Zelenskyy explained, “I told him that if he gave us the weapons we need and stopped supporting Putin, we would let him build Trump-branded hotels and other Trump-branded buildings in Ukraine’s ten largest cities, as well as Trump golf courses in the countryside. He was quite excited.”   read more

Gardner is a vocal defender of the coal industry and often minimizes mining's environmental damage. Environmental groups blasted his appointment to OSM. “...He will try and fight anything that gets in the way of profits for coal executives—even if it means sacrificing the health of the families...in Kentucky,” said Sierra Club's Tom Morris. “...He has shown nothing but contempt for science-based clean air and water protections for working people, and dutifully pandered to corporate polluters..."   read more

Psychiatric illness, mood disorders and lack of social support are recognized risk factors for suicide. Some studies show that increased elevation may enhance psychological problems, such as panic attacks, and that altitude is a significant risk factor for depressive symptoms and suicide. It's now shown that Americans in higher-altitude counties are at a higher risk for suicide. In Utah, the average geographic altitude is about 6,000 feet, and the rate of suicide is 70% higher than average.   read more

Demers helped draft Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, which allows the NSA to collect emails and other electronic communications of foreign targets overseas, including correspondence with U.S. citizens. At his confirmation hearing last week, Demers made it clear that the NSA should not be required to obtain an FBI warrant before searching the communications of American citizens. He also waffled on the subject of whether journalists should be jailed for refusing to reveal their sources.   read more

Myers, whose company supported efforts to restrict the ability of the NWS to provide taxpayer-funded weather forecasts to the public, has been nominated to lead the NOAA. If confirmed, he will be only the second leader in the agency’s history not to have a background in science. Myers said he "was originally enrolled in meteorology as an undergraduate [but] then dropped out of school because I was a horrible student. I was never interested in learning, which I look at now as sort of funny.”   read more

In 2007, Nielsen became general counsel for the national security division of Civitas Group, a strategic advisory and investment firm. In 2012, she became president of Sunesis, consulting on preparedness strategies. She also served as a civilian expert to NATO. By 2016, she was chair of Global Agenda Council on Risk and Resilience at the World Economic Forum. Nielsen then joined the Trump administration as chief of staff to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kelly.   read more

A focus of Cissna's is the H1-B program, which concerns putting workers with technical skills in jobs that can’t be filled by U.S. citizens. He’s seen by the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigrant think tank, as being tougher on immigration and could undo policies such as letting spouses of H1-B holders get work permits. In 2016, while director of immigration policy at Homeland Security, Cissna volunteered as an advisor to Trump’s presidential campaign regarding immigration policy.   read more

An alternative energy investment firm representing foreign investors sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday, claiming it has merely “spun its wheels” to delay worthy immigrants’ visas. The California Energy Investment Center claims in federal court that USCIS has unreasonably delayed the visa applications of 200 immigrant investors who provided $100 million in funding for the McCoy solar energy plant in Riverside County, California.   read more

The fate of the “fiduciary rule,” a key protection for workers’ retirement plans that has been criticized by President Trump, will rest with Preston Rutledge, Trump’s nominee for administrator of the EBSA. Rutledge has served the IRS as a tax law specialist in the Office of Chief Counsel and on the staff of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. He then moved to Congress, serving as a senior tax and benefits counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch.   read more

At the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing group funded largely by fossil fuel interests and pro-corporate groups, White has specialized in denying the conclusions reached by about 97% of climate scientists worldwide. In her zeal to defend fossil fuels, White has claimed that “Fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery.” At TECQ, she voted to approve a new coal plant despite a prior court ruling that the pollution controls for the proposal would not work.   read more

Poblete is known for pushing tough sanctions on Cuba, and being strongly against President Obama’s liberalization of relations with the island. She is also an advocate of more sanctions on Iran and came out against Obama’s nuclear deal with the country. Poblete bears a close enough resemblance to former Alaska Governor and Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin that Poblete was mistaken for Palin and hounded by autograph seekers at the 2008 GOP Convention.   read more

Martinez worked for three successive GOP presidential campaigns—Bob Dole’s in 1996 and George W. Bush’s in 2000 and 2004. While deputy chief of protocol in the State Dept, Martinez was asked to testify to New York’s senate about New York state's move to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Despite studies showing doing so makes roads safer, Martinez blasted the practice. “It’s a complete surrender that I believe makes New York and the U.S. less secure,” he said.   read more

Whitaker’s first assignment was as a vice consul in the embassy in Seoul, South Korea, in 1990. He subsequently served in Sudan and Uganda before landing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as an economic/commercial officer. In 2007, he was sent to Baghdad as an embedded provincial reconstruction team leader. In 2008, Whitaker had his first assignment to Niger when he was made deputy chief of mission in the embassy in Niamey, also serving there as chargé d’affaires.   read more

Despite his relatively brief tenure as director of the Mint in the 1990s, Ryder continued to be active in Mint-related affairs. As spokesman for Save the Greenback, he actively opposed a GOP plan to replace one-dollar bills with coins. Ryder also took over as founding president of Secure Products, maker of anti-counterfeiting systems. The company was later sold to Honeywell, but Ryder remained as global business manager for what was now the company’s authentication technology group until 2017.   read more

Judge Cooper backed the government on its withholding of a 1984 memo that purportedly details the constitutionality of an NSA surveillance program. In his ruling, Cooper wrote, "This is a quintessential example of the sort of document that falls within the attorney-client privilege: advice from an attorney (head of OLC) to his client (attorney general and, subsequently, NSA) concerning the legal aspects of the client’s contemplated actions and based on [client's] confidential information..."   read more

In 2000, Lawler handled flag writing duties for the commander of the Abraham Lincoln strike group, which was deployed as part of President George W. Bush’s “War on Terror”, Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, and Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq. Lawler moved on in 2002 to be executive assistant to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. In 2005, he was transferred to the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis as leading chief petty officer in the Administrative Department.   read more

In 2004, Gonzales served as post management officer in the Bureau of Near East Affairs. In 2006, she was sent to the U.S. embassy in Botswana as a management officer. She moved to Pretoria, South Africa, in 2010 as deputy management counselor. Gonzales was back in Washington in 2013, first as deputy executive director in the Bureau of Near East Affairs, and then in 2016 as chief of staff in the Bureau of Administration, a post she held at the time of her nomination.   read more