The Trump administration is eyeing a land swap that would give part of Yosemite National Park to a private company, according to a document submitted to Congress.
"This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely," a San Francisco federal judge wrote in a case by international students who had their visas threatened.
Wyoming's attorney general is investigating how two U.S. Department of Justice officials monitored poll workers and observed voters in the state's most populous county during the Aug. 18 primary, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said Friday.
Gordon called the monitors' behavior "a bit aggressive" and "irregular" in an otherwise routine meeting to confirm the election results in the mostly rural and Republican state.
Senators are renewing calls for anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to step down or be ousted -- and at least one is calling for a criminal investigation -- amid the release of documents they say prove Kennedy lied to them during his confirmation hearings last year. "This is a pattern, not a slip," Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "RFK Jr. has lied to the Senate, lied to the American people, and jeopardized the health of children to advance his anti-vaccine agenda."
A candidate with the same name as Alaska's incumbent U.S. senator advanced Tuesday ... read more
@#1 ... [Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark] Gordon called the monitors' behavior "a bit aggressive" and "irregular" ...
Wyoming voted over 71% for Pres Trump in 2024 ...
( en.wikipedia.org )
Another view ...
What we know about Trump's deal giving U.S. access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela
www.deseret.com
... Besides a social media post from President Donald Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling "THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY" in Venezuela.
Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United States a stake in Venezuela's vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured then-President Nicols Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
But the answers to many questions, including how soon the reserves could be drilled and who will pay to make it happen, were not immediately clear. No text of any agreement has been released.
A look at what is known and unknown:
What are the terms?
The U.S. government and an unnamed private operator in Venezuela formed a new company that was given the rights to untapped oil fields for 100 years.
A statement from Rodrguez said the deal involves the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela's oil industry and yield over $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.
Trump said the agreement was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Rodrguez. ...
Will gas prices go down?
Probably not any time soon.
Trump says the deal will help lower gas prices for Americans. That is an important objective for the Republican president as the Iran war slows the shipping of Persian Gulf oil and keeps prices elevated months before November elections in the United States.
But experts have repeatedly warned that Venezuela's dilapidated oil infrastructure will take years and billions of dollars to repair. A substantial boost in production is not expected to happen quickly. ...
How will Venezuelans react?
Some in Venezuela considered it a betrayal of what their government has stated repeatedly for decades: Venezuelan resources are for Venezuela, and leaders would not allow the U.S. government access to those resources. ...
@#9 ... These are all toothless threats now. ...
Especially since Pres Trump has said that he believes Pres Putin over what the US Intelligence Agencies tell him.
Donald Trump Says He Trusts Putin More Than U.S. Intelligence Lowlifes' (January 2023)
www.newsweek.com
... Donald Trump has suggested he trusts Russian president Vladimir Putin more than the "lowlifes" who work in U.S. intelligence.
In a post on Truth Social, the former president referenced comments he gave after meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018 when he said that he didn't "see any reason" why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 election, despite what the FBI stated.
Trump once again suggested he trusts Putin over U.S. intelligence while sharing an a article about former FBI official Charles McGonigal, a leading figure in the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 election. ...
Navy Planning for Extended Carrier Deployments as Iran Conflict Continues, CNO, MCPON Say
news.usni.org
... Families of sailors assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group are already preparing for a deployment that will last more than seven months as the U.S. conflict with Iran continues.
When USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), its escorts and the embarked Carrier Air Wing 11 leave from San Diego in the coming weeks, the strike group is expected to move to U.S. Central Command to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington (CVN-73), which entered U.S. 5th Fleet last week. Since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, the U.S. has maintained a carrier presence in the Arabian Sea, launching strike missions over Iran and enforcing a subsequent naval blockade of Tehran.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman, each one year into the job, told reporters Wednesday that this commitment shows no signs of stopping and the service is doing what it can to ease the pressure on deployed sailors and their families facing the longest deployments in decades. ...
Perryman said Theodore Roosevelt families are already planning for their loved one to be away from home for more than seven months.
"[Sailors] will go do really hard things for me without really batting an eye because they like that part of it. But we do have to be able, when possible, to stick to schedules and be very honest, like we are with Roosevelt," Perryman said. "They know they're going to be there longer than seven months. Their [commanding officer] is giving them eight months to plan on."
The Navy already recorded the longest deployment since the Cold War when USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) returned from a record-breaking 326-day deployment in May. Meanwhile, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is on track to come in just behind Ford with a more than 300-day deployment. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel and the subsequent threat to commercial shipping from Houthi forces in Yemen, carrier deployments have averaged 8.5 months, according to the USNI News carrier deployment database.
"I would prefer, you know, seven-month deployments. I typically am not a big fan of extensions, and I push back hard on that. But the enemy gets a vote," Caudle said. ...
... August 28, 1963 ...
250,000 gathered around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to listen to the speech.