing the governor’s authority to remove her simply because he disagrees with her valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion.
Ayala, an elected prosecutor in central Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, took office in January, to begin a four-year term. In March, Ayala announced she would no longer seek the death penalty in any murder cases, including in the case of Markeith Loyd, who’s accused of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend and then Orlando police officer Debra Clayton. Scott removed Ayala from that case shortly after.
Her decision sparked an outcry with many Republican leaders claiming Ayala violated her oath of office by taking the death penalty off the table. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called Ayala’s move “a blatant neglect of duty and a shameful failure to follow the law,” while members of the state legislature threatened to reduce her office’s funding.
There were also some who backed Ayala’s decision including more than 100 judges, former prosecutors and legal experts who have expressed their support for Ayala, saying Scott has overstepped his legal authority by removing her from cases, and saying she has the legal discretion to not seek the death penalty.
Capital punishment remains legal in 31 states, but death penalty sentences have dropped dramatically over the past few decades. Of the nation’s 2,300 prosecutors, only 27 sentenced a person to death last year. Capital punishment in Florida has been on hold since Jan. 12 when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the state’s sentencing system as a violation of a defendant’s right to a jury trial. Florida’s old law allowed a jury to recommend the death penalty by a simple majority vote. Every other state with the death penalty except for Delaware requires juries to be unanimous in recommending a sentence of death.
In March, Governor Scott attempted to restart executions last month by signing a bill which took effect immediately-that requires jury recommendations to be unanimous before a death penalty can be imposed by a judge. After signing the legislature, Scott said he hopes that executions could soon resume in Florida. “My foremost concern is always for the victims and their loved ones,” Scott’s statement said. “I hope this legislation will allow families of these horrific crimes to get the closure they deserve.”
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U.S. District Court Judge David Hale in Louisville, Kentucky, has ruled that a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of inciting violence against protesters at a presidential campaign rally last year can move forward, denying a free speech argument against the suit.
The ruling opens the way for the lawsuit brought by three protesters to proceed through the legal system. The suit is against Trump, his campaign and three of his supporters. Trump’s lawyers had argued a free speech defense against the lawsuit, arguing that Trump did not intend for his supporters to use force.
Kentucky federal Judge David Hale said he found ample facts supporting the allegations that the protesters’ injuries were a ”direct and proximate result” of Trump’s actions. He wrote that “it is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force. … It was an order, an instruction, a command.” The protesters- two women and a teenage boy, were at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
Plaintiffs Henry Brousseau, Kashiya Nwanguma and Molly Shah say they were assaulted by Trump supporters at the March 2016 rally in Louisville as Trump repeatedly said “Get ‘em out.” The trio are suing Trump and his campaign for incitement to riot, negligence, as well as gross negligence and recklessness. They are seeking unspecified damages.
The attackers named in the lawsuit include Matthew Heimbach, a member of a white supremacist group, and Alvin Bamberger, a member of the Korean War Veterans Association in Ohio. A third defendant has not been identified. In a video of the incident that went viral shortly after it happened, Heimbach and Bamberger are seen pushing Nwanguma down an aisle as Trump repeatedly says “Get ‘em out, Get ‘em out of here!”
Hale said the removal of Nwanguma, an African American woman, was “particularly reckless.” The judge did not remove allegations that Nwanguma was the victim of racial, ethnic and sexist slurs from the rally crowd. He wrote, “While the words themselves are repulsive, they are relevant to show the atmosphere in which the alleged events occurred.”
The judge dismissed part of the suit claiming that Trump and his campaign were “vicariously liable” for assault and battery. Hale said that the men accused of attacking the protesters were not employed by the Trump campaign, nor were they under Trump’s direct control.
Alvin Bamberger, said in a letter cited by the judge: “Trump kept saying, ‘get them out, get them out,’ and people in the crowd began pushing and shoving the protesters. I physically pushed a young woman.”
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At least 86 people have died, including 20 children, and hundreds wounded – in a suspected chemical weapons attack in the northern province of the rebel controlled city of Idlib. The attack has been described as the largest chemical attack in Syria since 2013. The United States, France and Britain have accused the Syrian government of carrying out the attack and have proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning it.
U.N. war crimes investigators have said that if the suspected chemical attack is confirmed, that it constitutes a “serious violation of international law.” Russia had initially claimed that the chemical attack was actually gases that were released after an airstrike hit a depot where rebels were making chemical weapons. Later, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the gassing of civilians a “dangerous and monstrous crime” but did not name anyone as the perpetrator.
Syrian journalist Hadi Abdullah, who was a victim of the attack that occurred at dawn on Tuesday, described it in an interview. “We were attacked with four strikes” “When people went to help, they were choked with the poisoned gas.” Abdullah described his symptoms of a massive headache with blaring pain in his eyes, trouble breathing and a persistent runny nose as minor in comparison to others.
He described the horrifying scene in the aftermath of the strike as chaos with crying, people being stripped and washed in the streets and children suffocating and dying in the streets as white liquid frothed from their open mouths. He said many were wandering the streets in search of loved ones-not knowing if they had been taken for medical treatment or were already dead. In one case, he said, an entire family – parents and three children, were found dead in their beds from the initial alleged chemical attack.
According to Syrian Dr. Khaled Al Milaji- the initial medical summaries following the attack indicated that the substance used was “more than just chlorine,” and that they strongly suspect “sarin or worse” was also utilized. Sarin is next to impossible to detect, due to its clear, tasteless and non-odorous nature. Atropine – a medication used intravenously to treat certain types of nerve agent exposure – was distributed as widely as possible, but the best chance one had of survival was being relocated to safer area in the northern part of the region.
Just days before the chemical attack, the Trump administration said it would no longer seek the ouster of Bashar al-Assad but afterwards, President Trump said that it had altered his position on Syria and its leader Bashar al-Assad. A mere 63 hours after the chemical attack, understandably shaken by photos of infants and children dying- President Trump gave the order to unleash 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Al Shayrat airfield- where attack was launched from.
The intent of the US strike was to “send a message” to the Assad regime. Russia’s Foreign Ministry quickly condemned the U.S. assault, saying it threatened international security. Russia-the Syrian regime’s main ally, has pledged to help strengthen Syria’s air defenses and suspend its “deconfliction agreement,” which prevents Russian and U.S. planes from coming into conflict over Syria.
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In an effort to broaden the company’s “social interaction” with our clients and FaceBook fans, Daily Trivia Questions are posted on both of our business pages. Here are the weekly standings for this past week, and the winner of the Sunday night Weekly Drawing for an AmEx gift card!
Congratulations – To this past week’s Trivia Contest Winner!! Our latest contest winner for the weekly FaceBook HealthInsurance4Everyone/Health & Life Solutions, LLC Trivia Contest, drawn randomly by computer late Sunday evening, April 9th, 2017 was:
SHEILA CARVELL
Chatsworth, GA
Winner Of A $25.00 AmEx Gift Card
Each day, fans of either of our company FaceBook pages (HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions LLC) are able to test their skills with our Daily TRIVIA QUESTION. The first 20 winners who post the correct answer to the TRIVIA QUESTION, will then get entered into the weekly drawing held late on Sunday evenings for a $25.00 Am Ex Gift. Card
Weekly Gift Card winners will be posted in our blog at this site. Remember to become a FaceBook “fan” on either of our company pages to enter and post your answers.
Here are the daily contestants from last week’s Trivia Contest that were entered into the Sunday drawing:
4/3/17
Shelby Lynn
Anna Nichols
Samantha Brwn Ramos
Valerie Kuehn
Sheila Carvell
Angela Hendricks
Becca Dotsun
Jennie Gallagher
Luis Vazquez
Eva Biggs
Kimberly Snyder
Derek Jennings
Shelley LaClear
Christy Hawkes
Althea Thomas
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Nai Merri
Glenna Zanaglio
Megan Rhyne
Tina Auth
Kaitlyn Rutherford
Brandy Marie Williams
Crystal Young
4/4/17
Vickie Gipson
Valerie Kuehn
Brittany Marie Thompson
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Angela Nicole
Lori Capobianco
Sarah Harrison
Katrina Worford
Jennifer Mason
Shelby Lynn
Chris Maxwell
Sherri Kidwell
Cheryl Hall
Rhonda Nicholson
Dean Bruss
Tiffany Borek
Brandy Marie Williams
Dena Baji
Emily Rice Bowersock
Caitlyn Johnson
4/5/17
Tonya Velazquez
Trisha Musgrave
Sara Biason
Megan Rhyne
Brooke Scott
Paula Rousseau
Kristina Harris
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Jonnalyn Gates
Valerie Kuehn
Jennifer Downing
Timothy Simpson
Teena Sierson
Rhonda Nicholson
Samantha Brwn Ramos
Phyllis Hines
Lori Capobianco
Jennifer Mason
Tracy Shafer
Karen Rimiller Presley
Angelique Drummond
Brandy Marie Williams
Candace Candy Lynn
Jessica Davis
4/6/17
Cheryl Hall
Glenna Zanaglio
Preeti Chand
Tonya Valezquez
Jennifer Ramlet
Anna Nichols
Shelby Lynn
Allison Frederick
Jennifer Sparks
Dean Bruss
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Amanda Kyrie’ Ayala
Shelley LaClear
Sheila Carvell
Karron Redfield
Kim Floyd
Ashley Nichole
Brittany Michelle
Crystal Gipson
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Emily Rice Bowersock
Kimberly Snyder
4/7/17
Christy Hawkes
Kaitlyn Rutherford
Brandy Marie Williams
Kendra George
Jamie Shapiro
Kimberly Taylor Hall
Misty Shallcross
Karen Jaras
Angela Nicole
Kayla Clemons
Jennifer Sparks
Jade Good
Tina Auth
Sherri Kidwell
Stephanie Beckwith
Nitasha Shank
Pamela White Brearley
Becca Dotsun
Sandra Sue Blanton
Brooke Scott
Janice Cash
4/8/17
Shelby Lynn
Valerie Kuehn
Jennifer Mason
Hilda Veronica Torres
Melinda Lee
Nelle Bailey
Brandy Marie Williams
Kimberly Snyder
Jade Good
Melissa Barnes Walker
Kelsey Staples
Amy Chavis
Paula Rousseau
Juanita Williams-Jones
Roberta Thomas
Misty Shallcross
Zack Sudler
Crystal Young
Lisa Back
Heather Jacques
4/9/17
Juanita Williams-Jones
Jakara Jackson
Stephanie Beckwith
Kimberly Snyder
Sheila Carvell
Holly Cajigas
Tina Marie
Rebecca Fauteux
D.b. Snyder
Dean Bruss
Mya Murphy
Kathleen Hickman
Nelle Bailey
Brandi Kerr
Thomas Ryan
Carla S-Paige Williams
Dawn Raasch
Andrew W Sauer
Taschia Miller
Nai Merri
Be sure to watch both of our FaceBook pages for your chance to win and enter again next week, with questions posted daily on HealthInsurance4Everyone or at Health & Life Solutions, LLC!!
Remember that if you try your hand at answering the Trivia Question several days each week, your odds of winning the Sunday weekly drawing are much better. You may also find that if you “Like” both of the business pages, you will receive faster notifications of the other players as they post their answers to compete with you!
—————————————————————-
At Health Insurance 4 Everyone, we not only want to improve our customer service but also interact with our customers on a social media level that wasn’t available before. Interested in connecting with us? Look us up on….
Twitter: Healthinsurane4 (Follow Us On Twitter To Receive Faster Notifications When Daily Trivia Questions Posted, & To Be Immediately Notified When Weekly AmEX & HI4Eshop Gift Card Winners Are Announced!!) 
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Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was arrested on charges related to the bribery scandal that led to her impeachment. Park faces 13 charges in total, including bribery, abuse of power and the leaking of state secrets. She has not been formally indicted yet but prosecutors can detain her for up to 20 days before formally charging her.
Park was removed from office March 10th, stripping her of presidential immunity after South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld a decision to impeach her for alleged corruption.
The scandal has dominated the headlines in South Korea since late last year and sparked mass protests, many calling for her impeachment. The controversy centered around Park’s friend and close adviser, Choi Soon-sil, who is alleged to have had significant and inappropriate influence over the former president. Choi is on trial for abuse of power and fraud.
Among other accusations, Park is accused of helping extort some $38 million from Samsung and a total of $70 million from South Korean companies for the private slush fund of her friend and confidant Choi Soon-sil. Park is also accused to leaking state secrets to Choi. Lee Jae-yong, the former head of Samsung is also being held in connection to the same corruption scandal. Lee is accused of approving the millions in bribes to Choi.
The former president continued to deny all wrongdoing during a 14-hour interrogation last week, leading prosecutors to ask for a warrant for her arrest. They said they were concerned Park would destroy evidence if she remained at large. The 65-year-old former president was taken to a detention center outside Seoul, the same detention center where Choi Soon-Sil and Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung are both being held. If convicted, Park could face up to 10 years in prison.
Park becomes the third former president in South Korean history to face the possibility of a prison sentence. Two other former leaders, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, were charged with improperly collecting millions from businesses while in office. Both were later pardoned after short jail stints.
Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office released a statement regarding the arrest. “The suspect abused the mighty power and position as President to take bribes from companies and infringed upon the freedom of corporate management and leaked important confidential official information.”
Park Geun-hye was the nation’s first female president and the daughter of the former president Park Chung-hee. Park’s mother was killed in 1974 in an assassination attempt that targeted her husband. Park was regarded as First Lady after her mother’s death. Park’s father, Chung-hee, was gunned down by his own intelligence chief in 1979. After her father’s killing, Park Geun-hye left the presidential Blue House and secluded herself from the public eye. She entered politics in the late 1990s — when public nostalgia for her father emerged after the country’s economy was hit hard by the Asian financial crisis.
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The U.S.-backed Iraqi military’s ground campaign against ISIS to retake west Mosul was mistakenly reported as being halted after details emerged about U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on March 17th killed over 200 people in a single day. The U.S.-led coalition has admitted launching the airstrikes that targeted a crowded section of the Mosul al-Jadida neighborhood. The March 17 strikes appear to be among the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Amnesty International has accused Iraqi officials of advising residents not to flee amid the airstrikes and ground offensive. Amnesty claims officials dropped leaflets and broadcast over the radio that residents should stay in their houses. Amnesty said, “The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area, indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties.
Disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law and can constitute war crimes.” Many have questioned whether the U.S. military has loosened the rules of engagement that seek to limit civilian casualties. The Pentagon maintains the rules have not changed.
Despite reports of the ground campaign being suspended, heavy fighting continues in west Mosul. The campaign for West Mosul has involved block-by-block fighting in an urban environment. ISIS has been using snipers and bombs against the US backed Iraqi military.
Though not confirmed, it’s been reported that Major Gen. Maan al-Saadi, a commander of the Iraqi special-forces, said that the civilian deaths were a result of a coalition airstrike that his men had called in, to take out snipers on the roofs of three houses in a neighborhood called Mosul Jidideh. General Saadi said the special forces were unaware that the houses’ basements were filled with civilians seeking refuge. Witnesses have said that in an area where apartment blocks were reduced to rubble, at least 50 bodies could be seen, including those of pregnant women and children.
The Pentagon announced that the incident was under investigation and a day later confirmed that the coalition had targeted Islamic State fighters and equipment in the area on March 17, “at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties”. The military is investigating at least a dozen other reports of civilian casualties in Mosul.
Iraqi Vice-President Osama Nujaifi, a Mosul native, has called the strike a “humanitarian catastrophe” that killed hundreds. He blamed the US-led coalition and federal police for using excessive force and called for an emergency session of Parliament to address the incident.
Prior to this incident, the Pentagon had said that there have been 220 civilian deaths since the campaign against the Islamic State began in 2014, but independent monitoring groups say that there have been over 2700.
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In an effort to broaden the company’s “social interaction” with our clients and FaceBook fans, Daily Trivia Questions are posted on both of our business pages. Here are the weekly standings for this past week, and the winner of the Sunday night Weekly Drawing for an AmEx gift card!
Congratulations – To this past week’s Trivia Contest Winner!! Our latest contest winner for the weekly FaceBook HealthInsurance4Everyone/Health & Life Solutions, LLC Trivia Contest, drawn randomly by computer late Sunday evening, April 2nd, 2017 was:
KAREN BONDEHAGEN
Fort Atkinson, WI
Winner Of A $25.00 AmEx Gift Card
Each day, fans of either of our company FaceBook pages (HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions LLC) are able to test their skills with our Daily TRIVIA QUESTION. The first 20 winners who post the correct answer to the TRIVIA QUESTION, will then get entered into the weekly drawing held late on Sunday evenings for a $25.00 Am Ex Gift. Card
Weekly Gift Card winners will be posted in our blog at this site. Remember to become a FaceBook “fan” on either of our company pages to enter and post your answers.
Here are the daily contestants from last week’s Trivia Contest that were entered into the Sunday drawing:
3/27/17
Dean Bruss
Vickie Gipson
Crystal Young
Alisa Jones
Tonya Velazquez
Valerie Kuehn
Christina Domingue
Cheryl Hall
Christine Acoba
Teena Sierson
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Tracy Shafer
Jonnalyn Gates
Andrea Timms
Tera Wardrip
Jennifer Sparks
Shona Ortenblad
Johnna Loth
Phyllis Hines
Jane Peterson
3/28/17
Susanne Killion
Rebecca Fauteux
Sheila Carvell
Juanita Williams-Jones
Kimberly Foster
Phyllis Hines
Rhonda Nicholson
Julie Cutshaw
Kristina Rosson
Heather Jacques
Jennifer Kinner
Steve Hardy
Brandi Chaney
Dean Bruss
Nelle Bailey
Sherri Kidwell
Melissa Turner Baker
Lisa Dion
Kathleen Hickman
Kevin Cusack
3/29/17
Sandra Sue Blanton
Jennifer Downing
Jane Peterson
Justin Wilcox
Sheila Vives
Kim Floyd
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Demetris Crutcher
Mary Achio
Stephanie Caldwell
Alysia Jackson
Alexandria Fields
Anna Nichols
Amber McGrath
Eva Biggs
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Anne Delos Reyes-Villafuerte
Christina Domingue
Carla S-Paige Williams
Kristina Harris
Kayla Hernandez
3/30/17
Jennifer Ramlet
Christy Hawkes
Sheila Carvell
Brandy Marie Williams
Jennifer Sparks
Kathleen Hickman
Maria Bouchard
Dean Bruss
Althea Thomas
Kayla Clemons
Michelle Hughes
Cheryl Ralley-Messick
Cheryl Hall
Beth Cleveland
Lori Capobianco
Christine Domingue
Angela Hendricks
Tera Wardrip
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Melissa D’Ornellas Curtis
Alisa Jones
Alicia Johnson
Lauren Bradley
Glenna Zanaglio
3/31/17
Brittany Marie Thompson
Kimberly Snyder
Dean Bruss
Sheila Carvell
Lauren Bradley
Tammy Alcorta
Kristina Harris
Melissa Barnes Walker
Christy Hawkes
Angela Hendricks
Jodi Stevens
Rhonda Nicholson
Phyllis Hines
Amber McGrath
Brandy Marie Williams
Allyson Becker
Abby Cox
Nitasha Shank
Kayla Clemons
Belinda Haas
Ashley Stamey Phillips
4/1/17
Kristina Rosson
Preeti Chand
Bobbie J Rittenhouse
Jamie Shapiro
Alicia Dansby
Timothy Simpson
Mya Murphy
Lauren Bradley
Cassandra Berholtz
Linda Pearson
Althea Thomas
Kayla Hernandez
Christina Dimingue
Sherri Kidwell
Thomas Ryan
Lotorya Patrick
Angela Nicole
Megan Rhyne
Sheila Carvell
Dana Dilaura
4/2/17
Jennifer Ramlet
Cheryl Hall
Joanie Waterman
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Nai Merri
Karen Bondehagen
Jacqlyn Gummert
Kayla Clemons
Brandi Chaney
Geri Rus
Holly Cajigas
Mary Achio
Jean Simmons Homfeld
Rachel Munoz Navarro
Lisa Dion
Tina Casto-Shafer
Trish Marks
Chris Maxwell
Sarah Harrison
Michelle Hughes
Be sure to watch both of our FaceBook pages for your chance to win and enter again next week, with questions posted daily on HealthInsurance4Everyone or at Health & Life Solutions, LLC!!
Remember that if you try your hand at answering the Trivia Question several days each week, your odds of winning the Sunday weekly drawing are much better. You may also find that if you “Like” both of the business pages, you will receive faster notifications of the other players as they post their answers to compete with you!
—————————————————————-
At Health Insurance 4 Everyone, we not only want to improve our customer service but also interact with our customers on a social media level that wasn’t available before. Interested in connecting with us? Look us up on….
Twitter: Healthinsurane4 (Follow Us On Twitter To Receive Faster Notifications When Daily Trivia Questions Posted, & To Be Immediately Notified When Weekly AmEX & HI4Eshop Gift Card Winners Are Announced!!) 
Click-On for LinkedIn To Follow Our Posts: LinkedIn
Like us on facebook: HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions, LLC
Over 54,000 Combined Fans/Followers To Our Social Media Sites, & We’re Growing Daily!
Follow Mark Shuster, Founder/Owner at Health & Life Solutions, LLC for daily health tips!
Mark Shuster FaceBook Link
Follow our word press blog and read about everything from health insurance and reform news to healthy living and current events!
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Oil could start flowing through the highly contested $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline as early this week. The company building the Dakota Access pipeline says the project remains on track to start moving oil this week despite recent “coordinated physical attacks” along the line. Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners didn’t detail the attacks, but said they “pose threats to life, physical safety and the environment.”
Two American Indian tribes have battled the $3.8 billion pipeline in court for months, arguing it’s a threat to water. The company has said the pipeline will be safe. An appeals court rejected the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Nations’ request for an emergency injunction to stop the pipeline from becoming operational.
Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia cleared the way for the startup, when he turned down two North Dakota tribes’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent oil from flowing under Lake Oahe.
The 1,172-mile, four-state pipeline constructed almost entirely on private land is 99 percent complete, but a federal easement which was obtained in February-was required in order to finish the final 1,100-foot stretch in North Dakota. When complete, the pipeline will move crude oil from the Bakken field in North Dakota to a shipping point in Patoka, Illinois via 30-inch diameter pipes, and then connect to an existing reconfigured pipeline.
The pipeline consists of more than 700 miles of existing pipeline that has been converted to crude oil service from Patoka to Nederland, Texas. The two pipelines are expected to be in service in the second quarter of 2017.
The approval in February was granted after President Trump issued an executive order to expedite the process. The US Army Corps of Engineers originally granted the easement for the pipeline in July, but withdrew it in December under political pressure from thousands of protesters camped near the construction site at Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
The Corps abandoned the additional environmental review launched in December and argued in court that it undertook a two-year review of the project’s impact on water quality and historic relics, including 389 meetings with 55 tribes. The company rerouted the pipeline 140 times in response to concerns raised.
Greenpeace and a group of more than 160 scientists dedicated to conservation and preservation of threatened natural resources and endangered species have spoken out against the pipeline. Many Sioux tribes say that the pipeline threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance.
Protests at sites in North Dakota began in the spring of 2016 and drew indigenous people from throughout North America creating the largest gathering of Native Americans in the past hundred years. In January, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department released figures showing the state and local policing of the protests have cost $22.3 million since August 10 2016.
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President Trump’s proposed budget has received criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The 2018 budget calls for an unprecedented $54 billion increase in military spending while slashing environmental, housing, diplomatic and educational programs. It also calls for a 31% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency and the elimination of 3,200 jobs. If approved, the EPA’s budget would become the smallest it’s been in 40 years.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Agriculture Department took the hardest hits. The State Department would see a 29% decrease in funding, eliminating climate-change prevention programs, reducing funding for U.N. peacekeeping, reducing funding for development banks and reducing most cultural-exchange programs.
The Agriculture Department would lose 4.7 billion (21%) of its funding, eliminating the $200 million McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program, eliminating the $500 million Water and Wastewater loan and grant program, reducing the budget for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition assistance from $6.4 billion to $6.2 billion and cuts $95 million from the Rural Business and Cooperative Services program.
The budget proposes cutting 6.2 billion in funding (13%) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development-eliminating the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program and eliminates the $35 million of funding for Section 4 Community Development and Affordable Housing. The cuts would also eliminate the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the Choice Neighborhoods program and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program.
The Department of Health and Human Services would lose 18% of its funding. The Education Department would see $9 billion (14%) cut from its funding, with a decrease of $3.7 billion in grants for teacher training, after-school and summer programs, and aid programs to first-generation and low-income students. While “school choice” programs would receive $1.4 billion more in funding, increasing the budget for charter schools and spending $1 billion to encourage districts to allow federal dollars meant for low-income students to follow those students to the public school of their choice.
The Department of Labor stands to lose 2.6 billion (21%) in funding which would eliminate the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps low-income seniors find work. The budget cuts would close poor-performing centers for Job Corps, a job-training program for disadvantaged youth and eliminate grants that help nonprofit groups and public agencies pay for safety and health training.
The proposal also eliminates funding for 19 agencies including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public radio and TV stations nationwide; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Legal Services Corporation, which funds free legal aid nationwide.
These cuts are not set in stone just yet but they do show where President Trump’s priorities are. Congress will still have to draft a formal budget and Trump’s proposed budget is expected to face fierce opposition in Congress. Congress completely by-passed President Obama’s budget proposal last year while drafting the formal budget.
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A federal grand jury has indicted nine high-ranking active and retired Navy members as part of an investigation into a bribery scandal known as “Fat Leonard.” The Justice Department says the nine have been charged with accepting luxurious dinners, trips, gifts and the service of sex workers as bribes in exchange for handing over classified military information to Singapore-based defense contractor Leonard Francis.
Twenty-seven people have been charged with crimes since the investigation became public in 2013, including the nine Navy officers indicted this month. Authorities say that the case is still unfolding and that more than 200 people — including 30 admirals — have come under scrutiny.
Known as “Fat Leonard” for his 6ft 3inch, 350-pound physique, Francis has pleaded guilty to bribing “scores” of Navy officials for over a decade with prostitutes, cash, hedonistic parties and other gifts. In exchange, according to federal prosecutors, the officials provided Francis with classified or inside information that enabled his firm, Glenn Marine Defense Asia, to gouge the Navy out of tens of millions of dollars. Leonard also plead guilty to padding invoices for services not rendered so that some of his navy contacts could pocket the money for themselves.
In June 2016, Robert Gilbeau became the first active-duty Navy admiral in modern history to be convicted of a felony. He is awaiting sentencing. In January, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Gentry Debord was sentenced to 30 months in prison, ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and $37,000 in restitution to the U.S. Navy. Debord, 41, plead guilty in October 2016 to accepting bribes in the form of cash, luxury hotels and prostitutes from Leonard Glenn Francis. The fraud occurred from November 2007 to January 2013, while Debord was a supply officer aboard the U.S.S. Essex.
Others charged are current or former U.S. Navy officials, including Commander Bobby Pitts, Captain Daniel Dusek, Commander Michael Misiewicz, Lt. Commander Todd Malaki, Commander Jose Luis Sanchez, former NCIS Supervisory Special Agent John Beliveau II, Petty Officer First Class Daniel Layug and Paul Simpkins, a former DoD civilian employee who oversaw contracting in Singapore.
Dusek, Misiewicz, Malaki, Beliveau, Sanchez and Layug have also pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme. On Jan. 21, Layug was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a $15,000 fine; on Jan. 29, Malaki was sentenced to 40 months in prison and to pay $15,000 in restitution to the Navy and a $15,000 fine; on March 25, Dusek was sentenced to 46 months in prison and to pay $30,000 in restitution to the Navy and a $70,000 fine; on April 29, Misiewicz was sentenced to 78 months in prison and to pay a fine of $100,000 and to pay $95,000 in restitution to the Navy; and on Oct. 14, 2015, Beliveau was sentenced to serve 144 months in prison and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy. Sanchez awaits sentencing. Pitts was charged in May 2016 and his case remains pending.
Military personnel found guilty of serious misconduct are usually demoted and forced to retire – and because pension values are based on rank, losing a star or a stripe leads to a partial reduction in their pension. Seven Navy officers who have pleaded guilty in the corruption and bribery scandal are reportedly still eligible for generous taxpayer-funded retirement benefits. Disgraced Navy admiral Robert Gilbeau has already begun collecting $10,000 a month.
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