Trump administration

POLITICS 05/11/2018 02:55 am ET One scientist calls the decision to cancel the program a "grave mistake." By Mary Papenfuss The Trump administration has quietly eliminated funding for NASA’s research program that tracks greenhouse gases around the world. According to Science, the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) tracks the world’s flow of carbon dioxide from space. Such a system is critical to monitoring any improvements — or failures — in attempts to cut the pollution linked to climate change. NASA spokesman Steve Cole told the magazine that the program was canceled due to ”budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget.” Usually, Congress battles such cuts, but this time, there was simply no mention of the program’s $10 million annual budget in the White House budget. Although existing grants will finish, Cole said, no new projects will be undertaken. NASA’s budget report for fiscal year 2019 … [Read more...] about Trump Administration Axes Funding For NASA System That Monitors Greenhouse Gases

POLITICS 12/05/2018 07:39 pm ET In the past, unaccompanied migrant children who showed up with a lawyer weren’t turned away from seeking asylum, one attorney said. But now they are. By Roque Planas, Elise Foley, and Alex Domash U.S. officials turned away seven unaccompanied minors attempting to make asylum claims at the border Tuesday night, immigrant rights lawyers said, the latest escalation in the ongoing battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to deter migrants, including kids, from showing up at U.S. ports of entry to legally seek safety from persecution in their home countries. In recent months, President Donald Trump’s administration has increasingly turned away asylum-seekers and told them to come back later, a system the government calls “metering.” In the past, one surefire way for unaccompanied minors to be allowed to cross the border and start an asylum claim was for a legal worker to escort them. But U.S. Customs and … [Read more...] about Trump Administration Is Turning Child Migrants Away At The Border, Lawyers Say

The Trump administration is considering ways to require imported automobiles to meet stricter environmental standards in order to protect U.S. carmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Citing unnamed senior administration and industry officials, the Journal said President Donald Trump had asked several agencies to pursue plans to use existing laws to subject foreign-made cars to stiff emission standards. The initiative was still in the planning stage, with officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency working to craft a legal justification for the policy, the paper said. It said there were hurdles to its implementation, including opposition from some in the administration. The Journal said the White House did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report. The EPA and the Commerce Department, which the newspaper said was also involved in the effort, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. … [Read more...] about WSJ: Trump Administration Mulls Stiffer Rules for Auto Imports

By The Washington Post | PUBLISHED: April 10, 2018 at 5:15 am | UPDATED: April 10, 2018 at 5:17 am By Nick Anderson | The Washington Post The Trump administration is seeking to pry the lid off some of the most closely guarded secrets in college admissions, including the mechanics of how Harvard University selects a class. The Justice Department wants a federal court to allow internal information about Harvard admissions to be made public through filings in a lawsuit challenging the university’s use of race and ethnicity in weighing tens of thousands of applicants each year. A hearing on the Harvard case is scheduled Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston. The plaintiffs, called Students for Fair Admissions, accuse the university of discrimination against Asian Americans and have gathered evidence through the pretrial phase of discovery that they say will substantiate their claim. Harvard denies the allegation and is seeking to prevent public disclosure of any evidence its … [Read more...] about Trump administration seeks to uncover secrets about selective college admissions

By Tatiana Sanchez | [email protected] | Bay Area News Group April 11, 2018 at 9:20 am SAN FRANCISCO — In its latest effort to crack down on sanctuary policies across the country, the Trump administration on Wednesday will ask the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a federal court order blocking the president from withholding funding from sanctuary cities. In a milestone case that put Santa Clara County and San Francisco at the center of a national immigration showdown last year, Judge William Orrick halted President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping so-called sanctuary cities and counties of federal funding. “Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the President disapproves,” Orrick said in November after permanently blocking the executive order. Santa Clara County was the first in the … [Read more...] about Trump administration to appeal court ruling favoring sanctuary cities