Nearly 17 months into President Donald Trump's second term, new state-level polling shows a map that follows familiar partisan lines -- but with noticeably weaker margins almost everywhere.
America's swelling debt pile bodes ill for the the US economy, Societe Generale said. read more
Report finds close ties between the Trump administration and Geo Group, which profits from anti-immigration crackdown read more
Vice President JD Vance held talks in Switzerland with Iranian officials Sunday as Tehran protested President Donald Trump's recent comments potentially threatening the days-old peace. read more
Television stars are paying tribute to director James Burrows following his death at age 85. read more
Questions swirl over Trump-linked firm given $1.7M no-bid contract to clean Reflecting Pool water before algae returned
www.independent.co.uk
... Earlier this year, a firm tied to President Donald Trump secured a no-bid contract to install a water purification system at the Reflecting Pool next to the Lincoln Memorial. Now, the deal is raising questions after algae overtook the basin just days after a multi-million-dollar refurbishment was completed, according to a new report.
The National Park Service in April sidestepped the usual competitive bidding process, awarding a $1.7 million cleaning contract to Ohio-based Greenwater Services, which had only ever been given one other federal contract.
The firm is owned by the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, headed by John J. Cafaro, who has contributed over $300,000 to Trump-linked political committees, The New York Times reported. He also resides next to the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. In 2016, Trump described Cafaro, who once found himself at the center of a bribery scandal, as a "fantastic man." ...
Reflecting Pool Is Now Under Siege by a Different and More Aggressive' Form of Algae: Report
www.mediaite.com
... President Donald Trump's $14 million renovation project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is not going well. In fact, the efforts to kill off the algae are apparently helping foster a new, even more aggressive algae, according to tests conducted by a reporter for The Atlantic.
The Atlantic decided to run its own tests on the water. Viser gathered samples from multiple areas of the Reflecting Pool, and brought them to two different scientists for testing.
"Testing reveals that efforts to suppress one algal bloom seem to be fueling another," wrote Viser, and the "workers battling against nature" in "the country's most high-profile science experiment" may actually be making things worse.
"After a week of combat," wrote Viser, "they have essentially killed off one type of algae infesting the pool, only to create the conditions for a new type to take over. And Scenedesmus, a genus of green algae nicknamed Skinny Dead Mouse' by scientists, is now flourishing," according to the tests they ran.
The original algae that showed up in the Reflecting Pool "appeared to be a blue-green cyanobacterial bloom," wrote Viser, and that type can sometimes produce neurotoxins that are dangerous for humans and animals.
One of the scientists who tested the samples was Hans W. Paerl, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Paerl examined the samples under a microscope and found "remnants of the previous bloom" of the blue-green algae, "but they were too degraded to identify," wrote Viser, and he believed this was caused, at least in part, by the hydrogen peroxide.
"The guys dealing with peroxide treatment can pat themselves on the back," said Paerl. "But it doesn't really solve the overall problem."
"What's happened is they've just switched the players. And the green algae are just taking over," Paerl explained, and this new green algae "is a pretty aggressive grower." ...
The Reflecting Pool itself was already an ideal environment for algae, Boyer said.
"If I was going to design a facility to grow algae," Boyer explained, "I would probably design a facility that had a lot of surface area and was very shallow, so you have sunlight down to the bottom. And put a lot of nutrients in it. And that's pretty much what the Reflecting Pool is. It's just a perfect facility for growing algae."
The deep blue paint that Trump had added only made it worse, wrote Viser, because it "raised the water temperature and accelerated the growth." ...
Meanwhile ...
Donald Trump's Former Greenwich Mansion Proposed To Be Demolished
patch.com
... President Donald Trump's former Greenwich property could undergo some major changes, including demolition of the current 19,786 square-foot Georgian mansion, according to documents recently submitted to the town's Planning & Zoning Commission. ...
@#7 ... indeed Pres Trump has said that Iran is entitled to having them. ...
Can you say "unconditional surrender?"
I knew you could.
President Donald J. Trump is Ending United States Participation in an Unacceptable Iran Deal (2018)
trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov
... The JCPOA failed to deal with the threat of Iran's missile program and did not include a strong enough mechanism for inspections and verification. ...
Does Pres Trump's memorandum of [mis]understanding even mention Iran's missiles?
Trump Saved This Vietnamese Real Estate Mogul's Fortune. Now They Are Opening A Golf Resort Together (2025)
www.forbes.com
... In May, Donald Trump's son Eric, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, traveled to Vietnam to unveil a new Trump-branded real estate project: the $1.5 billion Trump International Hung Yen. The sprawling project is set to feature a 5-star hotel, luxury villas and two golf courses designed by two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau on nearly 2,500 acres of land.
The groundbreaking ceremony, set in a white tent with rows of tables and plastic chairs in a field 37 miles south of the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, was much less glamorous than the sleek Middle Eastern offices Eric had visited to cut a similar deal in Qatar just three weeks earlier.
But to this Southeast Asian country and Dang Thanh Tam, the Vietnamese entrepreneur behind this deal, it is a huge win. Sandwiched between Eric and Vietnam's prime minister Pham Minh Chinh, Dang, 61, beamed for the cameras as golden confetti rained onto the stage. ...
... and, miraculously, Pres Trump's approach to tariffs on Vietnam goods seemed to have changed.
@#1 ... The federal government is barred by the Constitution from forcing states to enforce federal laws, Schlitz added. ...
The Judge ruled that Pres trump violated the Constitution?
What a surprise.