FEMA Director Was AWOL During Texas Floods. Check this one out:
On a Friday morning in July, shortly after deadly Independence Day floods swept through parts of Texas Hill Country packed with camps full of young children, the Federal Emergency Management Agency scrambled to coordinate a response. The next afternoon, teams readied search-and-rescue crews, imagery and other emergency equipment. Then their hustling hit a roadblock.
They couldn’t reach a key U.S. official needed to deploy the resources, one required by law to be accessible during emergencies: FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson.
Just a few weeks earlier, his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, instituted a policy requiring her approval for any expenditure over $100,000. That meant, in order to deploy resources to Texas, FEMA officials needed Richardson to get those requests in front of Noem – fast.
But for about 24 hours in the early aftermath of one of the nation’s deadliest flash-flooding events in decades, key staff members could not reach FEMA’s top official, according to eight current and former officials with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation. The agency’s typical posture is to get resources to a disaster zone before state and local governments even have to ask for them, current and former officials have said, because minutes can cost lives.
“Nobody could get ahold of him for hours and hours,” said one D.C.-based senior official who coordinated search-and-rescue resources.
After the disaster, Richardson told House lawmakers at a July subcommittee hearing on FEMA’s response that he had been in constant contact with administration and Texas officials from his truck while on vacation with his sons. Two people with knowledge of the situation said teams at FEMA couldn’t get in touch with him until Sunday evening.
Oh, he was in a truck. With his boys. That’s understandable. Who could be expected to respond to a life-and-death emergency under those circumstances? Like James Comey is alleged to have done, he lied to Congress about it.
Trump Administration Leaks Service Records Of New Jersey Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee. Perfectly normal:
A branch of the National Archives released a mostly unredacted version of Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s military records to Nicholas De Gregorio, an ally of Jack Ciattarelli, her GOP opponent in the New Jersey governor’s race. The disclosure potentially violates the Privacy Act of 1974 and exemptions established under the Freedom of Information Act.
The documents, which were also obtained by CBS News, appear to show that the National Personnel Records Center, a wing of the National Archives and Records Administration charged with maintaining personnel records for service members and civil servants of the U.S. government, released Sherrill’s full military file — almost completely unredacted. CBS News discovered the egregious blunder while investigating whether Sherrill was involved in the 1994 Naval Academy scandal, in which more than 100 midshipmen were implicated in cheating on an exam. Sherrill was not accused of cheating and said her only involvement was not informing on her fellow classmates.
The documents included Sherrill’s Social Security number, which appears on almost every page, home addresses for her and her parents, life insurance information, Sherrill’s performance evaluations and the nondisclosure agreement between her and the U.S. government to safeguard classified information.
De Gregorio, a Marine veteran who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for Congress in New Jersey, told CBS News: “Given the charged political environment … Rep. Sherrill will no doubt seek to paint my actions as nefarious and the records as leaked by the Trump Administration to injure her, which as we both know is completely and totally false on both counts.”
No doubt. Because De Gregorio is a lying liar.
The Largest Group Of ICE Detainees? Immigrants with no criminal record:
Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to data released by the government. The number of people with no criminal history arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and detained by the Trump administration has now surpassed the number of those charged with crimes.
Ice, the federal agency most heavily relied upon by Donald Trump to carry out the US president’s mass deportation campaign, released its latest numbers on Thursday.
According to the official data, 16,523 people in immigration detention with no criminal record were arrested by Ice, compared to 15,725 who do have a criminal record and 13,767 with pending criminal charges.
The numbers released by Ice mark the first time under the second Trump administration that the total number of immigrants with no criminal history in detention has surpassed that of people convicted of a crime or with pending charges.
The agency’s data also contradicts Trump administration officials’ repeated narrative that the chief focus of the White House’s agenda and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dragnet is dangerous criminals.
“These are hardworking people. These are not criminals,” said a former homeland security civil rights official when asked about the increase in the arrests of immigrants with no criminal history. The official requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. “I’m sure the Trump administration is defining ‘criminal’ really widely to say that if they are here undocumented, then they are a ‘criminal’. But these are not bad people.”
Being undocumented in the US is not a crime. Rather, it is a civil infraction.
Too bad that nothing the President does is a crime. The Supreme Court said so. Gave carte blanche to the country’s Serial Criminal-In-Chief.
Could Delaware See Progress On Affordable Housing?:
A fight between state and local officials over control of land use decisions could continue on a new battleground as Gov. Matt Meyer says he will push localities to allow denser types of housing in many areas of the state.
Meyer told Spotlight Delaware last week that he may do so in order to help solve what he said is Delaware’s affordable housing crisis. He said he is willing to force uncooperative local officials to “act in a way that delivers the housing and shelter needs to Delawareans.”
Despite his stern words, Meyer does not think he will actually need to strip local governments of land use authority, because he has a plan to work collaboratively to get affordable housing built.
Among the most commonly cited barriers to building more affordable housing is restrictive land use laws that do not allow developers to build the kinds of smaller, denser housing developments that are typically more affordable.
These laws make it difficult for developers to build anything except spread-out single family homes that are too expensive for working Delawareans, Delaware State Housing Authority Director Matthew Heckles said. He said those spaced-out, single-family homes serve retirees or well-off workers from out of state.
But that is “not housing that is serving working families here in Delaware,” Heckles said.
In response to this trend, Meyer recently signed a bill directing the Delaware State Housing Authority to create a pilot program that will provide free technical assistance to municipalities interested in allowing more affordable housing in their zoning and land-use codes.
As part of the pilot program, the state will provide a “menu” of land use reforms for counties and municipalities to choose from. Among the options are allowing manufactured homes in single-family residential zones, or reducing required lot sizes and increasing height restrictions to allow taller, tightly packed multifamily developments.
Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson said the county is already working to make it easier to build affordable housing. Still, he said the county also will apply for the pilot program to get additional state support.
“We believe that if we work together, we’re able to see improvements much quicker and hopefully with greater impact,” he said.
When asked about the state potentially imposing a minimum requirement of affordable housing, Lawson said he appreciates Meyer’s “enthusiasm to help.”
Makes me feel a little–hopeful.
OK, kids, gonna need your help moving forward. I’ve canceled my News-Journal subscription effective October 6. Plan to pass the monthly savings on to WHYY and Spotlight Delaware. However–I’ll be without the Journal’s unparalleled coverage of restaurant openings and closings. I’ll especially miss previews of the exciting new chain restaurants that will temporarily take the place of failed chain restaurants. Can you help fill this massive future void in my knowledge base? Thanking you in advance.
What do you want to talk about?