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Earlier this year, President TrumpsEPA opted to keep a regulatory standardimposed by President Obamas EPA that aims to reduce amount of particulate matter emitted by industry.

These National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS, have become a lightning rod issue for activists seeking to capitalize on the national apprehension around the COVID/Wuhan Virus crisis.

Surprisingly, many of the same voices who championed the Obama EPAs 2012 NAAQS standards are nowvocally opposedto them since they are being extended by a political rival. Even the head of the EPA under Obama a person who certainly had the opportunity to change the current rule herself iscriticizingthis move by the current EPA administrator.

NAAQS standards are designed to regulate pollutants that are common in outdoor air and are considered harmful to public health and the environment.

Exposure to a large amount of particulate matter pollution, especially if it persisted over a long period of time, could damage your lungs. But in the 50 years since the Clean Air Act was first enacted, air standards have gotten tougher and tougher, and our air has become cleaner and cleaner.

Indeed, annual concentrations of fine particulate matter in our air havedecreased nearly 40 percentin just the last 20 years.Americans pay for that increased regulation in with depressed employment and higher prices. Despite the economic impacts, many would argue that the trade-offs justify a cleaner, more healthy environment.

In this case, however,the majority of outside scientists advising EPAdid notfind sufficient justification for changing the current standard.

Why not lower the standard and make the air even cleaner? The problem is that regulations cost money and that means they cost jobs. Take away jobs and you take away the quality of life the ability to hope for a better life.

Regulation in the United States isexpensive about $10,000 per employee. For small businesses, the cost is even higher. The manufacturing sector bears the brunt of this cost with small businesses absorbing costs of nearly $35,000 per employee every year. The vastmajority of those costswere from federal environmental regulations. Those costs prevent businesses from hiring new employees and investing in new opportunities.

The newly minted opponents of the Obama EPA particulate rule are nowtoutinga Harvard Universitystudythat the opponents claim provides a link between deaths due to the Wuhan Virus and increased particulate matter pollution. But the Harvard study itself only argues for continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations, which is exactly what EPA proposes to do here. Even if the study is later verified through a peer-review process, EPA is not proposing to loosen the standards for particulate emissions. Instead, the Obama-era rule will remain in effect.

Another factor that must be considered is the impact of the coronavirus. With state governments shutting down businesses for an extended period, what will the effect be of any new regulatory standard on the country as it struggles to recover from a massive economic disaster?

Because of the shutdown, more than 38 million Americans havelost their jobs. This does not include the self-employed or gig-economy workers. The unemployment rate is already the highest it has been since the Great Depression nearly a century ago. The current unemployment rate of nearly 15 percent is significantly higher than thegreat recession of 2007-2009. Nearly one-half of Americans areunemployed.

More regulation will not bring those jobs back. It will have the opposite effect. During its first 15 years that the Clean Air Act was in force,nearly 600,000 jobs were lostdue to the new regulations. Those jobs were lost at a time we had a functioning economy. That is not the situation in which we currently find ourselves, however. The stay-at-home orders have hammered our nations economy, and nobody knows how long it will take to rebuild.

In December of 2019 we had anunemployment rate of 3.4 percent. Employers were havinga difficult timefinding employees to fill job openings. Today we have a complete reversal. Now people who want a job are having a hard time finding companies that are still in operation. More than100,000 small businesseshave permanently closed their doors. Many larger businesses have closed many of their locations and bankruptcy filings are on the rise.

Now is not the time to put more burdens on business. If anything, the federal government should be looking for ways to reduce the regulatory burden in order to get the economy moving again.

In this case, however, EPA is only proposing to maintain an Obama-era regulation that was lauded by environmental advocates at the time.

There is no new scientific consensus that the EPA under President Obama made a mistake in adopting the PM standards in 2012. EPA is right to reject calls to make those standards more stringent, particularly when the American economy is struggling to rebound from a historic calamity.

Anthony Caso is the director of the Claremont Institutes Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic at Chapman University, Fowler School of Law.

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Now is not the time for more regulations - OCRegister

This is from a CNN story posted last evening entitled Democrats on key Senate committee oppose top Pentagon pick as more inflammatory tweets emerge:

And this is from a CNN report from last Friday:

In several tweets from 2018, Tata said that Islam was the most oppressive violent religion I know of and claimed Obama was a terrorist leader who did more to harm the US and help Islamic countries than any president in history. Following the publication of this story, Tata deleted several of his tweets, screenshots of which were captured by CNNs KFile.

Tata, in one radio appearance, speculated the Iran deal was born out of Obamas Islamic roots in an attempt to help Iranians and the greater Islamic state crush Israel.

Yesterday, the advocacy group Muslim Advocates issued a statement expressing its opposition to Tatas nomination, saying:

Where Anthony Tata goes, bigotry and discrimination follow. His lengthy record of hostility and discrimination against Black people, Muslims and people with disabilities are absolutely disqualifying for any federal appointment. The Senate should reject him without hesitation.

His career as a media personality is built on anti-Black, anti-Muslim smears. He invoked slavery to attack a Black news anchor, he has repeatedly invoked race to smear Congresswoman Maxine Waters for her advocacy on behalf of police violence victim Rodney King, and he regularly perpetuates the anti-Muslim, anti-Black birther conspiracy theory that President Obama is a terrorist and a secret Muslim.

Tata, who found time while serving in office in North Carolina to author lowbrow suspense novels, has a history of making inflammatory statements. Last nights CNN article reported that Tata has frequently accused former President Obama as being part of a secret plot to bring down the United States and, indeed, accused his administration of committing treason.

The rest is here:
Former NC pol, Anthony Tata, opposed for Pentagon post over Islamophobia, slurs against Obama - The Progressive Pulse

June 18 (UPI) -- With less than five months before the Nov. 3 election, Americans' view of President Donald Trump is slipping, a Gallup survey showed Thursday.

According to the poll, 49 percent of respondents said they view Trump as a decisive leader -- but just 36 percent see him as honest and trustworthy. Forty-two percent said Trump is an effective government manager.

The survey was conducted between May 28 and June 4.

The figures put Trump's approval rating at 39 percent, a decline of 4 points year-to-year.

"Strong leadership is the only one of the qualities that a majority of U.S. adults have ever said applies to Trump," Gallup wrote. "For the past two years, the slimmest of majorities have said he is a strong and decisive leader, but that has slipped slightly in the current reading."

Eighty-seven percent of Republican and those leaning Republican said they view Trump as a decisive leader; 82 percent see him as an effective manager; 72 percent view him honest and trustworthy. All three figures are down slightly from 2017.

Just 19 percent and Democrats and those who lean Democratic say Trump is a decisive leader. Just 10 percent say he's an effective manager and 9 percent say he's honest and trustworthy.

Comparatively, at this same stage in 2012, 53 percent of Americans viewed former President Barack Obama as a decisive leader and 45 percent said he managed the government effectively. Six in ten Americans viewed him as honest and trustworthy -- a full 24 percent more than do Trump.

Before former President Bill Clinton's re-election in 1996, Gallup reported that 46 percent of Americans viewed him as honest and trustworthy, 10 points better than Trump.

Gallup interviewed more than 1,000 U.S. adults for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points.

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Poll: Trump viewed less effective, honest than Obama in '12 - UPI News

The Roots announced on June 16 that this years The Roots Picnic would be held digitally in partnership with Michelle Obama and the nonprofit organization When We All Vote.

The Roots manager and Live Nation Urban President Shawn Gee told Pollstar that while the business of the Picnic in Philadelphia has been booming over the past few years, this years event is much more focused on having tangible social impact, something that has always been in The Roots DNA.

A primary goal in the partnership with When We All Vote is thus to engage 500,000 eligible voters, primarily black people in the 21-35 age range. The event will include performances from The Roots, H.E.R., Lil Baby, SZA, Kirk Franklin, Snoh Aalegra, Polo G, D-Nice, and Earthgang. It will be hosted by Michelle Obama, Black Thought, and Questlove.

How did the partnership with Mrs. Obama arise?

Weve had a relationship with Michelle and Barack Obama for years, The Roots were very active in Baracks original campaign run, making several appearances with him and they both made multiple appearances on The Tonight Show, where we frequently reconnected. Questlove actually built a playlist for Mrs. Obamas book release and tour last year and we performed several times at the White House during their tenure. The relationship is very strong.

This years Roots Picnic was on target for record numbers. We moved from a small pier out to Fairmount park last year, we doubled our numbers in 2019, and this year we were on target to shatter our numbers for the one-day event.

What a lot of people dont know is we were planning to announce a second day for The Roots Picnic 2020. I worked on it for months, and we were going to announce in late March. The headliner for that second day was going to be Michelle Obama. We were partnering with Mrs. Obama and her When We All Vote organization whose mission is to increase participation in elections, focusing on underrepresented communities, specifically in our case 21-35 year-old African-Americans.

They were looking at music festivals, events and although there were a lot of other festivals larger than The Roots Picnic, those larger festivals had a much smaller segment of the target demographic. They understood that The Roots Picnic, though we may not have the scale of Bonnaroo or Coachella, there is a high concentration of young African Americans at the Picnic, so we were a better fit for the messaging. The majority of our Live Nation Urban platforms focus on black audiences, whether its Roots Picnic, Broccoli City, Lights On Fest (in partnership with H.E.R.) or Exodus Gospel Music Festival (with Kirk Franklin).

So the goal is more social than financial this year?

[Since COVID hit] we were always thinking about doing something virtual, but we decided without a good reason for why we were doing this, it didnt make sense. When Chynna Clayton, Stephanie Young from the When We All Vote team and I started talking again about doing something together, that became the Why. Yes, we will definitely put together an amazing entertaining show with great artists, however in this case the cause is more important than the performance.

So this years Roots Picnic is about voter education and voter registration, which we hope will lead to voter mobilization in November. Its not about entertainment or business, or our brand our event this year is really a vehicle to impact change. So when looking at talent, we picked voices that represent the community were trying to engage.

These artists have huge reach and are leading the hip-hop, R&B and gospel genres. Its not only 21-35 year-olds listening to this, but their voice really resonates within that group, and thats the group were trying to register with this event.

How has work with Live Nation Urban been?

Im just continuing with the vision I had three years ago when Michael Rapino and I agreed to build this venture together. Obviously over the last few weeks the entertainment industry and society as a whole has had to take a strong look in the mirror and acknowledge the overt and systemic racial issues that have existed for generations issues that as black people weve had to deal with on a daily basis, but somehow these issues never made it on the radar of most white Americans, until now.

I have received a lot of the What can I do? calls, as a lot of black folks have. My answer has always been INVEST.

If you are sincere and you want to make a change so that our children and grandchildren wont have to deal with the same systemic racial issues that we have, make an investment. Invest time and educate yourselves, educate your friends, educate your children. Invest your money and give opportunities to black entrepreneurs and remove those glass ceilings that have existed for generations for your black employees yes they exist and you created them. Invest in the future, build relationships with HBCUs and find the future leaders of your industry. They may be in a community college or a junior college but be intentional and aggressive in finding them and providing a path for success.

At Live Nation Urban, this is what weve been doing for the past three years. We have been investing in culture, investing in entrepreneurs and investing in people, black people. If you look at what we were doing before COVID, before the murder of George Floyd, we have been walking the walk with whatever resources we had, and were going to continue. I am going to continue to do so regardless of where life and my career take me.

The rest is here:
Shawn Gee Speaks On The Roots Picnic Going Digital, Partnering With Michelle Obama - Pollstar

Minneapolis did everything Barack Obama asked it to.

Its mayor and City Council appointed a reform-minded police chief who emphasized a guardian mentality instead of a warrior one. They held listening sessions with the community and updated policies to create more transparency and accountability. They promoted officer wellness by offering yoga and meditation classes.

Yet none of this stopped officer Derek Chauvin from pinning his knee on the neck of George Floyd until he lost consciousness and died.

Minneapolis is a case study in a city that embraced the pillars of the final report from the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing, a signature blueprint from the Obama era on how to reform American law enforcement. After five years, the city is no closer to achieving the primary objective of creating trust between police and the communities they serve.

After the killing of Floyd and the uprising against police that followed, culminating in the torching of the Third Precinct station, Minneapolis is at a crossroads. It can continue on the path of slow cultural change, or it can opt for a blank slate to end the current policing system as we know it, as City Council Member Alondra Cano, who heads the councils committee on public safety, said recently.

The 21st Century Policing model for reform came out of a moment similar to the one Minneapolis faces now. In August 2014, a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a young black man, in Ferguson, Mo. The shooting and decision not to indict the officer laid bare long-standing civil unrest over racial disparities in policing and use of force. It led to protests and riots throughout the suburban St. Louis city and a federal investigation that determined the Ferguson Police Department engaged in a pattern of unlawful and racist policing.

In May 2015, the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing released a report of recommendations for cities to move into a new era of law enforcement. The document emphasized the need for a cultural revolution in American police departments, which the authors said would come through more transparency and accountability. Police would have to reset their philosophy to focus on community policing rather than the militarized, warrior-minded tactics embraced by so many officers. The trust of skeptical citizens key to a functioning democracy, according to the report would come from police forces reflecting the values of the communities in which they work.

One barrier that has prevented Minneapolis from achieving these goals has been pushback from the police union and its president, Lt. Bob Kroll, against policy and culture change, said Michelle Phelps, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota. Last year, when Mayor Jacob Frey announced Minneapolis would become the first city to ban warrior-style training, Kroll countered by publicly announcing free warrior training for rank-and-file officers.

Cultural change is really hard, Phelps said. We can see the resistance to this change in the election and re-election of Bob Kroll. And the union exerts its own independent push against reform.

There is also a bureaucracy that complicates the very idea of ground-level change. Phelps points out that Minneapolis is under jurisdiction of not only Minneapolis police, but also University of Minnesota police, park police, Metro Transit police and state and federal law enforcement, all of whom answer to different leadership hierarchies.

The Minneapolis Police Department has made some progress toward more accountability over the past five years. In 2016, following the police killing of Jamar Clark, a black man, the department updated its use-of-force policy with greater emphasis on sanctity of life. The new language made it possible for the city to take swift action against Chauvin and the other three officers who stood by and watched as Floyd pleaded that he couldnt breathe, Phelps said.

The fact that all four officers got fired immediately means something, she said. And yet its woefully inadequate.

Its too early to say whether Minneapolis is giving up entirely on the Obama model. A majority of the City Council has publicly committed to dismantling the police department, but they have yet to come to a clearly defined consensus of what that means. Phelps said even radical changes could end up looking more like a 21st Century Policing-plus model than an entirely new playbook.

The death of Floyd has moved the Overton window the range of ideas deemed politically acceptable insanely quickly, Phelps said. I think everybodys catching their breath and trying to figure out what that means.

The measure of success of a functional police department is also in the eye of the beholder, said Sandra Susan Smith, a sociology professor at University of California-Berkeley.

Communities of color in particular have historically seen the role of police as about confinement and control vs. protect and serve, Smith said. Through that lens, many Americans view efforts to make police more accountable as nibbling around the edges, rather than addressing the fundamental problems of policing head on.

Some people argue that police are doing exactly what theyre intended to do, she said.

The 21st Century Policing model is predicated on the philosophy that police are an important resource in communities, Smith said. Making dramatic changes including better training, more accountability and redirecting some police duties to other city departments could still be compatible with the Obama-era reform model.

What is incompatible is the abolition of the police, she said.

Earlier this month, the City Council approved a resolution for intent to create a transformative new model for cultivating safety in our city. Mayor Frey, who signed the resolution, is pushing for change within the current department, rather than starting over. What exactly changes will likely come down to Minneapolis voters in the form of a referendum, which some council members say could appear on the ballot this year.

In the meantime, unrest over American policing continues to generate protests across the country in the name of Floyd and other victims of police brutality. Many look to Minneapolis for what comes next.

Originally posted here:
Killing of George Floyd shows that years of police reform fall far short - Minneapolis Star Tribune