Federal Nonsense round-up: week ending November 11 2017.

Week in review

Week in review compiled by:
​ Shalin M, RepMD Volunteer, Baltimore City, Laura H, RepMD Volunteer, St Michael's,
Lisa M, RepMD Volunteer, Baltimore City & Cristi D, RepMD Chair.

1)
Private-Prison giant, resurgent in Trump era, gathers at president's resort

About:
Private for profit prison company is doing great .  Also, they donated to Trump's campaign and just held a big event at his Florida hotel.  After contributing 4x as much as in prior years to political causes (campaign funds and lobbyists), GEO Group, has now secured at least one contract for a private prison in TX, seen their stock triple, and is poised for many more new federal contracts.  

Excerpt: 
"It is the opposite of draining the swamp,” said Carl Takei, a senior staff lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. 

Read More:  
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-business-booming-under-trump-private-prison-giant-gathers-at-presidents-resort/2017/10/25/b281d32c-adee-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.51505dd677ff  

Additional Info: 
The rise of influence from the private prison has been a controversial subject for many years with political influence being a chief concern.  

Our Thoughts (Lisa M.): 
Private prison companies spent lots of money on lobbyists, are now seeing financial benefit, and expect more business for housing immigration detainees and American citizens through increased arrests.

2) Monsanto says it knows more about weeds than weeds scientists.

About: 
Monsanto pushes for use of an older pesticide, since it's genetically engineered corn and soybeans to tolerate it.

Excerpt:
"Monsanto's explanation for what happened this summer, and how to prevent it, seems to be carrying the day in Washington, D.C. Two weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will allow continued use of dicamba next year. The EPA is imposing a few additional restrictions on who can spray it, and when. Those restrictions will have little effect, or none at all, on damage caused by volatilization.
[...]
AND  Over the course of recent decades, publicly funded agricultural extension services have shrunk, and farmers have turned to seed and chemical companies for advice. "It's become so weighted towards — 'well, the companies did their research, and it said this, so that must be the way it is!' " Bradley says. "You know what? Maybe that's not the way it is.""

Read More:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/10/26/559733837/monsanto-and-the-weed-scientists-not-a-love-story  

Additional Info:
Because these GMO products are proprietary, independent groups have no access to test them prior to market release.

Our Thoughts (Lisa M., Shalin M.):
Monsanto's influence on the federal agencies for agriculture and the environment is well known.  Effectively, Monsanto owns the EPA and influences/steers it to its own benefit...and has been doing so for decades.  

3) FCC ends decades-old rule designed to keep TV and radio under local control.

About:
Concerned voices have arisen on many sides since the FCC is changing a ruling that required local broadcasting groups to stay local to their broadcasting range. 

Excerpt:
"Anyone who understands how these big media companies operate can see the danger," Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax, a conservative media company that asked the FCC to reject the Sinclair deal, wrote in a recent Post op-ed. "By owning local stations, the New York-based media networks could dictate local news coverage. With the planned elimination of the local studio rule, they will have a green light to do so."
Consumer group Free Press also are concerned with the change in the 80 year old rule, because media resources may now be centered in wealthy areas and diverted from smaller media markets.  
This article from The Chicago Tribune also acknowledges that the Tribune itself is possibly going to be bought in a $3.9 billion deal by Sinclair, a right-wing broadcaster. 

Read More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-fcc-local-tv-radio-control-20171024-story.html

Additional Info:
The FCC is in charge of regulating broadcasters and this is a notable change that the FCC claims "modernizes" the regulation.  

Our thoughts (Laura H.):
It is unclear what changes may come about as a result of this change to an 80 year old rule, but one can imagine it will be significant. With television and radio media controlled by a fewer and fewer number of people, it seems there is a risk of one conglomerate having total control of a market, which is one thing if they are selling a product, but another if they are controlling the stream of information available to the public. It seems unlikely a national conglomerate will take the time to produce locally relevant material when they can  provide coverage for a national audience more cost-effectively. One company could also have control of a whole territory, making their choice of message all the more powerful and influential.

4) Neighbor of Trump's interior secretary wins $300m contract to fix Puerto Rico power grid.

About:
After hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island has been mostly without consistent (or any) electricity.  Contracts to coordinate/address the devastated electrical infrastructure went out to a single, small, politically connected company in Montana. 

Excerpt:
"A small town electric company in Montana gained a $300 Million contract from the government of Puerto Rico to repair the island’s power grid. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, senior Democrat on the House natural resources committee, said Congress "needs to understand why the Whitefish contract was awarded and whether other, more cost-effective options were available."
The Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, has a son who worked at Whitefish, but contests that his son had no part in the decision-making that led to Whitefish getting the contract. 

Whitefish reportedly got the deal because “Whitefish CEO Techmanski visited Puerto Rico in late summer while on vacation and established contact with PREPA and discussed potential future work, company spokesperson Chris Chiames said. When Maria hit Sept. 20, Whitefish was one of the companies that power authority officials were able to reach by satellite phone.”

Read more:  
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/puerto-rico-power-grid-contract-interior-secretary-company-1.4370147
 
Additional Info:
More details of the agreement between Whitefish and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) have been emerging. To read more about the details of the contract, continue here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/whitefish-charged-puerto-rico-unusually-high-300-hr-workers-article-1.3629287  and here, https://www.ecowatch.com/whitefish-energy-puerto-rico-2509056314.html

Our thoughts (Laura H.): 
It has been a tenet of our government, at least in theory, that those in leadership should seek to avoid even the appearance of having a conflict of interest between their personal business ties and their political decisions.  Whitefish appears to be an insider deal that benefits a small group of people personally associated with Ryan Zincke, who is the Interior Secretary of the United States. It does not appear there is anything illegal about the deal. How should these types of conflicts be addressed in our government, and by whom? If those in leadership decide not to attempt to lead ethically, there seems to be no one to hold them accountable. It bears watching, what Representative Grijalva is able to learn about this issue and whether Congress will weigh in.

5)
Congress IT scandal being kept behind closed doors.

About:
An article from The Nation drew on a report prepared by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).  A recent report from VIPS, argues the theft of the DNC e-mails wasn’t a hack, but rather an inside leak.  

Excerpt:
“Key among the findings of the independent forensic investigations is the conclusion that the DNC data was copied onto a storage device at a speed that far exceeds an Internet capability for a remote hack. Of equal importance, the forensics show that the copying was performed on the East coast of the U.S. [...]

This isn’t to say that Imran Awan or anyone from his crew had anything to do with the DNC leaks, but it should be noted that, despite what many in the media have pushed, their involvement can’t be ruled out either. Imran, after all, was Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-FL) IT person at the time this data got out, which was also during the period when Rep. Wasserman Schultz was at the head of the DNC.

Read more:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2017/11/13/congress-it-scandal-is-being-kept-behind-closed-doors/#2abb27e93fc7

Additional info:
During the raucous 2016 presidential campaign news of leaks, emails, and related IT base things were being used as fodder to discredit various politicians or their aides.  

Our thoughts (Shalin M.): 
Information is power, the saying goes.  And A LOT of information is contained in data servers of which are targets of hackers.  This case bears watching as an "inside job" would reveal another area of conflict within the DNC:  cyber.  As has been seen in recent years, FEDERAL data has not been water-tight either calling into question the funded methods accross government and political parties used to contain and secure that data.