"A Southern California underwater oil pipeline was likely struck by an anchor several months to a year before a leak spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday… A large vessel of some kind may have struck the massive pipeline, shattering the concrete casing but not necessarily causing the slender crack from which oil spewed last weekend, said Capt. Jason Neubauer, chief of the Coast Guard's office of investigation and analysis."
"President Biden today restored the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments in Utah that were dramatically reduced under former President Trump. He also reimposed fishing restrictions at a third monument off the coast of New England."
"Billings Clinic isn’t alone in its struggles. For the last three weeks, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Montana have bounced around from the low to mid-400s, getting closer to last fall’s peak. But patients are sicker this time around because of the delta variant, and the Montana Hospital Association says COVID patients are taking up over half of the state’s ICU capacity."
"The big picture for Covid-19 in the US is looking a little brighter as new infections and hospitalizations are down. But several regions are still struggling with a high number of cases and strained health care resources… One doctor in Michigan said he'd seen headlines about Covid-19 progress but struggled to feel relief because his hospital remains overwhelmed with patients."
"So when the family from Rostov-on-Don wanted to visit the West, they looked for a vaccine that would allow them to travel freely — a quest that brought them to Serbia, where hundreds of Russian citizens have flocked in recent weeks to receive Western-approved COVID-19 shots."
"A 37-year-old man working as a security guard in an Apple store in New York City was stabbed multiple times following a dispute over wearing a mask inside the store to comply with Covid-19 safety policies."
"The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down a lower federal court ruling that temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing its ban on abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy… The Department of Justice now has until Oct. 12 to reply to the ruling, and the ban remains in effect until then."
"Google recently bet $2 billion that its New York workforce will return to the office. But to encourage its employees to actually make use of its massive real estate investments, some say the tech behemoth is using sticks, not carrots: Google employees who move to less expensive parts of the country could see their pay cut. In June, the company launched a tool for employees that showed how much less they’d be paid — anywhere from 5 to 25 percent, according to Reuters — if they move from somewhere like the Bay Area or New York City to a lower-cost location." So much for the argument of paying people for their skills and their work.
"But economists at the department also say that attempts to portray the need to tackle the debt ceiling as an effort to pay for Democrats’ budget resolutions that are yet to pass Congress amount to disinformation, according to sources familiar with the mechanism… The criticism comes primarily because the overriding reason for raising the debt ceiling stems from the fact that the US needs to borrow new money to pay the principal and interest on about $8tn of debt incurred over the course of the Trump administration."
"After Russia rode to Europe’s rescue and offered to increase gas supplies to the region amid soaring prices, experts said one thing had become abundantly clear: Europe is now largely at Russia’s mercy when it comes to energy, just as the U.S. had warned… Natural gas contracts hit new highs in Europe this week — and regional benchmark prices are up almost 500% so far this year — with heightened demand and a squeeze in supply putting pressure on the energy sector as the weather turns colder."
"Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge… Judge Donna Scott Davenport oversees a juvenile justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee, with a staggering history of jailing children. She said kids must face consequences, which rarely seem to apply to her or the other adults in charge." (Grokked from Fred Clark)
"A passenger who triggered a plane's emergency landing at LaGuardia Airport will not face charges as authorities characterized the incident as a 'misunderstanding.'… Officials say the incident happened on American Eagle Flight 4817 operated by Republic Airways. The plane landed safely just after 3 p.m."
"Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights, 27% of its schedule, on Sunday as disruptions that the airline blamed on air traffic control issues and bad weather affected the travel plans of thousands of customers… 'We experienced significant impact in the Florida airports [Friday] evening after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather and resulted in a large number of cancellations,' Alan Kasher, who oversees daily flight operations, told staff in a note on Saturday."
"Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives are to hold talks Saturday and Sunday about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, officials from both sides said."
"The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the United States to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August."
"Former President Trump's White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon, says he will not comply with a House committee's demand for records and testimony related to the January 6 Capitol riots… The January 6 select committee issued subpoenas in late September to four of Mr. Trump's former aides and close allies, including Bannon. The witnesses were given a Thursday deadline to reply to the request for documents, while depositions are scheduled next week." Well, he's been in jail before, maybe he misses it.
"Former Trump aide Dan Scavino has been served a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, bringing an end to the panel's struggle to physically locate him… A process server brought the subpoena to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday, the source said. While Scavino was home in New York at the time, he asked a staff member to accept the subpoena on his behalf."
"The White House is authorizing the National Archives to share a set of documents with the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday… Former President Donald Trump has said he plans to fight subpoenas from the panel for four former officials in his administration by using executive privilege, which is a right traditionally asserted by a White House to keep deliberations confidential."
"A former high-ranking Capitol Police official with knowledge of the department’s response to the Jan. 6 attack has sent congressional leaders a scathing letter accusing two of its senior leaders of mishandling intelligence and failing to respond properly during the riot." This could be an attempt at disinformation to discredit leadership and weaken the Capitol Police, but it does deserve investigation.
It's the DailyBeast so adjust your expectations accordingly… "But on Tuesday, Flynn appeared on a little-known YouTube channel called Truth Unveiled TV for a very different reason: rebutting the idea that he led a church congregation in a Satanic ritual borrowed from a nuclear doomsday cult… In a video entitled 'Some Have Said That General Flynn Prayed to Satan in a Recent Prayer,' host Paul Oebel gave Flynn a chance to rebut the growing right-wing controversy alleging he’s signed on with Lucifer." What I think is hilarious is that they're focusing on the "sevenfold rays" and "legions", which, yes, are references that are associated with Lucifer, but completely pass over the "freeborn" and "not being enslaved to any foe" which is directly from apocrypha discussing "the Fall." (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"But what's happening Saturday night is unprecedented: Former President Donald Trump, who is teasing another run, is holding a large rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines… The latest Iowa Poll, published this week in The Des Moines Register, says Trump is more popular in the state after leaving office. Pollster J. Ann Selzer says Trump remains very popular with Republicans and has made recent gains with independents."
"Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, sought to fight his way out of a corner on Friday by releasing an angry letter in which he blamed Democrats for the impasse over the debt ceiling he broke by ending a refusal to co-operate he had said was absolute… In the letter to Joe Biden, McConnell complained about a speech in which the Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, attacked Republicans for their behaviour." Poisoned the… what well? McConnell has not only drained that well, he's bricked it over and at the very last minute offered a glass of water to get a bare minimum level of cooperation to avoid a catastrophe of his own making.
"In recent months (dissension) has hobbled Democrats — who are the nominal majority in an almost perfectly divided House and Senate — in their efforts on everything from fiscal policy and immigration to climate change and voting rights. President Biden and the progressives who now dominate his party in Congress are struggling to win over or compromise with the last few centrist-moderate colleagues in their ranks. If they fail, they cannot govern… So their internal battle is unquestionably news… But it is not, in any sense, new."
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